Odalisque

“A few minutes ago you said it was a wonderful idea!” Mason pointed indignantly at her actual words on the page.

Well, I think it’s a wonderful idea to get an odalisque, but I’m just not sure it should be me! she wrote, adding a big exclamation point.

Mason scowled and leaned closer to look in her eyes. “Is it me? It’s me, isn’t it? I’m an asshole. I don’t deserve to have anyone. To have anyone care about me.”

Constance sighed. She was really over this conversation. Mason, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re very sweet. Very loving. You just need to find a deserving girl. Jessamine wasn’t right for you. But it’s okay. Life goes on, and you will find someone.

He reached out to her. His physical presence was suffocating. He was so sexual, so masculine, even in his hangdog misery. He smoothed fingers down her cheek, cupping her jaw. “Wouldn’t you like to be with me, Constance? Because the girl I really want right now is you. You make me feel comfortable. You’re honest with me. Don’t you want me? Am I so unlovable?”

She shook her head and wrote, I’m not looking for someone to love! Besides that, there’s a lot of tension between me and Kai right now. This is a really bad time to add yourself to the mix. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but you need to let us figure that out first.

Mason leaned closer. Intoxicatingly close. Oh, God, he was going to kiss her, and Kai wasn’t there, and it would feel wrong and unfaithful. When she turned her face away, he nuzzled her instead, snaking one hand inside her robe to fondle her breast. She grabbed his wrist and shook her head, pushing his hand away. She wrote, Not now. Not when Kai isn’t here.

Mason narrowed his eyes, pouting like a child. “I thought you were the one person I could come to who wouldn’t make me feel like shit. What about your code? You’re supposed to serve men, and I’m a man. Are you a fucking cockslave or what?”

Constance slapped his face, a good hard whack. His blatant movie-star manipulation disgusted her, but the slap only seemed to inflame his passions further. He stood, pulling her with him, and this time he did kiss her, meanly, forcefully. She struggled, hating his rough stubble scratching her, and the scent of unwashed, drunken man.

His arm tightened around her waist and he trapped both her hands in his other hand. He gripped them so hard she whimpered. He tugged at her robe, his tongue forcing her mouth open again. She almost bit him, but then he released her and spun toward the door.

Kai was there, right in the kitchen with them. His shirt collar was undone, his briefcase still dangling from his fingers. He looked as dissolute and miserable as Mason.

“Well, well, well,” he said with an accusing glare at both of them. “What have I interrupted here?”

*** *** ***

In numb disbelief, Kai watched Constance shake her head, wiping her lips and pulling her robe closed. Why was she denying what he’d seen with his own fucking two eyes?

“How long has this little plan been in the works?” Kai asked. “And when were you two going to let me in on it?”

“What plan?” Constance signed.

“I got a call from our friend Sebastian today. He wanted a character reference for yours truly,” he said, flicking a thumb at Mason. “So you could be his odalisque.”

Constance shook her head again. “I only found out about all this today. He just came over and told me. I told him it was ridiculous.”

Mason was silent, watching their conversation. Kai realized he’d been signing instead of talking. He turned to his friend. His former friend. “How long have you been coming over here without me knowing? You fucking bastard. Sneaking around on your wife and your best friend?”

“I haven’t seen Constance since the scatter party,” Mason snapped.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” Kai yelled back. “How many times?”

“Never, okay?” Mason grabbed his head, launching into the same weak, pathetic act he always used when he got caught being an ass. “Look, Kai, I’m just not myself right now. I wanted to talk to Constance. Things got out of hand.”

Constance touched Kai’s arm. “Things didn’t get out of hand,” she signed angrily. “Mason got out of hand. I told him to stop. That you weren’t here, that it wasn’t right. And I had nothing to do with him calling Bastien. I swear it.”

At those words, Kai turned on Mason. He finally noticed the outline of fingers on his cheek. “Get the fuck out of my house, you fucking jackass. Don’t ever so much as look at her again.”

