CHAPTER THIRTY
XEL
We buried Bribie next to the rose bushes, in a ceremony that included Bo, Leesha, Kal and Fin, the two other casuals, plus Vonnie, and oddly enough, Borl made a tentative request to be allowed to attend.
He stood stiffly at the back of the group without speaking, and I couldn’t quite figure out his motivation for wanting to be there.
But since he was quiet and respectful, no one was going to complain about it.
Under the Ranzors’ diligent oversight, the renovations on the barn moved ahead in leaps and bounds.
The ‘official story’, handed down by the Alliance Parliament, just in case anyone asked, was that we were turning it into student accommodation – which provided a sensible explanation for the multiple ‘bedrooms’ we were setting up, and for the communal bathroom with multiple stalls.
And somehow, the Parliament had managed to find some tradespeople who were willing to do the job in a hurry in return for a bonus for completing it on time.
One of the Alliance’s best doctors – a short Wasop woman named Sonala – came to give Rohinavon and her son a thorough health check.
To our relief, both of them were declared to be in good health, and once she’d cleared Vonnie to begin her next pregnancy, Sonala called me into the temporary office building that had been erected near the barn.
“Vonnie tells me that you’ve volunteered to be the father of her next child,” she said, with a reassuring smile.
She handed me a small plastic container and gestured to the adjoining room, which had a lockable door.
“Would you mind doing the honours? It’s not a terribly glamourous suite, but I’m afraid it’s the best I’ve got. ”
I was immediately grateful that my master had already given me permission to masturbate.
For all that this was for purely pragmatic purposes, it would still have been breaking a cardinal rule of dimari training.
I locked myself in the small office, not expecting to find much to inspire me.
But the instant I took my cock out of my pants, I found it incredibly easy to imagine my master’s hand on me, the way it had been just last night.
He’d crawled into bed beside me and tugged my boxer shorts down, then proceeded to stroke me in a slow rhythm, teasing me with a sly grin on his lips, bringing me to the brink over and over until he finally whispered his permission for me to come.
My master, I had learned quickly, didn’t have anything like the sex drive that I had, and so, after that first night together, that sort of thing had become a regular occurrence – him using his hand or his mouth to bring me to climax, while I writhed beneath his touch and revelled in the attention I was receiving.
And for all that he wasn’t gaining physical release from it, he seemed to enjoy watching me so very much that I didn’t even feel guilty about being the one to receive the pleasure, rather than give it.
It had been two weeks since our first night together, and I’d been inside my master two more times since then.
And I knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d thoroughly enjoyed both occasions.
Imagining the look on his face when he climaxed, the eager way he stared up at me when he had my cock in his mouth, had me climaxing into the cup in just a few short minutes. I took a moment to catch my breath and make sure I was presentable again, then I returned the cup to the doctor.
A week after that, Colonel Riglis – or Torv, as he insisted we call him – contacted us again, to let us know that they were in the process of screening staff to be the nannies for the first batch of Vangravian babies.
“We’d like to hire staff from a range of different species,” he told us, while Vonnie, Borl, my master and I were all gathered in the cottage’s kitchen for the briefing.
“One of the main aims of this project is to prove that Vangravian males can integrated fully into a functional society. Alliance culture is a conglomeration of a number of different species, each with their own subtly different values and expectations. So we’d like at least one person from each of the Alliance species to be working in the colony.
In addition to that, we’ll have you, Vonnie, as a Vangravian mentor, the Ranzors, of course, as security, plus Yona and his mate and child, who I’m hoping can be persuaded to teach the youngsters a little about Anicrian culture.
A broad education is only going to do them good, in the long run. ”
“Will Yona be living here?” my master asked. “Once he’s delivered the babies we need, that is. Can we find a suitable job for him? Assuming he wants one.”
Torv smiled. “I get the impression he’s deliberately trying to not be too optimistic about all this.
He’s had a hard run at life so far. So let’s get his mate and child settled and safe, and then once he has some hard proof that we’ve got his back, he might start to reconsider the nomadic lifestyle.
