“Yes, sir,” Kade said, with a sassy edge to his voice. He slid out from beneath the sheets and moved so he was kneeling between my legs. Then he slowly tugged the blanket down to reveal my cock, still modestly contained within my briefs. I was only half hard, but I was sure that would change soon enough.
Watching me closely, he stroked his fingers over the bulge in my underwear, then tugged my briefs down and off, with the same slow, precise movements. Once they were out of the way, he wrapped his talented fingers around my cock. I loved the contrast of his deep, ocean blue against the brown of my skin.
He leaned down to slide the tip of my cock into his mouth, and I moaned in appreciation. “Mm, yeah, just like that,” I encouraged him. I nestled myself back into the pillows, shifting my hips down the bed a fraction. Kade picked up on my mood easily; I wanted a slow, lazy orgasm, not a frantic rush to the peak, and he worked his head up and down, his tongue swirling over the tip, his hand reaching down to cup my balls. “Oh, fuck, yes…” I muttered, feeling the pleasure build in slow waves. “You do that so well.”
I reached down to stroke his hair while he worked, rubbing back and forth over the soft strands, then playing with the tips of his ears a little. For all that he was the one blowing me, this was ultimately more about him. I needed to reward him for his hard work over the last couple of days, and for what was to come tomorrow as well. I needed to remind him that I loved him, and that he was important and valued.
Kade hummed a little as he sucked me deeper, and I caught him sneaking his hand down to stroke himself while he worked. Most dimari wouldn’t dare to be so brazen, but I’d long ago given Kade permission to pleasure himself, and to climax as and when he was ready. I was aware that a lot of dimari owners – those not part of the Alliance, at least – used the dimari’s orgasms as a method of control, only allowing them to climax if they’d done something particularly worthy of a reward. But that level of subjugation had never appealed to me.
Long minutes later, I felt my climax building, and I murmured, “Oh, fuck… A bit faster… Yeah, that’s it…” Kade increased both the pressure and the tempo, and about thirty seconds later, I came hard into his mouth, my hips jerking, my legs trembling a little.
Once I was finished, Kade sat back on his heels, a satisfied smirk on his lips and his prominent erection still jutting out from his groin. He would have been perfectly fine with me leaving things there. The dimari were taught to neverexpectto be allowed to come, and he wouldn’t question it if I simply decided to roll over and go to sleep.
“Stroke yourself,” I told him, seeing the coiled anticipation in his large body. “Let me watch you come.”
He eased backward, putting a bit of space between us, then leaned back on his left hand, using his right to stroke his very rigid cock. He was still on his knees, his feet tucked underneath him, giving me a prime view of his groin. He worked himself slowly, an occasional groan or curse escaping his lips, and I watched with rapt attention as he finally tensed, his hips thrusting into his own hand, his essence dribbling through his fingers.
“Nicely done,” I praised him with a grin. “A very good show.” The praise was important. I’d genuinely enjoyed watching him, but once again, that hadn’t really been the point of the exercise.I reached for the box of tissues on the nightstand and handed it to him as he caught his breath. Once he’d cleaned himself up, I patted the bed beside me and he slid gracefully back under the sheets, settling in so that his hip was pressed against mine.
I was tired enough that I could have gone to sleep right then and there, but there was one last thing I wanted to do first. I activated the link to the conference room camera again, needing to check that everything was okay with the dimari before I turned in for the night.
When the feed came up on the screen, I could see that the room looked a little different from the way it had last night. Four of the mattresses had been removed, and the four remaining ones were lined up against the far wall. The lights were out – Soka had assigned one of the night security guards to come and tell the dimari when it was time to go to bed, and to turn off the lights at the same time. But the cameras were still able to pick up the shapes in the room, and I checked each of the beds. Three of them had distinct shapes curled up underneath the blankets, the dimari either asleep, or attempting to fall asleep. But Jai, once again, was acting out from the rest of the group. He was sitting cross-legged on his bed, staring at the far wall. He wasn’t moving, wasn’t creating any trouble, wasn’t making any noise. But he was most definitelynotattempting to go to sleep.
