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It was not like Nadia, the Countess of Vesuvia, to not make an appearance once morning graced the palace with its light. But two hours had now passed beyond the Countess’s normal rising time with no word from her chamber. The servants did not know what to do. The kitchen did not know whether to set out breakfast. Although never malicious or cruel, the Countess’s powerful charisma intimidated most, and so no one wanted to be the one to disturb her. All eyes began to turn to Portia, the Countess’s favorite among the servants, and by Portia’s way of thinking that was just fine. She was not afraid, and somebody had to do it.
The brave redhead squared her shoulder’s and firmly rapped upon the ornamented double doors of the Countess’s chamber. “Milady, it’s Portia. May I come in?” Several steps away, a gaggle of more timid servants watched nervously, like they expected the tentacles of some indescribable monster to burst through the doors and drag Portia to a horrific doom. But all that happened was Nadia’s voice reaching softly through the panels.
“You may enter, Portia.”
Portia strode inside. Quickly identifying the Countess’s prone form within the veils and under the covers of her bed, she approached the bedside. Nadia’s luxuriant purple hair covered her like an extra blanket. Her ruby eyes bore a weariness that had nothing to do with physical tiredness. Her bronze, elegant features, devoid of makeup, looked taut. But Portia noted that even that could not touch Nadia’s natural beauty. The Countess barely lifted her head in response to the servant’s presence.
“Is there some matter that acquires my attention?”
“No, milady. In fact, there is nothing on your agenda for today until the meeting with the Praetor this afternoon. But it’s unlike you to sleep so late and the staff were getting worried. I volunteered to come and make sure that you were alright.”
Nadia slid her long, bare arm out from under the covers and stretched it toward Portia before letting her fingers fall limp upon the mattress. “Sweet Portia. Thank you so much for being so steadfast. You are right, of course, and I should not make the entire palace worry on my behalf. It’s just… Hard lately. I sleep so little. I dream so badly. I’ve awoken to a city in such disrepair that I have no idea where to begin. I’m just… overwhelmed.”
The Countess’s voice cracked just a little at the end, and it was then Portia understood why Nadia’s face looked the way it did. The Countess had been crying. Perhaps she had only stopped when she’d heard Portia’s knock at the door. She also realized that Nadia’s shoulder was bare. Portia had waited upon the Countess in her bed many times. Nadia always wore the finest gowns and robes when she slept. Was she now lying nude under the covers?
Portia’s heart ached for her Countess. Portia, who had spent so long bereft of her family and fearing for her fugitive brother’s life, understood all too well what it was like to be down so low that all you could do was curl up naked in your bed and cry. “Milady,” she said, earnestly, her own emotions surging within her breast. “Tell me what you need me to do, what you need me to be. Just say the word, milady. Whatever can help or make you feel better; just say the word and I’ll make it happen.”
Nadia smiled weakly. Her limp fingers twitched. “Your dedication means the world to me, Portia. But what I need, I’m afraid you can’t give me. My personal problems are not my servants’ responsibility. It’s not your job.”
Portia’s anxious fingers fretted with the black tassel that hung from her waist. “I know I’m just a servant, but it’s more than just a job to me, milady. I care. I care about you.”
Now the Countess’s head lifted just slightly from the pillow. “You do?”
“Yes. I do.”
The Countess’s fingers twitched a little again and Portia took it as signal to do something incredibly risky and brave. She knelt by the side of the Countess’s bed and wrapped her pale fingers in Nadia’s dark ones. Instead of rebuking her, the Countess welcomed the touch, squeezing her hand just tightly enough that Portia could feel her own strength being leant to the tired woman.
“Tell me what you need,” Portia said softly.
“No. It’s not a fair thing to ask of you, so I won’t.”
“I don’t care. Please, milady. Tell me.”
Nadia withdrew her hand and tucked it under her pillow. Her eyes pointedly looked away from Portia. “This is not a normal thing I would ask of someone. You are free to say no…”
Portia nodded. “Noted. Go on.”
“Would you… Just lie here next to me? Just lie here in the bed and hold me? I haven’t been held since…” A flush now entered Nadia’s cheeks as she paused, doubtlessly reflecting upon the late Count Lucio and the troubled marriage they had shared. “…Since I don’t remember when. You don’t have to do anything or say anything. I think I’m just feeling the lack of a caring human touch.”
Portia felt her heart flutter at this unprecedented invitation. “Milady, I would be honored.”
It still seemed unbelievable, though. Portia slid her shoes off and was delicately lifting her right leg onto the bed like she was lowering herself into a scalding hot bath when Nadia interrupted her.
