Intergalactic Courtesan

"Mmm," Veronica Franco's naked back glowed in the dim light. Tendrils of curly hair escaped her tight bun, caught in the massage oil slathered over her neck. "That feels wonderful, my darling."

Desirée applied more oil to her hands before massaging the hard knots just below the Guild Administrator's shoulders. Veronica sighed again, stretching her arms above her head. Tiny LED lights, designed to simulate the warmth of a candle's glow, dotted her bedroom. Desirée slowly, carefully worked on the hard knots in her lover's back, breaking them down. The young courtesan was also nude, her breasts swaying in the dim light as she worked, her honey blonde hair hanging around her face.

She shifted lower, exposing the firm globes of Veronica's bottom. Desirée began moving slowly down Veronica's back, her long fingers finding more muscle knots to break down. Veronica hissed with pleasure, writhing under her lover's touch. Veronica's fingers slid across Veronica's ass, teasing the inner swell. Veronica's cheeks clenched involuntarily; she giggled from the sensation.

The giggle changed to a sigh when Desirée's thumbs found the inside of Veronica's thighs, pressing and caressing. Veronica turned her head and looked down at her lover, her eyes half-lidded, knowing what was coming next. Desirée massaged her lover's inner thighs for several minutes, feeling the play of muscle under the silken skin, slowly moving upwards from Veronica's knees to her ass, alternately soothing and teasing her flesh. Veronica's body quivered under Desirée's touch, the musky scent of her arousal mixing with the softer smell of the oils.

Desirée lightly brushed her lover's pussy. Veronica moaned and gasped, fingers clutching the simi-silk sheets. She tried to turn over but Desirée's hand on her lower back stopped her.

"Relax." Desirée's violet eyes were wicked in the dimness. "Let me take care of you."

She leaned over her lover's back and found the room remote. Pushing a button caused the lower part of the bed to slowly rise, raising Veronica's hips while still supporting her back. As her lover's hips slowly rose in front of her, Desirée spread Veronica's thighs further apart, exposing the labial folds. Veronica's petals were already swollen and dark, gleaming with her juices. Desirée lightly breathed on the folds, making her lover quiver and gasp.

Laughing softly, Desirée returned the remote to the bedside table, leaving one hand sliding along Veronica's body. Tilting her head, Desirée then used her hair to brush Veronica's back and shoulders in long strokes, rubbing her own hips against the swell of Veronica's ass.

"Mmmm," Veronica sighed, feeling the silky strands sweep her sensitive skin. Desirée used her fingers as counterpoint to her hair's rhythm, touching the soft flesh of her armpits, stroking the sides of Veronica's breasts, tantalizing her flanks before cupping the soft globes of her buttocks. She could feel Veronica's body respond to the strokes, the lassitude of the massage replaced by growing desire. Desirée slowly spread the cheeks, exposing the sensitive inner flesh to her teasing strands.

Veronica wriggled, trying not to laugh. "You're driving me insane," she gasped, trying to escape the delicious torture. Desirée's hands held her in place, her thumbs teasing her lover's puckered hole.

"You think this is bad?" the young courtesan grinned. "Then how about this?" She touched Veronica's clit with her tongue. Veronica froze.

Certain she had her lover's full attention, Desirée began exploring Veronica's pussy with her lips, teeth and tongue, only using the lightest of touches. The older woman quivered and gasped, her whole being concentrating on what her lover was doing between her legs.

Desirée occasionally added firmer licks, keeping her lover off-balance while slowly increasing her arousal. Veronica sighed, tilting her hips even higher to allow her easier access.

Choosing her moment carefully, Desirée made her tongue a spear, driving it deep into Veronica's pussy. The Guild Administrator moaned, lifting her head from the pillow.

"Turn me over," she begged, her right hand grasping for the remote. "I want to watch."

The lower insert of the bed tilted back down, allowing Veronica to roll over. She shifted position, opening her legs as Desirée repositioned herself over her lover. Despite her age, Veronica looked like a woman in her early thirties: fit and taut, but possessing a woman's curves. Her nipples were squashed from her lying on her stomach, but they quickly became erect when Desirée's hands passed over them.

"Much better," Veronica crooned. "But there's one thing I want to do first." Gripping Desirée's hair, she pulled the young courtesan down for a kiss.

