Mind Games

Chapter 25:  Pleasures        

       The bulk of Mistress Dominique's effort in her training center went to teaching young slaves how to cook. It was a difficult task.  When one has never seen cooking more complicated than heating gruel over a fire, every skill from breaking eggs to basting meat is foreign. When one cannot read and is rarely allowed to taste, each recipe must be memorized individually. 

       Mistress Dominique also taught housework, of course, and deportment.  Most of her slaves' experience with humans was limited to the field masters and mistresses and to those who had broken them in in the factory.  Neither group could be relied upon to impart the behavior that would  allow a slave to thrive, or even to serve, within the mansion.  Mistress Dominique therefore taught the slaves what they needed to know, such as when they should look a human in the eye, the crotch, or the foot; how to make it known what they needed -- sex, rest, or gruel -- without provoking their  humans into denying it or punishing them; and how to participate in a conversation if their human desired it.

       There were lessons in sex as well, but mostly Mistress Dominique let the slaves teach that art to each other.  Generally in the late evenings and early mornings they were allowed to do as they pleased, and Mistress Dominique knew full well that there was nothing they would please to do more than fuck each other. 

       Which is not to say that Mistress Dominique did not enjoy her own slaves.  The one she chose most often was Taejon, a golden skinned, brown-eyed dick with a slow smile Mariah found herself staring at. 

       Mariah did not want to repeat her mistake during her first days at the factory, when she had not realized that Shinelle was Master Jonas's pet, and part of the mindgame.  She spoke little, focused on avoiding punishment, and observed everyone.  She took note of who spoke to who, who Mistress Dominique praised or punished, who shirked on their work and who seemed to put in full effort even if their mistress would take no note of it.  And she watched Taejon, of the slow smile. 

       On her fifth night, Taejon watched her right back.  Each time Mariah glanced his way he was glancing hers.  Finally he left the group he had been chatting with and sauntered up to her. 

       "All you have to do is ask," he said.

       Mariah looked at him blankly, startled. 

       Taejon came closer.  "To make love to you," he said. 

       "What?"  Mariah said.  "What's that?

       Taejon threw back his head and laughed, but not loudly enough to draw attention.  He made a circle with his left thumb and fingers and put his right forefinger through its center.  "When slaves fuck out of free choice," he said, "we call it making love."

       "Why?" said Mariah, mystified.

       It was Taejon's turn to look startled.  "I don't know," he said.  "I guess because it's lovely."  He reached up and touched Mariah's hair where it reached her shoulder.  "It would be with me."

       "I'm still sore," Mariah blurted, feeling stupid and clumsy.  "From the saw horse." 

       "I can work with that," Taejon said softly.

       Mariah looked at him warily, but found herself blushing.  This brought out Taejon's smile, again.  He twirled a strand of Mariah's hair on his finger, then tugged on it gently so that Mariah tilted her head.  "Like this," Taejon said, and he leaned forward and fluttered his tongue against the side of her throat, where her pulse beat.  It was a tiny touch, but Mariah felt it in her depths.

       Taejon stopped, released Mariah's hair, and took a step back to give her some space.  "That's what I'd do to you, if you asked me to," he said. 

       Mariah imagined his tongue fluttering against her soreness.  She involuntarily moved towards him. "Okay," she said, which was the best she could manage. She found herself shaking.

       Taejon's smile widened.  He picked up a sleeping mat and sheet, and led her by the hand over to a kitchen area.  "I like privacy," he explained when she hesitated.  Mariah let herself be led, walking stiffly so that Taejon would not notice her wobbly knees.

       He arranged their bed in the center of the U shape of the kitchen.  He lay himself down on it and propped himself up on one elbow, looking up at Mariah and waiting for her.  Mariah took a deep breath.  Taejon raised his eyebrows and patted the sheet next to him, looking hopeful and sweet and longing all at once.  Mariah laughed a little and lay down next to him. She mirrored him, propping herself up on her elbow.  Then she was motionless, except for the pounding of her heart.

       "Where does it hurt?" Taejon asked her softly. 

       At first Mariah didn't know what he meant. Her heart hurt, had hurt for so long. But then she remembered -- Taejon was not here to love her soul, but her body.  She blinked away the stinging in her eyes. "My shoulders, a little," she said.  "My cunt, a lot." 

