Penny Dreadful and the Machines

Their ardour, though, seemed to need no artificial stimulation at that moment, Thor pulling down Penny's petticoat the moment they stepped over the threshold, whilst Sven struggled with her corset. Penny smiled and playfully slapped his hand off, stepping back a half-step and catching his eye with a jaunty grin. She reached for the front of the garment, putting her palm flat against it and silently thanking Eros that she wore it loose and unboned. She pressed her palm in towards her chest, and with her other hand deftly pulled the hooks free from the eyes, all open in seconds, a trick learned in Switzerland.

Thor and Sven were not idle as Penny divested herself of her corset, both men pulling of their jackets and then their shirts. Penny drank in the sight of their strong bodies, their muscles taut, and Sven with a tattoo of a snake that moved when he flexed his bicep. All the while she softly pulled at the tie around the neckline of her chemise, loosening the garment as she smiled. The men, their passions inflamed further by the delay, set to again, Thor behind Penny now, pulling down her drawers, Sven likewise lifting her chemise over her head. Thus was Penny naked before them, in merely stockings and garters and her powder blue walking boots with the pompadour heel.

Thor, presumptuous man that was, had the audacity to place his hands on her shoulders and press her down. She knew what this presaged but, after all, this was for Queen and country, and sacrifices must be made, and so she let herself down to the floorboards, kneeling before them like a wanton, her nipples hard and her legs slightly parted. In front of her, Sven sat on one of the chairs and undid the fly on his cavalry breeches, reaching in and pulling forth his most enticing cock. He wasn't small, and as he caught her eye he looked down at his growing, twitching member with an insolent smirk.

Penny needed no second invitation, reaching out to him and grasping his shaft in her hand. He groaned pleasingly and she melted a little at the feeling of the smooth, warm hardness enclosed by her fingers. She stroked him and his breathing became hoarse, whilst Thor, in a show of surprising chivalry, began to caress the soft skin on her buttocks with gentle fingers. Of a sudden, then, just as Penny leant forward to please Sven more, Thor slipped a finger down, further, and around until, bliss, he found her centre.

Her moan was jagged, her skin electric, and she gasped her plea for him to continue. For his part, Thor had no intention of stopping, the sensation of her moist sex and the soft gasps tumbling from her lips urging him to greater efforts. Penny though, whilst surrendering to his fingers as they circled her, had another man to take care of. Sven was in torment, waiting, and thus she opened her mouth and daintily licked the underside of his throbbing manhood from base to tip. He almost roared, and this seemed to stimulate in them all an increased urgency.

Thor was not to be denied the same pleasure, and now he stood, pulling open his breeches and producing his manhood, no less impressive than Sven's. Penny could spare no more than her hand for him, though, as now she enclosed Sven's glans within her warm, wet mouth and he, groaning, reached for her Gibson-styled hair and gripped her, pushing up and panting as she clamped her lips around him.

Thus she excited the men, Sven in her mouth growing hard as steel, Thor in her hand, his eyes closed as she stroked him. After some minutes she remembered poor Thor, and she switched the focus of her attentions to him, hearing the grunt as she welcomed his rock-hard shaft in her mouth. Sven, though, had a more interesting plan.

He stood, and taking her hand, raised her up. It was only the work of a moment for him to turn her, and with his hands around her waist, lift her such that she was sitting on the edge of the table. He pushed her back until she was lying on the hard wood, her legs dangling, but these he lifted as he knelt, resting them on his shoulders and then, lovely man, he began to taste her with his tongue. Penny felt the urge to sing, Sven being something of a maestro, but there was Thor, at the side of the table, his magnificent cock bereft. Penny, being well-bred, could hardly ignore him, so she grasped him and pulled him towards her, wrapping her lips around him once more.

This might have continued until Penny and Thor reached their respective peaks, but what of Sven? Fear not, for he stood, Penny's ankles now suspended on his shoulders, and with a relentless thrust he entered her, she moaning, muffled, the while. It was such an entry as she had not experienced for many a long day, and now she realised how much she had missed it. He eased deep, deep into her with his one, slow thrust, stretching her around his shaft even as she pressed down on him, not too big, not too small, but just right.

