Private Emotions – Invitations (The Private Emotions Trilogy) (13 page)

As I walked out of there, I felt that the evening coming up would be the benchmark for all subsequent dates with my beau, Ethan. He may think that this was just a party but this was to be a test to see if I could bring him around to my way of thinking. Unfortunately for him, he wasn’t to be notified of this upcoming test but hopefully he would see my true intentions during the evening. He was a typical male so I was hoping that it wouldn’t take an anvil to his head to get my point across.

During the rest of the week, every time that I mentioned to Ethan about getting together, he would blow me off with one excuse after the other while still professing that he would be honored to escort me to the ball. He was purposely trying to stop himself from being alone with me and he had no clue that I was onto his little game of cat and mouse. This man thought that if he kept his cool then he could have a professional detachment from me. I was going to show him just how wrong he was when he came to pick me up at the end of the week.

The days dragged on for a long time and it was agony waiting for the evening’s festivities to begin. The dress fitted me like a second glove and my breasts overflowed at the top exposing practically everything but my nipples. It gave me the air of aristocracy and it didn’t hurt that it also raised my cup by at least two sizes.

I looked into the mirror and felt every bit like the women of yore. A corset finished off the ensemble but the damn thing was cinching my waist so tightly that I could barely breathe without it hurting. Fuck, how those women survived back then was beyond me. Anyway, what I had in store for Ethan Sterling made oxygen a lower priority.

There was a knock on the door but it didn’t sound like it was coming from a fist or even a hand. Grabbing the mask, I affixed it to my face, making sure that the tie was knotted before opening the door to my soon-to-be suitor. He was dressed in a tuxedo that was almost painted on him and the mask gave him a mystery that I found alluring. He had an old style walking cane in his hand and he must’ve used it to tap on the door. It was shaping up to be a very special evening and I was waiting with impatience for him to take my hand in his.

“Emily, you’ll be the highlight of the ball with that dress on. If you’re ready our chariot awaits to take us back to a time when anything was possible and nothing was taboo behind closed doors.”

“Ethan, I think that this evening will be a telling one, indeed. Come let us not keep the people waiting for our arrival.” I had a short jacket that I would use for a night cover and it was the perfect fit over my shapely shoulders. “See, I’ve come prepared for everything.” He smiled and hooked his arm around mine, then he took us down the hall and finally to a horse drawn carriage that was to be our transportation for the evening. Romance was definitely in the air and I curled up against him for warmth as the glip glop of the horses took off into a magical night. The wind was cool but his body was hotter to the touch than I had remembered. It felt so good being close to him again.

“Emily, I wanted to share this night with you because I think we are ready to take the next step. This will not be an ordinary masquerade ball and I just know that we are both going to get a lot from it.” How little he really knew what this evening was all about for us but he was giving me an inkling that he was thinking the same thing. It gave me a warm glow, knowing that we were on the same wavelength for the first time since we met.

The carriage slowed as it entered the grounds of a magnificent mansion on the outskirts of town. Everyone was dressed to impress. We rolled to a stop at the entrance and a butler helped me down as Ethan followed suit with the tails of his tuxedo blowing in the wind. Ethan stopped in front of the butler and reached into his coat for something that I just couldn’t see. Then he produced an ace of spades and handed the card to the butler who took it and stamped a hole on the top. It was so clandestine that I felt I was in an old James Bond movie with spies and manipulation at every turn.

Ethan led me by the arm into the foyer where a burly dude with a sour expression took his card and allowed us to enter the main ballroom. It was so mysterious yet strangely exciting too. The fact that I was here on this beautiful evening with the man I adored was a testament to how far I had traveled in my self-discovery. The women looked magnificent in their gowns but they couldn’t take away anything from what I was wearing. It was a unique gown with all the trimmings which made it stand out from all the others. The men were all dressed in black and white tuxedos but there was one man who was dressed to exceed all others in a red tuxedo. It was hard not to gaze upon him.

He took the stage and said, “Welcome to our annual gala. I hope that everyone is prepared for some fun this evening.” The whole place went into hysterics and the men and women started groping each other and Ethan grabbed my ass for effect. “Just remember you are perfectly safe here as this is by invitation only so only the people who have been personally vetted by me and my staff are allowed to enter into the premises. Now let’s dance and wait for the midnight hour to approach.” He walked off the stage with an air of authority that no other man could possess.

“Emily, would you care to light up the stage?’

“Why of course kind sir, it would be my undying pleasure to cut a rug with you.” We moved onto the dance floor and the lights dimmed so that you could barely see the person that you were dancing with. Most of the songs were for slow dancing with your partner and I found that this type of ball suited me like an old shoe. We glided across the room and every so often a hand would touch me in a not so innocent a way. I just took it as a compliment. People do tend to get handsy in the middle of the dark.

A princess was what I was this night and I effortlessly allowed myself to be taken into a world that was foreign to me, until now. This gala was everything that I thought it was going to be and I was immersing myself in the pageantry of the yesteryear.

Dancing so close with Ethan, in this setting of the decadence of years past, made me feel like the only woman in the world. The scent of his cologne consumed my senses and I started to feel as if my feet were no longer touching the ground. I could definitely live in this moment forever.

