What happened with Xiang and Rylie after they left for the west wing?
“Don’t put up with anything crazy but let’s try to make the best of it.”
That’s what Rylie had advised Aspen, but Rylie had to wonder if it was good advice. Just because it was her advice did not mean it was good advice.
She knew she was the more cautious of the two of them. She was normally quite a “look before you leap” person.
She was the wiser one of the two of them, if you did not count how Aspen liked to be a wise ass (Rylie sometimes joked someone needed to spank Aspen. To which Aspen generally replied, “Bring it on!”), but that did not mean Rylie was wise this time.
She did not feel wise as she followed Xiang to the west wing. Xiang walked without looking back at her even once. A complete assumption Rylie was following her. Pretty arrogant and none too welcoming. But yes, it was a safe assumption. Rylie followed her. She was going towards what she wanted to go away from.
Being a paid companion had sounded so easy and so interesting. You made a new friend, you met someone from another country, and you made lots of money.
If it sounded too good to be true….
Based on the behavior of the three members of the Chiu family they’d met, no, this was not going to be easy. Rylie was mistaken when she’d thought that.
But she was right about it being interesting. It was so interesting. It was just that it was the wrong kind of interesting.
Rylie remembered some kind of Asian saying. She wasn’t sure if it was Japanese or Chinese or what. No, wait, she’d looked it up one time and it was only falsely attributed to Chinese sources.
It was an alleged Chinese curse: “May you live in interesting times.” It sounded like an innocent well-wishing blessing. But of course, uneventful peacefulness is not interesting. Chaos and war, trouble and misery, and strife and confrontation, they were interesting. Just read any bestseller or go to any top-grossing movie.
Events with the Chius and at the Chiu mansion were ominously extremely interesting. Rylie could only hope they did not become more interesting.
Xiang would make a terrible tour guide. They passed art, incredible art, paintings and statues, and Xiang didn’t say a word about them. Rylie bet they were worth a lot of money.
The difference in quality between these paintings and the ones she saw at garage sales was night and day. Even the frames looked valuable! Was that real gold used in the gold leaf? Rylie thought so.
The statues and statuettes were incredibly precise and detailed. Rylie wasn’t sure where the cutoff was between statue and statuette but some of the carvings were way too small to be statues. It appeared many were made out of jade! They were on fancy carved stands, some made out of wood, others made out of marble. The stands themselves were works of art! The statues and stands seemed to be in every corner and at each slight turn in the hallways.
Rylie wanted to look at them but Xiang ignored them and set a rapid pace. She sure was in a hurry to get to the west wing. Xiang territory.
Rylie was not in a hurry to get to the west wing. She wished she could drag her feet but could not afford to. She did not want to be alone and lost in the Chiu mansion. The place looked beautiful but the hallways had constant twists and turns. Some were subtle shifts in angles that quickly made it impossible to tell which way was north unless Rylie looked out a window and checked the sun.
The Chiu estate felt like a place that had secrets. The bad kind of secrets.
Rylie silently advised herself not to get spooked. It was a building that people lived in. That’s it.
She was determined not to let Xiang intimidate her. Yes, Xiang had intimidated Rylie a bit when they met just now. Both twins had come on strong. Sure, Rylie was alone with Xiang now but that was the wrong way to look at it. The right way to look at it was that Xiang was alone with her. When they met, it was three against two. Rylie and Aspen as guests and with the Chius on their home field so to speak.
Rylie’s expectation was for things to be different with her and Xiang on their own. It was one on one. Rylie was twenty-three and Xiang was only twenty. That was already a significant difference in maturity but even more so because Xiang was a spoiled brat heiress and Rylie was not. She was a hard worker and Xiang may not have worked a day in her life. Rylie had built up real-world strength from experience.
Also, Rylie noted, taking comfort in the thought, that she was a guest at the Chiu estate but they were in America and Xiang was, in a sense, a guest of America.
