Chained (Brides of the Kindred) (16 page)

“I believe we have a friend in common,”
Lady Ponce’beast announced. “Manda Sha’rak? Don’t the two of you head of the
Opulex Social Standing committee?”

“Oh, we…” Maggie cleared her throat. “Yes.
Yes, I guess we do.”

“Dear Manda.” Lady Ponce’beast sighed and
ran one hand over her crooked wig. “We went to Cheslton together as girls. I
was hoping to see her here but her plans changed at the last minute.”

Maggie swallowed hard—apparently they’d
had a narrow escape! Thank goodness this Lady Sha’rak person who actually knew
Lady Pope’nose wasn’t here! “Oh, what a shame,” she managed to say.

“Yes, she’s the sweetest thing,” “Lady
Ponce’beast went on. “Even if she
is
a bit too lenient on her slaves. A
trait I didn’t think
you
would share with her—your reputation as a
strict disciplinarian precedes you, you know, Lady Pope’nose.”

“It does?” Maggie asked weakly. “I mean,
yes—of course it does.”

Lady Ponce’beast frowned. “Then
why
is
your slave not even wearing a pain collar?”

“He
does
have one, back at the
room,” Maggie improvised quickly. “I, uh, left it off him tonight because it’s,
uh…it’s charging.”

“Charging?” Lady Ponce’beast raised one
perfectly plucked eyebrow at her. “I am afraid I don’t understand. The collar
has to charge up before you can use it?”

“It’s…a new kind,” Maggie said. “I can’t
help noticing that
your
slave has a
lovely
collar,” she went on,
hoping to change the subject.

“It’s adequate. I’m still looking for
something with a little more power.” Lady Ponce’beast turned to her slave.
“Another,” she snapped motioning to the small gold plate filled with delicacies
which he held before her. “And make sure it’s ripe this time.”

“Yes, Mistress,” the miserable looking slave
murmured dully. Plucking a tiny bright orange berry from the center of the
plate, he slipped it into her mouth.

“Mmm.” Lady Ponce’beast chewed the berry,
rolling it round in her mouth and smacking her thick lips before nodding
approvingly. “Better—you continue to improve. If you do half as well during the
Pleasuring you may even earn your dinner back.” She turned back to Maggie. “He
gave me an unripe bitter-berry last night—just imagine! I told him he wasn’t to
eat or drink a thing until tonight to make sure he learned a lesson.”

“Shocking,” Maggie agreed but inside she
was thinking what a horrible woman Lady Ponce’beast was. No wonder her slave
looked listless and dull—the poor thing was probably starving
. I don’t feel
nearly as bad for pulling off her wig now,
she thought.
Why, she
— Then
the full impact of what Lady Ponce’beast had said sunk in.

“Excuse me,” she said. “But this is my
first time here. Did you say ‘the Pleasuring?’”

“Of course.” Lady Ponce’beast smiled.
“It’s just a little tradition we have here at the spa. You know, the Sensorians
feed on emotions and since they provide such lovely banquets for us each night,
we try to return the favor.”

Maggie’s throat felt dry. “But what
exactly…uh, is involved?”

“Well, just what you’d imagine. You let
your slave pleasure you. It
does
feel rather naughty to be doing it all
out in the open with so many strangers around.” Lady Ponce’beast gave a
surprisingly girlish giggle. “But you know, it’s tradition here at the
Lo’thian
spa so…”

“Um, yes.” Maggie cleared her throat. “I
can see how letting your slave, uh, pleasure you would be an, um, important
tradition.”

Lady Ponce’beast frowned at her. “Speaking
of the pleasuring, are you certain you’re dressed for it? Your dress covers
much too much—your slave needs to have access to bare flesh in order to
pleasure you properly.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Maggie blurted. “I mean,
he does?”

Lady Ponce’beast gave her a superior
smile. “Yes, my dear, unless he’s perfected some new technique that can make
you come without touching your bare skin directly.” She giggled again. “In
which case, send him my way and let him teach
my
slave a thing or two.
He’s
hopeless.
I swear I have to activate his pain collar every other
time he tries to pleasure me.”

