“Oh, do you like my bathing chamber?” Lilli asked shyly. “It’s so much different from the bathroom I used to share with the other girls at the convent.”
Karn frowned.
“You lived in a convent?” He’d heard Lady Mirabella saying something along that line, but he wasn’t sure he’d understood her correctly.
Lilli nodded her head.
“Oh, yes. Mother had me raised there after she gave birth. In fact, she had me brought right from the birthing and conception center to the convent. She said she didn’t have time for children.”
“That seems kind of harsh,” Karn remarked. His own mother had been warm and loving and he felt sorry for the girl for not having had that.
“Oh, no.” Lilli shook her head quickly, her golden ringlets rippling fetchingly. “She visited me once a month, you know, which was more than some of the other girls got to see their parents. She’s just always been so busy with her business, you see.”
Then she blushed, her cheeks going rosy and looked down at her hands.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Karn started to lift her chin so she would meet his eyes but remembered at the last minute he wasn’t supposed to be able to touch her. Damn.
Instead, he leaned down to get their faces on the same level.
“What is it, little Mistress?” he asked gently.
“Oh, it’s just that…I shouldn’t be talking private business to you.” She sounded ashamed, as though she had broken some very important rule. Her big brown eyes darted up to meet his and then darted away again. “A Mistress shouldn’t talk to her bodyslave at all, except to give him orders and commands. And she ought to require his silence unless he’s answering a direct question.”
“Well, that sounds like a boring relationship,” Karn said frankly. “I thought you wanted a bodyslave you could talk to.”
“What?” Her eyes flew up to his again and this time she didn’t look away. “What would give you that idea?”
“Well, you bought a Kindred,” Karn pointed out. “We like to talk to a female and listen to her talk back. It’s part of the way we get to know our Mistress—to understand her wants and needs.”
“You…you do?” Lilli looked at him uncertainly.
“Sure, we do,” Karn rumbled, giving her a charming smile. “Because the better I know you, little Mistress, the better I can protect and guard you. So you see, it’s for your own safety that I want to talk to you.”
“Well…” Lilli nibbled her lush bottom lip. “When you put it that way…I guess it makes sense.”
“Sure it does,” Karn agreed, smiling. “Of course, we’ll only talk this way when it’s just you and me,” he added quickly. “I don’t think your mother would approve if she knew you were talking to your bodyslave.”
“No, she certainly wouldn’t,” Lilli agreed fervently. “She never talks to hers except to order them all around.” She gave Karn a tentative smile. “But I like the idea of only talking when we’re alone. It’s like…our little secret.”
“Yes, exactly.” Karn nodded. And if she was willing to share one secret with him, hopefully she’d be willing to share more. Like the secret of how to get into her mother’s files—wherever they were. He would have to try and get out and prowl around tonight to see if he could find them.
But for now they had to get ready for the fancy dinner party her mother apparently had planned so she could show off her new bodyslave—which was him.
Six
Lilli liked the way her new bodyslave talked to her. Karn seemed warm and sympathetic and she liked the idea of the two of them getting to know each other better. Still, as nice as he seemed, she was afraid things were about to get awkward.
“I…I’m afraid I’m supposed to wash you now,” she said, biting her lip as she looked up at him. “I hope you don’t mind?”
“I don’t,” Karn said simply, smiling at her.
There was something so disarming in that charming, lopsided grin of his, Lilli thought as she looked up at him. It showed his right fang and the corners of his eyes crinkled, so that she could see the smile in his eyes as well as his mouth.
“Well…good,” she said briskly, trying to act more like a Mistress and less like a scared little girl. “Then let’s get started.”
“As you wish, Little Mistress,” Karn rumbled, nodding his head submissively. “But…”
“But what?” Lilli asked, frowning.
“Well, I’m all ready to get wet.” He nodded down at his massive, muscular, nude body. “But are you coming in the shower with me? If you are, I’m afraid you’ll ruin your gown.”
“Oh…” Lilli looked down at herself with a frown. The Kindred had a point. She was wearing a fetching dusty-rose gown which she didn’t want to ruin.
Well, she thought it was fetching, anyway. Her mother had sniffed and called it “dowdy” because it didn’t show enough skin. But that was the exact reason Lilli liked it and she didn’t want to get watermarks on the delicate Dresdian silk it was made of.