“I suppose I’ll just sit here,” I say not expecting a response.

“Enjoying being pampered?” Shiva asks causing me to jump slightly, which in turn causes Emilia to raise an eyebrow at me and then she smiles before going back to combing my hair.

“It reminds me of home,” I tell her, and then ask, “Where have you been?”

“Speaking with the other Spirits in the house,” She responds excitedly, “You’ll never guess what I heard from them.”

“Uh-huh,” I roll my eyes.

“You could at least sound interested,” she retorts immediately.

“So what was it you heard?” I ask as I have nothing better to do at the moment.

“It turns out Leyla was right to wonder,” She pauses for just a moment to take a breath, “Apparently ever since they were younger the two of them have been more than inseparable. Alice apparently learned how to cook just for Elsie. Alice is also incredibly jealous and territorial when it comes to Elsie. On the other hand Elsie has always looked out for Alice, and from what I heard the only reason that she is such an adept healer is because Alice was always a bit of a klutz.”

“So they are family,” I shrug slightly, “Is it so strange that they would help each other?”

“They also bathe together and sleep with each other.”

“And?”

“That coven has corrupted you,” She sighs to me, “Family doesn’t normally do such things, and those are the actions of lovers. Though I suppose I should have been blunter with my choice of wording.”

“I think braids will do wonderfully,” Emilia mutters from behind me as she continues to comb through my hair, “Or perhaps a braided crown leading into flowing curls. Hmm I think that is what we will do, since your hair has a nice natural curl already.”

I nod my head while resisting the urge to shiver as a chill runs though my body. She starts to hum to herself as she continues to work.

After a few minutes I hear the door handle twist and the latch release. The door silently glides open and Maya steps through with a bag under her arm, and she closes the door behind her. She nods at me with a smile and I look to Emilia with my silent question.

“She was making a part of the dress,” she explains, “And she might make herself useful later as well.”

“I’m always useful,” Maya happily interjects as she sits the bag near the dress stand, she then steps over to me and bends over bringing her face very close to mine. “These are very lovely,” she runs her finger gently across my cheek, “They fit her looks perfectly, though I thought you were going to do her hair before you did anything else though.”

“I didn’t do those,” Emilia all but growls and I can feel her icy glare on the back of my head as Maya continues to gently stroke my cheek, “She has them naturally.”

Maya looks at me with a mixture of surprise and suspicion, and then she smiles again and says, “You shouldn’t cover them, they make you even more beautiful.”

I feel myself blush and I look away, “They draw unwanted attention.”

She nods her head understandingly, she then walks around my back and runs her fingers through my hair. “Don’t tangle any of my work,” Emilia scolds her.

“It is fine,” Maya laughs lightly resting her hand on my shoulder shifting my hair and she gasps slightly and almost immediately I feel the familiar sensation of disgust and fear forming in the pit of my stomach. “You are freezing. Why aren’t you doing this over by the fireplace? It isn’t like she needs to see what you are doing.” Before I can say anything or cover my back more she completely shatters my expectations.

“She hasn’t complained or even acted like she is bothered,” Emilia tells her.

“Well if you actually felt her skin,” Maya complains back at her and sighs. She then takes me by the hand and pulls me forward trying to get me out of the chair and Emilia sighs letting go of my hair and she pushes at my back slightly indicating that I should follow her.

I stand up and Maya strips me of my wet towel, leaving me completely bare under her gaze. “How assertive,” Shiva laughs “Exactly the type of mate you need.” Before I can form a response Maya pulls me over towards the chairs in front of the fire place.

When she spots Talia in the chair she lets go of me and gently scoops her up in her arms, grunting slightly under the weight and she nods at the now vacant chair, “Sit.”

Seeing no reason to deny her I sit down in the chair, and as I am I feel my hair being gathered up and I twist slightly and Emilia has moved to keep me from trapping my hair behind me. I lean back after I’m certain it is out of the way and after I am back Maya transfers Talia into my lap. She stirs slightly in her sleep and she turns into me resting her head on my breast before she settles back into sleep.

“She may not look like much but she produces quite a bit of heat,” Maya nods approvingly before turning towards Alice, “Where can I find a blanket?”

“This isn’t really necessary,” I interrupt her, “I always feel cold but I handle it fine.”

“Nonsense,” Maya responds immediately, “If you feel cold then I’ll make sure that you are warm.”

“Quite the declaration,” Shiva excitedly hums, “Can I take that as a confession from her?”

“No you most certainly cannot,” I tell her, and stop myself from shaking my head.

“Now I’m conflicted, I can’t decide if I want her as your mate or if Iris is more suitable... Ah the best solution is just taking them both, it is perfectly fine being greedy,” she laughs at her own idea.