       "So not here," Taejon said, and he scooted down on the bedding until his mouth was opposite Mariah's breasts.  Before he touched them, he said, "This is what I'm going to do down below, soon."  He pushed Mariah onto her back and began to lick the underside of her left breast, below her nipple, gently, slowly, using only his tongue. He circled around her nipple, never touching it, then did the same to her right breast. 

       "You can touch me, if you want," Taejon said, as he went back to her left breast. 

       "Sorry," Mariah said, embarrassed.  It was as if she had forgotten all her training.  She circled her arms around Taejon, pushing against the strength of his back.  She moved her hands down to his buttocks, and just as she grabbed him there he began to lick her nipple.

       "Oh," Mariah breathed, and pushed her fingers slowly into his crack.  Taejon licked her other nipple. 

       Taejon moved himself up her body.  "Remember, I'm going to do this below soon," he said, and he began to lick her lips, slowly, gently.  When Mariah tried to add pressure, he leaned back.  "When I do this to your cunt, to your clit," he said, "it will only be my gentle tongue."  And he began to lick her mouth again, this time the inside of her lips.  He was looking into Mariah's eyes and she could sense his smile.

       Mariah's pulse raced and her cunt gushed, which reawoke the bruises there and the pain.  She could feel Taejon's erection against her thigh.  It made her smile, which made Taejon pull back. 

       Mariah slipped out from under Taejon and turned so that she could put her mouth on Taejon's penis.  She took him in.

       But he pulled back again.  "No," he said, his voice husky.  "Don't deep throat me."

       Mariah looked up. "I told you, I'm sore," she said.  "It will hurt if you go inside me."        

       Taejon smiled his slow smile, although he was panting slightly.  "You can give me a blow job, if you want," he said.  "But no deep throat."

       "It's the same thing," Mariah said, annoyed.

       "No," Taejon said, and he was half laughing at her.  "When you deep throat me, what do you focus on?"

       "Relaxing my throat," Mariah said.  Master Jonas had taught her this, over and over again.

       Taejon nodded.  "I want you to focus on pleasure -- yours and mine."

       Mariah flushed, embarrassed by her own ignorance.  But Taejon put his hand over hers.  "No one comes out of the factory knowing this," he said. "We all have to be taught."  He guided Mariah's hand to the base of his penis.  "Hold me here," he said, tightening his own hand around hers.  "And if you want, you can put your mouth on me.  But not so deep that it makes you uncomfortable."

       Taejon had become soft.  Mariah cupped him and rubbed him gently. She leaned forward and experimentally twirled her tongue around him.  He jolted and groaned.  Again, the feeling of pleasure deep inside Mariah's core, outweighing the pain. 

       Without letting go of him, Mariah straddled Taejon, her knees on either side of his chest, facing down.  He hardened within her grasp, and she put her mouth over him, enjoying -- loving -- being able to move her mouth up and down on him as she chose.

       And then he pulled her knees back, and she felt his tongue on her.  It was a gentle fluttering, just as he had licked her neck, her breasts, her mouth.  The sensation was in her slit, at the entrance to her vagina, and back again. 

       She stroked and sucked Taejon as he licked her, his hands curled around her legs.  Mariah felt sparks in the back of her eyelids.  She sucked on him harder.  The sensation was divine.

       And then he was licking her clit, so gently that there was no pain despite her bruises, and so slowly that she thought that she would explode. She grasped his cock with her hand and her mouth as if it was grounding her to this world.  He half-grunted, half-groaned, and Mariah could feel the vibrations from his sound.  Then she did explode, and he didn't stop.  Once, twice, three times, until she had to pull up or the sensation would be too much.  At this slight movement Taejon lifted his head, and with a groan and a push of his hips he came as well.   

       After, they rested against each other.  Mariah asked him drowsily, "So that's making love?" and he smiled his slow smile. 

       ***

       Rose sat cross-legged on the floor, a large mortar on her lap, crushing with a pestle the berries Animal had brought home. Mariah stood, one hand lightly on the back of an armchair, doing a stretch Gabriel had taught her. 

       Gabriel had emptied his medicine bag onto the table and was sorting packets, noting which needed replenishing. He sighed heavily.   Rose glanced over at him.  Mariah gave no indication that she had heard.

       Gabriel sighed again, louder, almost ostentatiously.  Mariah and Rose glanced at each other.  "Can I help you with something, Master?" Rose asked.