"Fuck me!" she urged, taking Thor from her mouth and gasping down a breath, and who but half the Swiss army would have guessed she knew such vocabulary?

Sven obliged with vigour, taking her with long thrusts that grew in speed and intensity as she used one hand to hold Thor steady in her mouth, and clasped her other to the edge of the table. The marvellous Vikings then switched, Thor impaling her to the hilt and feeling, if anything, even better than his compatriot. Sven, meanwhile, came around the side of the table and Penny, eager, let him stifle her moans with his cock, upon which she could taste herself, a secret thrill she indulged in whenever possible.

The men were now slippery with a sheen of sweat, whilst Penny pushed against them, matching their rhythms, all of them speeding towards a glorious outcome, but again Sven proved himself more inventive. He pulled himself from Penny's mouth and gave Thor an instruction. That worthy man withdrew from Penny, not without some mutual disappointment but, in a trice, he had climbed aboard the table and lain back next to her. Penny, understanding immediately, swung herself over him and sank down, letting him enter her at her own pace, and so she slid slowly, and after an instant, fully down his shaft.

She ignored the hard wood upon her knees, and put into practice the riding lessons she had endured (horses were such obstinate beasts, though she rode like a dream). She pushed herself forward, over and over, his manhood the crupper as she took him at the canter, her legs firm around his sides. Sven, though, had a second part to his plan...

Penny felt his hand on her back, pressing her down until her breasts squashed against Thor's chest, that worthy man's hands now encompassing her backside, gripping her as he thrust upwards again and again, filling her beautifully. Sven, unknown to Penny, had retrieved a tub of aloe vera jelly from a small cabinet next to the stove. A glance to his friend, and Thor parted Penny's buttocks and then Sven, his finger liberally coated, pressed against Penny's most private of places.

Her eyes widened at the liberty, and then a moan burst from her as Sven pushed the finger to the knuckle into her bottom. What wonderful pirates these men were! She had never experienced any such thing before, and it only grew more intense as Sven inserted a second finger. Every part of her being now focussed on her sex, her arse, her body moving against Thor's, his cock taking her deeply. And then...

Sven climbed up and he was now behind Penny, she at a loss but with a sense of something looming. Just so, for a moment later she felt his cock pushing against her lubricated hole, and her eyes widened. A moment of apprehension and a sense that perhaps she should stop him passed, and after just a second more, he eased into her. She expected pain but he took his time whilst she, for her part, felt such a sensation. He let her become accustomed to him and then sank all the way into her, Thor still and holding her steady. It was, overall, a liberty they took, of course. But what a liberty!

This was pleasure of another order, beyond anything that the junior lieutenants of the Swiss Fourth Artillery Regiment could bestow, much as they tried, bless them. And once the men had hit their stride, pounding into her like pistons in a reciprocating engine, there was no limiting the moans that escaped her, and the grunts them, and the perspiration that filled the air, and the heady scent of primal lust. They first thrust in turn, and Penny began to lose what shaky control she had maintained over herself, her hair falling loose and tumbling down as her breasts rocked and swayed.

Then they began to thrust in unison, and at this she knew her little death could not be forestalled. She felt it begin, her voice breaking up in gasps as her chest heaved and her thighs and buttocks began to tremble incessantly. She stiffened of a sudden, her hands clawing blindly until she grasped Sven's back over her shoulder and Thor's chest with her nails, and then she shook at the first, violent spasm, black spots before her eyes and her body glass and ready to shatter with a flame of pure energy.

The second wave was as strong, and Sven held her steady as he pounded her harder. Every part of her was hot, then cold, and then electric as her muscles strained and then, on the third wave, she fell limp on Thor. Sven was still thrusting but then he accelerated in his urgency before, only moments later, he gasped and grunted, blood vessels standing stark in his neck, as he pulled his cock from Penny's arse and erupted with the strength of a small Vesuvius. Cum arced from his pulsing cock, splashing over her bare back, jet after jet, four in all, until Sven gulped down get lungfuls of air and staggered off the table, crimson-faced, flopping down on a chair in a swoon, his forehead on the tabletop.

