“And now we simply follow the lights!” T’lle Vos’don grinned at Cassie again. “They will take us directly to your bed chamber, Mistress!”
“How amazing!” Cassie exclaimed, not having to pretend to be amazed at all. “And how useful—I wish the buildings back on my home world had light guides like this.”
She thought of the time her father had gotten his gall bladder removed in Tampa General Hospital, a sprawling building that took up a large chunk of Davis Island. She and her mother had gotten lost twice going to visit him after the operation. A light guidance system like this would be really good in a big, confusing place like that.
“It is extremely useful, but please remember that it’s not commonly known,” T’lle Vos’don warned her. “Please don’t use it if anyone is around. It’s strictly for those late-night vid-shoots when you’re trying to find your way back to your room and there’s no one about to ask directions.”
“Of course—I’ll be discrete,” Cassie promised.
“Thank you. And now…here we are at your room. Just press your hand to the panel in the middle to open it. It will automatically key to your palm print and not allow anyone else to enter.”
They had turned the corner and ended up in front of a door with a number on it in a hallway filled with doors that were exactly alike. It reminded Cassie of a hotel back on Earth—except the carpet in the corridor appeared to be alive. It was a soft, cushiony moss that was bright red in some patches and orange and brown in others like autumn leaves.
“Thank you,” she said to T’lle Vos’don again. “You’ve been most kind.”
“I’m just looking forward to seeing more of your work, my dear.” He bowed to her formally. “My best wishes for a good night’s sleep. In the morning if you’re hungry, simply follow the other actors to the humanoid Dining Hall.”
Then he nodded again and whisked away, leaving Cassie alone with her partner, feeling awkward in a way she never had before.
Twenty-Eight
“Well, we passed the first hurtle,” Stone remarked, after checking their bed chamber thoroughly for bugs and vid devices and assuring himself they weren’t being watched or listened to. “We got the job without blowing our cover.”
“Yes, I guess we did.” Cassandra shot him an unreadable glance and then looked away, her cheeks slightly pink.
Stone frowned.
“Is there something wrong?”
“Wrong? No, of course not,” she denied quickly. “This is a nice room, isn’t it? Look—we even have a floating beanbag bed. Never seen one of those before.”
She drifted over to the immense mattress which was shaped rather like the human chair called a “beanbag” and stroked its side. It had a shiny golden cover on it and it was hovering about a meter up in the air. It looked big enough for two, but Stone wasn’t sure they ought to share it. For one thing, it might look strange if a Mistress invited her body-slave to sleep with her.
And for another thing, you might not be able to keep your hands off her, whispered a disapproving voice in his head. What came over you, telling her exactly how you feel for her and how much you want her as you were giving her a massage? What were you thinking, Stone?
The answer, of course, was that he hadn’t been thinking. He had allowed his feelings for Cassandra to run away with him and had done and said some very unwise things as a consequence.
But maybe it was time to let his feelings for her out—time to take a chance, Stone thought. He had smelled her desire for him as he touched her and felt the way her body reacted. Her soft little pussy had been glistening with her juices as he massaged her. Maybe it was time to take a chance.
I have to tell her, he thought. Have to tell her how I really feel—how I’ve felt from the very beginning.
“Cassandra,” he began.
But at the exact same time, she said,
“Stone, we need to talk.”
Stone nodded, his heart thumping in his chest. What was she going to say? That she liked the way he touched her? Or that she never wanted him to touch her again?
“Why do we not have a seat?” he asked, motioning to the sitting area across from the floating bed. It had a long, low couch which was also covered in gold fabric and the same multicolored moss that had carpeted the hallway was on the floor.
“Okay.” Cassandra went to sit on one end of the couch and Stone sat on the other, careful to give her some space.
“Please, go ahead,” he told her, once they were settled. “I’m listening—what do you want to talk about?”
“About…about what happened during our, uh, job interview.” Cassandra bit her lush lower lip, as though uncertain how to go on. “I…I had to touch you, uh, intimately and then you had to do the same thing to me during the ‘massage.’”
“We knew intimate touching might be a possibility when we agreed to play these roles,” Stone pointed out.
“Yes, I know…” She nibbled her lower lip some more, clearly unsure how to go on.
Stone wondered what it would be like to taste her lips, to feel her mouth opening for him in a kiss… Maybe now was the time to admit that he wanted to do much more than just touch her—maybe he should let her know that he wanted to make love to her and bond her to him forever.
But Cassandra still had the uncertain look on her face.
“Is it a problem for you—what happened between us?” he asked, frowning. “I’m assuming you would rather have me touch you than allow Gozeriam to violate you as he was his guards.”
Cassandra made a face.
“Oh, God! Of course I’d rather have you!” she exclaimed. “It’s just…I’m really worried this will ruin our partnership…our friendship.”
“Our friendship?” The word sounded flat and dull to Stone—he wanted so much more than just friendship with her! Finally being allowed to touch her beautiful body had taught him that.
And yet, he reminded himself, Cassandra only saw him as a friend. And she had told her ex-mate that she could never see him as anything else. He’d been hoping that their experience tonight might have awakened her to other possibilities but maybe not.
“Yes, our friendship,” she repeated earnestly. Leaning towards him, she put a hand on his arm. “Stone, you’re my best friend—the best friend I’ve ever had and that’s important to me. I don’t want to ruin that by…doing the things we’ve been doing on this mission.”
Stone shook his head.
“How could being together on this mission ruin our friendship?”
“Because when you bring sex into a friendship, it almost always kills the friendship!” she exclaimed. “I mean, I’ve tried the ‘friends with benefits’ thing before and it just doesn’t work.”
Stone frowned. “Friends with benefits? I don’t understand.”
“It’s…a human term for when you bring sex into a friendship. I tried it in college once. I had a great friend, Gil. We’d been friends since high school and we even decided to go to the same college. We shared an apartment and everything and got along so well and then…” She shook her head. “Well, then we decided we could have it all. We agreed to add sex into the mix. And almost immediately things got awkward.”