“I doubt either of them would agree with you,” I sigh at her as Emilia begins to separate my hair and I hear the door open again and as Maya walks out her tails swing in a low ark, “and when did Iris become one of your contenders?”

“That is a very nice butt and a while ago: I think Iris has some very good qualities,” she explains, “And you never know they just might be willing if you turned on the charm.”

“You’re hopeless.”

“I’m finished brushing out her hair,” Emilia says from behind me, “I think we are going to need more pins though.”

“We can get the dress at the same time,” Alice responds to her putting down her needles, “And some light snacks.”

“That sounds splendid,” Emilia agrees with her and I hear the floor creak slightly as she stands up and Alice does the same. Emilia walks around the side of the chair and gently rubs Talia’s head, “We will be a few minutes.”

I nod my head to her and they both head to the door chatting about fabric and oils. I look down at Talia who continues to sleep peacefully in my lap.

Not much later the door opens back up and Maya walks back in looking triumphant with a folded blanket under her arm. She steps over to the bag, and pulls a book out of it before heading over towards me. She stops in front of the chair, and puts the book on the arm of the chair. She shakes out the blanket, starts to hand it towards me, but then she smiles mischievously.

She straightens back up before twisting around and planting herself in my lap. “What are you doing?” I ask her as she adjusts Talia, and slides her back against my chest.

She begins to tuck the blanket around us and as she does I feel her tails wrap around my waist and down my thigh, they are soft and warm against my bare skin. She leans back and says, “Keeping you warm, I thought it was fairly obvious.”

“Wrap around her,” Shiva whispers in my ear, “Pull her closer and begin to gently kiss her neck, and run your hands down the inside of her thighs, or up to her breasts.”

“First there is a child in my lap,” I scold her, “and why do you even come up with these plans?”

“You’re right; you are not quiet enough to get away with having a child nearby,” Shiva knowingly casts her glance on me, “And you are certainly one to talk little miss succubus romance reader.”

“I’m not sure what either of those has to do with our current situation,” I mumble while blushing slightly.

“That’s right; don’t act all high and mighty, princess pervert,” Shiva laughs.

There is a hesitant touch on my thigh and I stiffen slightly. “Sorry,” Maya apologizes, and looks at me out of the corner of her eye, “I was curious… your skin feels wonderful.”

“Does it?” I question, “I think my sisters’ feels nicer, and besides I feel cold to the touch anyway.”

“T-that’s not,” she sounds flustered as she quickly responds, “Not only is you skin wonderfully soft, it is soothing to the touch as well.” She blushes a light shade of red before twisting around and leaning back into me.

“My, she certainly got defensive didn’t she,” Shiva says in a suggestive tone.

Maya adjusts slightly bringing her arm out of from under the blanket and picking up her book, before paging through it. I miss the title but it is a simple leather bound book, and a moment later she lifts it up in front of her and she begins to quietly read.

…

Maya breaks the silence by asking, “Are you comfortable?”

“The two of you are quite warm,” I curl forward slightly, bringing my chin to rest on her shoulder, and look down at the book in her hands. From this close I am able to easily identify her scent; it is a simple clean scent with hints of light floral perfume and soap. It is rather nice and reminds me of resting in a field as the flowers bloom.

I put the thought away and focus on the book in her hands instead. After reading a few paragraphs I recognize it is about a mute gladiator slave and how she lives her life after she gets sold to a new mistress. “I remember that,” I say with a slight smile at the long nights by the fireplace, “Annabelle would tell me about it.”

Maya twists her head pressing our cheeks together, and she sounds surprised as she asks, “You’ve spoken with the author?”

“She is one of my sisters,” I explain, “She would keep me company, and tell me about her work on nights that…I had trouble sleeping.”

“What is she like?”

“She is,” I pause for a moment, “Kind… and you wouldn’t believe from the way that she writes, but she is so innocent.” I laugh, “Whenever she starts to talk about sex, or just love in general she will turn bright red, and start to mumble.”

“Even with all of those scenes?” Maya asks and I can feel her cheek heat up slightly, making me want to tease her.

“The heavy kisses, the passionate sex,” I lean on her a bit more and Talia slides down beside me where she settles without fuss, “Oh let me guess you are a bondage type of girl, tie me up or tie me down? Or maybe you’re not sure and you want to find out?”

She twists sideways in my lap and turns bright red and stutters while playing with her hair, “I-I ah, it’s not quite, I-I’m.”

“She is cute when she is flustered,” Shiva laughs.

“You’re?” I teasingly wrap my arms around her holding her next to me, and I lean in close, bringing our faces next to each other again, “Interested in being tied to a bed and slowly played with?” I lean in more bringing our lips dangerously close and I ask in a quieter voice, “Or maybe you want to tie your partner down and play with them to the point of climaxing just to back off over and over again?”

