Curious as the bizarre color scheme was, Dee was a quarter of the way into the space before the rest of what was there to see caught her attention. Gaze settled on the back of Daniel's head, who led the group towards the far side of the room, she hadn't attempted to see outside her bubble of guards.
Forced to allow Soldiers into her House, LeSath had negotiated Zibanitu's condition to a unit of five. It was another point Dee might have questioned if she had it in her to wonder about the motivations of the Rishis. Instead, she'd accepted the information as more she had no say in, allowing another point to shackle her to her chains of dejection.
Each Soldier assigned was a face she recognized from her flight on Porrima's plane. A trip that had transferred her from Zosma's care, a place she'd asked to be, to Zibanitu's, a place she'd been forced to go. A flight that had almost cost her her life.
How much simpler things would be if Amrae had succeeded.
The notion, one that should have garnered stern chiding from her inner-voice, incited no reaction. It was simply a fact of her life.
Once her attention was caught by what surrounded them, she couldn't unsee it. Spread around the room, couches and beds, some draped with sheer hangings, most facing the rest of the room for unhindered viewing, bodies were in the throes of all manner of sexual exploration. Eyes turned to her as she passed, curious expressions welcoming. Some even smiled or gestured for her to come to them.
Dee's face blazed. Eyes pinned forward, she refused to stare at the last thing she'd expected to walk into. Even through her haze of sorrow, she felt the uncomfortable twinge of awkwardness, glad for the Soldiers who surrounded her that added a layer of protection against the shocking world she found herself in.
Their pace slowed. Boots attempted to disentangle himself from a pair of brunettes, while a leggy redhead had latched herself to Tynan. Even Lēza and Rachel found themselves distracted by the attentions of naked bodies.
Daniel seemed the only one immune to the distraction of this place. Dee wondered if it was because his prickly attitude hummed around him like a shield. It definitely had worked to keep her from forcing him to speak to her.
At the far end of the room, LeSath's towering form stood. Blonde hair fell around bare shoulders, leather died a dark pink it was almost red wrapped around her torso in a tube top that showed more than it covered. Leather pants of the same color seemed painted to her long legs made longer by the stilettos that added five inches to her already towering height.
Of all of them, Dee wondered how LeSath could pass for human. There was something in the way she moved, in the way she cast that piercing glance at all around her, that screamed other. Dee didn't need her sixth-sense to tingle along the back of her skull to tell her this woman was powerful and scary and something that should never have lived next to the race who now ruled Earth.
Dee pinned her eyes to the Rishi who moved towards them with predatory grace, only able to hold her gaze as a distraction to the room around her.
"It's about time." The Rishi gave Dee's escort a scathing look as if they had deliberately held up her guest.
The bodies who'd swarmed the guards scurried away as LeSath pressed closer. She stepped past Daniel like he wasn't there, and pranced around Dee as if appraising some prize poodle.
"Hmm, we'll have to do something about those clothes." Whether it was the crimson and gold colors of Zosma's house she didn't like or the loose cut of the baggy pants and top, Dee didn't care enough to ask. That Zibanitu had let her keep the outfit and let her leave wearing it, she'd assumed was because he didn't care enough to make her change. Now, Dee wondered if it weren't to get under LeSath's skin.
LeSath stopped pacing. "But that will come in a little while. First, the fun part!"
She clapped her hands in unexpected delight, her scorn replaced by glee that rocked Dee on her heels. Dee didn't know whether to think she was a little crazy or a lot eccentric. Whatever the case, Dee was more put off by her fast-changing emotions than by the room around her.
Weaving her arm through Dee's, the taller female pulled Dee towards the far end of the cavern.
At LeSath's initial inspection of her guest, the room had gone quiet. All eyes continued to follow the pair as they settled, an occasional murmur all there was to break the echoing stillness.
"Don't look so nervous, love! I haven't brought you here to harm you. No, no! I want to show you some fun. I'm sure the others hadn't thought of that, instead insisting you work."
A twinge of nervousness broke through Dee's wall of indifference. If what she’d witnessed in the room gave insight into the kind of fun the Rishi alluded to, Dee wanted nothing to do with it.
LeSath clapped her hands in quick staccato. A door opened to let in a long line of males, all Soldiers, from what Dee's senses told her.
She might have stared, might have allowed herself to enjoy the fine display of testosterone, except they were naked. She turned her glance from the approaching line, stomach knotting. Never had she wanted to leave a place more then she did right now.
Striding single-file, they stopped in front of Dee and LeSath, eyes staring over the pair's heads with expressionless gazes.
Dee's eyes flashed to her guards, tried to gauge from their reactions if they knew what this was all about. None seemed surprised. She couldn't help but send a silent curse to all of them that they hadn't warned her what to expect.
"I know Soldiers should be warriors first, but I just can't seem to bring myself to create those who aren't also beautiful." LeSath dropped her chin onto the palm of her hand and stared wistfully at the men in front of her.
Dee's head spun. She felt thrown into some lurid version of King Louis' French Court. Some new game she didn't know the rules to was developing, and she was in over her head.
LeSath turned her attention back to Dee, who took her time shrugging off her thick winter coat to avoid the subsequent interaction. Whatever climate control in the cave had eliminated any need for the extra layers. That, and rushing adrenaline, had brought a layer of sweat to bead over her skin.
