Odalisque

They chuckled together, and Constance felt grateful for Bastien’s unwavering support. All of them sort of idolized Bastien, although he rarely used them sexually. He was father, best friend, and bodyguard all rolled into one. He would always look out for her. So what if Kai didn’t want her? Constance would get over it. At the very least, she’d gotten some very arousing memories out of the whole debacle. She looked into Bastien’s eyes and mustered up a smile.

He seemed relieved. “You’ll be okay, ma chère?”

She nodded and wrote, Thank you for everything. I know you only want what’s best for me, and I appreciate that. She paused, and then added, May I serve you? Please?

Bastien studied her with his trademark assessing gaze. “Are you offering in some attempt to move past Mr. Chandler? Or because you truly wish to serve me?”

She thought a moment. I always wish to serve you, she wrote. But maybe I’m a little lonely at the moment. And sad.

He ruffled her hair, brushing it back over her shoulder. “You know what I say about emotion. It can be a danger in this lifestyle. I want you, but I think it would be better to let you work through this sadness in some other way than with your lips around my cock. Rest a while, and set your mind to things. Perhaps later you might visit the grotto for a swim. That always cheers you up.”

After one last hug, he stood and went to the door, then winked back at her. “Save those cocksucking skills for next week. We’ve got a pretty high profile head of state coming in.”

*** *** ***

Kai brooded during dinner. The lights were low and the whole production was faultlessly elegant, as elegant as possible when half the guests were in evening jackets and half the guests were nude. The other men were cordial and easygoing. Over a light repast and wine, they politely questioned Kai on his travels, his philanthropies, and his experiences with his tech company. To his relief, none of the guests showed up in weird masks or costumes. The women were lovely, all four of them. Madeline, Camille, Gwyneth, and...oh...the other one. He couldn’t recall her name.

He also couldn’t get over the feeling that one woman was missing.

After dinner and another round of drinks, they retired to an adjoining room. The only light came from a fire burning in the large fireplace. Exquisite champagne flowed from bottles stashed in various locations. The men began to shed their clothes and the women took up alluring stances around the room. Lounging on a couch, leaning back against a pile of pillows. One of them--Camille?--cleared the long low coffee table and lay right on top. Bastien seemed to engineer all of it like some perverse concierge. He led Kai over to Gwyneth, who deftly helped him undress. Kai’s clothes disappeared, he knew not where.

A couple of the men sat on the couch, speaking loudly in French as women knelt before them and started sucking them off. It was erotic, deviant. It was like something out of a French porn film. God, if only Jessamine could see this.

Gwyneth was having her way with Kai, drawing his growing erection to its fullest degree in order to sheathe him. Meanwhile, Camille was masturbating on the table, legs spread wide, head thrown back in carefree pleasure. It wasn’t long before the other two men descended on her, stroking and encouraging her. There was no contempt or belittlement, no gangbang vibe to the proceedings. It was sensual and beautiful, not ugly. Kai gave credit to Bastien for that.

Kai finally relaxed and gave himself up to Gwyneth’s skilled ministrations. She licked and toyed with his cock--yes, with every bit as much skill as Constance. But she wasn’t Constance. She was thinner, blonde rather than brunette, and much more flirtatious. She teased and chatted and cooed. She smiled more than Constance and almost obsessively batted her eyes. Kai looked around the room rather than at her, pretending Gwyneth’s mouth was that of another woman he preferred.

What if it was Constance on the table being used? Would he have cared? His mind shied away from thinking about it. One of the men was now fucking Camille enthusiastically, while the other buried himself in her throat. A third man was milling around, fresh from his own blowjob, squeezing Camille’s tits. The other two girls were double teaming the other gentleman, their faces buried in his crotch. The lucky libertine drew his legs up with a desultory smile at Kai. One of the girls--what the hell was her name?--took the opportunity to shove her face into his taint. Kai’s cock throbbed in Gwyneth’s mouth. Kai wanted that, exactly that. He stopped Gwyneth with a hand on her head. “Come here.”

