by Robin Roseau
She got the rope around my wrist, but I pulled free before she could tie it. We struggled, and she lost my wrist, but she struggled with the rope, wrapping it around a second time.
I managed to get my other hand up, trying to peel the rope away. She let me, but she climbed up me a little further, tightening her legs again.
And then pressed her chest into my face, giggling.
I froze like that, barely able to breathe. I couldn’t turn my head, as I’d be drinking resin if I did. I tried bucking her off, but all I did was splash resin.
And I needed air.
And all Dee did was stay there, giggling the entire time.
I needed air. I used my free hand, squirming it between us, opening an air gap, panting heavily.
And she managed to tie off my wrist.
“There we go,” she said. She bent her neck and kissed my forehead. “Good girl, Sa. Can you breathe?”
“Barely,” I admitted.
“Your hair is red, and much of your face, that I can see.”
“I can feel it, Dee.”
“Having fun?”
“Yes.”
She giggled again. “You won’t get free now.” She paused. “I imagine you could hurt me.”
“I wouldn't.”
“I know. You could get free that way, couldn’t you?”
“Yes, but that would be… That would be terrible of me, Dee.”
“And you’re not at all terrible. I’ve beaten you, Sa and that means I get your next event.”
“But you promise to teach me.”
“I will. We’re going to make it longer, though, so I can teach you. I’ll think about it, but you’ll do whatever I decide.”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Time for me to capture your other hand,” she said. “Or you could just give it to me.”
“I don’t think so.”
She squirmed, pressing against me heavily. I struggled to keep my arm free while ensuring I could breathe. She got her arm inside my elbow and then peeled my arm away. She grabbed my wrist, and I was breathing her chest again.
Then she just held me until I went limp. At that, she lifted, and I panted heavily. After that, she controlled my air, but she had little trouble tying off my second wrist.
My legs were no trouble for her at all.
Then she lay down with me, on her side now. We kissed. She was so sweet. She touched me, using a finger to trace patterns with the resin. She teased, just a little. I watched her, still panting.
Then Olivia was kneeling beside the trench. “Dee.”
“I know,” Dee said. “She looks so lovely like this.”
“She does,” Olivia agreed. “Sa, are you still with us?”
I shifted my gaze. “Yes. Is everyone else okay?”
“Corale is nearly as lost as you are,” she said. “They’re fine.”
“Whoever claims Valsine should be kind to her.”
“We’re always kind, Sa. You know that.”
“If Dee is so gone she can’t free Corale, she hasn’t entirely won.”
Dee laughed, then bent and kissed me. “I get you next,” she whispered. “We’re going to do something very, very delicious.”
“Good.”
Then she stood and walked away. I stared after her, but then Olivia turned my face towards her. “You look like you have something to say,” I observed.
“Did you let Dee win?”
“I held back so I wouldn’t hurt her. I might have done better, but not while maintaining control. Mariya hasn’t exactly been teaching me not to hurt someone.”
She smiled. “I imagine not. Allium can beat you.”
“I won’t hold back as much with her, or she with me. But she’d never engage in something like this with me.”
“Probably not.”
We talked. It took a few minutes. Olivia looked up. “You could still beat Corale. You’ve been coming down a little. You gave Dee permission to untie her, but not help her beyond that.”
“She can help her come here,” I said. “But after that, if she’s not making progress, someone should untie me.”
“Fair enough.” She lifted her voice. “Dee, guide her here, then go decide who you’re going to claim.”
It was another minute. Dee didn’t have to carry Corale, but she had an arm around her waist and was guiding her. Corale collapsed near the trench, kneeling over me. But then she crawled forward, climbing into the trench with me.
“It’s still in me,” she whispered. “But I brought another one.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Olivia said.
* * * *
Corale moved languidly. She teased me, more slowly than I had teased her. But then I said, “Take off your shift.”
“In a minute.” And then she was pressing at me. I squirmed, and the device entered. She slowly, so slowly slid it home, smiling, and I became lost to it.
When next I opened my eyes, Corale was above me. Her eyes were closed. My shift was also gone. She was red to her neck, but I felt I was, too.
And then my mind faded away again, and it wasn’t until later I learned the final results.
* * * *
I lay on my side. I was holding someone. I opened my eyes.
Corale. In red resin. But I saw my arm, also in red resin.
“Mmm,” someone said. “I wondered if you would wake up.”
I turned my head. “Renalla,” I whispered. “I don’t understand.”
“Corale won,” she said. “Normally, the magic releases the winner. The resin flows away. She might be pretty gone, but she comes to herself eventually. That didn’t happen. Allium finally stepped over, and then she called me over.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I claimed Co,” she said. “You belong to her; she belongs to me, but she’s already ordered you to obey me, too.” I smiled. “Dee was disappointed. She had already picked Tyleeza, or she could have kept both of you. But then she had fun with Tyleeza, and they were both giggling soon enough.”
“What day is it?”
“The next morning,” she said. “Co is worn out. I told her to sleep until I wake her. You’re going to stroke her and whisper to her while she’s sleeping. No sex, but you may otherwise do anything you like.”
