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    The Promise of Silk
    The Promise of Silk
    The Promise of Silk
    Ebook107 pages1 hour

    The Promise of Silk

    By Lilith Duvalier

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    About this ebook

    An airship pirate who ran away from his soul crushing London life, finds himself at an infamously decadent carnival out in the English countryside. A fellow pirate does his best to convince him to go and sample the lovely women of The Row, but Buck isn’t sure he ever wants a woman again.

    That is until a mysterious woman in a red dress and mask sits down across from him, entrancing him instantly. He follows her back to her red silk tent, where she puts him through his paces, whetting his appetite for more erotic delights. Each time he returns, she brings him further beyond his boundaries, while learning that he can help her break her bonds.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEvernight Publishing
    Release dateAug 10, 2011
    ISBN9781926950730
    The Promise of Silk

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      Book preview

      The Promise of Silk - Lilith Duvalier

      Published by Evernight Publishing at Smashwords

      http://www.evernightpublishing.com

      Copyright© 2011 Lilith Duvalier

      ISBN: 978-1-926950-73-0

      Cover Artist: LF Designs

      Editor: Dana Horbach

      ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

      WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

      This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

      DEDICATION

      This is dedicated to everyone who ever told me I could write, especially Caitlin and Nikki.

      THE PROMISE OF SILK

      Lilith Duvalier

      Copyright © 2011

      Chapter One

      Jane pulled her automobile up into the empty space at the end of The Row and wrenched open the valve that let the steam off the engine. She stepped down from the automobile daintily as the sputter of the engine slowed, and, with a sigh of disappointment, adjusted her red leather and brass driving goggles.

      This carnival had once been the best London had to offer, and, like anything at all that fell outside the normal and proper, the mechanic and predictable, it had shrunken and grayed down to nothing but a shadow of its former self. Pushed out into the country where it wouldn’t directly offend.

      Jane slid the leather accordion cover of her automobile back, revealing her collection of mahogany furniture all meticulously packed around a large, varnished box. A young woman ducked out of the tent flap of the balding pink and orange velvet atrocity a little ways down the row of tents.

      Jane nodded to her and the young woman crossed her arms under her bosom, which was pushed ludicrously high up her chest by her baby pink corset. It was laced with brown ribbon, and ended at her ribcage, showing off her pale stomach. A matching a bustle skirt opened suggestively, showing off most of her porcelain thighs. Tacky, but expensive. The woman clearly provided her clients with more than a Thruppeny Upright.

      ’Ere, Lady- this patch is for the Soiled Doves, if you gets my meanin’, the young woman called out, arms still crossed, a challenging smirk on her face. If you got wares to sell you oughtta be clear over on the other side of the field.

      Jane opened the lid of the large box, reached into it with both hands, and picked up the hem of the large piece of red silk, pulling it up just enough for the girl to see it. The girl’s smirk evaporated. Jane’s smile deepened.

      I’ve been here before.

      ****

      Slow down, you blasted sky dogs! The Captain howled as the crew let the air out of the ship’s balloons and the prow dove into the clouds.

      Buck groaned as his harness dug into his ribs. He wrapped his arm around the rope anchoring his body to the balloon mast, pulled himself back up to the burner, and turned the flame up. The prow evened out, and his feet returned to the deck of the ship.

      The Captain was in one of his moods again. Even though Buck had engineered the hot air balloons that carried the ship, and Buck had taught the other burner handlers how to land and take off, every once in a while the Captain would need to feel he was in charge. When these moods struck him, he would stand at the helm, facing back toward the ship, gripping the long neglected wheel, and bark out orders that inevitably lead to confusion.

      The Revenge of The Saint Mary was ancient, even for a pirate vessel. It was barely even an airship. Commercial lines used Zeppelins, hobbyists had mini-dirigibles or small balloons, but The Revenge of The Saint Mary was an actual sea-going vessel, complete with a mermaid figure head and cannons, which had only recently been equipped with four large hot air-balloons to take it from sea to sky.

      Down again, you sonsabitches! The Captain cried out. And let’s kiss the ground this time, not plow it!

      Buck turned the key on his burner with caution. Crew members all across the deck wobbled on the lines they used to tie themselves to the masts and riggings of the ship to prevent being thrown overboard. On Buck’s signal, the other burner handlers adjusted their flames, and The Revenge of The Saint Mary began to sink majestically through the clouds.

      The sight of England, green and lush in the falling twilight, brought a tear to Buck’s eye. In his former life as Alaric: the lonely, overworked engineer, he had hated England so much that one day, walking back from work to the dark, sooty flat he shared with two other bachelors, he had been unable to force himself to climb up the stairs. He had turned back out onto the street and marched toward the docks, begging his way onto any vessel that would have him. But now, sometimes he almost missed it.

      Buck had been lucky that night at the docks. The Captain of The Revenge of The Saint Mary had been watching his crew thin out for months as man after man abandoned the sea for the new sky going vessels and the riches they promised. When Buck had suggested a cheap, if unusual way for the captain to update his ship, he was welcomed on board with open arms. Buck had begun sewing together the balloons that night.

      Freed of the confines of the sea, the crew had spent months traveling to places none of them had ever seen before, building up the type of hold that would have taken them years in the old days. Stolen pepper and illicit opium from India. Cheap silks and dubious tonics from China. Moonshine from the Americas. Enough swag to make them all very rich men. And with the carnival having moved out of London and away from the prying eyes of Scotland Yard, there was an easy market just waiting to be filled with black-market booty.

      Buck had never made it to the carnival in his old life, but from all the stories he heard, swaggering through the carnival with pockets full of gold would be an experience worth returning to Earth for.

      ****

      Jane dabbed her finger into a little copper pot full of bright red paste and set it to her lips. She slid it lazily over her bottom lip, leaving behind a blood red streak. She pressed her lips together, transferring the color between them, then used her pinky finger to spread the paste out to cover her lips completely.

      She turned her head from side to side, assessing her reflection in the mirror. The elegant twist at the back of her head was perfectly set in place. The thin line of kohl around her eyes made her liquid black irises seem deep enough to fall into. The rouge on her lips and cheeks burned brightly red, reflecting the red light that infused the inside of the tent. She stood, making sure her red silk dress was clinging just right over her breasts, hips, and buttocks. Assured everything was perfect, she glanced out the tent flap.

      Only a small orange sliver of the sun could be seen, illuminating a yellow haze of pollution at the horizon. The sky was black in the east, and tendrils of blue and purple were creeping into the west. There was still time. She never began until after dark.

      And it wasn’t as though she was in much of a hurry. The carnival lost more and more of its appeal every year. Jane could still remember when it had been held, jubilantly and defiantly, in the

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