"No!" Bianca cried, pushing the woman away from her and struggling to sit up.

Nudara pouted, disappointed. "She needs to be strapped, master. She will not play with me. Will you let her defy your orders?"

Sebastiano Rovere came to the bed with a large goblet of wine. He drank deeply, then set the goblet aside as he climbed into the bed to join the two women. "She is inexperienced, Nudara. We must take our time in educating her." He made himself comfortable, well-stuffed pillows behind his back as he gained a seated position. Legs spread, he dragged Bianca so that she sat with her back against him. His hands reached around to grasp her two round b.r.e.a.s.t.s. "You will do as I tell you, Bianca, or you will be beaten. First with a leather strap that will make your bottom blaze, and if you have still not learned your lesson, I will apply the dog whip hard enough to break your skin. The results will be very painful, I a.s.sure you." His fingers pinched her nipples in warning.

Bianca winced with the pain.

"Do you understand me, cara mia? Obey, or I will beat you," he murmured in her ear. "Did you know the sweet conjunction of your b.u.t.tocks with my c.o.c.k is warming it?" He dropped a kiss upon her bare shoulder. Then his gaze turned to Nudara. "Lick her and get her ready to be f.u.c.ked. My member is beginning to stir vigorously. Spread your legs wide, Bianca." His thumbs began to rub her nipples.

Bianca was ashamed to find herself very fearful. It was disconcerting to learn she was not a brave girl. She believed him when he said he would beat her, and make her punishment painful. She didn't want to be beaten. She opened her legs, and was horrified to see Nudara crawl between them. It was worse, and she could not help the little cry that escaped her when Nudara's tongue began licking at her most private place.

Her husband began to whisper in her ear. "I know how skillful her tongue can be. The flat of it will caress the insides of your nether lips, cara mia. The pointed little tip of it will tease your love bud to pa.s.sion. And when your juices begin to flow, and they will, I shall put my c.o.c.k deep into you, and f.u.c.k you until you are screaming with your pleasure. You will give me that pleasure, Bianca dolce, whether you wish to or not. You cannot withhold it from me. I will not be denied!"

But she did deny him. Her juices flowed, which the teasing Nudara's tongue forced from her, but Bianca lay as cold as ice in his arms. She felt nothing but revulsion. His c.o.c.k withered at her lack of response. He screamed his outrage, but Nudara quickly took that shrunken bit of flesh between her lips, and sucked him hard. Shoving her away, he then climbed atop Bianca, f.u.c.king her until she fainted from the excess. He next proceeded to use Nudara, but after a satisfactory period of f.u.c.king, she forced his juices from him, screaming her delight, praising his prowess and his skilled manhood.

When Bianca finally came to herself again, she saw her husband and Nudara drinking wine. Nudara's sharp eyes saw that her mistress had regained a conscious state. They forced a small goblet of wine upon Bianca, and Nudara smiled wickedly as they did.

"It has stimulants in it to make you eager to be f.u.c.ked," the slave told Bianca. "You disappointed the master greatly with your icy hauteur, but soon you will beg for him to f.u.c.k you. First, however, you must be strapped for your disobedience, mistress." And she laughed, quite pleased with herself for having engineered this scenario with Rovere while poor Bianca lay helpless and semiconscious.

"Kill me!" Bianca said to her husband. "I should rather be dead than suffer this abuse from you and your wh.o.r.e."

"Ahh, cara mia, does Nudara distress you that much? Then she shall go," her husband said in a kindly voice. "Get out, wench. I can see you have been having too much fun, which does not please me." He pushed the slave from the bed.

Scrambling to her feet, Nudara protested. "But, my lord, I sought only to please you. We have all drunk the spiced wine now, and I am eager for your love!"

"Find my son, and let him satisfy your itch," Sebastiano Rovere said caustically. "Did you think I did not know, Nudara? You are like an alley cat. Now leave me with my beautiful bride." He laughed cruelly as the girl skulked from his bedchamber. Then he turned back to Bianca. "I would never kill you, cara mia," he said, bending to kiss her cold lips. "The spices will help your blood to warm for me. In my eagerness, I have treated you roughly. I realize now you are a creature that needs to be cosseted."

Bianca lay silent. She could think of nothing to say at this moment. She did not resist when he began to stroke her body. To her shame, the wine was beginning to have the desired effect, but she kept her lips pressed tightly together, making no sound whatsoever. She would not give him the satisfaction of knowing. If he believed the wine with its special mix of spices had not aroused her, he would, she prayed, not use them again on her.