I smiled again. Okay, I’m not sure I had stopped smiling.
“Her idea, if you’re wondering,” Renalla added. “You seem to be alert.”
“I think so,” I said.
“Good. I’ll be back in an hour.”
She slipped out of the bed. I turned my attention to Co. I touched. I stroked. I told her how much I enjoyed our event. I talked quietly, touching and stroking.
She slept. If she heard me, I don’t know.
I rolled her onto her back. I continued to touch. I held. I whispered. I don’t remember everything I said.
Renalla came back, still in her dressing gown. She smiled at us, but she didn’t give me permission to stop, and so I continued my sweet touches.
Renalla stepped to the side of the bed. “Wake up, Co,” she whispered into her ear. “But remain where you are.”
Co opened her eyes. She smiled. And I continued to touch and stroke. She offered a purr.
“There you are,” Co said. “Sa, go use the bathroom. See to your needs and come back.”
* * * *
We didn’t play. Renalla brought us to the dining room. She sat down. Co and I served her then knelt beside her, one on either side of her chair. She fed us from her fingers in between her own food.
Once we were done, we cleaned up. Renalla waited for us then took us to the baths. We bathed her and each other. And then, there in the baths, she let us make love to her, and to each other.
And it was sweet and lovely.
For three days, we stayed in. Renalla kept us with her most of the time, accepting our attention. If we grew too much for her, she let us play together, wearing ourselves out.
And I loved every minute.
&
nbsp; Our last evening arrived. I thought Renalla would free us in the morning, but instead, she brought us to her bedroom and freed Co, ordering me to hold her. Corale accepted my attention, curling up on the bed until she looked up at Renalla. “Please come here.”
We made a little Corale sandwich for a while. The two kissed and murmured together, but then Renalla climbed from the bed. She kissed both of us before leaving.
“Look at me, Sa,” Corale ordered. She set fingers on my cheek. I stared into her eyes, smiling. “I had a lovely time.”
“Please don’t free me yet.”
“Soon. I have until midnight, or I’m breaking the law. Three days doesn’t mean three and a half.”
“Not yet,” I whispered.
“Not quite yet.” But she leaned forward and kissed me. “Soon. Thank you, darling. I want you to make love to me once more. Take your time. Slow and sweet.”
And so I did, and it was at least as wonderful for me as it was for her. Every whimper of pleasure brought a matching one from me. Every moan. Every sigh. I was filled with bliss, just from pleasing her, and when finally she began to come, so did I.
We both stilled, and then she invited me up to the pillow with her. We lay together for a minute. She kissed me.
And then she freed me.
I rolled away when it was done, staring at the wall. Corale wrapped around me. “Don’t be mad.”
“I’m not. Please hold me.”
She giggled. “I am.”
“Please stay. Why did Renalla leave?”
“So we could have one night like this,” she said. She pulled the covers up over us. And then she spoke quietly for a while until I slept.
* * * *
I only had time to play like that twice more, the last with Claary. She won easily. She dressed me in blue with red piping, and business boomed as people came in to be waited on by the princess of Flarvor.
But I want to talk about my time with Dee.
It began with an invitation to dinner at Olivia’s. The invitation was actually from Dee, addressed only to me, but said, “Semi-formal.” I wore a dress and spent time on my appearance.
When I arrived, Dee greeted me. We shared a kiss, and then she hooked my arm and led me to the parlor. Bee and Olivia were already there, and we drank tea and spoke easily. At one point, I asked, “Are we here for my challenge with Dee?”
“You’re here to talk about it,” Olivia said. “After dinner.”
“Then I think I should stick to tea.”
Dee giggled. Olivia simply nodded.
For dinner, we sat at a table for six, two on a side, and Dee held my hand through most of it. It was a lovely dinner, and the four of us took a little walk around Olivia’s grounds before ending at the parlor again. Dee and I sat down on the sofa, Bee and Olivia facing us. “You promised me a challenge,” Dee said. “And you told me you would let me do it my way, as long as I do what I can to teach you.”
“Agreed.”
“I want a one-week duration.”
“I’m fairly sure, Dee, that if I belong to you for a week, I’ll need two more to recover, and I don’t think I can afford that.”
She pouted. I cocked my head. I glanced at Olivia, who was giving nothing away. And I remembered something Allium told me once.
The event doesn’t begin at the event; it begins with the negotiations, sometimes before that. But I had already agreed to do whatever she wanted, so I didn’t really have room to negotiate. At least, not much.
“Overnight,” I offered.
“I’m owed more than that,” she said. Then she looked up, and my heart nearly broke. “You don’t like me.”
And that was too much. She knew better, and she’d gone too far. She could have gotten anything with the look, but she confirmed she was playing with me.
“Overnight,” I said again. “But you can pick the event.”
She frowned, and I thought it might be a real frown. But then her lip began to quiver, and I just knew it was an act. I didn’t accuse her of it. I waited to see what she would do. Her lip quivered and she dropped her gaze again, saying nothing this time.
Bee shifted in her seat, but when I looked over, Olivia had her hand on Bee’s arm. I nodded to her and returned my attention to Dee to see a tear crawling down her cheek.
