Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 84265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84265 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
The feeling was so strong he almost took Lilli by the arm and pulled her away.
I could tell her everything now, he thought. We could call the Mother Ship for extraction and run away together and never see this cursed planet again.
After Lilli’s declaration that she loved him, he was certain she’d go with him. The only thing that held him back was the fact that he wouldn’t be able to bond her to him.
But she doesn’t seem to mind about that, he told himself. And we’re in love—this feels right. Maybe the priestesses in the Sacred Grove can ask the Goddess to give us some kind of special blessing to help us grow closer together even if we can’t bond.
It was a hopeful thought and the only thing that kept him from speaking it out loud was the fact that he wanted time to explain everything to Lilli in detail before he asked her to go with him.
We’ll just get this over with quickly, he thought, looking up at the conception center, which rose like an accusing gray finger towards the Yonnite sky. Then we’ll go back to the hotel and order something nice from room service and make love and I can lay all the facts out for her. Then she can make up her mind.
After all, this was a decision which couldn’t be rushed.
He had no fear that Lilli would try to keep him as her bodyslave or turn him in to the authorities or anything like that. And he had little doubt that she would come with him. Her mother’s mansion might be nice, but Lady Mirabella herself was a nightmare. Karn had seen the way her cruel words reduced the tenderhearted Lilli to tears. She would probably prefer a life with him, even if it wasn’t as drenched in glitz and wealth—at least he hoped so.
I’ll ask her later, after all this—after I have time to explain myself, he told himself again. I’ll—
The beeping of Lilli’s chronometer interrupted his thoughts. It was time for her appointment.
“Well…I guess I’d better go in.” Lilli’s cheeks were pale and her eyes were big as she stepped towards the gray, windowless building.
“You mean we’d better go in, baby.” Karn took her hand and entwined their fingers. He gave her a reassuring squeeze. “You’re not going anywhere without me.”
“Thank you, Karn.” She shot him a grateful look and took a deep breath. “Okay, then let’s go.”
Together, they stepped into the building.
Thirty-Nine
Inside it was cold—meat locker cold, Lilli thought, wishing she’d worn something warmer than the flimsy pink top and skirt. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.
But in addition to not being warm enough, the skirt no longer seemed to be fitting her correctly. The slight roundness in her belly, which she’d noticed briefly back at the hotel room, seemed more pronounced now. It made the skirt feel tight and uncomfortable and this was already an uncomfortable situation.
Lilli thought of how the other girls had described the insemination process—how the metal probe that went into you felt like an icicle—and shivered. She was really glad she wasn’t going to actually have to go through with this!
The room they had walked into was rather small—sort of a lobby, Lilli thought. The walls were a stark white—blank and forbidding with no decorations except for a single viewscreen mounted on one of them.
“This must be where we sign in,” Lilli whispered to Karn. She didn’t like the way her voice echoed and wished she hadn’t said anything at all.
“Well sign in and let’s get the Seven Hells out of here,” he growled. “This place gives me the fucking creeps.”
Lilli couldn’t have agreed more. She went up to the viewscreen and reached out to touch it, tentatively, with one finger. The screen came to life at once, turning from blank black to stark white, like the walls. In the middle of it hovered a single name in bold black print—Lilliana Mirabella
Lilli touched her name and watched as the black letters turned suddenly blood red. She wondered if that was all she had to do. Now that the system had acknowledged her, could she just go?
“Is that it?” she asked out loud and Karn shrugged.
“Must be.”
But he was wrong.
Suddenly, a door at the far side of the room opened and a woman with dark purple hair done up into an elaborate series of curlicues came out. She was wearing a businesslike dress which barely showed her breasts and panties at all. She must be one of the lesser Mistresses, Lilli thought. The ones who didn’t have enough money to own their own buildings in downtown Opulex and so made their livings by serving others, higher in the social order, as doctors and legal Councilors and things of that nature.
Of course, any Mistress was free to use the conception center so maybe it was this woman’s turn and Lilli was intruding.