It was not terribly hard to read between the lines of what his pet was saying, and the realization almost had the marquis swearing out loud again. Mother of fucking Hell, but this girl truly had the knack for seducing him…and she wasn’t even fucking trying!
“No more speaking in circles, milady. What exactly do you wish to know? Are you wondering if women also feel the same urges?”
There was a moment of silence, and then his pet answered in a pained voice, “I am afraid it is much worse, milord.”
The marquis frowned. “In what way?” As far as he was concerned, the only thing worse than his pet wanting to have sex with him was not wanting to have sex with him…or wanting to have sex with another man, which he would never fucking allow.
“This morning when I was in class, I was…distracted. It was all I could think about.”
“It?”
Rhapsody cast her Master an impatient glance. “Copulation, milord.”
Mihail’s cock jumped.
“So it is not that I wonder about whether such urges are possible. I already know it is so. What worries me, however, was how distracting these urges were. I had an extremely hard time focusing on my lessons, milord. Extremely.”
“It almost sounds as if you want me to apologize for that,” he remarked.
“No, milord.”
Good, he thought. She had just told him she had spent the whole morning thinking of having sex with him. In his book, that was a good thing. Extremely.
“But…” Rhapsody clasped her hands on her lap. “I do need your help, milord.”
“I am at your service.”
“I wish to know if there is a way to eliminate such an obsession.”
Ah.
“Is there?”
“Absolutely,” the marquis didn’t even hesitate to say.
Rhapsody sighed with relief. “Pray tell what it is, milord,” she appealed.
“It will take time though,” he warned.
“All the more reason for me to work on it right away,” she decided.
“Based on what I know from, er, other similar cases…the best method in eliminating such distractions is to target the source.”
“Do you mean not to copulate?”
Hell no, the marquis almost said out loud. Clearing his throat, he said levelly, “It is the opposite actually, milady. You must increase the frequency of your participation in such activities until you become completely accustomed, and your mind no longer perceives it as a novelty.”
And this was the truth, he reasoned to himself, and heartkeeping wouldn’t have let him utter the words if it wasn’t. In his younger years, he would sometimes find himself intrigued by a woman, but time always found a way in making his interest in her fade gradually into nothing.
“I see.” Rhapsody’s lips pursed. “This method is similar to how children are with shiny new toys, I think?”
“I suppose.”
“To withhold a new toy from a child will only make him or her want to play with it even more…” His pet was now thinking out loud. “But if they were allowed to play with those toys whenever and for as long as they wish, their interest in it would eventually wane…”
“That is correct.”
“How wonderfully ingenious, Master!”
And for the first time since their meeting, his pet bestowed on him his first glimpse of her smile.
It was a captivating sight, but also one that was strangely bittersweet. It had his cock swelling in girth under his breeches even as his chest tightened with something akin to pain. But most of all, it reminded him of the things he had yet to tell her—-
“How shall I let you know when I wish to participate in such activities, milord?”
Mother of Hell.
All good intentions and sensible thoughts were thrown out of the window the moment he understood what she was asking.
“You do not have to say such a thing if you find it improper,” he managed to say. “Perhaps a nonverbal cue would be better, such as if you were to bite your lip for at least three seconds, then—-” The marquis’ lips curved. No need to say anything else, with his pet already biting her lip.
“That is enough, milady,” he said softly, not wanting her to accidentally bruise herself. “The message has been effectively conveyed.”
His pet gifted him with another enticing glimpse of her smile. “What next then, milord?”
“Share with me what you have been thinking,” he cajoled, “and mayhaps we can start there.”
Rhapsody hesitated. To do so felt quite embarrassing, but if it was what her Master willed…
“There is this new course in school,” she told the marquis.
And he knew exactly what this was, of course, since it was what he had signed up to teach.
“I have yet to attend it, but I already have a slot reserved.”
“Go on.”
“I have been hearing things about this course, and there was this day I was walking down the hallway where the class was being taught. It was then I saw one of the students on her knees, and she was…”