Dangerous Illusions

Chapter 26

Aubrey Adams came to the village with nothing but a canvas satchel full of scraps of fabric and some spices. The rest of the population didn't exactly welcome her; most eyed her suspiciously, while others shunned her completely. The fact that Aubrey was a young, beautiful woman who lived by herself and had no real suitors prompted this suspicion. Some hoped that, at the very least, she was a young widow still in mourning, but as the months passed, it became evident that she did not intend to court any of the young men of the village. The eyebrows began to rise again. She became a joke on market days, when she brought her dried herbs and spices to sell. The young men of the village would try to strike up conversations with her; they made bets as to which of them could seduce her into speaking. She usually watched them placidly without buying into their games. She seemed detached from their taunting; they were not very subtle in their plans, and she knew they were not truly interested in her.

One man who seemed different, though. He did not partake of the pastimes of his fellows. Instead, he stood away, a book in his hand. He watched her with some degree of concern when the foppish boys mockingly bowed to her, tipped their hats, and puckered their lips. Obviously, his peers did not accept him, and rather than finding the woman an object of derision, he was, oddly and much to his own concern, attracted to her.

When his parents found out, they blamed this on his melancholia and his introverted intelligence. It was true that he did little, preferring to read over helping his father in the fields. He hadn't found a girl to bear his children. He hadn't decided on an occupation. All he did was order books from the City and read them voraciously. The elders had offered him the opportunity to teach at the school, but he lasted only a few weeks at it, hating the fact that some outside force scheduled his day.

On one market day, the other young men treated him with the same derision that they treated the woman.

"Go talk to her, Ned. You two are perfect for each other, the witch and the dreamer," one of them scoffed. Ned tilted his head and looked at the other man, unconcerned with his comments.

"Yes, I'd like to see that," another boy laughed. "Maybe we should give them a hand." The others took the hint and grabbed Ned by the arms, dragging him across the square to where the mysterious woman sat by her baskets of herbs. They threw him into the dirt in front of her, standing around him in a half circle so he could not break away. He stood and dusted himself off then tried to exit the group, but the other boys forcibly blocked his way each time he tried to leave.

Eventually, he gave up and stood there, panting and dusty, in front of the strange beauty of the weird woman. "Talk to her," the boys hissed around him, pushing him closer to the girl. She eyed him coolly through a curtain of long, red hair; he could not tell if she recognized that they were both victims in the farce or if she blamed him for playing along.

"I fear these boys are in league with some devil, lady," he finally stated calmly to the woman. "They act as if possessed, having no respect for decorum or proper introduction. I am Ned Bartly, ever at your disposal." Ned dipped a slight bow to the woman. She nodded her head in return.

"It is good to see some salvage of civilization in this town, Master Ned," she replied. "These men resemble more the beast of the earth than fallen angels."

It was the first time most of them had heard her speak, except for muttered numbers when selling her wares. Her voice was smooth and lyric, carrying a lilt to it that reminded Ned of how the heroines in his books from Europe must sound.

At that, the mystery now over, the boys wandered off to find other sport, realizing that they had, in turn, become objects of derision in the eyes of the two oddities. Ned still stood in front of Aubrey, his book clutched in his sweating palms. "What is it you read, Master Ned?" Aubrey asked, her green eyes bright.

"Spencer's Fairy Queen. Are you familiar with it?"

"I'm afraid I've not been taught to read," Aubrey admitted.

"I could teach you," Ned replied.

Ned ran his warm palms across her back and down to Aubrey's breasts, stroking their taught tips with the soft ends of his index and middle fingers. "A says 'ah' or 'ay' or 'aaa' like in 'cat,'" he breathed in her ear. The book sat splayed open on the bed underneath her and, while Ned nipped at the back of her neck and fondled her breasts, she feigned concentration on the text. She repeated the sounds he made, some stretched out in sighs of pleasure. She could feel his c**k growing hard against her bare ass. Aubrey smiled to herself. Though he was on top of her, she was the one in control. It had been too easy to get him to compromise himself to this point. She knew the rest of her plans would be as easy to carry out.

The two f****d on her narrow bed in the small cottage on the edge of town, Ned slipping in and out of Aubrey's tight cunt, his head lifted to the rafters, seeming to thank some unknown god for his fortune. An extravagant amount of candles lit the small room. Ned had told her did not know how she could afford such a stash. Aubrey stared at the book on the bed, laid out between her hands that clutched at the quilt. She had lied to Ned about not being able to read, but it was the perfect scheme to get him to come to her.

Ned came hard as Aubrey's mind drifted. Like most men she knew, he did not care if she herself gained any satisfaction from the coupling. He threw himself off her and onto the bed. Aubrey turned over and looked at her lover. "I am not satisfied."

"What?" Ned glanced towards her.

"You have left your woman wanting, Ned," she tried to explain gently, not sure if his seeming lack of understanding amused or frustrated her.

"Wanting? I can't again... How would I...?" Ned stammered, his member limp and shrunk between his legs.

"There are other things you can use," she suggested firmly. She could tell Ned lacked experience with women. She had not asked him how many partners he had had, but she figured most of what he knew came from the books he read.

"Other... things?" Ned stammered. Aubrey nodded as she raised a finger to his lips and tapped them suggestively. "Yes, love, a tongue, a finger... two fingers." She leaned over onto her back and stretched, cat-like, on the bed. "Now, you are wasting time. The longer you wait, the harder it will be." Ned, seeming reluctant, reached a hand down to the dark, auburn patch of hair between Aubrey's legs. He slid a finger between her swollen lips and brushed her c******s.

"That's it, love, there," Aubrey hissed at him, pleased that he had found the spot so easily. "Now, gently, my love, gently." Ned skimmed his finger back and forth against Aubrey's clit, causing her to moan. She was wet, their mingled juices anointing her thighs. Ned watched; Aubrey knew her reactions to his ministrations amazed him.

