Linza had not spoken directly with the madame since the day of her job offer. She’d seen the madame often around the estate, but the madame was usually on her way somewhere or speaking with her assistant. When the madame and her assistant spoke quietly and walked together like that, even guests knew better than to disturb them. 

So Linza was eager for this opportunity to speak with the madame again. They sat on the private veranda just as they had for Linza’s interview. The madame wore a dress woven of golden metallic thread, loose except for where it tied snugly at her waist, effortless and yet extravagant. It made her greenish skin look like jade set in gold. 

Wyn had told Linza that she should harangue the madame into taking her on as a pupil. Linza would do no such thing. She just wanted to express her thanks. 

And so Linza’s jaw had nearly dropped to the table when the madame had said, “The reason I invited you to speak today was to discuss the matter of you coming into my direct tutelage.”

“I would learn directly under you?” Linza blushed at her own accidental innuendo. 

The madame nodded. “Yes.”

“May I ask… why me?” Things were going well with her clients, but it had only been a couple of months.

“You may. Would you like to?” The madame was ever so precise, but never pedantic. 

Linza swallowed and nodded. 

The madame’s full lips curled into a smile. “Your combination of empathy, sincerity, alacrity, and imagination are rare indeed. And, you’re good with numbers. I cannot run this estate forever, much as I’d like to. I seek to leave her with capable caretakers. Eventually.”

Linza took a deep breath. Her heart writhed, looking for some way to defer or deflect the compliments. But she didn’t want to come across as ungrateful. And maybe… maybe she could even believe it was true. Flattery and manipulation were antithetical to the madame’s stated values. And Linza trusted the madame’s opinion—this was only her second time speaking with the woman, but the estate spoke for itself.

So Linza let herself feel a little proud. Let herself smile. And then beam. “There will be documentation to review?”

“Of course.” The madame grinned. 

Linza nodded. “I look forward to it!”

A soft laugh like waves on the beach shook the madame’s ample chest under the golden cloth. “That you are sincerely excited by documentation is no small part of what will make you an excellent caretaker.”

Linza’s cheeks heated with a blush. “That, um, that does make sense.”

With the business out of the way, the madame turned the conversation to more casual topics. It was brilliant to speak freely with her. The madame was sharp and clever and sincere. She was just getting into the story of how she’d purchased the first property in the estate when a commotion arose from just outside the private veranda—shouting and then a struggle by the entrance. 

Then the wooden doors flung open and a broad half-orc man stalked out, shrugging off the madame’s guards, who looked apologetically at her. The guards wore blades at their hips and moved with fatal ease—they would have used deadly force to stop a genuine threat. But this half-orc seemed too strong to contain without such means and yet not dangerous enough to warrant them. He was the sort of man used to going wherever he wanted to. 

He was only a finger’s breadth taller than the Madame, with a mane of wavy black hair, and he was wearing nothing but black leather shorts that were hardly longer than small clothes. Irritation surged up in Linza’s chest like a hissing cat, and she was not sure which she found more annoying—the rude interruption, or that the mess of his hair and the taper from his broad shoulders down to those tight leather shorts was instantly alluring.

“Look.” He held up his hands to the guard. “I said it’ll only take a second. Just a quick chat. No need to be feisty.” His voice was warm and deep and Linza hated how nice it sounded.

The madame stood and crossed her arms, easily looking the intruder in the eye. “Who are you? What do you want?” Her voice was even—neither challenging nor indulging the interloper.

He hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his shorts. “I heard a half-orc can get some decent work around here, is all. Just trying to put in a polite inquiry.”

The madame put a hand on her hip. “A half-orc can get decent work in plenty of places around the kingdom.”

“Yeah, but here I can get paid to have sex.” His lips twitched with a smile—not exactly lecherous, but certainly not innocent.

“Hm. I see you are not lacking for desire. Few orcish men are. But you may lack desperately for self-control.”

“Let me prove myself.” His bare chest puffed forward. 

“Alright.”

The madame leaned over to Linza and explained what she expected to happen, quietly so that the man couldn’t hear. 

Linza’s cheeks heated equally with embarrassment and arousal. Six months ago, she might have slapped someone for suggesting such a thing. Now… she wouldn’t miss what the madame had proposed for the world.

So Linza nodded. “I’ll stay.”

The madame turned back to the interloper. 

“If you would prove yourself, then show me your cock, that I might evaluate it.”

Said cock throbbed underneath the interloper’s small shorts. “With pleasure.”

He slipped his shorts down over his muscular thighs and kicked them off his feet, now fully naked. His cock swelled quickly to full erection, even without his touch. He seemed proud of that. 

Linza could understand why. It was larger than anything she’d ever seen. Not impossible to manage… but certainly a stretch. She shouldn’t have imagined what it would feel like to slide that length inside of her, but she did.

The madame nodded. “Fine. Your girth would please many here. Let us see your performance. You may masturbate.”

The interloper growled out a long sigh as he finally touched his hand to his shaft and stroked himself.

Linza’s pulse quickened, her arousal flaring. But her annoyance grew at the same pace. He was completely ignoring her. Not that a lecherous glance or cross comment would have elicited a positive response, but… well, Linza knew what the madame was about to do, and for the half-orc to cast some of his arrogance in her direction would have sweetened the experience for Linza.

Instead, the unbidden fantasy of grabbing this man by the cock and making him look her in the eye overwhelmed Linza. Her conscious mind reeled, unsure of what to do with that, but her body thrummed with deepening arousal.

“Now, stop,” said the madame. 

“What?” the interloper said.

