“You see?” he asked Cassie. “That was perfect. If you can just keep that up, Gozeriam won’t suspect a thing.”
“You really don’t mind me ordering you around, though?” Cassie asked doubtfully.
She’d had male partners before and not one of them had been eager to take orders from a woman. Oh, they listened to Captain Perkins because they had no choice. But Cassie couldn’t think of a single one of them who would have stood for this kind of treatment.
But Stone only shrugged stoically.
“This is part of our cover story. I’ll do anything I have to in order to catch The Beast and fulfill our other goals.” He’d looked at Cassie. “Why—does it bother you to order me around? I thought you liked this kind of BLT game.”
“That’s BDSM,” Cassie corrected him, trying not to laugh. “And I told you, I only tried it for a little while with Keith to try and spice things up. Plus, I was never the Dom—I was always the sub.”
“Well, for this to work, you’ll have to switch.” Stone raised an eyebrow at her. “Do you think you can do it?”
“Of course I can!” Cassie exclaimed. “I can do anything we have to in order to catch The Best!”
“Good.” Stone had nodded. “Then let’s go over our back-story one more time and get to the palace.”
And now, here they were, about to put their new characters to the test, Cassie thought, as they finally came to the vast double doors that led into the black marble palace of Xempi Gozeriam, the porn king of the galaxy.
There was another pig-man on guard here—this one with slightly nicer armor than Pocker’s rattling tin-can array.
“And who might this be?” he snorted to Pocker, just as though the other pig-man hadn’t been calling Cassie’s name the entire time they were promenading down the white marble walkway.
“Why, this is Mistress Cassandra of Yonnie Six,” Pocker said indignantly. “She and her body-slave are here to audition for his Great Slimefullness, Xempi Gozeriam!”
The other guard frowned at him, his snout wrinkling.
“And do you vouch for them before I allow them to enter?”
“I do so vouch,” Pocker said loftily, lifting his snout to the air. “They will be an excellent addition to his Greatness’s stable of actors.”
“Very well, then.” The second guard nodded and swung open the door, allowing them to enter the vast, golden hallway which lay inside. “Enter and see if you can please his Greatness,” he snorted to Cassie. “Good luck—fortune favors the bold.”
Cassie certainly hoped that he was right.
“Thank you.” She nodded stiffly and then, holding her head high, started down the rich golden hallway with her partner in tow.
Twenty-Five
The golden hallway was lined with holograms on white marble pedestals—like moving statues, Cassie thought. When she looked closer, she saw that every single hologram seemed to depict some kind of sex act. But since many of the subjects were non-humanoid beings, it wasn’t always easy to see what kind of sex was being performed, exactly.
She saw two octopus-like creatures entangling their tentacles on one pedestal and on another, two insects were busy screwing while one of them gnawed on the other one’s half-eaten head.
Ugh—like praying mantises! Cassie thought, looking hurriedly away. Only to see a hologram of what appeared to be a centaur with a horse’s body and a man’s torso and head making love to a woman with a human body and a horse’s head.
Oh my God—how is he going to fit himself inside her? she thought, staring at the strange sight.
“Try not to look shocked,” she heard Stone murmur behind her. “Remember, you’re a worldly Yonnite Mistress—you’ve seen everything before.”
Cassie realized that the disgust she felt must be showing on her face and Stone had seen it when she turned her head to look at the bizarre holograms.
“Uh, right. Of course,” she whispered back and made an effort to put on a look of haughty distain. To her mingled relief and apprehension, the long hall was coming to an end. There was another set of doors at the end, every bit as tall as the front doors, except these were round and seemed to be made of solid gold. They looked like two vast, shimmering disks at the end of the hall.
Standing in front of them was yet another pig-man guard, but this one had on much nicer armor than the other two, along with special-looking gold epaulets on his shoulders.
“Halt,” he snorted at Cassie. “Give me your rank and station and state your business so that I may announce you to his Greatness properly.”
“Very well. Stone, tell him.” Cassie tried to sound impatient, though honestly, her stomach was twisted into a knot at the idea of passing through the round gold doors and she wouldn’t have minded putting it off.
“This is Mistress Cassandra of Yonnie Six,” Stone said, frowning at the guard. “She is here about the job notice for Yonnite pornography.”