How long he lay there, he never knew. He never quite passed out, but wavered at the edge of unconsciousness. But dawn had begun to touch the sky when he felt something nudge his ribs. He turned his head with some difficulty, and was just able to make out the silhouette of a slight female figure, filling his vision.

"Yes, he's still alive. Bring him." Her voice was sharp, with a slight accent he couldn't quite place. Giving up on trying to understand, he passed out.

He woke to sunlight streaming through a narrow window, and a cool, moist cloth on his forehead. Awareness returned bit by bit. He was on a bed or cot of some sort. Though narrow and hard, it didn't seem to be a prison bunk, which was at least something. The blanket covering him was thin but made of some fabric that was soft to the touch. With a small start, he realized that he was naked under the blanket. Oh well, his clothes had been pretty much destroyed in the attack, not that they'd been much to begin with.

Sitting up, he saw that he was not alone in the room. The ornately clad and coiffeured Chinese woman draped on the opulent, velvet-cushioned chaise lounge was certainly small enough to have been the one he'd seen in the alley. He couldn't seem to force his gaze from her feet. They were incredibly small; surely, they could both have fit into the palm of his hand! But they were misshapen somehow, looking for all the world as if they'd been folded in half before being crammed into the tiny embroidered slippers that graced them.

Then she spoke, and he no longer had any doubt but that it was the same woman.

"I am Mei-Lien. You are in my house. I had you pulled from the gutter, beaten half to death. If you displease me, I will not hesitate to have you returned, in the same condition."

He blinked at her words, the brisk coldness of what she had said. How could he respond to such a statement? He stared at her.

"Why are you gawping at me like that? Are you feeble-minded?"

"No!" He half snarled it.

She shook her head a little. "Well, it is certain you are ill-mannered. Have you a name, O angel-faced refuse of the street?"

"Lawrence Hayes." What was wrong with him? He felt light-headed, more so than a mere beating could explain, and moving seemed a great exertion.

"And an accent to match! Well, you may end up being worth something after all." She stood, carefully, and walked across the room, very slowly. When she reached the cot where he lay, she whisked away the thin blanket. He looked away, embarrassed, but her gaze was coolly analytical. "Yes, I think I will be able to profit from hauling you in from the alley." She pulled a small brass bell from one voluminous sleeve and rang it.

In mere seconds, another person entered the room. Male - he wore only a thin silk robe, unbelted and hanging open, or it might have been hard to tell. He was perhaps in his late teens, with smooth, olive skin and black, almond-shaped eyes. The wavy dark-brown hair hanging unbound down his back was as long as any woman's, and longer than most. Despite his eager attitude, he walked slowly, with a feminine, coquettish sway. Looking closer, Lawrence noticed that his feet, clad in elaborately embroidered slippers, were nearly as tiny as Mei-Lien's, and as oddly formed. He hobbled to Mei-Lien and knelt at her feet.

She tucked a hand under his chin, lifting his face. "Jin-Lien, my dear," she purred, "I have a bit of new stock to evaluate, and I require your aid."

"Mistress?"

"I want to see what his face looks like when he comes, foolish child. You need more practice at sucking cock, anyway. There's a basin under the bed, with clean water and a cloth; wash him up and suck him off."

Lawrence doubted he could really have heard what he thought he had, but the young man's actions made it clear that he had not, in fact, been mistaken. He cleaned him deftly, if a bit briskly. Lawrence might have resisted, but the odd lassitude pervading him made that seem like far too much effort.

"Do well, Jin-Lien my pet, and I shall reward you." Mei-Lien's tone left no doubt that failure would result in punishment.

Then Jin-Lien lowered his mouth to Lawrence's cock, and he no longer gave any thought to resisting. In need of practice? Why, the lad was an incubus! His nimble lips and tongue coaxed Lawrence's reluctant prick to diamond-hardness in mere heartbeats, and then he set to in earnest, nibbling wickedly along the length of his shaft before taking the entire swollen organ into his throat, then pulling back to apply exquisite suction to the head alone.

"Shocking, really, what people throw away in this country." Mei-Lien rested a dainty hand on Jin-Lien's shoulder. "Would you believe I found this treasure abandoned in the very alley from which I plucked you? Of course, he was only an infant at the time." Surely that was impossible. Mei-Lien appeared no older than twenty herself. She kissed the top of Jin-Lien's bobbing head. "So he's taken my training very well."

But Lawrence couldn't ponder the implications of this, for Jin-Lien's skilled mouth had indeed brought him to the very brink. He was unable to stifle a deep, throaty groan as the orgasm the lad had wrent from him wracked his body, and lay gasping.

"Yes, very well done, Jin-Lien!" Mei-Lien sounded pleased. "Come, tell me what reward you would like."

Licking his lips, Jin-Lien shot a glance at Lawrence, and whispered something in Mei-Lien's ear, his eyes sparkling mischievously.