“You can undress if you want to. Get comfortable just as if you were at home.”
Stunned, Portia returned to standing. “Undress? You mean, like, undress? Milady, would that be appropriate?”
Nadia smiled. “Why not? Differences in ethnicity notwithstanding, I’m sure you don’t have anything I haven’t seen before.”
But Portia still hesitated in disbelief, to Nadia’s dismay. “Oh no. I’ve made everything awkward. I’m sorry, Portia. I shouldn’t have said that. Please just forget the whole thing.”
She then buried her head under the blanket in shame, and Portia was not going to let that be the way things went.
“No, no, it’s fine. I promise. It’s not weird. I sleep in the buff anyway. It would be weirder if I got into bed with clothes on. Here…”
Portia undid her sash, slid off her trousers, doffed her blouse, let down the wild, curling tresses of her red hair, and stood before her Countess completely nude for just a second before slipping under the covers and snuggling her body up against that of Nadia, which she now confirmed was indeed as naked as her own. Nadia responded instantly by draping her arm around her favorite servant and hugging her tightly to her. Portia, who had imagined being naked in Nadia’s arms more than once, couldn’t believe this to be happening. But she dared to embrace the Countess as well and rest her head in the hollow of Nadia’s throat. Nadia’s other hand slid up underneath her head and her long fingers twined through Portia’s curling hair.
“Thank you, Portia. Thank you so much.”
“For what, milady? I haven’t done anything.”
“Thank you for holding me,” Nadia whispered. “For not judging me. For wanting to just be like this in my arms.”
But Portia found the twining of their bodies anything but relaxing. She could feel all of Nadia’s skin pressed up against her own, the heat of their bodies co-mingling while the late morning sun streamed in the windows, through the veils, and wrapped them in its light. “I can be so much more, if you want me to be,” she whispered back fervently. “Just say the word, milady, and I will.”
Nadia’s hand squeezed tighter into Portia’s hair. “Portia…” she sighed, and Portia knew not what it meant. But her desires and unrequited feelings were overpowering her. She so fervently wanted Nadia: to be everything for her and make all her problems go away. Her lips were right against Nadia’s throat. How could she help but kiss it? And then kiss it once more, and again after that until there was no longer any point in keeping track?
But realization hit her firmly as she sucked at the delicate skin of Nadia’s throat. I am kissing milady’s neck! I can’t be doing this. This is not okay! And yet her lips came to rest upon Nadia’s pulse. It was beating so very, very fast; pumping with excitement mirrored in Portia’s own aching desires. She pulled her head up level with the Countess’s and stared into the latter’s dreamy ruby eyes. Nadia’s fingers squeezed hard against Portia’s scalp, pressing her all too willingly into a deep and languid kiss. And when Nadia’s fingers curled into a fist and pulled Portia’s head back, it was only too willingly that the servant offered her throat for the kisses of her mistress as well.
The two women’s hands played as freely over each other as their kisses did. When Portia’s hand slid across Nadia’s pubis and found it utterly smooth she felt her skin flush with sudden shame at her own hairiness: the red fluff on her legs that formed into thick red bush between her thighs and tufts of copper under her arms. But Nadia’s response erased all her fears and burned them away with bliss, retaliating against Portia’s accidental touch by heedlessly seeking the hairy cleft between Portia’s legs. Her fingertips found the hot opening and brought immediate ease to the achingly hard nubbin of her clit.
“Countess…” Portia begged as strokes of pleasure pushed up through her abdomen. “Tell me your will.”
Nadia’s breath tickled her inner ear as her whisper inserted the words right within. “Feel good.”
But making Nadia feel good made her feel good, too. And so she decorated the Countess’s throat with a garland of kisses while Nadia stroked her clitoris with the skill only a woman has. When the time was right, Portia used her touch to prompt the Countess to lift her own thigh to expose her own perfectly-groomed cleft. With the hesitant eagerness of a newlywed entering her bridal chamber, Portia’s fingers slid within. But she was not content to simply mirror what the Countess did to her, and so she mischievously bypassed the ruler of Vesuvia’s clit and slid her fingers deeply up inside her slick passage, finding the harder-to-reach pleasure center that lay hidden within.
Nadia’s ruby eyes widened in shock and a most unladylike grunt escaped her lips. Then her eyes closed and she began to grind her pelvis against Portia’s thrusts, fucking her hand. Nadia could no longer concentrate on fingering Portia, but Portia didn’t mind. It was worth it feel her Countess from the inside and feel her squirming against the fingers that worked so hard for her every day.
