Gedric lingered at the railing as evening deepened to full night, the sky dotted with stars which ducked in and out from behind high clouds. The deck had finally fallen silent, all the slaves now with those who would have them for a night of fleeting pleasure. The only sailors left were those on watch who had not draw first lots against the limited number of slaves.

Gedric turned from the railing and glanced at the men on deck. One glance at their faces told him they were not best pleased to have missed the first draw. His face twisted into a small frown. They would get their chance, far more than they had any right to expect.

He dismissed the frown when he wondered if it were more than he had any right to expect as well.

He turned towards his cabin, and his jaw stiffened. Resentment and anticipation both vied for influence over his emotions. The thought of a true Oceanus-bred slave stirred his loins in a manner he had not experienced for some time yet reminded him of what he had sought to escape.

Was this what Vortas was trying to do, force the haughty, overbearing Noble the Lord Admiral was so sure was buried inside Gedric to come to the fore, just so Vortas would have a convenient target to present to the Urisi? Or was he looking for a scapegoat to cover what may have been the Lord Admiral's flawed logic in deciding to go rogue in the first place?

Gedric's nose wrinkled as if something foul-smelling had been placed under it when he realized he was projecting his doubts as to his own motivations upon the Lord Admiral.

He stepped towards his cabin and hesitated once more. Why should he be so privileged as to receive the one Oceanus slave in the lot? He had checked with that intolerable Mandas fellow; she was indeed the only one.

What exactly was his fleet supposed to be rebelling against again? The destruction of an order he himself had abandoned?

"Blazing hellfire," Gedric muttered when the stirring below his waist would not abate.

He had considered rejecting this slave anyway, but when he could no longer recall the last time he had shared the intimate company of a woman, superior ideals gave way to baser needs.

He drew himself straight and marched towards his cabin.

Amanda glanced out the tiny window for the fourth time since she had been taken to what she had assumed was Gedric's quarters. The window looked out over the open ocean, the waters a deep violet deepening to featureless black as the last of the twilight hastened towards night.

She was disappointed by the appearance of the room. In her hope to recapture the essence of life back in Oceanus, she expected something bigger, something more opulent. Instead, it was not much bigger than her quarters at the Manor had been.

She sat up straight in the chair, unfettered for the first time in a season, save for the collar about her neck. Her fingers slid along its circumference, a gesture she had last done an eternity ago. A short, quavering sigh passed her lips when she could no longer feel the point where the halves had come together.

She forced herself to drop her hand, first to her thigh, then to the side. Her legs were parted, her pussy still oozing, her lust still hot and liquid. She avoided touching herself through sheer force of will despite the intense ache in her swollen folds. It was the longest she had ever gone with constant arousal and no relief.

The sound of the door startled her to her feet.

Whatever misgivings she felt about the room dissolved when her eyes fell upon the Fleet Captain as he stepped inside and closed the door. He carried himself with a regal bearing very much like a Noble Lord, tempered only by the subdued look in his dark eyes. Those eyes now scrutinized her with an evaluating gaze which reminded her of her first training session observed by Roquan. He had been as silently critical as she imagined this man was now.

And where the thought of Roquan would have moved her to tears before, now it prompted her to action.

She took a few measured steps forward, keeping her gaze as muted and deferential as possible. She stopped two arm's length from him, paused, then slowly dropped to her knees. She spread them apart and settled back on her feet, her pussy glistening, and lay her hands on her thighs, palms up. She lowered her head.

She shuddered, and a renewed surge of heat swelled her already straining pussy. For a dangerous moment, she trembled on the brink of tears anyway. Just that simple gesture of Oceanus-bred obedience had swept a tide of memories and emotion across her mind, and she struggled to remain anchored to the here and now.

Silence followed in the wake of her momentary loss of control. Had he seen it? Or was he simply surprised to have seen perfect Oceanus slave protocol?

Gedric finally stepped away from the door, the timbers creaking under his boots. He stepped to her side, then behind her. She felt a light touch on her shoulder and gave a tiny flinch.

"You are trembling. Why?"

Gedric voice seemed muted, as if he were afraid his words would carry too far beyond the cabin. Amanda opened her mouth to reply, and for a moment she was at a loss as to how to express herself as two worlds collided in her head. "I am anxious to please you, Master," she finally said, stumbling over the pronoun.

