Chapter 16

"Alright," Rakti said as she lazed on the couch in a simple pair of shorts and a tank top. That last orgasm, coaxed from her already overstimulated body and accompanied by the harsh spanking Harper had dealt out, seemed to have finally depleted her. Dark wine, some uninspiring red Bailey decanted, swirled restlessly in her glass. "You wanted me to divulge my dark and terrible past."

Ashley, returned home some five minutes after Harper and the other women had finished showering, shifted on her cushion. She was excited and happy about something beyond Harper patching things up with Rakti, but wouldn't divulge it until she had listened to what the couple's mistress had to tell them first. "Umm ... That is if you're okay with it?"

Rakti cast a wry look at both Ashley and Harper then crossed her legs. "Uh huh. Well. There's not much to tell. My parents were immigrants. Like fresh off the boat immigrants. They're both still alive or at least I think so. I don't talk to either of them anymore."

Harper took a sip of his wine. Even bad wine was nice when listening to difficult things. He didn't know how Ashley could go without it.

"My, uh, my mom, Harini, lives on the East Coast last I heard. Some small town in Massachusetts where she works in a department store. And my..." Rakti trailed off.

Ashley went to her and placed a comforting hand on Rakti's leg.

The darker woman, covering Ashley's hand with her own, began again tremulously. "My father. Ishan. He left a long time ago and went back to India, I think. He couldn't find the fame and success he wanted ... he didn't get the fame and money the world owed him here in the States so he left. I guess I was about five then."

"That must have been awful," Ashley murmured.

"Not really. He was never a very warm man and then he was just ... gone, y'know? Like he had never existed in the first place." Rakti took a deep breath and launched into it again. "Anyhow, my mom raised me by herself. Never remarried. Things were tight money-wise, but we got by. She worked all she could and I sort of raised myself.

When I was older she got all surprised when I didn't want to settle down right after high school and start popping out babies like she did. I didn't want to marry some "nice Indian man". I didn't want to be the ideal chaste and powerless little Indian woman. I wanted to go to college. I wanted things of my own. I wanted to be my own person." Rakti stopped to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye when Ashley handed her a tissue.

"Rakti, you don't have to-"

"Oh shut up, Harper. I'm not stopping part way through," Rakti said as she pointed the wet tissue at him like a weapon. "You asked for this."

The look Ashley shot him from the couch instantly killed any remark he could have made.

"I went to college. My, uh, ethnicity got me in despite my average grades and financial aid helped me pay for it. It didn't pay for everything, though. I was working two jobs on top of a full time schedule and I was still struggling. Just like my dear, old mom." Rakti took a long pull from the wine glass and patted Ashley's hand. "I got desperate one month. I was way behind on rent and hungry and ... desperate." She shrugged.

"It was just supposed to be the once. I had a friend who ... escorted and she hooked me up with a client for a night. He was an older man. White. A little paunchy, but in pretty decent shape for his age. He was nice and he didn't ask for much. Just regular stuff. He paid me sooo much money for something I actually liked doing. Six hundred dollars for an hour's work! I couldn't believe it." Rakti laughed hollowly and called for more wine.

"Here you are, Mistress," Bailey said as she poured more wine into Rakti's glass.