Chapter 30 Brazen

Miss Lily had stood just so, while I worked my way through her opulent delights…but with Miklos spread out at my mercy, all other visions faded. Miss Lily would have understood perfectly. “We’ll just see how long you can hold that position,” I said, and took time to check our altitude and assess the balloon’s state of inflation. When I finally moved close enough to press against him I could tell through his expensive broadcloth trousers that he was getting to a considerable state of inflation as well. So, in my way, was I, but it would be easier to keep control of the situation if I didn’t let on. “Consider your head tied, as well,” I said sternly when he tried to duck his mouth toward me. “I’m the commander of this ship.” Then I stood on tiptoes with my body rubbing against him, set my hands on his shoulders, and touched my lips very briefly to his before running them across his beard. It felt silky and rough both at once. The white streak covered a scar of some sort, more like a burn than a cut; I stroked it so lightly with my tongue that I could feel him shiver. “Good god, Maddy, this is harder to bear without moving than a whipping would be!” “Well, I didn’t think to bring my whip, so you’ll just have to put up with whatever I choose to do, but if you fancy something harsher I’ll try to oblige.” I slid my hands inside his jacket and around to his shoulder blades, and gripped hard, which thrust his chest against my breasts. He kept his hold on the ropes but wriggled against me, which I allowed until I was enjoying it very nearly too much for self control, and leaned back. “Enough of that! Stay still!” I ran my hands down his back, noting for future reference that he seemed a bit ticklish about the waist, and dug my fingers into his truly f ine, firm buttocks. I’d admired those even when I was watching them travel up Ruby Lou’s gilt staircase trailing that saucy French wench. Miklos gasped at every savage squeeze, and jerked, and his trousers seemed fit to burst, but he held on. I worked one hand between his thighs from behind. His muffled groan sounded like the wail of a steam engine. With both hands busy, I dropped to my knees and applied my teeth to the situation. Practice with women had made me an expert at buttons. It turned out that trousers and underdrawers had six each, and I needed to switch my grip to his thighs to keep him steady enough for me get them undone before there wouldn’t be any more point to it. Just before the final button I glared up at him. “Don’t go thinking I’m kowtowing to you just because I’m down here. One wrong move”—I put some upward pressure on his thighs—“and I can topple you over the edge.” “You nearly have already,” he gasped. “Maddy, for god’s sake…” “All in good time,” I said, and stood, and turned to adjust the gas flow. We’d been drifting downward too far. I felt his presence behind me like heat from a burner, even though he hadn’t moved, and at that point I wouldn’t have minded if he’d lurched forward to press his urgent cock against me from behind and let it all go, but he held on. So it was up to me to turn and come at him, ripping open that last button, grasping the ropes below his hands so I could pull myself upward and mount him. I gripped his hips with my knees, ground my still-clothed crotch against his hardness, and felt my pleasure surge until his rasping cries took me right over the edge with him. Then, at last, he let go, and we both crumpled to the floor of the gondola. I recovered first, stood up, and looked out over the Bay. “So,” I said, not wanting to assume anything serious about what we’d just enjoyed, “where’s your preference for a landing? I may not be able to steer the Prairie Lily like your airships, but the air currents here are complex, and I can do tolerably well by moving from one level to another.” Miklos stood up, his clothing still in disarray. “Just land anyplace horizontal, and preferably private,” he said, still out of breath. Then, looking down at his open trousers, he added hopefully, “I don’t suppose you can do buttons up the same way they got undone, can you?” “I can, but I won’t.” Then, as though it were an afterthought, I added, “Not this time, anyway. Now tell me about your dirigible airship.” “What would you think,” Miklos said, feeling out his words carefully, “if next time happened to be up north in Sonoma? You could get all your answers there, and some of them on the way. And you might even decide to be part of something that’s going to change our world.” “Miklos, tell me straight out what’s going on. For starters, where did you come from when you nearly hit me?” He sighed. “Down the coast, traveling mostly at night and early morning. I set down in Golden Gate Park overnight— there was just enough light from the moon and the gaslights along the edge—and was taking advantage of the morning fog to get as far north as I could without being seen. I’d been fetching some materials from Los Angeles for our main base in Sonoma.” I wasn’t so much doubtful as puzzled. “If this is all such a big thing, and so secret, how can you be telling me all this?” “It’s about time! Maddy, you might as well know that you’ve been watched by one person or another ever since you came to San Francisco and we saw that we’d have to share the sky with you. I finally persuaded the leaders that you could be trusted; you didn’t tell the professor you’d seen me, and you didn’t tell Ho Ming, and there’s no doubt that we need you. Good pilots are hard to come by. Most of us don’t have half your skill at judging air currents.” My mind was whirling, but it grabbed on to one detail. “The professor and Ho Ming knew?” “They knew.” He saw my stormy face and rushed on. “Here’s the thing in a nutshell, even if it won’t make much sense at first.