by Alexa Black
“You’re mine.” Teran hissed as she drove deep. “At least for now.”
“Yes,” Cailyn gasped. Her mind filled with colored lights. Teran raised a hand, clawless now. She snaked her fingers into Cailyn’s mouth. Cailyn opened her mouth wide, relieved at Teran’s purr of contentment.
Cailyn whimpered. Claws kneaded her skin. Fingers moved in her mouth. She took a deep breath and drove herself back hard over the dildo. The colors on the videoscreen exploded as Teran held her there.
When the fingers left her mouth, Cailyn gulped in air. As her breath slowed, soft lips kissed her neck. They nibbled and then bit.
“Very nice.”
Cailyn stood up. Her insides throbbed with aftershock.
“So you’re the daughter of Loriel Derys.” Teran reached out and wound a lock of Cailyn’s hair around a clawed finger. “I didn’t think he had curls.”
“He doesn’t. The curls are my mother’s.”
“Ah.” A claw wandered over Cailyn’s lips, pulling the skin taut, as Teran inspected them. “They suit you.”
She handed Cailyn a bottle of soap. Cailyn lathered up her hair. What would steel feel like, massaging her scalp?
She dipped her head into the water and watched the soap bubbles float away as she pulled her head back up. Her blood tinted the water around her a faint pink.
Teran’s hands circled her nipples and pulled. “Come here.”
Half-dragged, Cailyn did, her breasts beginning to ache. Teran pulled her into a hard kiss.
One hand snaked up her back and wound itself in her hair as Teran’s tongue explored Cailyn’s mouth. With a soft noise as it cut through the water, the other reached out to cup Cailyn’s buttocks.
The screen beeped softly. Teran’s eyes flicked to the side. Her lip curled. She drew away to fiddle with the panel of controls at the edge of the bath.
“Go over there.” She pointed to the other side of the pool. Not sure whether to feel embarrassed or to laugh, Cailyn obeyed.
Teran tapped a finger on the panel and turned around, her hands outstretched along the edge of the tub, claws retracted. The lights faded and disappeared, replaced by a man’s face. He had dark brown skin and a close-cut black beard. The two circlets wrapping around his forehead marked him as not only noble, but a member of the High Council.
What would they want with someone like Teran? What kind of man would video her to ask for it?
“Lord Darien,” she said. “Your timing is impeccable.”
“Teran Nivrai.” He chuckled. “You know, if I’m going to interrupt you in the bath, you could always widen the video angle. I can’t see much at all.”
“My lord, surely you have better reason to call me than that. Unless the council members are interested in seeing me naked.”
He laughed again, a deep, resonant sound. Cailyn decided she liked it. “If anyone got near enough to touch you, you’d probably sprout quills and impale them.”
“I hadn’t heard that one. I think I like it.”
Cailyn saw Teran’s fingers flex. She didn’t hear the telltale sound of the claws extending.
Which means he won’t hear it either, Cailyn realized.
“What people claim happens to the poor sods you bed can get pretty interesting. But I’m sure you knew that already. And you’re right. I’m here on council business.”
“I am the Councils’ humble servant.”
Teran smirked. Cailyn bit her lip to keep from laughing. “What do they want from me?”
“You heard of the attempt on Councilman Alain’s life?”
“Yes, that rebel group who bombed his little…” Cailyn heard a sneer in Teran’s voice, “vacation planet.”
“We captured one of them. We want to know what they’re up to, where they’ll strike next. Are they planning to do more, or are they just coordinating random acts of terrorism?”
“I see. But what does all that have to do with me?”
Darien laughed again, a rolling chuckle. How cold this room looked in comparison to his wide grin. Cailyn dipped herself lower in the water, hoping to better immerse herself in it. These walls. They nearly blinded her.
“I thought you might ask that. But they’re not planning to tell you. Not until you get there.”
“And if I refuse to attend?”
He shook his head. “You think you’re alone out here, Nivrai, but you’re not.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning you’re only alone because you get left alone.”
