197: A Moment’s Leisure

on April 14, 2008 in Book 8

In Which Saturday Is The New Sunday

Saturday, Calendula 3rd, 222

Dreamless sleep was my reward for making it through the entire day. No weird sex dreams, no nightmares, not even the merest glimpse of Sooni. I simply woke up, feeling rested if not completely refreshed, and with the warm and comforting weight of Amaranth sprawled on top of me.

She was still asleep, though she was stretching and writhing around. I think this must be what had woken me up, though in her defense she’d probably been doing it for a while and I’d only woken up once I was properly rested. There was sunlight showing through the blinds and Two had already got up and left.

I closed my eyes and lay back, enjoying the feeling of Amaranth’s flesh blanketing me and the scent of her hair. However she’d ended up on top of me, her general softness made it more comfortable than several alternatives. The narrow bed wasn’t really made for two people. The deep moans and tiny little yummy noises that she made only added to the pleasure of it all.

Amaranth’s skin was like sunlight on my own. It was almost a shame when she woke up and said, a little confusedly, “Hi, baby.”

“Hey,” I said. “Pleasant dreams?”

“The best.” She giggled. She glanced over at the empty bed. “Where’s Two?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “She tends to get up pretty early. Maybe meditating with Dee?”

Amaranth threw off the blanket and got out of bed. The chill of the room hit me immediately, and I pulled the blanket back. She stepped around the remains of my clothing and went to my dresser.

“What are you doing?” I asked, sitting up and twisting around to see her.

“Getting a sock,” she said. She turned around and held it out to me. “Go put this on the doorknob, will you, baby?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It was cold and I was naked, but I didn’t question. I figured that since I didn’t actually have to step out into the hall, if I did it quickly enough then the only way anybody would actually see me was if Sooni happened to be awake and looking out her peephole at just that moment.

The possibility of that was so small that it hardly bore thinking about at all.

“Baby, you know I don’t mind you showing off your assets, but if you stand there with the door open too long, Two will come back and we’ll be making her wait,” Amaranth said after a bit, and I realized I’d zoned out.

“Oh, yeah,” I said. I put the sock over the door knob and closed the door. I turned around. Amaranth was coming towards me, her hips swaying hypnotically. “What do…”

She put her finger on my lips and shushed me, then took me by the hand and led me back towards the bed. She didn’t say anything, but bent me over into position and went and got the paddle.

I can’t quite describe what happened next in exact sequence, because she kept changing things up. It wasn’t quite punishment and it wasn’t quite play. It was like she was experimenting. She used her hands and her fingertips as well as the paddle, and she didn’t confine her attention to my ass. She tickled up and down my spine. She reached around to tease my breasts. She did vertical strokes with the flat side of the paddle that had as much contact with the part of my body covered by the pad as my ass.

When she’d finished all of this, I was tingling all over and felt like I was about to burst. She sat down on the bed and laid me across her lap, then finished me off with a firm spanking that had me seeing stars.

We laid back down after that, on top of the covers. I pressed myself against Amaranth. The room was freezing, except for her, but for short term that just made it more delicious. I didn’t want to spoil the silence by asking to get back under the covers.

“Did you like that, baby?” she asked after a while.

“Mmm hmm,” I murmured. I felt like I’d been drifting off a little. Actually, I felt like I still was.

“I don’t think I could possibly total up everything that happened yesterday and give you a fair punishment or reward for it,” she said. “Hopefully, you won’t have too many more days like that.”

“Days where I get dropped into a labyrinth after spending the night in the healing center, meet the chancellor, concede an election, and then flame out?” I asked. “Yeah, I really hope not.” I stretched my arms and legs and then snuggled in against Amaranth. It felt like a lazy sort of day, and I wanted it to stay that way. “Do we really need to…”

“Look into lawyers?” Amaranth said. “Absolutely. We’re not putting this off. We’ll make it a treat, though.”

