Chapter 9

The shower wasn’t a simple one-person stall. The size of all the other rooms should have clued me in. The running theme on size exceeded anything I needed. Obviously, the design and layout of the Manor intended more people to live here than a single college student and a handful of servants. The size of the bedroom alone suggested orgies rather than the comfortable cuddling of a couple. The sitting room could host a dinner party that would have felt crowded in my old apartment. It was the theme, and this shower ran with that theme. I recalled Chloe’s shower. It had two showerheads and glass walls. The two of us had plenty of room to clean up and get messy all over again. I could fit all of my girls in this shower, wet, willing, and squirming for contact.

I shook my head with the thought. Something was definitely off. Maybe it was the fact that I didn’t have several of my girls nearby to distract my thoughts with their own actions. Was that really the problem? Was I really that much of a pervert? Was it something else? Did my Magic corrupt me? I didn’t remember succumbing to thoughts like that before my awakening. Did I change that much in only six months?

I didn’t have any way to answer my questions, so I decided to focus on my current situation. I needed a shower to wash off the stench of smoke. The size of the shower distracted me. I needed something to ground me. I looked around. Four showerheads stood out on opposite walls, two each. All of them were removable with hoses to use on difficult-to-reach areas. A fifth head hung from the ceiling on a retractable hose. No, I didn’t find out how far it could reach. The knobs on each wall corresponded with the showerheads on the same wall. I could turn on one side or both. I also found the knobs for the ceiling head. The original construction of the Manor couldn’t have included indoor plumbing, but someone went to a lot of trouble to add it later.

After settling on the pressure and temperature I wanted, I realized that I didn’t have any soap, a scrubby, or shampoo. I looked around the shower, but didn’t see any. There wasn’t even a shelf – other than the bench – to set such things. I looked at the doorway to the main part of the bathroom. I would have to look for something. Rho stood there, watching me.

She smiled at me but didn’t say anything.

“Do you happen to know where the soap and shampoo are?” I asked.

She nodded but remained silent.

I frowned at her. “Will you tell me?”

She thumbed back over her shoulder. “They’re out here, under the cabinets.”

“And you let me bumble around in here looking?” I asked and moved toward the door.

Rho turned to let me by. I looked at her as I passed her. She didn’t say anything, which I thought was weird, but it could have been part of the changes she went through when my Rho merged with Hayden’s Rho. I looked through the cabinets, found what I wanted, and took them back to the shower. Rho continued silently watching me.

I glanced back at her a couple of times as I set everything on the bench. “Are you feeling okay?” I asked.

She shrugged.

“I thought you were only supposed to remain here while recording history or magical events,” I said, squirting some shampoo into my hand.

She nodded. “I am.”

I looked at her, moved over to the spray, and stood with my back to the showerhead. “Am I doing something historical?”

“Yes and no,” she said. “While here in the Manor, I am free to remain online. I don’t record all of the data that your Rho did, but I don’t go through as much energy as she did either.”

I ran the shampoo through my hair and scrubbed at my scalp. “You said ‘yes and no’ to my question. I didn’t ask why you were still online, though I was curious. So, why yes?”

“You are taking charge of the Manor,” she said. “Your family passed the mantle of Lord or Lady to the next eldest child, though males always outranked females in succession.”

“Is that why I’m considered Lord of the Manor as opposed to Valory being considered Lady?” I asked.

“Yes, though, in your absence, she will have control.”

I leaned back into the spray, rinsed out the shampoo, and then stepped away. I looked at Rho again. She watched me with the same expression she had earlier. Yes, it took me that long to realize that she hadn’t vanished her clothes and joined me. “Don’t tell me all those controls and restrictions keep you from joining me in the shower.”

She looked up into my eyes. Her expression held a lot of heat. “I could,” she said. “But do you really want me to get you all revved up and close to exploding just as Ms. Kulick returns in eager desire to find out just how big you really are?”

I smirked. “Do you really believe that?”

The corners of Rho’s red lips curled up. “I may not know the day-to-day workings of this manor, but it has been occupied by Sex Magi for almost two hundred years. Everyone who lives and works here understands that sexual promiscuity is much greater here than in the raunchiest strip clubs.”

It didn’t take much effort to picture Ms. Kulick standing in the doorway to the shower, watching me lather up, while she stripped. I liked the idea, but I didn’t hold any real expectation that it would happen. Sure, she had a thrill looking, but looking and doing were two very different things. Yet, this wasn’t about what I thought or wanted. I looked at Rho. “Just how real is the possibility that she expects or even hopes to have sex with me?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to have sex with her?”

