CHAPTER TWO #2
Kathy, to her credit, actually stopped and thought about that.
And at the same time, I paused to wonder what details Aiden was referring to.
None of my training on Eumad had been particularly traumatic for me.
And since I’d come to Rendol 4, I would have described my work as monotonous, but not unpleasant.
Did Aiden have unrealistic expectations of what my work had entailed?
Or was Alliance culture just that different from what I’d been raised to expect? I could only wait and find out.
“I’ll stay,” Kathy decided eventually, and Aiden nodded.
“Then I would advise you to listen, but not interrupt. None of the answers Xel has for us will change the slightest bit off the back of any of your objections.”
Kathy scoffed. “What makes you so sure I’m going to object?”
“I’ve worked with nearly a hundred dimari owners over the past year and a half. So I’ve gotten very good at predicting how people are going to react.”
“Fine,” Kathy said, sounding rather stiff about it. “I’ll do my best to keep my opinions to myself. Please, carry on.”
Aiden turned to me. “What specialty were you trained in during your time on Eumad?” he asked me, without preamble.
I didn’t see that it was at all a contentious question. “I was trained as an erotic companion,” I told him. He nodded slowly, then made a few notes on a document on his comm.
“Did you give your operations manual to your master when you arrived here?”
Every dimari was sent out with a data stick containing detailed information about their training and their contract of sale. I had dutifully handed mine over to my master. “Yes, I did,” I told Aiden.
He nodded again, his eyes flicking sideways towards Kathy for a moment. Then he returned his attention to me. “During the past three years, has your master had sex with you?”
“Yes,” I said simply. No doubt he was going to ask for more details, but until I knew what he wanted to know, there wasn’t much point in littering the air with irrelevant facts. Beside me, I heard Kathy’s muted gasp.
“How often did he have sex with you?” Aiden asked next.
“More or less once a day,” I replied. Kathy turned her head to stare at me. I ignored her, seeing nothing out of the ordinary about my reply.
“Did anyone else have sex with you?” Aiden asked.
“Yes. Dorral, the general manager-”
“That perverted fucking asshole!” Kathy blurted out, looking horrified. “Xel, why did you-”
“Kathleen!” Aiden interrupted her loudly. “You can listen, but do not interrupt.”
“But Dorral’s been abusing-”
“I told you this was going to be distressing. Xel was trained as an erotic companion. That means he was specifically taught how to provide sexual services to his master. If you’re going to continue disrupting this conversation, I will ask you to leave.”
Kathy’s expression was sour, but she folded her arms and fixed her eyes on the table. “Fine. I’ll be quiet.”
Aiden waited a moment longer, then turned back to me. “So the general manager was having sex with you. Anyone else?”
“Vish, the morning shift supervisor,” I told him.
Kathy made a spluttering sound of indignation, before Aiden’s glare swiftly silenced her.
“And how often was it with each of them?”
“Again, more or less once a day. Not absolutely every day, if they weren’t rostered on, or had other pressing duties to attend to. But it was fairly regular.”
“Was there anyone else? Any of the guests?”
“No. No one else. I had expected when I arrived that my master would offer me to some of the guests, perhaps for an extra fee, but that never happened.” I was rather confused about that, actually.
On many other planets, masters who owned a hotel would have jumped at the chance to offer a dimari’s sexual services to their guests – either as a free perk for high paying customers, or as a paid service for those who could afford it.
But my master’s goals hadn’t extended further than himself and his immediate underlings.
“Did any of those three people ever hurt you during sex?” Aiden asked next.
“No,” I replied. I took no offence to the question.
I had been trained in a variety of bondage techniques, and though I hadn’t been trained for that specifically, I was aware that some masters enjoyed inflicting pain on their dimari.
It was rarely enough to do any real damage – erotic companions were too expensive to go around wilfully injuring them.
But in my master’s case, he hadn’t seemed interested in prolonged sessions of indulging any particular fantasies.
Rather, his matings had been brief and perfunctory, and I’d reflected more than once that if that was all he required of a partner, he would have been better off purchasing a domestic servant.
They were also trained for rudimentary sexual services, but far better suited to long days of repetitive labour.
Still, he was my master, and it was not my place to question his decisions.
“And were you allowed to climax?” Aiden asked next. That was a more interesting question. Some masters wilfully withheld pleasure from their dimari as a way of exerting control over them, or to punish them for disobedience. I had made an effort to never disobey my master.
“I hardly think that’s an appropriate question,” Kathy interrupted, her face red, her hands gripping the edge of the table.
