by Ann Jacobs
Shedir watched impatiently while Eli made a show of laying a deep-green velvet cloth on the counter before arranging the beautifully crafted collar on it so each of the diamonds and emeralds embedded in the smooth, gold finish caught the light just so. “You have good taste, Commander,” he said as though he found it common for Star Commanders who passed through his shop to have their concubines in tow. “This collar comes with other accouterments,” he said, shooting Shedir a sly glance.
After making his purchases, they headed to Makeovers by Leander—a popular grooming salon—Shedir’s bank balance considerably shrunken. Justifiably so, he decided when he pictured Doreen adorned only with the collar, matching wrist and ankle cuffs and the glittering diamond studs he had impulsively bought for her ears and her right nostril. Marks of his possession. His dominance.
At the old-fashioned barber pole above Leander’s shop, Doreen paused. Shedir turned. Her eyes focused on the image in the window, of a Master shearing away his slave’s hair, which would then be used to fashion a flogger. “I wish you would take my hair that way,” she said, her voice small as though it pained her to speak.
He wished he didn’t have to remind her that their relationship would not be what she so obviously wanted. “If I had your head shaved except for the part used for your flogger braid, it would be grown to an impressive length by the time I come to you to stay. It would be as long as a full-size whip.” He smiled and wished the sad expression would leave her dark, expressive eyes. “It is better to wait, as I have no desire to hurt you, only to enhance your pleasure with pain.”
“Yes, Master.” Eyes downcast, Doreen fell in step behind him as they entered Leander’s shop, but it was clear she wanted to flaunt the symbols of submission. Of being his loving and beloved slave.
Shedir couldn’t bear to tell her no. By her every act of submission she commanded him to do her bidding. To please her as much as she pleasured him. No harm would come from allowing her what, to her, must seem the ultimate symbol of commitment. “I want you to weld this collar and wristbands on my submissive.” He paused for a moment, considering the implication of his next words to the pretty young attendant. Then, because he couldn’t disappoint Doreen, he continued. “Also, pierce her ears and nostril to accommodate my other gifts. And prepare her for a ritual mating.”
The attendant smiled. “Yes, Commander. May I have at least two hours with your slave?”
“You may. I will occupy myself by having Leander take care of my own preparations.” Although he usually went no further than having his skull waxed and polished, Shedir decided that today he would endure a full-body waxing and allow the barber to polish his skin to a fine sheen. Because he thought Doreen would like it, he would also switch out the jewelry in his genital piercings, choosing larger and thicker pieces, possibly even studded with a few smooth, precious stones to enhance sensation—his as well as hers.
As he lay back on Leander’s chair and closed his eyes, he found himself looking forward not only to his mating but to the coming sensations—the heat of the wax drying on his body, the painstaking and painful removal of every hair from his skull to his toes. “Leander, when you are finished with the waxing, I want you to apply your special lotion that retards new growth,” he said quietly, hoping no one was listening—for Earthling males generally prided themselves on needing frequent depilation.
When he came together with his slave, he wanted nothing between them to dull the feelings. Nothing but naked skin on naked skin. “Tell your assistant to use the lotion on my slave, as well.”
Chapter Four
Two hours later, Doreen stood before Shedir inside the transporter as he set a direct course for Luna Ten. Her gaze locked with his. She shed her robe and veil as he removed his uniform. Her skin gleamed like pale ivory, so much more delicate than his own burnished body. He yearned to use his hands to stroke every satiny surface of her body yet disciplined himself to wait, feast his other senses on her ethereal beauty before devouring her.
“I like the way your new jewelry matches mine,” she said, her gaze on the new, thicker ring with an emerald-studded captive bead that winked out from his slit while faceted diamonds sparkled from each of the heavier, thicker barbells in his frenum ladder.