Gedric turned away, and Amanda heard a resigned sigh. "Or more accurately, you are afraid of what will happen to you if I am not pleased."

Amanda said nothing. She had not been asked a direct question.

Gedric stepped away from her. She heard the creak of the bed frame. "You fear the retribution of your owner should I report I was unsatisfied with you." She heard a slide of leather, and one of his boots thumped to the floor. "Is that true?"

Amanda hesitated, listening to the cadence of his voice more than the words. "No, Master."

A pause, then another slide and thump. "Indeed?"

Was that a question? She struggled to remember how much initiative Oceanus slaves were allowed to show. "I have been given no threats, Master," she said even as she recalled Norlan's parting words to her and her fellow slaves.

"Then what compels you?" When Amanda did not reply immediately, he said, "I asked you a question, slave."

Again, this was not what she had expected. Despite the harshness of the words, his voice quavered slightly, as if they had been forced. "Yes, Master, but I am not sure I understand it."

She heard a jingle of buckles and a slide of cloth. She dared flick her eyes up and saw his pants crumpled about his feet. "Let me put it this way, then: what motivates you to please me?"

Amanda understood, and her heart both soared and ached. "Because I wish to please you. It gives me pleasure to give you pleasure, Master."

Her words had once been truth, and she gambled she could recapture it that night. When he paused after he had stepped out of his pants, she held out some hope. It was clear to her he had expected to be presented with a slave broken to the Urisi system and was proven wrong.

When Amanda realized what she had just voiced in her own head, she once more felt moved to tears, but out of joy. She had not completely lost herself after all.

His shirt fell to the floor beside his pants. He strode forward and crouched beside her. "Are you quite sure of that?" he said in a softer voice with a hint of amusement.

She saw the movement between her thighs, his fingers extended. Her surprise delayed her reaction another crucial moment. No, control. Control! CONTROL!

Yet this was a skill she had not been called upon to perform, and her sexual muscles would not tense properly at first. When his fingers squished into her sopping pussy, she gasped as she rocketed up and over, her orgasm exploding against his hand. Her muscles then moved of their own accord, clenching his digits as if not wanting them to leave. She trembled as she resisted the urge to hump, yet her hips slid forward anyway, burying his fingers in her hot and tight cunt.

Suddenly, his presence was gone, and she was left gasping and dripping onto the floorboards.

"And that was entirely of your own doing?" Gedric said, his voice more curious than anything else.

"I-I ... n ... no, Master," Amanda gasped, struggling to speak against a climax slow to fade. "I was given ... g-given a drug ... all Urisi slaves are ... but I still told you the truth, Master."

A long pause, the only sound that of Amanda's still labored breathing.

"Slave," said Gedric in a gentler voice. "Look up."

Amanda raised her head. She swallowed as her glistening eyes swept up his body. He had disrobed down to his underthings, a sort of off-white tights which covered him from the waist down. His broad chest was bare. Along one side he bore a lingering, jagged scar, the skin slightly puckered and rough. A more recent scar from a burn slashed across one shoulder.

Her eyes flicked back down. The tights outlined his manhood in sharp relief as it swelled against the stretchy fabric.

"Do you still wish to please me, even after your 'reward?'" he asked. No admonishment colored his tone; it was a simple, honest question.

"Yes, Master, I most certainly do."

"And you look upon me now as if you truly desire me."

"Yes, Master, I do," Amanda said, her voice dropping back to its more even and gentle cadence.

Gedric considered, then shook his head. "I'm not sure you really do."

Amanda gave him a stricken look before she could properly quell her reaction. She took a closer look at his face and wondered if he had been serious or merely teasing her.

Gedric stepped forward. "Stand up."

Amanda rose, stumbling in her haste. She averted her eyes, sure she had somehow destroyed what chance she had to impress him. Instead, he cupped her chin and gently lifted her gaze to his again.

"You are not at all what I expected."

Amanda's mouth opened as if to reply, then snapped closed.

His hand left her chin and alighted on her shoulder. She did not flinch, but she did tense, giving Gedric a moment of pause. His hand left her shoulder, fingers trailing in a light caress down her arm.

Amanda's lips parted. Her eyes darted towards his hand.