It was difficult, however, to maintain her att.i.tude of detachment. Her body was suddenly burning with a need she neither understood nor desired. She could feel the secret place first growing moist, and then distinctly wet with that odd need. He seemed to be kissing, stroking, and caressing every inch of her body. She bit the inside of her lip to prevent a scream from escaping her when he mounted her and pushed into her tight sheath.

"Ah, cara mia," he groaned, "how perfect you are!" Then he f.u.c.ked her until his l.u.s.ts exploded. Afterwards he remarked, "Your juices were copious, cara mia. Now you see how pleasurable such activity can be when you are eager for your husband."

With each pa.s.sing day, she grew to hate him more. Her mother did not come, and she learned from Agata, who had learned it from Antonio, that Orianna Pietro d'Angelo had been forbidden entry to Sebastiano Rovere's palazzo each time she had come to see her daughter. Bianca was furious, but she knew her anger meant nothing to her husband.

He had a right to do whatever he pleased, and he knew the law well. Her rights were few.

Bianca knew she needed to please her husband in some special way so he would grant her approval to see her mother. And she knew exactly what would please him more than anything else.

He made a point of reminding her daily that she belonged to him, that it was he who controlled her fate. But the one thing he had never been able to gain from her in their six months of marriage was her cries of pleasure. Bianca knew her husband well by now. If she gave him that, he was certain to reward her, and she would ask to see her mother. It was the only thing she had with which to bargain.

That night when he called her to his bed, she went to him, her long dark hair and her body perfumed with the scent of the exotic moonflower. She dropped the pale pink silk robe she wore and slipped into his bed without protest. He was surprised, raising an eyebrow questioningly. Bianca shrugged casually. "Suddenly something is different for me, Sebastiano," she said softly, and took the goblet of spiced wine from his hand, sipping it slowly until she felt the aphrodisiacs beginning to surge through her body.

He grinned knowingly. "You want something of me," he said candidly.

"I do," she admitted truthfully.

"What?" he asked her.

"If I please you tonight, you will give me whatever it is I desire," Bianca said.

His dark eyes narrowed, but then, amused by her attempt to manipulate him, he agreed. What could she want? Jewelry? A new gown? She was a simple girl for all of her great beauty. "Very well," he nodded. "Please me, and I will give you whatever it is you want, dolce Bianca." Then he began to kiss her, and to his great surprise she melted into his embrace, which increased his ardor a hundredfold. He had never known her to be so willing. His hand went to her breast and she made a murmur of pleasure.

Sebastiano Rovere could hardly believe what was happening. For the past six months of their marriage, she had resisted him. He had taken her body a thousand times over, and yet he had received nothing in return but coldness. There had been times when he had felt as if she were not there at all, even after he had ceased letting Nudara join them to please her. Now she lay pliant in his arms, almost purring as he kissed and caressed her. What could she possibly want that had brought her to this point?

It took every ounce of her self-control not to shrink from his touch this night.

Bianca hated the hands that stroked her, the fingers that pinched her nipples and probed her body, her husband's superior air of possession. He revolted her to the point where she actually had to secretly swallow back the bile that rose in her throat. Instead, she concentrated on gaining what she wanted; he had promised her anything if she pleased him. "Oh, Sebastiano!" she murmured as his mouth closed over a nipple.

This was surely how a wh.o.r.e must feel, Bianca thought sadly. But then she reached down to cup his b.a.l.l.s in her little palm. How she wanted to crush the very life from them as his lips and tongue s...o...b..red over her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and belly. Instead, she squeezed him gently, tenderly, teasing his sac with her fingers. Then she released him to stroke his c.o.c.k, which was already burgeoning with his need for her.

He groaned. "Ahh, dolce Bianca, cara mia, I have waited for this night!" Then flinging himself over her, he drove himself into the tight, wet heat and began to piston her vigorously. "I adore you, cara! You are mine and mine alone!" He had to control himself, for he did not want to release his juices too quickly. He slowed his pace.

Chapter 4.

Bianca released the iron self-control over her body that she usually employed when in her husband's bed. She let the aphrodisiacs he had fed her take over, and shuddered as her natural desires exploded within her. She was astounded by the emotions a.s.saulting her, and thought that if she could love this man, how wonderful that would be for her. But she didn't love him. She hated him. But it didn't matter how she felt. He must be satisfied with her performance tonight. He must believe that he had finally overcome her resistance.

