Rurik finally sat up and commanded her to come to him. Ashley hissed angrily at him, jumping when Quinn unexpectedly smacked her bottom hard. "Crawl," Rurik commanded her. "Crawl to me, my proud Roman whore. I have just begun to amuse myself with you. Quinn, my friend, you will find a bundle of birches in the far corner. It can bring a plump bottom such as the lady Cordelia possesses to a fine shine. Will you fetch it?" Reaching out, he yanked Ashley into his lap, her back to his chest, her buttocks seated upon his large cock. He began to lick the side of her neck, his hands reaching around her to cup her breasts in his palms. "You have fine tits, Roman whore," Rurik murmured in her ear with his hot breath. He squeezed the soft flesh as she squirmed in his lap. He could feel himself getting hard again against her buttocks.

Quinn had risen from the bed of furs and walked across the tent to fetch the bundle of birches, as asked. The bundle was tightly bound except at the ends, where the thin, flexible branches had been left loose. Returning to the bed, he rejoined Rurik and Ashley. "What do you have in mind?" he asked the lord of the Northmen as he displayed the birch before her eyes. "I hope you will let me use this on her. A bit of payback."

Rurik smiled. "Aye. I saw your back when you went to fetch the switches. She has not been gentle with you, my friend. Spread your legs, Roman whore!" he snapped at her, and when she refused to obey he pinched her nipples cruelly until she did. "Is she wet?" he asked Quinn.

"She needs a bit of priming," the Celtic warrior answered, and he began to finger Ashley's clitoris artfully, smiling into her green eyes when she began to whimper. Finally he pushed two fingers into her, moving them about teasingly until he was satisfied that her juices had begun to flow. "She's ready," he told Rurik.

The lord of the Northmen turned the woman in his arms about so that she was now facing him. Lifting her up, he lowered her onto his engorged penis. Then he drew her down into his arms and against his broad chest. "Whip her, and when she is well burnished, fuck her ass," he said.

"No! No!" Ashley cried, and she tried to struggle, but Rurik held her tightly as Quinn began to flog her buttocks with the birches. It was worse than anything she had ever imagined. The cruel little switches burned her flesh, and she tried to cry out, but she could not, for Rurik had taken her mouth in a fierce kiss, his tongue now doing frantic battle with her tongue.

"She has never allowed me to have her that way," Quinn said slowly.

"Then ream her well, my friend," Rurik said, tearing his mouth away from Ashley briefly. "You probably deserve it, though it is small payment for the scars on your back. There is a jar of cream here to aid you." Then he began to kiss his captive again.

For several minutes Quinn brought the birches down and across the hapless woman's backside. Then, satisfied with the deep pink color of the skin, he knelt directly behind her, and, reaching for the jar Rurik had indicated, he first greased his cock, and then generously lubricated her asshole. Then he slowly, slowly began to penetrate that most secret of places on a woman's body. The small opening resisted him at first, but then it began to give way beneath the persistent pressure of his penis. First the head entered, and then he carefully sheathed himself to the hilt.

Ashley almost fainted with his entry. She could feel Rurik's great weapon throbbing in her female channel, and now Quinn's cock was thrumming in her asshole. Rurik reached out and began to tease at her clit, and she moaned as he fingered her, teasing, stroking, pinching.

"Ah, my Roman whore likes being fucked and buggered at the same time, doesn't she? Perhaps I shall not give you to my men after all. You are providing me with a grand evening's amusement. I suspect you are going to be good for many an evening's entertainment."

"I hate you!" Ashley sobbed, and then to her shock they all came together in an orgasmic rush of lust fulfilled.

And afterward the two men cradled her and cuddled her, praising her for being such a good Roman whore, and when Ashley awoke she was in her own bed, as usual. Rurik and Quinn had been a bit rougher last night, but she had obviously needed them to be, because she felt absolutely wonderful. Yesterday had been a bit more unnerving than she had anticipated. Now she knew what all those heroines in the historical romance novels she loved so much felt like when bartered into arranged marriages. It was so strange to realize that in a few weeks she would have a husband. Her private number rang, and Ashley reached out to the table by her bedside to answer it.

"Good morning," a deep male voice said cheerfully.


"Who is this?" Ashley asked. "Are you sure you have the right number?"

"It's Ryan, Ashley. I got your number from your lawyer. Listen, I was thinking… I don't want to wait until next weekend to start getting to know you better. I know it's kind of short notice, but I'm halfway out to Egret Pointe now."

"Did you ever consider that I might have plans for the weekend?" she asked him, her heart hammering with excitement.

"Do you?" he asked candidly.

"No, but you might have asked first. Before you got halfway out," she scolded him gently. "You've never courted a woman before, have you? Are you driving while we're talking, Ryan?"

"No, I pulled over into a rest stop on the parkway," he said. "And, no, I've never courted a woman. I've done something wrong, haven't I?"

"Yes and no," she said. "I'll explain when you get here. I assume you mean to stay for the rest of the weekend? I'll need to tell Byrnes if you are."

"I did bring a bag," he admitted. "With a bathing suit," he added.

Ashley laughed. "We'll have a room ready for you when you get here," she said.

"Thanks," he answered her. "I should see you in an hour or so." The phone clicked off.

Ashley picked up her house phone and pressed the intercom.

"Good morning, Miss Ashley," Byrnes said. "Ready for your coffee?"

"Yes, please," Ashley replied. "And Byrnes, we're having an overnight visitor. Will you get the Washington bedroom ready for him, please?"

"Yes, Miss Ashley. I'll tell Mrs. Kramer, and she'll see to it at once," was the reply.

"Byrnes, I'll want to speak with you and the missus when I have my breakfast," Ashley said. "I'll be down in fifteen minutes."