Linza couldn’t help the wicked grin that pulled at her lips.

“I said stop.” The madame’s voice was pure command.

The interloper stopped stroking. 

“Put your hand down,” the madame said.

With a grunt, he did. His cock throbbed needily, his cheeks flushed and jaw tight with the effort required to stand still. He waited. 

“You may start again,” the madame said.

He was slower now, deliberate. He controlled his breath to curb the building urgency.

“Stop,” the madame said.

He dutifully put his hand to the top of his thigh. Took a deep breath. Swallowed. 

“You may resume,” the madame said.

As he did, he shuddered with a deeper and more visceral pleasure than before. It was not long before pre-cum dripped from his tip and onto the veranda.

“Stop,” the madame said.

He obeyed. 

After her usual length of pause, he twitched. Already, he had learned her timing. Still, he waited.

The madame let another long moment pass and then she said, “Resume.”

Linza was now deeply attuned with many expressions of rising arousal, and she guessed that by his rapid breathing and the steady drip of pre-cum from his tip that he was close to the edge.

The madame allowed him a longer time stroking than before, right up to the edge. 

“Stop.” The word was as powerful as the Command spell that Primmen had demonstrated, though there was no magic now—at least not in the formal sense.

He froze. Shuddered. Grunted. Dripped. Pried his hand away from his shaft.

The madame regarded him, arms still folded.

Linza knew he deserved every bead of sweat forming on his forehead and bare chest with the effort, but she was impressed—mostly because of how sorely tempted she was to slip her own hand down the front of her skirt. She had been eager to watch the interloper squirm, but she was surprised by how deeply she felt the suspense herself. She was irked by how excited she was to see what his face looked like when he came, to see just how much seed a half-orc male could dump uselessly at his feet.

The madame waited a long moment until his breathing had steadied. “Resume.”

And so it went, and the madame edged him again. And again. Five times. The clear puddle at his feet reached his toes. His resolve did not waver. 

Linza’s resolve, meanwhile, was melting like a candle in a furnace. She was going to need a long, long session in the break room after this. Her whole body tingled sympathetically with the interloper’s pleasure, her breath caught with every hitch in his, her own mind was hazy with lust, and she was sure that her eyes were just as dilated as his were.

The interloper reached the edge again. The madame did not tell him to stop. His breath sawed in ragged gasps. He moaned with every exhale. 

Linza felt like she teetered on the edge herself, although she wasn’t even touching herself.

But the interloper didn’t climax. He stopped himself, his eyes locked on the madame. He teetered at the edge. For a full minute. Just dripping and straining and waiting. 

The madame finally smiled. “Very good. You’ve proven yourself.”

He whined as his ass clenched and his spine straightened, a pulse of clear pre-cum coming with the movement. Nevertheless, he waited. 

Linza wanted to scream at him, ‘Just fucking cum already’, but she held her breath.

The madame’s smile deepened. “Please. Do cum.”

Never had Linza seen a face of such excruciating relief, such enraptured release, as when the man tipped his head back, lips parted, and with a low moan, utterly emptied himself onto the wooden deck. Spurt after spurt splattered at his feet. The volume was proportionate to his girth, and then some. Linza wouldn’t have been able to hold even half of it in her mouth, but she sure as hell would like to try.

He hadn’t glanced her way once, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from him. Her whole body tingled with unreleased arousal, so intense and intoxicating that, despite her better judgement, she would have asked him to fuck her then and there if only he would look at her. And that, her better judgement reminded her, was exactly why the madame insisted on negotiating boundaries and preferences ahead of time before the heat of the moment melted inhibitions.

The interloper’s hand finally slid down to rest on his thigh, his eyes still focused on the madame. It was as if his climax had drained all the fire out of him, leaving just an expression of attentive sincerity. The bullish half-orc seemed now like a lost puppy.

“Good,” the madame said. “You will find decent employ here. Please defer to my staff from now on, and they will show you to your quarters and present you with your terms of employment.”

He bowed his head to the madame and said nothing else as he followed the madame’s assistant away from the veranda. 

The madame returned to her seat.

Linza had not yet returned to her senses. She wasn’t even sure if she could. Or if she ever would again. Who did that brute think he was, stomping in here, demanding a job, and being so fucking attractive? He had no right to affect her this much.

She could put him on his knees, have him begging and pleading to—

Linza needed to do or say something to get out of her head before her mind threw itself completely off the rails.

She cleared her throat and leaned further over the table towards the madame, trying to look casual. “Do things like that happen often?”

The madame looked as nonplussed as ever. “Not often. Half-orcs are usually already a bit more tamed by the time they get here. That one’s fresh from the borderlands. He’ll learn his place soon enough. Quickly, even—he seems like a fast learner.”

“So you’ll have to tame him?” Linza had heard of breaking wild horses. The battle of wills pitted rider against horse, the horse strapped and saddled and bucking wildly to throw the rider. She couldn’t help but imagine riding the half-orc like that, how he would buck and struggle until he was exhausted, how she would break him and he would look up at her with that attentive sincerity—

The madame chuckled. “No, no, and I didn’t mean it so literally. Orcish culture isn’t actually as brutish as that. It’s more about learning what tactics are effective in an interspecies society. He chose to defer and obey, so he’s off to a good start.”

The madame had treated him so unlike she treated Linza. To each their own, it seemed. Would the madame teach Linza more about how to deal with orcish men? And why was she so eager at the idea of putting this particular man in his place?

Linza did her best to focus as she and the madame discussed orcish culture for the rest of their lunch, but she could not quite shake the fantasy of that insufferable interloper moaning obediently between her legs.