“But while we’re here, I did want to ask if either of you happen to know anyone in particular who might be interested in the nanny positions. We have a few different avenues to pursue, but personal recommendations are always preferable over mere paper qualifications.”
“I’m sure Leesha would know a couple of people,” my master suggested. “I’ll ask her next time she’s on shift.”
“I’d certainly appreciate it,” Torv said. “I’d particularly be interested in any Sedgeged applicants. They tend to be drawn to intellectual pursuits far more than practical skills, but they’d be invaluable for helping with the children’s educations.”
“Maybe try asking at some of the universities?” my master suggested. “If you frame it as a teaching job, rather than mere child rearing, you’re likely to get more interest. Even if the kids aren’t going to be old enough to learn much for a good few years.”
“Not a bad idea,” Torv said, making some notes in his comm as he went.
A brief silence fell, and I considered making the suggestion that was bouncing around in my head. A lot of people I knew would have thought I was crazy for even considering it. But on the other hand, I was very good at reading people, and I knew I sometimes saw things in people that others didn’t.
“I might have a suggestion,” I said hesitantly.
“My old supervisor at the hotel,” I said, turning to my master.
No one else in the room would have much of a clue what I was talking about.
“Kathy. Kathleen Norris. Aiden met her when he came to collect me, if you need a second opinion,” I said to Torv.
“I think she would be excellent at that sort of job. She’s very organised, and good at directing other people.
She can come across as a bit stern to begin with, but that’s largely because the manager of the hotel wasn’t particularly nice to her.
But if you get to know her a bit, it becomes very obvious that she really enjoys looking after other people.
If she learns that this is a place where she’s not going to be punished for bringing out her softer side, I think she’d do a wonderful job caring for the babies. ”
If anyone wanted to argue with me, I could just pull out the example of Yona. He was a smuggler, and he was about to become a thief, in the interests of assisting our project, but Torv was already considering giving him a permanent place to live here. Should Kathy be any different?
“An interesting idea,” Torv said. “But if she’s a supervisor in a hotel, would she necessarily want to leave? That’s not a bad career to be in.”
“The manager of the hotel is not a pleasant man,” I explained. “It would be her decision, of course, but I think it’s worth asking her.”
“Hm. Kathleen… Morris, was it?”
“Norris,” I said. “She’s a human, in her fifties, living in the northern part of Hon.”
“You have the details of my uncle’s hotel?” my master asked, and I supposed that Aiden would have passed on all the information he had about my master and I when he’d originally contacted Torv.
“Yes, I do,” Torv confirmed. “She works there? It should be fairly easy to track her down from her tax information.”
“Please be patient with her,” I said, worried about how Kathy would react to being contacted by a stranger, and one from the military in particular. “If, in the first instance, she tells you to fuck off, please don’t write her off straight away.”
Torv nodded. “I have plenty of experience with people who are leery about talking to the military. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle. We’ll need to do a background check on her, of course, but the same is going to apply to everyone involved with this project.”
I nodded, sure that they wouldn’t find anything inappropriate. Kathy could be a little abrupt at times, but deep down, she had a heart of gold. I was certain that this was going to turn out to be a wonderful idea.
? ? ?
That night, my master was smiling coyly at me when I arrived at his bedroom door, my hair still damp from my shower.
The day had played out in much the same way as many of the recent days; my master and I would work together for the early cleaning and feeding – a handful of hours that I relished each and every day – but then he’d be called away to deal with the latest planning crisis on the barn, or to discuss staffing possibilities with Colonel Riglis, leaving me to complete the afternoon feeding and any repairs to the animal barn.
Leesha came by more often than not, since she was on a break from her studies at the moment, and she, Bo and I had plenty of fun chatting and joking while we worked on the various tasks around the sanctuary.
By evening, I was once again pleasantly tired… but the instant I got a look at the expression on my master’s face, I found a matching grin landing on my own face. He had something in mind, and I was suddenly eager to find out what it was.