She blushes even harder and her mouth opens and closes silently several times and she brings her hand up and her fingers brush my cheek as she rests it on hers. I hear the door creak open and I turn as Emilia steps through the door and her gaze stops on us.

…

…

“What exactly is going on here?” she asks in an overly happy tone, and I twist and release Maya who blushes even harder.

Alice slides her way into the room with a large bundle of black cloth in her arms, which she moves over to the dress rack with. “Oh don’t be too rough on them,” She laughs, and looks at us approvingly, “I’m sure nothing untoward conspired with a child in her lap.”

“We were just discussing novels and…,” I pause at a loss, “What is a good replacement for sex?”

“Masturbation usually works for you,” Shiva laughs, “Are you so afraid of her that you want to appease her?”

“Those novels,” she stresses the word, “aren’t appropriate for young ladies to read.”

“You are a High priestess of Almeteresia, a goddess of love in all forms, fertility, and s-sex,” Maya argues back, all the while blushing, before I can say anything, “You’ve taught me about her teachings since I was young and you’ve started teaching Talia as well.”

“This and that are different,” Emilia immediately retorts, as Alice sits back down across from us with a little smile on her face, “Just because you know her teachings doesn’t mean that you should go chasing a half-succubus with a cute face, a shapely butt, and giant breasts.”

“They aren’t that big,” I complain out of reflex, and the room falls quiet again and I can feel eyes on me.

“You are right,” Shiva giggles, “They are bigger.”

“You have a bust that would rival any full blooded succubus,” Emilia shakes her head before she steps around behind me and starts to work with my hair again, “I could hold them in my hands and they would spill over in a-”

“Sumi,” Maya nearly shouts, “That’s being a bit rude.”

“Really and what do you think about them?”

“They are…” she stops and then looks down at my chest barely hidden by the blanket before she looks away and mumbles, “Sorry.”

There is laughter from the other chair and after she calms down Alice says, “Don’t worry about it, a succubus without big breasts is no succubus at all. I would be more concerned about your back.”

“Eri would be incredibly disappointed to hear that,” I sigh.

“Succubae have strong backs,” Emilia says as she wraps hair around the top of my head and begins to pin it into place, “Probably to offset the weight they usually end up with in the future.”

The room falls back into silence as Emilia continues to work with my hair. Maya settles back down with her book. I feel Talia’s warm breath on my side as she sleeps peacefully and I can hear the light rhythmic ticking as Alice continues to work.

I twist to look at the dress, but before I can see it my head is turned back and Emilia says, “Keep looking forward for now.”

She grabs the bottom of my hair I can feel her rolling it around slowly moving up my back, and she eventually pins it near the base of my neck before she moves on to the next section of hair. I reach down and start to gently rub the top of Talia’s head between her ears and she snuggles down closer to me.

It doesn’t take Emilia long to finish pinning my hair up, then she quickly moves around to the front of the chair, and she sits her chair down. She then starts to walk back over to the table that I was sitting at before, and I hear her mumble, “This would be easier if she were over here.”

I look over to the dress while I have a moment. It has a large black skirt that has three layers with just the smallest amount of red frill around the edge of each layer. The bottom layer should just rest at my ankles and the other layers almost look like large petals just beginning to open up. I move my eyes up towards the top of the dress and my breath catches in my throat.

It has two pieces of cloth that wrap from the back of the waist around to the front with a large gap that would leave my midriff completely exposed, and leave well over three quarters of my back exposed. The fabric continues up around the dress mannequin’s breasts showing off the underside of its breasts before the fabric meets on top of its breasts and then separates leaving an empty diamond revealing a fair amount of cleavage. It then meets again at the neck where it wraps around holding the dress up and is tied with a red bow on the front. There are, what looks like, two gloves draped across its shoulders.

“I-I can’t wear that,” I stutter, “Not out anywhere else.”

“Is there a problem with it?” Alice asks and I throw a glance at her, “We could make some minor adjustment to it.”

“It bares m-my back,” My voice drops to a barely audible whisper. I can already feel the stares that I will attract while wearing it if I let my defenses slip even for an instant, "I can't wear something like that outside."

“Ah yes,” Alice nods her head, “You don’t have to worry about that. Iris said that we would need to alter the design when you agreed to model for us. So I asked Maya to make a piece to go underneath the top.”

“It is like your nightgown but thicker and should completely cover your back. The only skin that it will expose will be between the gloves and sleeves,” Maya explains in an assuring tone, "And it should also help keep you warmer as well."

“You’ll have to make sure to thank her properly later, both of them,” Shiva whispers, and I nod my head slightly while feeling relieved.