When Estara awoke, Derran was still there.
She sighed happily, relieved not to have dreamed him. Usually she did not like customers to spend more than a few hours with her, and she certainly did not allow them to sleep in her bed. She became bored with their company after a while, and started to want her own space back again. But this man, for all his enormity of size, did not invade her space. Even lying with one of his huge arms across her waist as he was now, she just felt...
How did she feel, exactly?
Estara did not usually spend much time analysing her emotions. She preferred just to feel her feelings and let them go. But now she found herself wanting to give names to these intriguing new sensations that were coursing through her body and mind. If she hadn't known better she would have thought she was in love. But that was ridiculous...it wasn't possible to love someone after knowing them only one night. And it certainly wasn't the done thing to fall in love with customers.
Safe. She felt safe. That was the right word for it. Grounded -- that was another way to describe it. Peaceful. Content. And yet, in spite of the fact that they had spent most of the night having sex and she was sore from accommodating him, his proximity was also making her feel very aroused.
She stroked the arm across her waist with her fingertips, enjoying the feel of the hairy skin and the dense musculature beneath it. Then she turned onto her side so that she could see his face. He wasn't handsome by human standards, but then she didn't have human standards and to her, he was beautiful.
"Where did you come from?" she whispered. He didn't stir. His expression was soft, peaceful, and even in slumber it showed the warmth and humour that had first attracted her to him. She planted a gentle kiss on his forehead and, very carefully so that she didn't wake him, she slipped out of bed and made her way to Madam Elise's room.
"Good gods, girl." Madam Elise, rumpled and bleary-eyed, looked less than pleased to see Estara standing outside her door. "It is barely sunrise and yet here you are looking agitated at me. It's that Giant fellow, isn't it? What has he done to you?"
"May I come in?" asked Estara, ignoring the note of suspicion in the two questions and particularly in the use of the word 'Giant'.
Elise sighed. "Yes, you may come in. As much as it saddens me to admit it, I have no company in here this morning."
Estara smiled to herself as she stepped inside the heavily perfumed room. Elise and she were old friends, going back to their early teens; both had gone into this business for the love of it as well as the money, but where Estara was never at a loss for business because of her stature and her good looks but was never any good at handling the monetary aspect, Elise was less blessed with the gift of beauty and yet possessed a business acumen worthy of any man. Thanks to a series of canny investments, paid for not only by her own earnings but by money fronted by Estara too, she had eventually managed to raise the capital to buy this house, and to fill its rooms with willing young ladies -- and men to pay for their services. Estara had a stake in the business -- a large stake too -- and because of this and her ability to command a high price, she was more or less given the freedom to work as and when she wished, and with whomsoever she pleased.
"Elise," said Estara, getting straight to the point as always, "I believe that the empty doorman's position should be filled by Derran."
Elise raised one perfectly-shaped eyebrow. "Oh? Has he put himself forward for the job?"
"No. He does not know about it yet. But I believe that, if we offer it to him, he will accept. And I believe that he is the perfect choice."
"He's big, I'll give you that." Elise frowned. "But, my dear, he does not strike me as the right type. A Giant he may be, but I saw little evidence of any of the killer instinct of his race, did you? I have the feeling that if faced with trouble he would not be eager to fight."
"And that," said Estara determinedly, "is what makes him ideal. We do not want a doorman like Nivek again, always keen to rush in like an enraged tiger and upsetting the customers and smearing blood all over the walls! Derran would, I feel, favour a more...diplomatic approach. And his size and bloodline are surely enough to scare off all but the most determined aggressor."
Elise paused, considering her friend's proposal. It was sensible enough, as it happened; but still she had her misgivings. She could see, of course, that Estara was very much taken with the young half-Giant and that this was a large part of her reason for putting him forward. She was worried that, if Estara were allowed to see him as a colleague rather than a customer, that she would be persuaded to fall in love with him -- and to stop working herself. And yet...
A mischievous smile spread over her round face. Elise had never engaged a doorman without first demanding that he show his ability to pleasure a woman...and Elise always put herself up as the woman to please. There was a very simple way of testing how safe it would be to employ Derran, assuming that he wanted the job.
"Bring him here to me," she told Estara, "as soon as he wakes up."
Estara saw the smile, and smiled herself. Oh my, she thought to herself, you are in for an awakening yourself, my friend. Just you wait and see.
***
Derran followed Estara to Madam Elise's room, feeling more than a little nervous. Estara had awoken him with a kiss, but had refused to allow him more than that because she had said he 'might need his strength later'. When he had asked for clarification, and she had explained the job opening and that Madam Elise always required her doormen to fuck her as part of the interview process, he had been shocked.
"But -- but that is immoral," he had stammered.
"No more immoral than what I do every night. Oh, come on, darling. It need only be for the winter, until there is farm work in the valley again. I know you have a lot of savings, but otherwise you would have to spend a great deal of them on food and lodgings -- and this way, you will get both of those and save your money." She had kissed him again, and given his crotch a cheeky squeeze as she whispered, in a voice full of longing, "And I would get to see you every day."
That had decided him. He had not been at all attracted to the dumpy Elise, but Estara had inflamed his lust so much over the past twelve hours that he would only need to picture her curvaceous body in his mind and he would be hard as rock. And thanks to their repeated lovemaking he would last a long time too. It couldn't hurt -- and, if her tone of voice was to be believed, he would be doing it for Estara as well as for himself.