Rylie decided she would act like a leader and act like she was the hostess. America’s hostess. She was, after all, here to be a good example for Xiang. Xiang had behaved poorly so far. Rylie wanted to make progress in correcting Xiang’s behavior. Significant progress.
They’d gotten off on the wrong foot. She did not want Xiang to think she was weak-willed or could be bullied. Rylie knew you had to stand up to bullies. She also knew first impressions were important. She considered this an ongoing not-yet-complete first impression. It hadn’t gone well so far so she needed to make sure to turn it all the way around and quickly.
They arrived at the western wing, or Xiang’s territory within it. Xiang showed her around in a perfunctory nearly rude way. She had seven rooms dedicated for her use. Rylie took note that two of the rooms had closed doors and Xiang did not show Rylie those rooms or say a word about them.
Maybe they were a mess? Rylie did not think that was the reason. The Chiu estate had maids before Caihong sent them back to the homeland for “re-education.” Rylie wasn’t sure what “re-education” consisted of but she felt bad for the servants. It did not sound like a good thing. She doubted it had to do with their jobs. It wasn’t like maids forgot how to clean or a butler how to answer a door or a chauffeur how to drive.
Maybe it was political? Maybe the servants liked American freedom too much or watched too much American television and needed convincing they did not deserve a high standard of living.
So, what was behind those doors and inside those two rooms? Rylie had to wonder. How could she not? The Chiu estate did have secrets!
What was the best-case scenario as per what was in those two rooms? Maybe the rooms stored gold and valuables.
Probably not. It seemed like there were valuables all over the Chiu estate. The jade statues for one.
What was the worst-case scenario? Hm. Rylie wasn’t sure but she was sure what Aspen would say was the worst-case scenario. Aspen liked to pretend things that could not be real could be real and also liked to joke about sex. So, if Aspen were here, she’d probably suggest one or both rooms were BDSM “dungeon rooms.” Full of chains and whips and such.
Rylie could not help smiling. She and Aspen were separated but Aspen was still with her in spirit and still hilarious.
Xiang demanded, “What is so funny, American?”
“Ah, nothing. Just a random thought. Don’t worry about it.”
“You had best not laugh at Xiang. Ever. That is not your station in life to find amusement from one such as I.”
“Look, Xiang, I guess maybe you guys have some caste system in China or whatever but that’s not how it is in America. Everybody is equal here. There are no ‘stations in life.’ Not here in America.”
“Your words are false, though I do not think they are lies. You speak falsehoods that you believe to be true. Equality is an illusion and a poor one at that. Is a governor equal to a transient? Of course not. What is equality? It is the difference, or lack of difference, in level of importance.
“A governor is more important than a transient. This is a simple fact you fail to grasp. There are stations in life as regards what is and is not possible. For instance, a migrant worker can never become a governor. Therefore, it is his station in life to never be a governor. I will always be rich so it is my station in life to have financial advantage over others and to never have to perform menial tasks.
“Do not think of station in life as a predetermined status outcome. It is a range of possibilities, greatly limited for most. Limited, abridged, truncated, and malformed by the degree of family support, genetics, location, education, etcetera. The range of possibilities, like curbs, steers the person to their status outcome. For some, it is like a railroad track that is bound to take them to a singular location, no crossroads, no choices.”
Rylie was crestfallen. Xiang did make sense. Rylie had never thought of it that way.
Xiang tilted her head and mocked her, “Did Xiang burst Tattoo Girl’s bubble? So not sorry. Prepare your mind for more of your bubbles to pop in the nearest future.”
Rylie doubted it. Or maybe she only hoped not. Maybe the equality thing was an illusion, but it was a nice one. And America sure as fuck had a million times more of it, closer to it, than fucked up China.
Xiang smiled a slow smile, “It is your station in life, for now, to amuse me.”
Rylie thought that might be true. In a way. For now. With major limits, obviously.
