Taming the Giant Read online

  With your shaft you part her thighs

  The seed shall flow, the shaft shall rise

  Nipples ripen, flower bloom

  Two are one within this room

  Womb will open, curls will grow

  Petals unfurl, juices flow

  Thus you bring your bride to bloom

  Blossom ripe until the tomb.’”

  She looked up at her giant. “And while she said all that, she, uh, acted it out with the mannequins. I mean, she put the male doll’s mouth to the female’s breast and then she rubbed his shaft against her flower…that kind of thing.”

  “That’s an extremely specific ritual.” Bram sounded thoughtful. “Little one, do you really think it’s necessary in order for you to, uh, bloom?”

  “No female has ever managed to bloom or conceive without it,” Alanah said sadly. “It’s very important—which is why it’s supposed to be against the law for the Elder Witch to withhold it.” She sighed unhappily.

  Bram frowned. “And can you explain to me a little more what blooming actually is—or maybe show me what you mean when you say you’re, uh, ‘unbloomed’? I’m still not completely certain what you’re talking about and it would help to be able to see.”

  Alanah felt like her whole body was blushing at once.

  “I…I don’t know about, uh, showing you,” she murmured. “I…to be honest, I’ve never been, uh, naked in front of another person in my life since I was very small. Even in the bath we wear bathing shifts to cover ourselves. But…” she looked up at him. “I guess I could…maybe let you feel a little. Since…since you’d be touching me over my shift and not under it.”

  “That would be all right,” Bram murmured. “I’ll be more than happy to stroke your beautiful body, little one.”

  “All right, well…” Alanah bit her lip. “Can…can I have some time in the, uh, privy and bathing room first to freshen up a bit? I’d like to do something with my hair and wash my face. I still feel like I just rolled out of bed.”

  “And you have to get ready before you can roll back into it, hmm?” He gave an amused, rumbling laugh. “Of course, little one—help yourself. And as for hair care—why don’t you use the hair unit in the corner of the bathing room?”

  “The…what?” She frowned.

  “Here—I’ll show you.”

  He led her back into the bathing area and showed her a rounded metal cap which was large enough to cover even his head. It was mounted on the wall on a metal bracket which slid up and down and it just barely came low enough for Alanah to use. She was certain if some of her shorter friends, like Jenla ever came aboard the Kindred Mother Ship, they would have to use a stool to access it. In fact, she was going to need a stool herself to get to some of the higher areas of Bram’s suite.

  “How does it work?” she asked, looking at the metal cap curiously. He’d shown her so many strange things she felt she was almost getting used to them by now. A machine that fixed hair which was frizzy because she’d gone to bed with it damp hardly seemed like a miracle anymore—not compared with a metal doggen that did laundry and cooking.

  “Just put your head inside and think how you want your hair to look,” he told her. “The unit can read your thought patterns and responds to them instantly.”

  Alanah stood under the cap obediently and closed her eyes.

  “Smooth,” she thought as clearly as she could. Her hair was a frowzy mess—she wanted it to be as sleek and straight and shiny as though she’d brushed it a thousand times.

  At once she felt a warm puff of air which seemed to envelope her entire head and then a gentle pulling sensation, as though the machine was combing every strand of her hair at once. It was strange but not frightening. In fact, Alanah, who had always liked having her hair played with, found it rather soothing. But before she could really relax, the hair unit finished and slid upwards on its bracket releasing her.

  “Is it—did it work? It went so fast.” Alanah put a hand to her head uncertainly.

  “Come and see.” Bram brought her to a strange kind of mirror she hadn’t noticed before. It showed not only the front of her hair but both sides and the back as well.

  Alanah looked at herself in amazement. Her hair was as smooth and sleek as she’d ever seen it—a thick, shiny mass that framed her face and swirled around her shoulders in a silky wave. Even the ragged ends had been trimmed, leaving them exactly even and beautifully smooth.

  “Oh…” she whispered. “That’s amazing. I don’t care what you say, Bram—this has to be magic.”

  He shook his head with a smile. “It’s just technology, little one. It’s the way we Jor’gen Kindred keep our hair braided. Because we don’t believe a male should cut his hair but we don’t want it in the way either.”

  “Oh…” She looked at his smooth black braids. “I wondered if I might see it loose sometime.”

  “Maybe.” He smiled at her. “Well…” He nodded at the doorway. “I’m going out into the sleep chamber to change. When you feel ready, come join me.”

  Alanah began to get that breathless feeling again.

  “All…all right,” she murmured. “Just give me a minute more, please.”

  “Take your time,” Bram told her and disappeared, considerately shutting the door behind him.

  Alanah looked for a pump to get some water and then remembered that Bram had showed her how to use the sink during their first tour of this room. She held her hands under the shiny silver nozzle and was amazed when a rush of warm water bathed her fingers immediately. She couldn’t help thinking, as she splashed her face, of the many long hours it took back home to draw water from the well or pump it into a bucket and what an effort it was to build a fire in the stove and bring it to boil.

  Everything was so easy here—so effortless! And so warm. Back home she felt like she’d never been truly warm enough—even during the summer months when the sun was more often in the sky there was a chill in the air, especially at night. But here on Bram’s ship everything was there for the asking—water, heat, food and drink…

  It would be so nice to live here permanently. To never have to go back to the cold, drafty castle.

  Well maybe she would stay here forever…if Bram still wanted her when he truly understood what it meant that she was unbloomed.

  Alanah tried to push the worrisome thought away.

  Bram cares for me, she reminded herself. He said he’s interested in more than…than penetration.

  How much more, remained to be seen.

  Alanah realized that she was simply procrastinating—taking her time in the bathing chamber because she was nervous about what was to come. But though her stomach seemed filled with the fluttering of nerves, she also craved what was waiting for her in the vast bed next door—craved Bram’s warm touch on her body.

  “Enough,” she told herself, taking a last look in the strange mirror which Bram had called a “3-D viewer.” “It’s time to go.”

  And taking a deep breath, she left the bathing room for the bed chamber.

  Chapter Ten

  Bram was waiting for her, the covers thrown back to show his bare chest and the long, silky black trousers he’d changed into—presumably his sleep wear.

  “Come to bed, little one,” he murmured in that deep, rumbling voice Alanah was coming to love so well.

  “All right.” She started to approach the vast bed…then stopped. She was still wearing her dressing gown, she realized. It was time to take it off.

  Taking a deep breath, she unknotted the cord around her waist and let the gown slip to the floor, leaving her clothed only in her thin white sleep shift. It showed the shadows of her full breasts and the V between her legs—though there wasn’t much to see there, she thought ruefully.

  From the bed, she heard Bram take in a deep breath of his own.

  “Come here, little one.” His voice was hoarse with longing. “Come here and let me hold you.”

  The top of the bed came up to her waist so Alanah ha