Mason started to the door, then turned back. “I don’t get it. She’s just an odalisque, right? She’s available for hire. If she’s something more, then fucking say so. But don’t stand there and judge me like you’re better than me. You bought her services. Why can’t I?”

Kai lowered his voice to a near-growl, a second away from totally losing it. “One more time. Don’t even think of touching her again. And you can forget about calling Gaudet about her, because Constance will be your odalisque over my dead body. Now go home to wherever you’re living now, and forget we were ever friends.”

“Wow, really, man? That’s harsh.” Mason turned and stalked to the door. “Fuck you,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Fuck you both.”

When Kai turned around, Constance was crying. Silent rivers of tears. Kai went to her, rubbing her back and pressing his forehead to hers. Constance held herself stiffly in his arms, like she didn’t want to be touched.

Kai pulled back and searched her face. “What did he do to you? Did he hurt you?”

She made a curt sign. “No.”

“I’ll call the police.”

Constance pulled away from him, shaking her head and signing again. “No, seriously. Nothing happened.” She wiped away tears, trying to compose herself. Then she looked at him and started bawling again. “You believe me, don’t you? I never snuck around on you. Not with Mason or anyone else.”

Kai went to get her a tissue. “Yes, I believe you. I don’t know why I even asked. It’s just those…trust issues flaring up again. You know.”

“It would be such a breach of the code,” Constance signed, the white tissue fluttering from her fingertips. It put Kai in mind of a white flag. Surrender. I give up.

“Yeah, the code,” he muttered, rolling his eyes. “We must follow the damn code or God knows what tragedy might befall us.”

“Don’t mock it!” she signed angrily. “I chose this lifestyle. You chose it.” She swiped at her eyes, at the tears still squeezing through. “Why do you mock the code? Because when you do, you know you’re mocking me too!” She turned and ran up the stairs to the odella, with audible, heart-wrenching sobs.

Well, so much for emotional distance. All of this was his fault, of course. She was perfectly happy sticking to the emotionless and static arrangement of “owner” and “odalisque.” He wished he could be happy with that too. It would have made everything so easy. He could have shrugged off Mason’s bid for Constance as an unfortunate faux pas, instead of going apeshit out of his mind with rage. He could have found any answers he needed about her in the code, instead of searching her light green eyes for something deeper.

Ten months ago he’d been dying for a faceless, emotionless sex slave, no strings attached. But now he wanted something else. He wanted Constance Flynn, with all her complexity, charm, and sensuality. He wanted to take her out to dinner. He wanted to romance her. He wanted to sleep next to her through an entire night and wake up with her in his arms. Hell, he wanted to put a fucking ring on her finger. He didn’t want her distance, her censure each time he crossed some nebulous emotional line.

They had to talk.

He climbed the stairs to her odella and considered the closed door. That was a new thing. He could knock, but it wouldn’t do much good. He cracked it open instead.

Constance was reading in bed. She gazed up at him with a completely blank look. No welcome, no anger. No emotion he could recognize.

No offer to serve him.

“Can I come in?” he signed.

She nodded, closing her book. Kai crossed to the saray. He beckoned her to join him with a jerk of his head. His odalisque came at once, without hesitation. Well, this was all in the code, unlike the messy scene downstairs.

She walked through the door in front of him, then turned, waiting for directions. Oh, God, even now he found her so sweet. So womanly and welcoming. He went to her and ran his fingers over the curve of her hips. He loved her softness, her femininity.

He undressed, waving her off when she would have helped him. One gesture and she was on her knees, stroking his balls, bringing his cock to life with her mouth. Such skill. No wonder Mason wanted her. No wonder Mason was fine with throwing away a lifetime of friendship to steal her from under his nose. Kai stopped Constance with a tug on the back of her hair. She looked up at him, sitting back on her heels.

“Could you really go to him?” he signed.

She didn’t ask who Kai referred to. She shrugged and signed, “It doesn’t matter, does it?”

“It matters to me. Yes. Could you have left me and gone to him without…without feeling anything?”