A serving woman awoke her. “Princess, the Lord High Ruler is below in his mother’s private salon. He wishes you to come to him,” the servant said.

Zagiri’s head ached, and her mouth was dry. “Frine,” she said, and drank down the goblet the woman handed her. “I need to bathe my hands and face,” she said, and the servant brought a basin of water and a cloth. Zagiri felt slightly restored after washing her face and hands. She smoothed the wrinkles from her gown.

“Let me brush the tangles from your hair, Princess,” the servant said.

Zagiri sat down, and, picking up a brush, the woman tended to the girl’s beautiful golden curls. “There isn’t a woman in this house that has hair like yours, Princess,” she said. “Men would pay a fortune just to touch such hair.”

Zagiri said nothing, but she gave the servant a small smile. Finally, her hair once again in order, she arose. “Will you take me to your mistress?” she said.

“Please follow me, Princess,” the servant said, leading the girl from her chamber and down a gracious flight of stairs.

They passed several beautiful women coming up the stairs with gentlemen. All of the men stared at Zagiri but she ignored them. How rude, she thought!

“Here we are,” the servant said, opening a door and gesturing for Zagiri to enter.

She saw him at once. “Jonah!” Zagiri ran toward him.

“My beautiful golden girl,” he greeted her, and, taking her into his arms, kissed her. “Aah, how sweet your lips are, my lovely princess. Let me drink my fill of you.” He set her back, and his black eyes surveyed her. She was lovelier in reality than she was on the Dream Plain. “You are perfect, Zagiri. And I am so proud that you were brave enough to come to me. In just days we shall marry. Come now, and sit by my side.”

“I told them I was going to my grandmother Persis for a visit. I shall not be missed for several days,” Zagiri told him. Reaching up, she stroked his stern face. “You are everything that I dreamed, my lord. I was frightened earlier. I thought perhaps I would want to return to Terah, but now that I am with you all my concerns are gone.” She lowered her voice so that only he might hear her. “Your mother is a forceful lady.”

Jonah barked a harsh laugh. “You are kind in your judgment, Zagiri. However, you are a virgin. You have no skills at giving pleasures. If you are to be my bride you must know how to please me. Tonight, if it pleases you, we shall enjoy each other’s bodies for the first time. Then my mother shall have you trained properly so that on our wedding night you and I may enjoy each other fully.”

“What do you mean have me trained, my lord?” Zagiri asked him nervously. Coupling with him did not frighten her, but this talk of training her did.

“You will be taught how to please a man with your hands, your lips, your tongue and your most intimate female parts,” Jonah told her. “On our wedding night you will show me all you have learned, my golden girl, but tonight I shall have your virginity of you. We call it First Night rights. A beautiful, well-trained virgin commands a high price, Zagiri, here in the Pleasure Houses of Hetar.”

“I do not know…” Zagiri began. Then she gasped. “I am in a Pleasure House?”

“My mother is a Pleasure Mistress,” he replied. “She is head of her guild. As such she has access to many resources. She will see you attain perfection for me,” Jonah told the girl. “Only the most skillful of male Pleasure Slaves will be chosen to tutor you.”

Zagiri was at first speechless. Then she said, “But I am a virgin, my lord, and I want only you for a lover!”

“You are sweet, my golden girl,” he responded. “But once I have taken your maidenhead you are no longer virginal. Ignorance in the bedchamber is a great sin.”

“Why can you not teach me what I need to know?” Zagiri asked of him.

Jonah laughed. “I am the Ruler of Hetar, my precious girl. I have no time, nor do I have the patience to teach.”

“But if I know other men, I may find one that is preferable to you,” she said to him. “I should be unhappy then, and so should you,” Zagiri cried.

“I am considered a lover without peer,” he reassured her. “And if you are truly unhappy with my performance then I shall buy you the sex slave who best pleases you,” Jonah promised her. Then, standing, he took her hand. “Let us go now to your chamber, my golden girl, and we shall rid you of your troublesome virginity. Tomorrow you will begin your lessons in pleasures. All Hetar will be fixated on mourning Lady Vilia. No one will pay any attention to you. Then when the mourning is over I shall announce our wedding. You will come to the palace then. For now you will live in my mother’s Pleasure House.” He led her from the chamber where they had been speaking and up the stairs and to a different wing of the house. “Would you like to see?” he asked her as they moved past various doors.

