73. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
S teele
I hate to leave the females alone, especially with Allura feeling so vulnerable, but I want to get something special for Zoey. I won’t be gone long. In the few minimas since we entered the fair, I’ve seen a dozen things my mate will love. I’ll find something fabulous, then call Zoey on her wrist-comm and meet back up with them.
Since she’s often cold in the common areas of the Fool , I pick a pink sweater for her. I love her in pink.
But that’s not enough. I’ve been around the Earth females enough to know this is a big holiday for them. Although Zoey would never ask for anything, much less demand more than one present, I want to find something else.
Things have been so strained between us lately. Not only was last night disastrous, but I think she was crying in the refresher earlier when she took a shower. Of course she’s sad, her mate doesn’t know how to please her.
I’m told Shadow used to be a playboy before his parents sold him into slavery. I’ve heard snatches of him talking about his techniques and prowess. And then there’s Petra, his mate, who is not shy at all about announcing how skilled he is in bed. I asked a few questions of the other males lunars ago, but perhaps I didn’t ask the right person. When we get back on the Fool , I’m going to swallow my pride, pull him aside, and ask him to tell me what I’m doing wrong.
There must be something I don’t know. Last night, I could swear I was doing everything right. She was panting and moaning. Those things can be imitated. But her xyzca was drenched, the scent of arousal was so thick I could taste it on my tongue. You can’t fake biology. And the pleasured groan she made when I slid into her? The way she threw her head back in enjoyment? Could she have pretended that?
I clear my throat and keep walking as I remind myself she also didn’t fake her tears, or the bitter regret she experienced.
A shop catches my eye and I stop in my tracks, trying to figure out if I’m seeing correctly. I quit walking so abruptly a tall, scraggly Thracian bumps into me from behind and mumbles, “ Dracking tourists from Anderon.”
My eyes didn’t deceive me. I’m seeing what must be over a hundred plas penises of every color in the rainbow prominently displayed in a nearby booth. I’ve seen such things in the sex sectors of planet Numa, but am surprised to see them here.
“See something you like?” A female voice calls from the booth.
I can’t see who is talking. I’m embarrassed and move in another direction.
“Hey! Anderon!”
Drack , she’s calling me. Am I imagining something or is she speaking Earther?
I turn, and in the penis booth is an Earther about Zoey’s size. She’s waving her arm, motioning me over.
I consider hurrying in another direction, but opt for the friendly alternative. I stand where I am and glance at her.
“Hi! Funny, I haven’t seen many from your planet, but I was just talking to a female a few days ago who is mated to someone from Anderon. Welcome to Fairea,” she says with a wide smile.
“Hello,” I respond curtly. Is this some sales tactic? Why would she entice me into her booth? I have no need for an extra cock, I’m happy with the one I have.
“I’m Emily.”
Is she wanting to exchange introductions?
“I’m not interested in your wares, Emily.”
“Nothing wrong with being friendly, right?” she asks.
“Hello, I’m Steele, but I’m in a hurry to buy my mate a present.”
“Hey, Steele. I met a lovely human a few days ago named Zoey. Know her?”
I look from the human to her dildos and suddenly make the connection to the pink vibrator I found in our bed.
“Zoey is my mate,” I reply crisply. This female sold my mate a sex toy? Does she know the full extent of my disgrace? A molten streak of hot lava flows from my cheeks to my stomach. What did my mate tell this total stranger? And is this one of the humans Zoey invited to our Blessed Peace Day Meal? Will I have to sit across the table from her and pretend she doesn’t know my most intimate shame?
“I make the best cup of tea on planet Fairea. Come into my little shop.” She uses that beckoning motion again as she walks from the booth into the little attached wooden structure that butts up to the rear of the shop.
The moment I step behind one of her display tables, thick plas-film shutters down, covering all three exposed walls, effectively shutting the booth down. I follow her into the small shack at the back of the booth. It’s dim and filled with molds and bottles of dye and mechanical contraptions in various stages of construction.
“I can tell you’re uncomfortable, Steele. I just wanted to know how you two are doing. Zoey loves you so much. Don’t feel bad that she asked for my help. She just felt so terrible, you know, like she was the worst mate in the galaxy.”
“Zoey?” My mouth is so dry I barely force the word out of my mouth. “A bad mate? How did you get that impression?” I don’t say the rest of the sentence, which is that I’m the bad mate.
“She told me she has trouble in the bedroom and she feels like an unloveable failure.”
I’m so surprised I think long moments pass before my thoughts come back online. “She feels like a failure?” I ask. Surely I heard her wrong.
We discuss for long minimas as I hear for the first time the thoughts and feelings my mate must have been harboring for annums . The information hits with such force I can barely think. I look down to realize I’ve cupped a palm over my mouth to hide my emotions. It’s just too much to take in.
“You didn’t know any of this?” she asks softly as she pours me a second cup of tea. I don’t recall drinking the first cup.
