Enslaved (Brides of the Kindred Book 14) (18 page)

“But how do you know there aren’t cameras or vid
equipment trained on us right now?” Thrace asked. “Think about it,
Trin, Lady Malroth
told
us that lady Tam-tam is a voyeur. And what about
the way she was urging us to
explore
each other in bed?”

Trin’s cheeks flushed. “That
was
kind of
weird,” she admitted. “You think she might be…watching us?”

“Maybe. What do you think
these
are?” Thrace
indicated four tiny black dots, one at the middle of each bedpost. They were
positioned to give a perfect view of whoever was lying there—if they were what
he suspected.

“Oh!” Trin looked at them. “Hidden vidcams? Do you
think they’re wired for sound?”

Thrace
frowned. “I doubt it. The acoustics in this room
would be terrible for it. High ceilings, too many echoes. If they wanted sound,
they would have put us in a much smaller, more insulated room. No, if I had to
bet I’d guess that Lady Tam-tam just likes to watch.”

“You really think so?” Trin asked, wide-eyed.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. I’ll try to find out
tonight.” Thrace
finished her right foot and reached for the left. He was pleased when she
didn’t try to pull away this time. “I’m going to go out while you’re getting
dressed and talk to some of the other slaves. Need to get some insight on how
we’re supposed to behave here.”

“You’re right—we need to know the exact rules of
etiquette for the grand reception tonight,” Trin said thoughtfully. “We don’t
want to offend anyone and I have to admit…” She sighed. “I have no idea how to
behave toward you. Am I still supposed to treat you as a slave, or are you my
equal?”

“Since they’re doing a whole night devoted to the
‘beauty of male submission’ I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to act as your
equal,” Thrace
said dryly. “But I don’t think you’re supposed to
abuse
me publicly
either.”

“Well, that’s good anyway. I never
wanted
to
act like a bitch mistress from the Seven Hells to begin with.” Trin sighed as
he pressed his thumbs to the delicate arch of her foot. “Goddess, you’re good
at that!”

“Glad you’re enjoying yourself, Mistress.” Thrace
grinned at her. “Just your devoted slave here, doing everything I can to give
you pleasure.”

“Very funny.” She raised an eyebrow at him. “You
were very convincing back there with Lady Tam-tam you know—telling her how you,
uh, fell in love with me when I bought you.” She cleared her throat and his
cheeks got flushed again. “You had her completely fooled.”

“I wasn’t trying to fool her—I was telling the
truth,” Thrace
pointed out. “About the way you bought and rescued me, I mean.” He grinned at
Trin. “Of course, you’ll notice I didn’t mention anything about the way you
kept me chained to my bed for the next several days.”

“Or the way you tried to choke the life out of me,”
Trin reminded him but a little smile was playing around the corners of her
mouth. “Or the way you rescued me from B’Rugh and a fate worse than death.
Ugh
.”
She shivered.

“Well, she doesn’t need to know
everything
,”
Thrace
said.

“She especially doesn’t need to know that we’re
only together until we do this deal.” Trin spoke casually but her words caused
a strange hollow sensation somewhere in the pit of Thrace’s stomach. Which made no
sense.

“Of course, the deal,” he muttered, frowning.

“I’m worried about it,” Trin admitted. “I don’t
think Lady Malroth was too thrilled that we got her room
and
Lady
Tam-tam’s instant affection. It might ruin everything.”

“I doubt it,” Thrace remarked. “She seems like a
shrewd businesswoman and you’re offering good quality crystals for a very fair
price. She’ll still want the deal. Get her alone after the reception tonight
and talk to her then.”

“All right, I will. And I hope you’re right.” Trin
looked at him. “I know you hope so, too. Even though I’m not required to treat
you like dirt, this can’t be easy for you—being my slave and having to act like
you’re madly in love with me. I mean it’s just…silly.” She coughed.