Truly curious, Zagiri nodded. She was suddenly very excited. He was going to make love to her. And when he did she would convince him that this training nonsense was ridiculous. It had probably all been his dreadful mother’s idea, anyway. Why kind of mother wanted her son’s bride used by other men? It was unthinkable!

Jonah stepped before a door and carefully undid a small panel. He drew Zagiri to stand before the panel while he stood behind her. Zagiri peeped through the panel to see a beautiful woman with long, dark red hair kneeling before a man. As the girl watched the redhead took the male’s manhood in one hand. She kissed it tenderly, and then her tongue encircled the mushroom-shaped tip several times. She ceased briefly to look up at her partner, smiling. He smiled back. The redhead began to take the manhood into her mouth. Soon she had absorbed it all, and from the way her cheeks were working Zagiri realized the woman was sucking on the manhood. She turned away, confused.

“Why is she doing that?” she asked Jonah.

“Because it gives him pleasure,” he answered her. “It is a woman’s duty to give a man pleasure when they enjoy each other’s bodies.” He closed the panel and drew her before another door opening the panel in it. “What do you see here, Zagiri?” he asked her.

Zagiri peeped into the room. Another beautiful woman lay spread wide upon a bed. There were two men with her. One had crawled between her legs and was licking at her mound. The other man was kissing the woman while fondling her breasts. Zagiri felt Jonah’s hands slip up to cup her breasts. Even covered by her gown his actions excited her, and she pushed her buttocks back against him. “She is entertaining two men,” Zagiri whispered breathlessly. The tableau before her was exciting.

“Aye,” he responded, his fingers taunting her thrusting nipples. “Both will have her in a variety of ways, and they will all gain pleasure.” He turned her so that she was facing him. “I will watch you take two men before you complete your training, my beautiful golden girl. But once we are wed, other than your personal sex slave, you are mine, and mine alone, Zagiri.” His mouth came down hard on hers. Zagiri almost swooned in his arms, and, feeling her weakness, he picked her up and hurried down the hallway, kicking open the door at its end as he entered the chamber with her.

He set her down, and then to her great surprise he began ripping her gown from her. Zagiri cried out, shocked, and he slapped her lightly. Then he pushed her upon the great bed in the chamber, tearing the remaining shreds of her garment from her. “Lie still!” he said sharply. “The first thing you will learn is obedience to your lord.” Then he began to remove his own garments slowly, setting them carefully aside. “Spread yourself, Zagiri. I want to look at your treasures as I disrobe.”

To her own amazement, Zagiri obeyed him. In her imagination she had always considered lovemaking a slow and elegant process where one kissed, and caressed, and finally joined. This wasn’t anything like she had imagined. It was rough with a tinge of cruelty. She was both excited and fearful, but she spread her nether lips so he might view her, gasping when he reached out to finger her dainty love bud. She squealed as, standing over her, he began to tweak it until she was squirming uncontrollably.

“You will remain perfectly still while I play with you,” he said in a hard voice.

“I cannot! It is too exciting,” she half sobbed.

“Obedience, Zagiri, and discipline are two of the most important facets of taking pleasures,” he told her as he removed his finger so she might recover herself. When she lay still again he said, “I will begin to touch you again, my golden girl. This time you will not wiggle. You will allow your feelings to burgeon until they burst. Trust me.” His finger began to once again play with her.

Zagiri closed her eyes, and struggled with all her might not to move. What he was doing was pure torture, but then suddenly that tiny nub of flesh began to burgeon and burgeon until just when she thought she could stand no more a burst of perfect, pure pleasure drenched her. “Oh! Oh! Ooh!” she cried as wonder lit her face.

She heard his laughter, and then suddenly his head was between her thighs, and his tongue was lapping up the juices she had released. He groaned with his obvious delight. When he had satisfied himself he looked up into her shocked face. “Your first juices,” he told her. “Virgin juices! They are rare, and nothing tastes like them.” Then he put his head back between her legs, and sucked on the nub of flesh until she was shaking with what she realized was her own desire.

“Oh my good lord, please couple with me,” Zagiri begged him. “I believe I am now ready to shed my troublesome virginity.”

“Nay, not yet,” he told her. “This is why you need training, my lovely one. You are like a child eager to have a sweet. You want to grab with both your hands at the bowl held out to you. When you are trained you will learn how to prolong the little pleasures so that you and I may enjoy greater pleasures. Tonight I will enjoy your innocence, but on a wedding night our coming together will be entirely different for you will have learned how to give pleasure, not just receive it.”