Aiden glared at her. But this time, Kathy seemed determined to voice her opinion.
“Just because you’re supposedly some expert on dimari, that doesn’t mean you can be so bloody invasive into-”
“Yes, I am an expert on dimari,” Aiden snapped. “And if you really have any doubts about that, then perhaps you’d like to ask the actual dimari sitting next to me?”
Before Kathy could say anything else, Kade jumped in.
“Nothing Aiden is asking Xel is anything that’s going to offend Xel.
Your objections to these questions will likely confuse him, though.
” It was said with a level of censure that I was surprised to hear from a dimari.
Even when addressing someone other than our master, we were taught to always be polite and submissive.
But I hadn’t been polite and submissive to Dorral this morning, I remembered. I’d bluntly refused to obey him and told him that he had no right to order me around. And only now did I think to be surprised by my own behaviour.
As far as Aiden’s questions went, though, they were all fairly obvious, detailing the routine workings of daily life.
But I could understand why he might need to clarify some of the details of my service, if he was intending to prepare my new master for my arrival.
After all, my old master had chosen me, had selected me for the particular skills I’d learned.
My new master would likely have very different needs, and I’d have to adapt to a set of requirements that didn’t align well with my training.
“Were you allowed to climax?” Aiden prompted me.
“Yes. My master generally allowed me to climax once a day.”
Aiden nodded, then made a few more notes on his comm. “Could you describe your average day? What tasks were you assigned, how long did each task take? I don’t need a huge amount of detail. I’m just looking for a general overview.”
And so I told him about my days. Wake up. Eat breakfast. Wash and dry all the sheets and towels from the previous day. Then I would report to Dorral’s office, where he and Vish would have sex with me. Kathy gasped when I said that, though I didn’t understand why. I continued my explanation.
Once the guests were all awake, I would join the housekeeping team to vacuum the hallways, clean the rooms, take the dirty linen down to the laundry and put fresh sheets on the beds.
Then we vacuumed the dining room and foyer before the next round of guests arrived in the afternoon.
Then, once the housekeeping was done, I would usually help in the kitchen, chopping vegetables for the dinner menu.
Then, at about six o’clock in the evening, my master would expect to find me in my room – I’d been allocated a basic room on one of the upper floors.
He would have sex with me, usually with me bent over the bed or the small desk, which would often be accompanied by him telling me I was a good boy.
I very much enjoyed hearing that, I couldn’t help but mention to Aiden.
Given the very limited contact I had with my master, the brief praise was particularly meaningful.
It was satisfying to know that he valued the work I was doing for him.
He never allowed me to climax while he was there, but he usually told me to finish myself off after he’d left.
After that, I would go down to the kitchen for dinner, then go to bed.
Silence fell on the room as I finished the description of my day.
“Right,” Aiden said, after a prolonged pause.
“Well, that’s more or less all I need to know for the moment.
Kathleen, would it be okay if I ask you to stay with Xel for the next half an hour or so?
I have some calls to make, and I’d like someone to keep an eye on him while I do that.
I’ll let hotel management know what’s happening, in case that’s likely to interfere with your usual duties. ”
“Hotel management means Dorral,” Kathy said, her expression turning sour again. “And knowing what I know now, if you tell him that you’re making arrangements to take Xel away from him, he’ll move heaven and earth to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Aiden raised an eyebrow. “I have the full authority of the Alliance Parliament behind me.”
“And he’s a devious snake who undermines everyone around him in every conceivable way. Treat carefully, Commander Hill. He’s not one to be trifled with.”
Aiden leaned forward, tenting his hands in front of him. “Just out of curiosity, Ms Norris, if the management here is so unpleasant to deal with, then why do you work here?”
Kathy snorted, then cleared her throat. “You’ll forgive me if I’d prefer not to answer that question. Given that you seem like the sort of man who has a vested interest in following the rules.”
Aiden regarded her intently for a moment, and I struggled to make sense of Kathy’s comment. Was there some reason Aiden shouldn’t be following the rules? Or was it Kathy who wasn’t following the rules? But… what sort of rules was she supposed to be following, anyway?
“I’m also the sort of man who has an interest in seeing justice done,” Aiden said eventually. “And I’m aware enough of the way the galaxy works to know that sometimes those two things are mutually exclusive.”
Kathy sat up straighter and put her hand over mine. “I’ll stay with Xel. Don’t worry about management, and don’t burden yourself with lofty ideas of justice. Go make your calls, and we’ll both be here when you get back.”