“I won’t be gone any of the night,” he answered with a laugh, seemingly glad I was back to starting up with him. “The girls I’ll be covering will be brought to me here, and we’ll be using the bedroom. You’ll come in to sleep there after they’ve gone so I can get to you in the morning, but until then we’ve got to find some place to put you. I’d enjoy having you around to watch me perform, but after a day like today I won’t be up to any more than those three—which means you won’t be able to get in line. If I want you to sleep—which I do—I have to put you somewhere until I’m through.”
“If you’re asking whether I’d prefer this visitors’ room or the kitchen, I have to tell you that’s not much of a choice,” I said, looking around the giant room wed stopped in without much enthusiasm. “There isn’t anything to do in either place, but I suppose in here I can curl up on a couch until your admirers leave. I am a little tired, so . . .“ ‘
“So we don’t want you bothered by all that traffic going in and out,” he finished for me, suddenly back to showing a very wide grin. “We need a place where you won’t be disturbed while you spend your time missing me, waiting breathlessly until you can return to my side. I have a feeling you will end up hoping it isn’t all night.”
“Kel-Ten, what are you going to do?” I demanded as he took my hand again, already beyond suspicion. I knew he was going to do something I’d hate, and I wasn’t wrong. Rather than answer me he simply led the way to the golden bathroom, stopped in the middle of the room, then pointed to the floor.
“Belly down with the front panel smooth underneath you,” he ordered, his blue eyes gleaming from all the fun he was having. He knew I had no choice but to do as I was told, and he was absolutely correct-no matter how I detested that position. I refrained from muttering under my breath as I got into it, but then he crouched down beside me to make it even worse. His hands took the back panel and folded it neatly upward until it reached my waist, then he left the roll of material there as he straightened again.
“Now anyone coming in here to make use of the facilities will have a pretty, round bottom to look at while they do,” he said, the laughter in his voice showing he knew I couldn’t keep myself from blushing with embarrassment. “The girls could come in or I could—or I might even invite a few friends over simply to see how I’ve decorated this room. Are you still hoping my-date-will take all night?”
“What I’m hoping is that you suddenly find yourself impotent!” I snapped, furious with him for doing that to me. He didn’t have to tell me I’d be staying like that until his rings were gone; that went without saying, something I wished he would do.
“Have fun while you’re waiting for your first visitor,” he said with a chuckle, bending to pat my bottom before beginning to leave. “And try not to blush so hard, I’d hate to see my carpeting singed.”
The door closed behind his high good humor, cutting it off rather abruptly, something I would have preferred seeing happen to him. Telling me to stop blushing had only made the problem worse, just as he’d known damned well it would. I leaned on my elbows as I looked down at the carpeting between my arms, trying to convince myself that there wouldn’t be anyone coming in to see me like that. He’d only been trying to torture me for not appreciating him properly, or at least for saying I didn’t. I was sure he thought I really found him absolutely irresistible, just like every other female in that place. If that had been the only point he was dead wrong about, things might not have been all that impossible around there.
It took a while for the extreme embarrassment I felt to fade, but I had the while and then some. I’d been listening hard for the arrival of the women, just to know when my actual wait would start, so I heard the faint sound of giggling in more than one voice pass my door. The next few minutes after that were hard, agonizing over the possibility that he would bring them in to look at me and laugh, but enough time passed that the chance of it became more and more remote. I really hated being put on display like that, humiliated so that someone could enjoy my discomfort and embarrassment, but it looked like I’d gotten away with—
“Oh, now that’s what I call considerate,” a voice said from behind me, a very soft voice that I still had no trouble recognizing even as it froze me where I lay. “Someone knew how bored I’d be, so they left me a toy of my own to play with. I really will have to find out who it was and thank them.”
People who talk about feeling terror spreading through them are ones who have never experienced the real thing. Terror doesn’t spread; it appears full-grown in every muscle of your body, turning you to quivering liquid, turning your mind numb and dead, turning your flesh cold and trembling. I didn’t have to look around to know it was the null Adjin who had come in, and my fingers closed convulsively in the carpeting under my hands.
“Just between you and me, I was expecting to find a toy of my own to play with,” the null said, his voice still very soft but now much closer. “When I saw who I’d be escorting those girls to, I knew there would be someone around with nothing to occupy her. Since I hate seeing idleness and waste, I made certain arrangements to be sure nothing would be wasted, especially not the opportunity. We have this time to ourselves now, but let’s just make sure the Prime isn’t disturbed while he’s seeing to his duty.”
By then he was so close I could hear the sound of his uniform as he moved, and then the roll of material lying on my back was lifted away. If my throat had been able to break through the ice closing it off I would have screamed, and it quickly became clear that he knew it. A moment later the now-unrolled material was in front of my face, his big hand wadding it up, and then the wad was thrust into my mouth. He didn’t want me screaming, at least not then, and had taken steps to be sure I couldn’t.
What happened after that is a memory I would love losing forever, even to forced oblivion. There was no doubt he’d made special preparations for that visit, ones that suited the sort of personality he was. I’d been expecting him to take physical advantage of me and he did just that, but not in the way I’d been anticipating. He’d brought along a pack of sharp, tiny pins, small metal clamps, and a number of feet of thin, rough rope that felt as though it were cutting my skin open even though it really wasn’t. He began by tying my wrists together behind me, and then I was turned to my back for the real start of his fun. Before he began I had no true idea of just how sensitive the “sensitive” portions of the human body are, but before he was very far into it I had learned the lesson all too thoroughly. Clamps produce pain without leaving marks, pin holes can’t be detected easily even when you can feel the burning agony, and thin, sharp rope discourages you from pulling against it in an effort to escape it all. I couldn’t even scream full out, let alone escape, and that made it infinitely better for the null.
By the time he was through with me and the rope was gone I was no longer even whimpering, the red flame of pain encircling me so completely that all I could do was lie unmoving on the carpeting with my eyes closed. Some men enjoy giving nothing but pain, a quiet voice in my numbed mind told me, they can’t find pleasure of their own unless they’re hurting someone. This one knew that any damage he did would be the next thing to invisible, and that I would most likely not try proving it had happened without supporting physical evidence. The carpeting was silky soft under my left cheek, a grotesque counterpoint to the way the rest of me shrieked, and then I felt a finger gently stroking my right cheek.
“I’ll knock on the door on my way out with the girls,” the null whispered, his voice heavy with extreme satisfaction. “You’ll stay exactly where you are until then, and won’t make a fuss either now or later. The only thing a fuss will bring you is trouble, and I think you know that. Next time we’ll probably do something different, to make sure neither of us gets bored. We’ll just have to see.”