“Before or after?” he whispered, puzzled that his voice was so quiet, as if his tongue had been removed and replaced with one that was slightly too large for his mouth.
From the back, Marie looked as though she were quite demurely dressed. But he could see her reflection in the long mahogany cheval mirror that stood against the far wall, to the left of the thick draperies.
The reflection wasn’t demurely dressed.
Her breasts were uncovered, the nipples circled in a kind of soft red wax. Marie was sitting with her legs stretched out in front of her, slightly apart.
The teenager’s slightly blurred eyes focused on the tops of her thighs. Her panties weren’t like anything he’d ever seen before. They were a brilliant maroon color, with a silky sheen to them. But they were oddly split at the front, revealing bushy curls of jet-black hair.
He remembered that a novitiate at Nil-Vanity had once smuggled in a porno magazine, showing it around the dormitory after lights-out, by the dull gleam of a torch. It had naked or seminaked women, flaunting their bodies at the camera, touching themselves “down there” and actually using their own fingers to expose the pink inner lips. Most of the pix were such extreme close-ups that Michael had found it extremely difficult to work out what exactly he was peering at. He didn’t want to have to face the mockery of his peers, so he pretended excitement. The real truth was he could have been looking at a plate of raw steak for all it meant to him.
But this was so different.
Marie Mandeville was also wearing long boots, loose above the knee and tight below. They were of immaculate white kid, with tapering heels of silvered steel, cast in the same shape as the handle of the ivory hairbrush.
She was singing quietly to herself, and caught him looking at her in the mirror, smiling at him. The woman stuck out the tip of her scarlet tongue and ran it slowly between her lips, opening her legs a little wider, allowing her hand to trail down over the maroon silk.
Michael knew that he was caught, helplessly trapped. Emotions raced through his body in a way that he’d never experienced before. Even in his wildest, midnight-moist dreams, he had never imagined such sexual power. Whatever this goddess required of him, he would have to do it.
“You like what you see, Mickey?” Her voice was low and breathy. “Tell me.”
“Very much.” The prominent state of his body’s response would have made a lie quite grotesque.
“I have an idea, dear boy.”
“What?”
“I’ll come and join you on the bed and while we take some pleasure we can watch some vids.”
“Vids? Old predarkies?”
“Goodness, no. Though goodness doesn’t have much to do with these vids. Nathan has such wealth and power he can obtain everything. He bought one of the tiny number of working vid cams in Deathlands and some cassies to go with it. These are new and very exclusive vids that have only been seen by a special few close friends.”
“Were those squawking parrots who were with you in the forest such friends?”
Marie stood, stretching her shoulders back, lifting her breasts. “Now and again, when I’m bored. But they are not ‘special’ like you are, Mickey. When the others are gone, you will remain here and save me from being bored.”
Her words slithered through the cramped corridors of his mind, but didn’t quite make sense.
“When the other are gone? Which others?”
“The one-eye and the red-hair and the others. They’ll very soon be gone, but I can keep you safe.”
She drained a goblet of pink crystal that had been a third filled with the fiery brandy. A small part of Michael’s mind realized that he had become dangerously drunk. And so had Mistress Marie.
“Safe? Don’t”
She sat on the bed, crossing the legs in a whisper of leather. “Don’t worry, child. Would you like something else to eat before we watch the vids?”
Part of Michael’s mind wanted to pursue her odd, lateral comments. Ryan was going? And the others? But he would stay. Where would they go? The idea that he could stay forever in this languorous bedchamber with this amazing woman seemed like a glimpse of a profane paradise.