“If you did. I serve to please you.”
“I want your honest opinion, Mrs. Pennington.”
She eyed him warily. “And if I did not, you mean to subject me to its repetition?”
“No. We have not enough hours this evening for that. But let us start with the first part. Did you enjoy being my pet?”
She considered it for a moment. She could do without the crawling as the hard wooden floors were not friendly toward her knees, but she liked the aspect that she was his to possess.
“I did, Master Ashley.”
“What of your wanton display of nakedness? Did you enjoy presenting yourself an object to feed the lust of others?”
“I came to tolerate it.”
“Did it not please you to know that your body aroused and titillated?”
“Did it?”
She found he was staring at her rather intensely. His gaze dropped from her countenance to her bosom. He cradled a breast, nearly as gently as Miss Cecilia had.
“I am surprised you did not note the lust that came into the faces of those who beheld you,” he said as he studied with admiration the breast he held.
“Your reaction was the only one that concerned me, Master.”
He released her breast and looked into her eyes. “You know all the proper responses for a submissive.”
She returned his stare. “I did say I was the right submissive for you, Master Ashley.”
A muscle rippled along his jaw. He took a step back. “And what of Miss Cecilia? How did you enjoy her?”
“As well as she could be enjoyed.”
“That is an answer that serves as no answer.”
“I am not accustomed to enjoying others of my sex. I have not Sapphic predilections.”
“You enjoy the shape and look of your sex?”
“Naturally.”
“You can find the painting of a nude woman to be pleasing, arousing even?”
“Yes.”
“Then, is it so very hard to imagine being with one of your own?”
“It is not…natural.”
“Is anything we do at the Red Chrysanthemum natural? Is it not more compelling by its very taboo nature, its deviance and naughtiness?”
Heat swirled in her belly as she considered the truth of what he said. There was even titillation in being made to do that which she would not have chosen of her own accord, especially as it had clearly aroused him. She remembered the molten gleam in his eyes after she had brought Miss Cecilia to spend.
Stepping back toward her, he reached between her thighs, where moisture still clung. She purred when his fingers grazed her folds. “I think you enjoyed Miss Cecilia more than you expected. How did she feel to the touch?”
“Soft.”
“Was she lovely to you?”