Delivered by the Defender (Kindred Tales)

Obediently, Selena turned to look at the 3-D viewer that was set up in Kat’s home office. A curvy woman with long, dark hair and large brown eyes, thickly fringed with black lashes, looked back at her. The dress she was wearing was long and black with a split up the middle. It shimmered with many tiny crystals that had been sewed onto almost every inch of the fabric, making it catch the light at her slightest movement.

“Wow…” she murmured, looking herself up and down. “It’s beautiful, Kat! It’s very…sparkly. But what’s the deal with this weird part here?”

She pointed to the bust area of the dress. There was a row of shimmering black crystal buttons all along the top, sides, and bottom. The buttons almost seemed to frame her large breasts in an odd way.

“Oh, didn’t your friend tell you?” Kat asked. “The removable boob panel is a Ma’shorkan thing. It has to do with if a woman is certified and sealed as Independent or not. See, this is what I’ve been trying to tell you—if a woman isn’t classed as Independent, she can be claimed by any man around and ‘displayed’ as his property.”

“You mean her breasts are displayed?” Selena raised her eyebrows. “Wow—Jess did say I might be kind of shocked by some of what I saw when I came to visit her.”

Actually, what her friend had said—with a giggle—was that the ways of Ma’shorka Centra might appeal to Selena’s “kinky side.”

Never should have admitted what happened—or rather didn’t happen—between me and Gary, Selena thought ruefully. But her friend had been so insistent, wanting to know why she and her ex were “taking a break,” that Selena had reluctantly told her that they were sexually incompatible.

“What do you mean, sexually incompatible?” Jess had demanded. “You have to tell me—I have to know.”

And so, Selena had admitted a lot more than she probably should have to her friend about what she wanted in bed. Wanted being the operative word since Gary had never been able—or willing—to try and make her fantasies a reality. Her ex was about as vanilla as a plain kiddie cone at the Tasty Freeze.

“Well, there you go,” Kat said firmly, interrupting her train of thought. “Now you know why it’s so important you keep your Seal of Independence on at all times.” She nodded at the thick, yellow silk ribbon with its royal blue seal on Selena’s wrist again. In a way, it looked a little like a gaudy wristwatch. “That way you know for sure the removable boob panels in all your dresses will never be used, all right?”

“Got it.” Selena nodded. “Actually, the buttons are really pretty,” she added. “I’m just not sure how I feel about my boobs being framed like that. I mean, they’re not exactly as perky as they used to be.” She looked down at her chest, frowning. “I’m not exactly a Spring chicken anymore.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that, doll,” Kat said dismissively. “Let me just get you some float dots and you’ll be all set.”

“Float dots?” Selena asked, raising her eyebrows. “What are those?”

“They’re alien tech the Kindred got from another culture and they’re amazing,” Kat explained. She went to her closet and rummaged for a moment, before coming back with a small wooden box. “They’re actually tiny little antigravity devices that you stick on the underside of your boob—makes even the biggest breasts as perky as an A cup,” she promised. “You’ll never need to wear a bra again.”

“Really?” Selena’s eyes widened as she took in the tiny black dots in the wooden box. They didn’t look like much—just little flat, black buttons smaller than her pinky fingernail.

“Try some and see for yourself.” Kat scrutinized her chest with a thoughtful frown. “You’re about a double D, right?”

“Triple D, at the moment,” Selena said with a sigh. She’d always been full-figured but whenever she lost or gained weight, she always saw it in her bust first. At the moment, she was wearing the largest bra she owned and the shoulder straps were cutting unmercifully into her shoulders.

“Well, let’s get you two float dots to go under each breast,” Kat said decisively. “Go on behind the screen and get undressed—I’ll pass the dots over to you when you’re ready.”

Selena did as she was told, going behind the folding dressing screen in the corner of Kat’s office, and slipping out of the shimmering concert gown. She unhooked her bra—(an over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder as they used to call it at high school)—and then took two of the tiny dots from the box Kat was holding out to her from one side of the screen.

Selena looked at them doubtfully—she didn’t feel any kind of force coming from them. They just looked like ordinary little black dots.

“Where do I put these again?” she asked Kat.