As a test, he slipped a finger into the place where his c**k had been. Aubrey gasped, clutching a fistful of quilt in her hands. "Oh, yes," she sighed. "Deeper, and another." Ned slipped another finger in, and moved them slowly in and out, his thumb playing over the button of her clit. Aubrey writhed, her eyes half closed, profane words leaving her lips as she smiled in pleasure.

"All the devils in hell, yes!" Aubrey screamed as she came, bucking her hips against Ned's hand, dripping her essence on the quilt beneath her. Her head was thrown back, a hand clutching to the headboard.

"I have never seen the likes of it," Ned breathed. "Though, when younger, I did inadvertently witness my parents during intercourse on a few occasions. My mother had almost always lain beneath my father. The idea that women could enjoy it this much as was beyond my ken."

Aubrey looked at him. Always the scholar. She finally relaxed onto the bed, her breath slowing, her eyes closed. "It's late," Aubrey whispered. "You should go home. Next time you come, bring me a gift." She turned away from Ned. She didn't say another word as he left the cottage.

The next evening, Ned returned, bringing with him what he apparently thought was a good gift. He had a length of scarlet ribbon for his love and a small book of poetry to read to her. He knocked on the door of her cottage, and she opened it wide for him.

"What did you bring me?" she demanded almost immediately, a playful smile on her face.

"Here," Ned gave her the ribbon. She looked at it distastefully.

"This is no offering. Bring me a bird or a rabbit." At that, Aubrey slammed the door in his face. Ned was confused but headed back toward town, this new information in his head.

He returned the next night with a small sparrow in a reed cage. Aubrey took it in her hands, cooing to it as she gazed through the bars. She seemed more pleased with it than she had her other gift and drew Ned into the house, closing the door behind them.

Aubrey placed the bird on the table and sat Ned down in a chair. She kneeled before him, undoing the ties of his breeches and reaching in to draw out his swelling c**k. She stroked it a few times, languidly, before lowering her head and wrapping her lips around the shaft. Ned gasped as he stared at the top of her head, his hands hanging limp at his sides. Aubrey tripped her tongue up and down his throbbing prick, circling it around the tip before taking the whole length in her mouth again. She did this several times, one hand clutching the back of the chair, the other hand gently pulling and massaging his balls. Ned's hands moved up to grasp the edges of his seat, his knuckles turning white as Aubrey licked and sucked him to ecstasy. He'd never had a woman's mouth on his c**k before, didn't know they actually did that. Aubrey brought him to climax, hot c*m streaming into her mouth, which she ungraciously spat on the dirt floor of the cottage. Without giving him second to recover, she did up his trousers, pulled him out of the chair, and led him to the door.

"Tomorrow, something bigger," she said, swatting him on the ass before shoving him out into the night and closing the door behind him.

Aubrey went back to the table and played with her little bird for a while, a broad smile on her face. This man, she hoped, would prove to be the provider she needed.

Late the next afternoon, Aubrey went into the woods by her house collect wild herbs. She heard someone calling her name and saw Ned making his way through the gloomy trees. In his arms, he cradled a large, fluffy, gray cat. The cat seemed to be perfectly content and mostly asleep. Aubrey was very pleased with that gift. When Ned finally saw her, he smiled and moved in her direction.

"Oh, he's lovely, Ned," Aubrey took the cat in her arms and squeezed it. "He's just perfect!" She put the still-sleeping cat in her basket and took Ned by the hands. "You are such a good boy," she said, rising up on tiptoe to kiss him hard on the lips. There, in the darkening woods, she pulled him down to the mossy clearing and laid him on his back. Again, she deftly undid the laces of his breaches and revealed his c**k to the quickly chilling air. She moved her hand up and down the shaft of his p***s, bringing warmth with her touch. Even though Ned's head had to lie against a rock, and sticks and pebbles must have dug into his back, he released a blissful sigh.

Aubrey looked at him, thrilled at how much he was under her control, knowing more surely by the day that he would be the one able to help her. Tomorrow, he would have another test, then, on the night of the full moon, Aubrey would take from him what she needed. The very thought of it turned her on, and she let go of the shaft, swung a leg over Ned's prone body, shifted her skirts around, and lowered herself down onto Ned's hot c**k. He gasped below her as she took him in. She undid the laces of her bodice while she sat astride him, then pulled down the edge of her blouse so her n*****s were exposed to the cool air. They immediately became erect, straining.

Aubrey brought her hands up, running their soft palms across her breasts and throwing her head back in an animalistic groan to the sky. She moved her hips, grinding against Ned, whose hands had come up to clutch at her knees at his sides. He tried to thrust up into her, but she resisted all his attempts to control the coupling; Ned was at Aubrey's mercy. This time, he would have to sit and watch her pleasure herself on his aching c**k before he would be allowed to come.

Aubrey's eyes watched the stars as she rode the man beneath her. He became little more to her than a tool, a living, breathing dildo, and she knew she had to maintain that detachment. The feel of the prick inside her, her c******s rubbing against its base, her hands playing and plucking at her nipples...

The force in her womb grew and spasms of pleasure radiated out, through her belly, thighs, down to the tips of her toes. Aubrey cried out as she came, and a few roosting birds above her head cawed in return before fussily taking wing. She collapsed down on top of Ned, her breasts pressing against his chest, his still-hard c**k deep inside her. Her eyes were open but she did not see anything clearly.

Aubrey felt Ned try to position himself so he could move inside her, bring himself to climax, but she had become as so much dead weight. He rolled her over onto her back, and she roused slightly as he pushed her skirts up to her thighs and kneeled between her legs.