A woman.

Ashani helps you undress, which proves to be far more interesting than undressing yourself. But when you're down to your last boot (too many laces), and you're sitting in her canopied four-poster bed while she kneels before you, pulling your boot off, you see her wince.

"Are you all right?" you ask.

She sets your boot aside and works her shoulder. "It's nothing."

You wait.

She looks up at you, then sighs. "My back's just a little stiff. I'm sure it's stress. The Overlord thing never lets up."

You pat the bed. "Come lay down. Let me give you a back rub."

"It's not that bad. And I was going to show you Elilah's Eleven Elements of Ecstasy."

"Really?" You feel a little tingle of anticipation in your toes. And other parts. "I thought that technique was lost a couple of millenia ago."

She touches one of her long elvish ears, reminding you of her enchanted, inhuman heritage. "I may be a few years older than you."

"Ah ha." You scoot back on the bed. "Still. If you're uncomfortable, this won't be fun for either of us. Let me see if I can help."

She smiles and stops arguing. She climbs into the bed and stretches out, face down, on the silk sheets. You take a moment to appreciate her long limbs and her beautiful dark skin. Then you sit beside her and rest your fingertips on her ankle, just above her engraved gold bracelet. Delicately, you draw your fingers up her calf, then the back of her knee. She shivers as you caress her thigh and the curve of her ass, and she sighs as your fingers trace her spine. "I feel better already," she says.

"Just learning the territory," you tell her. You shift forward so that you can comfortably reach her back, and put your hands on her sides. Her skin seems hot to the touch. Or maybe it's you. Or maybe it's the two of you together.

You slide your hands up toward her shoulder blades. "Tell me where you're stiff."

"A little lower than that....ah." She twitches as your hands reach a firm knot of muscle low on her back.

"You really are tense. Okay, let me know if this is too hard."

You lean down and start to exert pressure, working her muscles with your thumb and fingers and the heel of your hand. She groans and draws her fingernails across the silk sheets. You massage, and she sighs, melting slowly under your touch. You feel her tension ease as her breathing grows deep and even, almost drowsy.

"Is that better?" you ask.

Her voice is muffled a little by the mattress. "So much better. And I really, really want to fuck now."

"Good," you tell her, as your fingers drift across her skin. "In that case..."