They entered the house, and the contessa led them into a beautiful white-and-gold salon. A servant was immediately there, offering them tiny cups of espresso and small pastries. “You were such a boy when I last saw you, Ryan,” the contessa said. She turned to Ashley. “But he was quite charming.” She laughed. “He thought himself very sophisticated. He roamed all over the city by himself, investigating everything. Considering that he was an American I was very impressed. Never once did he ask me where he might obtain a hamburger.”
“What did he look like at sixteen?” Ashley wanted to know.
“Not so tall, but with those same expressive brown eyes and a headful of dark hair,” the contessa said. “I thought of him as a young Heathcliff. And he had beautiful manners, which I appreciated.” She smiled again. “You must both call me Bianca,” she said. “Do you remember that that is my name, Ryan?”
“Yes, I do,” Ryan said. He turned to Ashley. “Ma was furious when she heard me address the contessa by her first name. She thought I was being fresh.” He chuckled. “Tell me, Bianca, where is the wardrobe?”
“Ah, you are barely off the plane and you wish to work? You are indeed your father’s son, Ryan. Old Venutti always said that Finbar Mulcahy was the best student apprentice that he ever taught. He died several years ago.”
“Is that why you called me?” Ryan had suspected it.
“Your reputation is exceptional,” the contessa told him. “This is a rare piece with a wonderful provenance. I want only the best man to restore it. You are that man. But I am being rude. Let me have one of the servants escort you to your room. Then come back, and I will take you to see the wardrobe.
Si?
”
“
Si
,” he agreed.
Ashley and Ryan followed upstairs the serving man who answered the contessa’s call, and they were shown to a large, airy bedroom. Ryan assured the servant that he could find his way back downstairs again, and then they were alone. Ashley went over to the windows of the room and pushed open and back the long shutters. There was a wrought-iron railing at each window, and to her surprise the view over the garden and the rooftops beyond was of the Grand Canal. “It’s beautiful!” She gasped. “It’s like being in another world, Ryan!” Turning, she hugged him. “Thank you for letting me come!”
“I’m glad you’re with me, baby,” he told her. Then, turning her from the windows, he said, “Look at that bed. Is that not the most baroque piece of furniture you’ve ever seen? It is a bed made for lovers, Ashley.” He flopped down on the bed, and then he grinned. “Come here,” he said.
“You’ve got to go to work, remember?” she admonished him.
“I know, but I want you to see something.” He beckoned her over.
Ashley joined him on the big bed. “What?” she said.
“Look up,” he said.
The bed had a wooden canopy, and it was painted with cupids, naked full-breasted maidens, and well-endowed gentlemen cavorting about an oval mirror that had been set in the very center of the canopy.
“Oh, my God!” Ashley exclaimed, feeling a blush rising.
“Indeed,” Ryan said, chuckling.
“I cannot make love with you in this bed with that mirror hanging over us,” she said. “It’s…it’s…it’s…obscene!”
“It’s fun,” he replied. “You’ll like it, Ash. It’ll be a real turn-on seeing me fucking you, and when I watch you riding me I’m going to love it. I can’t wait until tonight, baby. Just seeing us here side by side is getting me all excited.”
Ashley jumped up from the bed. “Don’t you dare go downstairs to look at her wardrobe with a hard-on,” she scolded him.
He chuckled wickedly. “I missed you last night.”
“I was sleeping right next to you,” she said.
“I didn’t have a chance to initiate you into the Mile-high Club,” he teased her. “We’ll have to do that on the way home next week.”
“You’re terrible! Don’t you ever think of anything else but sex?” she asked.
“Yeah, I do think of other stuff, like the business, but I seem to be married to a very sexy woman, and I can’t seem to get enough of her.” He got up.
“Go downstairs and think dry rot,” she told him.
“What will you do while I’m gone?” he asked.
“Unpack,” she answered. “Now get out of here, Ryan!”