"Oh, caro mio," she whispered with hot breath in his ear. "f.u.c.k me! Do not stop! What a fool I have been to resist you, my Sebastiano! Ahh yes! Yes! Yes!"

How long had he waited to master this proud beauty, and now she was begging him. He would have laughed aloud had his l.u.s.t for her not been so great. For the first time, he felt her sheath contract with strong shudders about his hard c.o.c.k. He groaned and forced her legs up and over her own shoulders so he might plunge deeper and deeper into her heat. She began to scream, and he howled with his victory over her. Never had he known such pleasure with a woman as he knew this night with Bianca.

She fainted as he poured himself into her womb. There would be no child from this travesty, she knew, for Agata fed her a noxious potion each morning to prevent it. She came back to herself quickly, her hands caressing him over and over again as she praised his pa.s.sion. She managed to rise from his bed to bring him more spiced wine. Then she bathed him and herself because she knew he would want even more now.

"Have I pleased you, Sebastiano, mio amore?" she purred as she pulled herself next to him on the bed and began to stroke his broad chest.

"You will need to do more before I give you your way, dolce Bianca," he growled. His head was still spinning.

Bianca giggled girlishly. "You are a magnificent lover, caro mio, and I know that once is never enough for you." Then, giving him a quick kiss, she slid between his legs and, grasping his c.o.c.k, began to suck upon it most vigorously. Madre di Dios! She had become such a wh.o.r.e for him tonight. She would never get the stink of him off her skin. He began to swell in her mouth, and she teased his b.a.l.l.s, letting her fingernails run gently over them.

He moaned and his hand wrapped itself into her ebony hair. "Little sorceress," he said accusingly. "I cannot believe you have brought me to a stand so quickly."

"You are ready?" she inquired of him.

"I am," he told her.

Bianca pushed herself up and onto her knees, presenting her round bottom to him.

He was quickly on her, and driving into her sheath eagerly. "Ah yes, cara mia!" he murmured into her ear. "I love how tight you are for me. That is why I ordered that your servant bathe this bit of you with alum and water each day. So you will remain tight for me, dolce Bianca. Only for me! Only me! No other man will ever f.u.c.k you."

"Only you, caro mio Sebastiano!" she cried out to him. "Oh! Oh! It is too perfect! Do not stop! Do not!"

He couldn't stop with her that night. He had her five times, and yet was not content. He allowed her to sleep in his bed, keeping her there for the next two days while he f.u.c.ked her until finally she collapsed with his l.u.s.t, even as he admitted his satisfaction. Having Bianca yield so completely was something he had not expected. If truth be known, he was beginning to become bored with her constant resistance. Only the fact that she charmed his business a.s.sociates, especially the Medici, had saved her, for he had been contemplating her death. He had gained the envy of all of Florence in marrying her, but she had proved nothing more than a great beauty until last night. But now her capitulation to his amorous nature had changed all that. He might keep her for a while longer until she bored him a final time.

He had her carried to her apartments and heard the cries of the servingwoman, who had come with her from her father's house, when she saw her mistress's condition.

For several days he heard nothing, and then his own servant, Guido, told him that the mistress's servingwoman had sent word that the lady Bianca would speak with her husband. He brought a bouquet of roses from the gardens when he came to her rooms. "Cara mia," he said in greeting, bending to kiss her lips as he handed her the flowers.

Agata took them immediately.

"Sebastiano," Bianca said in dulcet tones, "your strength has quite exhausted me, but not so much that I would forget to ask you for my reward." She gave him a small smile as she spoke, her hand upon his arm as he sat at her bedside.

"You were superb, cara mia, and are deserving of whatever you desire of me," he told her in sincere tones. "What would you have? A new gown? A ring?"

"I want my mother," she answered him simply. "I am told you have forbidden her my company since our marriage. I am certain I have been misinformed and some foolish servant has acted on his own. I ask nothing more of you than to see my mother, caro mio. It is a little boon, is it not? And far less trouble and expense than a new gown or a jewel would be." She gave him another smile.

"When will you come to me again, dolce Bianca?" he said. "Come to my bed and give yourself as you did a few nights ago?"

"I will come whenever it pleases you," Bianca lied. "When will you allow me to send for my mother so she may visit?"

"In a few days' time," he promised.

