Actually, Lilli hadn’t noticed that. She’d been too busy feeling sorry for the big Kindred, who’d had a stony look on his face, as though he didn’t really enjoy being stimulated. Of course for her, it had been a different story—he had come alive at once under her touch.
Which was kind of what she was afraid of. What if he got hard again, when she washed him? Would that be proper? And what if he spilled his seed?
She didn’t know much about that—but she’d seen it in the porno vid one of her friends at the convent had smuggled in after a visit home. The Sisters had found the vid of course, and confiscated it. Then all visits home had been cancelled for a whole six months as punishment for everyone who had watched it.
Most of the girls had been devastated but not Lilli, since she never got to go home anyway. In fact, she hadn’t seen home—her mother’s home on the outskirts of Opulex, which was located at the very top of the huge building her mother owned—until a week before, when her mother had come to get her.
“…so you must do a thorough job. Do you understand?” Lady Mirabella demanded.
Lilli’s thoughts had been wandering but now she snapped back to attention.
“Yes, Mother,” she said quickly, though she wasn’t exactly sure what she’d just agreed to do.
“Good. Now, look here.”
Her mother took the pain collar remote and pressed some of the buttons—though not the big red pain button, Lilli was relieved to note.
“There,” Mistress Mirabella said at last, handing it back. “That will make certain he can’t touch himself and he can’t touch you. Later you can set it so that your slave can massage you and do other things for you, but until he’s trained, it’s best to keep it at a non-contact setting. Only you can touch him and he won’t be able to lay a finger on either his own equipment or you without getting a nasty jolt.”
“All right.” Lilli nodded and took back the remote. She supposed it was a good safety feature to have. It would keep a rebellious bodyslave in line and keep a Mistress who wasn’t quite sure of him safe.
“Now take care of him and get the both of you ready,” her mother ordered. “You only have a little over an hour before guests will begin arriving. Oh, and don’t forget to oil his shaft and put a stay-hard strap on him. I want that impressive endowment of his on display tonight—Lady Paddlepants will be so jealous!” She smirked, clearly anticipating the jealousy and discomfort of one of her best friends.
Lilli felt her mouth go dry. She’d never oiled a slave’s shaft before—or fitted one with a stay-hard strap. For that matter, she’d never touched a naked male and washed him all over. How was she going to manage all this?
But her mother was already turning away to get ready in her own rooms on the other end of the vast penthouse suite.
It looked like Lilli was on her own.
Five
Karn was beginning to feel sorry for the little female. She could hardly meet his eyes and she looked scared to death when her mother had ordered her to bathe him. And when she’d further ordered that Lilli must oil his shaft and put him into some kind of contraption to keep him hard at the party they were having that night, his new little Mistress had looked so terrified his heart melted in sympathy.
Too bad I can’t offer to wash myself, Karn thought, as she led him through the elaborate suite of rooms which were clearly hers. But of course if he did that, he would be admitting that the remote was as fake as the collar he wore.
They went through a sitting room with rose-gold velvet plush Synthian furniture and then through a bedroom dominated by an elaborately carved white four-poster bed made of rare gnoss ivory. Finally they entered a cavernous bathing chamber made of expensive hurtha marble. The marble was a deep blue, shot through with swirls of silver, white, and gold. The effect was that of the galaxy laid out on the walls, Karn thought. A space-scape in the confines of a fresher.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he murmured, looking around. All the fixtures on the shower and the huge tub were pure gold and the bathmats were woven of tengu grass which lived off the water that was dripped on it and sprouted tiny flowers when it was stepped on with wet feet.
“Oh, do you like my bathing chamber?” Lilli asked shyly. “It’s so much different from the bathroom I used to share with the other girls at the convent.”
Karn frowned.
“You lived in a convent?” He’d heard Lady Mirabella saying something along that line, but he wasn’t sure he’d understood her correctly.
Lilli nodded her head.
