All Chapters of Esmerelda Sleuth: The Other Side of the Mirror (Book 1): Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

I leaned back in my well-worn executive office chair and stretched the kinks from my body.  I’d finally solved the case that had plagued me for weeks.   It was a call for celebration!Eleanor Waterford’s husband was a sly player.  He’d managed to disguise his activities to the point that I simply couldn’t uncover the name of the female who he was keeping company with.  I was just about to give up and confess to my boss that I’d failed when it struck me.  What if the woman he was seeing wasn’t a woman at all?Bingo!Why hadn’t that come to me before?Maybe because the photos that my assistant presented to me had Bill Waterford in what looked like a lover’s embrace with a person who wasn’t his wife and was dressed like a woman with a body frame to match? It was a classic lesson for me in stereotyping. I’d come across the name, Frankie Stapleto

The light hand rubbing on my back felt lovely as it slowly roused me from one of the deepest slumbers I’d had in some time.  I rolled from my stomach onto my back and stretched my arms over my head while I opened my eyes and slowly brought the room into focus.  I’d had a lovely dream about the house in days gone by and wasn’t quite ready to leave it.When I was finally able to identify the very handsome Lance’s smiling face, I sleepily smiled back while I continued to stretch.  The feel of the thick velvet bedspread against my flesh was almost sensual to the point that I emitted a small moan of pleasure.“What time is it?” I asked with a voice that was still thick with sleep.“You slept the day away, my sleeping beauty,”  he said in a low, lusty voice as he gently pulled a few stray curls from my face.  “I came in several times to wake you, but you slept the sleep of the dead.”

It was the wee hours of the morning before Lance had his fill of pleasuring me.  It was amazing how selfless a lover he was.  More than once, I was tempted to go all the way.   It wasn’t just because I felt guilty about peaking so many times while his manhood was practically bursting with desire, but because I was beginning to long having him inside of me.  To my surprise, when I literally begged him to enter me, he declined.  He insisted that enjoying my body in that way was all the satisfaction that he needed and was enough to solidify the bonding between us.  He then proceeded to state that we should save his penetration of me for our wedding night.  I was so out in left field with desire that his words never registered correctly. I simply responded with a sigh.With Nora’s dress cradled in my arms, my naked body followed his equal nakedness to my room where he deposited me with the instructions that I take a long bath.&n

We stood beneath the grand house’s portico and watched the last guest’s car make its way down the long, tree-lined drive.  The place felt eerily quiet after the recent drama and commotion.   Nora asked to be excused so that she could lay down for a while.  Unlike me, she had yet to go to bed since awakening the day before.  On top of that, she was feeling the effects of the excessive partying as the alcohol left her system.We hadn’t had breakfast and it was approaching noon.  Lance had given his staff the day off.  He’d claimed that it was because they were traumatized by the violence on the premises, but I later discovered that it was because he wanted to be completely alone in the house with me and Nora when he explained just what it was that he needed us to do.“I am actually glad that it is just you and me right now,” he said as he pulled out a platter of meats for sandwiches from the oversized

Very little was said between Lance and me for the next few hours.   We were each deep in thought.  Sensing that I needed my space, he made his way to a separate part of the house to allow me alone time to process all that I’d learned and all that he wanted of me.When Nora finally came out of her room, she found me sitting on a lounge chair near the pool.  Unlike the partiers from the day before, my body wasn’t filled with alcohol and I was feeling the cold nip in the air.  Even though the pool was still ready and waiting for swimmers, I wasn’t about to use it.  Instead, I’d grabbed an afghan from the back of a chair inside of the house and bundled myself into it while I breathed in the cool air and tried to think on what to do.“Where’s Lance?” she asked as she lowered her body onto the lounge next to me.  “I can’t believe I went swimming yesterday.  It’s freezing.&rdqu