"No," Gedric said. "Look at me, slave. Look into my face."

Amanda locked her glistening eyes with his dark and intense ones. His fingers left her arm and slid down her hip, light and pleasant against her smooth skin. She let out a slow breath as he reached her thigh, which quivered in response to his touch.

His hand slid behind her thigh, then trailed up, over the curve of her buttock. Her next breath emerged quavering and husky as his fingers squeezed the supple flesh.

He lay his other hand flat against her belly. As the first hand pressed more firmly into her rear, the other slid up and over her breast, cupping it, jiggling it, playing with it. A breathy moan passed her lips. The nipple throbbed with her thumping heart, begging for the touch he had yet to bestow. Instead, he appeared to avoid it, only brushing the edge of the areola.

"You grow excited," Gedric said in a softer voice. "Unless they now make your entire body respond to the lightest touches."

"No, Master," Amanda moaned.

The hand on her rear rose up her back until his fingers combed through her long hair. Amanda shuddered, her next breath let go as a husky sigh, her eyes dark and smoldering.

And now she beheld a moment of genuine surprise in his.

He stared into her eyes for what seemed an eternity, Amanda shivering with desire less the drug and more her own. For the first time in a long while, she wanted to have sex, as opposed to a means just to satisfy an artificial arousal.

"What is your name?" Gedric asked.

That simple question made Amanda's eyes liquid, and she blinked away the tears before they could trickle down her cheek. "Amanda."

For a brief moment, blazing anger burned in Gedric's eyes. Amanda understood and did not waver, for she knew it was not directed at her. She had seen the shock in his face at her initial reaction to his question, which made it all the harder to keep her composure now.

The anger vanished as quickly as it had come, replaced with a sudden lust which surprised her, as if he had been holding back all this time and only now allowed himself to express it.

Gedric withdrew his hands and stepped back. Amanda looked on as he grasped the edge of his tights and pulled them down his legs. She let out a slow, husky breath as his manhood bobbed thick and erect, tinged purple in its need. Amanda's heart raced, and her pussy tingled of its own accord.

Gedric discarded the tights on the back of a chair and took Amanda's hand. "Come to my bed now, Amanda," said Gedric in a low voice of unabashed desire. "And show me how much you remember of your Oceanus training."

Mandas stepped out of the dingy carriage, uttering a disgusted noise as he found some unidentifiable crumbs clinging to his tunic. He brushed them off with a look of regal disdain and tapped his cane against the bottoms of his boots to loosen the detritus he had picked up from the grimy floor. He stopped and heaved a sigh of chagrin when he saw the narrow, winding path ahead was covered in mud.

"And there is no other way to this dock at all?" Mandas called out.

"None, guvnor," the carriage driver drawled. "That be it."

"And they do their business here?"

"'sroight."

"Ridiculous. No one could haul any cargo here through this miniature swamp!"

The driver sniggered. "Well, now, guvnor, I figger they deal in less, ah, tangible goods, aye wot?"

Mandas frowned and turned towards the driver. "And you are sure no one followed us or knows I am here?"

"Unless yew told 'em, guvnor. I ain't gonna tell, not after wot yew paid me."

"Yes, and that better have been worth it!"

The driver shrugged. "Ain't my lookout if yew can't get wot yew want from 'em. I'll wait 'ere for yew, guvnor. Oh, an' if yew take more than two candlemarks, I gotta charge extra."

Mandas fumed and stalked away, then regretted it when his boot sank into the muck. He pulled it out with a disgusted noise and picked his way down the sloping path towards the beach. The lanterns along the side of the carriage behind him and the pale glow of weakly phosphorescent moss growing on rocks placed to mark the edges of the path provided only a meager light.

The sea roared in his ears, and he shivered at the touch of the clammy air as he stepped onto the beach. He could barely see anything until a flickering torch appeared at the far north end, mounted against an outcropping of rock which rose and became a high ridge beyond the end of the beach.

He followed the light until he came to a tiny pier, a weatherbeaten old schooner anchored beside it. Several men sat around a fading campfire outside of a crumbling shack. As Mandas approached, one of the men looked up and slapped his companion on the arm, pointing. The second man stood up, the fire briefly silhouetting his swollen gut.