       Gabriel gave an obvious double take, as if surprised that Rose had spoken.  "Oh, what? No . . ." He tugged at his hair.  "I was just thinking about a girl I knew back home, and hoping that she was okay." 

       Mariah and Rose looked at each other again, even more confused.  "Was she sick, Master?" Rose asked.

       Gabriel shook his head.  "No, no, not at all," he said.  "She was just always in trouble.  Like Mariah," he said, carefully looking only at Rose.  "Hates rules.  A born rebel." 

       The door opened with a bang and Animal stomped in, sweating, carrying a large ceramic jug.  "Rose," he said, "I need you to start . . ."  Seeing what she was doing, he stopped, said, "Oh," and placed the jug on the floor near her.  "See that you don't spill," he said.  "That stuff stains."

       "Yes, Master," Rose said, smiling slightly. 

       Gabriel continued as if Animal had not interrupted him.  "Her name is  . . ." he paused, still looking only at Rose.  "Makayla," he said. 

       He went back to sorting, seemingly lost in thought.  Animal went into the bathroom and began running water for a shower.  Rose took the bait at last.  "Why are you worried about her, Master?" she asked.

       "Well . . ." Gabriel said, "I guess I'm not worried about her exactly."  Rose looked to Mariah, who was staring fixedly at the floor as she raised one elbow over her head and tugged at it with her other hand.  "Do you ever have a daydream that's so intense that it seems real?"

       Rose nodded, puzzled.  "Yes, I . . ."

       But Gabriel interrupted her.  "I was thinking, if Makayla were here, if she were a slave, what would she do?" 

       Mariah looked at Gabriel at last, but Gabriel continued to focus only on Rose.  "I mean, if her whole goal were to rebel . . ."

       Neither Rose nor Mariah said anything, but both were now staring at Gabriel.  He looked down at the packets in front of him, speaking softly now as if to himself.  "I suppose she could run away like Mariah, but let's assume she got caught."  Mariah looked away as she reached both arms above her head and stretched tall.  Gabriel continued as if he had not noticed. although he flushed slightly.  "And let's say, like Mariah, she survived.  She's nervous now.  She might be looking for an opportunity to run away again . . ."  Mariah laced her fingers behind her back, and Gabriel continued, "but in the meantime she's stuck.  She wants to rebel but she doesn't want to get caught, or punished."  Gabriel asked Rose, "What would she do?"

       Rose looked down, pale, troubled.  "I don't know, Master," she said, and her voice trembled.

       But Gabriel pressed on.  "You must have some idea.  You've surely known slaves like this, looking for opportunities.  Would she sneak food?" 

       Rose said low and urgently, "I don't know, Master." She swiped her eye with the back of her wrist, which made her splash some berry juice on the rug.  "Oh," she cried, struggling to her feet.

       But Mariah said, "I'll get you a cloth, Rose."  When she returned a moment later from the kitchen with a damp rag, she said to Gabriel, tightly, "She would do whatever she could without getting caught."

       Animal came out of the bathroom, his hair wet, a towel wrapped around his waist, and began to cross to his bedroom.

       "But what would she do?" Gabriel said.  "Remember, I'm an outlander.  I don't know your rules.  What's the worst thing a slave who wanted to quietly rebel could do?"

       Animal stopped.  He looked from Gabriel, uselessly moving his packets around, to Mariah, seething, to Rose, crying.  He said, coldly, shortly, furiously, "She would pleasure herself."  He turned to Rose.  "I need you in the bedroom."  When Rose started to move the mortar and pestle to one side, he said, "Leave them.  I need you now."  Rose followed Animal across the living area and into his bedroom, where he closed the door firmly behind them.

       Mariah was frozen in place, staring at Gabriel.  Gabriel continued randomly moving his packets around, not meeting Mariah's eye.  He continued, as if Animal and Rose had not left the room,  "That makes sense.  Of course, she'd have to be smart about it.  Find a time when she wouldn't get caught.  If she had a room to herself, she could do it late at night or early in the morning.  She would have to make sure she could take a shower right afterwards, and that her sheets wouldn't give her away.  Maybe she'd lay a towel down."  Gabriel looked at Mariah at last.  "Don't you think?" he said. Mariah looked at him, slackjawed, and then nodded once, quickly.  Gabriel turned away so that Mariah would not see his smile.