The music stopped and I excused myself to use the washroom. I entered the washroom and saw two other ladies there and they weren’t acting particularly ladylike. The blonde one had the dark haired one’s dress up above her waist and from my vantage point, her finger was buried in her tight sheath. She was wiggling that finger inside her friend, while vibrating her hand over her slightly wet mound. It was like I couldn’t move forward or backward and I just stood there and watched this sexual display in front of me.

The blonde one said to her friend, “I bet you can’t wait to feel this pussy being fucked by Ben. He has the biggest cock in this room and I know that he has been itching to get into your panties since last year’s party. I just wish that I had a stiff one to feel you wrapped around me like that. Hey, you there, take a feel of this for yourself and stop acting like a fly on the wall.” She tried to grab my hand but I managed to pull away before she placed it on her friend. The blonde caught me by surprise and kissed me hard, the kind of kiss that is shared by lovers who have known each other forever. I couldn’t help but compare her oral expertise to Sophie’s and I found that it was no contest.

Sophie was by far the better kisser but this blonde was forceful and made me feel like I didn’t have a choice. I promptly pulled away from her as I stared in wide eyed shock at what had just taken place. What the hell was going on with these two women? This was highly inappropriate behavior for what I considered to be a very affluent party.

The blonde said to her friend, “You’re right. We should keep something for the midnight hour. We certainly don’t want to be depleted before the end of the night.” Then she turned to me and said, “So, I’ll say to be continued until we meet again. I’ll be sure to look you up as long as you’re not too busy. I’ve seen how the guys have been acting around you and it looks like your dance card will be soon filled.” Before leaving the bathroom, they both winked at me, blew me a kiss and left me alone to wonder just what the fuck was going on here.

I looked at my watch and I could see that it was one hour to midnight. That meant something big was going to happen. After listening to those two girls, I gathered from them that either everyone was going to change dancing partners for a time or something more outside the box was going to occur. I couldn’t believe that Ethan would dare spring something that forward on me when I was just getting comfortable in my own skin.

There was no point in speculating when all I needed to do was confront Ethan with what I thought was going on here. The ballroom was still pitch black and for the life of me I just couldn’t find Ethan on the dance floor. He couldn’t have been in the washroom as thirty minutes had passed since I left him. As each minute passed, the men and women were getting more amorous. In the dark, it was hard to pinpoint the grabbers in the crowd but I was really starting to feel out of my element.

Ten minutes to midnight and still no sign of Ethan anywhere, that was until I thought I saw him coming towards me from the other side of the room with a cigar in one hand and that willowy blonde in the other. They seemed too well acquainted to be just finding each other for the first time, and soon they were both standing before me.

“Emily, I think you’ve met Lois and her friend Shelly in the bathroom. They tell me that you’re tops on their dance card. You should feel lucky as these two know their way around the female body, almost as good as Sophie does.”

“Ethan, I am under the mistaken assumption that this was just a gala dance when it’s more like an orgy for flesh.”

“Okay, let’s not go over the top, Emily. I thought you knew that this party was more than meets the eye and if you didn’t know, I’m sure the two ladies might have let the cat out of the bag. I just thought that you’d have fun and let your hair down. I mean you did have fun with Sophie and me and this is just like that but with more of a party feel to it.”

With venom in my voice that I didn’t know I even had, I said, “Look, I thought that this was a night out to see if we had something special but I can see now that you are incapable of doing anything besides satisfying your baser instincts. You were wrong to think that this was okay with me. What I shared with you and Sophie was private. It was done in the safety of knowing you both and feeling comfortable enough to let that situation happen. It was my choice to share myself in such an intimate way with the two of you.” I heard three loud thumps of the wooden cane done by the man in the red suit.

“It’s the midnight hour and like Catherine the Great used to say...off with the clothes.” The murmurs were soon replaced with moans that bled into the conversation I was having with Ethan. He had taken my trusting nature and turned it around on me in the most unexpected way.

The lights were turned on and there were mattresses appeared all over the floor. Many in the room were already showing each other a physical admiration for their bodies. One older woman was on her hands and knees with her dress hiked up and a cock slamming into her from behind. Her moans were muffled by another massive piece of meat in her mouth while still stroking two others beside her. Looking around at the depravity of it all, I was aghast to think that Ethan thought this was a good idea. I turned to him with tears of rage in my eyes. I could barely contain the wrath that was rushing to the surface like a dormant volcano suddenly coming to life.

“Ethan, I can see now that you don’t know me and you probably never will. You once said to me over dinner at Au Chanté that you treat the women you help with the respect and admiration that they deserve. Is this what I deserve? Is this the level of respect that I command? How could a man with your level of experience not know that this was beyond my boundaries? I really don’t want to see you again Ethan and I’m leaving before you force me into a situation that I’m not comfortable with.” I left him there with his mouth open in shock.

I stormed into my apartment and walked straight into my bedroom without switching on any of the lights. I threw myself onto the bed and cried into my pillow. I cried for so many things that night. I cried for the lack of recognition of my talents at work, for feeling invisible most of my life, for failed relationships, for my sexual inhibitions, for Kelly and for wanting a man who did not and never will feel the same way that I felt about him. Most of all, I cried for the decision that I knew I would have to make. I would have to walk away from Ethan before I completely destroyed myself. How could I walk away from a man who made me feel alive, who knew how to make my body respond to his every touch, who reached into my very soul? How could I walk away from a man who owned my heart...all of my heart?