“Oh, yes. Mother had me raised there after she gave birth. In fact, she had me brought right from the birthing and conception center to the convent. She said she didn’t have time for children.”
“That seems kind of harsh,” Karn remarked. His own mother had been warm and loving and he felt sorry for the girl for not having had that.
“Oh, no.” Lilli shook her head quickly, her golden ringlets rippling fetchingly. “She visited me once a month, you know, which was more than some of the other girls got to see their parents. She’s just always been so busy with her business, you see.”
Then she blushed, her cheeks going rosy and looked down at her hands.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Karn started to lift her chin so she would meet his eyes but remembered at the last minute he wasn’t supposed to be able to touch her. Damn.
Instead, he leaned down to get their faces on the same level.
“What is it, little Mistress?” he asked gently.
“Oh, it’s just that…I shouldn’t be talking private business to you.” She sounded ashamed, as though she had broken some very important rule. Her big brown eyes darted up to meet his and then darted away again. “A Mistress shouldn’t talk to her bodyslave at all, except to give him orders and commands. And she ought to require his silence unless he’s answering a direct question.”
“Well, that sounds like a boring relationship,” Karn said frankly. “I thought you wanted a bodyslave you could talk to.”
“What?” Her eyes flew up to his again and this time she didn’t look away. “What would give you that idea?”
“Well, you bought a Kindred,” Karn pointed out. “We like to talk to a female and listen to her talk back. It’s part of the way we get to know our Mistress—to understand her wants and needs.”
“You…you do?” Lilli looked at him uncertainly.
“Sure, we do,” Karn rumbled, giving her a charming smile. “Because the better I know you, little Mistress, the better I can protect and guard you. So you see, it’s for your own safety that I want to talk to you.”
“Well…” Lilli nibbled her lush bottom lip. “When you put it that way…I guess it makes sense.”
“Sure it does,” Karn agreed, smiling. “Of course, we’ll only talk this way when it’s just you and me,” he added quickly. “I don’t think your mother would approve if she knew you were talking to your bodyslave.”
“No, she certainly wouldn’t,” Lilli agreed fervently. “She never talks to hers except to order them all around.” She gave Karn a tentative smile. “But I like the idea of only talking when we’re alone. It’s like…our little secret.”
“Yes, exactly.” Karn nodded. And if she was willing to share one secret with him, hopefully she’d be willing to share more. Like the secret of how to get into her mother’s files—wherever they were. He would have to try and get out and prowl around tonight to see if he could find them.
But for now they had to get ready for the fancy dinner party her mother apparently had planned so she could show off her new bodyslave—which was him.
Six
Lilli liked the way her new bodyslave talked to her. Karn seemed warm and sympathetic and she liked the idea of the two of them getting to know each other better. Still, as nice as he seemed, she was afraid things were about to get awkward.
“I…I’m afraid I’m supposed to wash you now,” she said, biting her lip as she looked up at him. “I hope you don’t mind?”
>
“I don’t,” Karn said simply, smiling at her.
There was something so disarming in that charming, lopsided grin of his, Lilli thought as she looked up at him. It showed his right fang and the corners of his eyes crinkled, so that she could see the smile in his eyes as well as his mouth.
“Well…good,” she said briskly, trying to act more like a Mistress and less like a scared little girl. “Then let’s get started.”
“As you wish, Little Mistress,” Karn rumbled, nodding his head submissively. “But…”
“But what?” Lilli asked, frowning.
“Well, I’m all ready to get wet.” He nodded down at his massive, muscular, nude body. “But are you coming in the shower with me? If you are, I’m afraid you’ll ruin your gown.”
“Oh…” Lilli looked down at herself with a frown. The Kindred had a point. She was wearing a fetching dusty-rose gown which she didn’t want to ruin.
