Chapter 52

Estrella Salazar:

Immediately after I spoke to the Decurion, I called Mama at home -- well, our cabin, anyway. "Mama, the Decurion called -- and he as much as admitted that your hand was in this! Do you not think I can attract a man on my own?"

"I don't know, Daughter!" Mama sneered. "A worm, perhaps -- but a man? I have little evidence..."

"Mama!" Hector, my ex husband, has been a point of conflict between Mama and I ever since we were dating -- and sadly, Mama was right. Hector was a smooth talker and I could not resist him; first, he took me to his bed, and then to wife. Now I know it was because he saw that I was easily controlled. Hector found job after job -- wonderful jobs with bright futures -- but the charm and guile that got him positions usually wore thin after a short time in the face of his laziness and he would be out of work again. I was the breadwinner -- AND the housewife! Hector had other pursuits...

It embarrasses me to say that I turned a blind eye on his dalliances, regularly. We had our fights about them, but I could not bring myself to leave him -- at least, not until Graciela turned fourteen and I noticed his wandering eye focused on his own daughter! That finally did it; I managed to escape with her before Graciela fell prey to her own father's smooth advances ... Later, Graciela told me in confidence just how near a thing that had been; days -- even hours -- later, she would have lost her virginity to him -- and once she was sullied, I have grave fears concerning the uses he might have put her to. As it was, after I left him, I had a couple of very uncomfortable meetings with his creditors; he was gambling -- and losing, of course. Eventually, we moved to avoid the threats -- which might have continued, if Hector had shown any interest in either of us after the divorce. As it was, fortunately, we were not a lever on him, and he moved on to find some rich widow to support him and get him out of trouble.

Hector was a wedge between Graciela and me during the delicate period of her puberty, though; she did not realize at the time that she was being manipulated -- only that I was taking her away from her loving father. This led to rebellious behavior and her own poor choices where men were concerned. Perhaps I'm not being fair, but Raul was a migrant worker -- and seldom around for his wife OR his children. And I doubted seriously that he was faithful in any great measure...

In any case, Mama's rebuke was only the latest in a long list. "Hector is no longer an issue, Mama! Do you HAVE to bring him up again and again?"

"What is there about the Decurion that you fear?" was Mama's riposte.

"He is a hard man," I replied. "There is no gentleness in him."

Mama laughed. "He has a hard shell, daughter, because he must do hard things, daily. Do not mistake that surface for what goes on underneath. Why do you think he fears commitment so much that he has no women?"

I blinked, shocked. "What?"

"He seeks perfection -- and fears to find it. Is it not clear that he can have virtually any woman he wants? Yet he has none. He uses women -- harshly, I would wager, in an attempt to prove that they are inadequate -- but he does not give of himself to them. He fears that it will lead to his ruination," Mama theorized. "We know the one way to get past this, Daughter, and it is a potent weapon. It is his duty to have children -- it is EVERY sponsor's duty. He hasn't done it -- and he knows he must. Honor compels him to do something about this -- which is where you and Graciela come in. This is the probe that you will use to break a hole in that shell -- and enter through it."

"Which of us?" I asked. "Am I breaking the shell for Graciela?"

Mama laughed. "It is too early to tell. Remember what he told you -- remember the rules of the game. He can have you both -- which would free poor Javier of his responsibilities regarding you -- or neither -- or he can choose between you. Whichever one of you is the most perfect will be his first choice. Remember also what he will take from you."

"What?" I struggled to remember.

"He expects full service. He has said that he will use you in every way -- both of you. Do you not know what this means?"

"He will expect me to suck him..."

"Daughter! Are you so dense? He will use your culo!"

"MAMA!" I was horrified! My ass? He would put his cock in me there?

"You will purge yourself -- if you make a fuss or a mess, he will have his excuse -- and I will see if my granddaughter has any more sense than her mother. Hector did not use your culo? Ever? Somehow..." Mama mused.

"Yes, Mama, yes!" I waved my hands, waving away the disgusting subject. Hector HAD taken me there -- usually during that time of the month, or when I was fertile -- sometimes when I was pregnant. It hadn't been pleasant, but I had my duty to perform. Later, he had other outlets and seldom demanded it.

