From the Top Shelf - Gilt and Midnight

"Gilt and Midnight" by Megan Hart is another selection from Naughty Bits. It's a fairy tale about an orphan girl, raised by a wealthy couple. A dark fairy places a curse on all three of them: the man and woman will slowly lose their fortune unless the young Mira - who will desire and be desired - finds "completion".

Mira instantly becomes desired by every man who sets eyes upon her, and she craves their attentions, allowing one man after another to have his way with her, but never once achieving sexual release and satisfaction.

Never, that is, until one day, when two men - Gerard and Alain - arrived at the castle, also carrying the curse of the dark fairy.

Gerard goes first:

"Please," she said through gritted jaws, "Please touch me, sir."

"No."

"Then why did you come here?" she demanded, crossing to him. Fury made her want to strike him, but Mira didn't dare.

Gerard looked her up and down, caressing her so thoroughly with his gaze it weakened her knees and tightened her nipples further. "To make you complete. Isn't that what the dark fairy said you needed?"

"What did she say you needed?" The words came out broken, edged with glass, on the verge of cruel.

Quick as the sunshine from which her hair had been woven, Gerard grabbed her wrist. He pulled her forward and put her across his lap like a recalcitrant child. His big hand came down across her buttocks, the smack not hard enough to bruise, though Mira cried out at the sting. Heat spread across her flesh and her hips pushed forward...against Gerard's thigh.

"She told me I needed to complete someone." His other hand pressed her tight against him so she couldn't move.

"By beating me?" Mira cried, voice hoarse, even as her hips rocked.

"This is not a beating," said Gerard. "This is an appreciation."

Heat covered her buttocks and spread to meet the fire already burning in her thighs. As Gerard's hand caressed her skin, Mira sagged against him. Her legs parted...she wriggled and strove to get free of his grip...

His breathing had grown harsher, his grip tighter as she struggled. Yet he did nothing but rest his hand upon the heat his spank had left on her skin.

"I am making you appreciate my touch," Gerard said in a low voice. "Feel the heat of my hand. Focus on that... Focus on the sound of our breathing. On the brush of your hair against your face."

...Gerard held her until her struggles ceased. Every line of Mira's body had gone hot, as though he'd drawn a stick from the fire along her skin. She moaned into her fist as his hand shifted, fingertips brushing the underside of her buttocks. He moved them lower...

"Please, Gerard," she whispered. "Please touch me."

When at last he did,...Mira's cry of relief rang around the room... Mira's climax washed over her, no, thundered over her... When the throbbing between her legs eased and she caught her breath, Gerard released her from his lap.

You'd think that would have lifted the curse; alas, it was not the case. But there is still Alain.

"My lady," said Alain gently and waited until she looked at his face. "What do you need?"

"...I need fulfillment!"

He'd been certain she'd find it with Gerard, and yet the moment she said the words, Alain knew she spoke the truth. A smile tugged at his lips. Now it was his turn to try.

Mira's buttocks still held the heat left behind from Gerard's hand, but she refused to squirm on the hard seat of her chair. The humiliation of what he'd done--without lifting the curse--brought heat to her face equal to that of her bottom. She scowled at the dark man in front of her.

"Bring me a dipper of cold water from the well," she demanded and pointed out the window to the garden. "That's what I want."

While she waits for Alain to return, she muses:

...As a beloved only child of doting parents, Mira had never been spanked in her life. No one had ever raised their voice to her. Yet, she mused, her thighs slipping apart enough to dimple the fabric of her gown beneath them, there had been nothing parental about Gerard's treatment of her...

"My lady."

At the sound of Alain's reverent voice, Mira's eyes flew open... She studied him, the pail from the well brimming with water.

"I brought your water."

She didn't know what made her do it, except that all at once she lost all grasp of the difference between memory and reality. Gerard had commanded her but now she would command Alain; all of it seemed to make sense...

She kicked the bucket of water from his hands. It hit the floor with a thump and split into several pieces. The cold, clear water, sweet as honey, splattered Alain's boots and breeches. Frigid droplets hit her bare toes and calves, but her gasp wasn't from their small sting. It came when Alain went at once to his knees, his head bowed.

"My lady, I have displeased you."

...The sight of Alain on his knees sent waves of pleasure through her so strong her head spun...

"Tell me how I might serve you, lady," Alain murmured, "and I shall do my utmost to please you."

What followed was a second satisfying sexual encounter for Mira, with her taking the lead. And so it evolved that Mira needed both men--just as they needed her--to lift the fairy's curse.

Gerard set her to tasks such as polishing her boots and serving him his food, and his hand could be heavy when she didn't serve to his pleasure. The first time he'd tied her hands and feet to the posts at the foot of his bed and strapped her, she'd wept tears of pain and anger even as her sex wept with arousal, and she hadn't sent him from the house. Her body had grown to crave Gerard's discipline, as harsh as it could be, and he brought her to climax over and over with the flat of his hand or the leather strap he wielded with such proficiency. He penetrated her thoroughly as well, when she pleased him, and denied her that ecstasy when she did not.

With Alain, however, Mira played the mistress without a second thought. He was as eager to serve her as she was to submit to Gerard. Alain took whatever abuse she offered him, whether it be her refusal to allow him to achieve orgasm...or the performance of countless meaningless tasks meant only to prove she controlled him. He made love to her with worshipful hands, when she allowed it, and Mira found his touch as satisfying as Gerard's even if it was in a totally different way.