Istanza

Silra turned in front of her, arched her back and bent over, turning to look over her shoulder at Leeann. The torn hem of her robe rose, revealing the slightest pale curve of the very bottom of her buttocks, and the hint of fading welts from Leeann's short cane several days ago. Leeann gulped again.

She stepped forwards, grasped Silra's hips gently, pulled her back and thrust her pelvis against her buttocks. Silra straightened, keeping her back as arched as she could, twisted her torso to bring her lips against Leeann's. Leeann let her hand wander underneath Silra's belly, found the little firm, fleshy area where the bottom of her belly met the top of her sex. She began to rub it slowly, pulling it up and down and around with her fingertips, wondering how the stretching sensation felt on Silra's clit.

"Mmm, Mistress, I think you're quite horny."

"What makes you say that, girl?" Leeann replied through a heat-tightened throat.

Silra turned quickly under her grasp, put an arm around her back and a hand into her shorts. Leeann could not stop a pleasured hum as she felt Silra's cool fingers slide across her slick, puffy sex. "Are you going to deny it, Mistress?"

Leeann smiled, narrowed her eyes. "How can I deny it with you probing the evidence?"

"How horny are you, Mistress? Please tell me."

"Let me put it this way... If you don't want to make me explode in the next thirty seconds, you'd best take your hand out of my pants."

Silra gave a wide grin and withdrew her hand slowly, then turned and skipped to the bed. She jumped upon it, hitched her grey robe up over her back, gripped the head rails and bent over, back arched, legs open, buttocks and sex on display to Leeann. "I've been a bad little girl, Mistress. You have to punish me."

Leeann felt her throat tighten almost to choking point as she moved in a daze towards the bed. Silra knew how to get her attention. Silra seemed to know exactly what she liked. There was something about a pair of pale female buttocks on the end of an arched back that she just could not resist. She never could. It had been her downfall so many times.

She boarded the bed on her knees, approached Silra from behind, stroked her buttocks with her hand, gripped them, kneaded them, dug her nails into them as Silra bit her bottom lip and groaned appreciatively. She gave a sudden breath as Leeann spanked her firmly, then laughed.

"Oh, so my girl thinks it's funny to be spanked, does she?"

Silra giggled girlishly. "Spank me harder. Make me hurt."

Leeann obeyed, and wondered for a brief instant who the real slave was in this game. Not that it mattered – she had what she wanted, right here in front of her: a girl with beautiful eyes and a beautiful body.

She spanked Silra hard and fast, not allowing her a chance to draw breath between each firm strike. Silra writhed under her, twisting her hips this way and that, rolling her head from side to side as she gasped. Leeann kept up her motions until her arm was tired and her palm sore, then relaxed, let her hand fall softly onto Silra's reddening skin and stroked it gently. It felt hot to the touch, and very slightly sticky.

"Mmm, Mistress, you know how to get me going." Silra sighed, looking at Leeann over her shoulder. "Hurt me some more. Use your cane."

Again Leeann found herself obeying. She took her short cane from her wrist pouch and brought it down hard against Silra's red flesh without a pause. Silra yelped, for a moment tried to shy away, her breath shuddering. Then she sighed deeply. "Yes, Mistress, like that."

Leeann continued, landing her strikes in random places on Silra's buttocks and thighs, until her yelps became cries. She stopped, lowered her cane to the bed.

"Are you alright girl?" She whispered.

"Yes, Mistress. Thank you, Mistress. Is there anything you want to do to me? I am your slave, do whatever you want to me."

Leeann sat back on her heels and gazed at Silra's quivering body. A cold draught had begun to blow around the room, and her skin was raised with bumps, except where it was red and raw from being spanked and caned. "I want to see you come." She said softly. "I want to watch while you make yourself come."

"Yes, Mistress." Silra replied, letting go of the head rail with one hand, which she lowered between her legs and pressed against her sex. "Will you pleasure yourself as you watch me?"

Leeann said nothing, hypnotised by the sight of Silra's hips rocking back and forth against her hand. She slid a hand into her shorts and found her yearning clit, let her fingers slide slowly over it. Her arousal had lost none of its potency while she was working at Silra's buttocks with hand and cane, in fact had grown even stronger; light brushes with her fingers were all she could bear. "Tell me when you're going to come." She said, and hoped that it wouldn't be long; she wasn't sure how long she could hold herself back before her fingers rebelled and gave her clit what it needed to release its pent-up blood.

