Stealing Her Heart Read online

  “My Lady?” he murmured, forgetting for a moment to call her “Professor.” “Are you well settled? Is everything all right?”

  Victoria had piled her hair on top of her head and was relaxing against the towel he had placed for her. She opened her smoky green eyes for a moment and looked up at him. There was a warm, contented smile on her face and Chain thought she looked perfectly relaxed.

  “I’m fine, Chain,” she murmured. “In fact—more than fine. I don’t know what this stuff is but it feels amazing. It’s like all the tension drained right out of me the minute I got in—my muscles are like Jell-O.”

  Chain didn’t know what “Jell-O” was but she seemed to be safe and enjoying herself. Thinking that this was a good time to go scouting around the house, he nodded and said, “Very well, I’ll be listening for your call.”

  “You do that,” Victoria murmured dreamily. “I promise to call you when I want to get out—if I ever do. Right now I feel like I could stay in here forever.”

  “Very well, my Lady,” Chain said again and left to see what he could find out about the huge, sprawling house while there was an opportunity to do so.

  Twenty-Five

  “This stuff is amazing—it makes me feel so good,” Vicky murmured, as the luscious pale purple liquid lapped against her skin. It was like soaking in liquid valium, she thought. It made her feel relaxed all over.

  “That’s the magic of the vexpa oil, my dear,” Professor Torella murmured in the same dreamy tone Vicky had used. “It promotes total relaxation and lowers the inhibitions.”

  “It’s also very good for firming up any ‘problem’ areas,” Lornah remarked. “Like under your arms, beneath your chin—anyplace that sags, won’t anymore after a dip in here. I swear, Torella,” she continued. “This pool is the only reason I keep coming to spend time at your domicile. I rather detest you otherwise.”

  “I know,” Torella said with a dreamy laugh. “That’s what makes you so amusing to have around—you’re one of the only people I’ve never been able to win over. I really am a lovely person, you know—but you’re just too horrid to make friends with anyone.”

  “I hate almost everybody,” Professor Lornah acknowledged with a contented sigh. “Well, except my students—I’m very good with them. They always give me the problem cases, you know,” she told Vicky dreamily. “The ones with low self-esteem or some kind of physical difficulty. The ones who need building up and extra care and attention.”

  “You are good with your students,” Torella agreed. “It’s one of the things that makes me like you and keep trying to be your friend.”

  “You’re good with your students too,” Lornah acknowledged grudgingly. “That’s why the Student Placement Council gives you two at once. Once, she even had three,” she told Vicky.

  “That was rather a lot to handle but I managed.” Torella laughed. “They’re all such bright young men—they just need to be trained properly.”

  “You know,” Vicky heard herself saying. “Your way of, er, teaching students is different from what we do on my world.”

  “It is?” Torella cracked one eye and looked at her with sleepy interest. “How so, my dear?”

  “Well, we don’t have sex with our students for one thing,” Vicky told them. Somewhere, far back in her head, she seemed to hear a little voice screaming that she ought to be quiet and not let them know this but she felt so calm and dreamy she ignored it.

  “Oh, we don’t have sex with ours either—not until the final exam,” Torella told her.

  “A male must learn many other ways to please a female before he can be allowed to please himself at the same time,” Lornah lectured.

  “So true! He must have excellent manual and oral technique as well as patience enough to bring a woman to orgasm again and again before I’ll even consider allowing vaginal penetration,” Torella agreed.

  “No, I don’t think you understand,” Vicky told them. “I mean, we don’t have any sexual contact with our students at all. It’s considered extremely improper.” She still had the feeling she ought to stop talking but the pale purple vexba oil seemed to act like a drug—it made the words keep flowing from her mouth even when she knew she ought to stop them.

  Lornah and Torella both opened their eyes and frowned at her.

  “But my dear, how do you teach them then?” Torella asked, sounding completely mystified.