Their tongues dueled wetly. Not for the first time Desirée realized that, when it came to kissing, she was a rank novice next to Veronica. The older woman's fingers roamed Desirée's body, easily finding those places that aroused her as well.

"Are you sure you don't want me to return the favour?" Veronica whispered, her finger sliding inside Desirée's pussy.

Despite herself, she moaned. "No, I want to do this for you."

"Are you . . ." A second finger slid inside Desirée. " . . . absolutely sure?" Veronica's laugh was wicked.

Desirée bit her lip, feeling her face flush. "Y-yes."

Veronica laughed softly. "All right then." The fingers slid out; Desirée shuddered. "Consider it a promissory note." Veronica lifted her hand and licked the juices from her fingers.

"I'll get you for that," Desirée grinned, lowering her head to Veronica's breast.

"I look forward to -- aaahh!" She groaned from the sensation, arching her back. Desirée chuckled wickedly, her teeth lightly pulling on Veronica's right nipple. She lashed it with her tongue, using the pad of her thumb on the other breast as a counterpoint. Veronica's head fell back onto her pillow, her breathing becoming heavier.

Once her nipples were stiff peaks, Desirée started moving down Veronica's body, kissing and licking her ribs, belly and hips, lightly scratching Veronica's body with her painted fingernails. The older woman writhed from Desirée's talented touch. She licked the ridges of Veronica's hipbones, circled the tiny belly button before briefly plunging her tongue inside, and slid her lips down a burnished thigh.

Positioning herself between Veronica's spread legs, Desirée lightly bit the exposed tendon that led up to her hip. Veronica groaned at the sensation, biting her lower lip in anticipation of what was to come. Desirée briefly blew on the engorged pussy, making Veronica twitch and gasp, before kissing and nibbling on the other thigh before licking the soft skin in the hollow between pussy and leg.

"Do it," Veronica panted, sweat beading her forehead and neck. "Quickly. I'm so close!"

"I'm not sure," Desirée barely brushed Veronica's pussy with her tongue. "Maybe I should take a little longer . . ."

"Stop tormenting me!" She bucked her hips, only to be restrained by Desirée's arms wrapped around her thighs.

"If you insist." Once again, Desirée plunged her tongue deep inside Veronica's molten heat before licking up against her lover's clit. Veronica wailed with the sensation, hips writhing against Desirée's mouth. The young blonde pressed her one hand against Veronica's shaved pelvis, both to keep her in place and to increase the sensation, while her other hand curled against the folds of her pussy. She then sucked Veronica's clit into her mouth, lashing it with her tongue.

Veronica was moaning almost continuously now, her hands sliding across her shoulders, pinching her breasts, squeezing the nipples. Her face was flushed from the exertion, feeling the slow onrush of her climax reaching out for her.

Choosing her moment carefully, Desirée inserted two fingers inside Veronica's liquid heat and started curling them in a come-hither motion against the upper walls of her vagina.

Veronica started screaming, her hips bucking wildly, her whole body convulsing in a titanic orgasm. "More! More! More!" she chanted, throwing her head from side to side. Desirée, barely hanging on, increased the tempo of her ministrations while her lover writhed beneath her.

"More! More!" Veronica continued thrashing on the bed. Desirée, not sure what she meant, inserted another finger and continued wriggling them around inside her.

"Yes! That's it!" Veronica gasped through her convulsions. "More!"

While sucking on Veronica's clit, Desirée inserted a fourth finger, burying half her palm inside her lover's furiously lubricating cunt. The senior courtesan was wailing through an almost continuous orgasm, still thrashing about but not hitting her peak.

Taking a risk, Desirée partially slid her fingers out, then pushed her entire hand inside the steaming pussy. Veronica's vaginal muscles squeezed against her wrist, forcing Desirée's hand to splay outwards. That did it: Veronica gave one final scream, nearly launching herself off the bed, then collapsed, gasping for air. Vaginal juices sprayed Desirée's mouth, chin and chest as the bucking hips slowed, and stopped.

Trying to be as gentle as possible, Desirée slipped her fingers out of Veronica's snatch. The senior courtesan instantly turned over onto her side, still shuddering from the force of her climax. Desirée wiped her sopping face with a towel before using the remote to adjust the bed to its original horizontal position. Then she slid next to her lover, spooning her from behind.

"Thank you." Veronica turned around, wrapping her arms around the young girl. "I won't be able to walk for a week, but thank you." They kissed again, not the teasing duel of tongues as before, but a satisfied post-coital kiss, an intimate sharing of mind and body once all the defenses had been lowered.