“Oh, uh…” Maggie didn’t know what to say
about that. Fortunately, just at that moment, Kor slipped another square red
fruit into her mouth.

“Don’t worry about it,” he murmured as her
mouth filled with the sweet, buttery juice.

Maggie looked at him with wide eyes. How
could she
not
worry about it? Was she really expected to take off her
clothes and let Kor do whatever he could to give her an orgasm right here in
this huge public banquet hall? And even if they weren’t in public, she couldn’t
let him. True, she’d told herself she would do whatever she had to in order to
get out of here. But there was no way that Donald would buy it. Maggie could
just see herself trying to explain…

“I didn’t really
cheat on you honey. I had to let the huge, super hot alien guy I happened to
rescue touch me all over and make me come because everyone else was doing it
with their slaves.”

Right. That would go over like a lead
balloon. So then what—

“Don’t worry about the Pleasuring,” the
lady to Maggie’s other side said. “Oh, I’m Misla Gin’gin,” she went on,
introducing herself. She appeared to be closer to Maggie’s age with a slim,
girlish figure and brown hair with light blue streaks. Her dress was powder
blue and made of some soft, feathery stuff that barely covered her breasts and
left her mostly bare from the waist down. The slave standing by her side
appeared to be considerably happier than Lady Ponce’beast’s downtrodden
companion.

“Nola Pope’nose,” Maggie said
automatically. At least she was remembering her fake name all right.

“Nice to meet you.” Lady Gin’gin smiled.
“As I was saying, don’t worry about the Pleasuring.”

“Why?” Maggie asked. “Don’t I, uh, have to
participate if I don’t want to?”

“What? Oh, no! No, you
have
to
participate.” Lady Gin’gin looked a little shocked at the idea of
nonparticipation. “I just meant don’t worry about the
huge
emphasis they
place on your slave actually making you come.”

“They do?” Maggie was feeling worse rather
than better.

“Uh-huh.” The other lady nodded. “But the
Sensorians understand it’s not always possible. I mean, sometimes you’re just
not in the mood—right? Or your slave’s technique just isn’t up to par.” She
shrugged. “So it’s enough for them if your slave puts on a good show. I’ll tell
you my secret…” She leaned forward on her lounge and whispered to Maggie. “Make
sure your slave licks you for a nice long time—they always get good emotions
from that. And then, even if you don’t come, they won’t mind.”

“Have…have him lick…?” Maggie’s stomach
was doing a slow forward roll. “I don’t think…”

“Oh look, it’s almost time now!” Lady
Gin’gin gestured to the center of the banquet hall where a tall, pale Sensorian
was standing and raising his arms for silence. All around the room the gathered
groups fell quiet.

“Ladies and Mistresses,” the Sensorian
intoned in his high, bird-like voice. “It is our pleasure and privilege to have
you all here tonight at our Grand Banquet. As the Master of the
Lo’thian
spa,
I sincerely hope you are enjoying all our facilities including the Dreaming
Wood and our famous Remembrance Pool.”

There was a smattering of polite applause
and several of the ladies called encouragement.

“Thank you. Thank you.” The Master of the
spa bowed several times in all directions. “And now we would like to invite you
to participate in our Pleasuring time. As you do, my fellow Sensorians will be
passing among you. Please pay them no heed—unless, of course, you or your slave
needs something to make your Pleasuring more complete, in which case please
don’t hesitate to ask. Thank you and that is all.”

He bowed once more and stepped away from
the middle of the floor.

“All right. Here we go.” Lady Ponce’beast,
on her right, was shucking off the top of her bright purple gown to reveal
improbably large breasts and nipples almost the same color as her dress.
“Well,” she said to her slave. “What are you waiting for? Get to it!”

“Oh dear, it’s always so embarrassing.”
Lady Gin’gin was giggling as she slipped the pale blue feathery dress down. “Go
on, Dawson,” she murmured to her slave. “Do your best.”