"You've got me close already Mistress." Silra purred. "Mmm... That feels so good. I am so wet."

Leeann reached out with her spare hand, placed her palm flat against Silra's firm belly, found the fleshy area just above her sex again. She could feel the skin stretching back and forth against Silra's motions on her clit, she could feel the tight muscles in her belly, she could feel the heat inside her. It drove her wild. She held her palm there, feeling intently for every motion inside Silra's body. She could feel Silra's hand speeding up, she could feel the muscles in her belly contract sporadically. She could feel the heat inside her increasing rapidly.

"I'm almost there, Mistress. Are you going to come for me?"

"Whenever you're ready, girl."

"I'm almost ready. Oh." Silra's words turned to heady breaths as she convulsed against her fingertips, her buttocks clenching rhythmically in front of Leeann and the ribbed muscles in her belly writhing up and down under her palm. It was more than Leeann could bear.

Her fingertips were half-withdrawn from her clit, ready to give a rapid set of strokes to push herself over the edge, when it happened all by itself. Silra was barely three contractions into her orgasm when Leeann came, her palm against Silra's belly clenching into a fist, balling up her soft flesh inside it. Leeann bucked against her fingertips, felt her sex forcing out its heat over her fingers until she was all but spent. She relaxed, withdrew her hand.

Silra was on her knees almost before Leeann had blinked the stars from her eyes. She knocked her firmly but gently backwards onto the bed, slid a heat-moistened hand into her shorts, deftly found her clit and began to rub it quickly.

"No, girl, I already came..." Leeann tried to mutter over the orgasmic hissing in her ears and the seething energy bolts between her legs, but Silra's skilled fingers were too much for her. "No, please stop... Please... Silra... Please..." The lightning bolts up her spine grew, the fire in her chest ignited once again, and her breath became stuck in her throat as her entire body spasmed and her legs slammed violently shut around Silra's shifting hand.

Her fingers stopped, slid out of her shorts carefully, brushing past her relieved clit. Leeann let out a long breath and sighed, then swallowed. "Wow." She said breathlessly.

"Was that nice, Mistress?"

"I never had that before." She sighed. "One right after another like that. I didn't know I could do that."

Silra slumped on the bed next to her and began to suck the heat from her fingers. Leeann grabbed her wrist gently and pulled it across her, pulling her into an embrace.

"I heard you come," Silra said, "And it sounded like you still had more in you. So when you stopped, I took over."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you, Mistress." Silra sighed. "Thank you for having me here."

"I'll sleep well tonight." Leeann said distantly. "Especially with you curled up next to me." She grinned, gave Silra a quick kiss on the forehead.

"What time is it?"

"Time for us to sleep. Let go, let me get these clothes off, then we'll have a cuddle before we sleep."

Silra released her from her embrace so that she could stand and strip from her uniform and cast it to the side of the room. She really should have put it into the laundry basket, but there would be time for that in the morning. Once again Silra had exhausted her, and all she wanted to do was curl up in the silk with her arms around Silra's warm body and drift off to sleep.

* * *

The next day passed in a daze. Leeann could feel it, deep inside her, where she had thought she would never feel again. Silra, invading her soul. Her sweet face had taken up residence in the back of her eyes, and wherever she looked she saw her smiling back. Her laughter had infected her ears and could be heard in every dying echo, although it disappeared as soon as she cocked an ear towards where it came from. Worst of all, she was in her chest: between her breasts, near her lungs. In her heart. Right where she thought nobody could ever go again.

There was no doubt about it, and nothing she could do to stop it. She was falling in love.

It wasn't right. People weren't supposed to fall in love this quickly, but Leeann always did.

Far back in her memories was a time when she had been new and inexperienced to the love game. She had fallen for a boy at the place where she worked. They had only been out twice, and she had fallen for him. And then for no reason it had ended, he had told her he was seeing someone else and Leeann was just a bit of fun. He had thought it right to let her know before anything went too far, so he had said, but for her it had already gone too far, although they had done nothing more than kiss.