"So. You can be a fool about this, or you can purge yourself and perhaps apply a little lubrication," Mama said blandly. I nodded, numbly; Mama and I had NEVER discussed such things! I'd always assumed the subject was too delicate to approach with her! Perhaps I should have known better... "Mama, I never expected to have this conversation..."

"Men do this..." Mama waved it off, "to other men, even. Yes, before you ask, your father enjoyed it occasionally. I did, too, sometimes."

"But..." I wrinkled my nose. "It hurts. And it's nasty."

"It's nasty if you are not prepared -- and the preparation is unpleasant. The pain ... This is also a preparation thing -- a mental one. If a man takes this from you, you are not relaxed; it is rape, and painful, and disgusting. If you give it to him, you have the proper attitude and while there may be an initial period of pain, unless he is brutal, it will become tolerable, or even pleasant. There are women who enjoy it..."

"Putas," I muttered.

Mama cocked her head. "You would class me as a whore?"

Shocked, I covered my mouth, "S--sorry, Mama!"

"Your grandfather was gentle and adept," Mama said blandly. "He brought me to the pinnacle many times that way. Sometimes, I touched myself; others, his cojones bumping my button did it for me..." Mama sighed. "I remember sex with some fondness, Daughter -- and I feel younger every day..."

I was beyond surprise... "About Javier..."

Mama's eyes narrowed. "What about him?"

"I cannot do ... that..."

"Then Graciela will win, if she has sense. Do you not understand that if you disobey the Decurion in any particular, you are done? Why do you think he has put this stipulation in place?"

"So I will lose?"

"So you will do right by your grandson!" Mama snapped.

"Mama! You can't be serious! The church says..."

"The Church says anything that will further it's purposes! You FOOL!" Mama snarled. "I am old, Child. I have seen many things. In the old country, the Church would marry children to dirty old men and not even blink! Cross a priest's palm with enough silver and suddenly you are not REALLY related to your niece or your cousin -- or perhaps your sister! A mistake was made in the recording documents ... The rules exist for the poor. Divorce is a sin, but with enough money, an annulment is possible after decades and several children! Are you BLIND?" She shook her head. "Churches start out as places to nourish the spirit, but they are run by MEN and men of religion are prone to all of the evils that plague men who pursue other careers. And that means that religion becomes the servant of politics -- and an extremely powerful one, at that!"

"But, Mama..."

"You accuse me of being old and inflexible, when it is actually YOU who will not bend!" Mama accused. "Have you not listened to the lectures? This is science and superstition -- and you cling to the latter!"

"I..."

"Do as you will..." Mama waved a dismissal and the AI broke the connection.

I sat for half an hour, trying to decide what to do. There were other men -- why would I do this? But I knew the answer -- one way or another, it had been proven that the Decurion was a worthy prospect -- and with him, I at least had an excuse for falling back on my grandson. If I found nothing else suitable, I would have to go to Javier on my own, uncompelled -- and lose face. "AI?"

"Estrella Salazar?"

"Please conduct me to the Decurion's quarters. I ... I will need some things..."

"The items required will be made available in the Decurion's quarters."

I cleaned first -- which may not have been wise. The AI provided bottled enemas, for which I was duly thankful; I'd been exposed to the red bag and hose before ... Enemas were as uncomfortable as I remembered them being, but I suffered through two. Lubricating my anus was merely embarrassing -- and there was no one present but me -- and the AI -- and whoever called up the surveillance video. If I were the Decurion, I'd have spent half of the afternoon watching me ... It was nearly the dinner hour before I finished; I'd no sooner washed my hands than the Decurion put in an appearance. The door flew open and I stood there, open-mouthed, before I grew sense and went to my knees under his measuring gaze. He grunted when I'd settled to 'Attention'.

"I'd have thought Presentation One was more appropriate..."

"I was taken by surprise..." I replied. "What do I call you?"

"Temporarily, for the purposes of the test, you are mine, so 'Master' is appropriate," he replied.

"Yes, Master."

"So you don't feel Presentation One is appropriate?" he pressed.

