Protecting His Mistress - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,28
have him castrated,” she added in an off-hand way.
Then she and her mother and the rest of the Mistresses waved goodbye and left.
Lilli watched them go, feeling strange and somehow detached from her own body. The place where she had been injected was painfully tender but all she could think about was the fact that she wasn’t ready to have a baby yet and she didn’t know what she was going to do.
Eighteen
“Little Mistress, what’s wrong?” Karn looked at his new Mistress with concern. She’d sent him and H’rare away as the banquet was ending and he’d placed the other bodyslave in the kitchens, which seemed like a safe place for him. He could help with the serving and hopefully escape Lady Mirabella’s notice. Then Karn had gone back up to Lilli’s suite to wait for her.
But when she came in, she seemed detached and distant. And…were those tear tracks on her pale cheeks? Karn needed to make sure.
“Mistress,” he said again, since she hadn’t answered him. “What’s wrong?”
“I…I don’t…I can’t talk about it.” Avoiding his eyes, she went to the bed and laid face down on it. “Please, Karn—just leave me alone. You can have the rest of the night off.” Her voice was muffled in the bedclothes but she sounded very close to tears.
Karn knew he ought to go—this was the perfect opportunity to explore the rest of the vast mansion and find the information he was seeking. He especially wanted to see if he could locate the Kindred warrior who had been accused of murder and sentenced to execution.
But he couldn’t leave just yet. Not when Lilli was so upset. He couldn’t help himself—he had to know what was wrong.
“Come on now, little Mistress,” he murmured, going to sit on the bed beside her. “It can’t be as bad as all that, can it?”
“Yes, it can.” Lilli’s voice was barely a whisper, but he could hear the quiver in it.
“What happened?” Karn asked. “Did that Priss bitch say or do something else to you after you sent me away?”
Just the thought made him clench his hands into fists. That little sadist was a piece of work, all right! He didn’t like the way she tried to win him away from Lilli, just to hurt her.
“You could say that.” Lilli turned her head so that he could see at least the side of her face. She looked miserable, Karn thought, and his heart squeezed in his chest.
“What did she do?” he demanded. “I thought we got her pretty good with the seed-shooting contest. And you probably saved her bodyslave’s life,” he added. “If you hadn’t won him, he’d be off to the Diluthian mines in a matter of days.”
“What happened?” Karn urged. He put a hand on her back, feeling her soft skin through the silky, see-through top she still wore. “Please tell me, little Mistress.”
“I…she…” Lilli’s face twisted in a way that showed she was trying not to cry. “She told my mother that I wanted…wanted to get impregnated—like the rest of the girls,” she whispered. “You know I don’t but she convinced my mother to give me the first quick-grow shot. And now Mother’s on the viewscreen this minute making an appointment for me at the conception center for the end of the week!”
“What?” Karn frowned. “That’s fucking awful, Lilli! Can’t you tell her no? That you don’t want to do it?”
Lilli shook her head.
“It’s all the rage right now and Mother is so afraid of falling out of fashion. She’ll do anything to keep up with the Mistresses who live in Opulex.”
“Well, that doesn’t give her the right to force you to have a baby!” Karn said indignantly.
“I tried to tell her I didn’t want one—that I wasn’t ready. But she wouldn’t…wouldn’t listen.”
Lilli’s words ended in a sob and she buried her face in her arms, her shoulders shaking with muted grief.
Karn sat there feeling helpless. His heart ached for Lilli. He wanted desperately to solve this problem for her, but it seemed to be beyond him. How could he, in his role as a lowly bodyslave, stop the evil Mistress Mirabella from forcing her daughter to have a baby before she felt ready? There was nothing he could do. Nothing that wouldn’t end up with him being executed or sent to the Diluthian mines for insubordination, that was.
Nothing but try to comfort Lilli.
“Come here, little Mistress,” he murmured, turning her over. Her face was red