The Queen Slave (10 page)

“What mistake? What on Anthar are you talking about?” Neenah asked; her confusion growing worse with each word that he spoke.

“I had been searching for quite some time for the perfect woman to be my mate. At first, you only intrigued me because of your beauty and intelligence, but I knew that you were out of my reach. Nonetheless, as you grew older, I could not seem to get you out of my thoughts. Regardless of what stunning creature I would have on my arm or in my bed, your face was all that I could see. Still, I thought it not possible to have you due to the antiquated traditions of your planet; until one day, during a business meeting I overheard some Narg traders at a nearby table complaining about how much money Anthar was costing their trade market because they had to go around your sub space.

“What I had heard that day kept coming back into my thoughts over and over, and I realized that it might very well be the opportunity for which I had been searching. I flew to Narg and met with the Supreme Commander and discussed my idea. He was to attack your planet and not kill any more of your citizens than were absolutely necessary, and by necessary, I mean
self-defense. All of your people were to be sold only to slave owners who had good reputations for treating their slaves fairly. The auction for you was a set up more or less. Invitations were only sent out to those people whom the Supreme Commander knew did not have enough wealth to outbid me. Anyone who did not have an invitation was not let inside the arena.”

“I see. The Nargs got my planet out of their way for their trading routes and also got the added bonus of all the money they received in auctions for my people and the good from my planet and you got me.”

“Yep, that is pretty much it in a nutshell. I do not expect you to understand, nor do I expect you to easily forgive me for what I have done. I saw no other way. Unless you were captured in an act of war, you would not be allowed to mate until you were fifty and by then, it would be too late. I am fifteen years older than you and while it is possible in this day and age for older couples to enjoy life together and procreate, we would have missed out on many years of being together.”

Neenah sat in the chair, disbelief etched in her face. Her planet was attacked and her people enslaved all because this man wanted her? Just how powerful was he and how much pull did he have in the galaxy? She should have been infuriated with him, but for some reason she had a hard time bringing that anger out.

Her discovery of sex and pleasure kept cycling through her mind, and she knew that if he had not set events in motion, her planet might likely have never been attacked and she might have spent the majority of her life never knowing the pleasure that sex could bring. Would it have been this enjoyable if she had been forced to wait for its experience for another thirty years?

“I will leave you alone and let you think about things while I go fix us some supper. Like I said, I do not expect you to understand nor forgive me right away. Just try to focus on why I did what I did,” Master said as he walked through the bed chamber and headed to the adjoining kitchen.

Neenah had been adjusting well to being a sex slave and now she was more confused than ever. She was supposed to act like she was a sex slave in public even though she was not really a sex slave, and she guessed that the other two slave girls were not to know of this new development either. None of this made sense to her. Was she supposed to still call him Master? What was his name? She knew so little about this man who had orchestrated the conquering of her planet just so he could have her. All of this was giving her a headache, so she leaned back into the chair and closed her eyes.

He walked into the room to check on her and saw her reclined in the chair. Her beauty took his breath away. The fact that underneath that beautiful skin was the mind of a very intelligent woman just made her that much more sexy to him. How could he force her to service him now that he had told her his plans? He could not do anything else to risk the chance that she would reject his offer to spend the rest of her life with him. He decided then and there that he would rather do without than to degrade her any further than he already had.

And do without he would, because he could not use one of his other slaves without raising some eyebrows. The trickiest part of this whole plan would be public appearances. Everyone knew that he had bought her, and everyone was expecting him to make her his primary, which meant that he would have to parade her around during public functions. He hoped that things would settle down soon with his business associates and then the only obstacle to her becoming his mate instead of his slave would be her acceptance.

He went back into the kitchen and finished with supper and then came back out to get her.

Neenah jumped at the sound of her name being called. Reclining back in the chair, she had dozed off while resting her eyes trying to get her headache to abate.

“I am sorry. I did not mean to startle you. Are you all right? You seem like you are in pain.”

“I have got a headache. It was coming on before I left the slave quarters, but it has hit with full force now.”

“Why don’t you go ahead and go in the kitchen. Supper is ready and is on the table. I will go get you something for that headache.”

Neenah went into the kitchen, wondering at the strange turn events had taken. She started out as this man’s sex slave, and now he was making her supper, getting her medicine for her headache and saying that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her. That was enough to give anyone a headache.

He brought her the medicine, and they ate in silence. By the time the meal was finished, her headache was gone; the medicine he gave her had been a fast acting cure that his pharmaceutical company had developed a few years back. He got up from his chair and motioned for her to follow him back into the bedroom.

“I guess this is where I service you since even though I am not a sex slave, I am still a sex slave.”

“No, actually I have done some thinking on that one since I said it to you. There is no way that I can expect you to take what I have said and done seriously if I continue to treat you like a slave when we are alone together. I hope you can understand why I must do that while we are in public.”

“Well, if I do not have to service you, then can I go back to my room?”

“In just a bit, I would like for you to stay awhile so that we can begin to get to know each other. I know about your public persona as Queen of Anthar. You know my ‘Master’ persona. How about we try to get to know the real people underneath?”

Neenah silently nodded her assent and sat down in the chaise lounge, settling back against the cushioned rear of the chair and pulling her legs up onto the seat.

