Burning for Love (Kindred Tales)

Rissa sighed and gave him a tiny smile.

“You’ve helped to make me feel better already, just by caring that I was sad,” she told him. “Lady Mildew never cared how I felt—only that I looked neat and acted properly.”

“I’m glad. Or I would be glad, if I had emotions,” James amended.

He gave her a tentative smile of his own and Rissa wondered why. Was he only making that facial expression in order to try and simulate the emotion of “gladness?” Or might he be having just a tiny bit of actual feeling somehow? It was hard to tell, but the smile looked genuine and it seemed to reach his blue eyes, which were still turned towards her. It was all too confusing, she decided.

“Well, I’m glad you’re glad,” she said lightly, pushing the troubling question away. “But speaking of Lady Mildew, I really must get undressed and I’m afraid I shall need your help. I cannot reach the buttons on the back of my dress or the stays on my corset myself.”

“I will be pleased to help you, Princess.” James rose and stood beside her chair. “Will you disrobe here, or in the bathing chamber?”

“Here is fine. Just let me get my robe ready.”

Rissa rose as well. Her dressing room—which had been her mother’s—was quite large and elaborate. Besides the counter which held her formal wigs, there were rows and rows of dresses and drawers carved of solid Tika wood, full of stockings, chemises, pantalletts, and all the other underthings a lady needed.

Going to one polished, dark brown drawer, Rissa opened it and pulled out a white silk robe. Though she was used to being in a state of undress around her old Companion, she was shy of it with James.

She had dismissed Lady Mildew’s claims that it was improper for her to have the big Kindred undressing and bathing her—mostly because she wanted to be rid of the bitter, controlling old woman. But now, she had to admit it was a bit awkward for him to see her naked. Even if he had no emotions and was a robot inside, on the outside he looked like a big, handsome, virile man—and she would normally never let a man see her without her clothing. Why, it would be almost as bad as letting him kiss her on the mouth!

But he is not truly a man, she reminded herself again. You wouldn’t feel this way if he had turned out to look like one of those stiff, shiny butler-droids they have in all the fashionable houses in the country!

Still, she couldn’t shake the habit of modesty and she was glad to have a robe nearby. She would put it on as soon as James helped her off with her dress and underthings, she decided. It would be…less awkward that way.

“Could you please unbutton me?” she asked, going over to him with the robe in one hand and turning so that her back was to his front. “As I said, I cannot manage the buttons on my own.”

“Of course.” His long fingers flew and in no time Rissa was able to peel down the white dress and step out of it. “Hang it over the chair—the maid can deal with it later,” she instructed James. “Could you please loosen the stays of my corset? I find them quite constricting tonight.”

He frowned.

“By ‘stays’ do you mean these strings?” He motioned at the laces running down her back.

“Exactly.” Rissa nodded and gave another sigh of relief as the big Kindred loosed the stays in a surprisingly proficient manner and drew the corset away from her body. “Ahh…it feels so good to get that off.”

“I’m not surprised.” James frowned down at the corset, which he held in one large hand. “Has this device been constricting your breathing all night?”

Rissa sighed deeply.

“I’m afraid so.”

“But…why?” He looked truly confused. “Why would you constrict your natural curves—which are extremely pleasing to look at—into an unnatural shape?”

“That’s Court fashion for you. It’s like the wigs—I wear a corset because everyone else in Court does too and it would be scandalous for me not to.”

He frowned.

“Then this ‘Court fashion’ is a foolish thing.”

“It’s a necessary thing,” Rissa corrected him. “I mean, maybe not the wigs, but I couldn’t do without my corset. It makes me look so much thinner.”

His frown deepened.

“Why would you want to look thinner when your natural curves are so beautiful? You are what my people call, ‘an Elite’—a female who has been blessed with a full, curvy figure. Why would you want to hide it?”

Rissa was taken aback. She had never heard of any man who preferred a curvy girl to a slim one.

“Oh, well…I suppose because being thin is the fashion,” she said weakly.

James shook his head.

“Ridiculous,” he growled. Then he looked at her thoughtfully. “Princess, if you don’t mind me asking, I thought when I first saw you that you had lights sewn into the front of your gown. But the gown has been removed, and you still appear to have lights on your chest.” He gestured to the front of her chemise where her points were still glowing a dull red under the white fabric of her underclothes and the ice gel pads she wore.