Xiang tapped a finger on her lower lip. Rylie saw that Xiang had very full, quite sensual lips. They seemed almost improbable in fullness. Perhaps she’d had some surgical work done?
Xiang said, “I see acceptance in your round eyes. Some acceptance now, but there will be much more acceptance later. Just as right now your station in life is to amuse me, but eventually I will provide you with a different station in life. One much more meaningful.”
What did that mean? Was that a clumsy hint that Xiang had the power, financial power, to give Rylie things like maybe a great job, if Rylie sucked up to her? Rylie had no such interest. Screw whatever job Xiang might have in mind for her. She’d barely met Xiang but Rylie already knew she’d never want to work for Xiang, directly or even in a company run by her.
Xiang told Rylie to come with her, turned, and walked away. Rylie followed her. Right back into Xiang’s huge bedroom that they’d already toured.
The bed was a monstrous rectangle, giant-sized. The sheets and blanket and pillowcases were in various shades of blue. The bed had about twenty pillows against the headboard.
Xiang sat on the side of the bed.
Rylie looked at the headboard, really looked at it, for the first time. It was made from a dark wood with carved figures and relief images all over it.
Rylie blinked. Those images. She hadn’t noticed them before. They’d blended in with each other, just a half wall of dark wood.
They were pornographic! Nude figures having sex or posed sexually. The artistic quality and detail were incredible but the depictions were troubling. It was as if the mission of the woodcarver was to chronicle every possible sexual position.
Xiang reached out and grabbed Rylie’s wrist. She pulled at her, “Yes, Tattoo Girl, look at the beautiful art. Get a good look. Maybe get some ideas. Get an education.”
Xiang was shorter than Rylie but she had a strong grip and Rylie wasn’t prepared to resist. She ended up pulled much closer and half bent over. She didn’t like it but reminded herself to “make the best of it” as she’d told Aspen. While also not putting up with anything crazy! But Rylie guessed this wasn’t too crazy.
But it was crazy.
Rylie made a show of examining the images. Seeing them more closely and in greater detail did give Rylie some ideas. Some idea of what she might be dealing with at the Chiu estate and with Xiang Chiu.
It wasn’t only sex depicted. It wasn’t simply various positions. Many of the comic book-like frames depicted more than two persons engaged in sex. That was instantly disconcerting to Rylie. Like George Michael, Rylie thought sex was best when it was one on one. That was how it was meant to be. Any more than two people was wrong. Not so much from a moral perspective. Live and let live and all that. But it made no sense to Rylie to have more than one sexual partner at the same time. You could only focus on one. You could only marry one.
The multiples of sexual partners in the frames were troubling.
Worse, most of the scenes did not represent sex among equals. Rylie and Xiang were just talking about equality moments ago. It sure looked like the artist did not believe in sexual equality among sexual partners. If the artist did not then that must mean Xiang also did not believe in it. This was her bed.
Many scenes had one or more of the people depicted in them kneeling or crawling. Many scenes showed what Rylie considered physical abuse. They included whips and ropes and chains and collars.
Holy shit. It was BDSM stuff! Maybe the non-toured rooms did contain BDSM sex toys. Maybe the pretend joking Aspen had it right.
That thought was very troubling.
But normally Rylie would even shrug at that because it had nothing to do with her. If Xiang wanted a boyfriend to put her in ropes, hey, whatever. Or if Xiang wanted to put a guy into a collar and whip his back, that was up to them. Consenting adults and all that.
It would have nothing to do with Rylie.
But there was a problem preventing Rylie from dismissing these carved images as having nothing to do with her.
All of the figures in them were female. All. Of. Them.
Not one male! Not one graphically represented, highly detailed, veiny cock anywhere. Just lots of full tits, precise nipples, perfect asses, and vaginas as realistic as ones laid out in a gynecologist’s medical journal.
It was lesbian porn! Carved into wood!