Mandas wrinkled his nose as the man approached, as if expecting to smell something foul. All that came to him was the smoky odor of the fire and the fishy aroma of the remains of their dinner. Mandas wanted to recoil anyway; the man's unkempt beard reminded him too much of Norlan.

"Yeah?" the man barked as he stopped a dozen arm lengths away.

Mandas drew himself straight and tried to maintain a regal bearing. "Do you speak for the Ollo independent merchant clan?"

The man smirked, displaying several misshapen teeth. "Huh. Guess ya could say that. Just call me Riddon fer now. What's it to ya?"

"I have need of your services."

"Information or cargo?"

"Cargo, of a sort."

Riddon raised a bushy eyebrow.

"Two people. An Oceanus naval officer and a slave girl."

The merchant snorted. "You jokin' or sumthing?"

Mandas frowned. "Are you saying you can't do it?"

"Naw," Riddon drawled. "Jus' don't see the likes of you shellin' out that kinda platinum."

"Are you implying a member of the Royal Court would renege on a debt?"

The merchant snorted. "Naw. I'm jus' sayin' yer all cheap."

"I assure you I will pay whatever you demand."

"An' jus' what do ya want us ta do with 'em?" His lips twisted into a lascivious smile. "Heh, well, we'd know what we'd do with the slave girl, sure's right about that."

Mandas sneered. "Spare me your peasant sexual humor. You need only get them away from shore and rendezvous with another ship which will take them to Oceanus. And no questions asked."

"An' that's it?"

"Let's just say I don't want any Royal Navy entanglements."

Riddon's eyebrows rose. "Heh, well, that's the trick, ain't it? Yeah, that's gonna cost ya. Ten thousand platinum."

Mandas stiffened and managed to hold his tongue before it could deliver a retort he was sure would destroy the deal. He forced himself to take a slow, deep breath. "Ten thousand, then."

The merchant looked almost disappointed, as if he had been spoiling for a fight. "Huh."

"I do not have an exact day and time for you yet," said Mandas. "You will have to be available to pick up your 'cargo' with only a day or two of notice."

Riddon nodded. "Yeah, we can do that. But ya gotta pay up first. In advance."

"You will have your money. Do we have a deal?"

The merchant considered. He glanced towards his cohorts for a moment. "There's one way I can cut the price for ya. Let us keep the slave girl. I'll reduce the price ta seven thousand if ya let us keep her."

Mandas looked thoughtful. "I will consider it," he said in a low voice. "Now, do we have a deal?"

Riddon nodded. "Yeah. Either way, we have a deal. An' who do I have the pleasure of doin' bizness with?"

"Norlan," Mandas said with a grin. "Lord Ambassador Norlan."

Gedric made it clear from the moment he pulled Amanda atop him that he was expecting an Oceanus slave, and Amanda was determined not to disappoint.

Amanda rode Gedric, her hips humping to a slow, steady rhythm which drew soft sighs of pleasure from the Fleet Captain. She had no trouble maintaining the gentle pace. She reveled in the first unfettered sex she had been allowed to perform since arriving in the Urisi Nation and did not want the experience to end anytime soon.

Her muscular skills came back to her more slowly. She had already orgasmed once, barely moments after his engorged manhood had penetrated her tight tunnel. Yet she simply let out a restrained cry and continued on, barely breaking pace, her pussy still aching for more.

Amanda felt herself rising hard again, her breath a wild pant from the sheer ecstasy of her freedom. She marveled at how much in control she felt despite being bound to her duty as Gedric's slave.

She tensed her sexual muscles once more, and her cunt spasmed. A small gasp escaped Gedric's lips as her pussy clamped around his manhood. Despite having re-acquired the proper control over her sex, Amanda chose not to stop her orgasm. When it swept over her, she let it show. Her body quaked to soft cries of pleasure.

She leaned closer until her breasts brushed his chest. He grasped them in his hands, his fingers flicking and teasing her nipples. Amanda's pleasure spiked until she thought she might have another orgasm right on the heels of the one already fading. Instead, it renewed the throbbing in her pussy, and she angled her hips to better feel the stroke of his hardness against her womanhood.

Her hair spilled from her back and over his chest. One of his hands left her breasts, and he combed his fingers through her raven locks. He gathered what had fallen to the side and lay it across his chest, letting out a slow, excited sigh at its soft touch.

