Mina breathed a heavy sigh of relief, though what she was relieved about, she wasn’t sure. It wasn’t that Voso was gone. She even felt a pang of emptiness when the doors closed.
Perhaps she was just relieved that he did not seem to have been able to read her mind.
That would be a disaster.
She spun around, excited—again, in spite of herself—to explore her chambers. She knew it was silly and shallow and entirely beside the point of her business there, but Mina did love expensive things and places. And she could not help but delight in her temporary stay at the most luxurious and extravagant place she had ever seen with her own eyes.
The rooms were large, lined up in succession, each one leading to the next. It reminded Mina of the design of some palaces, ancient buildings for kings and queens, she had seen on Earth. The ceilings were high and sculpted elaborately, and the furniture in each room was plush and richly made.
She gasped when she saw into the room beyond a smaller sitting room off of the bedroom. She had made for the room because of the strange lights that played upon the ceiling, and the pleasing green-blue color that seemed to be painted on the walls.
But when she reached the room, she felt humidity upon her skin, and it grew considerably warmer. The reason was in the center of the room, surrounded by glassy tiles arranged in intricate patterns of blue and green in almost every shade—a pool.
Or, she guessed, a bathtub… but one on such a scale that she probably could swim in it. The water reflected light upon the ceiling in entrancing patterns. Mina dipped a toe into the water: it was very warm.
The perfect temperature for a bath.
She peeled her robe away, letting it fall to the floor, and stepped into the bath. The steps went down into the water, which was very deep, and she was immersed up to her neck with still more steps to the bottom. She spotted a raised platform in the middle of the large pool, and saw that it was designed like a lounge chair, so she pushed off and glided to it.
When she sat on it and let her body float to its contours, it ended up feeling soft against her skin. She tipped her head back and relaxed, closing her eyes as the warm water enveloped her and her muscles, aching pussy, and even her sore bottom, were instantly better.
She opened her eyes and admired the ceiling. It was tiled with mosaics in an intricate geometric pattern that was very soothing and beautiful. She could almost—almost—forget the pressures of the contract, the reasons she needed so desperately to win it, and the situation it had all led to—Trothplight, with these two aliens. She could even almost forget her desires, the aching need between her legs, and the way it reached deep inside of her, always present and nagging.
She wondered if Voso was really able to know the things that he claimed to be able to know, from smell alone. He was very perceptive, she had to give him that. Although she knew that telepathy was not something that Herstrakaa possessed, she couldn’t help feeling like he was reading her thoughts, figuring out what she wanted or wondered and what she was hiding before she even understood some of those thoughts herself. It was unsettling in and of itself, but moreso because she actually felt something akin to affection for Voso.
And that, she thought to herself loudly, was just plain crazy.
The warmth of the bath and the colors of the room began to lull Mina off to sleep. Soon she was drifting in her thoughts, going from one partially complete idea to the next, trying to get her mind back on track, to think clearly of her situation and her tactics for surviving and winning. But soon she was dozing off, her thoughts instead meandering to Voso and Mozok, to the peculiar way she felt about each of them.
A change in the colors of the room surrounding her pulled her from her sleepy state. From the walls, a glowing pink light was getting brighter, casting the colors of a sunrise upon the shiny tiles. Mina fought to open her eyes, once, then twice, struggling to keep them open. She knew there must be a reason for the changing light, and as her mind cleared, she became alarmed and managed to sit up.
The drowsiness seemed to pour from her head as she sat up in the water. She blinked rapidly, and then started: Voso was standing silently in the doorway to the bath chamber, looking at her.
Mina instinctively pulled her knees to her chest and hugged them, crossing her ankles. “What are you doing here?” she hissed, regretting her words immediately. She did not want Voso or Mozok to think she cared one way or the other what they did.
To her surprise, Voso bowed slightly. “I have come for you to go to… dinner. I am to bring you.” He looked at her for a few moments, and then struggled a little to convey his next words to her. “This,” he pointed at the bath, “makes you sleep.”
Mina looked around at the pool around her. She had a lot of questions, but didn’t want to confuse Voso, whose English didn’t seem as polished as Mozok’s. She pushed herself into the water and floated over to the steps.
“You swim,” Voso commented.
Mina smiled at him before she could stop herself. She didn’t know why she found him charming, but she did.
“I do not,” he told her. Then he gestured to a bench along the wall. “Your clothing is here.”
Mina glanced at the pile of rich red fabric and then back at Voso. He was unfolding a large piece of cloth, and holding it open for her.
Not knowing what else to do, she rose from the bathtub pool, and turned herself so that he could wrap her in the fabric, which was warm, almost perfectly so. He then massaged her gently with his hands over the towel, drying her, and giving her a delightful massage at the same time.
Then it was over, and he retreated into the next chamber.
Mina was dumbfounded and buzzing from the massage. She didn’t know what else to do, so she called out softly to him:
“Thanks.”
And then, because her voice echoed with such sincerity in her own ears, she felt foolish. She stepped to the bench quickly and held up the clothing—another robe-like dress—before hastily dressing herself.
“Okay,” she said, stepping into the next room, where Voso, like a sentinel, stood motionless in the next archway. Her hair was still damp where it had dipped into the water, giving it some waviness. She had run her fingers through it, and it had bothered her that she didn’t have a comb.
