Enslaved - Love in the Future Pt. 04

Bonding

The trip came to an end in a fashion as delightful as the way it began. Meena and Nav returned to the ski slopes several times, and Meena was shredding the expert runs soon after Nav reluctantly agreed to let her try. He'd skied for years, but in a few short days she'd gone beyond what he'd ever done. It was more evidence of her bioengineering. Experts referred to people like Meena as being post humans, but some used the word superhuman. During the whole week Meena only fell once. She was turning a bit too quickly when she hit a patch of ice. She plopped down on her butt, letting out a laugh so joyful Nav was glad he was there to hear it.

They went sightseeing in town. They went to a concert. They took a gondola ride to the top of the highest peak in that part of the mountain range. Meena looked down on a landscape unlike anything she'd ever imagined in all her years on the plantation.

They took pictures. Meena had never used a camera, so Nav loaned her his and told her to record some of the highlights of their trip. Her photos were obviously the work of a person with a very creative temperament. Meena's paintings were wonderful, so it was no surprise that her pictures would be wonderful, too.

They made love constantly. It was the first thing they did each morning, the last thing they did each night, and something they found time for during the day. Nav liked to take what he called "power naps" where they'd bed down in the afternoon, have sex, then sleep for about an hour. Meena saw that sex was a wonderful way to make herself sleep, and she saw that the naps gave them energy to get more enjoyment from wherever entertainment the evening held. It helped them stay up until dawn some nights.

There was a wonderful art museum in a town nearby. Meena loved seeing so much great art in one place, especially the old-fashioned pieces made from paint on canvas. She thought it was amazing that artists could create something so beautiful using such primitive methods.

They returned to the dance club. The excitement of the trip energized them both, so they danced on, and on, and on, staying at the club until it closed. Nav loved watching Meena dance. It showcased her joyful attitude, her beauty, and the effortless eroticism expressed in every move she made. He would find a way for her do erotic dance for him in the future. It sounded like something she'd enjoy being ordered to do.

They went to a series of great restaurants, exposing Meena to a range of cuisine she'd never heard of or tasted. Their last night found them in a beautiful club that served traditional French food and offered live music.

That night's entertainment was a jazz trio. Meena was thrilled, and touched that Nav was obviously thinking of her when he made the selection.

She wore a different dress that evening. It was just as revealing as the gown she wore on their first night out, but she'd begun to grow accustomed to being so exposed. It helped that so many other women dressed the same way. It also helped that Meena was beginning to enjoy the looks she attracted. Nav said it made him feel proud to be accompanied by such a beautiful woman.

"You say the nicest things," Meena said.

She recognized that the trio wasn't particularly good, but she enjoyed their attempts at interpreting traditional jazz standards. They did one thing she thought was particularly odd. Jazz is supposed to swing, a word that describes a propulsive quality given to music by playing certain parts of the beat a little faster. It gives the music a kind of push. But this trio didn't swing. They played jazz the same way one would play Mozart from notes on a page. It was nice that they could recreate famous melodies from classic jazz songs, but it was a bit weird to hear jazz without a trace of the quality that made it so special.

Nav reached into the pocket of his jacket and withdrew a small box. It was gift wrapped and tied with a delicate little bow. "I have something for you," he said.

Meena had not expected a gift. Their entire trip felt like a week-long gift. Nothing more was required.

"Open it," Nav said.

Inside she found a lovely diamond bracelet and two matching earrings. The diamonds were large - strikingly so - and the stones were mounted in heavy gold settings made with artful curves and angles. "It's beautiful," she said, putting on the jewelry.

"My grandfather gave this to my grandmother the first time they met in person," he said. "He was trying to get her attention."

"It must be very valuable," Meena said.

"Well, yes. It is. It was actually a lot more expensive when he gave it to her. Diamonds used to be outrageously overpriced. People who wore jewelry like this were sending a message that they were rich. Diamonds are nice, and big diamonds like this still cost a lot of money, but it was nothing like the bad old days.

"You're a smart girl, Meena. You must wonder where I got so much money. I didn't earn it. It was my grandfather who created our family fortune. Navius Bushnell Sr. He passed the fortune down to my father, Navius Jr., and Dad managed it in a way that made it grow. I've done the same thing. But it was all because of Grampa Nav. He did it by selling diamonds. A LOT of diamonds."