“Uh-huh. Ridiculous,” Thrace said softly, though he
didn’t know who he was trying to convince—her or himself. “Anyway, we’ll be out
of here soon. Until then, let’s just play our parts. And let me find out how
we’re supposed to behave.” He let her small foot slip from his hands and stood
up. “Wish me luck, Mistress—I’m going on a fact finding mission. Or, if anyone
asks, I’m searching for some calming mint oil to rub into your temples because
you feel a headache coming on.”

Trin smiled. “You’re too much, Thrace. Okay, be careful. I think I
might just lay down here for a little while and take a nap.” She yawned. “I
don’t know why but I’m
so
sleepy.”

“Aftereffects of the passion berries,” Thrace
told her. “It’s all out of your system but it still leaves you feeling drained.
Sleep while you can, I’ll come back in time to wake you for the reception.”

“Okay…” Her eyes were already closing and her long,
black hair was spread over the blue and gold embroidered pillow. The thin lace
panels covering her breasts and sex showed her warm brown curves and her
beautiful face was tranquil and serene.

Thrace
couldn’t help thinking what a lovely sight she
made lying in the center of the sleeping platform like a princess out of an old
story. On impulse, he took her hand in his and bent to place a soft kiss in her
palm.

“Oh!” Trin opened her eyes and looked at him
uncertainly.

“Sleep well, Mistress,” he murmured. Then,
reluctantly, he let her go and left.

Chapter
Sixteen

“Wake up, baby. Time to get moving.”

The deep voice in her ear was familiar. But who
could be calling her ‘baby’? Everyone she knew called her by her surname, as
was the custom on Zetta Prime. Well, except for her mother who called her by
her first name, Lonnara. So who…

Thrace
. It’s Thrace,
a little voice in her head whispered. Sure enough,
when she opened her eyes, he was sitting beside her on the bed holding a
turquoise lace and Neptharian silk gown in his hands.

“What’s that?” Trin asked groggily. Goddess, she
felt like she’d been sleeping for a hundred cycles and her head throbbed like a
rotten tooth.

“Your outfit for tonight. I just resized it. Sit up
and put it on—the reception is in fifteen minutes.”

“That soon?” Trin sat up in a sudden panic but the
motion caused a spike of pain to pierce her brain. “Goddess of Judgment, my
head.”
She put a hand to her forehead and winced.

“Here. Hold still.” Large warm fingers were
suddenly at her temples, rubbing something cool and soothing into her throbbing
flesh.

“What’s that?” Trin muttered.

“Calming mint oil of course. Told you I was going
to get some. Breathe it in—it’ll help.”

“I thought that was just your cover story,” Trin
said, inhaling deeply as he instructed. A cool, faintly sweet scent reached her
nose at once. And to her relief, it
did
ease the headache. “That
does
help.” She looked at him. “Did you know I’d have a headache when I woke up?
More aftereffects of those damn passion berries?”

He nodded. “Afraid so.”

“Well how much longer am I going to keep having
them? Feeling so fatigued and waking up with my head pounding…” Trin frowned.
“I mean, it’s ridiculous—I barely took one tiny sip of that wine!”

“It was laced with
three
berries,” he
pointed out. “That’s enough for three people your size. “You’re just lucky you
didn’t drink any more.”

“But isn’t there a way to get rid of all of
it—after effects and all?” Trin demanded. “You should know—you said the passion
berries were native to your planet.”

He shrugged obliquely.

“Sure—the same thing that’s the only cure if you
take the second and third sips.”

Trin bit her lip. “You mean…penetration and…and
insemination?”

“Uh-huh.” His eyes were half-lidded now for some
reason and his deep voice was a soft growl.

“That’s…unnatural.” Trin felt her heart pound at
the thought…
I am one of the Unpenetrated. I have too much self respect to
allow such a thing. Besides it’s wrong.
Allowing a male to penetrate you
with his shaft was like a slap in the face of the Goddess—or so said the
priestesses who served in her temple. And while Trin had outgrown many of her
childhood beliefs, some were far too ingrained to get rid of. Not that she
wanted to. “It’s unthinkable,” she said firmly.

“Not for a lot of females,” Thrace pointed out. “It
is
the
way most people–hell, most species—reproduce, you know.”