Well, she thought it was fetching, anyway. Her mother had sniffed and called it “dowdy” because it didn’t show enough skin. But that was the exact reason Lilli liked it and she didn’t want to get watermarks on the delicate Dresdian silk it was made of.
“I…I guess I should get undressed too,” she said and blushed helplessly.
She had never gone naked in front of anyone before—not even the other girls at the convent—because nudity was strictly prohibited. But she knew what her mother would say if she refused to wash her new bodyslave just because she was ashamed of him seeing her naked.
She would first point out that it didn’t matter what the bodyslave saw because they weren’t really people and didn’t count. And then she would get angry with Lilli and call her “prudish” which was apparently one of the worst things you could be in Yonnite Society.
“Hey, little Mistress?” Karn’s deep voice cut through her inner turmoil and she looked up to see a concerned expression on his face.
“Yes, Karn? What is it?” she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
“If you’d rather not take off your clothes around me, I understand,” he told her. “That must be hard for you, if you were raised in a convent.”
Lilli was surprised at how perceptive the big Kindred was. He had picked right up on the source of her distress and was sympathetic to it instead of making fun of her.
“That’s very kind of you,” she said, lifting her chin. “But a Mistress must not be shy around her bodyslave.”
He frowned.
“Why? Because we’re just furniture? Because our opinions don’t count?”
Lilli bit her lip. The fact that he’d just said almost exactly what she’d imagined her mother saying was awful. Maybe her new bodyslave was too perceptive.
“That’s what most Yonnites would say,” she answered carefully. “And I know it’s what my mother would say.”
“Well, what do you say, little Mistress?” He raised an eyebrow, his mismatched eyes fixed on her intently.
“I…I don’t know,” Lilli admitted. “I’ve only been here for a week. I’m not really used to Yonnite society and customs yet.”
“Of course you’re not.” His voice softened. “Forgive me, little Mistress. I didn’t mean to distress you.”
“You didn’t.” Lilli lifted her chin. “But we can’t stand here talking all night. I have to get you ready for the banquet.”
And resolutely, she began to strip.
Seven
Karn eyed her as she took off her pretty pink gown and began slipping out of her undergarments. Gods, she was as lovely naked as he’d imagined! Her breasts were large and ripe, her nipples were pink and puffy, and her full hips curved down to well-shaped legs. Between her thighs, her soft little pussy had a mound of delicate, light blonde curls which did nothing to hide the plump outer lips of her sex.
Just looking at her was enough to make his shaft rise again. For a moment, Karn tried to stop it by thinking of mathematical formulas but then he reasoned that there was no point. Lilli was going to have to see him erect—see him and touch him as well—so she might as well get used to it.
It was a strange culture, he couldn’t help thinking, that ordered a young, virginal girl to take a large, naked male and bathe and handle him intimately. But then again, there were many aspects of Yonnite culture he found strange—not the least of which was their propensity to take males as slaves.
“Oh!” Lilli’s eyes widened when she finished getting undressed and turned to him. Her gaze was fixed on his shaft, which by now was hard and throbbing. “Why…” She looked at Karn uncertainly. “Why is it, uh, hard again? I haven’t touched you or anything.”
“My shaft got hard in response to seeing your lovely body, little Mistress,” Karn told her frankly. “Forgive me if it’s, uh, impertinent but I can’t help my body’s natural reactions to yours.”
“Your body reacted to mine?” Her eyebrows shot up. “But…is that proper?”
“Probably not.” Karn grinned at her. “But it is natural. At least with my people. Maybe it’s not with yours.”
“I don’t think any of my mother’s bodyslaves react to her the way you’re, uh, reacting to me,” she murmured, still eyeing his shaft.
Remembering Lady Mirabella’s cold, bony claw yanking his equipment, Karn could see why not. There was absolutely nothing about the Yonnite Mistress to make a male hard as far as he could tell. But of course, he couldn’t say that to her daughter.