I leaned forward and kissed the cheek, catching the tear. “Dee, tell me what you really want.”
She set fingers on my cheek, and then we looked into each other’s eyes. I waited. “Tell me what you really want,” she countered.
“I want a good event. I want us both to have fun, and then to have more fun.”
“I don’t believe you only want overnight.”
“And I think there’s something you want that you don’t think I’ll allow, and you’re negotiating.”
“I want a week,” she said. “But I’ll free you each morning, and we’ll have another small event at lunch each day.” I leaned back, studying her. “Jessla did that with Claary once. I can’t make you different kinds of slave, though.”
I looked over at Olivia. She was watching, rather intently, I thought. Dee’s offer had grown far more intriguing, and if she’d led with it instead of the manipulation, she might have gotten it. I didn’t think she was done, but I had no idea what was left.
“There’s more,” I said. “And I still think you’re negotiating.”
“I want our first event to be bigger.”
“And?”
“Saturday.”
“Ah. We’ve reached the heart of the negotiations.”
“I want the capture to be prolonged,” she said. “I’ll catch you and let you go, but you’ll take a handicap each time I let you go.”
“I presume that goes both ways.”
“Of course.”
“It would be more interesting if the winner were the one to take a handicap,” I said.
She paused. “I haven’t thought that part through very well,” she admitted.
“Perhaps,” Olivia said, “We could make a game of devising the game, incorporating others with their suggestions.”
“I could do that,” I said.
“I want to win,” Dee said. “Do you?”
“I want to learn, and I want the event to be fair. Dee, are you really asking for a week?”
“You would get to experience six more events in a single week. I would keep you until Sunday morning, a week later. Our final event will be at the Saturday event as well.”
“I could win some of those events.”
“Olivia would choose non-grappling events from the standard list for all the others, and we will let the audience vote for our final event. You’ll lose all the non-grappling events. We’ll go first that second Saturday, and then we’ll see. We might help to host. I may just keep teasing you. I may take you home. It won’t be a grappling event. That’s only our first.”
I turned away, sipping my tea, not looking at her. She didn’t pressure me. “I want to know why you engaged in the early attempts at manipulation. I think you’re expecting me to say ‘no’ at least to some of this.” I turned to her. “But I can’t figure out what, Dee.”
She smiled for the first time since I’d turned down her one-week suggestion. “Did you just say ‘yes’?”
“We can do the initial event on Saturday,” I said. “We can make it as interesting as you want. We can do most of everything else you’ve said, just the way you said it. But if you don’t explain, then it’s three days.”
“And if I do explain?”
“If you tell me you really were after three-days, you’ll still get your week, if that’s what you really want, and Olivia has agreed.”
“I gave her fairly expansive permissions,” Olivia said. “The only stipulation is that you must be ready to help your staff when we begin returning them.”
I nodded. Dee nodded. “I wasn’t sure you’d agree to Saturday,” she said. “Especially not two Saturdays. But you asked me to teach you. I was teaching you. B
ut I almost had you, too. What did I do wrong?”
“You overplayed it,” I said. “There’s no way you believe I don’t love you. Not a chance. With that first look, I would have agreed to whatever you wanted.”
“You shouldn’t,” she said. “And I’m not sure that’s entirely true, either.”
“Maybe you’re right. The look made me wonder if you were negotiating. Your words confirmed it, I guess.”
“I get what I want?”
“Yes, Dee. I already agreed you could pick the event. The only thing we were negotiating was the duration, and agreement you would teach me what you could.”
“I started with that,” she said. “And the rest built. Except I knew I wanted a lingering initial event.”
“That sounds like fun.”
She nodded, smiling broadly, then clapped her hands happily. “This is going to be so much fun!” She turned. “Olivia, how do we make the game to devise the game?”
“Simple. We host a dinner party, and we invite all the most creative people we know.”
“Wells,” she said. “Mellta. Claary.”
“Valsine,” I added.
“Gigi,” Bee added. “We can’t invite Claary without Gigi.”
“That’s a given,” Dee said. “And Allium and Gionna.”
“Where are they, by the way?”
“Gionna is in red,” Olivia said. “You’ll probably see her at breakfast, kneeling to Allium.”
I laughed. “I didn’t know.”
“It’s just an overnight,” Dee added. “Olivia, can we make it formal, with dancing?”
“Dancing only if we can make the game first,” Olivia said. “I’ll ask Gigi to bring a musician.”
Dee clapped her hands again. “And our event is first?”
“It’s going to be the highlight, Darling,” Olivia said. “Let’s have your second Saturday event be something simple, and first.”
“Maybe,” I said. “We should go first, and third, and fifth. But you can’t keep me tied in resin in between.”
“You know, I like that idea,” Olivia said. “Dee?”
“Yes. But we still need it to be some kind of game.”
“So we’ll invite our friends and figure it out.”
She clapped again.
* * * *
The four of us wrote the invitations. Together, we worked out the wording for the explanatory note. Then Olivia wrote brief invitations for a formal dinner party, and the rest of us wrote the explanatory notes. Olivia signed the invitations. Olivia, Dee, and I signed the explanations.
