[b]Dolly![/b] [i]Not[/i] Angela. Shivering, squirming, toes curling, trying to arch, head full of sloshing water seeping into her spine, soaking into her gag, trickling out her pores. That’s not Angela. Impossible to be Angela. Not a heart like that, all hunger and need, barely restrained, teeth at the back of her neck. The realization makes her heart rattle loose and bounce around inside of her. [i]Jade has been captured.[/i] That was the heart of a pirate! Soft, certainly, but… [i]appreciating[/i] softness. Like, say. [i]Her[/i] softness. [i]What if I never get to pilot Jade again? What if I’m Valynia’s pet priestess now? What if she doesn’t let me see Angela and Ksharta again? What if she stuffs me in a box or a cage or a flight locker? What if I’m her hostage to make Jade obey? What if she seduces Jade through ME? What would Angela think, what would Ksharta think, what would my big sister think? What if she dresses me up and takes me to fancy dinners and then makes me ride back in the shuttle luggage bin all stuffed with everything else they’re bringing back??? What if they don’t let me pilot her again, if I never get to feel her hands on me, if I never get to be her good girl? Valynia, please, let me— mmnngh, what if she makes me beg, and mlem, and humiliate myself before she lets me, or, whether or not she’s going to, and she just lets me think she’s going to, and she touches this mark on my shoulder when she tells me, because she’s in control, and please, even if it’s hot, this is important, Jade, please, Jade—[/i] But all she can feel from her goddess is moaning and imprisonment and— envy? [i]I want to be her.[/i] Oh. Oh! Well. Dolly flushes, the heat spreading through her. She wasn’t even thinking about [i]Jade’s[/i] feelings. Maybe… maybe that was better? If her goddess found someone who was better? If she really loved Jade, shouldn’t she…? [i]Power. Desire. Lust. Control. Desire. Desire. Desire. Desire.[/i] What do you want most of all, Dolly? Dolly lifts her head, the heaviest thing in the world, and stares at the door with all of the dignity she can muster. On one end of the scale are all the delicious, embarrassing, confusing delights and humiliations that Valynia can inflict on her, things which she’d never ever be brave enough to admit to Jade, or even things that Jade just can’t do… but on the other side is Smokeless Jade Fires. She’ll break. She knows it. Once Valynia starts squeezing and rubbing and burying her underneath the musk of her own desire. But that doesn’t mean this little hare doesn’t have the heart of an earthshaker, doesn’t have enough strength to make one more demand to be reunited with the goddess she lo— [i]WHISPERED PROMISE????[/i] The defiant, gargled demand for her goddess never leaves her swaddled lips. It’s more of a ridiculous horking drooly bray, much more audible than she was expecting, and she can’t even hide, or cover up, or, or, and gosh, that’s— that’s her— [i]she[/i] was— and the look she gives Dolly, all tangled up and dangling, is as calm and, and [i]controlled[/i], and she’s all of [i]that[/i] underneath??? There’s no way— she could be thinking anything— behind those river-lake-sea eyes and that, that [i]dress,[/i] that is not how, piloting, you see, look, except she’s trying to find anywhere else to look, but it’s no use, Mirror and that gorgeous jaw-dropping dress and those [i]unique[/i] spots underneath, which she doesn’t want to stare at in case, you know, it’s rude, but would Mirror say anything, because she’s in [i]control[/i] but underneath she’s so, she’s so, she’s so… [i]So hungry.[/i] And the thing about her calm, her mask, her unblinking neutral expression as she looks over Dolly’s disarray is that Dolly has no idea, no clue, where that hunger’s pointed, but that definitely was an appreciation for [i]softness[/i] and her [i]softness[/i] is on [i]display[/i] and the thought of Mirror squeezing her, in control, finding all the [i]buttons[/i]— Buttons? [i]BUTTONS.[/i] …”what does this do,” she’d murmur, so soft, so calm, as Dolly’s eyes bulged and fluttered in turn, learning her like only Jade had, [i]plundering[/i] her deep vaults and carrying out treasure, controlling her white fire engine perfectly, and what would it be like to be her? To be loved by her? Her eyes dart between the pirate and the terror, between the dread-desired and the enigma-with-teeth, and they’re— going— to fight— over [i]her???[/i] Oh oh oh [i]Jade!![/i] And for a moment Dolly can feel A wet cheek pressed against her own Dolly can hear her name, drooled Dolly can know she is [i]wanted[/i]