Perfect Master (2 page)

“Good night.”
And good riddance
,
Arik thought when he heard the tower door close with a satisfying thud.

He wished he were as certain as his father
that his bride would do her duty, not run screaming when she saw him in the
concealing garments he wore whenever he had to venture from these rooms. He
figured he would chance that, though, over the near certainty that seeing him
naked would make her scream in horror. As forbidding as he looked in
head-to-toe black leather, he looked worse when he revealed his ravaged flesh.

Drawing his robe around him to ward off the
evening chill, he strode to the other window of his tower, which overlooked the
community where Obsidion’s full-time residents lived.

Obsidion. The pleasure planet was his home
and now his birthright. From his vantage point he could see all the city. Sex
slave parlors and shops renowned throughout the galaxy twinkled with
many-colored lights, though night had not yet cloaked the sky in darkness.

Arik turned toward the other side of the
city that was cloaked in twilight. It bathed mansions and cottages alike in a
haze of mottled pink and lavender. Arik stood, fingering the rough surface of
his ruined cheek and idly rubbing a painful spot in his empty eye socket as he
watched dusk fall on his last day as a free man.

He could not, would not, submit to the
restorative surgeries Pak Song and a team of surgeons had recommended. His
father had summoned the old Earthling exile to the palace along with a
half-dozen plastic surgeons, soon after Arik returned from exile, and he hadn’t
tried to hide his disappointment when Arik had refused his services.

Pak Song and his colleagues hadn’t
understood, either, that Arik saw his ugliness as a source of well-deserved
pain for his father. He wore his scars as a reminder to all who looked at him
of the cruel fate that befell younger sons of kings who refused to bow to
Obsidion’s laws and sacrifice their genitals to a surgeon’s knife.

His cock swelled against the sheer golden
silk of his robe, as though in silent thanks to him for having spared it by
fleeing his home rather than becoming a royal eunuch along with his four
cousins, the sons of the half-brother of Arik’s father. The four had been at or
approaching puberty that summer twelve years ago.

Now they served in the palace as royal
eunuchs, well-fed and well cared for though deprived of their maleness and any
chance to succeed to Obsidion’s monarchy. And he was back, the unquestioned
heir to the Diamond Throne. However Arik might feel about his mating, he
accepted that he must marry and provide an heir.
Maybe
I should be
grateful that my father arranged this marriage to a woman considered among the
most beautiful on the pleasure planet.

In one way he was. He yearned for a woman
to share his bed, and despite what he had told the king, he hated feeling the
curious eyes on him when he went to Romulus the Aurelionian’s finest sex
emporium for satisfaction.

If only his princess would look past the
scars that marred his body and see him for the man he was, not the monster who
greeted him in the mirror each morning. If only she would look at him for
himself, not for the king he would someday become. Arik fixed his gaze on a
glittering star and made the two wishes, though he had no faith that either
would come true.

No. He’d not leave this chamber without the
mask and bodysuit that hid his ugliness, and he would never invite his mate to
join him here. Better that she fear what she did not know than run in horror
from the monster who was her husband.

* * * * *

“There. The man I’m looking at must be your
bridegroom. Do you see him, framed in the highest window of the tower? Those
who say a monster lies beneath the leather hood and suit he wears must have
lost their minds. The man is gorgeous. What a face! What hair! What a body.”
When Pearl handed over the handheld telescope, Emerald noticed the lascivious
look in her sister’s eyes. “I tell you, Emerald, I have never seen such a
magnificent cock. If only I were the eldest.”

Garnet moistened her deep-red lips. “Or I.
When Arik becomes king, he will have even more wealth than the Aurelonian who
owns all the sex slave emporiums on the Street of Pleasure, or so people say.
What think you of your prince, Emerald?”