“No. For the past two annums , I thought the shame was all mine.” It feels like a hard rock has formed in the pit of my stomach.
To add to my humiliation, her mate chooses this moment to enter through a rear door of the structure. He’s a large purple male. His mate mentioned he is from Zinn. I’ve heard of their race but have never met one. I was told they were an isolated bunch who didn’t leave their planet. Evidently, they do, because Emily tells me there are three of them here.
After introductions, Emily asks, “Steele, do you mind if I fill my mate in on your predicament?” Her tone is soft and concerned, but the idea of laying out all of my inadequacies is too much to bear.
I stand so quickly my chair tumbles backward. My body stiff as a tree, I say, “Yes. Yes, I do mind. My problems are not for public display. They’re personal.”
I turn to leave. Never have I felt like less of a male. Which is saying a lot. Having been a gladiator-slave for decades, I’ve been put through many humiliations.
“Steele!” she calls.
Perhaps because my emotions are rolling through me like the churning waters at the base of a waterfall, I’m not moving as fast as I would like, because she’s already risen and stepped in front of me to block my path. Really? This little Earther thinks she can stop a Anderonian gladiator?
“Steele, we have a saying on Earth. ‘Desperate times call for desperate measures’. Zoey was desperate the day I met her. I think you are, too.”
I stand still, my muscles so tight they’ve seized up.
She’s right. I am desperate. I recall Zoey’s face last night in the shower. It was as if she was so unhappy she’d left her body. And the cries she thought she’d smothered today in the refresher? I heard them.
I was ready to ask Shadow for help, and I have to live with him every day. Maybe asking these two people who deal with sexual matters for a living might not be the worst idea.
I slowly turn, sink into my chair, and cup my face in my palm.
Trev and Emily are sitting quietly on the other side of the table as if they have all day to wait for me to speak. While they’re waiting, Emily refills my cup once more.
“I’m doing something wrong,” I begin.
Over the next few minimas , with their probing questions, I tell them everything. At least everything I know to tell. I can’t tell them Zoey’s side. Is it only now, after two annums as a mated couple, that I realize we’ve never talked about it dispassionately like this? The topic is too fraught with emotion.
The room is silent for long moments after all the questions have been asked. I got over my embarrassment long minimas ago, because I’m now looking from one to the other, waiting for the magical solution.
“One thing is certain,” Emily says, “having met you both, I know you love each other as much as two people possibly can.”
It’s good to have her confirm that. At this point, I’m afraid to take anything for granted.
“I think it’s her upbringing,” Emily pronounces.
“What about it?”
“The whole KKK thing.”
“Kay Kay Kay?” I tilt my head. “Is this a relative’s name?”
When her breath heaves out in a sigh, I realize I missed something important.
“She honestly never told you about her family?”
“She said her family was strict. Considered unusual by many. I believe her words were, ‘not mainstream’.”
“I wonder why she never… ahhh,” Emily says, nodding her head. “She figured it would be between you. You wouldn’t be able to feel her love if you knew the thoughts she had when she met you.You’d distrust her.”
“Fill him in, Emily. The guy’s going to explode waiting for you to explain,” her mate urges, his face compassionate.
“She was raised in a hate group. People who hated anyone who was different. On Earth, we’re all shades of tan.” She lays her hand on the table and points to her forearm.
“I’m slightly pale, but there are folks who are almost white, and it ranges to black.”
I nod, although I don’t understand at all.
“People who are my shade or lighter sometimes hate people who are darker.”
This makes no sense. My brow furrows and I lean closer, as if that will help me understand.
“You look confused, Steele, and you should be. It’s baffling when you think about it. But it’s a time-honored tradition on my planet to hate. Well, for some people to hate. And one of the things we love to hate about is skin color.
“In other words, she lived with a group that took that to an extreme. It wasn’t just about skin color, it was about people who believe different things about God, or people who come from other countries. It’s a great big hate-fest.”
My mind has trouble wrapping around this idea, but it really shouldn’t be hard to understand. It seems many people love to hate, as Emily Jane said. In this part of the galaxy, we often reserve our hatred for other species.
“I don’t see what this has to do with our trouble in the bedroom.”
“Can’t you see? If Zoey was taught all her life that to love or, God forbid, have sex with someone who was this color instead of this color…” She points to the brown wooden table and then her forearm. “Can you imagine what her family would have said about a silver alien from another planet?”
I nod. This makes sense.
“But we’ve been together for two annums . Wouldn’t she have gotten over it by now? Besides… you said she loves me.” I’m more confused than ever. It explains her terror the first day we met in that awful cell, but that was annums ago.
“She loves you in her heart, but her head gets in the way.”
Perhaps I understand. I feel Zoey’s love. That fact isn’t in question.
“I think I know what will fix it,” Trev says, his voice level.
“The krannock !” they both exclaim at the same time.
By the excited look on both their faces, I’m afraid to ask, but I do. “What’s a krannock ?”