"And I shall join you tonight if it pleases you," Bianca promised him.

"It pleases me well!" he said eagerly. "Send to your mother to come in three days' time, cara mia. As long as you continue to please me, how can I refuse you?" He smiled his toothy smile at her. "I will leave you now to rest, for you should know my vigor is fully restored," he said, leering at her. Then, kissing her hand, he left her.

"What have you done to him that his mood is so changed?" Agata demanded.

"I have played the wh.o.r.e," Bianca said bluntly. "Now fetch my writing desk and the vellum so I may write to my mother." She wrote the invitation, and it was, to her relief, quickly dispatched. Antonio took it himself and promised to return with an answer before the day was over.

That night, Bianca went to her husband's bedchamber to find the slave girl, Nudara, waiting with him. "Caro mio?" Her tone was questioning.

"We must have a little variety in our pa.s.sion, dolce Bianca. Now that you have accepted your duties in my bed I thought I should bring Nudara for our amus.e.m.e.nt. I will even allow you to beat her, for she is a very naughty wench, aren't you, Nudara?" He chuckled darkly, and held out his hand to Bianca.

It had been difficult-nay, near impossible-to play his willing lover when they had been alone. Now she would have to do it with the slave girl present, and a part of his pa.s.sion. She saw the girl looking at her slyly as if she knew exactly what Bianca had done, was doing. "I should like to beat her, Sebastiano," she heard herself saying. "I do not like the way she looks at me. She is too pert for a slave."

Sebastiano Rovere chuckled. He was very much enjoying the woman his beautiful wife was becoming. "What will you have? The strap or the dog whip?" he asked her, curious as to which she would choose.

"The dog whip," Bianca said sweetly.

"My lord, you cannot allow this!" Nudara protested.

"How dare you question your master, girl!" Bianca snapped at her. She took the little whip her husband handed her. "Lie upon the bed with your bottom raised for me."

"My lord!" Nudara threw herself at Sebastiano Rovere's feet.

With a wicked smile he dragged the girl up and flung her facedown upon the bed, smacking her b.u.t.tocks as he did so. "Up! Up, wench. Your mistress will now attend your punishment and I believe she is right. You are much too pert."

She couldn't do it. She just couldn't do it, Bianca thought. But then she saw the avid and eager look in her husband's eye. Joining him in his depravity would bind him closer to her, and she had not yet seen her mother. The whip descended upon the hapless Nudara's bared flesh several times. She was careful not to break the girl's skin, but her blows were hard enough to give pain and caused the girl to shriek loudly.

Sebastiano was practically drooling with his excitement. His c.o.c.k had risen quickly with each blow, and the slave's cries. When Bianca ceased after several blows, he moved behind the slave, grasping her hips and began to thrust into her. It was not her sheath, however, that took his c.o.c.k. Unable to help herself, Bianca cried out, "What are you doing, Sebastiano?"

"There are several ways to f.u.c.k a woman, cara mia," he told her. "We shall do this eventually together. Give yourself to me, Nudara," he groaned as he pushed himself into her. "Give yourself!"

"Ohhh yes, master! I love it when you put yourself there!" Nudara cried out, and her pretty face was filled with dark l.u.s.t. "Do it! Do it!" she begged him.

Madre di Dios! Bianca thought. What more is there to this horror?

"Tickle his b.a.l.l.s, mistress," Nudara called out to her. "It will increase his pleasure tenfold."

"Take her instruction, cara mia," her husband commanded Bianca.

I am his wh.o.r.e. I must obey, and pretend I am enjoying it. Her fingers began stroking the hairy, pendulous sac that hung free and ready for her touch. "Is this pleasing, caro mio?" she asked him. "Am I giving you pleasure?"

And so the depravity and l.u.s.t continued throughout the night, and for the next two nights. There was nothing that Sebastiano Rovere proposed in the privacy of his bedchamber that Bianca did not comply with until she thought she would go mad. But her mother was coming! She had sent back a verbal message with Antonio that she would come, and that was all that mattered to Bianca. Her mother would know how to help her escape this h.e.l.l on earth that she had been forced into. And if she could not escape, Bianca planned on taking her own life, for she did not know how much longer she could keep up this charade with her husband and his slave girl. Last night he had taken pleasure in watching the two women, instructing them to kiss, and suck, lick, and rub each other's bodies. And when he had sated himself he told them of a man who raised miniature donkeys that were trained to mount women and service them. He was thinking of buying one.

