Free The Price of Pleasure by Joanna Wylde Page A

back.
    Dani wasn’t as cool as she pretended, he noticed with dark satisfaction. The sound made her jump; her folded hands clenched in tension.
    “I’ll leave, but I’m warning you that if I find Devora off Guild property I’m taking her,” he said. “And you might want to warn her other client that if I find out who he is, he’s mine. Tell him it’s in his best interests to stay away from her. Send the contract to my office. I’ll want full control of her when I leave at the end of the week—there won’t be any vacation and there won’t be any time off. Money is not an issue.”
    With that, he turned and stalked out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
    Dani let out the breath she held with a mixture of relief and trepidation. Seth was taking the contract far more seriously than she ever imagined. Calla might be in trouble.

    * * * * *
    Seth kept his promise.
    Within an hour of his leaving, guards were posted at every door of the House of Lilies. Every visitor was scrutinized carefully, his entry and exits recorded in a log.
    With Dani’s assistance, Devora made a formal request for temporary asylum to the House manager and governing council, which was approved on the understanding that she would leave within a week. Seth struck back. He made a formal request that she be held under house arrest, and barred from receiving any guests or visitors who were not Guild members.
    It was a condition that Calla and Dani agreed to readily. The last thing Calla wanted was more attention, and her little room in the House of Lilies provided far more comfort than she’d ever experienced during her life as a slave. At Dani’s suggestion, she spent her time preparing for her trip, compiling data on everything from Imperial legal codes to star maps and cultural histories of a thousand planets on a small computer tablet. She and Jess would need the information to plan their new lives, assuming she ever found him.
    She also shopped using the terminal in her room. It was a difficult process, because Dani was almost completely out of funds by then. Fortunately, she had the credits Jess had been hiding in the storeroom. It wasn’t much money, and she had to be careful to select clothes costly enough to keep Seth from becoming suspicious about her origins.
    Dani had a few things that might work but she was bigger than Calla, and neither woman was skilled enough to make alterations. Calla finally decided on a mix-and-match wardrobe of attractively-cut yet sturdy tunics, pants and skirts. They flattered her figure without being too overtly sexual–the mark of an amateur, according to Dani.
    To add a little spice, Dani selected a variety of lingerie that made Calla blush.
    Everything from a silken, white dressing gown that covered her fully to tiny black and lace garments that left nothing to the imagination.
    “Remember,” Dani told her during one shopping session. “The key is to keep him guessing. Every time he sees you, he should be wondering what he’ll find under your clothes. Are you the virgin or the whore? Are you ready and naked or will he have to unwrap you slowly? It’s a game to heighten the pleasure–make the most of it. Six months is a long time to entertain a man like that, so make your clothing work for you.”
    In the end, the week went by far too quickly for Calla. She had watched the recording of Dani’s meeting with Seth, and she was nervous about seeing him again.
    He’d said “full control,” something that had been emphasized in the contract negotiations that followed. Each time Dani sent over a contract, he’d send back revisions.
    “Devora” would be under contract for six, not three, months. She would have no personal leave during that time. She would be available to Seth all day, every day. She would be required to participate in any and all sexual acts he requested, no exceptions.
    It was hardly standard, but he had all the power. Calla’s Guild asylum would end in a week, and then he