"I assumed that it was too late, Master." I lifted my breasts to him. I'm fifty-three -- well, I think I've been physically backed down to forty-five or so -- so they don't just jut from my chest like they did when I was eighteen -- but I think they're presentable ... They're pointed and on the low end of a 'C' cup and although they've slid some, they don't point downward and droop.

"I think it is too early to assume, don't you?" he chided, eyeing me.

"Yes, Master." It was going to be a long night at this rate...

It was. We wandered through four mess areas before finally settling in one to eat. I heeled him everywhere, one step behind and one to the right. When he pointed his finger at the floor, I went to my knees and assumed 'Attention.' I admit it, I'm not as young as he is -- or at least, as he appears to be -- and getting up and down began to hurt. I ate on my knees, kneeling to his left so he could use his right hand conveniently; he fed me with his fingers. It was messy and embarrassing.

When we finally got back to his quarters, he conducted the inspection that I'd expected initially, then he said, "Find me a glass of red wine." It took me a bit to realize that all I had to do was order it from the replicator. He was laughing at me from his chair, I could tell -- not that his stony face showed it much. I knelt and presented it and he took two sips and handed it back, muttering, "It needs to breathe. Come, I need a shower -- you can wash my back."

It wasn't that simple, of course. Yes, I washed his back -- then I knelt in the spray and sucked his erection. He was rough, of course, and demanding; he drove me onto his length, his hand in the hair at the back of my head. It was deliberate abuse -- yet he never quite pushed me so far that I needed to vomit. He complained that I could not take him deep into my throat; oddly, that had never been an issue with Hector or the very few other men who had followed him. He used me, thoroughly, yet ... he didn't go too far...

His seed was copious; I choked a little. He didn't pin me in place and he let me recover -- but something told me that I needed to try and not lose any. "Well..." he grunted, and I figured he'd checked the block, but I hadn't gotten an 'A.' "Get a towel..." I was surprised; we'd been doing this air drying thing in the shower -- that's what the AIs were teaching. But the Decurion had bath towels ... I got out, dripping, and he followed, and I dried him; he settled the towel around his waist and said, "Do the air thing -- make sure the shower is clean. When you're dry, bring my wine to the bedroom." I did as I was told, trying not to think dark thoughts.

He was asleep when I got there.

Vera:

Wednesday afternoon, I decided that I was sleeping with the boys. I think it was Cletus that triggered it; he was moving well and his hair was coming in full and black, except for a dusting at the temples -- very distinguished. Big Mike was looking good, too, but it showed less; I think the belly was retreating, not that it had ever been a serious thing, since he was a bear in the first place. Discovering Cletus' eyes wandering to various women -- and some reaction off and on from his cock -- pretty much clinched it.

My big project for the day was one Bernice Farris. This was one busted chick ... I remembered basically where she'd come from -- in that I remembered her sister, Jolene Wells, the lingerie shop owner. Ironically, I was the only one of the three of us who bought lingerie at her shop that day who could legally wear mine -- and it, well, I wasn't certain if it made the trip, actually. Anyway, Bernice was addicted to painkillers; the AI insisted that if we just flushed her out, the cure wouldn't take (although where she was going to get painkillers on a Confederacy ship wasn't clear). No, we needed to make it hurt. The AI handled THAT, too -- and told her that the only way she was going to be able to deal with the pain was to fuck.

That was where I came in; I got to be her procurer. There was now a short list of male concubines without females for one reason or another -- usually because they'd been dumped for fucking up. It was Bernice's lot in life to service this group, most of whom were losers of one type or another. I chased down one Gonzalo Cuatrecasas, the uncrowned king of the loose male concubines, to arrange for this fun...

The good news was that Bernice already looked less wasted and more healthy; the bad news was that it was almost all physical and very little of it was mental. Gonzalo wasn't thrilled, and I couldn't blame him; we had to hear the plan from the AI twice before we believed it.

Bernice had been hooking for drug money -- and she tolerated sex at least. She was going to be cured whether she liked it or not, as Confederacy medicine isn't big on pharmaceuticals, so the answer, from the AI perspective, was that if she wanted to feel good, she should have sex...