The Pleasure Palace. Evangeline Anderson
desired me for myself. I fear I have forgotten my true form.” The Glameron bowed his head briefly as though acknowledging an ancient pain and then looked up again. “But there is no time to speak about me. Soon the ship will move into hyperdrive and we must all be safely tucked into our sleep chambers before that happens. I have less than an hour to show you around your quarters. When you wake, I will have but a day to instruct you before you must disembark to Syrus Six.
“I understood that we were going to have more time to get adjusted before we moved into hyperdrive and more time after we woke up to learn to use the symbiotes.” Tyson sounded disgruntled and Shaina couldn’t blame him. Minister Waynos had given them a very different understanding of the amount of time they would have before attempting this mission. Faron only shrugged, a beautifully fluid motion that looked like a dance step.
“Come.”
He turned and swept before them, leading the two officers through a gilded real-wood archway and into the most luxurious room Shaina had ever seen. There was another real-wood floor done in a parquet pattern and real-wood furniture and carvings everywhere she looked. Expensive-looking one-of-a-kind holo-prints and even some genuine, antique-looking oil paintings hung on the round walls, which were covered in a soft, gray moss about a half an inch long that seemed to caress her hand when she ventured to reach out and touch it.
Faron showed them around to several more small but luxurious rooms: a food prep and dining area, several personal chambers, the fresher room where the sonic shower and necessary areas were kept. Each one led into the next in a kind of circular floor plan until they found themselves back where they had started in the central chamber.
“The hypersleep chamber is in the center of the craft. If you wish, you may take off your outer attire and put on the sleep robes provided for your comfort.” The Glameron made a delicate one-handed gesture as he spoke and an opening appeared in the curving surface of the wall without a sound. The opening led into a dimly lit chamber where four empty hypersleep tubes stood in a row. Shaina looked at them mistrustfully; they reminded her of the syringes the symbiotes had been in, silver-sleek and utterly foreign looking. Each tube had a rounded front access flap, which was currently standing open, and one small window at eye level for its occupant to look out of.
“Is it time already?” she asked. Instead of answering, Faron handed her a short, plush robe, made of high quality synthi-cotton, that tied at the waist with a sash. He handed a similar if somewhat larger one to Ty, who immediately started stripping out of his pleather jumpsuit to put it on. Shaina tried not to watch as her partner’s broad, golden-tan shoulders were revealed, along with his smooth, muscular chest and flat abdomen, corded with muscle. When Tyson pulled the jumpsuit casually down past his slim hips to show the silky trail of black hair that ran from his navel into the low-slung waistband of his snug black briefs, Shaina heard herself make a soft sound, deep in her throat. Ty must have heard the noise too, because he looked up from pulling the jumpsuit down, frowning slightly.
“See something blue, McCullough?” he asked, pulling the jumpsuit the rest of the way off and standing tall to stretch his firm arms over his head. The movement caused all the muscles in his abdomen to stretch and twitch in an absolutely mesmerizing manner and Shaina became suddenly aware that she had been staring at him for nearly a full minute. He had never looked so wild and untamed, so D’Lonian. Her breath was coming a little fast as she answered him.
“No, just thinking. It’s my first trip in hyperspace, you know. Will we…are there any effects I should know about?”
“It has never been scientifically proven, but many people claim to have a dramatically increased libido after a hypersleep experience,” Faron remarked, coming up behind her.
Great, she thought, as though being around Ty wasn’t disturbing enough already. Her annoying partner only looked amused at the Glameron’s words.
“Aren’t you going to put on your robe?” He grinned a little, amber eyes flashing. Blushing furiously, Shaina turned her back to him and began stripping off the black pleather jumpsuit with quick, jerky motions. She could feel Ty’s eyes on her back the whole time as she struggled with the sleeves, which seemed to want to cling to her arms.
“Wait, Mistress. Stop, please. You require assistance.” The Glameron’s soft voice soothed her somehow and Shaina stopped struggling with the aggravating sleeves and just stood quietly for a moment. “A good slave will notice when his Mistress is in distress and act to help her before she asks,” Faron went on in a lecturing tone. “The essence of being the perfect slave is anticipation. You will know what your Mistress needs or desires before she knows it herself. Come, help your Mistress, Tyson.”
“What? But I thought you were going to…” Shaina protested.
“I don’t think I should…” Ty said at the same time.
“The lesson begins here.” Faron cut them both off in a tone that was almost sharp. “I sense that subservience does not come easily to you, Master Tyson. And allowing yourself to be served comes even less easily and naturally to you, Mistress McCullough,” he said, turning toward Shaina, who still stood with her back to Ty. “But you must overcome these inhibitions and allow yourselves to serve and be served. Any falseness between you will be sensed immediately on Syrus Six and the result will be death, both for you and for my beloved Master Paul. So you must learn.”
“Now, help your Mistress to disrobe, Master Tyson. Gently,” he added. Shaina felt the large, warm hands caress her shoulders a bit hesitantly as Ty helped her slip the offending jumpsuit’s sleeves off her arms. She stood with her arms crossed over her breasts, feeling glad that she had worn her best matching emerald green bra and panties set, as Ty pulled the suit down her waist and legs.
“Here, Shaina, hold on to me,” he instructed in a low voice, as he knelt in front of her and pulled the suit’s legs over first one foot and then the other. Wordlessly, she did as he asked, bracing herself with both hands on his warm, golden shoulders to keep her balance while he undressed her like she was a child. The warmth of his body radiating against her legs made Shaina feel weak in the knees and she was very glad the symbiotes weren’t working yet. She would’ve hated for Ty to pick up her thoughts at this particular moment.
When she was standing shivering in only her green underwear, Ty stood behind her and, like a butler, held out the robe for her to slip both arms into the sleeves. Shaina did so and then shivered again as he pulled her against him and reached in front of her to tie the sash at her waist. His warm, masculine scent and the long line of heat from his mostly naked body pressing against her back lit a fire in her lower belly and made her squeeze her thighs together tightly. Goddess…she wasn’t sure she could stand it.
“Very good, Tyson.” Faron’s voice seemed to break some kind of a spell and Shaina felt Ty move reluctantly away from her; she missed his warmth immediately. “But you must learn to call her only Mistress. The first name is never an appropriate address for a slave to use for his master or mistress. We will speak more of it later, but for now, our hypersleep tubes await.”
The Glameron saw them both comfortably settled in side-by-side tubes and then took the tube on the end for his own. As Shaina looked out of the small window at the front of her tube, she hoped that she was up to this challenge. Not of infiltrating Syrus Six and rescuing the Chancellor’s son but of having Ty serve her; she just wasn’t sure she could take it.
6
“Ty, please…I need you.” Her slender form moved beneath him, all cream and gold in the soft light. She looked so beautiful, like a creature made of moonlight. Her high, generous breasts were tipped with pale pink nipples, and the soft mound of reddish curls between her slightly parted legs glimmered faintly like spun rubies.
“What do you need, sweetheart?” he whispered gently, running one hand down her smooth, creamy flank, loving the way she shivered and arched like a cat under his touch.
“Need you inside me, filling me up.” She parted her thighs wider and he could see the pouting pink lips of her tender pussy spread wide for him, inviting him in. She was so wet for him, needed him so much.