“So do I.” His collar and cuffs sparkled around her throat, her wrists, and her slender ankles, their clasps welded shut, marking her as his concubine—his personal property. Her skull gleamed in the dim light, pale and bare like his but for the golden flogger at her crown, whose stiffened braided tendrils beckoned his fingers, his tongue. At their mating, he’d take that, too, and use it for her discipline and her pleasure.
If there was going to be a mating, which there was not. Not now or for a long time. Not until he achieved all he wanted, all he had dreamed of since he was a fledgling starfighter pilot clawing his way up through the Federation’s hierarchy. Only then would he be able to walk away into exile, into the arms of the woman he adored.
Trying to put all this into perspective, Shedir moved closer to Doreen and grasped his cock, wincing a little when he squeezed the flesh Leander had stretched earlier that day to accommodate his new, heavier jewelry. “Kneel, houri,” he told Doreen, “and pay me homage while I give you your new baubles.”
When she began to stroke his cock and balls with gentle fingers, he fastened the three diamond studs he’d bought into the new piercings in her ears and nostril. “Suck me,” he ordered softly, pleased when she immediately took the head of his cock in her mouth and ran her slick, velvety tongue along the sensitive tip, catching the ring and rotating it through his flesh.
He fantasized that, if they mated, her tongue stud would feel like velvet and steel, its round, metal surface pressing into his flesh, tugging at his cock jewelry and enhancing his pleasure. His tongue would be studded, too, to bring her greater pleasure when he licked her nipples, her cunt. Mated for life, their mutual responsibilities would be to feed each other’s lust.
But mating had other implications. Mutual respect. Love. Nurturing new life, sprung from their mating—interaction between male and female. All the things the Federation forbade.
As Shedir stroked Doreen’s silky earlobes and ran his fingers over her incredibly smooth skull, he realized how much he wanted, needed that connection. He longed to possess her fully and know she possessed him, too. For the rest of their lives.
He pictured them kneeling in the magical glade, repeating the practically forgotten Earth ritual of centuries long past which was alive and well on Luna Ten. They would pledge their lives to each other alone. They would become Master and slave. He would take the razor-sharp scimitar that was his only link to long-dead ancestors and detach the gilded flogger that now bobbed atop her gleaming skull. With reverence, he would kiss her bared flesh as he accepted her gift and made it his own.
His fantasy made him incredibly hard. His flesh filled her mouth, and his testicles tightened painfully beneath her seeking fingers. The sensations were too much yet not enough.
Shedir closed his fist around the flogger and raised Doreen’s shapely head. “Rise. If you pay me much more homage, I will spill my seed where it cannot take root.” The risk of being detected by his superiors seemed less important than forestalling the possibility of wasting his seed. Though he wasn’t ready yet to say the words or follow through with walking into permanent exile, he doubted he’d ever be able to leave Doreen for long enough to continue his ascendancy with Star Command.
But having seen Conan and learning they had horribly mutilated him in spite of his years of faithful service to the Federation, Shedir had begun to reassess his long-held goals. Though he had thought fleetingly before about the injustices he witnessed every day on Earth, he now found himself questioning the roots of Federation law as well as regulations that controlled every aspect of Earthlings’ lives. He was coming to the conclusion that many Federation rules were created more because of cruelty than due to any need to preserve humankind. No matter what the rulers insisted
.
“Do you not enjoy me, Master?” Doreen asked, confusion on her beautiful face.
“You know I do, my precious one.” He did not need to trouble her with the questions in his own muddled mind, for he knew he would have time for solitary consideration later, after he left her on Luna Ten and reported back to work.
Determined to allay the concern he heard in Doreen’s voice, Shedir let go of the braided topknot of her hair and pressed his fingers against her satiny scalp, finding and caressing the zones he found erotic on his own skull. Her sighs of pleasure and the increased vigor with which she caressed him told him she too found his touch on her newly denuded scalp arousing. “I loved your long hair, but you are more beautiful to me without it. I look forward to the day that I will sever the flogger and take you as my loving slave.”
“I love how your hands feel on my naked scalp. I want you to tie me up and fuck me. Fuck me hard. Take the flogger now, and use it as it is intended.”