“How is talking to lawyers a treat?”

“We’ll go into town,” she said. “You need more clothes, anyway. You lost two outfits yesterday.”

“This still doesn’t sound like a treat,” I said. Clothes shopping wasn’t my idea of fun.

“Well, if you’re going to be a brat, I’m sure Two wouldn’t mind sharing her clothes,” she said.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Two said from behind the door, making us both jump. “But I would like to come in.”

“Oops!” Amaranth said. “Go let her in, honey.”

I ran to the door and pulled it open, standing back out of view of the door.

“How long were you there?” I asked.

“Twenty-five minutes,” she said. “The sock goes on the door when you are doing sex things, not when you’re not.”

“Sorry,” I said.

“We’re sorry, Two,” Amaranth said. “It won’t happen again. Would you like to come to Enwich with us?”

“I would like to come to Enwich with you,” she said. “But I have cookies to make and I have to go to work. Thank you for offering, though.”

“You’re welcome,” Amaranth said. “Why don’t you get dressed, baby, and then we can go to breakfast.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “What’s the weather like today, Two?”

“I think it’s a little chilly,” she said. “My friend Dee says it’s colder than she’s used to.”

I took out my sweater for the first time. I hated to do it. I always waited as long as I could stand before I started wearing sweaters, because it was an acknowledgment that summer was well and truly behind me and winter was coming up.

I know some places have got four distinct seasons and all, but in the middle provinces, it’s pretty much just summer and winter with a brief respectful pause between them. The weather had been fairly summery when we arrived at MU, and now it was getting cold. The first snows would probably fall before Calendula was over, and even if they didn’t, we’d have freezing weather.

“How many of those do you have, baby?” Amaranth asked, watching me pull the sweater on over a t-shirt.

“Two,” I said. “I alternate them when it starts to get cold, and when the snow hits I usually wear both of them.”

Amaranth was frowning.

“What?” I asked.

“Oh, we are shopping so hard,” she said.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Do you really expect to make it through winter with only two sweaters?” she asked.

“I always have before,” I said. “Yeah, I’m miserable, but that’s…”

“Unacceptable,” she said, cutting me off with another shushing. “And unnecessary. There’s no reason for you to suffer because you’re not equipped for the weather. Anyway, as scrawny as you are, that sweater barely fits you. I know you had money put aside for your feeding. Do you trust me to take care of that for you?”

She lowered her finger and waited for my answer. I thought about it. Especially with Steff, Dee, and Two, she had a better chance of finding willing virgin blood than I did. I simply didn’t have a very good circle of acquaintances, or a good track record with being able to approach people.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“Then you’ve got some money to spare on clothes and some good winter garb,” she said. “And, because I promised a treat, we’ll find a bookstore. Enwich is supposed to have a couple good ones. Does that sound nice?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said.

“We can get you a calendar and planner while we’re there, too,” Amaranth said. “And maybe a thicker comforter for the bed. Oh, not at the bookstore, I mean, but while we’re in town. Ooh, and pillows… big fluffy pillows.”

I smiled. It was my room she was talking about decorating and my money she was talking about spending, but I couldn’t help smiling. The memory of waking up with her on top of me… and of lying beside her after the spanking… was fresh in my head, and I knew it was fresh in hers, too. That’s what she was thinking of when she started talking about pillows and blankets.

“What?” she asked.

I was staring.

“I love you,” I said. I ducked my head, suddenly shy.

“Oh… baby,” Amaranth said. “I love you, too, even more than… more than you could guess.”

She must have been feeling shy, too, because she turned slightly pink and looked away.

“We should get matching bed sets,” Two said into the stretching silence.

“Oh, that would be cute!” Amaranth said.

“And carpet,” Two said. “Like my friend Hazel and her cousin Honey have.”

“That might be a little much,” I said.