Perhaps that was why she had stopped dating boys. Or perhaps it was because gay girls were more open to the world of alternative sex, which she had leant towards even before she knew what sex was. She had had lots of fun with the girls she met in gay clubs, but she had been hurt a lot too. It always happened that way.

Whoever she met, whoever she shared a night with, it was unusual for her to wake up the next morning and not to expect it to become a long term thing. Maybe that said a lot about some deeper damage to her inner self, maybe it was some kind of cry for help or warning sign that she should have heeded, but she never did. She always got hurt. That didn't stop her from getting up and dusting herself off and going at it over again, but after a time she became weary of it, she became sickened of the fickle nature of the girls she always seemed to meet.

Maybe the only people who were attracted to her were the type that would see her for a week or two and then move on. Maybe people who wanted a stable relationship knew to keep away from people like her. Maybe she carried a neon sign above her head that flashed "problem girl – keep away" every time a suitable long-term partner came her way. Maybe it was just her need to hurt people in order to get off that her girlfriends couldn't handle. Maybe it wasn't them, maybe it was her.

It was that series of heartbreaks that had driven her from her home, out into the stars on a mission to find something other than broken relationships. It was a journey that had ultimately led her onto a cheap passenger transport that had been attacked by pirates, which in turn had led to her being sold to the Sect of Bane as fresh Koda. It was that sale which had led to her shrugging her need for a relationship and learning to live on sex alone, in order to earn the rank of Istanza and gain the place that she rightly deserved. She was worth more than polishing floors, she had a gift that few possessed. She could cause pain and enjoy it; she could do to the Sect's Koda what they wanted, with a place to stay and a ready supply of women to torture as she saw fit.

Then Silra had come along, and shown her that she still had the capacity to love. That she still had the flaw to fall in love after only a few days.

It wasn't right, but it was happening, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Silra was hers now. Julian had agreed it, and what Julian agreed, the Sect decreed. It was too late to turn her away now. She couldn't turn her away even if she wanted to – because she was falling in love, and that was what love meant: one no longer did what was rational where the object of ones love was concerned. One instinctively did what one could to remain in that person's company as long as possible. And if she did turn away, Julian would be on top of her like a tonne of ancient flagstones.

She should know better than to fall in love. She was Istanza; she was one of the most respected and feared members of the Sect, after the high priests. She was power, she was control, she was punishment embodied. And she was hopelessly falling in love.

Stupid girl.

Silra was waiting for her once again when she returned from her work. For some reason she had not been as involved in her work as she had the night before, but she had stuck to her resolve and had given it her all. She wasn't really sure why the Koda that she punished deserved to be tormented so; it was a question that had bothered her for a long time, but she did it anyway, as she always had done. Her freshly oiled leather whip had helped, as had the glistening sheen on her favourite spreader bar. The Koda had appreciated her efforts, for after an hour or so she had dissolved into a fit of sobs under the blows from Leeann's whip and had been left hanging from the shackles, crying to the empty room.

There was a time when that sort of thing would have had Leeann oiling her own leather shorts from the inside, and in a way it still could, but she wasn't in the mood. She had been worried by the inescapable thought that she was falling in love, and it had distracted her from her work. Not so much as to be noticeable to anyone watching her, she hoped, but enough to bother her somewhat.

Still, there wasn't much she could do about it – and at least this time the object of her affections was not about to run away from her. Silra was stuck with her, and she was stuck with Silra – and if that meant that she had someone warm and beautiful to share her bed with from now until the indeterminable future, then it couldn't be a bad thing.

Silra stalked towards her with her slinky sway almost as soon as she had closed the door. She caught sight of those narrowed eyes, that determined expression, that silky sway of her hips under her cut-off grey garb, and knew that she was in for another night of fun. But something in the back of her mind made her withdraw slightly, take half a pace backwards until she had her back to the door.

Silra stopped before her, kissed her gently on the lips. Leeann did not return, but felt herself melting despite her worry. She wanted the kiss, and yet she didn't; she wanted Silra, and yet she was afraid of what she represented.