"It was my pleasure," Desirée replied, squeezing her lover tighter against her breast.

"Not just yours, believe me." Veronica laughed softly, kissing the soft flesh under her lover's ear. "That was incredible. I will return that favour, but not right now. Is that all right?"

"Take all the time you need." Desirée pulled the sheets over the two of them, while Veronica dimmed the candle lights with the remote. Within minutes, both women were asleep.

* **

"That's it, my darling." Veronica stretched under the bed covers, grinning like a cat with the keys to the cream factory. "We're both going to Hell."

Desirée chuckled. "You still believe in a Heaven and Hell?" It was late at night; they lay next to each other, Veronica's head nestled in the crook of Desirée's left shoulder, goblets of wine in hand.

"I haven't really thought about it, to be perfectly honest." Veronica stared up at the canopied ceiling, her right hand casually stroking Desirée's bare thigh. "You'd think I'd be beyond those things, traveling amongst the stars for so long, but I still have my rosary." She chuckled. "You can take the girl out of the Catholic Church but you can't take the Catholic Church out of the girl."

She sighed. "My mother and I went to Mass every day when I was a child. Even after I became a courtesan, I still attended Sunday Mass at San Pietro di Castello."

"Weren't you unpopular there?"

Veronica chuckled. "It was a little outré, but Venetians were much more cosmopolitan about these things than most. As a cortigiana onesta, I was somewhat acceptable in polite society, although the good matrons were always properly disdainful.

"The archbishop at San Pietro was always kind: he heard my confessions and assured me that, as I was forced to become a courtesan through poverty, it wasn't as dire a sin as it was for the married men who visited me. As long as I went to confession regularly, didn't enjoy my work too much," she winked, "and donated some of my earnings to the poor, I was all right." She sighed. "He was a lovely man; I miss him."

"One of your clients?"

Veronica shook her head. "He took his vow of celibacy seriously, although I know he was tempted. Poor man: he was distantly related to the de Medici, and they wanted to gain a foothold in the city. So he was more Sent than Called, if you understand me. But a lovely man, nonetheless: his poetry was excellent. He did his best to help when the Inquisition charged me with witchcraft."

"The Inquisition? What happened?"

Veronica smiled briefly. "Nothing too traumatic. A would-be paramour, devastated that I turned him down -- I could afford to do that by then -- denounced me to the Inquisition as a witch. The Doge wanted to avoid another Interdiction so soon after the recent plague, and so he allowed the trial to proceed. Fortunately, the full story came out and the Inquisition eventually decided there wasn't enough evidence to bring a conviction. I was lucky also that I dealt with the Papal Inquisition: you could reason with them."

"There's a difference?"

"Very much so. The Papal Inquisition answered to the Vatican, while the Spanish Inquisition answered only the throne of Spain. That made a big difference in how they worked. The Papal Inquisition would accept a well-presented argument, while the Spanish were slaves to politics."

"Then what about Galileo?"

Veronica curled her lip. "Galileo was an arrogant bully with a talent for turning good friends into bitter enemies. The Inquisition would never have charged him with heresy if he hadn't called his friend the Pope an idiot in print. Galileo had also insulted the rest of the scientific community over the years, so they all turned on him when the Inquisition pressed charges. The Jesuit astronomers Orazio Grassi and Christoph Scheiner could easily have exonerated Galileo with their own research if he hadn't denounced them so aggressively in print. But he was too proud to admit the validity of their work, and so they joined the Inquisition against him.

"Yes, the Church was wrong to censor his work but Galileo was largely the architect of his misfortune."

"Hmm." Desirée sipped her wine. Veronica's hand continued its caresses, slowly moving up her leg. "What was it like, living in Venice?"

"Hot, smelly and quite diverting at times. Life wasn't easy, but you could make a good living if you kept your wits about you. However, I was very grateful when Doctor T'akuzh F'lyat found me. I'd had to leave Venetia because my looks had faded and I could no longer afford to live there. Once I was in the Confederation, the Guild offered me a new life, doing the work I do best, and a chance to regain my youth.

"What I didn't realize at the time was that Doctor T'akuzh F'lyat was in the final stages of testing his longevity treatments, and he wanted sentient beings who weren't Confederation members to experiment on. I, and the other women he picked up, were the equivalent of lab rats for him.