“Is that so?” Teran sneered.
“I don’t like it any more than you, Nivrai. But you’re coming. Or you’re getting escorted there by the High Council’s guard.”
“What?” Teran’s fingers twitched again. Cailyn saw a flash of steel as the claws extended and then retracted again.
Teran blinked. Her face smoothed itself into composure. “I don’t suppose it would do much harm to humor the council members in this. Very well, my lord. Thank you for the warning.”
“You’re welcome.” He grinned, the smile wrinkling his eyes. “Oh, and, Nivrai? Be careful.”
The face faded out. The colored lights reappeared as the first tinkling notes of the music began again.
The water splashed as Teran walked toward her.
“Turn around,” Teran said, her voice cold.
No sooner had Cailyn done so than hands bent her over the side of the pool. She felt the head of the dildo probe at her entrance, then drive in swift and hard.
She could hear Teran’s breath behind her, shallow, quick, as the dildo forced her body open. A clawed hand pressed her head into the white tile.
Over and over, Teran drove into Cailyn, her muscles exploding into motion. Cailyn couldn’t respond to it, couldn’t match Teran’s rhythm. She could only hold on. So she did, riding desire Teran forced out of her.
She didn’t come until she felt the dildo inside her freeze. Only then did she let herself go. Waves of pleasure submerged her in water and light.
She heard a small click as the claws withdrew. Without the newsteel, the hand on Cailyn’s head seemed smaller, though it still gripped tight.
Teran pulled the dildo free. Cailyn’s flesh twitched as her body emptied.
She shook her head once and turned to face Teran. She hoped Teran would reach for her now. She hoped Teran would hold her like a lover, as she sometimes did.
But Teran, it seemed, wasn’t in the mood. She walked out of the pool with brisker than usual steps and slipped the harness off before Cailyn could even catch up.
One of the ubiquitous servants appeared to take it away. Another offered a bathrobe, which Teran slipped into.
“Come with me,” Teran said, finally looking back at Cailyn. A trace of harshness lingered in her voice.
Cailyn let one of the servants slip a bathrobe around her body. At least that felt warm and soft. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, letting herself savor the softness.
But her lady had given her an order. She opened her eyes again and followed.
Chapter Eight
Thankfully, Teran had let her freshen up. She would have done more, but Teran hadn’t given her much time. She’d slipped pins in her hair, spread color on her lips, and practiced a pout to make them look more full. Usually she would paint her face as well, soft coral colors to go with her pale skin. It gave her a way to display what she had to offer. To arrange her curls into something artful. To present herself as worthy of the noble’s desire.
But Teran hadn’t just been impatient. Cailyn had turned away from her mirror to find Teran leaning against the doorframe. Teran had watched her twist her hair up, her hands nimble with years of memory, and slide the pins into it.
Few nobles saw that part. Most only wanted to see the result, the impossible beauty of a courtesan who’d spent years learning to make herself look like a treasure. The moments she spent in front of mirrors were hers, private in a way her body never would be.
And yet Teran had followed her, st
ood in the door, and stared like she’d meant to memorize Cailyn’s secrets.
Cailyn had wrapped her hands around herself. It hadn’t done much to help her hide, and she’d blushed with shame. Her purpose was to serve, and her intent was to give. She’d chided herself and lowered her arms.
But Teran’s gaze still seared her. She’d turned back to the mirror to paint her lips and tried to forget Teran was there.
She’d chosen red again. No other color made sense. Not here.
Teran had looked her over and walked out. Cailyn had followed, and they’d sat down and eaten the breakfast brought to them.
Now she lay on the bed, facedown. Teran hovered over her back.
“Pretty skin.” Teran pressed her lips to Cailyn’s back. “Unmarked, too, except for this.”
Her lips nuzzled the small dots where her claws had pierced the skin before. “I think I’ll keep it that way. For now.”
“Whatever you will, my lady,” Cailyn said.
She wasn’t sure she meant it. But what else was there to say? A courtesan had few better tools than formality and the promise of compliance.