A gentle hand took hers and pulled her wordlessly from the door to the bed. "Doesn't Mistress want to punish her bad little girl tonight?" Silra whispered, turning to catch Leeann with a sidelong glance from her narrowed eyes. Leeann didn't say anything, but allowed herself to be manoeuvred onto the bed, where Silra assumed her position on her knees, arched her back and raised her robe over her hips. "Punish me Mistress, I'm your bad little slave. Hurt me, Mistress."

Leeann raised her hand, made to strike Silra, but stopped. She lowered her hand, turned away. She felt Silra shifting on the bed, felt her soft fingers touch her shoulders.

"It's alright, Mistress." She whispered into her ear. "You don't have to punish me tonight, if you don't want to."

"I just want to sleep tonight, girl." Leeann said, and heard almost immediately the flatness that she had hoped to keep out of her voice. Silra's hands obediently began to work at the knot on the back of her halter top, and she felt the same anxiety returning, the horror at being naked in front of another. She swallowed it down, although it was difficult, and slid out of her shorts.

Seconds later she slipped into the silk, took up her position on the pillow, watched as Silra slipped in next to her and lay quietly, gazing at her through her beautiful eyes.

"Is something wrong?" Silra asked after a while. "You don't want me anymore?"

"Of course I do, my girl." Leeann replied. "I'm just... I don't know, maybe I'm just tired. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You can sleep, if you want to."

"Hold me." Leeann asked, and Silra obliged. She put her arms around her and drew into her gently. Leeann tried to stifle a sudden smile as she felt Silra's lips softly touch her chest, between her breasts. Underneath all that need for punishment hid a very sweet girl, and it was that girl that she was falling for – not the masochistic pain-freak on the surface.

She turned her head downwards to kiss Silra on the forehead, and after planting her lips there once, did so again. She felt Silra shift, felt her nose brush her chin, felt her lips on her cheek. She sought them out with hers, let them meet, let a delicate kiss turn into an intimate exchange of breath and saliva. They kissed for longer than she cared to count, gradually loosening inside, turning from stone-still cadaver to writhing sexual being, her hands wandering up and down Silra's naked body, seeking out the curve of her buttocks and the arch of her spine and the indent of her flanks and any other sensual zones she could find under the blankets. Her hand came to rest on Silra's inner thigh, which obligingly moved aside as she moved in.

Silra's sex was warm and dry when she found it, and became moist as she probed beyond her outer lips. She sighed into Silra's kiss as she felt Silra's exploring fingers find her own sex and begin to delve inside her. She locked Silra's face to hers with one arm while the other probed her deeper, descended into her moist folds, tickled her from within. She came alive to Silra's stifled moans, urged to probe deeper still by the breathy encouragement blowing against her cheek. Seconds became minutes and minutes ticked onwards as she continued to explore and allowed herself to be explored.

The sexual heat inside her grew like a well-fuelled fire, devouring her chest and teasing her sex. Silra's fingers moving inside her were a divine accompaniment to the lips and tongue at her mouth and the moist heat that slicked over her own hand as she probed inside her. She could feel herself coming closer and closer to orgasm with each passing heartbeat, and she could feel from the rhythm of Silra's hips thrusting against her knuckles that she was not far behind. Silra's moans were near-constant and frantic, and the sound alone was enough to drive her over the edge. Determined not to come alone she gave her fingers a convulsive judder, frantically rubbing Silra's insides with her upwardly-curved digits.

Silra moaned appreciatively and gripped her hard with her spare hand. Leeann felt herself go as an explosion detonated within her sex and momentarily obliterated her senses. She opened her eyes as she came around, saw Silra before her, open-mouthed and closed-eyed, panting frantically, thrusting against her fingers.

"Yes?" She whispered into Silra's ear.

"Yes." Silra panted.

"Kiss me."

Silra obeyed. Leeann closed her lips over Silra's, sucked on them as Silra came, sucking the orgasm from her mouth. She could taste the delight in her, feel it even as she felt Silra's sex clenching hard around her fingers. She counted the contractions, felt them lessen and become less rhythmic, then carefully withdrew.

Silra pulled away from the kiss and smiled, then took her hand, swallowed her heat-glistening fingers and sucked them dry.

"It's so sexy watching you do that." Leeann whispered.