Meena knew Nav was fabulously wealthy. She knew he was an oligarch, because no one else could afford to buy a slave. She'd been taught that the word "oligarch" was considered impolite in certain circles, so she never said that word out loud.

"Have you ever heard of the Diamond Wars?" Meena hadn't. "It was a long time ago. Ancient history. Grandpa Nav started the Diamond Wars. It made him one of the richest men in the world."

Nav explained that diamonds used to be gathered by miners working in dangerous conditions. Mining caused vast environmental damage. Corrupt governments used profits from diamond mining to fund genocidal wars. Miners were paid a fraction of what the gems were worth. Miners gathered far more diamonds than the diamond cartel wanted to sell, so the cartel hoarded most of these diamonds in vast warehouses to create an artificial shortage that pushed prices unreasonably high.

"Every single thing about the diamond industry was vile," Nav said. "It was controlled by greedy, unscrupulous people who didn't care about anything except profit."

When Nav's grandfather was in grad school, he invented a new kind of software that made online commerce more profitable. The company he founded grew explosively, making him a billionaire when it went public. He was in his mid-20s when he realized he'd achieved every goal he'd ever set for himself. He'd excelled in school, created an important invention, launched a successful company, earned a fortune, and purchased a collection of more mansions, yachts and artwork than he could ever actually use. He rebelled against the notion of spending the rest of his life sitting in lounge chairs, sipping on cocktails, and pursuing the most alluring women money could attract.

He kept thinking about the diamond industry. Everything about it was offensive. The people who ran it were the most evil, exploitive individuals on earth. Back then entrepreneurs liked to talk about using new technology to "disrupt" existing industries. No industry ever needed disruption more than the diamond business.

Grandpa Nav knew that a growing number of diamonds weren't mined. They were grown in machines that vaporized carbon and made it form perfect crystals. Most of these diamonds were for industrial use, but they cost so much less than mined diamonds that a lot of bargain hunters liked synthetic diamond jewelry. They were identical to mined diamonds, they sparkled more because they were flawless, and they didn't contribute to the ongoing nightmares caused by mined diamonds and the industry that monopolized them.

Grandpa Nav got mad enough to act when he saw some outrageous lies about synthetic diamonds. The cartel launched an ad campaign promoting the ridiculous idea that there was something inferior about lab-grown diamonds. They claimed synthetic diamonds weren't as good an investment, but Nav's grandfather knew that only an idiot thought diamonds were a good investment. People who wanted investments bought stocks, bonds and real estate. Fools invested in diamonds. The cartel claimed there was something inauthentic about synthetic diamonds, but Nav's grandfather knew they were real diamonds and were superior because they were flawless.

It went on, and on, and Nav's grandfather was increasingly outraged. "Lab grown diamonds are better in every way," he told everyone he met. The fact that anyone believed this advertising was just one more example of what the entrepreneur P. T. Barnum meant when he said "There's a sucker born every minute."

By this time, young Grampa Nav was a billionaire with nothing worthwhile to do. He asked himself why he should use his money to buy more mansions, yachts and artwork, when he could use it to disrupt one of the most evil industries in human history.

It was a complicated task that took years. It began by purchasing existing diamond "foundries" and investing in research to make the process more productive and efficient. The only serious criticism of diamond foundries was that they consumed a lot of electricity, and that meant they increased global consumption of coal and natural gas. Grandpa Nav solved this by investing in solar and wind power to generate enough green energy to run his foundries.

Although jewelers couldn't distinguish between mined diamonds and lab-grown stones, there were machines that could detect subtle differences. Grandpa Nav's engineers figured out ways to make it impossible to know if a diamond came from a mine or a foundry. The main difference was that mined diamonds had more flaws.

By the time his foundries were producing diamonds by the truckload, he was ready for war. For a long time, he'd been telling people synthetic diamonds were "better in every way." His marketing department thought that was a pretty good slogan, so it became the battle cry for his war on the greedy, corrupt leaders of the mined diamond industry.

They were too slow and stupid to compete. Nothing attracts more attention than an old-fashioned public brawl, and Grampa Nav was a brawler. Business publications from the Wall Street Journal to Bloomberg did stories on the battle. Since they were committed to the truth, these stories inevitably explained that, indeed, the diamond industry was a blight on humanity, and grandfather's diamonds were, indeed, better in every way.