Thor, meanwhile, was yet to achieve his own release, and he seemed desperate to acquire it. Now, however, Penny was less desirous of accommodating his great rod, and so she removed herself, despite his protests, sliding down his body until she took him in her mouth again. And so it was that Thor learned of the greatest skills that the alumni of Frau Aufguss's Academy possessed -- Penny keeping him on edge until he was ready to beg, all with the skilful application of tongue and lips, until she decided to allow him to finally explode.

He arched up, seeking the sky, and then great spurts of cum shot from his cock, Penny taking him from her mouth at the last moment. She stroked him as he growled and gripped the table, shuddering and contorted as he experienced the best, the strongest he ever had. Penny smiled as she saw him subside, almost knocked cold by the power he had felt, and then he breathed out slowly and closed his eyes, sliding into satisfied unconsciousness.

Penny breathed in deeply, her body still trembling but her mind alert. She had subdued the sentinels but more remained to be done. She looked around and found a towel, wiping herself clean before she began the process of dressing again -- drawers, chemise, corset, petticoat, shirtwaist, skirt and jacket. Her hair was hopeless, and so she pinned it untidily under her hat, hoping it would pass for a bohemian affectation. In barely five minutes she was ready, and she paused a moment, fondly gazing at her slumbering antagonists -- she would treasure the memory of her bout with them, just as they would dream of her in years to come. But now, she had to investigate the house...

She suppressed the urge to sneak up to the house, for the innocent have no need to do other than walk openly to the front door and pull the bell, even when they notice, as Penny did, that the door was left ajar. Penny waited, but there was no tell-tale bustle of a servant's approach. Hesitantly, she pushed the door further open. Within was the epitome of an upper-middle-class hallway, the floor tiled with a discreet floral pattern and potted plants elevated on tables, and a barometer affixed to the wall.

Finally, she entered. She called out, her voice low for fear of disturbing the oppressive silence. She took two steps then stood, stock-still, looking about her and wondering what it meant. And then, from above her, she had the sensation that she was finally not alone. She looked up at the landing at the top of the stairs and there, gazing back down and studying her with a penetrating glance, was a tall, Nordic blonde, in pale yellow skirt and shirtwaist, framed by the light from the window behind her.

"And who," said the woman, and with every step down the stairs she enunciated each syllable with only a trace of a Swedish accent, "might you be, and why are you in my house?"

She reached the bottom step and Penny gave back a step, her shoulders pressing against the wall of the hallway as she realised the lady of the house was near a head taller than her, and twenty years older too, but though in her early forties she was as strikingly attractive as she must have been at thirty. Her reference to 'her house' gave her identity away, for the Commodore had divulged further intelligence on Major-General Henrik Arvidsson. He was gazetted in the Swedish Corps of Engineers, but had been retired these last ten years, and was married to a Mrs Karin Arvidsson. An Anglophile following a posting to the Swedish Embassy, he had brought his wife to England in retirement.

Thus, it seemed, Penny was in the presence of Karin Arvidsson, but this Norse goddess was as far from Penny's imagined little old lady who made meatballs as it was possible to be. She was more an Amazon, and a cool, self-assured one at that. Penny immediately felt taken back to the age of nineteen, and her first day at Frau Aufguss's Academy for Young Ladies. The good Frau, too, was tall and blonde and striking, and she too had stood over Penny. And she, too, had made Penny feel a certain something...

Penny swallowed, and nervously opened her reticule, searching inside with a wan smile as Karin Arvidsson waited, imperiously, for an answer to her enquiry. With relief, Penny found her calling cards and produced one, handing it to the lady, who seemed none too impressed but deigned to cast an eye over it.

"I am Miss Penelope Dreadful," said Penny, "do I have the honour of addressing Mrs Karin Arvidsson?"

Karin glanced along the hallway and through the open front door. Penny followed her gaze, and saw that the open front door overlooked the guard house, the door to that room open too. Beyond, clearly visible, were the mostly disrobed and certainly incapacitated Sven and Thor, still slumped over the furniture, and good for nothing for some time yet. Karin looked back at Penny with something approaching respect, mixed with chagrin, and then she smiled and seemed to soften.

"You do," said Karin.

"I was hoping to speak to your husband," said Penny, "I am a... well, that is to say, I am with the Robotic Mining Equipment Consortium and your husband is a treasured customer. I am desirous of enquiring whether our products meet with his satisfaction."

