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“I’ve never felt anything like that. I…Idisappeared.I was lost, whirling away, out of control. My mind shut down, and my body turned into a voraciouscreature.Savage, crazed. I’m so sorry,” she wailed. “I behaved like an animal.”
Till now, she’d been composed. Unfeeling. Almost cold. Kaden sighed in relief. This, he could deal with. An emotional female, giving way to tears.
“No, Tajina. You behaved like a woman. A passionate, sensuous woman, reacting to lovemaking the way a woman is meant to react. The way a man loves to see and hear and feel.”
“You aren’t disgusted by my actions?”
“Disgusted? No. I’m delighted. Flattered.” He ground his hips against her ass so she could feel his cock stirring. “Aroused.”
She rolled over to look at him. “I don’t understand thesefeelingsyou seem to attach such importance to. Life is much calmer without constant physical and emotional sensory bombardment.”
He laughed. “My Tajina. So proper. So rational. I’m going to make it my mission to transform you into the warm, sensuous feline you’re named for.”
She sniffed. “I’m afraid your mission is doomed. Even if my brain was capable of collapsing into a mass of synapses firing off erratically, my training would override it. I have no desire to revert to such a primitive state.”
Kaden nestled her body against him and closed his eyes. He did love a challenge. And getting this stubborn Earther to embrace the passionate woman hidden inside her would be a challenge he’d welcome while he laid out the plans to complete his real mission in Petra.
Chapter Nine
AJ rolled out of bed, groaning.
She’d been in the Lyceum for a week and still wasn’t used to the mind-numbing schedule. Every morning she labored in the sewing room under the supervision of Hester, one of the Sacred Sisters. She was expected to design and create half a dozen elaborate garments to wear, as well as fashioning beaded headdresses and decorations for her tail.
Sewing was tedious and boring. She found it impossible to concentrate on the task. Hester was impossible to please, and AJ tore out nearly as many stitches as she put in. At this rate, it would take months to finish a single gown.
Figuring out a way to successfully complete her mission was always uppermost in her mind. So far, she hadn’t even been able to do any reconnaissance. Harlots were never alone. She slept in a room with five other harlots-in-training. When they weren’t sewing or taking lessons, the Sacred Sisters kept them busy day and night with domestic chores, treating the women as their personal servants. She seethed inside. As a commander in the Interstellar Forces, back on Earth she’d been the one in a position of power, giving orders rather than taking them.
At midday, all six trainees ate a simple meal, watched over by Sister Aliya. Afterward, they spent hours scrubbing and cleaning the Lyceum.
Every afternoon, all the women attended music classes. The harlots practiced songs together while those in training were forced to play scales over and over, learning the intricacies of fingering a wide variety of stringed instruments.
Petrans, it seemed, loved music. Harlots were expected to provide entertainment for General Tok at his evening meal, singing and playing for him and his guests. AJ’s fingers, sore from working sharp needles in and out of seams, refused to fly across the strings, earning her a paddling nearly every day from Miriam, the music teacher.
Spankings for playing wrong notes, spankings for sloppy stitches, spankings for serving cold tea. Not a day went by that she wasn’t ordered to bend over the nearest bench or chair, pull up her gown, and silently submit as one or the other of the Sisters whacked her bottom with one of the wooden paddles they always carried for just that purpose.
After music lessons, her attendance was required at dinner. Harlots in training did not dine with the others. Instead, they acted as servants, standing in silence behind the long table in the refectory until summoned by one of the Sacred Sisters to fetch more bread or wine. Wine flowed generously at the evening meal, since the Sisters knew harlots would perform their duties more willingly when their mood was enhanced by potent spirits.
After acting as serving wenches, AJ and the other trainees had only a few minutes to gulp down their own dinner before the evening session began.
She hated those sessions more than anything else. Each of the Sisters would summon a trainee to her private quarters. Last night, AJ had been sent to Sister Miriam for the first time. She was young by Earth standards, probably no more than fifty. But without the hormone injections Earth women received, a female of her age was no longer considered desirable on Neodyma. The skin on her face had a few wrinkles, and her figure was not as trim as it had once been, so she’d been designated a Sacred Sister.
Some of the Sisters welcomed their new position, since it meant they no longer had to spend their nights pleasuring an endless stream of strange men. But Miriam seemed to resent the harlots in training. She’d been especially cruel to all of them in class and AJ dreaded being alone with the woman, nervous of what might be in store for her.
Fearing the punishment Miriam might dole out if she were even a few minutes late, AJ left most of her dinner untouched and raced down the hall. She took a moment to catch her breath then knocked on the door.
“Enter.” Miriam’s voice was cold.
AJ stepped into the room, eyes properly downcast. “I am here for my training session, Sister.”
“I know that,” the woman snapped. “Do not speak again unless I ask you a question.”
AJ bit off a retort. Miriam was in an especially vicious mood. She wore her usual garb – a long gown, this one deep blue. Plunging low in front to draw attention to her still shapely breasts, it artfully concealed a thickening waistline. Her long dark hair was twisted into an elaborate design, pinned in place by combs decorated with colorful beads and crystals.
Miriam inspected her, pinching her nipples, plucking at the folds of her only gown, the black one she’d been given on her first night. The woman gave a sharp tug on her long braid.
“Give me your device then bend across that bench.”
AJ handed over the metal probe and leather straps she was required to bring to every private session then went to the bench. Each of the Sacred Sisters had her own private quarters. They had free rein in decorating their personal spaces, choosing from a dazzling array of goods merchants brought to the Citadel as tribute to General Tok. Whatever he didn’t want, he sent to the Lyceum.