“All in good time.” Shedir caught her wrists, hooked a chain through the loops on each one, dragged them toward the floor and secured them to a sturdy hook on the lower console—a hook meant for hanging navigational aids but perfectly positioned for his purposes. “Kneel and present your pretty ass for my pleasure.” Taking up a long, slender cord, he looped it through the hasp of one ankle bracelet, threaded it through her collar and around to the other ankle, tethering her to her own collar.
“Be very still. If you do not, you will hurt your pretty throat.”
Shedir knelt between Doreen’s widespread legs, bending to run his tongue over her incredibly silky buttocks and nip her with his teeth. Her little whimpers told him she liked that. Pausing, he raised his head and gazed upon her glistening, wet cunt and the tight bud of her rear hole.
He was hard as steel, and his new, heavy jewelry hurt everywhere it touched his swollen flesh. But when it touched her, she moaned with pleasure, so he rubbed his jutting cock jewel along her swollen, glistening slit, debating with himself for a moment whether to take her cunt or her inviting, incredibly tight ass.
She decided for him, luring his cock, sucking it in, caressing it within the slick, hot walls of her cunt. She sucked him up completely when he slid his hands beneath her body and found her breasts. “Someday I will watch my son nurse at these beautiful breasts,” he said.
Tugging at the rigid, swollen nubs of her nipples, he bent over her, nipping and sucking her newly bared skin, toying with the diamonds in her earlobes. Despite her bonds, she lifted her hips to his thrusts, clamping down on his cock head as her orgasm began deep within her cunt.
He held out as long as he could, fucking her hard, then more gently, rolling her nipples between his thumbs and forefingers, sucking her earlobes, her scalp, biting the her neck above the collar that marked her as his property. His insatiable love slave had come more times than he could count before he knew he could last no more.
Burying himself so deeply inside her that he could feel the mouth of her womb, he came in short, staccato bursts, flooding her with his essence, letting her milk him until she’d taken all he had to give.
As a good slave would, she went to her knees once he withdrew and took him in her mouth, licking and soothing his stretched, swollen flesh until the exquisite pain went away.
As she did, Shedir realized there was no way in this lifetime that he was going to let Doreen go. Not for a day, much less for the long months he would have to leave her and serve Star Command if he were to reach the lofty goals he’d set.
Those goals suddenly didn’t mean as much to Shedir as they had before his beautiful slave had stolen his heart.
“I have decided I will take you as my mate. I love you too much to treat you as a concubine.”
* * * * *
The glade at Luna Ten was even more beautiful than she remembered. Fragrant, peaceful, and incredibly erotic. Plump peaches were starting to ripen on the trees in the adjacent orchard. Doreen stood in the glade facing Shedir, loving that he’d consented to be her mate. Loving him.
It didn’t matter that she’d have to share him with Star Command, at least for a while. She smiled at Aloysius and Argus, glad she’d asked her friends to preside over the sacred mating ritual that Shedir insisted must take place now, after all, before he left Luna Ten on a patrol that would take him temporarily back to Earth.
Her stiffened, gilded braid swung in a gentle breeze, tickling her naked back and thighs, reminding her it would soon be Shedir’s to do with as he chose. Her nipples tightened when he looked down at them, his tongue darting out from the corner of his sensual mouth as if he could hardly wait to lick and suck her flesh. His flesh. She’d have to get used to thinking of everything about her as belonging to her Master.
Gods, but she hoped he’d have time before he left to fuck her properly, stroke her as she’d be stroking him.
“Are you ready, Master?” Aloysius asked, bowing before Shedir while Argus worked a ceremonial double dildo into Doreen’s cunt and ass.
Shedir nodded, his gaze locked with hers. “Kneel, slave, before your Master.” When she did, he also dropped to his knees. “As I will always bow to the needs of my beloved slave.” He took Doreen’s hands and held them, his grip strong and sure.