He grabbed one of the cushions that were strewn about the floor and pulled it over so that it was beside her chair. He sat down on it and leaned up against the wall. He wanted her to feel as comfortable with him as possible so he intended to seat himself at a lower angle than her as often as possible.

“Ask me anything you want to know, and I do mean anything Neenah. I intend to have no secrets from you.”

“Why don’t you just start out by telling me about yourself? Give me some information about your background, what you do. Of course, knowing what your name is would be nice as well.”

He chuckled to himself as he responded, “I guess my name would be a good place to start. My mother named me Maximillian, but everybody just calls me Max, Max Carrington.”

“Carrington?” Neenah interrupted. “As in the Carringtons that pretty much run the planet of Ovuria?”

“The one and the same, and while having the Carrington name did help grease the wheels when I first got started in business, I have made enough of a name for myself in my business dealings that my first name is often enough to make things happen the way that I wish without have to use the influential last name with which I was born. I am thirty five years old, which you had probably already figured out from the comment I made about our ages earlier. I grew up in the family business, learning about how businesses were run and deals were made from the time I was a small child. Starting out on my own was not difficult. I started small, focusing on one avenue at a time until I built the company up to what it is today.”

“Which is what, besides renting out sex slaves, oh and let us not forget conspiring to take over neutral planets?”

Max winced at the sarcasm that dripped from her voice. He was expecting that and more, but it still hurt when he heard it. “I have a pharmaceutical company, a clothing design and manufacturing company, and I own several hotel chains, clubs, and retail stores throughout the galaxy. I also specialize in taking over small companies, restructuring them so that they make money instead of losing it and then selling it back to the employees.

“I do have the two slaves that I rent out to clients. They are used more for client relations than they are making a profit. Regardless of what you might think of me for my punishment practices, I do take good care of my slaves. They have a nice home, are fed well, and are kept in good health. I do not send them to clients who have a reputation for abuse of slaves nor do I condone the mistreatment of them.

“My clients know that if they mistreat my slaves, they pay for it, and not with money. Generally they pay by experiencing for themselves the same abuse they inflicted on my slave, only what client’s suffer at my hands is much worse than what they had dished out. Trust me, they only do it once and my reputation for the way I handle that kind of situation precedes me. It is enough to deter a lot of clients from stepping out of line.”

“You certainly seem to have done well for yourself, and I do have to concede that you treat your slaves well, aside from the punishments that they receive. I do have a question for you. Considering what you have said about why you wanted me here and your plans for ‘our’ future, then why the public punishment and humiliation on the first training day? What purpose did that serve?”

A look of emotional turmoil passed over Max’s face and then was quickly gone. He had kept his guard up over his personal feelings for so long that it was going to be hard to drop it when privately in the company of this woman. “That was due to tradition so to speak. The first punishment meted out to a slave during training has always been done publicly. It would have looked mighty strange if you had gone your entire training without any punishment.

“As it was, you only got punished twice. The second time, I would not have punished you if Keera had not been in the room to witness you having an orgasm without me giving your permission. I would much rather have not had to put you through training at all, but it had to be done. People will understand me falling in love with a sex slave over time. They would not understand me buying a sex slave and immediately making her into something else.”

“The only way to get to you due to your planet’s traditions was to have it conquered and you captured. That way the traditions no longer held water. The Nargs were really the only possible race to attack you. It made perfect sense for them to do so and no one would question why they did it. Their love of money is very well known and the Supreme Commander has been vocal for years about his displeasure in the loss of money he suffers from constantly having to travel around your planet’s sub space.

“Unfortunately, the Nargs would not agree to just handing you over. They insisted on the auction set up. The Supreme Commander is quite a vile being and does not believe in love and romance. No doubt, he forced my hand in this in order to watch me squirm and see how I would handle the entire situation. We tend to be rivals most of the time in business dealings, and he very much enjoys turning the screws on me and watching me squirm.”

“So what guarantee do you have that the Supreme Commander will not reveal your plan and the real reason for the conquering of my planet?” Neenah asked.

“Oh, I have something on him that he never wants to see the light of day. So, while he enjoys putting the screws to me, he never tightens them enough to force me into revealing his secret. His command is the most important thing in his life. My information would cause him to lose that command. He will never do anything to jeopardize his command; therefore, he will never do any serious damage to me.”

“Why would taking over my planet just to get me be so bad for you? It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. I’m more than a little confused as to why the public has to think that I was your sex slave for a while before you fell in love with me.”

“I’m in the middle of a very sensitive business deal right now, so things have to be dealt with very carefully. Besides that, my reputation as a hard man would crumble if anyone knew that I had a planet captured just so I could have the woman that I was in love with. People don’t tend to fear a man who goes to such great lengths just for love, and my reputation as a hard-ass is very important in my business.”

They continued talking well into the night, Max sharing lots of information with Neenah and Neenah sharing very little. “It is time to get you back to your quarters and into bed,” Said Max. “You must not tell the other two slaves about anything that transpired here tonight. If they had any idea that you were treated in any other way but that of a slave, things could get extremely complicated. I know you would probably love to make my life difficult, but relating to them the activities and conversations of the night would cause you problems as well.”

Neenah recognized the validity of his statement and agreed not to mention anything about what they had discussed to the other slave girls.