The fitting

8 The Fitting

When Aaron had said to ‘get her fitted’, Zara hadn’t imagined—even for a split nanosecond—that he meant giving her a do-over. She stood, stunned before the rows of servants who were ready to attend to her needs.

She gulped, feeling so out of place to be important. She turned to Aaron and Gracie. “Is this necessary?”

Gracie nodded. “Absolutely,” she said. “We want you in the best form for tonight when you go to Andrew. He is a bit odd in some ways.”

Zara took a deep breath and considered Aaron’s smile as a confidence booster. The routine was that she had to take a fancy bath, get her make-up done and then get to the seduction part. She exhaled again. “Sure, I can do that.”

She left Aaron and Gracie in the corridor and let the servants lead her to the bathroom. When she entered, she was once again amazed by the luxury of it all. A small pool had been prepared for her, heated to a perfect lukewarm temperature. It was emitting steam but when Zara put her toes in, the water didn’t sting.

The entire room had a wonderfully intoxicating scent to it. The pool had been scented with perfumes and body spray, some flowers floated at the top. She took a deep breath, letting herself slip for once. She’d never been given such treatments before and she wasn’t going to let the first time go by.

The servants left her alone, retreating to the next room. She smiled and slipped out of her clothes. She put them on a chair nearby, unwilling to have them get wet.

Now naked, Zara slipped into the pool, moaning as the warm water touched her skin, taking away every sore muscle. She felt she could stay in there for a whole week without complaining.

Back at Charlescare, they’d been forced to use cold water even in the harmattan and it had been really irksome. Now, she had the luxury of bathing in scented water.

She took liberty of the treatment and used the shampoo and the many lotions. Why had they given her so many soaps and lotions? Did they expect her to use each one? Zara shrugged, feeling that it was worth it. She sampled all of them and by the time she was done, the water was foaming.

She washed her hair and—

The door to the bathroom opened and Aaron entered. He had a scowl on his face. “Are you done yet?”

“Ah!” Zara screamed and ducked under the water, thankful that it had foamed over, obscuring most parts of her body from view. She didn’t feel comfortable with Aaron in there with her. Not a single bit. “There’s something called ‘privacy’ Mr Sebastian!”

“Sorry,” he said but didn’t turn away. “We have to hurry up. Andrew just got home and he’ll be in his room till late dinner time. We want you ready for the opportunity.”

“Okay,” Zara said. “But, can you step out a bit?”

Aaron snorted but left her. She exhaled and rinsed then got out of the pool.

The servants gave her towels and helped her dry herself. She was pleased with the treatment and felt she could get used to it.

Once done, she threw her clothes on and hurried out of the bathroom. “I’m ready!”

“No, you’re not!” Gracie said with a grimace of dissatisfaction. She snapped her fingers and three servants rolled in a hanger which had several gowns on it. “You need an outfit.”

“Eh,” Zara said, confused. “I’m wearing one?”

“You need something else,” the older woman said, barely sparing her a glance. Zara hated the look she gave her but, with the money they’d signed over to her, she wasn’t going to complain about a thing.

The servants took a few dresses off and showed it to Zara but she almost cried blood when she saw them. The fabrics were so light that they were see-through even without getting wet. Aside from the dazzling obsidian-like gems woven in the material, the dress was…well, a piece of cloth cut out with a hole for the head and the hands.

Zara froze when she considered that she was going to wear that…

“There’re nice and fluffy,” she said, giggling. “But, where are the dresses? The underwear is nice.”

“Those ‘underwear’,” Gracie said, smiling, “will be your dress for the night. And, you won’t be wearing anything under the dress.”

“That leaves little to the imagination!” Aaron teased and Zara blushed a deep scarlet. Couldn’t they be any…mature with her? Well, what was the use? She was about to go to a man’s bed so why pretend she knew nothing?

“Will that increase my chances?” she asked, running a hand along one of the dresses the servants were holding out to her.

“It might,” Aaron said. “you should definitely look ‘take-away’ in that dress. And, of course, take-away means—”

“—she knows what that means!” Gracie snapped at him and he shut up, turning his face away.

Zara almost laughed at the comical display, but she kept a solemn face. And, as if to embarrass her, her stomach growled and she held it. “Oops!”

“Tell me you ate before coming here!” Aaron said.

She shrugged. “I was too nervous to eat.”

Gracie sighed, holding her forehead. “We might as well get you stuffed before sending you to his room. Hey, you there,” she said, pointing at one of the servants and she rushed forward. “Go get something from the kitchen for her. Make it three portions.”

“Three…”

“Trust me,” Gracie said, raising a hand. “You’ll thank me later.”

Zara nodded, feeling small. She turned back to the dresses and swallowed her already bruised pride. She picked the red one. She felt it had a lot in common with seduction.

The servants helped her put the dress on. It had four slits running along the sides, back and front and the slits went along till they reached her waist. The ends of the dress flapped with every step she took, revealing her legs, thighs—and worse—her buttocks. Considering that she wasn’t allowed to wear anything underneath it, she felt naked.

She glanced down at herself and didn’t feel like she was wearing a thing. She could perfectly see her breasts pulled tight by the dress!

And Aaron was watching her!

Zara wilted but kept her legs from becoming jelly. Soon, food arrived and when she saw the feast, she realised how hungry she’d been. She dug in, trying as much as possible to eat with decorum.

A few minutes later, she belched, leaving three plates of completely drained food. Aaron whistled in approval. “I like you, Zara. You eat like a horse.”

“That was a compliment, I hope?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Really,” he said, then glanced at his watch. “We should go. My brother doesn’t sleep till past midnight. You should be able to frustrate him all night.”

“Or pound him all night,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I mean, how hard can it be to fuck that hard guy?”

Gracie looked at her with wide eyes, then shook her head. “Just get the job done, will you?”

Zara gave a mock salute, but inwardly, she was a shivering mess.

She had no idea how to start or what to say once she was alone with Andrew. Could she, perhaps, try saying, ‘hey, Andrew, do you mind fucking the hell out me and getting me pregnant?’

That, was insane!