CHAPTER FOURTEEN #2
“Will I be working mainly on the base, then? Or on missions with you?”
“Generally, you’ll be on missions with me.
We’re going through a bit of a transition period.
Kade and I have spent a lot of the past year and a half dealing with various issues with the dimari who live on Rendol 4.
That’s a bit of a long story. But over the next few weeks, we’ll be moving back into active duty.
And once Henderson has cleared you to join the military, you’ll be coming with us. ”
“How many people would be a part of your usual missions?”
“It really depends on what we’re doing. Maybe as few as five. Maybe as many as twenty. For real emergencies, there might be more, but that doesn’t happen very often.”
“Hm.” Jai said nothing more, and I wondered what was going through his head. Was this just wanting details about his daily life, or was there something more to it?
None of us said much more as we ate. Kade made a few comments about ordering some groceries. I told them both that we could sleep in tomorrow, since we didn’t need to go back to the base.
"Jai, do you have any questions or concerns about anything Kade told you today? Or about any details he might have missed?”
“No, sir,” Jai replied, without missing a beat.
I considered asking him more about his training tonight, to try and figure out what his attitude was about.
But as important as that task was, by the time I’d finished eating, I was struggling to keep my eyes open.
So no matter what Jai said, I wasn’t likely to be paying enough attention to tease out the nuances of his answers.
As much as I disliked the idea, the in-depth conversation was going to have to wait until tomorrow.
Once the meal was finished, I took my plate to the sink, then turned to Kade, sliding my arm around his waist and pressing a kiss to his cheek. “Can you clean up here, please? I’m going to go take a shower.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, without the slightest hint of complaint. I tried not to make him do too much work after a long day at the base – hence the takeaway dinner – but he still got agitated if I didn’t even let him do the basics.
I turned to Jai next. I didn’t expect him to help Kade clean up unless I specifically told him to, and that was another issue I was going to have to address. Having the two dimari live with me necessarily meant they would have to learn to get along.
“Jai? Come and take a shower with me,” I said, making the order as gentle as I could manage.
To any of the other dimari owners I’d worked with, the order might have seemed incongruous.
Jai was displaying defiance and resentment about literally everything that had happened since he’d arrived here.
So what the hell was I doing asking him to come and get naked with me?
But the answer was obvious, at the same time as being counter-intuitive.
The primary reward system for dimari was centred around sex.
One of the realistic possibilities here was that Jai was feeling jealous of Kade.
If I could show Jai that he would be cared for and rewarded while he was bonded to me, then perhaps he could begin to calm down and stop being so defensive.
It wasn’t likely the whole issue, but the positive experience of an unrestrained orgasm might help Jai begin to accept me as his master.
“Yes, sir,” he said, following me stiffly as I led him to the bathroom.
I fetched an extra towel from the linen closet on the way, then closed the door behind us.
I undressed quickly, piling my clothes more-or-less neatly on the counter.
Then I stepped into the shower cubicle and turned on the water…
and I wasn’t entirely surprised to see that Jai was still standing by the door, watching me suspiciously.
I reached a hand out to him in invitation. “Take your clothes off,” I told him, once again being as gentle as possible. “Come and join me.”
Jai undressed in an entirely perfunctory manner, revealing scales that were still the same jet black, and it struck me as a sharp contrast to the slow seduction Kade would have used if I’d asked him to undress for a shared shower.
I noted that he was scowling the entire time.
He came forward and stepped into the shower stall beside me – which was easily large enough for both of us.
I was aware that he wasn’t the slightest bit hard.
The first time Kade and I had showered together, he’d been hard as a rock before I’d even touched him.
I picked up the washcloth and lathered some soap onto it.
“Turn around. I’ll wash your back,” I said to Jai.
He turned and stood stiffly while I rubbed his back.
Jai was noticeably taller than me. Kade was taller than me, but only a little, to the point that it was only noticeable if we stood close to each other.
I’d always felt an inherent attraction to potential lovers who were larger than me, and Jai certainly fit the bill, not just taller, but wider at the shoulders, his upper body thick with muscle, while his legs were lean, but well proportioned to the rest of him.
His cock, I’d noticed, fitted well with the rest of his body, and I couldn’t help the shaft of curiosity that had me wondering what it would look like fully erect.
