A single set of footsteps echoed across the black marble.
Not hurried or playful, but measured and deliberate. The kind of walk that announced someone had already decided whether you were worth their time.
She appeared from the shadowed archway to my right.
Her skin glowed with an otherworldly complexion, as if moonlight had been poured over porcelain and left to set.
She wore a floor-length gown of midnight-black satin that clung to her curves before flaring into a dramatic fishtail train.
The bodice was sleeveless, cut low in another deep V—I wondered if this was the current fashion at the Hotel—and held in place by delicate crystal-beaded straps that crisscrossed her collarbones like jewelry made of frozen starlight. A wide satin sash cinched her narrow waist and was tied in a perfect bow at the small of her back.
Her arms were sheathed in long black opera gloves that reached past the elbow, ending in sharp silver cuffs engraved with runic patterns. Around her throat there was a choker of black onyx and diamonds, and a single large tear drop sapphire dangling between her well-developed breasts like a forbidden fruit. Her jet-black hair fell wild and stylish in perfect curls that rivaled Elaine's, framing her face perfectly and its sharp cheekbones and deep blue eyes.
She carried herself with the effortless poise of someone who knew the world bent for her, not the other way around.
She stopped three measured paces from my chair.
"Theodore MacBride," she said. "The Sugar Well that was already caused such a stir in the Hotel."
Beneath the bathrobe my cock thickened instantly.
The Board watched in silence. Damian's smirk was gone. Seraphina's fingers had frozen on her chain. Only the girl with the ruby, the man in the hood, and Elaine seemed totally unaffected.
Calliope tilted her head, studying me the way one studies a rare vintage about to be opened.
"I've heard you already poured thousands of cubes of Sugar down the throats of the first two candidates tonight." Her gaze flicked to Catherine and Shala. They responded with looks that were coolly unimpressed. "How very generous," she said.
Calliope took one gliding step closer. The fringe on her gown shivered like dark water. The air around her thickened with the scent of jasmine.
"I, personally, do not perform for applause," she said softly. "I do not beg. I do not... bounce, or simper, or serve." Another step. "I command. I discipline. I refine."
She leaned down slowly, placing one gloved hand on the arm of my chair. The satin of her gown brushed my bare knee. Those luminous blue eyes locked onto mine.
My cock surged, painfully hard, leaking against the robe. She noticed. Her gaze dropped to my waist, lingered, then rose again.
"So predictable," she whispered. "Already dripping."
Then she straightened, turned, and addressed the Board with regal calm.
"I will not be asking him into my domain tonight. As a virgin, it would not be appropriate to do so on a dinner date, even if it is with a Sugar Well. But I will give him a taste, and I will extract my Sugar price for time wasted. Then he might understand the difference between a toy and a queen."
Calliope's lips curved with just the barest hint of a smile.
She raised one gloved hand and made the smallest, most elegant gesture.
Invisible force wrapped my wrists and ankles, lifting me smoothly until I hovered half a foot above the chair. My robe fell open, exposing me completely in front of her and the Board, hard cock jutting upward and still glistening at the tip.
A soft chorus of gasps and murmurs rippled through the Board. Elaine seemed to wince but gave no sign that this was something she might have to stop.
Calliope stepped between my spread thighs. She did not touch me, but made a slow, deliberate stroking motion in the air.
My shaft jerked violently, seized by phantom heat and pressure.
I gasped. Another stroke.
My hips bucked helplessly. Pre-cum dripped in a long, shining thread toward the marble.
"Feel that?" she said, voice soft and merciless. "That is the Sugar in your blood kneeling for me. Every drop. Every throb. The Sugar might come from you, but what it desires is me."
Princess, I thought in my head. Status, please. On the girl.
=================
Subject: C-15875
Name: Calliope ???
Age: 120
Condition: Spice Well
Spice Level: 20,000
Sugar Level: 10,000
Sugar Daddy: None
Known Abilities: Sugar Whisper
=================
She twisted her wrist with exquisite precision.
Pain and pleasure detonated in perfect harmony. My balls tightened as though gripped by cold steel while invisible fingers pumped my length with ruthless control.
I groaned. Calliope watched me with clinical, but almost tender interest.
"Look at them," she ordered.
My head turned against my will. Every eye in the Hall was on me.
Calliope stepped closer.
"You believe power is measured in how many girls you can make melt with your generosity?" she asked. "You believe spilling Sugar makes you a king?"
Another precise twist.
My body seized. Breath locked. I was edging, the orgasm hovering millimeters away, held captive by her will.
"I could keep you suspended like this for hours," she said calmly. "Days. Years. Edged until your mind splinters and all that remains is a beautiful, leaking, obedient cock that exists solely as a dildo for my pleasure."
She flicked one gloved finger.
A pulse of fused agony and ecstasy tore through me. I cried out, hips jerking uselessly in midair.
Then the pressure vanished and I dropped back into my chair, gasping and trembling.
Calliope stepped back, smoothing the satin of her gown with one gloved hand as though she had merely adjusted a stray fringe.
"But how could he possibly afford me now?" she asked the Board.
I checked my own status.
=================
Subject: R-01917
Name: Theodore MacBride
Age: 19
Condition: Sugar Well
Sugar Level: 0
Sugar Babies: None
Known Abilities: Sugar Rush, GSP
=================
I was completely drained. I felt weak and tired. My skin looked duller, and colors didn't seem as bright.
Catherine and Shala looked at me with a mild look of disgust, or perhaps that was just what it looked like when they weren't madly craving my cock. They also still seemed to share a fair bit of annoyance with their fellow candidate.
I was very tired.
Calliope began to walk away when alarms began blaring.
"Princess!" Elaine yelled. "What's going on!?"
"Bad news," she spoke out of an empty space in the air in between me and the Board. "Rare Mana sensitives have breached the Hotel. They knew Teddy was here, and now they know Mistress Calliope is here. We're not prepared."
"Rare Mana sensitives, what does that mean?"
"They're Salt specialists, Mistress," Princess said. "They are being led by someone who is calling himself the Salt King.
...
I believe you know him by the name Mr. Cook."