Amanda witnessed this and almost lost control of her sexual muscles. Her pussy wanted to climax again, but his breath quickened and she held herself at the excruciating, straining edge. She humped faster, her pants turning to gasps as she struggled to hold back her orgasm until he was there with her.

His hands settled around her waist, then slid down to her hips. While his fingers did curl and dig into her, he did not try to guide her. He let her consummate their tryst at her own pace.

Gedric's head tilted back, and when she glanced down, she saw his testicles had drawn closer to his body. She slowed her pace just enough to make him linger at the edge, until what sounded like a tiny whimper escaped his lips. Her teeth clenched with the effort of restraining her pussy, her muscles aching from the constant tension as they fought against the vestiges of the arousal drug.

Amanda could not hold herself any longer, and a loud cry erupted from her throat as her pussy throbbed. Barely a breath later, his manhood pulsed inside her tunnel. She dropped her body to his, burying him inside her still tight and hot depths. His arms suddenly wrapped around her, and she shuddered in delight at the warmth of his body. Her pussy still throbbed so hard it was all she could do to stop her hips from jerking in time to it.

Gedric's climax abated, but his arms embraced his slave tighter. "Great gods," he panted into her ear. "No mere Urisi slave could have done as well."

Amanda ducked her head under his chin and let out a quaking sigh into his chest. She was reluctant to let him go and silently begged he not withdraw. Her fingers curled into his chest hair as her pussy still throbbed from the touch of his manhood. She shifted her hips down when his erection flagged so she could feel it for just a little longer.

Gedric was loathe to part from her as well, and her orgasm was allowed to play itself out. Even as he rolled them onto their sides, he kept himself pressed to her, the final vestige of his fading erection still nestled in her folds.

"Look at me, Amanda," Gedric ordered in a soft voice.

Amanda didn't want to, but not due to any desire to be disobedient or unwillingness to gaze upon him. She was simply comfortable, warm, and relaxed for the first time in a very long while. Yet she dutifully lifted her head and gazed into his eyes. She did not know what he expected to see, but she was too emotionally exhausted to put on any sort of show. He would have to take her as she was.

"Now that you are not so addled with lust, I can see the intelligence," Gedric said. "Did they speak the truth about you? Were you a D'ronstaq slave?"

Amanda's mouth fell open, and her mind seemed to seize for a moment. She wanted to respond to his question with one of her own. How did he know of such things? Unless ...

His name.

Find out everything you can.

Yes, she had heard the name. There was -- or had been -- a Noble Lord called K'riis, though the first name escaped her. The Fleet Captain was of the same clan. "Yes, Master, I was trained by ... at the D'ronstaq Manor."

Amanda had almost mentioned Sirinna's name. That was one set of memories she could not allow herself to dwell upon. She was not ready for that.

"Such a travesty things have come to pass as they ..." Gedric trailed off and shook his head. "You do not wish to hear of such tragic tales."

"But I do, Master!" Amanda blurted before she could stop herself. She swallowed hard and bowed her head. "I am sorry for speaking out of turn, Master."

Gedric lifted her chin. To her surprise, he was smiling. "I have been told that some slaves out of the D'ronstaq Manor enjoy a little more freedom of action. No, I will not punish you for speaking out of turn."

"Thank you, Master."

"In fact, I grant you leave to speak."

Amanda started to smile, but it froze and slowly vanished.

Find out everything you can.

She didn't want to participate in Mandas' scheme anymore. She felt she had just earned Gedric's trust and was now about to violate it. Yes, she had acted as the "spy" for Roquan at the Conclave by repeating what she had heard in the presence of other Overlords, but that had been a far more noble cause.

And Amanda guessed Mandas had some agenda above and beyond providing a means for a Urisi slave to escape.

"I do have a question, Master," said Amanda. "Why is your fleet here in a Urisi port?"

Gedric chuckled. "If I had not been convinced you were a D'ronstaq-trained slave, I would have by that simple question."

Amanda allowed herself a small smile. She had hoped the question sounded innocuous enough. They could come around to talking about him when he felt more comfortable conversing with her. She felt a twinge of guilt for contemplating such duplicity, but it was tempered by her desire to experience this break from reality a little longer. She knew she could never return to the world which Jollis had shattered, but she would live with this little piece of it for as long as she could.

