Lady Mirabella frowned.
“It’s most unsightly! And you never told me he was a half-breed, Tikka.”
“No, it’s not!” Lilli objected, frowning at her mother. “It’s part of him, Mother. And I don’t care if he’s a half-breed—I want him!”
“Those eyes, though…” Mistress Mirabella shook her head. “One blue and one gold? So strange…”
“I like his eyes,” Lilli insisted. “I think they’re beautiful.”
“Well…he’s going to be your responsibility,” her mother warned. “You’ll have to bathe him and train him and see that he’s fed. And if your friends laugh at his unusual physique, it will be too late to take him back.”
“I don’t care what any of them think.” Lilli frowned. “They’re not really my friends—they’re just the daughters of your friends, Mother. I never met any of them before last week when you brought me home from the convent.”
“Well…” Mistress Mirabella sighed. “Just as you please, I suppose,” she said. She looked at Mistress Tikka. “How much? We’ll take him.”
Three
Lilli wished she could ride in the back of the ship with her new bodyslave but her mother had said that was “inappropriate” so she had to be content to sit in the front and just catch glimpses of him in the rear-viewer.
Every time the big Kindred caught her watching him, he looked right back at her with an unwavering gaze. Lilli tried to hold his eyes with her own, but she found she couldn’t meet the intensity of his gaze for long and had to look away.
Deep down, she knew this wasn’t proper. A bodyslave wasn’t supposed to look a Mistress in the face. A well-trained one would look down at the ground when addressing a superior female and never, ever look her in the eyes. But Lilli found she liked the boldness of his stare and the way he dared to look at her right in the face. It was like a secret between them—a naughty little mystery that only she could solve.
When her Mother—who normally only visited her at the convent where she had been raised once a month—had come and told Lilli it was time for her to come home to Yonnie Six, she had been worried. And when Lady Mirabella further informed her daughter that she would also be getting her first bodyslave, she was terrified.
But she didn’t feel terrified now, she thought, catching the big Kindred’s mismatched eyes in the rear-viewer once more and then looking quickly away. She felt…intrigued. Interested…curious. Excited, even. Though why she should feel all these positive emotions when she had just purchased the most enormous male she’d ever seen, Lilli didn’t know.
Shouldn’t she be frightened of him? Oh, certainly he had a pain collar on. She stroked the small, finger-sized remote carefully, being very certain not to press the big red pain button at its center. The pain collar should keep her safe. Only somehow, she had the strong feeling she didn’t need to be kept safe from the big Kindred. As huge and as scary-looking as he could be when he was snarling or posing, as he had on the platform, he didn’t seem like he would hurt her.
You think that now, Lilli, whispered a little voice in her head. But what will you think when you have him alone and it’s just the two of you. You know what Mother said—you’re to be responsible for him. And you know she expects you to jump right in and not be shy or “shilly-shally” as she calls it when you drag your feet. You’ll have to at least pretend you know what you’re doing—especially when Mother’s friends and their daughters come over.
Which unfortunately, was going to be tonight—which was one reason Mother had been in such a hurry to buy her a bodyslave.
“We’ll be hosting some of the most important women in all of Opulex,” she’d lectured when Lilli had protested that she didn’t need a bodyslave just yet and would rather not have one. “You must be on your best behavior and you must have a bodyslave. What will our guests think if you don’t?”
Mother herself had five bodyslaves—she’d had six but then she had sent poor Ragnor to work the mines, just because he’d been unable to make his shaft hard before a dinner party one night. Lilli had cried when she’d heard that. Ragnor had always been sweet to her when her mother made her monthly visits to the convent. He used to play dolls with her, even though he was a huge, hulking male, almost—but not quite—as big as her new Kindred.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as big as him—as big as Karn, Lilli thought, glancing at him in the rear-viewer again. This time he winked at her and she found herself blushing as she hastily looked away. Then she berated herself—this would never do—she must not be seen blushing around her own bodyslave. Her mother would be scandalized, especially if it happened out in public or when they had company.