“This is all mine?” she’d asked, tipping her head to look up at the vaulted ceiling, as she stood in the penthouse suite of the enormous building.
“Yes indeed, Mistress Alexa. You are now the sole owner of Trindall Tower.” The Agent was a young woman with sharp green eyes and bright pink hair piled high in a series of elaborate loops atop her head. She wore an elegant black gown that showed both her breasts, which were barely covered by some filmy black netting. Her crotch was similarly on display and she wore sky-high, stilt-like shoes strapped to her narrow feet which made her almost a foot taller than Lexi.
Lexi thought the outfit looked both ridiculous and uncomfortable—not to mention immodest—but she reminded herself that this was how the Yonnites dressed. It was considered a symbol of power and wealth to be able to show off one’s body here.
She herself was wearing a plain green suit with comfortable trousers that had roomy pockets and a neat white shirt. The deep green looked nice against her creamy brown skin and highlighted her dark eyes, she thought.
As for her shoes, they were plain black flats which were comfortable to walk in or to work in. Standing on her feet all day in the bakery, Lexi didn’t own any impractical skyscraper heels like the Estate Agent had strapped to her feet. What use would she have for them? It wasn’t like she ever went out to fancy parties and she certainly couldn’t bake bread effectively if she was so much taller that she had to bend down to knead the dough.
Those shoes must be murder on her back, she thought, eyeing the Agent. But she’s young, so I guess she doesn’t feel it as much as I would.
Not that Lexi was old exactly—but she wasn’t as young as she used to be. And sometimes—especially after a long day of kneading dough and bending and stooping to get the bread pans in and out of the ovens—she really felt her age.
Her green pantsuit was a very respectable outfit—much different from the revealing, clingy dress the Agent wore. Yet she’d caught the other woman looking at her in dismay when they had first met outside the enormous skyscraper that Lexi apparently now owned.
That was just too bad, Lexi thought. She might be fabulously wealthy now, but that didn’t mean she was going to change the way she dressed or acted. Besides, she was curvy, unlike the stick-thin Agent—she wasn’t about to put on anything like the revealing black dress the other woman was wearing. It would show entirely too much and let everyone know that she enjoyed her own baking a bit more than was good for her.
“This entire building is yours, Mistress Alexa,” the Estate Agent told her. “As well as Mistress Granipants’ personal fortune, which she has left to you in its entirety.”
She mentioned a figure that made Lexi’s eyes bulge.
“That much?” she exclaimed.
The Agent nodded smoothly.
“Of course. Mistress Granipants was one of the wealthiest women in all of Opulex. She was a prominent figure here in town—even the Sacred Seven—the ruling body of our world—were willing to hear what she had to say.”
“She sounds like a very influential person,” Lexi said.
“She was.” The Agent nodded eagerly. “Though if you don’t mind me saying so, you look nothing like her, Mistress Alexa,” she added. “She had pale hair and fair skin and very light blue eyes.”
“Just Lexi, please,” Lexi said crisply. “I’m not really a Mistress and I don’t intend to act like one. And if you’re referring to my skin tones, my mother chose to use sperm from a distant planet called ‘Earth’ when she was impregnated with me. I look like some of the inhabitants there.” She made a motion which included her creamy brown skin, long, black hair and dark eyes. “But I assure you, just because I don’t look like the late Mistress Granipants, doesn’t mean we weren’t related—we were. I’m just sorry I never got to know her better.”
Of course, she knew why she hadn’t been better acquainted with her distant relation—Lexi’s mother had disapproved of the Yonnite lifestyle and the way they treated their bodyslaves.
“They buy them and sell them like animals, and shock the life out of them with those horrid pain collars when they’re angry with the poor creatures,” she’d said, shaking her head, her lips thinning down to a white line. “Nobody can deny that males are the inferior sex, but you shouldn’t treat any living creature that way!”
Lexi wholeheartedly agreed with her late mother’s assessment of the Yonnite lifestyle and she was determined not to let her new wealth change her mind about any of it. In fact, she’d pretty much decided that she was going to sell the immense building and give most of the proceeds to some worthy charity…