Ren didn’t believe that; he loved sex. Lived for it. Planned his life around it. Wanted to be a pleasure slave. Of course he’d romanticized it a bit, even in training at the Palace, even with his masters’ warnings about expectations, hopes, errant dreams of love. But his body told him what it wanted. His libido craved to be the pleasure source for whoever might want him. If he found love, that would be better. But sex itself—he’d wanted that. And he’d gotten it at the Palace. Now he was here with twelve other men. He’d agreed to a harem situation. He’d willingly walked into an unknown situation with an anonymous master. So be it.
This was his decision. He needed to be adult about that. He would find his place here, he told himself. There was Li Po. And Cam. And he could ask for things and they’d be delivered to him. He had every movie and book at his disposal. Porn. TV shows. Magazines. News. Music. If he wanted, for example, to paint, he was sure brushes and canvas would be brought. Or video online classes in digital art. Musical instruments might be brought in for them. Or the digital equivalents.
He had not been here long enough to see everything that these men did. What they wished for. What they received. But Cam had assured him they did get wishes granted.
It was a cage. He knew that coming here. It was gilded. It was a tiny world made of light, water, chiffon curtains, huffy beautiful men, and pleasure. He certainly could have done worse.
Lunch was a buffet of sandwich makings. All ingredients fresh and jumping with flavor.
After lunch, Ren had another shower, then applied more antibiotic cream to his brand and his ass. He sat in a soft chair by an open window and gazed out at the fresh lawn and sky. He glanced about, now and again, for Zanti, but never saw him. If the boy was hiding, then good. He should hide. Maybe not show his face for a time.
After a while, Li Po came to him and asked him to play some video games.
Ren followed him to the big screen. No one was around so they commandeered it.
Ren began to relax more. Li Po didn’t try to talk to him. He was just there. As if he knew Ren wanted him to think he was okay. Which Ren was, actually, even if he was annoyed, in pain and struggling a bit.
A noise interrupted their game. They froze and turned at the same time, watching as the door behind the waterfall opened.
Was there another newcomer?
But then Ren saw several white-clad grooms pushing something large on wheels. It was black and huge… took five guys to maneuver.
Li Po met Ren’s questioning gaze with a sideways grin. “Aaron ordered a piano.”
“He did?”
“Six months ago.” He shrugged. “I truly believe he’d given up on it.”
“Wow.”
“Master has one in the music room upstairs where he brings those of us who can sing or play to perform. He has all kinds of musical instruments. But we’ve never thought about having one so big as a piano down here until Aaron ordered it. Well, Master must have said yes.”
This wasn’t any old piano, either, Ren could see. It was a grand piano. A big, sleek monster of large proportions. One groom followed the moving crew, carrying a bench still wrapped in brown packing paper.
Aaron met the movers, bowing his head as they rolled the thing in, walking alongside it, examining it from all sides.
“Do you play?” Li Po asked.
“No. Do you?”
He shook his head.
Ren watched Aaron get his reward. And after last night, it stung. He still kind of hated the guy but couldn’t deny the piano was an elegant piece of work.
Li Po said, “We can ask for things at any time. No question. Master delivers on our requests most of the time, unless you ask for something completely outrageous. One time Calder asked for a dog, specifically a weenie dog, and that never came, though.”
“We could get a ping pong table. Or air hockey. Or a bowling lane,” Ren suggested.
Li Po chuckled. “We had the first two. After a couple months, they sat dormant. They were removed. We can ask for them back at any time. They’re probably in storage somewhere on the property.”
“Hmm. Master doesn’t like clutter.”
“No. If we don’t use it, after a while we lose it. It’s that simple.”
“But what if we want to be like Master and collect stuff?”
“Like what?” Li Po asked.
Ren shrugged. “Rocks. Or ceramic dragons. Or comic books.”
Li Po glanced about them. “Nowhere to put it all. You could have one of those things you mentioned. One rock. One dragon. The comic book he’d deliver to you digitally, though. But the other stuff, you could keep one by your bed in your alcove. But Master doesn’t allow us to accumulate what he calls junk.”
