Page 14 of Bought and Shared
Letters are my next best option, but since I don’t know where I’m being taken, I can’t even give Cadence an address to write to.
“I hope they let us stay in touch,” I tell her, giving my friend a warm, tight hug. “Maybe, if I please my masters well, they’ll let me reach out to you someday soon.”
At breakfast, Cadence had only been able to whisper a few details about her night. I hadn’t said much about my own experience, on account of how embarrassed I was and how quickly we had to eat. From what I could glean, her evening had been equally as scandalous as mine. Yet, she doesn’t seem half as nervous as I am. Instead, my beautiful and intelligent friend seems far more contemplative than anything.
Cadence smiles wide. “I’d like that.”
“Are you afraid about what comes next?” I pose, as I remove the scratchy casing from my lumpy pillow. Not that I’d noticed last night. I was so tired, I could have fallen asleep on a literal boulder and not known the difference.
“I’m confused and a bit disoriented,” she confesses after a moment of contemplation. “But I’m not afraid. My masters seem… reasonable. Are you concerned about your masters? Do you think they’ll be unkind?”
I don’t know the first thing about my new master, Knox. Oren had only mentioned him at the end of our evening. However, I get the impression the man is just as overbearing and relentless as Oren himself. Which doesn’t exactly lessen my fears any. My long silence causes Cadence to furrow her brow in concern.
“I’m overwhelmed and nervous about what the future might bring,” I explain in a rush, so as not to give her yet another problem to perseverate over. “I’ve only ever known my small community. I feel like a foreigner in my own land. LikeI’mthe alien in this strange new world.”
“I understand,” my friend gently returns. “I think, to some degree, that’s how we all feel since being drafted. Maybe even since we first learned about the asteroid.”
She’s right. We are, the world over, trying to figure out our place in this strange new situation. I’m no different. Like everyone else, I’m going to have to trust in the process that looms in front of me.
Lieutenant Crom enters the room then and informs us it’s time to board the bus. Bags packed, we quietly troop outside to where it’s parked and load up. Cadence and I sit next to one another, with me on the inside of the bench seat. To our mutual surprise, some soldiers are riding with us. I overhear that they’re on leave and escorting their mates to their new homes. Amy is sitting with three of her Voltan masters, spread out between two seats. The missing two will join them in a few days when their leave starts.
While the bus is lively and loud, I keep my head down and don’t say much to Cadence. I’m lost in my thoughts and wondering what my new home will be like. I’ve never lived away from my parents, and I’m feeling like a fish out of water without them.
All the other women seem to know how to act around the men. How to flirt, tease, and take teasing in return. I know none of these games of seduction. I’m awkward, childish, and ignorant of relationships between men and women. It’s embarrassing, to say the least.
As we’re driving, I take note of how Amy’s masters interact with her. They are all bold and beyond attentive. There’s not a moment when one of the three men aren’t touching her. They pass her between them like a beloved doll. While sitting in theirlaps, they stroke her hair, hold her hands, and openly pet her thighs.
Though I should be ashamed of my snooping, I’m desperate for a crash course in the opposite sex. As my de facto teacher, Amy does not disappoint. I can tell she knows exactly what men want, and she’s never shy about giving it to them.
At some point during our journey, Amy straddles the thighs of one of her Voltan masters and begins to simulate riding him. His hands are around her waist, gently supporting her movements as she grinds against his obvious erection and he fixedly holds her gaze. Amy’s body is graceful as she rocks back and forth, kissing her blond Voltan lover with so much passion it causes my cheeks to burn. When his hand disappears under her skirt, I know I should look the other away, but I can’t. I’m enthralled. Hungry for information and a glimpse into what my own future will look like.
Slickness gathers between my legs as Amy rubs against both the soldier’s hand and his cock. Remembering how good it felt last night when Oren had done the same to me causes my heated thighs to press together and for me to bite my lip so I don’t accidentally let out the moan threatening to escape. As I unabashedly watch, the men to their left and right encourage the foreplay, rubbing Amy’s back, breasts, and rear end as she begins to grunt and pant from her building desire.
The bus suddenly changes lanes and Amy nearly topples off the soldier’s lap. When he catches her in his strong arms, she giggles and another man plucks her away, settling her into his arms while whispering something illicit into her ear.
Flushed and stimulated, I shut my eyes and pretend to be asleep. To my ultimate surprise, the rocking bus soothes me enough tolull me into a dreamless oblivion. Some time later, I feel Cadence gently shaking me awake.
“We’re stopping for lunch,” she softly informs me.
Suppressing a yawn, I stretch and follow everyone off the bus. We’re at a popular fast-food restaurant that even I’ve eaten at a handful of times in my life, and I’m kind of excited to be doing something so normal.
Cadence and I discuss what we’re going to get as we wait in line for service. Behind us, there’s a group of men unaffiliated with the Voltan. They’re human, in their twenties, and wearing matching jackets that signal they’re on a sports team of some kind.
As the line crawls forward, I hear one of the boys behind us whisper, “Ask them,” as the others dissolve into riotous laughter. When I hear the word “redhead” uttered between them, I know they’re talking about us.
Immediately, I’m uncomfortable with the situation. I’m out of my element just by being at this restaurant, let alone being so physically exposed. Besides some tame advances from the men in my church congregation, I’ve never been in this type of situation before. I don’t like it.
“Do you think they’re with them?” One boy wonders aloud.
“They look like they suck Voltan dick,” another one of their group snarks back.
“I’d like it if the redhead sucked my dick,” another quips, and the group cackles like it’s the funniest comment in the history of mankind.
“I’ll take the dark-haired one,” his friend nastily returns. “I’m not into fire crotches! The Voltan don’t seem to mind though. They’re so hard up for pussy, they’ll take whatever they can get!”
I inwardly cringe at their crude words. Not only are they talking about us, but they’re openly discussing our connection to the Voltan in the most foul of ways. Utterly humiliated, I want a trap door to open beneath my feet and swallow me whole. I’m raw, emotional from being snatched away from my family, and tired. The last thing I need right now is this pack of mean boys praying upon our helplessness.
To be so unkind is unthinkable to me. The draft isn’t a choice. It’s a requirement. That they’d judge us for what we can’t control seems so unnecessarily cruel and ignorant.
