Skin by Kate Krake

private
office.
    I had expected
a desk, a chair, anything anyone would normally expect to find in
an office. Instead we stepped into a small room with a low couch, a
floor to ceiling bookshelf talking up an entire wall, jam packed
with paperback novels. A few exercise balls and bean bag cushions
littered the thickly carpeted floor. There was a small desk. There
was a second door on the back wall.
    “ My
sanctuary within Sanctuary,” she said and closed the door, locking
it with an electronic keypad. She motioned toward the other door
and I followed her into her sauna.
    It was dark,
the only light a red glow from the bank of coals in the corner.
Sveta poured a cup of water over them and they hissed, sending off
geysers of steam and mirroring exactly what felt like was going on
in my insides. She came back to me, standing against me so our
bodies almost touched.
    She was
waiting for me to make the first move, letting me lead like she had
done with the doors on the way here. There was no kidding who
really was in charge here, but I liked the gesture and played the
game she wanted me to play.
    I slid one
hand over her shoulder, pulling down her strap while the other hand
moved to her back, searching for the clasp that would undo her
dress. I was nervous as hell. The clasp released with blessed ease
and her dress fell to the floor with only the most gentle tug.
Again I ran my hands over her shoulders, drinking in the smoothness
of her skin starting to sweat. I skimmed my fingers around to the
small of her back and pulled her close, kissing her neck. She slid
her hands under my t-shirt.
    “ I’ve
been looking for someone special,” she whispered. “And I think I
have found you.”
    She pulled on
my shirt, lifting it over my head and went directly for my shorts,
stripping me clean in seconds. Sweat trickled over skin,
tantalising and tickling, our bodies wet and hot where they
touched. I kissed her on the mouth, I was hungry, I needed to
devour her and the more of her my hands touched, her face, her
thighs, her breasts, the more I felt like I could not hold her
close enough, like there was not enough of me to take all of her
in.
    Sveta lead me
to the sauna bench and told me to sit, I obediently sat and she
straddled me, obviously the part of the game where I was leading
was well over. She moved on top of me and I felt as if I might go
right then in seconds like a gawky teenager. I closed my eyes and
steadied my breath, trying to centre myself to prolong the pleasure
as much as I could.
    Sveta sighed
deeply, her breath matching the rhythm of our bodies together, slow
and even and escalating in perfect unity. It was not ecstasy that
took us, it was magic and it was primal. Two bodies doing perfectly
what two bodies were meant to do. Sveta orgasmed breathless, quiet
and I did the same. She stayed on top of me, stroking the back of
my sweat drenched neck with the tips of her fingernails.
    “ Now,”
she said. She kissed the top of my head. “If you’ll allow to me to
treat you to another show, I’d like you to come and watch the
performance in my arena.”

The Arena

    Had she
screwed me to get me onside and agreeing to come into this game?
The thought flashed through my head more than once as Sveta led me
by the hand out of her office.
    The gym floor
was bustling with people, Natural and Animus, all standing around
chatting and waiting. Sveta lead me through the crowd. Cato caught
my eye and winked, giving me an enthusiastic thumbs up. I felt a
twinge of embarrassment, but there was also pride. I was a man,
after all. And Sveta was a rare prize.
    She led me
through the big double doors at the end of the main room and we
walked slowly along a downward spiralling ramp, our steps falling
in rhythm. The walkway entered a cavernous expanse of a room.
    The
floor and walls were concrete. The roof was hung with a complex
lighting system. It might have been exactly the arena
I ’d spent my childhood in, watching my mother on
stage,