Chapter 1
FORMERLY: HAUNTED BY THE GUNSLINGER.
THIS BOOK WILL ONLY BE FREE IN ITS ENTIRETY FOR A SHORT TIME.
Goldwater, Lake District, England.
Clarissa lay on top of the white duvet on her bed tossing and turning in her sleep in the small room in her cottage.The air was humid and thundery.In the dream she wore a long Victorian dress and her mid length ash blonde hair shaped in a bob had disappeared to be replaced by a lustrous mane of dark chestnut piled high on her head.Glancing down at herself sitting in a chair drinking tea from a china cup and saucer, she found she was heavily pregnant.An old man in English upper class Victorian garb sat on the opposite chair conversing with her in a drawing room filled with people.
“I was talking to someone in town earlier today.He was looking for you and said he was a friend of your family.I believe he was one of your American cousins.”The man paused to take a drink of his tea.“He wouldn’t tell me his name.A strange fellow.I mentioned where you lived and he said he would call.”
Clarissa stood from the chair so fast it made her head spin.The china cup and saucer tumbled from her trembling hands spilling tea everywhere.She was terror stricken.Her adrenaline kicked in fast and spurred her in to movement.Clutching her swollen stomach, she ran from the room ignoring the concerned attentions of the people around her.
The dream transformed its landscape placing Clarissa outside in the dark and cold biting wind that whipped large thick snowflakes in to her face.She was running as fast as her pregnant body would allow across her a frozen lake.Cracks in the ice appeared as she made her way across it.Clarissa had no idea where she was going or what she was doing only that it was a matter of life and death.
A noise made her glance behind to see a coach and horses following her across the frozen lake.It swerved around her, narrowly missing her form and knocked her to the cold surface.Dazed, she found it hard to rise.She fought to lift her body but the ice floor beneath her broke and plunged her in to the freezing water sucking her under the ice.
As Clarissa cried and sobbed in her sleep trying to breathe as though she were living the dream for real, a tall man stepped out of the shadows to stand near the bed.He stood watching her restless figure for a moment.A flash of white light streaked across the room to be shortly followed by a loud crack of thunder.Heavy rain began to beat against the slate roof of the cottage.
The mysterious man moved to the window and closed it before approaching the bed once more.He lay down next to her on the bed wrapping his arm around her sleeping form, drawing her body protectively against him.He kissed her bare shoulder visible in the short strappy white silk nightdress she was wearing.
“Shh.I will always take care of you and keep you safe, my love,” he whispered lowering his hand to her leg.The nightmare began to recede and eventually faded.
He stroked his fingers along the pale soft flesh upwards underneath the nightdress to caress her inner thigh and round over her buttock.His handsome dark features tensed in to a frown feeling the cotton material of her panties preventing him from caressing her bare bottom.
“I hate these.You know that.I need to be able to touch you when I please.It is my right,” he whispered softly in her ear.
Carefully he took hold of her shoulders and turned her over on to her back.Her eyes fluttered open for a moment and then closed again lost in her sleep.The man grinned and cautiously moved himself down the bed to straddle her lower body.He swept his hands along her warm flesh up to the top of the panties on either side and slowly tucked his fingers down the material.He slid them down over her silky smooth thighs enjoying the first glimpse of the neat triangle of her shaven pussy.He didn’t pull them all the way down her body and off but rather used them to frame the apex just below her thighs and to use them to hamper any movement she might choose to make so he could keep her in place.
Clarissa gave a soft moan and a sudden gentle whimper.Instinctively he reached up his powerful lean muscled frame over her body and captured the side of her face in his palm.He caressed his thumb over her pale cheek and spoke in a smooth velvet voice,
“Shhh, little one.You are safe.I am here.There is nothing to worry about or fear.Sleep.”
Assured she was calm again, he returned to his work resting his hands on top of the silk nightdress to skim it over her thighs and upwards to the top of her chest to expose her luscious large pert breasts.He wanted to remove the nightdress but he was concerned it would wake and alarm her.He wanted their reunion to be a pleasurable one rather than one of terror.
So he rested the nightdress of the top of her chest and contented himself with the position of her panties happy that they would restrict her movement and keep her firmly in place while he pleasured her.He settled himself back at her side and curved one hand around her breast using his grip to gently force her closer in to his protective embrace.He curled his fingers and trailed the back of them slowly down her naked side taking his time to appreciate the softness of her skin until they rested on her hip.
Clarissa moved restlessly in her sleep when the man’s fingers dipped downwards over her body in to the apex between her thighs.She was still a little too dry for his taste when he slipped his fingers in between her pouting pussy lips.Covering her vulva with his hand, he possessively squeezed it then lifted his hand to gently slap at it.Her body jerked upwards and once again her eyes fluttered open.Giving her pussy another quick slap he leaned over to kiss her cheek and reassure her all was well she could return to her sleep.He wanted her to be awake to see him, to remember all that they shared together but it was too soon.It would be enough for her to remember his touch for now.He kissed her forehead and for a brief time she turned to look at him.
“Who are you?” she whispered.
’Shh go back to sleep.You aren’t quite awake.You know who I am.I will keep you safe.”
She gave him a childlike nod and closed her eyes again as he rubbed the dampness now covering his hand in a circular motion on his skin with his thumb.She was ready.