Teran kissed her back again. “Is that so?” Her hands moved to the welts on Cailyn’s rear. Her fingers pressed them, reawakening the hurt there.
A claw ran down Cailyn’s lower back and slipped between her buttocks. It stopped just shy of the hole. Cailyn’s body arched in spite of itself.
The finger drew away, to be replaced with another, clawless, gloved, and lubricated.
“I said it before.” She slid her finger in and watched Cailyn rise to meet it. “You’re mine. Aren’t you?”
What else could Cailyn say? “Yes, my lady.”
Another finger joined the other.
“May I touch myself, my lady?” Cailyn asked.
Teran’s voice was rich with amusement. “No.” She added another finger.
Cailyn rocked to meet the fingers filling her. She probably wouldn’t come this way, but that didn’t matter. She gave herself over to the sensations, throwing back her head and crying out.
The fingers withdrew.
Cailyn felt empty and open. “What—?”
“That was merely to make a point,” Teran said in the same amused voice.
Cailyn let her body fall back down onto the bed. Cloth against her skin wiped away the lubricant still on it. She fought not to frown.
“So what will you do?” She tried to ignore the way her body still yawned open. “Will you answer the Council’s summons?”
She couldn’t imagine Teran doing it. If a noble needed someone on their arm, the daughter of one of the most famous courtesans living fit the bill nicely. But Teran spent her days hidden in Nivrai and let the rumors show off for her.
She had heard, of course, of the bombing, a clumsy attempt on the life of a member of the Lower Council. By all accounts, the would-be rebels were disorganized and ill-supplied, united by little beyond their hatred of the government. If they planned something more, Cailyn was glad to hear that the council members knew enough about it to pay careful attention.
Still, why consult Teran on this, a minor noble who hid herself on a tiny planet in a corner of the galaxy? What could Teran know that they wanted?
Teran laughed, cold and sharp. “They’re not exactly offering me a choice in the matter.”
Cailyn tried not to chuckle. She’d have to say this cleverly, if she wanted to say it at all. “Are you planning on taking anyone?”
“Am I?”
“I don’t suppose you ever took Mariel?”
“No, I never took Mariel. It would have been too much trouble to hide him.” She frowned. “Besides, he had as little interest in politics as I did.”
“That must get lonely.”
“I don’t suppose you’re offering.”
Cailyn laughed. “Maybe I am.”
Things didn’t get this interesting every day. And these rooms were big and empty. What must it be like for Teran to live here in them, alone after the death of someone she’d lived with for so many years?
Still, it would mean standing at Lady Nivrai’s side in front of anyone and everyone, including members of both the Lower Council and the High.
All those eyes. She remembered Lord Darien’s eyes, imagined them, multiplied by tens or even hundreds, staring. Everyone would wonder what Teran Nivrai did with a courtesan who had never even been on the dark channels.
And they would all want Cailyn. Because someone they feared wanted her too.
Metal trilled along her neck. “You would go with me?”
Cailyn shrugged. She felt relaxed now, which made playing dumb easier. “Well, why not?”
“I have half a mind to take you up on that just to know whether you mean it.” Teran wrapped her arms around Cailyn and kissed her, claws pressed to the skin of her back. Cailyn opened her mouth. “I don’t think you’re frightened enough, little one.”
Teran clicked the panel on the wall that opened the flagellary. Cailyn watched the wall slide over the window. Maybe she shouldn’t have been so nonchalant.
“Now,” Teran said, standing in front of an X-shaped cross and looking immensely pleased with herself, “come here.”
The lump in Cailyn’s throat returned. She stayed silent as she walked over to the cross and held up her arms. Thin metal rings hung from it. Teran fit them over Cailyn’s wrists and ankles and pressed her fingerprints in to lock them.
Cailyn felt the metal slide, smooth and cool as it shaped itself to her skin. She sighed, trying to relax into the feeling of immobility.
Teran pulled the pins out of her hair. She turned them over in her hands.
