Read The Adventure at Baskerville Hall & Other Cases for Free Online Page B

fully feel the last flutters of his body where we were joined. The physical sensations, and the awareness of precisely who I was doing this with, meant that it was not long before I was gasping and shuddering, and struggling to keep myself from collapsing entirely on top of him as I gave way to the pleasure coiling at the base of my spine.
    * * * *
    Once we had both recovered our composure, I should have liked nothing better than to remain in bed all morning, touching and learning that ivory skin that I had long admired from afar. However, Holmes had insisted that we assume our clothes and continue with our usual behaviour, and so we sat before the fire with our morning pipes. I had wanted to make use of the fire to finally burn the offending letter that had caused so much trouble, but Holmes would not hear of it and had snatched it out of my hands at my first movement towards the fireplace. He insisted that, as it was addressed to him, it was now his property to do with as he pleased. In truth I did not really object. Given what we had already done together, and what I was pleasurably anticipating doing with him again that evening, there was nothing contained therein that could seriously shock him. Furthermore I secretly rather hoped, if I was to be permitted to watch his face while he read, that the sentiments of affection might bring a flush to those sharp cheekbones.
    While I was staring into the fire in an exhausted daze, and marvelling at how drastically a fellow's outlook on life can change in the space of just twenty-four hours, there was a knock on our sitting-room door and Lestrade entered.
    "Good morning," he nodded affably to us both. "May I ask if you are very busy just now?"
    Holmes had risen to greet him and waved him into a seat with an air that was, for him, positively jovial. Lestrade removed his hat and pulled up an armchair as Holmes leaned against the mantelpiece.
    "Not too busy to listen to you," he smiled down at him. From Sherlock Holmes, this was a warm reception indeed, and I had to bite the inside of my cheek not to laugh at the startled expression that Lestrade completely failed to conceal.
    "Very well," he replied, a trifle confused. "You will not join us, Mr. Holmes?"
    "Thank you, but I prefer to stand," he said blithely. "There is something in the crisp winter air this morning that invigorates me."
    My urge to laugh was redoubled. I knew very well was that Holmes was not invigorated – in fact he was exhausted, having been up most of the night dashing all over London and then having recently engaged in rather energetic activities – but that he was unable to sit down without a small, fleeting expression crossing his face that betrayed exactly which illegal acts had just been perpetrated upon his person. The first time I had seen it half an hour ago, I had been struck with remorse until he kissed me thoroughly enough to reassure me that he welcomed the small reminder, but it would have been fatal to betray the clue to anyone from Scotland Yard, whatever Holmes's opinions on Lestrade's obtuseness.
    "Perhaps you might care to assist us in a most remarkable case which occurred only last night at Hampstead – a most dramatic and remarkable murder," Lestrade was saying. I found that I could spare him only the bare minimum of my attention, as the sight of Holmes leaning against the mantelpiece and the thought of the small gasp he had been unable to suppress had stirred flickers of interest in me that I was desperately trying to quench, with a police inspector sitting not two yards away.
    "I am afraid I can't help you, Lestrade," Holmes said finally. "The fact is that I knew this fellow Milverton, that I considered him one of the most dangerous men in London, and that I think there are certain crimes which the law cannot touch, and which therefore, to some extent, justify private revenge. No, it's no use arguing. I have made up my mind."
    However, I could not help but notice that Lestrade did not look