in her soft little hand and given it a gentle squeeze. Gods, she was lovely!
“Lilliana, you mustn’t treat a bodyslave too gently,” Lady Mirabella was scolding behind her. “You can’t let pity get in the way of discipline.”
“Yes, Mother,” Lilli murmured, but her eyes were still locked with Karn’s.
He got to his knees and took both her hands in his.
“Little Mistress,” he murmured and bent to press a kiss to each of her soft, sweet little palms.
“Oh…” Lilli’s brown eyes got even wider. “What…what is your name?” she asked.
“I am Karn,” Karn told her. “And I will serve you, body and soul, if only you will make me yours.”
“That’s enough of that!” Lady Mirabella snapped. “Get him back up onto the display pedestal, Tikka—I want to inspect him.”
“Of course. Get up!” Mistress Tikka pointed the remote at him menacingly. “Don’t make me shock you again, Kindred.”
Karn climbed back onto the display pedestal at once, though he would rather have stayed down on the ground and talked more to the lovely little Lilli. Still, he would have plenty of time to talk to her if he could pull off this sale. Which was the important thing, he reminded himself—not the fact that he felt strangely drawn to the curvy female.
“Now look, Lilli,” her mother instructed when Karn was back in position. “You must examine a male from every angle when choosing a bodyslave. Remember, this choice will reflect on you and me and our entire house!”
“Yes, Mother,” Lilli murmured, looking up at Karn.
He caught her eyes again and winked gravely, making her giggle. When Mistress Mirabella turned to give her a reproving look, she hid her smile with her hand and turned it into a cough.
“Yes, yes…very nice. Excellent lines. Very good form.” Lady Mirabella circled the pedestal, nodding as she took in Karn from all angles. He thought that he had never felt so much like a piece of meat in his life, but the fact that Lilli was looking up at him with wide-eyed wonder instead of the jaded eyes of a long-time bodyslave owner made a difference.
He had been prepared to endure being “owned” as part of this assignment. Now he thought he might actually enjoy it—or at least, enjoy being close to Lilli. If, that was, he could get her mother to buy him.
“I like what I see,” Mistress Mirabella announced at last, after she had circled him three times. “But I want to know about his temperament. How long has he been a bodyslave? It’s well known that Kindred make excellent bodyslaves if they’re captured young enough.”
“Oh, he was captured as a child and raised to it,” Mistress Tikka said quickly. “So he’s very docile—unless, of course, your daughter was threatened in which case he can be very protective,” she added.
“I see. That’s good—very good.” Mistress Mirabella nodded, as though this ticked another box on her invisible bodyslave checklist. “He’s a fine specimen,” she added. “There’s just one more thing—I need to see his shaft erect. For display purposes only, of course.”
This was something Karn had been dreading. He didn’t mind being put on display—even naked. But he disliked the idea of a female he didn’t know or care for handling his shaft. Still, there was nothing to do but grit his teeth and bear it.
Clenching his fists behind his back, he widened his stance and waited as Mistress Mirabella took a firm grasp of his shaft. Her hand was cold as ice and bony as a skeleton’s claw.
His shaft absolutely refused to respond to it.
Doggedly, Mistress Mirabella kept trying. But no matter how much she rubbed and tugged, Karn’s shaft stayed stubbornly limp.
Damn it! Karn clenched his teeth and willed himself to get hard. He had never had this problem before. But then again, he’d never been handled by a female he didn’t want. This was definitely a complication he hadn’t expected.
“What’s wrong with him?” Mistress Mirabella demanded at last, dropping his shaft and wiping her hands on a lace handkerchief fastidiously. “Are you trying to sell me a defective bodyslave, Tikka? I won’t have a male in my household that can’t get hard—what would my friends say if they saw such a thing?”
“Mother, can…could I try?” Lilli asked while Mistress Tikka sputtered out an explanation about how this usually wasn’t a problem. “I think maybe…maybe he might react for me?”
“An inexperienced girl like yourself? Why, you’ve never touched a shaft in your life!” Mistress Mirabella gave a snort, as though this was a stupid