As Jai allowed me to wash his back, it was impossible to ignore how tense he was. No, he wasn’t allowing me, I remembered. He was tolerating it. I’d given him an order, intentionally or not. And his body language was clearly displaying that he wasn’t welcoming the attention.
That was odd. Most dimari – no, forget most. All the dimari I’d ever worked with had delighted in the opportunity to receive sexual attention from their masters. In their minds, it confirmed that they were worthy, that their masters loved them, that they had a meaningful place in the universe.
Jai was reacting like I was trying to stick a thistle up his ass. I set the washcloth aside and tried a massage instead, kneading not just his shoulders, but his neck as well.
Two minutes later, it was clear that the massage wasn’t calming him down. I resisted the urge to tell him to relax. Ordering him to do so would mean he did, whether or not he was feeling more comfortable. Right now, I was counting on his physical reactions as a way to monitor his emotions.
“I really do want to make a good home for you here,” I said, knowing I’d already mentioned something similar earlier.
“And so does Kade. You have nothing to worry about.” A good old fashioned bit of reassurance might open a door to further conversation.
Or at the very least, give me clues about what the problem was.
Jai didn’t reply. And nor did he relax.
“Turn around, Jai,” I said, pressing gently against his shoulder.
He turned, and I was expecting to see a scowl still on his face, or if I was really lucky, perhaps it might have simmered down to mere apprehension.
I was still hoping to be able to walk him through his fears and doubts to a point that he could begin to trust me, at least in the little things.
But when I got a look at his face, his expression was perfectly neutral.
And that was quite possibly the worst thing to see.
I’d seen that blank look on Kade’s face a handful of times – not recently, thankfully – and I’d learned long ago that it was the expression a dimari wore when they had reached the end of their ability to influence or persuade their master, when they’d been backed into a corner so that rote obedience was the only option remaining.
But Jai’s expression didn’t remain blank for long.
His gaze drifted down over my naked body, and then a sly smile settled on his face.
“Is there something I can do for you, sir?” he asked, his voice a husky croon.
An instant later, his entire stance changed.
His shoulders lowered, his head tilted, his back arched, and at my hip, I could feel his erection swell suddenly.
He reached forward, his right hand brushing gently over my hip.
“Would you like me to suck you?” He licked his lips suggestively.
“Or maybe you want to watch me come all over myself?” He gripped his cock, which was rapidly getting larger and stiffer, and gave himself a couple of slow strokes.
“Or do you want me to bend over so you can stick yourself deep inside my hot, wet ass?” He leaned forward, supporting himself against the tiled wall, arching his back to stick his ass out while he ran a suggestive hand over his own buttocks.
I felt a jolt as my cock sprang to life, responding automatically to the sensual display… and then a moment later, I felt a wave of nausea. What the fuck was going on? It was like Jai had just flipped a switch and…
“Maybe you’d like to press me up against the wall and have me beg to be allowed to come,” Jai said next, thrusting his ass back at me as he stroked the wall like it was some kind of giant sex toy.
“Would you like that, sir?” He was crooning and pouting at me, in a display of blatant seduction.
Or it would have been seduction, if it wasn’t so thoroughly fake.
“No. No, stop. Jai, stop,” I ordered him, aghast at the act he was putting on. There was nothing truly warm or inviting about any of it.
He stopped immediately, turning to face me again with the same blank expression. There was no remorse for upsetting his master, or embarrassment at having misinterpreted what I wanted. If it had been Kade in the same position, he would have been apologising profusely for the misunderstanding.
But in Jai’s case, there was no misunderstanding. Only a very deliberate sort of provocation.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked him. What I really wanted to know was what the fuck had gone so thoroughly wrong in his training process that this was the result?
Jai shrugged – another display of defiance, since any normal dimari would never use such a dismissive gesture when asked a question by their master. “You purchased an erotic companion,” Jai said darkly. “I assumed that meant you desired an erotic experience.”
It wouldn’t have been an unreasonable assumption, if it had been made honestly. As it was, it came out more as an accusation.
I stepped out of the shower, reaching for a towel. “Finish washing yourself and then get dry and dressed,” I told him. “You and I are going to have a serious conversation.”
“Yes, sir,” Jai said. Was it my imagination, or had his voice wavered just the slightest amount?