Pleasure & Pain: Chapter Ten

I awake on the large bed, naked and alone. I feel empty without the pain the robe provided.

I sit up and look around once more, noticing details that I had been too distracted to pay attention to previously.

Little things such as the marble desk and small food prep station, the style and coloring of the other furniture. Even the color and texture of the sheets. It all gives me a strange feeling of having been here before.

It feels like someone rummaged through my head, and found all the details I would want in the perfect room, and then made it for me here.

I swing my legs out of the bed, and there kneeling before me is Nethi. Her legs tucked under her, her head bowed.

I smile at the sight of her, and can feel my desire for her. "Nethi! I have missed you."

"How may I be of service to you Milord?"

As she says these words I feel a surge of lust flow through me, yet of more immediate concern to me is the fact that she refuses to look at me. "Nethi, why won't you look at me?"

In the Force, I can feel the sorrow coming off of her now. "It is not proper for a sl-slave to look upon her Master without leave."

I push down the feelings of power, control and dominance those words invoke in me. "Slave?"

"Yes, Lady Lumiya has g-given me to you, to do with as you wish, t-t-to do as you wish."

"Nethi, look at me please."

She raises her head at my bidding, and I am once more mesmerized by her eyes, that shade of green sings to me. I see the unshed tears in her eyes, and can feel her fear and sadness in the Force.

A large part of me revels in that fear.

I look at her, and place my hand on the side of her face. She leans into my hand, her eyes closing, and a look of peace crossing her features.

"Can we please not change our relationship? Can we pretend I'm still in the other room, and you're the pretty girl that comes and takes care of me?"

She opens her eyes, and those unshed tears, threaten to fall. "Okay."

I notice her lip is trembling. I slip out of the bed and slide to the floor and kiss her, hold her.

Then the threatened tears do start to flow.

I hold her as she cries the tears out, and falls asleep in my arms.

I pick her up and lay her on the bed, and go to the wardrobe. Opening it, I find about a dozen outfits. All black, all cut along military lines, tunic, pants, and boots. I sigh slightly, as I was hoping for my robe or one like it.

I quickly dress, and find a holster and belt. I slip those on as well, and open a drawer to find a blaster.

I frown slightly at the wardrobe. I frown not because something is missing, but because everything in it is placed in what I would consider a natural position. As if I had put away everything.

I close the doors to the wardrobe with a frown on my face, and hear a rustle from the direction of the bed.

I turn, and Nethi is sitting up, looking abashed. "I'm sorry I lost control like that."

I give her a smile, wondering if someone had been giving her lessons in basic. Her Vong accent, they way they use odd or arcane words and syntax, seemed less pronounced as she spoke that time.

I shake my head to clear my thoughts and focus on what she's saying. "Milord, please get undressed again; Lady Lumiya made it clear you should bathe prior to your next audience with her. I'll go draw your bath."

As she finishes talking, she slips off the bed and rushes into the refresher and I can hear the bath being drawn.

I realize I'm smiling and it takes me a second to figure out why.

I could see her toes.

I strip as I walk to the refresher, and catch sight of myself in a floor to ceiling mirror. I can understand now why Lumiya demanded I take a bath. Looking closer at my reflection I realize that I am about the same age as when I died at Mrykr, maybe two or three years older. I give my reflection a smirk and turn towards the tub, but see it still empty.

I continue my turn, and see Nethi standing next to a second, larger, sunken tub, more of a hutt bath than anything else. Yet it is not the tub that has my attention.

As I watch her, she releases her shift, and I watch as it slips down her body. I just admire her trim, athletic figure, and notice that she has very few scars; in fact the most prominent ones are the three on her forehead marking her as domain Kwaad.

She slips into the water and holds out her hand. "Come, it is time for your bath."

I take her hand, and slip into the water after her. I walk over to her, and taking her other hand, wrap my arms around her, pinning her arms behind her. She looks up at me, her green eyes holding a confused, expectant expression as I claim her lips.

As I claim her.

All thoughts of bathing are banished from my mind.