  “Well, with study guides and guided listening. Sometimes I use gamification and chunking works well for students who have learning disabilities,” Vicky said dreamily, listing some of her favorite teaching techniques. Then she realized that both women were looking at her blankly.

  “My dear, I have no idea what any of those methods are but how can you teach good lovemaking skills without any hands-on lessons?” Torella asked her.

  “Oh, I’m not teaching them lovemaking skills!” Vicky exclaimed. “Mostly I teach Spanish and French and I coach the Drama Club,” she told them. “No…” She shook her head sadly. “On my planet, I’m afraid nobody teaches men what a woman likes or how to please her.” She sighed. “We’d probably be a lot happier if our society would adopt your methods, but I don’t think it would ever happen in my patriarchal world.”

  “But then…you’re not a proper professor at all!” Lornah exclaimed, frowning at her. “You’re here under false pretenses. Why—I bet your student isn’t even really a student!”

  Finally the little voice in the back of her brain that had been shouting at her to shut up began to make sense to Vicky. Oh God, had she screwed up this entire mission with her big mouth? She should have just stayed quiet and gone along with everything the other two women were doing and pretended things worked the same on Earth as they did here on Priima Belle. Now Torella would never agree to sell them the other half of the T’lix-Kruthe and it was all her fault!

  But she wasn’t ready to give up yet. Quickly, she began to dissemble.

  “Actually, Chain is my student,” she said. “In the sense that I’m teaching how to please me sexually. I know he seems old to you to be, er, learning from me, but on my planet, it’s more usual for the man to be the older one in a relationship.”

  “It is?” Lornah looked as though she couldn’t believe such a thing. “You mean it’s common for older men to date younger women on your world?”

  “Oh, yes.” Vicky nodded. “Back on Earth, people wouldn’t bat an eye if they saw a sixteen year age gap in a couple where the man was the older one. But for me to be that much older than my lover—than Chain—is considered really revolutionary for us.”

  “What a strange world,” Torella remarked. “And how sad for you that no one is training your men to be good lovers before they’re set loose in society at large.”

  “I couldn’t agree more,” Vicky said firmly. “Which is one reason I agreed to take Chain on as my student—so I could teach him how to be a good lover. Of course, it’s not my full-time job, like it is yours,” she added, nodding at the other two women. “I teach languages and drama to earn my living. But by the time a woman gets to be my age, she knows what she wants. So I thought the least I could do was pass that knowledge on to a younger man—so he can please some other woman down the line, you know?”

  For some reason, she had a hard time getting this last line out. The idea of her Kindred pleasing another woman was a difficult one to swallow. But Vicky told herself it was almost certainly true. After all, Chain was too young to want to stay with someone like her—he would certainly move on once this mission of theirs was over and find someone more his age.

  “Well, that’s very noble of you, my dear, but I’m afraid doing a little part-time teaching doesn’t qualify you as a full-fledged Professor.” Torella sounded sad but firm. “So I don’t see how I can deal with you in the matter of antiquities.”

  “Exactly—you’ve got your priorities all wrong,” Lornah exclaimed. “Why, we do our other studies on the side—be it antiquities, or cakes and dishes, or languages, or insects
, or what have you. Our main focus is training young males to be good lovers. Whereas you have made what ought to be a side-interest—languages and drama—into your main occupation. How long do you teach those silly things every day?”

  Vicky wanted to be offended but the valium-like effects of the oil she was soaking in made it difficult.

  “With lesson planning and grading papers and tests and everything else involved, I’d say it takes up around nine to eleven hours every day,” she admitted.

  “Nine to eleven hours a day?” Torella exclaimed. “How can you possibly devote yourself to the proper sexual education of your student if you’re spending so much of your time and energy on such inconsequential matters?”

  “Inconsequential?” Vicky protested. “My job isn’t inconsequential! All knowledge is worth having! And worth teaching.”

  “Yes, well, some kinds of knowledge are more worth having than others,” Torella said dryly. “You admitted yourself that your entire world is unhappy due to your mixed-up priorities. I’m sorry, but I can’t consider you a true Professor and so I cannot possibly deal with you, my dear.”