“Well not
my
people,” Trin said sharply. “I
don’t want to be penetrated anymore than
you
do. It’s…wrong.”

He winced and sat back.

“Point taken. All right, let’s forget about it
then. I have plenty of mint oil if you get another headache.”

“Thank you.” She smiled at him. “That’s very
thoughtful. So what did you learn about our roles here?”

Thrace
shrugged. “Not that different from Yonnie Six,
really, except there’s no punishment involved. Well, no punishment by
pain
anyway.
I
am
still expected to wait on you hand and foot and drop to my knees
and kiss you to show reverence when we’re announced at the reception…that kind
of thing.”

“I’m sorry about that.” Trin bit her lip. When
she’d first had the idea to buy a male slave to act as her prop during
situations like this, she’d been thinking that males were big dumb brutes—more
animal than anything else—so the idea of one of them subjugating himself to her
in public hadn’t seemed like a big deal. After all, her stallion, Swift was
quick to come running and was happy to perform a few tricks for the treats she
always carried in her pocket. Trin had imagined training a slave much the same
way.

Now she
had
a slave—albeit a temporary
one—and she knew he was sharply intelligent as well as proud and strong. Asking
Thrace
to bow and scrape to her every whim seemed wrong…degrading.

Her feelings must have shown on her face because Thrace
took her hand in his and looked into her eyes.

“It’s all right—I don’t mind, Mistress.”

“How can you not?” Trin protested. “All this bowing
and kissing my foot in public…”

“It’s not your foot I’m supposed to kiss. Haven’t
you ever been to a Yonnite High Reception before?”

“Not one where I was announced. Why, what are you
supposed to kiss?” Trin felt a surge of apprehension.

Thrace
raised an eyebrow at her. “Your panties,
Mistress.”

“My
what?”
Trin’s heart started to pound.
“
I really don’t think—”

“Hey, it’s all right.” Thrace stroked a strand of hair out
of her eyes. “Listen, baby, I know you’ve never been kissed there so I promise
to be gentle.”

“I’m not a baby—I’m your Mistress,” Trin reminded
him a little sharply, though she secretly rather liked the sweet, caressing
name he called her when he forgot himself.

“Mistress, then. What I’m trying to say is, it’s
just a quick kiss—nothing too deep or intimate. A formality, really.”

“A formality,” Trin echoed doubtfully. “Well, I
guess…”

“It’ll be fine,” he assured her. “But right now,
you need to get ready or we’re going to be late.”

“All right, what am I wearing? That?” Trin eyed the
turquoise gown apprehensively. If anything it looked even more revealing than
the yellow gown she’d fallen asleep in.

“Afraid so,” Thrace said. “I checked and this is
the kind of dress all the mistresses are wearing to the reception tonight—the
latest Yonnite fashion. You probably won’t like it but it’s going to look
fucking gorgeous on you.”

Trin grimaced. “I hate it already.”

“At least the shoes have a lower heel,” he
remarked, showing her a pair of turquoise sandals with straps over the arch and
heel. “So they shouldn’t hurt your feet as much.”

“Anything but the boots I’m used to is probably
going to hurt,” Trin groused. She sighed. “All right—let’s get this over with.
Give me the dress and point me towards the fresher.”

Silently, Thrace complied.

After ten minutes of trying to get comfortable in
the new outfit, Trin looked down at herself and grimaced. She’d been right—the
gown
was
more revealing than the yellow one. Instead of a whole panel of
lace to cover her chest, it only had a thin rectangular strip which barely hid
her nipples and stretched tightly from side to side. It kept wanting to come
loose and Trin had to adjust it several times to get it to stay in place.

Below, the gown was no better. There was no lace
panel this time. Instead, the dress had a kind of strange draw-string type
feature which split the bottom part of it into puffy wings. When the
draw-string was pulled, the dress spread wide in front and back and only
covered the sides of her legs, leaving her ass and sex on display. This clearly
revealed the turquoise panties that matched the gown, much to Trin’s growing
dismay.