And if she could realize Mandas' promise of returning to Oceanus, maybe she could find Sirinna and reunite with her. Then the rest would no longer matter.

Norlan generally liked the expediency of a Farviewing pearl tied to him directly, as it saved time. But that night, as he walked to his waiting carriage, he found it an annoyance. He almost ignored it, considering he would be back at his palace by first light and able to take the audience in person.

Instead, he stood before the shimmering Farview image of an agitated Halno. At first he tried not to sigh, but his eyebrows knitted and his lips twisted into a scowl as he listened to Halno's account of the incident involving Amanda and Larra.

"I would not normally contact you so directly on a matter of slave discipline, my Lord," said Halno. "Usually my regular reports are sufficient to convey--"

"Yes, Halno, I know all that," Norlan said with a trace of irritation in his voice. "Please get to the point."

"The point, my Lord, is the very slave that instigated this incident -- and has been a constant source of complaint from you as well -- is now engaged in what could be, I am assuming, part of a very critical diplomatic maneuver."

"Yes, she is so engaged, and it is unlikely I can extract her."

"Thus my reason for contacting you, my Lord. I wanted to give you fair warning about the potential danger."

Norlan looked thoughtful. Something did not make sense. For all of Amanda's faults, violence was not among them. "Halno, did you witness this behavior from Amanda yourself?"

Halno flinched, as if having never expected such a question, let alone hearing a slave mentioned by name. "I beg your pardon, my Lord?"

"I cannot make the question any clearer, but I suppose I must try anyway. Did you witness this behavior with your own eyes?"

"Well, no, my Lord. Does that matter?"

"So this is based on what the servants saw and relayed to you, correct?"

"Yes, my Lord." Halno frowned. "With all due respect, I do not understand this line of questioning."

"Did Amanda have anything to say for herself when confronted with your servants' account of the incident?"

Halno looked confused and a little shocked as well. "Why would that matter?"

"Answering my questions with questions is not conducive to useful inquiry. Answer the question as presented."

"I did not engage in a formal dialog with a slave, my Lord," said Halno with obvious disdain in his voice. "But when the oldest slave began to describe what happened, the dark-haired one denied it."

Norlan could not recall Amanda outright lying whenever caught in a transgression. Yet now he had to face the possibility of believing a slave over a proper member of Urisi society. Such a thing simply was not done. But if Amanda had not struck a fellow slave, what exactly had happened?

"Thank you for expressing your concern, Halno," said Norlan in a flat voice. "I will take it under advisement."

"Are you to send her back to the palace once she--"

"If and when I decide to do such a thing, I will inform you." Norlan sighed. "This has been a trying day and I am quite tired. I will speak to you again when I get back. Good night."

With a slash of his arm, Norlan terminated the Farview, Halno's image dissolving in mid-response.

Amanda heard a most wonderful tale.

Despite the reserve in Gedric's voice and the somber look in his eyes when he spoke of the damage sustained and the lives lost on both sides, Amanda thought it the best story she had heard since leaving Oceanus. All that mattered was someone was fighting back against the Inonni. Not everyone was as accepting of the new order.

Before she could turn the subject of the conversation to Gedric himself, he grew randy once more, and Amanda was obliged to please him.

She turned her body around and straddled him, her mouth sinking slowly down his manhood. Her hips squirmed under the ardent and skilled ministrations of her temporary Master. He would not lick, as he had spilled his seed inside her, but his fingers played her pussy like an accomplished musician playing his instrument.

She struggled to contain her pleasure, his nimble fingers finding new ways to overcome her control and send her soaring before she could clamp down on her sexual muscles, accompanied by a low whimper as she fought to pull herself back from the edge of orgasm.

And each time, Amanda felt a little rumble pass through Gedric's body, as if he were chortling in amusement (but not mockery) at her dilemma. Or perhaps he was testing how much of her Oceanus training she still remembered.

She lost it once. Just as her head bobbed faster on his cock, she uttered a quavering moan, her back arching as her pussy refused to obey her and throbbed hard around his probing fingers.

He sensed her climax and planted the pad of his thumb against her womanhood, rubbing it with firm, quick strokes. He plunged another finger into her passage and pressed hard against a particular spot. Amanda shuddered and uttered several staccato "uh!" sounds in time to her now intensified orgasm.