He left her with a grin, and Ashley couldn’t help but grin too. She spent the next hour unpacking their two bags, carefully hanging up garments in a baroque wardrobe. Other garments she placed carefully in the drawers of the wardrobe. Then she tucked the two suitcases beneath the big bed. Their bedroom had a bathroom, and Ashley inspected it. It was all black-and-white marble and tile. There was a bidet and a commode, a sink, a shower, and an old-fashioned tub. Everything was spotless, and nothing showed any wear. Ashley laughed to herself, thinking back to the first time she had seen a bidet. It had been that Paris trip when Ben had joined them. He had her convinced it was for washing her feet until a shriek from the chambermaid, followed by her explanation of what a bidet was really for, cleared it all up. Ben and Grandfather had both laughed until they were crying at her outrage and embarrassment.
Ashley felt the tears come. She really missed her brother and her grandfather. She wished they had gotten to meet Ryan, but then, if Ben were alive there would have been no necessity to get married, and she might never have met Ryan Finbar Mulcahy. Was it a good trade? she wondered. But why couldn’t she have had both, her brother and her husband? She had not brought her birth control pills with her. If she had a little boy she was going to name him after Ben. Benjamin Kimbrough Mulcahy. Then she would have both Ryan and Ben in her life again.
The manservant came to escort her back downstairs. She followed him.
“It’s got some dry rot, Bianca,” she heard Ryan saying to the contessa as she entered the smaller salon to which she had been escorted. “But it’s in surprisingly good condition, considering its age and its travels. How the hell did it end up in Austria?”
“About three hundred years ago a di Viscontini virgin was married to some Austrian nobleman. I suppose it was part of her dowry. It had originally been made for a doge who was faintly related to the family. How it came into our possession I have no idea. One of my friends was in a small antique shop in Austria a few months ago. He found the girl’s name on the inside of a drawer. Lucrezia di Viscontini was her name. It was too good a piece to have belonged to some peasant girl, so she called me. I checked the family records, and sure enough a Lucrezia di Viscontini was married to Count Otto Von Brunner back in 1653. The wardrobe was listed among her dowry possessions.”
“Amazing!” Ryan, said running his hand over the door of the wardrobe. “Okay, Bianca, how much restoration do you want done? The piece is walnut, and it’s filthy. Do you consider dirt antique value, or do you want it cleaned back to its original state? There are two schools on that. Some people think removing the grime takes away the antique value. Others don’t.”
“I want the piece to look the way it did originally, and I do not believe the filth of several centuries adds anything to it,” the contessa said. “Clean it up, Ryan, and do whatever else needs to be done to bring it back to its original condition.”
He nodded. “You’re also missing a hinge and some hardware. I’m going to take them all off the wardrobe and see what I can match here in Venice. If I can’t match the missing stuff here, then I have a man back in the States who can. He’ll make molds of the originals, and then cast new hinges and hardware.”
“You are very thorough,” she told him.
“My father always said it wasn’t worth doing if you didn’t do it right,” Ryan answered her. He turned at the sound of Ashley’s footfall. “Here’s my girl.”
“And it is time for luncheon, and then siesta,” the contessa said. “Come along.” She led them from the room where the wardrobe stood, and into a small dining room.
A servant seated the contessa while Ryan held out Ashley’s chair before seating himself. Immediately the food was brought. First small plates of bigoli, a whole-wheat pasta, were served with a light tomato sauce. This was followed by a lemon chicken with steamed zucchini. Finally a bowl of fresh fruit was brought. There were red grapes, slices of green and yellow melon, and small brown pears.
“I like to serve the bigoli with a salsa of onion, oil, and anchovies, but I did not know if you would enjoy it,” the contessa said. “Americans are more used to a tomato-based sauce.”
“I like fish,” Ashley said, “but I will admit that anchovies are not a favorite of mine. The pasta was lovely, and your sauce wonderful.”
“We eat dinner late in Venice,” the contessa said. “Eight or nine o’clock. I hope you will not be hungry before then. Now, I am going to let you rest for the remainder of today, but tomorrow, while Ryan works with the carpenters to build the container in which to ship my wardrobe, I should like to show you my Venice.”
