The light fixtures somehow floated in place, without being attached to anything and shed a dim, golden glow over the echoing space. The faint sound of flute music and water burbling over stones was coming from some kind of hidden speaker system and an expensive fragrance that was fresh and floral at the same time drifted through the air.
“This way,” the bald bodyslave gestured for them to follow him. As they did, Mistress Douchenbag continued talking.
“Now, my cousin, Mistress Jillian, will be using Kalis for her pampering today but I am sadly without a bodyslave at the moment, until I can purchase a new one. So I’ll need you to assign one to me.”
“I certainly will, Mistress,” the bodyslave rumbled. “I believe that Yandor is free—will he do?”
“Oh yes! He has such lovely hands—I always enjoy a massage from Yandor,” the Mistress replied, sounding delighted.
“Wait—a massage?” Jillian interrupted. “Who said anything about a massage?”
Mistress Douchebag turned her head and gave Jillian a scornful look. “What did you think I meant by pampering? Of course we’re going to have a massage. And you can see what an excellent masseuse Kalis is! Why, he was trained at the Glorious Spa of Pleasures and Desire by his second Mistress, after she bought him from the Blood Circuit.”
“Uh…so Kalis is going to massage me?” This was considerably more than Jillian had bargained for. She shot a quick glance over her shoulder at the big bodyslave, who was bringing up the rear.
“It will be my pleasure to massage your beautiful body, little Mistress,” he rumbled softly, meeting her eyes with that silver-green gaze that she still found distractingly familiar. Where had she seen those eyes before?
“Um…but…” she began.
But before she could get a protest out, the bald bodyslave was bringing them to a stop before a carved wooden door in the marble hallway.
“Just a moment please, Mistresses, while I announce you to the other ladies in the room,” he murmured. He put his head in the door and Jillian heard him explaining the situation. After a moment, he looked back at them and nodded. “Mistresses Sollasolew and Tagalong are expecting the two of you.”
“Oh good—come on, Mistress Jillian!” Mistress Douchenbag exclaimed. She went through the doorway and Jillian followed her, very reluctantly.
She found herself in a small wooden room with two booths to change in, hung with white linen privacy curtains.
“Let’s hurry up and get naked!” the Yonnite Mistress exclaimed. “I’ve been needing a spa day for ages!”
“Get naked?” Jillian exclaimed.
“Well of course! How else can Kalis massage you properly?” Mistress Douchenbag shot her a scornful look. “Or are you ashamed of your body?”
As it happened, Jillian wasn’t ashamed—she had a curvy figure but she tried to keep firm with regular exercise. It made being on her feet all day in the kitchen way easier if she was in shape. But still, she was closer to fifty than forty and she didn’t really want strangers she didn’t even know seeing her naked.
“Well…” she began.
“Oh, for Heavens sake! There are towels you can wrap up in if you’d rather be stupidly modest!” Mistress Douchenbag snapped, pointed to a stack of fluffy white towels on the end of the carved wooden bench. “Now hurry up and get undressed—the tinga tea will be here at any moment and it must be sipped at a certain temperature for the full effect! In fact, I must give some directions about it now,” she added. “Go on and get undressed!” She made a shooing gesture with one hand at Jillian and she slipped out of the room again, calling for the bald bodyslave.
“I must tell you…” Jillian heard her strident voice saying, and then the words faded and she didn’t catch the rest of the Mistress’s instructions.
Jillian felt a knot of uncertainty in her stomach. She looked at the wooden changing booth and then at Kalis uncertainly.
“Is this…” She cleared her throat. “Is this a regular thing? I mean, should…am I really supposed to take off all my clothes? I mean, usually when I get a massage I at least leave my underwear on.”
“To be completely nude is the usual way for massages here at the Yonnite spa,” he rumbled, nodding. “Though if you are shy about showing your lovely body, little Mistress, I can use the blindfold protocol.”
“The, uh, blindfold protocol? What’s that?” Jillian demanded.
“Why, I’ll wear a blindfold while I massage you, of course.” Kalis shrugged, his muscular shoulders rolling, as though it wasn’t a big deal. “It’s quite usual for shy Mistresses, who don’t wish to be looked at while they’re being massaged. Either that, or I can massage you completely in the dark,” he added. “But that would involve going into another room alone—just the two of us, little Mistress.”
That sounded dangerous to Jillian. She didn’t feel comfortable being alone in a pitch-black room with a man she didn’t know. Though she was beginning to get a sense of Kalis and he seemed like a decent guy, she didn’t like the idea of going into a dark room alone with him and letting him rub her all over.
In fact, why was she considering this at all, she asked herself? She most definitely hadn’t agreed to it. All she’d said was that she would drink a cup of tea with Mistress Douchenbag and now look—she was about to get naked and let the huge Kindred rub her body. This was ridiculous!
“Look,” she said to Kalis. “I really don’t know how I got roped into this, but I need to be getting home.”
“I understand.” He nodded. “You feel nervous to have my hands on your body.”
“What? No!” Jillian denied quickly. “Or, I mean, maybe,” she added. “I mean, I’ve had massages before, but I usually have a female massage therapist,” she added weakly. “It’s not that I don’t like you—”
“You just don’t trust me,” he finished for her. There was no bitterness in his voice—he was simply stating a fact. “I don’t blame you, little Mistress. As I said, I have yet to prove myself to you.”
“You don’t have to—” Jillian began.
“I must go and cleanse my hands so that I am fit to serve you, little Mistress. I will await you in the rose-gold room,” Kalis rumbled.
He nodded respectfully at her and then went through the door at the far end of the changing room, presumably into the “pleasure grotto” as the bald bodyslave had called it.
At almost the same moment, the outside door opened as well.
“All right, here’s the tea!”
Mistress Douchenbag bustled back into the room, followed by a bodyslave holding a silver tray with two tiny golden cups on it. Delicate wisps of steam were rising from both cups—which were filled with clear, aquamarine liquid.
“What? You’re not ready yet?” she exclaimed, frowning at Jillian. “Hurry up and get undressed! We must sip this tea before it goes cold. Hurry, now!” she added, going into one of the dressing rooms herself.
“Look, I didn’t agree to this,” Jillian said to her, speaking through the linen privacy curtain.
“Yes, you did! You agreed to have tea with me and try out Kalis’s services before you made a decision,” Mistress Douchenbag shot back. “Part of his training is knowing how to give his Mistress an excellent massage. You’ll want to keep him for that skill alone.”