“Ngh… Ugh… Hgn! Portia!” Nadia squirmed more and more, making Portia more and more aggressive with her fingers in turn. Apparently the Countess had really needed to get fucked, and Portia was utterly thrilled to be the one providing.
”Is this good? Milady?:
Nadia responded by seizing her face and biting her lower lip in predatory affection. ”More,” she begged. “Lick me. Please.”
”For you, my Countess, absolutely.”
Nadia seized Portia’s shoulders and pushed her onto her back, forcing the servant to relent in her fingering. She then climbed and straddled Portia’s face. Gripping the headboard for balance, she began to rub her pussy against her servant’s questing mouth. Now Portia did not skimp on attention for the clit of her ruler. Nadia’s strong thighs framed her face and Portia’s strong hands gripped them to steady herself, that her tongue may stay in contact with Nadia’s clit at all times even as she rode. Rapidly stimulated and long-repressed, the Countess did not have to ride for long. But while she rode, she rode hard. The headboard was slamming against wall and Nadia’s voice kept rising until it was unmistakable that a much-needed climax had finally hit.
“AAH! AAAH! AAAH! AAH! PORTIA! PORRRTIAAA!”
Portia thought instantly of the gaggle of servants who had lurked outside. She had no doubt they were still there and could hear everything. They’d know exactly what was going on.
Oh well! Portia just flicked her tongue that much more eagerly that Nadia might give them even more to listen to. And she did.
Finally Nadia rolled into a heap next to her, all sweating bronze skin and waves of tangled purple hair. “Portia… Thank you…”
Portia grinned at her. “You are quite welcome. If I may be so bold, milady, I think you needed that.”
“I did, and so do you.”
Now Nadia grinned as she nimbly slid herself down between her servant’s legs. She maintained eye contact that kept Portia mesmerized like a serpent’s hypnotized prey while she lowered her mouth to Portia’s auburn-furred mound.
Portia had fantasized about what Nadia’s mouth would feel like for far too long, but the reality put it all to shame. She was instantly gasping and squirming, and now it was Nadia’s hands on her thighs, keeping her pinioned to receive.
“M-Milady… Countess!”
The Countess didn’t even falter in her rhythm as she quietly corrected, “Nadia.”
When Portia just lay there, quivering and mewling with pleasure, her voice grew just a hair more stern. “Say it.”
”Nadia…” Portia, gasped.
The Countess’s tongue fluttered upon her clitoris. “Again. More.”
Portia twisted upon the sheets and grabbed her Countess’s head, pushing her firm mouth against her soft mound.
“Nadia!” she urged while fucking Nadia’s face. ”Nadia… Nadia… Nadia!”
Nadia’s tongue found a rapid rhythm in time with her own name, and it propelled the melody of Portia’s voice higher and higher: a bombastic crescendo to seal the symphony of their coupling.
“NADIA!”
The servants would definitely know what had happened.
Portia lay a sweating mound of soft curves and frazzled muscles. Nadia slid up alongside her again and pulled her into a consuming embrace, making Portia feel safe and treasured. “Mine,” the Countess said with relief and joy of one whose dark night of the soul is finally at an end.
“Your servant,” Portia corrected.
“No. Just… Mine.”
Portia completed the embrace and pressed her face against the Countess’s chest, a few tears of joy comingling with the sweat there. “My Nadia, then.”
”Yes,” the Countess sighed, and her chest shuddered, betraying that she was shedding a few happy tears herself. “Yes, that’s what I want to be.”
When Portia finally emerged from the Countess’s chamber she did indeed find the other maids trying very hard to look like they had not just been eavesdropping. Portia decided to humor their effort at pretending.
”You will all be relieved to know that there is nothing wrong with the Countess. She is quite well, and will emerge from her chambers soon enough.
”That’s good,” one of the more assertive girls said. “Does she, uh, require anything in the meantime?”
”Yes. Have the kitchen bring something. The Countess has requested a light brunch for two be brought to her chamber. We will eat before she goes to attend her meeting with the Praetor.”
The girls looked at one another for a moment before the brave one spoke again. “We?”
”Yes, we. The Countess apparently wants my company while she dines. I don’t know, I just do what she says. Just like the rest of you. Now go! Chop chop!”
She clapped her hands a few times and the girls scattered to obey the command like frightened mice. Portia smiled as she watched them go. The talk would be all over the palace in an hour, and probably all over Vesuvia by the next day. Strangely, it didn’t bother her. How could it? She already had the approval of the only person in the world that she wanted it from. She turned and pushed open the doors of the Countess’s chamber again, letting the light envelope her as she disappeared within.