She was forced to lift her head, his cock popping out of her mouth, her breath gasping to the same powerful rhythm. When he finally relented, Amanda let out a ragged breath and devoured his manhood once more, drawing it far inside her mouth. Her cheeks dimpled, and her fingers tugged his balls further from his body.

Now Gedric uttered his own gasp, and his fingers grew less bold as his own pleasure stole his attention. Amanda gently pushed her pussy into his touch, her head bouncing atop his manhood, her fingers closing in a circle about his balls.

Gedric squirmed, though it was clear to Amanda he was trying everything he could to stop. Amanda welcomed the rush of satisfaction and allowed herself a few moments of quiet ridicule towards her Urisi masters. Because of their own draconian rules about how to treat a slave, they would not benefit from even half of what she could do.

Amanda strung Gedric out a little longer until he could no longer contain the moans which had welled up inside him. She stretched his balls from his body one last time and let his cock drop from her mouth. She pressed it against his belly and licked the underside of his shaft, her tongue quick and incessant. She teased the spot behind the head without mercy until he strained at the edge of orgasm.

She took him fully into her mouth and let go of his balls. A few quick strokes and his seed exploded into her mouth. Gedric let out several gasping moans, his back arching so far his shoulders left the bed for a moment.

"D-dear gods!" Gedric cried in a strained voice as Amanda milked his cock with lips, tongue, and fingers. She allowed not so much as a single drop to trickle out. Slowly, she tugged her mouth back, stretching his flagging manhood as her lips remained clamped around it. When it finally popped out of her mouth, only a single lingering drop oozed from the head. Amanda swallowed and licked up this last bit before it could tickle down his shaft.

The fingers at her tunnel moved again. Two plunged into her still wet pussy, stroking fast and hard. Amanda did not restrain herself. She lifted her head and closed her eyes, rocking her hips in time to his thrusts, letting her pleasure soar, crest, and throb.

Amanda rolled to her side and turned herself around. Gedric gathered her, embracing her softly and resting her head on his chest. She let out a slow sigh of contentment and could ignore the pangs of memory.

"If nothing else had convinced me what these foreign invaders have done is anything less than a travesty towards civilization, this would have done it," Gedric said in a still slightly breathless voice.

Amanda smiled. The irony was not lost on her. She had begun to question the inherent unfairness of the Oceanus slave system before she had been sold to the Urisi, and now she joined in his praise of it. She did want to know more about him, but not for anything Mandas might want. He was her only connection back to the world she had known.

"But then again ... I have taken far more than is likely my due ... and yet I contemplate taking more still."

Amanda lifted her head and listened. This was one of the many purposes of an Oceanus slave. Let your Master pour out his feelings. Be his emotional receptacle and then his comfort. Listen and be interested. Especially when it appeared he was about to do the very thing she wished of him.

"The plan had been to rotate the slaves among the men, as there are not enough to accommodate all in a single night. I find I do not wish to share you with the others."

Amanda considered. "May I still speak freely, Master?"

"Of course."

"Does not rank have privilege, Master?"

Gedric stared at her, and Amanda cast a level look in return. Finally, he laughed. "Gods, have I been away from the halls of Nobility for so long I have forgotten how clever some Oceanus slaves can be? Or how bold!"

Amanda offered no apology, either with words or her eyes. For the moment she wished to be herself, and damned be the consequences.

"Yes, rank does have privilege, but ... it is complicated ... and yet that sounds like an excuse even to my own ears."

Amanda snuggled against him. He was decidedly less tense than he had been before their lovemaking. Something had been on his mind and was ready to come out. Was this what Mandas wanted from him? Did he have some sort of secret Mandas was sure a single night with Amanda would reveal?

She quelled her ego, though with some effort. She had no idea what Mandas was after, so she could make no assumptions. She wondered if perhaps her time with the Urisi had affected her after all. She did not remember herself being this calculating.

Gedric sighed and wrapped his arms around her. "Just stay with me tonight, slave Amanda," he said softly into her ear as he stroked her hair. "Then ... we will see."

Amanda ducked her head under his chin. "Yes, Master, of course," she said in a subdued voice.

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