That was so troubling because what were the odds Xiang was completely heterosexual?
Zero! Heterosexual women did not decorate their beds with lesbian porn, all lesbian porn, and nothing but lesbian porn.
Xiang had to be a lesbian.
And here they were alone in the western wing, in Xiang’s bedroom. And Rylie was tasked to spend the next six months with Xiang.
Rylie thought she was newly educated on Xiang. This headboard must mean that Xiang was a lesbian who was so into sex that she had a huge pornographic headboard, and Xiang must not be one of those tender, loving lesbians. She was one of those sick lesbians who got off on hurting her sexual partners. A BDSM lesbian!
Or maybe Xiang got off on being hurt by her sexual partner?
Xiang asked Rylie, while still holding her wrist tightly, “Do you like Xiang’s headboard? So beautiful. Females are sexiest when nude, sexiest when engaged in sex, and sexiest when treated with a firm hand. I have very firm hands, I assure you.”
Fuck! Xiang was definitely on the side of hurting her sexual partners! She was the one who did the hurting.
Danger! Alert!
Rylie pulled free of Xiang and stood up straight.
Yeah, that’s right. Straight!
Xiang chuckled, “The American is so shocked. That is amusing. I plan to shock you many times and in more ways than one.”
What did that mean? Was that simple repetition or did that mean—
Xiang told her, “I will help you get more comfortable with your body. Clothing is another illusion Americans cling to. They say clothing makes the man or the woman. Does it? I am open to experimentation on that. But first, I do believe exposure exposes the person. How does the person carry herself when fully exposed? Are they shy? Are they ashamed? Do they get aroused by simple exposure? Are they prideful?”
Rylie saw where this was going! She did not want to be more comfortable with her body! At least, she did not want Xiang to supposedly help her be more comfortable.
“Take off your clothes, American.”
Xiang could not just order her to do that!
Well, yes, she had just ordered that.
That did not mean Rylie had to take off her clothes!
Did it? Of course not!
Xiang saw Rylie’s alarm and smirked at it, “Companions get to know each other quite well. My seeing your body and you mine is a forgone conclusion. Recall the spa room?”
Rylie did recall it from the quick tour. It was a huge bathroom with a door to a sauna and a pool that looked way too big to be a bathtub yet too small to be a recreational pool.
Xiang’s sexy lips spread in a huge grin, “In the months ahead, we will take many hot baths together. We will enjoy the sauna together many times. You see? You must become comfortable in the nude and with seeing my nude body. You will become comfortable with it. Actually, much more than ‘comfortable.’”
What the hell was “more than comfortable?” It better not be the first answer that popped into Rylie’s mind!
Wait a minute! Share a bath!?! The last time Rylie shared a bath she didn’t even remember it. She’d seen photos of herself as a baby bathing with her mom.
She was not going to take a bath with a lesbian!
Xiang spoke into Rylie’s frustrated silence, “Come on, American. Take off your clothes. It is easy. You must do it every day.”
“I won’t.”
“You must. Recall, you are to show me your tattoo. But I also need to verify my companion is top quality physically. No secrets!”
Rylie did have to show the tattoo. That was part of her assignment. But she could show it without getting naked!
But could she not do what Xiang felt she must do? Xiang seemed so certain and so confident. She acted like her unreasonable expectation was reasonable and like any resistance to it was unreasonable.
Rylie wasn’t looking forward to showing off the tattoo. A Chinese X. Xiang’s name started with the letter X. Caihong, Xiang’s grandmother, even told Xiang that Rylie was marked in honor of Xiang. That wasn’t it at all! At least, that wasn’t how it was supposed to be. The tattoo was supposed to discourage Xiang from getting a tattoo when she turned twenty-one and became independent from Caihong.
It was like that old Chinese bitch told Rylie one thing to get Rylie to do it and then turned around and told Xiang a very different thing. It seemed that way because it was exactly that way. Caihong did it right in front of Rylie!