“What are you doing?” I muttered to myself, staring at the image on the screen. “Why are you so out of step with everyone else?”
Beside me, Kade was watching the screen with equal interest. I heard his breath hitch, just the faintest little sound, but it was enough to make me turn to him. “What is it?” I asked. “You notice something?”
“Maybe. I’m not certain. It seems very unlikely, particularly for someone who has completed their training. But I can’t help thinking that when dimari are a bit younger and are still learningthe importance of obedience, there can be a tendency to try to defy our trainers. Because of the neuro-engineering process, it’s not possible to do anything terribly outlandish. But some dimari will rebel in very subtle ways. They’ll deliberately burn a meal, or if they’re in a flight simulator, they’ll crash their plane. Or,” he added, glancing at the screen again, “they know they’re supposed to go to bed at a particular time, but they won’t do so until they’re explicitly told to. Like I said, it would be a very odd thing for a fully trained dimari to be doing. But without talking to Jai directly, my best guess at what his behaviour means would be simple defiance.”
I raised my eyebrows, a cold thread of alarm running through me. “Defiance? There’s nothingsimpleabout defiance in a dimari. And besides which, what the hell would he be rebelling against? He hasn’t even met his master yet.”
“I honestly have no idea,” Kade said. “It’s entirely possible I’m wrong. We should be able to find out far more once he’s bonded to his master. But…” He shrugged, his expression a touch helpless as he did so. “Based off everything I know about dimari training, that’s what it looks like to me.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
JAI
It was the morning of the third day since we’d arrived on this new planet, the second morning of waking in this bland room. The lady with the black and yellow stripes came back again, telling us to shower and to eat breakfast, and we obeyed, because that’s what we’d been trained to do. Obedience was fundamental to a dimari’s life.
Once we were all dressed and the breakfast trays had been taken away, my companions once more lined themselves up neatly at the end of their beds, waiting for their masters to arrive. Four had been taken away yesterday, and in all likelihood, I would never see them again. None of us knew where we would end up, once our training was complete, but we were all taught to avoid forming close friendships with our fellow trainees. There was no point pining for a childhood friend if we were destined to end up on opposite sides of the galaxy.
I contemplated standing at the end of my bed, like the others were doing. The posture and the presentation were designed to make as good a first impression on our masters as possible. And most dimari wanted to impress their new masters. Ignoringthe insistent tug ofobedience, I took a slow look around the room. Where could I go, and what could I do, that would beless, somehow? Something that my master would very slightly disapprove of? I could sit down on the bed. I’d done that several times yesterday, instead of standing. It wasn’t laziness. My body was conditioned to be able to stand for hours at a time, for days on end. But I’d already performed that minor act of defiance against my hypothetical master. Today, I wanted to do something different.
But what? My brain was in a fog, thanks to the Eumadians’ neuro-engineering machine. Thinking was difficult. Putting plans together was impossible. I could come up with no other alternatives that made any sense; stand, as I was meant to, or sit on the nearest thing I could see.
Perhaps if I moved to a different part of the room, I might be able to see something else, something that had so far escaped my notice.
I turned around and took three steps, in no particular direction except that it was away from the bed. I looked at the far wall. It was white. I looked at the door. It was closed. I took another two steps and an object appeared in my view. It was a table. Was there anything interesting I could do with a table? No, I didn’t think so.
But next to the table was a chair. Several chairs, in fact. These were the chairs we’d sat on during breakfast. Sitting at a table to eat breakfast was a perfectly normal activity, and I’d complied because the black and yellow lady had told us all to sit down and eat breakfast.
But no one was telling me what to do now.
I could sit on one of the chairs.
I felt a cold thrill of fear run through me, and I almost obeyed my impulse to retreat to my bed and stand at the end of it, like a good, obedient dimari.
But I did not want to be good. I did not want to be obedient. I did not want my new master to be pleased with me.