  Vicky felt a spasm of panic that even the valium-oil she was soaking in couldn’t tamp down.

  “But…but you haven’t even seen my teaching methods yet!” she heard herself blurting out. “I thought you were going to let me demonstrate for you!”

  Of course, she’d imagined they would want to give Chain some kind of oral exam in Spanish or something like that—not watch how well he got her off. But, still!

  Oh, there’s going to be an “oral exam” all right, whispered the sarcastic little voice in her head. Just not the way you thought, Vicky.

  Shut up! Vicky told the little voice fiercely. She was doing everything she could to salvage the mission—she didn’t need her stupid brain getting in the way of her mouth. Or did that even make sense?

  At that point, Vicky didn’t care. She looked back and forth between the two women, hoping it wasn’t too late—hoping she hadn’t screwed up her mission beyond repair.

  “I don’t know…” Torella frowned. “I was just going to have you demonstrate your student’s massage technique—that’s why I had the three massage platforms set up.” She nodded at the three padded tables that were positioned in front of the long fire pit at the front of the room. “But now I’m afraid I’d have to see something, well, much more intimate to convince me that you’re truly a good teacher.”

  “That’s fine,” Vicky promised recklessly. “Chain can do anything you ask of him—I’ve trained him well in every technique. Please—you have to give me a chance to prove myself.”

  At last Professor Torella gave a reluctant nod.

  “I can see your point, my dear. We shouldn’t be prejudiced against you just because you come from a backwards planet. After all, you are trying to do what’s right.”

  “She’s trying but is she succeeding?” Lornah grumbled.

  “We won’t know unless we give her a trial,” Torella said decisively.

  “I don’t like it.” Lornah frowned.

  “Well, you don’t have to—this isn’t your domicile,” Torella snapped. “It’s mine and I say we give her a chance to prove how well she’s trained her student.” She looked at Vicky. “And if we deem that you’ve done a good job with him, well, I’ll think about selling you that little trinket you wanted. The T’lix-Kruthe, was it?”

  “Yes, that’s it. Oh, thank you!” Vicky exclaimed. “I promise you won’t be sorry! You’ll see what a good job I’m doing with Chain.”

  “Yes, we will.” Torella arched an eyebrow at her. “Because in addition to relaxing your muscles and your inhibitions, the vexba oil makes it impossible for you to fake sexual pleasure or orgasm. We will know exactly how well you’ve trained your student by how well he does at pleasuring you.” She raised an eyebrow at Vicky. “Will that be a problem?”

  Vicky swallowed hard. It wasn’t like she didn’t think Chain could please her and bring her pleasure, but the idea that she wasn’t going to be able to fake it—(the way you did almost every time with Kevin,) whispered that snarky little voice in her head—was disconcerting to say the least.

  Still, she lifted her chin and stared Torella in the eyes.

  “You’ll see,” she said calmly. “I’ve trained Chain to perfection—he’ll be able to pleasure me effortlessly and extremely well with the excellent techniques I’ve taught him for pleasing women.”

  “Very well.” Torella nodded. “Lornah and I will be the judges of that. For now—let’s get out of the pool and let the trial begin!”

  Twenty-Six

  “Chain, I have to talk to you.” Victoria gripped his arm, speaking in a low voice as he helped her out of the pool.

  “Yes, Professor Victoria, what is it?” The worry in her eyes concerned him. What had happened to her while he was away, scouting around the house?

  He’d been pretending to search for a fresher while the other students made snacks for their professors but what he had found was much more interesting than any snack food. Still, maybe he should have stayed because Victoria looked really upset.

  “You can stop with the ‘professor’ stuff,” she told him, still nearly whispering. “They know I’m not really from some university. But even if I was, it doesn’t mean the same thing here as it does back on Earth.”

  “I know,” Chain murmured. “The other ‘students’ told me exactly what they’ve been learning under Professors Torella and Lornah and it’s not chemistry or languages or advanced mathematics.”