“Probably her bodyslaves are better trained than I am,” he said, bowing his head humbly. “I guess you’ll have to teach me not to react to your body when you bathe me, little Mistress.”
“I…I don’t know how to do that,” she confessed softly. “I’ve never trained a bodyslave before.”
“Well, maybe we can learn together,” Karn suggested. “But for now, aren’t you supposed to be bathing me?”
“Oh…oh, yes!” She glanced at the chronometer on the wall. “We must hurry—the banquet is coming up fast. Come on.”
She took a remote off a peg beside the huge, opulent shower stall and pointed it.
“Now let me see—I’m still getting used to this myself,” she murmured. “How hot do you like your water?” she asked, looking up at Karn.
He was charmed by her innocent question. How many Mistresses of Yonnie Six would care about their bodyslave’s preferences? He was guessing the number was close to zero and yet Lilli really seemed to take an interest in his well-being.
“I’m sure whatever is comfortable for you will be fine for me, little Mistress,” he rumbled softly. “But thank you for asking after my comfort.”
She bit her lip.
“I suppose I shouldn’t do that. Mother would be angry with me if she heard.”
“We don’t have to tell her,” Karn suggested. “It’ll be our secret.”
“All right.” She smiled at him and did something to the remote so that the door slid open and the ceiling of the shower stall began raining steaming, scented water. “Um—that’s how I like it. Should we get in?”
“Of course, little Mistress.” Karn made a gesture with one hand. “After you.”
“All right.”
And Lilli stepped into the shower.
Eight
The big Kindred came into the shower stall with her and the automatic door slid shut behind them. He came to stand beside Lilli in the steaming rain and loomed over her.
Suddenly, she was reminded all over again of how very huge and muscular he was. Though the shower stall was big, he seemed to take up most of it with his broad shoulders and long legs.
At that moment, Lilli remembered she had left the remote to his pain collar on her pile of folded clothes outside the stall. And Karn was blocking the exit.
She looked up at him, frozen for a moment with fear. Would he try something on her? Something like what she’d seen in that porn vid her friend had smuggled into the convent? Would he try to kiss her? To touch her?
“What’s wrong, little Mistress?” he rumbled, fro
wning. “You seem distressed.”
“I…do I?” Lilli’s voice came out sounding high and frightened. She cleared her throat and tried again. “I mean, of course I’m not distressed. I’m fine.”
“Yes, you are. You’re thinking that you left the remote to my collar outside the shower,” Karn remarked, once more showing that amazing Kindred intuition of his.
“Oh, well…yes.” There didn’t seem to be any point in denying it—he could apparently see right through her. “Yes, I was thinking that,” Lilli admitted. “Though it shouldn’t matter since Mother set it to shock you if you tried to touch me or yourself. And I’m pretty sure it will work,” she added, wishing she didn’t still sound so frightened.
“Even if my pain collar was completely nonfunctional, you still would have nothing to fear from me,” Karn assured her softly.
“What?” Lilli frowned. “But…why? How?”
“Because I’m Kindred,” he said simply. “We don’t hurt females. Ever.”
“Really?” Lilli looked up at him, wanting to believe but still not quite able to.
“Really,” Karn assured her. To her surprise, he knelt suddenly in front of her. He was so tall, they were still almost face to face but he did have to look up a little to meet her eyes. “Look at me, Lilli,” he murmured. “I swear by the Goddess, the Mother of All Life, that I will never lift a hand against you or harm you in any way. For as long as we are together I will live only to serve you and give you pleasure. Do you understand?”
Lilli leaned forward and found she was cupping his face in her hands.
“You really mean that?” she whispered.
The water raining down around them made his long hair fall in a smooth waterfall down his back and his thick lashes were matted and bristly with it, making his mismatched eyes look like jewels. He was, she suddenly thought, one of the most beautiful people she had ever seen, though one didn’t usually think of males as beautiful.
Protecting His Mistress...Book 24 in the Kindred Tales Series Page 3