All the girls have gone to their colored rooms, even Nita, who is shadowing with Elara, leaving Skylar, me, and Cybele, who just returned from her day shift and is closed up inside her nook. I expected to be sent to the red room with the other girls, but it seems the madame’s threats were empty. Even still, I’ve been bathed and perfumed, but I can’t bring myself to dress in the costumes from the cupboard. Instead, we sit silently, side by side, waiting.
Eventually Skylar chances a hesitant look at me, and I can only shrug.
“Maybe no one will come,” I whisper.
The look she returns is filled with hope, and I flinch inwardly. The last thing I want to do is give the girl any false hope.
As the minutes tick by, more and more of the tension leeches from our shoulders and we exhale breaths we didn’t realize were being held. Skylar lets out a short giggle, or maybe a hiccup, and I can’t help myself from smiling at her, my own giggle bubbling up my throat. Did we really escape the madame’s threats?
The doors across the room are suddenly thrown open, and my heart plummets when the elder green alien with the surly attitude scans the room until she finds us. A slow smile spreads across her lips, and I swallow down the bile that threatens to surge up my throat.
“Get dressed,” she barks. Skylar jumps, and I reach over, circling her small wrist with my hand, giving her a squeeze I hope is reassuring. “Hurry up. You will be in the red room.”
I manage a jerky nod before scrambling to my feet. I have to practically drag Skylar with me across the room to the cupboards. Fumbling through the rows of fabric, I gnaw on the inside of my lip.
Too revealing. Too gaudy. Too sexy! Too—ugh!—just no.
Damnit, I’m going to have to choosesomethingto wear.
My hands skirt over the clothing faster and faster.No. No. No. NO NO NO!
In my disgust, I almost skip over a cream-colored dress, only to pause and come back to it.
“This might work.” I pull it from its hanger and hold it up for Skylar’s opinion. Her gray eyes slowly drag over it before she nods. Turning away from her, I quickly strip and slip the dress over my head and down my body, where it fits me like a silken glove. Well, not quite. Several inches of the dress pool round me on the floor, but that can’t be helped.
Turning to the mirror I pull at the deep V-neck, making sure my ample boobs aren’t falling out, before sliding my hand down my waist and over my hips. The dress hugs my curves like a lover, and the skirt splits high on one hip, exposing the entirety of my shapely leg.
“Will this work?” I ask, turning to face Skylar. She’s standing with her arms wrapped around herself, she gives me a once-over and then nods.
Alright then, let’s get this over with.
I hook my arm through Skylar’s—she still hasn’t had her eyes fixed—and head to the door, where one of the orc aliens is waiting to take us to our room for the night.
Out in the hallway, a cacophony of moans and screams surrounds us. When we pass one of the doors, I swear I hear Nita cry out, and I feel my cheeks heat. Hurrying Skylar along, I can’t help but hope Nita’s getting the alien dick she hoped for.
If Nita’s enjoying herself, maybe this won’t be so bad.
Then I remind myself I have an underaged voyeur along for the ride. How do I manage to get myself into shitty situations like this? I swear, if it wasn’t for my bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
The orc alien stops to dip his head at us, and then pushes the red door open. “I’ll send your customer up,” he says in a deep, gravelly voice.
“Thank you,” I tell him quietly, then wonder why I bother.
The look he gives us is… not what I expect. Instead of seeing indifference or a sneer, he gives me a sympathetic, fatherly type of look. “The customer is not allowed to touch the young, but if you’d rather I not tell him about her, she can hide, and he’ll be none the wiser that she’s here at all.”
Wait… what?I’m stunned at his kindness, and my surprise must show on my face, because he gives me that friendly smile once again.
“It wasn’t so long ago, or maybe it was, that another human female came here in much the same way you girls have,” he says, stepping out of the way of the room so we can enter. “I was much younger then, and she was… kind to me, when she didn’t have to be. I helped her back then, and if I can, I’d like to help you two as well.”
Skylar is standing just inside the room, and I’ve stopped at the threshold. “Thank you,” I tell him. “We appreciate your help and your kindness.”
The orc nods before stepping out of the doorway and pulling the door closed between us.
Turning my back on the door, I press my palms together. “Alright. We need to hide you before he comes back.”
Skylar nods, and we both look around the small room. Besides the bed and chairs by the door, there really isn’t much, certainly no good places to hide.
“Maybe…” I pick up my shirt and make my way across the room to the wall Treto held me up against. My skin warms at the memory, but I push it away because I have more important things to think of. “I think I remember seeing a… Aha!”