Emerald focused the eyepiece and gazed at
the man who tomorrow would become her husband—her Master. She stifled a sigh,
for it was obvious that her sisters were envious. No way would she spoil the
pleasure of her royal mating by having Garnet and Pearl scrap over her prince.
After all, her father had already decided the crown prince of Obsidion would be
hers. Garnet and Pearl must not only wait for their own matings until their
father accumulated the gold for their dowries, they must also satisfy
themselves with the lesser males Meredith the matchmaker would choose for them.

In profile, backlit by the bright lights in
what she imagined must be his bedchamber, Prince Arik looked gorgeous. His
shimmering robe let light through, enhancing the look of his impressive body in
a sheer covering of pale gold that contrasted with his jet-black hair and skin
that reminded her of caramel and cream. She liked the way he kept his long hair
pulled back in a queue.

Emerald could hardly wait to loosen his
hair and thread her fingers through the silky fall. He had a rugged look about
him, a nose that was not quite straight, yet regal. High cheekbones and a
strong, clean-shaven jaw gave him a look of blatant masculine command.

A huge man, he gave the appearance of fluid
motion even while standing still. His massive thighs reminded her of tree
trunks. She shivered when she focused on his cock, so big it sent a wave of
anticipation from her cunt to her pierced nipples. It looked fearsome, a
somnolent beast resting in its nest of dark pubic curls against a pair of
large, round testicles.

A sudden frisson of fear made her look away
for a moment when she considered how his mighty weapon would feel, penetrating
her virgin flesh for the first time and making her his own. Perhaps some called
him a monster because of his massive cock. She would gladly take that
delectable flesh into her body to enjoy the privilege of having the gorgeous
man as her mate.

Emerald would soon have the prince of her
dreams. From what she saw, she thought he must be the embodiment of all those
late-night fantasies. In less than twelve hours now, they would be mated.

The gods are smiling down on me. All my
fantasies are about to be fulfilled.

* * * * *

Fantasies. Emerald barely slept, rising
eagerly as soon as a pink and purple dawn sky began to emerge from darkness.
Today she’d become a princess, the pampered consort of her royal Master. The
most handsome man she’d ever seen, with perfection of face and form that
matched her own.

Excited, she bathed and dressed, taking special
care to drape a practically transparent, silken robe artistically around her
naked body—a robe not unlike the one she had seen her prince wearing in his
tower the night before.

She could hardly wait.

“You will ready yourself, my daughter,” Eli
told her a few moments later. “The king has sent a litter for you. He has sent
word that the mating ceremony will be held in private.”

“But…” Emerald clamped her lips together,
stifling the complaint her father’s stern look let her know would be futile.
She had so much wanted all of Obsidion’s citizenry to witness her triumph, to
see she had managed to capture the planet’s finest prize. The perfect mate…the
perfect Master. She would feign compliance, pretend submission, but soon she
would use her wiles to twist her prince into doing her bidding. “Yes, Father,”
she said, making no complaint when he assisted her into a litter and motioned
for its bearers to rise and take her to the palace.

Sweet incense swirled about the inside of
the jeweled litter, cloaking Emerald in a sensual haze, hiding her thinly robed
flesh from those who might want to glimpse their prince’s bride on her journey
through Obsidion’s streets to the castle—to the man who would soon be her
Master.

The arousing scent of precious oils she had
rubbed into her naked body mingled with the incense. Her nipples tingled and
her cunt began to clench with anticipation. She could hardly wait for her
prince to claim her…take her. She longed for the moment she would feel the
cold, heavy weight of his collar closing about her neck—a moment her father had
assured her would take place as soon as the crown prince penetrated her cunt
with his mighty cock, as was traditional at the royal matings that rarely
occurred on Obsidion.

In less than an hour, I’ll be a princess.
I will be the mate to the handsome prince of all my dreams
.

Emerald ran her fingers through her
waist-length auburn curls, suddenly eager to feel them being cut off, as always
happened during mating ceremonies for members of Obsidion’s upper classes. Though
the custom had begun on Earth as she understood it, she welcomed her shearing
and the collar, both symbols of submission she would wear to show the world she
belonged to Prince Arik.

