CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
XEL
I woke in the morning with a raging erection and a cold weight in my chest. It was going to be yet another day of fighting my own body’s natural desires…
and oddly enough, something about that made me feel better.
It was something that made this place less desirable, less enjoyable, and spending the day frustrated over my simmering arousal would distract me from all the other things going on around here.
Things I liked. Things I enjoyed. Things that were all so much more wonderful than the stale repetition of the hotel where my master had lived.
My real master. The one I was supposed to be loyal to, instead of relishing the way Mr Beans was kneading my shoulder and purring, and the way Bribie’s head was nestled comfortably against my thigh.
I lasted a grand total of thirty seconds before I gave in and smiled, reaching down to stroke Bribie’s head and turning my face to nuzzle Mr Beans. The cat had curled up beside me shortly after I’d gone to bed, but I must have been asleep when Bribie arrived.
I lifted my head to glance out the window – I liked sleeping with the curtains open, given that there was no one else around – and saw that it was going to be another beautiful day.
Sunshine, trees, the fresh smells of the outdoors.
And a master who worked beside me and ate his meals with me, and Bo, who always had some funny story to tell about one of her siblings or cousins.
All the beauty here made my heart ache. And at the same time, I felt a wave of guilt roiling in my stomach.
It was betrayal, pure and simple, to like this so much better than I’d liked my real master. He had been…
I had to pause, as I failed to come up with anything like a sensible description for him.
He’d been… what? He hadn’t been affectionate.
He hadn’t been generous. He hadn’t been friendly – not with me or the staff, at least. He’d put on a show for the customers, but I’d thought even they could see through it half the time.
Stars, how was I supposed to fuel my guilt if I couldn’t think of a single redeemable quality that my master had had?
Beside me, Mr Beans let out a trill and nudged me with his head. “Yes, I’m sorry, are you not getting enough attention?” I asked him. I reached up with my other hand to rub his head, and he resumed purring loudly into my ear.
That made Bribie decide that he wasn’t getting enough attention now, and he wriggled further up the bed, bit by bit, until his head was resting on my chest. That made me laugh.
“Yes, you’re both adorable,” I told them, trying my best to keep them both satisfied.
But then Mr Beans stood up and plopped himself down right on my face, and that was as much as I could take.
“No, I have to breathe here, you delinquent cat! Off my face!” I picked him up and set him down on the blanket, then wriggled to free myself from Bribie’s weight.
“Everybody up! Come on, let’s go and find some breakfast.”
I stumbled out of bed – mostly because Mr Beans was weaving around my feet – and was just reaching for my pants when there was a light knock at the door. I looked up, and since I’d left it part way open last night, I had a clear view of my master’s face, peering through the gap.
“I heard you were up – I didn’t want to wake you,” he said, by way of explanation, as he pushed the door further open.
“I called Aiden last night and had a chat with him about a couple of…” His gaze, which had started out on my face, had slid slowly downwards over my mostly naked body as he’d been speaking.
Once again, I’d gone to bed in nothing but boxer shorts, owing to the warm summer nights.
And the thin fabric was doing absolutely nothing to hide my very eager erection.
My master stared at it for a moment, before his gaze snapped back up to my face.
“That’s actually…” He made a vague gesture towards me that I couldn’t begin to interpret. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Excuse me? He wanted to talk to me about my erection? Or did he mean my clothes? Or something else that I was just misunderstanding?
He fumbled for his next words for a moment, then blurted out, “You were trained as an erotic companion.” Oh, so he did want to talk about my erection.
It pulsed in my pants, and I was sure he could see it twitch.
I had the fleeting thought that he’d decided he wanted to make use of my skills.
He hadn’t seemed at all interested yesterday, but perhaps he’d just needed time to think it through?
“Aiden said I should give you permission to masturbate.”
I blinked at him, not sure I’d understood. “Do you mean… in front of you?” I ventured. If he wanted to watch me, then I was more than happy to put on a show for him.