LeSath continued. "But beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder. There are many kinds of beauty, wouldn't you agree, Desiree?" LeSath drew out her name, and Dee wasn't sure what to make of the underlying tone. An implied threat? A come-on?
The Rishi turned her attention from Dee before Dee could formulate an assessment. "Longed-for. That's what your name means. Did you know that? Desiree: Longed-for. Ironic, no? As if Zosma had named you himself. Or that you'd been born for this, and your life until the Fire Lord seized you was simply a placeholder in time."
She studied Dee, waiting expectantly to see what her words might evoke in her guest.
But Dee was too stunned, too afraid, to make any response. As if she were buried deep inside herself, there was too much space to climb through for her to react in the corporeal world.
Disappointed, but not put-off, LeSath turned back to the men, stepping with sultry grace towards the Soldier in front of Dee. "This one, especially, I thought you might like."
The Rishi trailed around the figure in a seductive dance. She came to a stop behind him, her height allowing her to peek over the Soldier's shoulder to maintain eye contact with Dee. Whatever expression was lodged there had LeSath grinning and she swept hands over the tight musculature of the Soldier. Dee's gaze was charmed into following, despite the voice in her head that told her to look away.
Dee had plenty of time to take in the line of the Soldier's obliques that fell to trace his hip bones, and back up over washboard abs. A full chest and arms convinced her he could bench press a car. Then, LeSath drew attention to his face, and it was there Dee's eyes lingered. He resembled Hamal in every way, including a similar scar marring the left side of his face.
Dee frowned. Did everyone know about Hamal's involvement in her life? Why did they all think that there had been something going on?
Her despondency was too in control for her to ask.
Whatever ne
w expression gave way to Dee's features had LeSath show all her teeth. The Rishi clearly thought she'd gotten under Dee's skin. She was right, just not in the way she'd thought.
LeSath whispered in the male's ear, and he stepped forward, bowing to a knee when he was within arms distance. Behind her, someone place a chair and she was pushed into it when the Hamal look-a-like crept forward. Dee sat dumbfounded as he placed his hands on her knees, leaning in, closer and closer. She froze, the warmth of his lips covering hers, mind staggered from the shock. Regaining control of herself, Dee snapped her head back, sure her face showed shock and disgust. But the Soldier only grinned.
The sounds of the room, along with the sights she'd tried not to see, swarmed her mind. Did LeSath expect her to be a part of her orgies, or whatever it was that went on here?
When the Hamal-look-alike rose, Dee's eyes were trained on LeSath rather than follow his path around her, where he stood. She was grateful he didn’t touch her, but still, she squeezed the arms of her chair, and made to stand.
LeSath was a step ahead of her. "Relax, love. I only want you to have some fun, not be uncomfortable. You don't have to do anything outside your wishes."
LeSath watched Dee's face intently, eating up the range of shock and embarrassment that passed over Dee's expression.
The Rishi laughed. "Oh, this really is going to be a great pleasure." She clapped her hands. "There's so much for you to learn. So much to consider. So much to discover."
Dee's eyes flitted about the room in the hopes some idea of how to save herself would be revealed.
Unfortunately, there was nothing. The small group of Soldiers who'd come with her were behind the line of naked men, most distracted by playmates of their own.
LeSath put a hand out, and Dee took it for lack of options. Led down the line of men, LeSath talked as if they were shopping for shoes. "All I ask is that you choose at least five of my men. Have sex with each at least once."
Dee's steps stuttered.
LeSath laughed again, brushing away Dee's embarrassed shock.
Once at the end of the line, they pivoted to face the way they'd come.
Dee stared down the row of Soldiers. There were at least fifty of them. She couldn't help but wonder how the Soldiers felt about being put on display.
"So? What's your usual type?" LeSath must have asked more than once, irritation evident in her voice.
Dee swallowed. "Umm, I don't really know."
LeSath snorted. "How can you not know? What kind of guy gets those panties wet?"
Dee's face flamed.
The Rishi chuckled, delighted at Dee's reaction to her words. "Well, let's find out, shall we?"
She placed her arm through Dee's and pulled her back down the line. The pair stopped in front of each Soldier so LeSath could explain her own judgments of each attribute of the men; their pros and cons. Each man stared forward as if they were just automatons here for LeSath's pleasure.
-Your pleasure, it would seem.-
As Dee drifted into more uncomfortable territory, her inner-voice came alive, commentary adding levity to the situation she had no way out of. Embarrassment, and the need to remove herself from what she'd walked into, shook her from the void. Melancholy morphed to desperation to pseudo-acceptance. Still, she didn't engage, never allowing her attention to fall where LeSath directed her.
In the end, Dee found herself with a selection. There was no other choice. Each man was as different from the other as she could make them.
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About the Author
C. M. Martens is an avid reader and coffee drinker. In a past life she was a personal trainer and nutrition coach. You’ll often see her with a book on Clearwater Beach in sunny Florida, where she currently spends most of her time when not cooped up spawning new adventures. Unless it’s Fall. Then you’ll find her traipsing the hills of New England.
Always with a book.
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We Are Forever (Rishi's Wish Book 2) Page 22