He led her to the sofa where the other man was finishing up. Soon three tongues and three mouths were licking, sucking, lapping. His balls, his cock, his taint, the crease of his thighs and the muscles that ran up in a ‘v’ on either side. He couldn’t remember any of the odalisques’ names now, only thinking of them as Big Boobs, Soft Hair, and Full Lips. God, they were all beautiful, all of them, but none of them intrigued him like Constance. Maybe that was for the best. He hadn’t come here looking for intrigue or the dire emotional connection Bastien had warned him about.

No. He’d come looking for sexual relief, depravity without guilt. He stopped the girls with a grunt and grabbed the one in the middle, pressing her back against the floor. He had to be inside one of them, any one of them. He’d fuck this one, it would be fine.

He entered her without preliminaries, finding her copiously wet. He drove her against the floor with his thrusts, drove deep and slow inside her, enjoying the warmth of her cunt. This one had brown hair like Constance, only straighter and softer. She sighed against his ear. Across the room he heard the other men egging on Camille, heard groans and moans and a feminine wail of pleasure peaking.

It sounded fake.

Constance. Constance...

The coos and sighs of the girl he was fucking sounded fake too. He emptied himself inside her, not caring about his partner’s pleasure for the first time in his life. There were four other men in the room, not including Bastien. One of them could bring her off. His heart wasn’t in it.

He pulled away from her, leaned back against the couch and peeled the condom off his dick. The rush of his orgasm dissipated, leaving him feeling empty and more than a little dirty. He watched the other participants fucking, banging, laughing and feeling each other up. One of the girls was going down on another one and doing a respectable job of it. He observed the scene with almost clinical detachment, the same way he viewed porn at his house.

His orgiastic impulses had fled with his climax. He looked around for his clothes and found them draped over a stand in the corner. The girls sent him a few glances while he dressed. Yes, you’re lovely. Not for me though. For someone else.

Bastien drifted over, still fully dressed, still in host mode. “Leaving us so soon?”

“Forgive me. It’s been a long day. But thank you. The hospitality at Maison Odalisque is”--he swept a hand around at the various fornicating couples--“legendary. It was an enjoyable dinner.” He refrained from giving any critique of the four candidates, and Bastien didn’t press as he escorted him to the door.

“Before you retire, perhaps you’d enjoy a late night swim at the grotto,” Bastien suggested. “It should be near empty at this hour. The water is fine, very warm and relaxing. And of course, there’s no need for a bathing suit.”

A refusal was on the tip of Kai’s tongue, but then he thought about relaxing in the humid, secluded pool, and found the idea really suited his mood. He went straight from the dinner party, not even putting his jacket back on.

The grotto, too, was lit by the light of a recessed fireplace. Faint lights shimmered beneath the water of the man-made pool, creating an almost eerie glow. Mist danced on top of the water in little wisps. Kai threw his clothes over a nearby rock, and was about to slip into the water when he realized he wasn’t alone. A woman was sitting across the pool from him, twenty or thirty feet away. She was hunched over on a rock, her shapely pale legs dangling into the water. She turned her head to look at him and stared.

Constance.

She didn’t smile, didn’t even acknow

ledge his presence. Instead, she sank into the water and began to swim--away from him. He called out to her before he realized the stupidity of it. He dove under the water instead and used the faint filtered lights to find her. When he grabbed her legs, she struggled. He surfaced to the sound of her hoarse scream. “Stop!” she said, perfectly clearly. “No!” Those two words seemed to exhaust her available vocabulary. He tried to soothe her but she responded by pushing him away.

“Constance, relax,” he said. “Calm down.” She has to see your lips to hear you. He took her chin in his fingers and stilled her shaking head. “Look at me. Listen. Calm down.”

She subsided under his gaze. He saw, now, how her eyes fixed on his lips. Then she raised her eyes to his and gave him a look that felt a lot like a hot knife twisting in his chest. He shook his head, denying the reproach he saw there.

“It wasn’t me. It was Bastien. All I said was that...that I wasn’t sure...” Kai paused, trying to think of words that wouldn’t sound like excuses, but she was off again, slipping from his arms like a mermaid. She slid under the water and took off like a shot, but he was taller, stronger. Faster. When she came up for air, he was waiting for her.

“Constance!”