I am going to engage his lust and
capture his heart, and then he will belong to me as much as I belong to him
.

Arik
. Over
and over she repeated his name in her mind as six matched Martian slaves bore
her through the streets on the golden litter, and later in the castle’s great
hall while three of the four royal eunuchs she’d heard about lovingly prepared
her to be presented to their lord and prince.

The eunuchs fascinated her, for each of
them wore the precious stones allowed only to Obsidion’s royal family—diamonds
set in red gold from Mars. Huge studs in their ears, smaller ones in their
right nostrils, and elaborate, diamond-studded shields centered over smooth,
hairless flesh where she imagined a laser beam had cut away all evidence of
their maleness.

It puzzled her that they went about
handling her body with gentle precision, exquisite care, and a total lack of
the admiration she’d come to expect from all males—even the eunuchs who served
in her father’s household. Although they expressed the proper appreciation for
the small, jeweled casks that she presented each of them as bride-gifts, they
didn’t seem affected by the blue and lavender gems—tanzanites and Tiffany
Stones from Earth—that her father had told her should hold special significance
for eunuchs.

Chapter Two

While Emerald was being prepared, the
fourth of the royal eunuchs attended his prince, preparing him to greet his
mate. When Arik waved away the royal robes Hikaru tried to set on his
leather-clad shoulders, the eunuch protested. “My lord, you must look the part
of a prince.”

Indeed. There would be no mistaking his
position, for Arik would be the only whole male participating in the mating
ceremony, a fact that would be evident to all since he was wearing a bodysuit
that left his cock and balls exposed. Already his cock had stiffened, whether
from anticipation or the loving attention Hikaru had shown it while freeing it
from the confines of the leather, Arik couldn’t say. “I will dispense with the
royal trappings. It is not as though my bride is likely to object to their
lack. After all, I look less fearsome in the leather than I would in my
princely robes.”

For a moment he imagined himself whole,
naked but for that translucent robe, presenting himself for his bride’s
inspection and admiration. Shoving that fantasy aside, he reached behind his
neck and checked the security of the lacings that held his hood in place. “It’s
time for us to go.”

“As you say, my lord.” When Hikaru bowed,
the diamond studs in his ears and left nostril twinkled.

The bridegroom cometh. It is of no
consequence that he looks less adorned than the royal eunuchs who serve him
.

Arik had refused the diamond-studded cock
ring his father had offered the night before and wore only a large diamond stud
in his left earlobe to mark his status. A stud hidden beneath the leather hood
that hugged his face, concealing the ravaged side of it from view.

His footsteps resounded against the marble
staircase, strong yet muted by the soft kidskin boots that encased his feet.
One step sure, the next halting, each footfall brought him closer to the point
from which there could be no return. The point he had crossed, in truth, on the
day he had obeyed his father’s order and returned to Obsidion to take his place
as heir to the Diamond Throne.

He’d become practically immune to the
courtiers’ stares and the sympathetic murmurs that drifted to his ears whenever
he ventured from his chambers. The black leather bodysuit he wore served to
distance him from them, and to provide a barrier that shielded his emotions as
well as his ravaged body from their view.
There she is. My bride.
Laid
out on the dais in the great hall below, she practically took his breath away.
Her ivory skin glowed with the sensual oil he’d chosen earlier from the
selection the royal eunuchs had offered. The smell of her female musk,
accentuated by the aphrodisiac in the oil, made Arik’s nostrils flare behind
the mask.

His cock swelled with anticipation. This
delectable morsel belonged to him, as certainly as his princely robes of gold
and purple and the cask of jewels that he kept secure in his chamber where no
one could plunder them. His balls tightened when he watched her squirm with
obvious pleasure at the attention she was getting from two of the royal
eunuchs. They were stirring her passions with their practiced hands and mouths
while the third one clipped her long, fiery hair. He longed to touch that
short, soft-looking pelt with his naked hand—the ringlets only her Master could
look upon once the vows were consummated—but knew he must not.