"Luckily," she stretched lasciviously, "I responded so well to his treatments that, not only did it extend my life by several centuries, but I also got my youth back. You've received the 5th generation of the F'lyat Treatment: it's a lot more effective, and safer."

"What happened to the other women who were tested?" Desirée asked.

Veronica smiled bitterly.

"Oh."

"It was quite the scandal when the truth finally came out. Dr. F'lyat was sent to prison for ten standard years, lost his funding, his tenure, his job and was forbidden to pursue any research for the rest of his life. Thankfully, the Guild took care of me and paid for my training as an apology for the scandal. The Confederation was forced to significantly change the rules regarding testing on sentient beings, and that incident was a large reason why Earth was interdicted fom the Confederation for so long.

"The trip that brought you and Kalyani to the Guild was the first Confederation-authorized recruiting mission by the Guild in 5 centuries."

They were silent for several seconds.

Veronica finally turned towards her, resting her head on her right arm, face serious. "Another thing: Professor Ssurhuk-T'at will take care of your bookings for the foreseeable future. I'm sure I don't need to tell you why."

"Have there been any problems . . . with us?"

The older woman shook her head, curly hair falling down, covering the space between head and her right elbow. "And I'd like to keep it that way. Ssurhuk-T'at understands: he's done this for me before, and the other courtesans respect his neutrality. There shouldn't be any official repercussions from the Guild over this. I can't guarantee what will happen amongst the other courtesans; another reason why I was initially hesitant to pursue this relationship."

"That's all right," Desirée said. "I've been accused of being the teacher's pet before, mainly from classmates who were jealous of my grades. I can handle it."

"Thank you." Veronica kissed her on the lips. "I can't promise things won't get nasty, but most of the senior courtesans will understand." She sipped her wine. "There was one other thing--" Her goblet tilted, and red wine splashed Desirée's breasts.

"Oops." Veronica's brown eyes twinkled. "What a terrible mess I made. However will I clean it up?" She pulled back the covers, exposing Desirée's naked body to her sight. "Now you just lie back . . ."

* **

Desirée was always privately amused that, despite the many advances available in the Confederation, the Galos IV Guild House still had a cafeteria. However, it made sense: most sentient beings liked to congregate and chat during non-work hours, and food and good conversation were natural partners.

She collected her lunch from the G'thikh on duty and looked around for someone to sit with. The cafeteria was three-quarters full but, for several reasons, she wanted to sit with people she trusted.

"Good morning, Desirée Tanner," a Swantahl, her body feathers dyed a delicate rose, glided past. "You're looking lovely today."

"Good morning to you too, Shalzhar Shalruzh," Desirée replied politely to the senior Courtesan. This was the first time the Swantahl had initiated a conversation with her. "Is that a new colour for you? It's very nice."

"Why thank you." The Swantahl's smile didn't reach her eyes. "It's a special blend made especially for me. Do you like it?"

"It's beautiful," Desirée replied blandly, although her instincts warned her of daggers amid the pleasantries. "Is the scent part of the dye? It smells wonderful on you."

"Yes, it is. Perhaps I'll give you my stylist's contact information, although her rates are rather high." She smiled sweetly. "Junior courtesans can't afford her, but I understand that's not a problem for you these days."

Desirée smiled to hide the tightness in her chest. "Oh, you know me. I'm still watching every credit."

"That's very wise of you," Shalzhar said with poisoned sweetness. "You never know when good fortune might reverse itself, leaving you right back where you started."

"How very true." Desirée smiled politely, refusing to rise to the bait. "Thank you so much for your concern."

The Swantahl waved her right arm languidly, holding her tray with her left. "We top courtesans are always willing to help those less . . . adept than ourselves."

"You're too kind. Have a nice day." Desirée nodded, walking away. She kept her face serene though her pulse thundered in her ears. The Swantahl had been more obvious about it than most, but Desirée was noticing other courtesans were treating her differently: her relationship with Veronica Franco had become public knowledge.

Several other courtesans said hello to her as they passed: ones who had never acknowledged her before. Desirée felt varying degrees of veiled malice underneath their apparent friendliness but they all looked at her with that cold, assessing expression. She felt very alone.

Her eyes lit up when she finally saw a friendly face. With a warm smile, Cyraena waved Desirée over to a seat next to hers. The tall Draco had no lunch in front of her, just a large Thermos-style jug from which she sipped.