Ren watched the men place the piano in a ray of light by one of the windows. They turned it and turned it, looking for the best position.
“Master’s a collector. He wouldn’t call what he collects junk,” Ren said.
Li Po leaned back, scratching his chest. “Yeeeeah. The world isn’t fair, is it?”
“True.” Elbows on his knees, Ren maintained an eye on Aaron who kept circling the piano, and who seemed impatient that the groom unwrapping the bench was moving too slowly.
The lid over the keys was lifted. The bigger lid went up exposing the strings. When everything was in place, Aaron finally sat at the bench. For a minute, he just stared at the keys as if they were the most beautiful creatures he’d ever seen. The sunlight from the window streamed onto his face and fair hair, and his aura was a transparent gold. Aaron was tall, broad-shouldered, but the piano nearly dwarfed him. He looked like a little prince, all golden and pure, ready to play his first recital… albeit naked.
The first chord struck. It seemed to fill the room with the resonance of a storm. The next chord brought the wind. The next brought rain. And then Aaron played the keys with a furious, quick pace as if the world was ending, everything breaking, everything needing to find a new place, a new path.
Ren felt his breath stall in his lungs. Then his chest heaved. Li Po nodded at him, eyebrows raised. “He’s good.”
Ren swallowed hard, the notes swirling about him, getting into his head. He offered a reluctant, “Yeah.” Then touched the bruises on his shoulder as he continued to watch Aaron conquer the new instrument. Tears came to his eyes. They weren’t from pain. More like awe.
And he knew he’d barely begun to know any of these men here in Master’s harem.
Chapter Sixteen
Rain
It had been raining for three days and Aaron played the storm, reflecting all its tones, plinks and crashes, the wind in the eaves, the rattling of panes.
Master had not called on any of them since Ren’s night wearing the mask and the cock cage.
He was completely healed from that night. The brand on his chest was better, too, reduced to ugly scabs and flaking skin. It no longer pained him.
Zanti had made himself scarce. Barely seen. He came for food now and again, taking it away and eating it in his alcove.
Ren stood by an open window letting gales of air and water batter him, inhaling the tart scent of rain water, and wondered why they did not have a yard to play in. Even the worst of prisons had outdoor areas. Ren would have liked to feel the wind in his hair from more than an open window. Maybe he could request a yard. With a garden. And a gazebo with twinkle lights. And lawn chairs and a fire pit and sticks for hot dogs and the makings for s’mores.
Maybe he would see Cam about all of that. Put in an order. A list of requests. See what turned up in a year or two. He wondered if others had ever asked about a yard.
One day ago, Ren decided to start a routine for himself. The treadmill for half an hour. Light weights. Then a swim. His was healed enough now so his brand could take more than water from a quick shower.
Over the last few days, he had watched some of the fucking going on and began again to feel a hint of yearning there. He noted who partnered up the most with whom. Dark-haired Jaxon preferr
ed the fairness of Calder. Torrance and Seth, the twins, always stuck together, but liked a third or fourth when they got horny for more. Still, it was hot watching the two of them, mirror images, make out together. And they did. All the time.
Aiden and Finn often paired up. Li Po often joined Cam, but Zanti stayed to himself, which concerned Ren and in turn made him feel weird because he still did not like that feral-charged guy who never spoke, and who had treated him so brutally as if by choice. It was hard for him to understand why the others tolerated him, for beautiful as Zanti was, he behaved like an errant child, often making faces at the others, scowling, stomping about. Li Po said Zanti did not use sign language because he didn’t want to talk at all, not even that way. He wasn’t deaf, so he didn’t need others to sign to him. He was a weird guy. He could make noise. Squeal. Groan. Li Po had said early on that Zanti’s refusal to speak was a deeper issue and no one except maybe Cam knew the truth as to why.
But that didn’t make Ren feel softer toward him at all even after Li Po had said that Ren was the first to make him come.