“Maybe think about it?” Amaranth said. “I mean, think about when it gets really cold and you have to get out of bed in the middle of the night. Two, hon, do you have to work tomorrow?”

She shook her head.

“Well,” Amaranth said. “How about this for a partial reprieve, baby? We’ll go to the library today instead of tomorrow like we normally would so that Two can come along and help us pick out the new bedding.”

“Okay,” I said. “But are law firms open on Sundays?”

“Baby, I’ll be honest: I’m not even sure they’re open on Saturdays,” she said. “Without an appointment, I mean. This is all new to me, too. I just thought it would be worth looking into if we were going to be in town, anyway. I’ll look up law firms in Enwich while we’re in the libraries, and make some inquiries. You won’t have to deal with it at all this weekend unless we get a response right away.”

“Okay,” I said. “That sounds nice. I’d like to have some time with Ian, today, too… if everything’s going according to schedule, then…”

I trailed off and turned red.

“Your period’s almost over?” Amaranth asked. “Good. I need to know that kind of thing if I’m going to be helping you keep track.”

“You know, I can keep track of that kind of thing for myself,” I said.

“I don’t think you can,” Two said, shaking her head.

“Hush, Two,” Amaranth said. “Oh, don’t begrudge me a little fun, baby… it’s not that you can’t take care of yourself, but I like taking care of you.”

“Okay,” I said. “I guess if you put it that way…”

“Finish getting dressed, and we can go to breakfast,” Amaranth said. “Would you like to come with us, Two?”

“Yes, please.”

I changed my pad for what I hoped would be the last time that month, then got dressed. Two started to say something about me showering, but Amaranth overruled her and told her this was my lazy day after my ordeals of the week. The smile she gave me when she said this made me practically melt with gratitude. I loved her so much.

Breakfast proved to be just the three of us, as Dee was still complaining of a headache and weariness that neither a night’s rest nor her morning meditations had cured and Steff didn’t show. She frequently spent extra time on the weekends with Viktor.

I wondered if Steff had told him of our indiscretions herself, or if she was waiting for Amaranth to do so. For that matter, I wondered when Amaranth intended to tell Viktor. I didn’t ask. For one thing, I didn’t want to ruin the idyllic beginning to what was looking to be a pretty idyllic day. For another thing, that conversation would give me answers to questions that I’d just as soon went unanswered.

As far as I knew, Steff and I were free to date each other. That permission would almost certainly be revoked now, but until it was, I could still cling to the idea.

I pushed away thoughts of that, though. It was my lazy day. My happy day. There was no sense dwelling on what might happen, or even most certainly would happen.

Two came to the library with us, and it felt very much like a Sunday afternoon except for the whole not having to go to classes the next day. Amaranth asked me if I wanted to help her with or otherwise be kept apprised of her lawyer search on the ethernet. Since I had absolutely no insight to contribute on the subject, I didn’t see any reason to get myself worked up over it just yet, so I limited my involvement to reminding her that Ian had said he might be able to get some recommendations from his dad.

“Okay, baby,” Amaranth said. “We’ll check with him on that later, but I don’t want that becoming an excuse to put this off.”

“It won’t,” I said. She did a little bit of research and made a list with names and contact information on it while I looked up some tidbits on history that Professor Hart had mentioned in passing.

It wasn’t a bad way to spend a morning. It beat all my most recent alternatives, anyway.


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4 Responses to “197: A Moment’s Leisure”

  1. Leila says:

    Was Amaranth about to say she loved Mack more than her Mother?

    Current score: 0
    • nobody says:

      Or sex, something that would count as blasphemous for a nymph in the MU universe at least.

      Current score: 2
  2. undertheteacup says:

    This chapter makes me think so wistfully about having someone like Amaranth in my life – relentlessly positive but also completely nonjudgemental – who could help me with terrifying business like choosing a doctor/therapist/dentist, making an appointment, and advocating for me while i’m there.

    sighhhhhh

    Current score: 6