Caihong acted like it did not matter what Rylie thought. Caihong must think it was too late for Rylie to back out. Rylie thought she agreed with Caihong’s estimation. Rylie wasn’t leaving, was she?
It did feel too late. She and Aspen were marked. That was quite a commitment.
Xiang reminded her, obviously reading Rylie’s reluctance, “If you are not up to expected standard for a paid companion you can leave or be sent away. Then Fang and I will share the other one.”
Aspen….
Rylie sighed. She’d come back to the west wing with Xiang so determined to turn the “first impression” around. To take control.
And now she was about to strip.
She was about to show off a tattoo on her ass of the Chinese letter her “companion’s” name started with.
Feeling the weight of defeat and the weight of worry over the six months ahead, Rylie took off all her clothes.
Xiang grinned happily, “Normally, I might tell you to make it sexy with sexy movements and for you to dance while getting naked. But there is no rush. We will do that when much deeper into your companion training. Such as tomorrow! Also, that look on your face, the awareness you show, and this body you have, are already plenty sexy anyway.”
The damn lesbian-probable spoiled brat twin foreigner had plans! For Rylie! Of all people!
Well, the spoiled rich bitch was barking up the wrong tree. Xiang would find that out. Rylie knew Xiang wouldn’t take seriously any denial or refusal just then. Especially not when Rylie was complying with one demand already. Rylie would have to deal with this dancing in the nude thing when it came time. It sounded like she might have to deal with it as soon as tomorrow!
Dancing while stripping? Dancing in the nude for a lesbian? For this lesbian?
That was so not going to happen.
Down to her bra and panties, Rylie felt vulnerable and thought she was way too close to Xiang. At opposite ends of a football field would be way too close! So, she backed up several feet.
Xiang was having none of that, “Come back, American. Come close to Xiang. I must see the details. No secrets! I mean, of course, that you cannot keep secrets from me. The other way around is perfectly fine.”
Xiang seemed to enjoy actively creating inequality. She thought she could keep secrets but Rylie could not. Haha, it didn’t matter. Rylie’s only secrets were the tattoos and she already intended to share their secret. Rylie bet Xiang had secrets. Like what was in the two rooms she hadn’t shown Rylie.
Rylie stepped back into her previous place a few feet from the sitting heiress but that wasn’t good enough for Xiang. She motioned Rylie closer and then even closer. Rylie couldn’t take a stand on such a small matter, not even while standing. She moved closer and then even closer.
Then Rylie stood between Xiang’s widespread thighs. Xiang’s thighs were like her lips. Fuller than should be. Xiang’s overall body was slim but her thighs were Rubenesque.
Rylie felt such disbelief. She felt so vulnerable. Xiang’s face was only a couple of feet from Rylie’s crotch and Rylie was about to take off her panties.
Rylie took off her bra first and let it drop to the floor. She felt like she was buying time, trying to run out the clock. But the damn clock was set for six months! There was no way she could delay taking off her panties that long.
Xiang noticed the delay but was relaxed about it, just as untroubled as Rylie was troubled.
“American companion, you have enjoyable breasts.”
Rylie wasn’t sure how to feel about that comment. She guessed it was a compliment but it sounded lascivious. As if Xiang intended to do something more than look at them in order to fully enjoy them.
“American companion, are your nipples hard?”
“No!”
“Oh, perhaps not. Then I look forward to seeing them erect sometime most soon.”
Rylie felt like harshly asking why the hell they’d be hard at any time that Xiang would see them hard. Rylie would never have hard nipples when she was anywhere near Xiang. She bit off the retort. She was afraid of the answer she’d get.
Rylie hooked thumbs into her panties, took an extra breath, and lowered them. It was super awkward because she bent forward and her face got way too near Xiang’s face. Rylie quickly stood straight and let the panties drop from knee height. She stepped out of them.
She was naked!
