Like a Wisp of Steam by Thomas Roche (best reads of all time txt) 📕

interested and mortified her. Victoria kept telling herself that Charles was a professional—he was intimately acquainted with a woman's nether regions, and there was no need for her to be shy about it. And yet Victoria was not comfortable at all with the warm, tingling feel that knowledge brought to her body.

Wearing the thick, concealing hospital gown, much like a nightgown but looser around her bust, Victoria was led by Clara into another examination room, albeit one outfitted with curious equipment.

There was a slanted table with two stirrups, not unlike a birthing chair, perhaps, and right next to it was a bicycle.

A bicycle?

Victoria realized that, in fact, this was not a bicycle: there was only one wheel, which attached to a curious collection of wires leading to a rather complicated wand that rested on a table just in front of the stirrupped chair.

"Goodness," said Victoria, frightened for the first time of the fate that was about to befall her.

Charles had garbed himself for the procedure in a white coat of the same material, it seemed, as Clara's dress. Clara offered her another knowing smile before helping Victoria into the chair. Victoria blushed as Clara helped her to place her bare feet into the stirrups, spreading her legs in a most unladylike manner. The gown still cloaked Victoria's nether regions, but simply having her legs spread like that was shockingly powerful.

She hadn't been spread like this since ... since ... since...

Victoria realized that there were thick leather straps mounted to the sides of the seat. Clara quickly drew the thickest strap around Victoria's waist, buckling and cinching the leather belt until it kept Victoria quite firmly in place.

Victoria felt curiously restrained, especially when Clara took hold of her wrists and circled each of them with a similar strap.

"You may feel quite uncomfortable during the procedure,"

drawled Charles as Clara swiftly fastened straps around Victoria's legs, restraining them in their vulnerable, spread position. "Clearly some very delicate regions are involved.

This is why the restraints are helpful: we can't have you struggling and possibly interfering with the procedure."

"But ... Doctor..." gasped Victoria breathlessly. "Is it unpleasant?"

Charles shrugged, and Victoria thought for a moment that she could see the faintest hint of a smile on his handsome face. That sent a shiver through her.

"There can be confusing sensations associated with the procedure," said Charles. "But you must trust that no matter how desperately you wish to get away, you are being kept restrained for your own good. Failure to complete the procedure once we've begun could be devastating. Do you understand?"

Victoria had such a nagging familiarity associated with that phrase "for your own good." Wasn't that what Arthur had said that night—the last time, Victoria remembered with a flash of heat, that she had found her legs spread like this.

"For my own good," she echoed, understanding that while Arthur had been mistaken, Charles most certainly was not.

Clara swiftly cinched the final strap around Victoria's ankle.

Now Victoria was most cleverly restrained. Clara bent forward and gave Victoria a tender, sisterly kiss on the lips, which earned a look of rebuke from the doctor.

"Just relax," whispered Clara. "And leave everything to us.

It's not so horrible—trust me, I know."

Victoria looked up at Clara for a moment—had she undergone the procedure, too? Perhaps during an earlier experimental phase? Victoria would have to make it a point to ask Clara some time.

Clara gave Victoria's hair a last ruffle, a motherly look crossing her face. Then, to Victoria's surprise, Clara mounted the bicycle, indelicately hoisting her white dress to allow her to part her legs around the bicycle's rather curiously-shaped seat.

Clara took quite a long time to settle herself on the chair, having some evident difficulty getting herself into the right position.

Charles seemed to read Victoria's confusion perfectly. "This procedure uses electrical power, a rather new manner of running things. Unfortunately, it's impractical to run a steam engine in the office, so the stationary bicycle will provide us with the power we need. Please begin."

Clara began to pedal furiously.

Victoria's eyes went wide as Charles lifted the curious wand that was attached to the end of the wires and cables. It had a long, thick body and a globular head that narrowed to a dull point on one side. It looked like some sort of royal scepter, but with clinical, modern-looking nubs all over it instead of jewels.

Then Victoria gasped in fright as she realized that the globular end of the wand was humming, throbbing, vibrating, with terrifying efficiency.

Victoria looked at Charles for reassurance, but the doctor was quite involved with the procedure, paying little attention to his patient's dismay. Victoria's eyes swept the room, and came to rest on the violently-pedaling Clara, who flashed Victoria a lascivious grin and a too-obvious wink.

Victoria looked back at Charles and stared wide-eyed as he began to move the gyrating wand toward her.

"Now Victoria," said Charles. "This may cause some ...interesting ... sensations in your lower body. Keep in mind that I will leave the gown in place at all times, to allow for your modesty. I will be applying this treatment strictly by feel, so don't be shocked by the apparent ... intimacy of my touch."

Victoria was falling, desperately falling into a vast chasm of nothingness. Charles slipped the vibrating wand under the wide bottom of Victoria's gown—

And then Victoria gasped as Charles's hands touched her nether regions. Her most private place.

Perhaps Victoria had expected the doctor's hands to explore her. But like this? He was actually touching—stroking, caressing—her sex!

Then Victoria's head began to spin as Charles parted the lips of her female parts. The sensations overwhelmed her as Charles deftly exposed a sensitive region near the top of Victoria's womanhood ... and applied the bulbous tip of the wand.

Unexpectedly, and uncontrollably, Victoria's body spasmed and she began to scream. She strained against the leather straps that held her in place. She shook her head back and forth as she screamed wildly, choking and sobbing in sudden catharsis.

"Hold, Miss Brook," said Charles loudly, over the sound of Victoria's