“We Zinns have lost most of our females. We struck a… trade agreement with one of Earth’s governments whereby we can take a female of our choice for two of their weeks, court her, and if she agrees, she will stay with us forever. The courtship includes… extensive use of a krannock .”
He stands and motions me over to a sheet-covered table. When we’re standing by it, he whisks the dusty sheet off and reveals a contraption that reminds me of a padded medical gurney. As I’m trying to absorb what it’s for, my nose is met by the distinctive scent of Emily’s… arousal.
My mind is spinning too fast to understand, but we’re in a sex shop, Emily is aroused, and the krannock has cuffs. Might this device be used for sex?
“Get the picture?” Emily asks, a naughty smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
I shake my head, perhaps not wanting to believe the very explicit pictures my mind is throwing at me.
She grabs a computer pad from a nearby table and pulls something up. “Here. From our website. We sell these.”
I watch as an animated female is shown in various positions on the table. She can lie face down or face up. The arms can pull away from the table into a cross. Even the legs can be spread wide by opening the split in the bottom half of the table.
The animation shows soft cuffs tying all four limbs to the table.
“It responds to voice commands,” Trev proudly informs me. “More expensive models connect with the user’s mind.”
As if my imagination needed any additional ideas about how to use the mechanism, the vid quickly puts the machine and the animated female through their paces, showing arms and legs spread wide with her on her back or stomach. For some reason, the bottom up, legs down position gets my already erect cock hard as stone. I’ve never tried such a thing with Zoey, fearing it would seem too animalistic to her.
My body and brain are warring with each other. My mind is repelled by this barbaric sexual device, but my cock and balls have distinctly different ideas.
“Very impressive engineering,” I say stiffly, pouring as much disapproval as possible into my voice. I turn to head toward the door. I’m going to have to speak with Naomi and Dhoom about rescinding our invitation to these three Zinn couples. They’re obviously deeply disturbed. Did I really think they would have the answers to the intimate problems I face with my mate?
“Stop!” Emily almost shouts as she heads me off, standing between me and the door.
“Thanks for your hospitality and the tea. I’ve seen all I need.”
“Don’t you get it, Steele? This is the answer. Do you think I liked the idea of the krannock when I first saw it? It repulsed me—scared the shit out of me. Then I found it freed me. Freed me of all the sexual prohibitions and inhibitions that I grew up with. And my childhood was a walk in the park compared to Zoey’s.
“When a female is tied to the machine, blindfolded, the mind figures out a way to shut the fuck up and let the body free. This is the answer, Steele.” She points at the contraption.
I just shake my head and feint right, trying to make my way around the little female who’s blocking my way.
The back door bursts open and two more couples barge in. The males are strapping Zinns, and the females are Earthers.
“Your secret’s safe with me,” Emily whispers, then she introduces Trev’s son, Arzz, his mate Spirit, their friend Sinn and his mate Dakota.
“Steele is from Sanctuary! I was telling him we can’t wait to meet everyone for the Blessed Peace Day Feast,” Emily says happily by way of introductions. “Trev was just showing off his latest model krannock . Ladies? Want to tell him your thoughts on the contraption? He finds it hard to believe anyone would enjoy—”
Spirit interrupts, “It’s a game-changer. It allows for… full expression of the mating bond.”
“Yep,” Dakota nods enthusiastically.
“Steele has to get back to his mate,” Emily announces. “I was just walking him out.”
We leave through the front door. The three open sides of the booth are still covered by the thick plas-film temporary walls. She closes the door so we have privacy.
“Tell me you haven’t tried every other thing within your power.” She looks at me sternly, her arms folded across her chest.
“I don’t know what else to do,” I admit with a shake of my head.
“The krannock ,” she says forcefully. “Don’t manhandle her into it. Get her permission. Come up with a safeword. ‘Red’ works. It means stop right now. And I wasn’t kidding about the blindfold. That will help, trust me.
“Then do everything you’ve ever wanted to do to her unless she says red. Except don’t slide into her until she begs—a lot. No, I take that back. Make her plead. Oh. And before that, make her come with one of the vibrators I gave her.”
One of the vibrators? How many does she have? I force myself to keep my lips pressed together or they would pop open in surprise.
“Zoey’s… fragile,” Emily says. “You’ve been treating her like glass. Right?”
“Yes.” Of course I treat her like glass. She’s a beautiful, vulnerable female who deserves to be protected. No, worshipped.
“For one night—don’t. What you’ve been doing for two years hasn’t worked, Steele. For one night, don’t treat her like glass, treat her like… she won’t break.”
There’s a lot of information to take in. I’m debating with myself as Emily interrupts, “When should we deliver it?”
Smart businesswoman. When, not if.
“Tonight,” I say forcefully, then, “No. We’ll be busy until late tonight. Bring it tomorrow when you come for the Blessed Peace Day Feast.”