“Pretty,” Teran said. She sandwiched them around Cailyn’s nipples and wrapped bands around the ends to tighten them and hold them there. Cailyn winced at the pain and blinked as her hair fell down around her face.
“Very nice. I like to see you this way.” A claw tapped one of her compressed nipples. It skipped, feather-light, down her breast. “Open, available. Unable to turn away and hide yourself from my eyes.” Cailyn shivered as Teran looked her over. She couldn’t turn away from that gaze even if she wanted to.
“Or hands.” Fingers ran idly along her vulva.
Teran stepped away and sat down. Cailyn gasped. Here she was, stretched out and ready to be used, and Teran decided to ignore her?
It stung even more than the pressure on her nipples ached. “My lady, what are you doing?”
Teran was in front of her in seconds, one claw pressed against her chin. She fell silent. If she moved her mouth again, it would pierce her.
“What was that?” A tight smile spread on Teran’s lips. She knew Cailyn couldn’t answer.
And apparently liked it that way. Cailyn gulped.
“Do you think I do these things for you?” Teran’s eyes narrowed. “Do you think I give you pleasure out of kindness? If I do it, I do it for one reason only: because I want you to feel it.”
Cailyn wished she could speak, apologize, say something. But she couldn’t, not with a sharp point of newsteel digging into her chin. She looked down and hoped the gesture said enough.
“And if what I want is to bind you and use you as a pretty wall hanging, I’ll do that. I promised you something intense before. Do you think I won’t deliver it?”
Teran retracted her claw and walked away. Cailyn opened her eyes to watch her sit down and read a small tablet gripped in steel-tipped hands. Cailyn quailed. Then Teran turned her head.
Those eyes had been warm with approval before. Now they burned, too sharp under arched brows.
Cailyn closed her eyes. Why had she even told Teran about Lord Lerak’s stare? She should have known how Lady Nivrai would use a story like that.
Helldemons. Cailyn’s head drooped. She heard Teran walk over to her and didn’t move. Teran’s hands wrapped around her head. She let them lift her head up but did not open her eyes.
“Here,” Teran said. She slipped something over Cailyn’s head. She tap
ped the side of it, and black panels expanded to cover Cailyn’s eyes. “Since me looking at you unnerves you so much.”
She kissed Cailyn once on the lips. Steel ran light along the places where her lips had been and withdrew.
Deprived of sight, Cailyn’s world narrowed to the dull ache in her nipples and the sting of the scratch in her side. She could hear Teran somewhere on the other side of the room.
Cailyn took a deep breath. She thought of Teran’s hands, rising out of the darkness to touch her, somewhere, anywhere. She felt the dull ache in her nipples. Another ache rose between her legs as she imagined Teran returning out of the black to possess her.
Do you think I do these things for you? The remembered voice filled her mind. Had she thought that?
She heard the footsteps first, moving toward her, and the sound of Teran taking something down from the wall.
Fingers tapped at the hair sticks, unwinding the bands fastening them around Cailyn’s nipples. A sudden throb of pain rocked her as the blood rushed back into them. She threw back her head and cried out. Teran chuckled.
Something cold and metallic rubbed against her vulva. She winced from the sudden shock of cold, but it was something. She strained to better reach it, but had hardly any room to move at all.
“You like that, don’t you?”
The metal drew away. Cailyn felt something else. Smooth, draping, soft, running along her vulva. Leather? The tails of another flogger?
It pulled away and then hit her skin gently. Cailyn tensed as she braced herself.
Stars exploded in Cailyn’s head as a sudden thud against her groin let her know that she was right. Her vulva lit up with pain. She would have crumpled if not for the bonds holding her up.
Again and again, the leather crashed into her skin, waves of an angry sea. Cailyn gritted her teeth against the pain. I don’t think you’re frightened enough. The words ran through Cailyn’s head as she rode the waves of pain.
The pain vanished, sudden as it had begun. Cailyn sagged. Then the long, thin object moved against her skin again, not so cold now. It ran over her labia and nudged, blunt, at the opening between them. Then it pushed its way inside.