“That is so kind,” Ashley replied. “I do not wish to be a bother.”
“You are no bother,” the contessa insisted. “This is my home. I was born and raised in Venice. I love showing it off.”
“Then I accept,” Ashley said with a smile.
“
Bene!
” the contessa responded. “And now I shall go and take my siesta.”
They left the dining room, and Ryan and Ashley returned upstairs to their bedroom.
“I think I could take a nap,” Ashley admitted. “I think the jet lag is beginning to catch up with me.” She kicked off her shoes and yawned. Then, slipping off her travel clothes, she pulled on a silk robe over her nakedness.
“I want to go back downstairs and check out that piece again,” he said. He had watched her undress swiftly, and enjoyed the glimpses of her lush body.
“Go ahead,” she told him, and lay down on the bed as the door closed behind him. She tried to avoid looking up, but it was impossible. She giggled when she did. Ashley wasn’t certain whether she could allow her passions free rein in a bed with a mirrored canopy. She suspected she was going to find out, however. Ashley yawned again. She hadn’t realized how tired she really was, and then she fell asleep.
When Ryan came back an hour or more later, he found his wife sleeping soundly. He smiled down at her. She looked so cute all curled up, a ray of afternoon sunlight touching her bare feet, which stuck out from beneath her silk robe. He stripped off his clothes. It wasn’t even four yet, and dinner would not be served until after eight. Lying down, he spooned up against her, one hand reaching around to clasp a breast beneath her robe. He fondled the breast, teasing at the nipple, kissing the nape of her neck.
“Ummmm,” she murmured.
“I want to make love to you,” he said softly. “Here on a beautiful Venetian afternoon. Now.” He pressed up against her tightly.
“There’s a mirror over us,” she replied low. “I don’t think I can do it in a mirror.”
“You don’t have to look,” Ryan said. He pinched her nipple. “You always close your eyes anyway when we get to a certain point.”
“I won’t be able to look away,” she said.
“Stay on your side then,” he suggested, pushing up the silk to bare her buttocks. “I know what we can do,” Ryan said. “Get over on your tummy, Ash.”
The bed shifted beneath them as she complied.
“Now bring your legs up beneath you, and stretch your torso and arms forward so that your butt is elevated. Yeah, that’s good.”
Ashley felt the mattress shift again as Ryan knelt behind her. He ran his hands over her rounded bottom slowly, seductively, and she shivered.
“Can’t see the mirror now, can you?” he asked.
Ashley had to admit she couldn’t see the mirror even if she turned her head. She felt him reaching beneath her to find and play with her clit. She squirmed as he began to arouse her lusts. Twice she squealed with pleasure. Then she felt him positioning himself, and his thick long cock slid into her vagina. “Oh, God, yes!” she sighed. “Why is it, Ryan, that you feel so good?”
“Because my dick was fashioned just for that tight cunt of yours, baby.” He groaned. Then, fastening his big hands about her firm hips, he thrust hard, deep. “Damn!” he moaned. “You feel so good. You’re tight and hot, Ash. I could stay inside you forever, but right now I just want to fuck you.” He began to drive himself in and out of her with hard, fast strokes. Looking up, he almost came then and there. The antique mirror gave a golden hue to their bodies, and seeing himself, his cock deep inside her, her round ass raised up, was more exciting than anything he had ever watched before.
“Make me come, Ryan!” she sobbed. “Make me come!”
He realized that he had slowed his pace, so fascinated was he by the tableau in the mirror. He increased his rhythm, struggling to hold his own climax in check until she was near hers. And then he felt her tightening about him, and the spasms came. He let himself go and flooded her with his cum.
“Ohh.” Ashley sighed deeply. “That was soo good, darling.”
“Yeah, it was,” he agreed. He fell back on the bed and pulled her onto his smooth chest. “Do you want to know how we looked in that mirror? It was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen, Ash. The mirror is so old that it gives our bodies a golden look.”
“But you could see what you were doing without looking up,” she said.