“No!” he yelped. “No, that’s not… What I mean is…
I don’t have any real use for an erotic companion.
I think you already understand that.” As much as I wanted to deny it, he was right.
I knew perfectly well that he hadn’t chosen me.
“So I’m giving you permission to see to your own sexual needs.
You’re allowed to climax without me being there. ”
I clamped my mouth shut before I said something inappropriate.
If this was Aiden’s recommendation for the best way to look after a dimari, then my level of respect for him was about to take a serious tumble.
No, I didn’t expect my master to be jumping me multiple times a day.
But most masters, in most species, had a desire for sex at least a couple of times a week.
Or once a week, even. To be told to just go and deal with it myself…
“Yes, sir,” I said, keeping my tone as even as possible.
But to my surprise, my master sighed at that. “You don’t like that option, do you?”
It was not my place to make demands of my master based on what I liked.
And in this instance, the fact that my master was not really my master was not enough to allow me to break decades of training.
“I wasn’t… You are entitled to… Um… It was not what I was expecting,” I eventually managed to mumble.
“Look, it’s… It’s temporary,” he said, not sounding terribly confident about it.
“Just to give us some time to figure things out a bit better. I still have a lot to learn, and Aiden’s going to be tied up for another few days with his emergency, so this is just designed to make sure you’re not too frustrated for the next couple of days. ”
Was that true? I found it difficult to believe that it was so terribly complicated to ask me to bend over so he could stick his cock up my ass. Alliance culture was certainly more reserved than the majority of galactic society, but they still had sex, didn’t they?
“Yes, sir,” I repeated. He didn’t seem particularly happy with my response, but what else could I say?
“Okay. So, um… I’m going to start making breakfast,” he said, seeming to take that as the end of the conversation.
“I’ve already checked the animals and everyone’s fine.
Yesterday was a long day, so I thought I’d let you sleep in a bit.
I’ll see you in the kitchen.” He ducked out of the room, face bright red, leaving me standing there in my boxers, my cock still enthusiastically begging for attention, while my two four-legged companions continued to dance around my feet, hoping I would hurry up and feed them.
More annoyed than I could remember being in a very long time, I pulled on my pants, gritting my teeth as I tucked my disobedient erection inside.
It responded even to such a pragmatic touch and I fought the urge to pull it out again and do as my master had suggested.
But my annoyance was due to more than being given permission to jerk off.
My master had somehow decided that I was too tired to help him with the early morning chores, regardless of the fact that he’d had just as long a day as I had yesterday.
We were three days into this new routine, and he was already of the opinion that I was failing to keep up.
But as I’d said to my master two days ago, dimari were not helpless. Yes, I was required to obey him, but where there were grey areas in his expectations, I was perfectly willing to exploit those loopholes.
And so I refrained from putting on a shirt, even as I admired the maroon colour of one of the shirts I’d chosen with Leesha’s help.
And even that was one more source of frustration and guilt.
I loved the new colours and styles my master had bought for me.
But they were also a vibrant reminder of how much nicer it was here than with my old master, and how inappropriate it was for me to be thinking that.
I took a moment to close my eyes and take a deep breath. My temper was fraying due to my insistent and unrelenting arousal, but I could take care of that issue soon enough. For now, I strode down the hall to the kitchen, my chest and arms on full display.
I plastered on a smile as I turned the corner – which actually wasn’t that difficult to do, with Mr Beans and Bribie shadowing my every move.
“Yes, yes, you both get breakfast,” I said to them, feigning nonchalance as I meandered about the kitchen fetching their tins of food and their bowls from the floor.
I noticed my master watching me out of the corner of my eye, and I discreetly flexed my muscles a few times.
Then, still chattering nonsense to the two animals, I went over to the corner and set both bowls on the floor, making sure to create a clear opportunity for my master to ogle my backside as I bent over.
I stood there, hand on my hip, while I waited for them to finish eating, then I turned around, gratified when my master hastily looked away from me, his face flushed pink.
“I’m going to take a quick shower,” I told him. “Do I have time before breakfast?”