This time his fingers moved easily through her wet pink vulva.He trailed them up and down for a short while, pausing to clasp the small bud and squeeze it as though to release even more juicy nectar.Small pants of pleasure echoed from Clarissa’s lips as her pussy flooded.The man took his cue and moved his middle finger down to circle her entrance.Slowly he entered the tip of his finger in between the soft wet velvet muscles and stretched it upwards, curling it to make contact with the rough back wall of her vagina where her G-spot was situated and caressed.He used his second hand to gently knead the breast he still held so tightly and flexed his thumb back and forth across her erect nipple.
The stranger felt himself grow hard and his cock sheathed in his trousers press up against Clarissa’s naked back.Inwardly he groaned moving it against her to ease some of the ache.Clarissa’s pants of need grew louder competing with the noise of the thunder rumbling overhead.She bucked downwards on to his fingers prompting him to join the first with a second one and pick up the pace of his thrusts.He brushed his lips against her shoulder and sought the tender nape of her neck to suck upon it.
As the lightening lit up the room with bright white light once again, Clarissa’s gasps for breath turned to agitated whimpers.She was close.
“Remember our love, Clarissa,” he whispered pumping his fingers harder.“Remember you belong to only me and always will.We are bound together forever.Nothing can break us apart.Our bond can never be undone.I love you.Come for me and show me your own love and the obedience I demand of you.”
Clarissa gave a cry in her sleep and he felt the squeeze of her internal muscles signalling the release of her climax.He looked down upon her face watching her contorted tormented passion ride her beautiful features as her orgasm spiralled and brought tears to her eyes with its power.For a moment, the man was aware of the join between them tighten and grow in strength.It wouldn’t be long now before they were fully reunited as one.He just had to be patient.
Quickly he took advantage of her parted lips and kissed her strongly as her orgasm began to deplete.She responded hungrily yet still asleep as though experiencing a powerful vivid dream.Nathan settled down beside her holding her pussy, his hand still clasped around her breast and curled her up in his arms falling asleep with her.
The early morning mist rolled across the smooth surface of the water towards the shore.The dawn had just risen and the sun was strong enough to cast the first of its rays through the shroud of white over the surrounding hills. Clarissa raised her camera to capture the moment and rolled off another reel of film.The main focus of her attention was a large Island in the middle of Goldwater Lake.The place had fascinated her since she was a child.Upon it sat an old haunted Victorian mansion, the focus of many ghost stories after the murder of a young Victorian family.The house was mysteriously hidden amidst the trees lining the shore and it was hard to capture even a glimpse of it, especially in the summer when the trees were in full leaf though it never stopped Clarissa trying.
Something caught her attention.Zooming in to the boathouse on the Island she was surprised to see a tall man in a black suit standing on the wooden jetty.He was looking straight at her.Clarissa zoomed in further until she could see his face more closely, believing he couldn’t possibly see her properly from there and she would be undetected.But the handsome dark haired man grinned back at her staring directly in to the camera.Embarrassed she had been caught watching him, she lowered the camera.There was something oddly familiar about him.It wasn’t the first odd occurrence she’d had that morning.Her dreams in the night of being made love to by a stranger were also leaving her with a weird feeling of familiarity.Summoning the confidence to look again, she found that the man had vanished.
Raising her eyebrows, Clarissa let the camera sit on the strap around her neck and took in the eerie scene before her.It wasn’t hard to see why the place was thought to be haunted.She had taken enough photographs.A few of them had to be worth putting in the book she was writing about the Victorian murders and the history of the Island. Whilst busying herself flicking back through a few of them she heard a voice:
“Clarissa.Clarissa.”
Clarissa raised her head wondering who could be calling her name out here at this time of the morning.The male voice sounded disembodied as it floated on the gentle cooling breeze.
I must be imagining it.
Ignoring it, Clarissa bent her head and looked through a few more photographs.But there it was again and this time it was loud enough for her not to dismiss it as mere fantasy.Clarissa whirled around looking for someone to be close by.Nothing.Her shoulders tensed.Clarissa searched around once more feeling more anxious by the second.She’d come here to escape, to hide.Had he found her?Picking up her tripod from the pebbled shore she started to walk back towards the cottage at a quick pace.
She glanced constantly behind her expecting the man she’d run from to creep up behind her and start tormenting her with his violence all over again.Tears of anger and fear gathered and mingled in her eyes.She’d been happy here and didn’t want to leave especially when the book was going so well.But if he was here then she’d have to leave.There would be no choice.
Safely back in the cottage, Clarissa wasted no time in bolting the door.She pressed her forehead against its wood surface and breathed hard trying to calm the rising tide of panic filling her lungs and coursing through her blood.She spoke to herself out loud in an effort to rationalise the situation.
“You are just imagining it.Calm down.He can’t find you.He can’t.Relax he isn’t here.Come on - get your arse in gear.Breathe.Focus on the book and nothing else.I am not going to let him run me out of another town.”
Clarissa banged her fist against the door, anger and frustration overwhelming her.Flicking the switch on the kettle she sank down on the chair in front of her laptop.She picked up the camera again and searched through her pictures.
There were some good shots of the Island but that wasn’t what she was looking for.It wasn’t until she reached the third one she found what she suspected.A ghostly faded black and white male figure in upper class English Victorian dress stood grinning at her from the side of the image - the owner of the voice.Clarissa gasped and put her hand to her mouth.He’d found her after all.