The other three men, Tomo and Michael and Aaron, were also more loners. But they sometimes joined in group sex, and Ren had seen them with the twins several times. And of course, he’d seen Li Po and Aaron together one time. But these past days, Aaron seemed to be more interested in making love to his grand piano.
The first invitation Ren got to join in a group sex marathon came during the third day of the storm.
Rain lashed the window panes. Wind pulsed about the mansion. The air had an ionic charge to it. Everyone’s auras spit and twisted in purples and blues. Everyone’s except Zanti’s which, when Ren did spot him, still twisted blackly about him.
Ren was wound up and restless from pretending not to watch the twins blow each other on one of the couches across the pool.
Li Po and Calder approached him. Jaxon stayed back a little.
It was Li Po who made the first move. He shrugged a little, not shy but unsure because even though he and Ren hung out playing games, they had never even touched.
“Want to play for a bit?”
Ren sat by the open window, feeling the cold breeze across his shoulders, his body covered in goose bumps. His cock cringed against his balls for warmth, but Ren didn’t care. He liked the cold. But now he was ready for some warmth. Something steamier. Maybe a little kindness if not downright comfort. As long as Zanti and Aaron weren’t involved, he found himself interested. Although Zanti made him wistful still, and confused.
He suspected Master watched their antics through his hidden cameras. They could never know when they were being watched, but if Ren hoped to gain more of Master’s attention, playing would help.
“All right.” Ren sat forward. His hair was damp in the back from the rain coming through the window.
Li Po’s face froze in a moment of shock, his features sinking into him a little, his mouth slightly open. Then he lit up with a wide smile, blinking fast, cheeks flushed. “I was hoping!” He held out his hand.
Ren reached up. Li Po’s palm was warm and Ren felt their connection instantly in his blood. It warmed him. Little fires prickled at the base of his spine. Li Po’s fingers wrapped around Ren’s hand and he gave a tug. Ren came to his feet, casually noting Li Po’s cock jerk once, then begin to lengthen. Little pink trails of light began to flash against Li Po’s skin.
Good. Ren hadn’t lost his talent yet. He would know exactly how to bring this man to the pinnacle of ecstasy and drop him joyfully into it. And because he liked Li Po, he might possibly join him there with a minimum of effort.
Before Ren could even blink, Li Po leaned forward and hugged him. “Sweet,” the man whispered in his ear.
Ren realized that he’d never asked Li Po the obvious questions even though they’d spoken the most. How long had he been here? He knew Li Po spoke a lot of languages, but did he have other hidden talents?
There was a long couch by the waterfall, half of it with a back, half without, and that was where Li Po led Ren, with Calder and Jaxon following. The part of the couch without the back was wider, and big enough for four men to sit together in a circle, and even lie down. The cushions were thick and soft, and had white coverings which the cleaning crew changed every day.
As they all sat, it turned out they positioned themselves with Ren more in the center, the others flanking him, staring at him.
Ren said, “I’m sure you’ve all heard of my talent by now and want to see for yourselves what I can do.”
Li Po shook his head. “You’re our guest.” He touched Ren gently on the shoulder. “Please? Will you lie back?”
Ren had not expected this. Even at the Palace, everyone had wanted his hands on them, his ministrations, his caresses, kisses, massages and more. They didn’t know why they wanted it so much more than with others, except that he was gifted in the art of bringing on the best orgasms. His test subjects had all gossiped and raved.
Here, though, the men knew. Even if Zanti couldn’t or wouldn’t talk, Aaron talked. Finn and Aiden had seen how Ren had made Zanti even crazier than the guy really was.
Ren hesitated. “Don’t you want to test my abilities?”
“We do,” Li Po replied, smiling over him, pushing gently. “But later. First, as I said, you’re the guest. And guests deserve a certain initiation. That is, if they want it. Do you?”
Ren looked into Li Po’s amazingly expressive eyes and said, “I do.” And let himself be positioned until he was lying on his back, legs slightly spread.
Hands began to roam over his shoulders, chest and legs. Tender and warm. He let these men take him flying.
