Chapter 10: Bathing

Later that afternoon, I’m working on repairing my silk dress when Aybige tells me that Lord Giorgi requires my presence in his room in an hour. This time Giorgi has allowed me adequate time to prepare. There’s even time for a visit to the baths, which I do without hesitation.

Since the trim on my other silk dress is still damp, I resign myself to wearing the white and grey Divine Harem uniform. Giorgi will undoubtedly find fault in my choice, but it’s the only option open to me. Reyna offers to lend me one of her dresses, but we both know they are too small for my larger build. At least I can wear the jewels which Zurab has given me to brighten the plain looking outfit. Reyna helps me with my final preparations and she offers me moral support. Reyna wishes me good luck when Aybige arrives to escort me to Lord Giorgi’s quarters.

My heart sinks when I see Giorgi’s foul mood. He looks like a spoilt child in a sulk. Unlike me, he hasn’t bothered to wash and change. Fortunately I’m accustomed to being around unwashed males. Many visitors to Wadi Halaf never bathed more than once a month ... and only in summer. But I haven’t endured the experience within the last four years. Cleanliness is deemed essential inside a harem, or disease will spread rapidly. Careless lords have lost large parts of their harems to rampant deadly diseases.

As far as I can tell, Lord Giorgi has arrived straight from the training field after hours of battle training. His sweaty body and strong masculine smell are not entirely unattractive to my senses, but his sour mood leaves a lot to be desired. Giorgi removes his top and I can’t stop my heart from giving a slight flutter. Giorgi has many faults, but his finely sculptured body isn’t one of them. He is certainly fit and healthy. It’s a shame his attitude spoils the effect.

“Why the plain outfit?” asks Giorgi when he finally looks at me.

He’s spoiling for a fight with me and he’s hoping I will rebel at his taunting. I suspect he has lost several bouts on the training field, and now he desperately wants to dominate his pleasure slave. But I’m too experienced and feisty to make it an easy task for him. Something Giorgi might appreciate if he can stop sulking. I have the good sense to remain passive. My biggest problem is that I’m not unaffected by the sight of Giorgi’s glistening naked chest.

“You ruined my dress yesterday,” I reply to Giorgi’s question. “I’ve spent all day repairing it, but it’s still not ready. My only other dress is still wet.”

“Then you must get yourself some more clothes. You receive a stipend, don’t you?”

“I receive a stipend of eight aspers a day from the castle treasury, my Lord. A dress from the trader costs at least sixty aspers. If you are going to tear my dresses every time we are together, then I’ll soon be reduced to wearing rags.”

“I see,” replies Giorgi thoughtfully. “I haven’t seen that necklace and broach before. Are you squandering your stipend on jewels while you could be spending it on new dresses?”

“No, my Lord. Brother Zurab visited our room today and gave Reyna and me some jewels as a gift,” I reply, glad that the origin of the gift is now clear.

“My spiritual adviser interferes too much in my life. Don’t accept anything from the grey monks in future without my approval. Above all, don’t obey any of their orders affecting our relationship. You and Reyna are my slaves, and only I can give you orders. Remove your jewels and place them over there.”

I comply with his instruction, although I’m far from happy at being deprived of my newly acquired treasure.

“Good. You can take them when you leave; providing I’m not obliged to have you spend another night in the dungeon. Now, I want you to bathe me. I’ve had a long afternoon training with my soldiers and I’m in need of a cooling bath.”

Giorgi points to a screen in one corner of the room. I look behind the screen and I see that the servants have brought in a tub and filled it with cold water for Giorgi to bathe. Unlike the women’s communal bathing pool, the men of the castle bathe in the privacy of their room. That’s assuming they bother bathing at all.

I can’t risk wetting my last set of wearable clothes. I’ll need to remove them, but I’m in two minds whether to remove my clothes first, or wait until Giorgi is in the bath. I move forward to remove Giorgi’s trousers, silently hoping that my mounting arousal isn’t too obvious. I don’t doubt that this encounter will ultimately involve sex, but I want to be the one in control.

At first Giorgi allows me to undress him without any interference. He’s too tired and angry to feel aroused, although my hands on his skin are having an effect. He suddenly feels uncomfortable at the prospect of being naked while his slave is fully clothed. Giorgi stops me before I can remove his loin cloth, and instead has me undress myself before him. Only when I’m completely naked does he allow me to complete my task of undressing him.

The sight of me standing naked before him has the expected consequences on Giorgi’s libido. His anger diffuses into lust and desire, while his tiredness evaporates like mist. Finally he steps into the bath and allows me to start scrubbing his body. It’s a new experience for both Giorgi and me, and neither of us achieve the outcome we expected. In Giorgi’s case, he wanted to prove his dominance over his pleasure slave, while I was determined to carry out my duties without displaying any emotion. In reality, our close proximity and my wandering hands soon have both of us in a state of unintentional arousal. Far from becoming the dominant player of this game, Giorgi finds himself almost begging for my wondrous attentions. And I find myself only too willing to oblige.