  “I know—they’re teaching them how to please women,” Vicky murmured. “The thing is…” She cast a glance over her shoulder to where the other two women were being blotted dry with towels by their students and talking in low voices to each other. “The thing is, I had to pretend that I was teaching you the same thing,” she told him. “And now they want a demonstration!”

  Chain felt his shaft stir between his legs.

  “A demonstration of how well I can please you, you mean?” he murmured, smiling at her. “That shouldn’t be a problem, sweetheart. Not at all.”

  “You don’t understand,” Vicky hissed. “That oil stuff I was soaking in relaxes all your inhibitions but it also makes it impossible for me to fake pleasure or an orgasm. So unless you’re really good, we’re not going to pass this test.” Her face pinched with worry and regret. “I’m sorry, Chain—I know this is really unfair to lay on you. And really unfair to ask you to do in the first place, too. I mean you probably don’t want to do all this with someone my age. With—”

  “Oh, I want to,” Chain assured her before she could get started denigrating herself because she was older than him—which made absolutely no sense, he thought. “I want to very much, Victoria,” he murmured. “I have wanted to pleasure you—to put my hands and mouth all over your beautiful body—from the moment I first met you.”

  “You…you have?” Her cheeks colored in a blush.

  “Look at me…” Chain raised her chin with one finger so that she was looking up into his face. “Sweetheart,” he murmured, “There were at least a dozen unattached females in the Last Chance Bar when I walked in—I chose you because you were the most beautiful and interesting-looking. Your face wasn’t just blandly pretty—you had character. And the minute we started talking, I knew I had chosen well. I wanted you—and I still want you.”

  “But, well…” She bit her lip. “Do you think you’ll still be able to—you know—do what has to be done? Considering that the oil stuff I was soaking in won’t let me, er, fake it? I, er…” She cleared her throat. “I had to fake it nearly every time with my ex. He just never, uh, really cared about getting me off.”

  “I’ve said before he was a fool,” Chain said, frowning. “Pleasuring your partner is the best part of sex—any male who can’t see that doesn’t deserve to have a lovely partner like you in the first place, Victoria.”

  “Thank you.” She smiled at him, but there was still anxiety in
her big green eyes. “So…you’re sure it won’t be a problem?”

  Chain gave her a slow smile, feeling his shaft twitch again with anticipation.

  “No problem at all,” he assured her. “Look, just tell me what you want,” he went on, when she looked at him uncertainly. “Direct me—tell me exactly what to do and how to do it. ‘Teach’ me.”

  The very thought of her teaching him like that made his shaft so hard he thought it might burst through the magno-tabs that held his leathers together. Gods, he loved it when a woman directed him in bed and told him the best way to please her!

  “You want me to…to say out loud what I want you to do?” Vicky looked uncertain about this.

  Chain nodded firmly. “That makes it more like a lesson, don’t you think? How else can you show off your teaching technique?”

  “Well…” She nibbled her lush lower lip in a way that made Chain want to kiss her—or maybe suck her nipples some more. “I guess so,” she said at last. “Though this is going to be the strangest observation I’ve ever had.”

  “You’ll do fine—we both will,” Chain assured her. “Now come on—I think they’re expecting us.”

  He nodded towards the front of the room where Professors Lornah and Torella were waiting expectantly.

  “I guess so.” Vicky nodded at the other two women. “It’s time to face the music.”

  “I’m not certain what that expression means,” Chain murmured. “But if the meaning is that I’ll be allowed to touch you all over your sweet body and taste you between your legs, then I agree—let’s go face the music.”

  “Chain!” she murmured, swatting him lightly on the arm. “You’re incorrigible!”

  “No…” He smiled at her. “Just hungry…hungry for you, sweetheart.”

  Twenty-Seven

  Vicky couldn’t believe they were doing this. She felt like she was moving in a dream as she and Chain walked up to the front of the room where the other three students were beginning to move the massage tables out of the way.