I shook my head, but of course I knew. We all knew. The fact that she had not given him a child yet has been the talk of the house.
“I hadn’t given him what he wanted, so now, I must sleep with his business partner. I suppose that is how I can still be useful to him.”
I sat still. I put my hands on my lap. I kept my eyes on her. For a long moment there was silence between us before I blurted.
“You mustn’t.”
“Mustn’t I?” she responded.
“You are the lady of the house. It is reprehensible for him to treat you in such a manner.”
“Loyalty above all, Niko. My husband commands me and so I shall obey. Isn’t that how it works? If I do not show up to the man’s door tonight, then the shipments may cease. Should that happen, my husband will have to answer to higher authority. We wouldn’t want that now, would we? Much is at stake, Niko.”
“That is not your responsibility,” I answered, to which she barked a laugh.
“Oh how charming. How envious, the simple life of a handmaiden. A beck and call to attend to and that is all.”
“It seems it is the same for you,” I replied rather tersely, then, hearing those words escape, my eyes widened with horror, and I clasped my hands to my mouth.
“Oh! I’m so sorry madame! I didn’t mean it!” I squeaked, bowing my head ashamed of my impertinence.
She laughed and clucked her teeth, shaking her head, and responded, “My dear Niko. Do not apologise for speaking your mind with me.”
I shook my head in response. “No. I should not be so crass. I should not be so disobedient.”
She flicked the tears from her eyes and smiled kindly. “You should. And perhaps I should pluck a page from your book.”
“What do you mean, madame?”
“I should be disobedient too. You’re right. I mustn’t go to that man’s bedroom tonight. So I won’t.”
“Oh… I see. What will you do instead?”
“What I want, of course.”
“…Which is?” I asked cautiously.
She leaned back on her chaise and beckoned me with a finger. “Come nearer, Niko.”
I came nearer, to the foot of her chaise, and when I did, she extended her leg so that her foot touched me between my legs. “You, Niko. If you’ll have me.”
I turned away from her.
“Madame, I do not know how to take your advances.”
“Take them at face value.”
I turned back to face her and with unmitigated vexation in my voice I replied, “Face value? You told me that I seduced you with my perversion and that I should never do it again. You held me in contempt for my desires. Do you not remember?”
“I do… Of course I do. But let me tell you this, Niko, and I’ve been meaning to say this for a very long time now. All the things that I told you I found contemptible about you… The truth is, I envy you. I find I want to be just like you, Niko. I want to be able to give in to what I want for once. For always.”
Her trembling lips, the aching glint in her eyes, her unadulterated naughtiness setting flame to the lust within me; I could not help myself.
I cast aside all my timidity. I grabbed her foot just like I had that one morning on the seaside, hoisted it up to my mouth and I flattened my tongue against the sole and licked. “Is this what you refer to?” I asked. Then again, I licked from her heel to her toes.
She moaned. She uttered a soft, “Oh yes, Niko… yes…”
I licked again. And again, and while I licked, I untied my obi and shrugged my kimono off my shoulders, then I flung off my undergarment to become fully nude. My lady took a good look at me and sighed with pleasure at the sight of my nudity.
She moved her foot to between my thighs again, to place it right against my wet slit.
“Do you want me, Niko?”
“Yes,” I replied unapologetically. “I’ve always wanted you.”
“As you I,” she said, and she slid off her undergarment and parted her legs to show me the proof that she did not lie. Beneath the golden tufts of her mound, her lips glistened.
“I would very much like you to pleasure yourself with my foot now, Niko,” she said.
“If that is what you want,” I answered with a sly grin. I sat on the floor before her “wariza” style, with my legs splayed out to the sides. She lowered her foot down and pressed it gently against my aching slit.
Slowly at first, I rubbed myself against her foot, and, when I had gotten the hang of it, and found that it was indeed as pleasurable as I had hoped it would be, I went faster. I rubbed my swollen bud against the ball of her foot, and then when I had done that enough times, I inserted her toes inside my slit, as many as I could manage, to pleasure myself with them inside me. While I pleasured myself with her toes, she pleasured herself with her fingers. And we gazed into each other’s eyes.
In her eyes, I discovered not the Lady Evelyn that I thought I knew, the Lady Evelyn who was as cruel as her husband. I did not see Lady Evelyn at all, in fact. I saw Evelyn, from England, who once had adventure and romance in her heart. I saw her true self blooming for me now. I wondered then, if she saw my true self, whatever that could be and I wondered if that was why she wanted me. In any case, I wanted her, and I had her. I had crossed over from wanting simply to satiate my own desires, to wanting to love this woman.
My ecstasy rose quickly. So did hers. We both moaned and trembled, and laughed with glee, then came the wonderful release, the flood of ringing pleasure. When it was done she beckoned me onto the chaise to be with her. I crawled into her arms, and we held each other as we trembled with love, and we kissed.
I stayed in her arms for a long while afterwards, and wanted very much to stay there and sleep there with her, where she could keep me warm in the cold autumn night. But realising that the longer I lingered there, the more likely someone might discover us like this, I stood, wrapped myself carefully in my kimono and fixed my hair as best I could, and departed for my quarters.
She said nothing to me as I left. She only watched. But shortly after I had unrolled my futon and laid out my quilt, I heard the sound of my door sliding open. She stood in my doorway, her silhouette gleaming silver from the moon behind her, and her hair gleaming too. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t need to ask her why she was there. I knew why. Quietly, I climbed into my quilt and when I was in, she slid the door shut behind her and made her way over to me, and climbed in with me and held me. I was happy beyond measure, but shortly a gloomy thought cast a shadow on my mind.
“Your husband meant for you to visit his guest tonight,” I whispered to her.
“Yes, I know.”
“Will you not go?” I asked.
“I do not intend to,” she replied.
“So you do intend to disobey him.”
My gut twisted at the very idea of disobeying the lord of the house. It was an instinct grafted onto me by all the terrible and terrifying punishment I had witnessed him dole out to his servants for even the most trivial of infractions or by nothing more than whim. But, she was not a servant. She was his wife. So I tried putting it in my mind that there was no need for an alarm. I squeezed her intimately, and she squeezed back. She kissed me on the cheek and said, “I intend to stay here with you tonight, and warm you, and be warmed by you.”