Nudara, of course, had clapped her hands at his suggestion, asking him if had seen the size of a little donkey c.o.c.k, and curious if it was big. Sebastiano Rovere had laughed knowingly, and a.s.sured her the donkey's c.o.c.k was big enough to satisfy even her greedy maw. Then he made the slave girl don a false manhood made of leather, and watched while Nudara f.u.c.ked Bianca with it. Bianca disappointed her husband when she could not seem to gain any pleasure from it, but she quickly redeemed herself by saying that only his magnificent c.o.c.k was capable of giving her pleasure. He had then delivered what she claimed to desire, her apparently genuine cries delighting him.

Bianca shuddered with the memory of it. She bathed, and dressed, and had Agata dress her dark hair simply. Then she sent her servingwoman to await her mother's arrival. Her husband had gone off to the courts this morning, preparing to argue an important case. He was in an excellent mood, and fully prepared to win. She would be free of his interference. Agata returned, bringing Orianna Pietro d'Angelo with her. The two women fell into each other's arms.

Orianna was shocked by her eldest daughter's appearance. She was unnaturally pale. There were dark circles beneath her eyes. Her ebony hair, while beautifully dressed, looked faded, and she had lost weight. "What has happened to you, Bianca?" she cried.

At the sound of her mother's familiar voice, Bianca burst into tears. "Madre! Madre! You must take me from this house before he kills me with his excesses! I can bear no more! I have tried for my father's sake, for my brother's sake, but I will die if I cannot escape this man. You must help me! You must!" And she pressed herself into her mother's arms, continuing to weep.

Orianna turned to Agata. "What has happened to my daughter?" she asked the servingwoman.

"Mistress, I do not know," Agata said. "She will not speak on it, but I believe she is being cruelly abused by her husband when in his bed. There is a sly Moorish slave girl in the house, and Antonio has told me he brings her into the marital bedchamber. And he never comes to my young mistress's apartment. She is always sent for to go to him."

"Bianca," Orianna said gently, "you must tell me everything that has happened. I cannot help you if you do not. Do you understand me?" She tilted her daughter's tearstained face up so their eyes might meet. "Everything."

"I am so ashamed," Bianca whispered. "I did not know that people could do such things to each other, Madre. He has not even allowed me a priest so I might make my confession and at least relieve myself of this guilt. Oh, Madre! I do not believe you have ever known of the things he has done to me. It began on our wedding night." And then the younger woman explained to her mother in careful detail everything that had happened in the dark bedchamber of Sebastiano Rovere.

Both Orianna and Agata listened, each with a growing degree of horror as Bianca spoke. The mother pressed her lips together to contain her cries at the evil suffered by her child. The servingwoman wept silently, wishing Bianca had confided in her so she might have informed the Pietro d'Angelos of the wicked abuse being suffered by her young mistress. After an hour had pa.s.sed, Bianca finally stopped speaking.

"Fetch my daughter's cloak," Orianna said sharply.

Agata jumped up to quickly obey, bringing the required item and wrapping it about Bianca's thin shoulders. Then she looked to Orianna. "Where are we going, mistress?" she asked the older woman.

"From this house," Orianna said. "You will never return to that man, Bianca. I swear it! I shall not let him ever touch you again."

"My father . . ." Bianca said softly.

"I am hiding you in the convent of Santa Maria del Fiore, just outside the city's walls," Orianna said. "Your father shall not know where you are until I can make him see reason, my child. You will have sanctuary and the protection of the Mother Superior, who is my distant kinswoman. Come now!" She took Bianca's arm.

"I am his wife," Bianca said despairingly. "His possession. He can do what he wants with me, Madre. He has told me a thousand times since our wedding day. If he finds me, he will surely kill me."

"He will not find you," Orianna a.s.sured her child. "Now let us hurry. Agata, come, for you must be hidden too."

The three women left Bianca's apartment and hurried to escape the house. Antonio was keeping the door that afternoon. Seeing the trio, he opened the portal of the palazzo and then turned his head the other way. The trio exited, but Orianna said to the servingman, "Leave this place with us. I will take you into my personal employ."

"Grazie, gracious lady," Antonio replied, closing the door behind them and following them out into the street. He helped the lady and his young mistress into the waiting Pietro d'Angelo litter. Then, walking beside Agata, the servants followed along.

The litter made its way to a busy market square, where it was set down.