Looking around, Maggie saw similar
performances being enacted around the room. Everywhere half naked mistresses
were writhing on their chaise lounges while their slaves touched, stroked and
yes, licked them. At the same time, scores of the pale Sensorians were
wandering around the room. Maggie noticed that when one of them found what he
or she considered to be a particularly pleasing couple, they stopped and stood
nearby, their skin slowly turning darker and darker pink as they absorbed the
pleasurable emotions.

“Mistress?” Suddenly Kor was by her side.
“I think we’d better—”

“Go. We have to go,” Maggie hissed at him.
“I can’t do this! Can’t let you do this to me! I mean, what will I tell Donald?
What—?”

“Is there a problem?” Suddenly the master
of the spa himself was standing over them, glaring down at Maggie. “Do you not
enjoy the services we provide here at the
Lo’thian
spa, mistress?” he
questioned her. “Do you not believe we deserve your pleasure in return?”

“Oh…I…” Maggie felt frozen. More than
anything else, this reminded her of the time Donald had taken her to a very
expensive French restaurant,
Le Peep,
for their fourth anniversary. In
fact, it was much more expensive than he’d thought when he booked the
reservation and he had decided not to leave a tip. Maggie had argued with him
but he was adamant and he didn’t want to let her leave one either. Before they
could go, though, the maitre d had cornered them and asked if the food or service
was inadequate in some way.

When Donald had gone into a cost analysis
of how much the meal
should
have been priced at based on the quality of
the ingredients and the number of kitchen and serving staff, Maggie had been
mortified. Over Donald’s objections, she had quickly promised to pay the tip
herself just to get out of there and had never darkened the doorways of
Le
Peep
again.

But I can’t offer to
pay up now,
she thought wildly.
I
mean, what am I supposed to do? Pull off my dress, flop over like a fish and
order Kor to service me like Lady Ponce’Beast over there?

Apparently that was
exactly
what
she was supposed to do. But as the master of the spa glared at her, Maggie
still found herself completely frozen.

“I…I’m sorry,” she finally managed to say.
“But I can’t…I’ve never…”

“What my lady is saying is that she has
never been to your fine establishment before,” Kor cut in smoothly, speaking to
the angry Sensorian. “She is a little shy about making public displays, that’s
all.”

“But she must.” The master of the spa
frowned. “It is an insult to all of us here who work so hard to refuse to take
part in the Pleasuring.”

“My lady simply needs a little coaxing,” Kor
said. “Never fear, Master—I will pleasure her well and properly before the
allotted time is up.”

The master of the spa looked somewhat
mollified. “See that you do. I will go and inspect some of the other rondulas.
When I return—”

“You will find my lady experiencing
pleasure such as she never has before,” Kor promised. “I am well trained in
every techinque.”

“Very well.” The master nodded and stepped
away, leaving them alone—or as alone as they could be in the middle of what was
rapidly becoming an orgy as far as Maggie could see.

“Kor,” she whispered, shaking her head. “Kor,
I can’t…can’t take off my clothes and let you…I mean it was one thing when you
kissed my…kissed me there.” She nodded between her tightly shut legs. “But this
is different. I mean, if I take off my clothes and let you…let you…that’s
cheating.
There’s no other way to think of it.”

“So that’s the main problem—you don’t want
to be bare?” he murmured, tracing the scalloped edge of the white lace dress as
it ran along her collarbone.

“Exactly.” Maggie nodded. “I mean I just
can’t—”

“Then you don’t have to,” he interrupted
her.

Maggie looked at him blankly. “Don’t have
to what?”

“You don’t have to take off your clothes.”

“I…don’t?” Maggie looked around at all the
other half naked mistresses. “But I thought I had to be naked and let you, um,
touch me.”

“Oh, I still have to touch you,” Kor
growled softly. “But you don’t have to take off your clothes for me to bring
you pleasure.”

Maggie shook her head. “I’m not sure I
follow.”

“I’ll show you.” He leaned forward but she
shrank back against the chaise lounge, uncertain of what he was about to do.

“Relax, blondie,” he murmured, stroking
her cheek. “Just relax and trust me—all right?”