Page 5 of Temple

“Madam? Are you all right?”

“Three—”

“Hundred eighty-six. That was a few years ago, and I was rather tense. Can you tell me why I woke up in a repair unit?”

“What? Oh, yes. You had a massive allergy to the sedative. They had to resuscitate you. You died a few times.”

“Oh. Shit. Well, that would explain why I feel like I was flattened.” She bent and handed the tablet back to the companion.

“So, you have sexual experience?”

“With my own species, yes. None of the species at my bond world are compatible with me. Well, there’s one, but I avoided him.”

The companion’s eyes widened. “The overseer.”

“Yeah. He’s charming enough but not my type.” He looked like hard-muscled cotton candy. His skin was swirled with blue and pink in soft pastels. Something about him didn’t sit right as a lover.

“Oh. My. Right. Well, we will train you and then put your contract up for bid. Despite the illegal nature of your acquisition, you now belong to the Temple of Companions.”

“Oh. Hooray. What is my bond?”

“Your contract determines that.”

Sage had tried to get around that by getting the official operative to give a lowball number. The lower the number, the faster she could earn it out. She just wanted to get back to her farming. That was the only thing that kept her going, and she wasn’t going to drop it to become a fancy whore.

Chapter Two

Sage threw herselfinto learning at the Temple. She learned how to eat with fingertips or a single eating tool. The white novice robes that they put her in were changed out for blue by the end of the first week.

The matron called her out of etiquette class on the ninth day.

“Mistress Sage, why are you here?”

“Oh, a jealous companion was worried and had me abducted and sent here for profit. Since the overseer was starting to look at me with a more than conversational manner, she guessed she might be out of a job.”

“Oh, are you content to go for master status?”

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