CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #2
After a second or two of consideration, I decided not to assuage Jai’s guilt too much.
Dimari were expected to please their masters, and his attitude, by normal standards, had been deplorable.
Allowing him to feel a certain amount of guilt about it – temporarily, at least – would hopefully lend a certain credibility to the supposed situation.
“Having a bit of a rough start doesn’t mean we can’t fix the problems,” I told him.
“Aiden is not unreasonable. Your behaviour has not been exemplary so far, but if he sees that you’re making an effort from now on, I’m sure it wouldn’t take long for us to start working together as a team.
Please, come and finish your lunch,” I added, when Jai continued to stand there.
Jai came back to the table and slouched down into his seat.
This was a positive revelation for him, but still a lot to take in.
He ate a few more bites of his food, and I could see from his restlessness that he was still running over everything in his head.
Then he asked, out of the blue, “Why did he buy an erotic companion when he clearly doesn’t need one? ”
Oh fuck, how the hell was I supposed to explain that one?
“I suppose we thought the three of us could have some fun together,” I said, making a half-hearted attempt at a seductive lilt.
“Well, that was before we realised how unpleasant your training had been,” I amended.
“There’s no real need for you to be performing any kind of exceptional service, sexually speaking.
It wasn’t something we were looking for. It just happened to be available.”
Jai looked away, once more uncomfortable.
“I was also wondering…” He stirred his soup listlessly.
“Dax asked if you’d been showing me around.
Showing me the way Aiden likes things done.
And I haven’t given you much of an opportunity, so that’s on me,” he said, shouldering the responsibility.
“But I would like to know…” Another ripple of violet crossed his shoulders.
“I would like to know what he enjoys in bed.”
In light of Jai’s apparent change of attitude, the request could have been a genuine one.
But then again… “Are you asking because you want to know how to please him, or because you want to know which aspects of that duty you need to try and avoid? And before you get defensive about it,” I rushed on, “wanting to avoid the parts you find unpleasant is completely reasonable. Aiden cares a great deal about your comfort and safety. It might take a little while to accept that, given your background, but now that you know he didn’t request your training, I hope you’ll consider the idea seriously.
That said, I also know it’s very difficult for dimari to resist their master’s requests, even if they would like to.
That’s something we can certainly talk about more at a later date, but for now…
what are you actually trying to achieve? ”
Once more proving that he was both more insightful and more intelligent than I was giving him credit for, Jai said, “I want to understand him. I want to know what he enjoys, not so that I can hand that to him on a silver platter, but because it tells me more about the sort of person he is. I came here expecting a particular type of master, and it’s one thing to say he’s not that sort of person, but it’s an entirely different thing to understand who he really is.
You said you were hoping to have some fun, all of us together. What would that look like?”
His goal was a perfectly reasonable one.
Learning to understand one’s master was an important part of a dimari’s life.
But I also suspected there was a certain amount of fear motivating the question.
So far, Jai seemed to have been driven more by a desire to avoid pain than a desire to please his master.
A new perspective on who his master was wasn’t likely to change that overnight.
I considered how to answer the question.
Aiden was certainly not sadistic or outlandish in his desires, but he and I had discovered together that we both enjoyed it when he decided to get more forceful.
By all current indications, it wasn’t likely that Jai would enjoy that sort of thing, but at the same time, I knew Aiden would make an effort to be sensitive to Jai’s limitations.
“Do you enjoy being penetrated?” I asked Jai bluntly. He hesitated to answer, so I added, “I’m not your master. You can answer me honestly.”
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I did at the start. But it’s just been too much.”
“Then I’ll tell Aiden that and we can find more creative ways to do things.
He’s quite a fan of oral sex – likely of a much gentler kind that you were taught.
Only involving your mouth, not your throat.
Or, on the other hand, it’s entirely possible Aiden will blow you, rather than the other way around. ”
Jai snorted at that. “Now you’re just making up stories,” he said – not maliciously, but with a steadfast belief in his own words.
“I promise you, I’m not. I know we’re all taught that masters don’t do that sort of thing, but sexual standards in the Alliance are quite different from what we’re taught to expect.
Given your past experience, I would expect Aiden to ask you to use either your hands or your mouth on him, and then he’d likely do the same thing to you.
Or he might want to thrust between your thighs, rather than inside you.
Massage is always fun, as well.” I paused to see how he’d react.
He nodded, not objecting to anything I’d said, but also not seeming terribly reassured about it.
“I suppose you might still have some reservations about oral sex,” I guessed. “What you described before sounded quite intense.”
Jai shrugged, avoiding my gaze.
An idea occurred to me… and while it was the sort of thing I would usually run past Aiden first, my master wasn’t here, and I had a strong feeling that Jai needed more assistance with this before he was thrown in the deep end with Aiden.
And technically, I’d already been given permission to do what I was about to suggest. So I wasn’t breaking any rules…
“What about if we had a trial run together while Aiden’s out?” I suggested. “I don’t have the power to order you to do anything, so you can stop at any time. And then you might know more about how far you’re comfortable going for when Aiden invites you to try things with him.”
Jai rolled his eyes. “A dimari’s role is not to be comfortable. It’s to obey his master.”
I barked out a laugh. “At some point in the near future, Aiden is going to give you a bunch of really confusing orders to not do things if they make you uncomfortable. I’ll try to help explain what he means, if you don’t understand it at the time, but he’s made it very clear to me that he expects me to tell him if I don’t like something.
In a very subtle and respectful way, of course. ”
Jai frowned at me. “Our master sounds like a very odd sort of person. I don’t mean that as an insult,” he rushed on, realising how it might have sounded.
Once again, I laughed. “He most certainly is unusual.” I looked him over again, adding just a hint of seduction to my expression.
“But you didn’t answer my question. Would you like to try something?
It’s been nearly a week since you arrived on this planet.
And as far as I’m aware, you haven’t had any sexual release in that time.
Most dimari would be feeling a little frustrated by now. ”
Jai’s foot started tapping on the floor, and I noticed his gaze slide quickly over my body. “What exactly would you suggest we try?” It wasn’t a yes… but it most certainly wasn’t a no either.
“How about we just try blowing each other?” It was a simple exercise that shouldn’t stress him too much. And if we were lucky, he might even find he enjoyed it.