Li Po was at his shoulder, bending low, and his scent was like the beach, all frothy and spiced with salt wind. He ran his fingers through Ren’s braids—braids he’d kept after his night in the mask. Li Po paused to trace the curve of one ear, his fingertips sliding over it and to his jaw. Li Po touched Ren’s eyelashes, leaned down as Ren closed them and kissed his lids with so-soft lips. Li Po’s breath was hot, like a sudden blaze of summer.
When Li Po reached Ren’s own lips, the kiss so kind and tender that Ren broke open a little. His eyelids fluttered. Yes, thank you. He was glad Li Po was his first real kiss in the harem. So friendly. He wanted that man in his arms but he waited. He was their victim for the moment, their prize. Or perhaps they were all his prize, for none of them appeared right now to have anything on their minds but seeing to Ren’s own rising lust.
Ren’s mouth parted. Li Po’s gentle tongue pressed the insides of his lips, nothing more. No demands. Just stroking and petting, as if he was a fine acquisition, maybe even beloved. Like a pet.
Calder ran his palms up and down Ren’s chest, massaging the pecs and nipples, working the ribs. He was reverent and calm as he did this, focused.
Jaxon caressed Ren’s spread thighs, fingertips delving along the delicate skin of the inner part of his leg where Ren was very sensitive. How did they know? It was driving him crazy.
His cock had risen of its own accord. The air wafted across the tip, a cool draft, letting him know it was already wet.
They treated him like art, making a slow and thorough process of their creation, taking their time, making every part of him whole, special, loved. Jaxon caressed him down to his toes. Calder made circles that encompassed the tender areas under his arms. Li Po had graduated to kissing his throat, making his whole body more sensitive than ever.
Another might glance at them and only see sex and four men and unified arousal. But it was all built on a precious extension of energy that took its time to sink through Ren’s skin and suffuse him in white light. For white was what he saw when he felt pleasure, as if his own aura was absent of all the colors he saw on others. As if he were missing the thing his own touches sought. Yet he wasn’t unsatisfied. His orgasms always blossomed through his whole body. His own ecstasy often startled him, and that amazing drug was what had propelled him to want to be owned this way, claimed, a slave for life. But
to a master who might love him—well, his hopes had been too high.
These men were powerful substitutes. How could he be disappointed?
He was not.
And oh how they knew what they were doing.
The rain battered the outside walls of the atrium. Millions of tiny drum-puff sounds all around him. The touches all over his body drummed a similar pulse inside him, his veins humming with heat, his vision blurred, his eardrums filling up with a sound from within his head that might be like a cat’s purr, only wasn’t. It was brain and mind locking onto a distant planet called Bliss, and the storms there were made of euphoria, wet and warm and sucking at his every cell.
This was the dance and the origin of awe: life, birth, death, over and over.
Ren didn’t think he would have wanted to become a slave to pleasure if he had not recognized this about the sexual act, about lovemaking and orgasms. It was spiritual to him, like a religion. He couldn’t stop it. How it took him over. How he wanted it more the more he had.
Sell himself to pleasure slavery? He would have paid to become a slave!
Li Po came back to his lips and the kiss liquefied his insides, the tongue soft and probing, entering him like the sweetest liqueur. Calder began to lick at his nipples now. Jaxon kissed up and down the insides of his thighs. Their hands followed their tongues. They massaged, caressed, stroked.
No one touched him yet on his cock or balls. They did not turn him over, but they did lift his limbs, and position him into a more vulnerable stance so that the backs of his arms and legs were exposed and touched, and the place where his thighs met his buttocks was revealed. They spread him so his crack opened and he could feel the cool air on his hole.
The rain sounds mixed with the waterfall’s constant plunge. Water and wind. Those were Ren’s totems. And of course hands and lips and tongues.
Li Po pulled back and his hair was like a dark rain around both their faces as he looked down at Ren. “I would like to taste further of you,” he whispered.
The Slave Harem: A Kingdom of Slaves Book Page 13