Doreen welcomed the sharp sting when Aloysius plunged a needle through her tongue and inserted the evidence of bonding. Argus pierced Shedir and inserted an identical titanium tongue ring. An icy spray worked wonders to ease the sting of the old-fashioned tongue piercing.
When her Master rose, Doreen took his massive, jeweled cock in her mouth. As she did, from the corner of her eye, she saw him unsheathe his ceremonial sword. Yes, Master, take the gift I offer. The symbol of my servitude. She opened her lips wider, rubbed her new tongue stud gently over each barbell in his frenum ladder then swallowed hard against the thick head of his pierced cock.
Anticipation thrummed through her body when she felt him lifting the flogger, pulling it taut against her scalp. She felt full. So full. Her cunt gushed hot, slick fluid when she felt the cold steel of Shedir’s ancient scimitar make contact with her scalp.
She sucked his cock deeper, wanting him to experience the same pleasure she did as the razor-sharp blade severed the symbol of her willing enslavement. Slowly, as if he was slicing away one strand at a time. Gently, though he had made no secret that his blade of choice was one his ancestors might have used to lop the heads off those who displeased them. When she licked him, the vibration of her pierced tongue connecting with the precious metal in his cock jewelry sent bright shards of sensation throughout her body, made her tighten her muscles around the heads of the dildos that filled her cunt and ass.
She sucked him harder, memorizing his taste for the time when he’d be gone. Her head suddenly felt lighter, freer, unburdened by the weight of her hair.
It was his hair now, a stiffened, gilded flogger with which to discipline his beloved slave. He held it before her eyes and spoke, his tone more reverent than lustful. “What was yours is now mine, as you are mine. I will rule you with love. Protect you with my life. These are my promises.”
They were simple words. Straightforward sentiments. She had no doubt they came straight from her Master’s heart.
He lifted her, draped her facedown upon the mating altar and laid a few strokes of the flogger she’d given him onto her ass cheeks, following each stroke with a soothing kiss, a tender tracing of each welt with his newly pierced tongue. Tendrils of the purple-flowered fucking vines embraced Doreen, held her, opened her for her Master’s pleasure.
Colorful birds chirped in the nearby orchard, their song symbolic of this solemn bonding. Anticipation built in her when she felt the dildo being slid from her cunt and ass, leaving her open to her Master. The heat of his rigid cock seared her ass. His fullness stretched her painfully, for she’d never taken him there before.
“Relax. Let me in.” His tone hypnotic, masterful, Shedir coaxed her to open, to accept him in this way as she had in all others
. The painful stretching soon gave way to a strange sensation. Not quite pleasure yet not pain, either. Alien sensation yet something she wanted. She reached deep within herself, found a new ecstasy as she concentrated on her Master. On giving herself to him in whatever manner he chose.
Her orgasm came on quickly, because she wanted to please him with every fiber of her being. Ecstasy finally claimed her when he bent over her back and tongued an incredibly sensitive spot at the base of her skull. Ripples of intense satisfaction overtook her when he jerked and spurted inside her, leaving her limp and spent on the altar of submission.
She felt him withdraw and knew their houseboys were cleansing him as they were cleansing her with cool water from the sparkling stream that ran through the glade. With a gentleness she hadn’t realized until now that her Master possessed, he untangled the vines from her body, lifted her and carried her to the shelter where, several weeks earlier, she had lain unsatisfied while her sexbot smoldered on the cool tile floor.
“I want to have you to myself now, before I must leave,” he whispered, licking and nibbling her breasts as he laid her on their sleeping couch. “My lover, my mate.”
Kneeling between her legs, he joined their bodies, dipping his head to suckle at her breasts before bracing his weight on his elbows and tangling their tongues. It was a slow, thorough fuck, a hello and farewell, a promise of forever that Doreen embraced as her climax neared. Like a well-orchestrated ballet, they moved together, every motion a pledge of love, of possession and being possessed. When they came together, it seemed to her that the sky brightened, lighting the universe in celebration.
