The Red Wing Mansion

The Pearl Wing Mansion : Chapter One

"At least I'm not a maid this time," I tease back, wondering why Claudius kind of looks annoyed with me. Was it simply for jumping out of his car? Eh... probably...?

"Come inside," Fontaine asks us all to get in, so Isela and Pearly walk ahead, leading the way, while I walk next to my boss and my husband.

"It's good to see you still have family around," I murmur, "You should have told me sooner –"

"Shh," Claudius speaks quietly, "Alix... I don't want to hear you talk right now. Quiet now."

What the hell did I do?

I close my fists but I don't say anything.

What got him into such a foul mood?

He was probably hungry –

Almost as soon as I think that, a flurry of activity happens when we enter the Pearl-Wing Mansion together.

A line of three maids have quickly rushed up, their hair all perfectly groomed in curls or in buns. They line up with their forearms held up.

"Good morning, girls," Claudius doesn't even look at them, but he does grab one arm, for a few seconds, then he releases her and grabs the next arm, releases her and grabs the third offered arm.

At the end he keeps walking by like nothing happened, following his sisters, but I've halted to stare at them.

All of the maids are more pale after his touch and light headed. They stumble a bit and hold onto one another, then they regain their strength and look at me rudely staring at them.

I don't know what to say. They look happy it happened.

"Are you the new submissive?" one asks me quietly.

I notice they have name tags. Kamy spoke. The other two are Florence and Ethel.

"I'm not new," I respond, irate, "Does he..." I look her over, "Does he... um... like..." fuck you?

"He has never... no, ah..." Florence now speaks and blushes hard, reading my mind, "We just look after the house, ma'am, but we're..."

"We're virgins," Ethel mouths it at me.

"You can't go all the way and have sex with an incubus," Kamy explains, "Or you'll die."

"So you're just... his servants," I try to understand.

Kamy nods and lowers her eyes. Florence and Ethel also lower their eyes and turn and walk off in a perfect single file without another word said.

I don't know why until I feel Fontaine's hand at my shoulder.

I nearly jump out of my skin, I didn't hear him walk back or approach. He probably went ghost-mode on me.

"Geez," I snap as I spin to him, "You scared the hell out of me," Claudius looks a little amused by my angry face, "What's so funny?"

"Pink cheeks," Claudius murmurs, "Don't be jealous of the workers."

"You touched them," I whisper very quietly.

"They did what they're trained to do," Claudius explains, very amused by my clear concern.

"You have me now," I whisper.

"No I don't," Claudius shakes his head, and he loses his small smile, as his harsh blue eyes look over my face, "I can't ever have you, Alix."

"We can –"

"Not really, not the way you think," Claudius whispers, "We'll talk about this later, my sisters want to give you the grand tour."

I gulp and sidestep him, "...whatever then."