“Now look, Lilli,” her mother instructed when Karn was back in position. “You must examine a male from every angle when choosing a bodyslave. Remember, this choice will reflect on you and me and our entire house!”
“Yes, Mother,” Lilli murmured, looking up at Karn.
He caught her eyes again and winked gravely, making her giggle. When Mistress Mirabella turned to give her a reproving look, she hid her smile with her hand and turned it into a cough.
“Yes, yes…very nice. Excellent lines. Very good form.” Lady Mirabella circled the pedestal, nodding as she took in Karn from all angles. He thought that he had never felt so much like a piece of meat in his life, but the fact that Lilli was looking up at him with wide-eyed wonder instead of the jaded eyes of a long-time bodyslave owner made a difference.
He had been prepared to endure being “owned” as part of this assignment. Now he thought he might actually enjoy it—or at least, enjoy being close to Lilli. If, that was, he could get her mother to buy him.
“I like what I see,” Mistress Mirabella announced at last, after she had circled him three times. “But I want to know about his temperament. How long has he been a bodyslave? It’s well known that Kindred make excellent bodyslaves if they’re captured young enough.”
“Oh, he was captured as a child and raised to it,” Mistress Tikka said quickly. “So he’s very docile—unless, of course, your daughter was threatened in which case he can be very protective,” she added.
“I see. That’s good—very good.” Mistress Mirabella nodded, as though this ticked another box on her invisible bodyslave checklist. “He’s a fine specimen,” she added. “There’s just one more thing—I need to see his shaft erect. For display purposes only, of course.”
This was something Karn had been dreading. He didn’t mind being put on display—even naked. But he disliked the idea of a female he didn’t know or care for handling his shaft. Still, there was nothing to do but grit his teeth and bear it.
Clenching his fists behind his back, he widened his stance and waited as Mistress Mirabella took a firm grasp of his shaft. Her hand was cold as ice and bony as a skeleton’s claw.
His shaft absolutely refused to respond to it.
Doggedly, Mistress Mirabella kept trying. But no matter how much she rubbed and tugged, Karn’s shaft stayed stubbornly limp.
Damn it! Karn clenched his teeth and willed himself to get hard. He had never had this problem before. But then again, he’d never been handled by a female he didn’t want. This was definitely a complication he hadn’t expected.
“What’s wrong with him?” Mistress Mirabella demanded at last, dropping his shaft and wiping her hands on a lace handkerchief fastidiously. “Are you trying to sell me a defective bodyslave, Tikka? I won’t have a male in my household that can’t get hard—what would my friends say if they saw such a thing?”
“Mother, can…could I try?” Lilli asked while Mistress Tikka sputtered out an explanation about how this usually wasn’t a problem. “I think maybe…maybe he might react for me?”
“An inexperienced girl like yourself? Why, you’ve never touched a shaft in your life!” Mistress Mirabella gave a snort, as though this was a stupid idea.
“Please?” Lilli begged. “I think I can do it.”
Mistress Mirabella shrugged.
“Well, he is supposed to be your bodyslave—if we buy him,” she remarked. “So I suppose you ought to learn how to care for him. Go on, Lilli—give him a try. But mind you, if he won’t rise for your touch, we’ll have to find another. We can’t have a male we can’t display when we go out.”
“Yes, Mother,” Lilli murmured, but her eyes were on Karn’s again. “Can I?” she asked him, reaching one small hand towards his shaft.
“Don’t be ridiculous, you don’t ask a bodyslave if you can touch him, Lilliana—you just touch him!” Mistress Mirabella exclaimed.
But Lilli’s small hand hovered in place and didn’t move until Karn gave her a slight nod.
Slowly, tentatively, she stroked her fingers lightly down his length. It was a soft, ticklish touch, but Karn felt it like flames licking over his skin.
At once, blood began to rush to his shaft and he felt himself begin to harden. He had a moment of relief—when Mistress Mirabella had been yanking on him, he’d wondered for a moment if his equipment was broken. The relief was followed by a burst of pure lust as Lilli’s soft little hand came back to stroke him again, more fully this time.
“Oh,” she whispered. “He’s so big.”
“A very good length and girth.” Mistress Mirabella admitted grudgingly. “Another Kindred trait, of course.”
“What’s that, though?” Lilli asked.
Looking down, Karn saw she was pointing at his mating fist—the thick swelling that went all around the base of his shaft. It was from his Beast Kindred side, as the fangs were from the Blood Kindred part of his family.
“My mating fist, Little Mistress,” he said, answering her question since Mistress Tikka clearly had no idea. “It proclaims the Beast Kindred part of my heritage as my fangs proclaim the Blood Kindred part.”
Lady Mirabella frowned.
“It’s most unsightly! And you never told me he was a half-breed, Tikka.”
“No, it’s not!” Lilli objected, frowning at her mother. “It’s part of him, Mother. And I don’t care if he’s a half-breed—I want him!”
“Those eyes, though…” Mistress Mirabella shook her head. “One blue and one gold? So strange…”
“I like his eyes,” Lilli insisted. “I think they’re beautiful.”
“Well…he’s going to be your responsibility,” her mother warned. “You’ll have to bathe him and train him and see that he’s fed. And if your friends laugh at his unusual physique, it will be too late to take him back.”
“I don’t care what any of them think.” Lilli frowned. “They’re not really my friends—they’re just the daughters of your friends, Mother. I never met any of them before last week when you brought me home from the convent.”
“Well…” Mistress Mirabella sighed. “Just as you please, I suppose,” she said. She looked at Mistress Tikka. “How much? We’ll take him.”
Three
Lilli wished she could ride in the back of the ship with her new bodyslave but her mother had said that was “inappropriate” so she had to be content to sit in the front and just catch glimpses of him in the rear-viewer.
Every time the big Kindred caught her watching him, he looked right back at her with an unwavering gaze. Lilli tried to hold his eyes with her own, but she found she couldn’t meet the intensity of his gaze for long and had to look away.
Deep down, she knew this wasn’t proper. A bodyslave wasn’t supposed to look a Mistress in the face. A well-trained one would look down at the ground when addressing a superior female and never, ever look her in the eyes. But Lilli found she liked the boldness of his stare and the way he dared to look at her right in the face. It was like a secret between them—a naughty little mystery that only she could solve.