"My husband?" said Karin, and when Penny nodded, she went on, "I am afraid you will get little sense from him, for by now he will be somewhere in the garden, beneath a tree no doubt, communing with his daily bottle of schnapps. I deal with business these days, and I am your treasured customer."

"Umm, may I ask you some questions, then?"

"Of course you may," said Karin sweetly, "come. Let us go to my private parlour."

Karin turned, and Penny went to follow her along the hall, but surprisingly Karin led her upstairs instead, along the landing, and into an intimate room with chaise, bureau, armchair and occasional table, all in the latest Art Nouveau style. Karin invited Penny to sit on the chaise, and went herself to the bureau, opening a drawer and retrieving a long, slender box.

"Your discretion does you credit, but I presume," said Karin, "that you really want to talk about this."

With that she put the box down on the table, and with the air of a conjuror, lifted the lid. Penny looked down at the contents and then back up, confused, into the clear blue eyes of Karin Arvidsson, who smiled back at her with an open and honest expression.

"La Duchesse?" said Penny, unsure.

"Yes," said Karin, reaching in and pulling out the wonderful toy, then standing it upright on the table, "and I had that darling little professor on Cornhill make some adjustments to the mechanism yesterday. To give it more... 'impetus.'"

"Freddie?" said Penny, her hackles rising -- had this woman been dallying with her Freddie? And introducing him to La Duchesse, to boot? And to what end? Though at least it explained where he had dashed off to so suddenly the afternoon before, but... he had cut short their enchanting encounter to spend time with this... this... Penny readied herself to spring, claws first.

"A sweet boy," said Karin, "but completely without clue, thankfully. I take him the clockwork, and he tinkers and tinkers, adding such wonderful horsepower, but he doesn't know what it does. He probably thinks it is for an egg timer or some such thing. Ah, men! Is it not the finest joke?"

"But why," said Penny, disarmed somewhat, and gathering herself with an effort, "do you show me this?"

"Our joint venture, of course," said Karin, "isn't that why you're here? To find out whether the upgraded edition is ready to launch."

"Oh no," said Penny, trying to swim through this muddle of information, "I came to see what uses you have for our Version Three Drill-Scoops, given you are on clay here. But what joint...?"

And then it all fell into place; Line Fourteen on the financial report, the dismayed reaction of directors when she asked about it, the refusal of Ambrose Lister to give her an answer. All of it pointed now, quite clearly, to the simple fact that the Robotic Mining Equipment Consortium provided the manufacturing and distribution whilst Karin Arvidsson was, presumably, some kind of designer. Penny now realised that she held ten percent of a sex toy manufacturer, with a side business in the mining industry.

Karin sat on to the chaise, next to Penny, and sidled close to her. Penny looked at her and saw the unmistakable signs of desire on her countenance. Just like Frau Aufguss. And just like Miss Angela Colltishaw, too, when she wasn't being such a fusspot. Even Violetta Burlington only had to ask.

"I think," said Karin, "that a representative from my partner should be given a demonstration of the new, improved, Duchesse. It is powerful enough, even, for the American market."

Penny gulped, but Karin reached a gentle hand across to her, taking a hair left disordered by Penny's previous encounter and brushing it behind her ear. It was such soft gesture, and Penny melted a little.

"Come now," said Karin, "it is common knowledge that when two attractive women are alone together in a room, they will certainly disrobe and pleasure each other."

"Indeed," said Penny, reading from an internal script, "and sometimes they will be bitchy until they surrender to their desires, but sometimes they will just be wanton. However, regardless, they will be unable to keep their hands from each other. And if we had a man here with us we could both devote our attentions to him, with brief interludes for each other which he could gaze upon, lustily."

"Yes," said Karin, equally wooden, "all the things men assume about women are completely correct, and it is time we conformed to the stereotypes about women and same sex desire."

Karin leant in to Penny who, somewhat mesmerised, meekly waited on the older woman. Their lips touched, softly, and then they kissed, electric. A surge of desire flooded through Penny -- it had been a long time, she felt, since she had enjoyed another woman, and the subtle differences from a man. She reached up and put her hand on Karin's cheek, softly keeping her in place as their kiss grew stronger.