Now that Piero has discovered that Carlo, his apprentice, is really Carla, she has to pay the price for his silence . . .

'All right, here's my conditions,' he began at last. 'I shall say nothing about your . . . small deficiency, but you must let me come to your bed whenever I fancy. You shall be my woman, to fuck whenever I please. But that will be our secret. I swear no-one will ever know.'

Carla sighed, remembering what Stefano had said to her. Now she seemed to be in just the same position, a man's plaything to be used or discarded as the mood took him. The spirit of rebellion that had led her to abandon her home and family and escape to Florence flared again briefly, but then she had second thoughts. In many ways she was happy in Piero's household. She was learning her craft, although mostly by proxy, and she enjoyed the company of the other apprentices, especially Marco, while the thought of facing life on the streets again was utterly depressing.

But to submit to Piero's will, to let him ravage her whenever he liked - could she bear that? Carla felt a little shiver run through her, but it contained more excitement than fear. Secretly she longed to experience again those wonderful feelings she'd had with Stefano and perhaps Piero would be a good lover. He was older than her cousin had been, and she knew he frequented whores from time to time. He was quite good-looking, too, and there was a raw, virile energy about him that fascinated her.

He misunderstood the reasons for her hesitation and broke in with a smile, 'You needn't worry about getting with child. I can control myself.'

'Then . . . I will accept your offer,' she said. 'So long as I can go on helping out in the workshop. I wouldn't want any more than bed and board.'

'Fine, so long as you realise you can never be apprenticed. I don't know how I'll explain it to the others as time goes by, but I'll think of something. So it's agreed. Let's shake on it like gentlemen, even though you're a cursed female!'

For the rest of the day Carla tried to behave normally but her mind and heart were in turmoil. When the time came for them all to retire, she made her way up to the top floor as usual and performed her toilet at the wash-stand. Then she lay down in her shift and waited, in some trepidation, for Piero to finish drinking his wine downstairs.

At last she could hear his tread upon the stair. She lay quietly in the candlelight and soon he appeared, a formidable figure in the doorway. His crudely-handsome face was grinning at her, and she felt her heart sink as she realised that she was completely at his mercy. He stripped off his clothes until he was stark naked and she saw the sturdy cock on him rise to attention as he approached her bed.

'Get that thing off!' he said, pulling at her shift. 'Now I know you're a woman I want a good look at your body. You can't be much of one, I suppose, if you've kept us all in the dark this long.'

He brought the candle near and, blushing, she pulled the thin shift over her head until her body was completely exposed. He proceeded to comment, as if he were buying an animal at market, but the situation was so like that of her dream of posing nude for the apprentices that Carla began to feel aroused and her nipples stood stiffly on her small breasts.

'You've not much in the way of a bosom,' Piero observed. 'But what you have got is shapely enough and the rest of you figure is pleasing. I wouldn't mind making a study of you sometime.' He grinned. 'Turn you into a madonna, maybe. How would you like that?'

She smiled but said nothing. Already she felt like his possession, as if she had no rights of her own. He put out his hand and caressed her breast with his palm, sending shivers of anticipation down her spine. 'Don't worry,' he said. 'I won't hurt you. You're still a virgin, aren't you?'

Carla wasn't altogether sure. Although she believed Stefano had taken her virginity it didn't seem to count, somehow. Afraid that Piero wouldn't want her if he thought she'd been with another man, she nodded.

'Thought as much. I wouldn't have been so rough with you the other night if I'd known what you really were. This time I'll be more gentle.'

He made her spread her legs then felt between them. Carla was aware of the folds of flesh opening up to him, revealing the secret of her sex, proving to him that she was what she claimed to be. Piero laughed again, softly, the kind of laugh a man gives when the joke in on him, and his finger pressed harder into her. She could feel how soft and wet she was down there, the way she had been with Stefano, and deep inside her the slow building-up of tension began as her body prepared itself for pleasure.

Piero's lips fastened on one of her erect nipples, intensifying her desire for him. She could smell the male odours on him, sweat and musk, and her heart rejoiced at the primitive meeting of male and female. His eagerness for her was very gratifying, and as his tongue laved her breast and his fingers worked at the moist lips of her pussy, Carla marvelled at her own increasing lust for him. So this is what being a woman means, she told herself.

Up to now she had believed that the attraction was all one-way, that men craved and women endured, but now she was discovering new urges within herself. The flame that Stefano had ignited was burning brightly and she could hardly wait for Piero to come inside her. She began to moan and push her mound against his groping fingers, longing for her need to be assuaged.

'Are you sure you're a virgin?' he asked, grinning. 'You seem suspiciously hot for it.'

'Mm, it feels so good!' she murmured.

'It'll feel even better soon.'

He knelt between her outspread thighs and placed his glans at her entrance. Carla felt her womb twitch at the thought of that hard flesh plunging into her, filling up her emptiness. He eased his way in, inching slowly into the welcoming interior with a groan of satisfaction, and she pushed her breasts against his chest, feeling the rough hairs tickle her nipples. At first there was some soreness, and she moved awkwardly trying to synchronise her hips with his. But once he was snug inside her she began to work her mound against him more smoothly, instinctively moving to increase her own excitement.

Soon Piero was grunting and sweating his way towards a climax, his heavy balls slapping against her thighs as he rode her like a mare. Carla exulted in his energy, his whole-hearted concentration on the task in hand. She had seen him look like that when he was painting, as if nothing else in the world mattered but what he was doing right then. She had felt the same, absorbed in her own artistic tasks. But now he was obsessed with her and she with him, and it felt wonderful to have their two minds and bodies working in harmony.

But then, just as he was puffing and panting the loudest, Piero suddenly pulled out of her and shot his seed over the sheets. Carla was shocked. She felt as if someone had thrown cold water over her, all her senses reeling at the sudden withdrawal of stimulation. She lay there listening to her deafening heartbeat, feeling the perspiration trickle down her breasts and a great sadness overwhelmed her. What had begun as a glorious consummation suddenly seemed just an animal act, a crude encounter that was over in a few minutes.