"Very good, Miss Ashley," Byrnes answered.

Ashley climbed from the bed, stripping off her cotton sleep shirt as she headed for her bathroom. She showered quickly, washing her hair, and by the time she reentered her bedroom wrapped in a towel there was a small carafe of sweet, milky coffee on a table along with a china mug. Ashley filled the mug and drank half of it down. Then she got dressed. She had to go to work today. Nina was recovering from her dental surgery, and Brandy, the high school kid who usually worked in the shop on Saturdays, was getting ready for her prom. Saturday was usually a very busy day. Why hadn't she told Ryan to turn his car around and go home? Well, he would just have to amuse himself until she closed at four. Should she take him out to dinner?

Irritated at being caught unawares, Ashley yanked on pair of white silk briefs and then pulled up her pink silk slacks. Her bra and a cream silk shirt followed. Slipping her feet into a pair of custom-made burgundy leather loafers, she finished the rest of her coffee and hurried downstairs to the small breakfast room, seating herself at the round table with its single place setting. She picked up the glass of cranberry juice and sipped it. Almost immediately Byrnes was at her side with a hot plate of cheesy scrambled eggs, three sausage links, and a whole-wheat English muffin.

"Get a cuppa for you and the missus," Ashley said, "and come join me while I eat. I have something very important to tell you both." Picking up her fork, she dug into the eggs enthusiastically as she waited for them.

Byrnes retreated into the kitchens. "She wants us to sit with her while she eats. She says she's got something important to tell us," he told his wife.


Martha Byrnes poured two cups of coffee and handed one to her husband; then they reentered the little breakfast room off of the kitchen, sitting down at the small table with Ashley. They looked at her expectantly.

She had almost finished her eggs, and two of the sausages were gone from her plate. Now, as she spread some homemade marmalade on a half a muffin, she said frankly, "I'm getting married. But this time there will be no difficulties. The groom isn't gay. He won't go to Las Vegas before the wedding, and he isn't a con man. Joe Pietro d'Angelo has a lawyer cousin in the city who has a client with the same problem I do-an inheritance with a big string attached. He has to marry before he's forty or lose it all. We are a match made in heaven," Ashley said with a wry smile.

"Would he be the gentleman who came home with you yesterday, Miss Ashley?" Byrnes asked.

"Yep. One and the same. Ryan Finbar Mulcahy. He built up his dad's business in the city, made the guy rich, rich, rich, and then the old guy turns around and writes a will that says if Ryan isn't married by the time he's forty he loses it all. Nice, huh?"

"No worse than what your grandpa did to you, missy," Martha Byrnes said tartly. "Giving in to that hussy Lila Peabody! Well, it's a truth that there's no fool like an old fool. It wasn't enough for the shameless creature that your grandpa left her a goodly sum for services rendered, and I can only shudder to imagine what they could have been, and at his age too!" She huffed indignantly.

Ashley giggled. Never one to dissemble, Martha Byrnes had strong opinions.

"Mrs. Byrnes," her husband said warningly.

"Oh, it's all right," Ashley told him. "I agree with Martha. But you remember how Grandfather always thought a good woman needed a good man. After the first two unfortunate incidences with fiancés I honestly think he believed I wasn't trying hard enough. Putting that provision in the will soothed Lila, whose company he did enjoy, and it gave him comfort to know that I would marry to preserve what I had built."

"He's amenable to a prenuptial agreement?" Martha Byrnes wanted to know.

"Absolutely!" Ashley assured them. "Ryan and I will marry just to meet the terms of these two wills. In a few years we'll go our separate ways with our own possessions intact, and no one gets hurt in the process. I wanted you both to know because he'll be here shortly, and as soon as he arrives I have to go to the shop. He's a really nice guy. While he's hanging out here today waiting for me to get home, answer any questions he may have. Although he's keeping his apartment in town, he'll be making the hall his legal residence. We've got to start thinking about redoing Grandfather's old rooms for us."

"This isn't for public knowledge, I take it," Byrnes said quietly.

"No, it isn't. We've scheduled the wedding for August twenty-fifth. It's going to be very low-key. No more than ten or twelve people for dinner. We're doing it here, because he's Roman Catholic, and we don't want a church wedding to louse up his life after we're divorced. Actually I think it's better that way. No fuss. No muss. The flowers can come from the gardens."

"I'll tell Tony we're having a dinner party on that date, so he will be certain to have the right flowers on hand," Byrnes said. "You know how the flowers tend to go in August, so he'll need to nurse certain blooms along."

Ashley took the last bite of her English muffin, and then swallowed down the rest of her cranberry juice. She stood up from the table. "I'd better get ready to leave as soon as he gets here," she said, and walked from the breakfast room. "Well, if that don't beat all," Martha Byrnes said softly. "She's making an arranged marriage, Martin. It's a real shame she can't be allowed to fall in love like any other girl, but then, Miss Ashley isn't just any girl, is she?"

"No," he agreed, "she isn't."

"Well, if the lawyers have checked this young man out, then I suppose it's all right," Martha replied with a sigh. "Still, it makes me sad. I wonder what he's like."

"We'll know soon enough," her husband said. Then he stood up and straightened his tie. "I hear a car coming up the drive. That will be our guest, Martha. Run up to Mrs. Kramer and make certain the Washington bedroom is ready for him." Brynes hurried out to get the front door, peeping through the sidelights to see a vintage Jag pull up. Its driver climbed out, reaching behind him for a small overnight bag. Byrnes flung wide the front door. "Good morning, Mr. Mulcahy. I'll take your bag for you. You'll find Miss Ashley out on the porch. Can you find your way, sir?"