“Don’t worry, you’ll find out what I’m talking about later,” he said in a gently amused way. “But that won’t change your innocence, even though you will have more pleasure than you’ve ever had before. And you’ll have the same pleasure every time it happens.”

Tain didn’t know what he meant, but she wasn’t foolish enough to ask questions as he left her to walk to the table where the tray had been put. A glass of wine and some raw vegetables had been brought to him along with a slice of bread, and he took a piece of carrot as well as the glass of wine to the comfortable chair. Once he was seated with the food, he gestured with the carrot slice that Tain was to come and kneel by his feet.

Trying to hurry to obey him brought the squeaking back to Tain, a squeaking that didn’t quite stop even when she was kneeling the way she was supposed to. Her bottom really hurt from the paddling, but more than that she felt … desperate for something because of what had been put in her. Her master had said she would feel better later and she believed him without the slightest question, but later was still a long way off. And later continued to be a long way off. When her master finished the slice of carrot, he had her go and fetch him a piece of celery. When she looked at the bread still on the tray she became aware of how empty her insides felt, but she couldn’t quite make herself ask to taste the bread. Or even any of the vegetables. If her master had wanted her to have some of the food, he would have said so or given it to her himself.

Her master was just finishing the piece of celery when another knock came at the door. When he allowed the person knocking to enter, the visitor turned out to be the same slave who had been there earlier. This time she carried a tray with three plates and a bowl, and she took the tray directly over to the large table.

“Your meal, master,” the slave said after putting the tray down, her smile warm and her voice very soft. “If there’s anything else I can do for you, you have only to command me.”

It suddenly came to Tain that the other slave was a very beautiful female and was entirely naked. A glance at her master showed that he seemed to be enjoying the way the female was turning herself just a little as though offering him something, and he smiled as he got to his feet.

“I just may decide to do that commanding later, slave,” Tain’s master murmured as he got nearer to the other female. “Right now, though, the only thing I’m interested in is that food. You may go.”

“Thank you, master,” the female breathed, and then she was slowly moving toward the door in a kind of … flowing motion. The slave had also laughed quietly at the way Tain couldn’t keep from squirming where she knelt, and all those things together made Tain really hate that female.

“Come and serve me, Kitten,” her master said as soon as the other slave was gone, immediately capturing Tain’s full attention. He’d taken a chair near the big table, and sipped at the wine while he waited for her. Tain winced even before she began to hurry, but that didn’t stop her from hurrying. She wanted to serve her master, wanted to do for him more than anything else in the world, and now she was finally going to get the chance.

Taking the plates from the tray and putting them in front of him gave Tain a good deal of pleasure, but when she also put the bowl in front of him he laughed and shook his head.

“No, Kitten, that one is yours,” he said, having spent his time watching her carefully. “Take a spoon and kneel next to me while you eat, and then I can get on with my own eating.”

Tain did as she was told, but the smell of the food her master had been given made the cereal she ate even more tasteless than usual. She swallowed down the horrible stuff as fast as possible, hoping that her master might leave a small taste for her, but he didn’t. He ate every bit of the baked loaf of meat and the potatoes and cooked vegetables, and only then did he sit back and finish his wine.

“That was really good,” he said after putting down his wine glass and standing. “You can put all the empty plates back on the tray now, and the glass and your bowl as well. When that’s done you can take a drink of water from the small bowl near the washstand.”

Standing up still wasn’t easy, but once Tain was up she lost no time in obeying the orders she’d been given. The washstand was in the corner of the room beyond the foot of the bed, and Tain hadn’t noticed it before. She also hadn’t noticed the small bowl standing next to the washstand, but if she had she probably wouldn’t have known what it was for. The bowl didn’t take much of the water in the pitcher that was meant for washing, and when Tain swallowed the water she almost wished she hadn’t. But water that was warm and somehow almost dusty went really well with the kind of meal she’d had.

“Good girl,” her master said when she replaced the emptied drinking bowl. “If you continue obeying me so well you probably won’t be paddled more than once in a great while. Come over here and tell me how your bottom feels now.”

“My bottom hurts, my master,” Tain said as she went to where he sat in the soft chair again. “That paddling was terrible and I hope it’s a very long time before I’m given another one.”

“Everyone says that a girl with a tender bottom works really hard to please,” her master said with a smile as he took her hand to draw her closer. “Since you now have personal experience with a tender bottom, do you agree?”

“Of course, my master, but I didn’t need a tender bottom to want to please you,” Tain assured him, her insides fluttering at the way he touched her hand. “I want to do everything for you, and I’ll try to learn your preferences as fast as I can.”

“I’m sure you’ll learn really fast, but if you don’t then the paddle will help to teach you,” her master said, still smiling and stroking her arm. “Right now I’m going to teach you a different way to kneel.” The different way he meant was for her to straddle his lap in the chair on her knees, and then he took her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers. Tain didn’t know what the pressing of lips was supposed to mean, but for some reason her insides really twisted around when it was done. The experience was actually pleasant until she unthinkingly sat on the lap she straddled, and then it was all she could do not to yelp and pull away from the lip-touching.

“That was very nice,” her master said when he ended the touching, the amusement in his eyes telling her that he knew what she’d inadvertently done. “Now I’m going to do what I’ll enjoy just as much.”

His hands came to push open her vest and move it part way down her arms, and then he was slowly touching his lips to her breasts one after the other. Tain gasped as her flesh hardened, then gasped again only louder when one of his hands moved under the front panel of her skirt to touch her there. She felt as if she were about to burst, and couldn’t have kept herself from writhing and squirming if her life had depended on it.

“I think it’s time you served me in that other way,” her master said, gently pushing her off his lap and standing up himself. “Come over here and I’ll show you what I mean.”

The place he took her to then was the bed, where he made her kneel on forearms and knees. She had no idea what was going to happen, especially when the back panel of her skirt was raised again. The vest still clung to its place on her arms, making it difficult for Tain to lean on her forearms, but somehow she managed it.

And then something very large and hard touched her before it moved slowly into her body. Tain was miserable not understanding what was happening, but the deeper the big, hard thing went the more her thoughts whirled around crazily. Mewling noises started to come out of her throat again as she fought not to move, but then the big, hard thing began to move in and out of her. She didn’t want that to be done and yet she did, needing the movement in spite of the way it forced her to writhe and squirm. And each time the thing went deep her aching bottom was touched, which made her squirm even harder.