That was a good question. Did I want to have sex with Ms. Kulick? If my body’s reaction was an answer, then it was a massive YES. I tried to think about it logically. I hadn’t had sex since I woke up with Misty Collins, one of my new Fonti from the Lockdown. Yes, I had sex with Rho in the Limo on the way to the Manor, but I didn’t recharge my power from her. I cast a number of spells during the chase, when Ricardo was trying to catch Chloe and me. Maybe that was the reason I felt the way I did. Maybe I needed a recharge, and there was only one way to do that, but did it answer the question? Did I want to have sex with Ms. Kulick? Yes. Yes, I did. I looked over at Rho and nodded.

Her smile grew and she vanished.

I blinked, stepped out of the spray and wiped my eyes, and then went to the doorway. Rho was gone. What the hell?

I drew a breath to call Rho back, but I held my breath because I heard something.

Ms. Kulick stood, holding open a door between the hall and the bathroom. She tugged at the buttons of her jacket, freeing them in quick succession. Her expression told me there was no turning back for her, she had chosen to do this and nothing would change her mind.

The heat in her expression and the nimble work of her fingers made me realize how much I wanted her too.

I don’t know what she saw in my face, because she smiled. She stepped just inside the bathroom, far enough to allow the door to close on its own. Her jacket dropped to the floor and she moved closer. Her dress shirt hugged her beautifully with seams to help keep the material tight around her waist yet leave enough room for her bust. She unbuttoned it even faster than she had the jacket, jerked it from her skirt, threw it to the floor, and stepped closer. She kicked off her shoes, reached behind her, and loosened her skirt. She wiggled her hips as she tugged the skirt down her legs, and stepped closer to me wearing only her bra and panties.

I wanted her to move faster, to remove those last garments with the same abandon she had the rest of her clothes. I didn’t understand my lust at the moment, but I wasn’t going to question it anymore either, especially if I wasn’t going to be having any sex while in Newton Grove – and there was no way to know just how long I would be there either. I stepped back from the wall, further into the shower, enough to show her how eager I was.

Ms. Kulick’s eyes dropped and widened. I don’t believe she even thought about it, but she licked her lips and her hands twisted back behind her to unfasten her bra. Once it was loose, she shrugged her shoulders and had to peel the cups from her breasts. Her nipples were hard, with goose bumps in her areolas. She dropped her bra and her thumbs hooked the waist of her panties. She bent at the hips and pushed them off, but her eyes remained locked on me.

I considered stepping closer to her, but then I didn’t know what I smelled like either. Instead, I stepped back into the spray. Ms. Kulick straightened and followed me. I picked up the bottle of body soap and a scrubby. Once the scrubby was thick with lather, I put the soap down.

Ms. Kulick took the scrubby from me, pushed me around so I stood between her and the spray, and then she started scrubbing me. Her touch was smooth and firm, neither too rough nor too gentle, and efficient. She started at my neck, worked over my shoulders, my chest, scrubbed each arm, and my sides and abs. She dropped to her knees at that point, scrubbed my waist, thighs, shins, and the tops of my feet. She stood up, smiling, and pushed at me to turn me around. Like my front, she started at my neck and worked her way down, even scrubbing the soles of my feet.

I noticed one area she hadn’t cleaned. Yes, she scrubbed my butt while behind me, but another area remained untouched by soap.

She pulled at my hand, which made me turn to look at her. She led me over to the built-in bench, set everything off to one side, and had me sit down. She pulled me to the edge of the bench and pushed my knees apart. She poured soap on her hands, lathered them up, and then reached for that one unclean area.

Ms. Kulick stood taller than most of my girls. In fact, the only woman I knew who could match her for height was Emma, my first Stirpe. Therefore, as I sat there with my toes barely touching the floor and she knelt in front of me with enough height of body to lean in and use more than her hands to scrub me. I enjoyed the feel of her slick hands sliding over me, the heat of her body pressed between my thighs, and the intensity of her amazement as she examined every thick throbbing inch of me. I never knew the buildup of anticipation could be so intense.

I edged closer and closer to orgasm when Ms. Kulick let go and pulled away. I looked up, on the edge of anger. Why did she leave me on the edge?

I focused on her, spotted the showerhead in her hands, and she sprayed my crotch and legs with warm water. It pulled me back from the edge, not unlike what rumor says a cold shower can do.

She turned off the water, let go of the showerhead, which returned to the ceiling, and crawled up onto my lap. “Any more foreplay and I’ll end up in here playing with myself.” Then she reached down between us, took a hold of me, and pointed me at herself. She eased down, giving herself time to open up for my girth.

She was tight and hot. The warmth of the water held nothing on her. I wanted to help her, but didn’t know her well enough to know what to do. Each of my girls needed different forms of stimulation, and discovering each favored form took time. I didn’t believe we would be spending that kind of time together.