"But the best weapon in grandfather's arsenal was my grandmother," Nav said. "That's why this bracelet means so much to my family."

When she met Nav's grandfather, Olivia Simpson was one of the most famous women in the world. She was an actress and supermodel. Her face appeared on the covers of the biggest magazines. A top magazine once declared that she was the most alluring woman in the world. No one disagreed.

Grandpa Nav certainly agreed. He was spellbound. He called her agent and arranged a meeting to discuss making her a celebrity spokesperson for his company. She did product endorsements all the time, so she showed up for the meeting expecting a traditional sales pitch.

That's not what happened.

When she arrived, Grandpa Nav began by saying, "I need your help destroying one of the most evil industries in history."

That sounded interesting. It got more interesting when he led her to a table with the most exquisite collection of jewelry she'd ever seen. "The bracelet I just gave you was on that table. So were the earrings," Nav said.

Grandfather's designers had created a collection second only to the British crown jewels. His grandmother was a sophisticated woman who recognized that she was looking at some of the finest jewelry in the world.

Grandpa Nav said he wanted to give it to her. All of it. And he wanted to pay her to wear it in public. She spent much of her life on red carpets, on runways, and at prestigious charity events. All she had to do was wear grandfather's jewelry and say publicly that synthetic diamonds were "better in every way."

She thought it was too easy. There had to be a catch.

She was impressed by Grampa Nav's passionate argument that the diamond industry needed disruption. She believed him. She believed he could do it. His passion was . . . contagious. But this collection of jewelry was so spectacular that it was difficult to think he wanted to give it all to her. It would have made more sense if he'd offered to loan it for public appearances. She would have agreed to that.

"I get the feeling that there's something you aren't telling me," Grandma Olive said. "This all sounds so wonderful that I can't help but think I'm missing something."

"Well, there is one little thing," grandfather said.

Here comes the truth, she thought.

"I'd like you to wear this at a specific time and place."

"Where and when?" she asked.

"Tomorrow. At dinner. With me."

It took a few seconds for Grandma Olive to realize what was happening. She was hearing one of the most creative (and expensive) pick-up lines in the history of romance. He wanted her. That was not how she expected the meeting would end.

She thought he was cute in a nerdy way. He was not like the men she dated from the worlds of fashion and entertainment. He was refreshing. And she'd been moved by the forceful passion she heard when he described what he wanted to do and the role he wanted her to play. She'd been told he was a ferociously intelligent guy who should be taken very, very seriously. She saw it was true.

"Where shall we go?" she asked.

Grandma Olive began wearing the diamonds at public events. When she was asked, she said she was proud to be wearing synthetic diamonds, which were "better in every way." She was a true believer, and when people heard it from someone so famous and beautiful, they actually started believing it. It wasn't like an ad. It felt real.

Then she surprised everybody. During an interview she said that she only wore "cruelty free diamonds." No one had ever used those words before. She made them up on the spot. She was familiar with the phrase being used to describe cosmetics developed without painful animal testing, and it just seemed to fit.

It's hard to predict what will move the public. She'd found it. Suddenly, it became unfashionable to wear jewelry that caused so much suffering. Famous women announced that they were donating their jewelry to charity and replacing everything with "cruelty free" diamonds, which happened to be a real bargain compared to nasty mined diamonds.

By this time people figured out that Nav's grandparents were a couple. She wasn't just another paid celebrity spokesman. She actually believed what she was saying. She and Grampa Nav appeared together at celebrity events, and the public swooned a bit at the pairing of a passionate billionaire with a cause and the alluring supermodel who loved him. The magazines went crazy.

So did retailers who sold mined diamonds. Nobody wanted minded diamonds.

The final stroke was a complete accident. Nav's grandfather was at a meeting of his investors when one of them asked about the phrase "cruelty free" diamonds. A reporter overheard the conversation.

"She came up with that all on her own. I deserve none of the credit. We employ some of the best marketing people in the world, and they do a great job, but my girlfriend is smarter than all of them combined."

That was the quote. It electrified the public. Here was a man with a growing reputation as a swashbuckling billionaire battling forces of evil, all while romancing the most beautiful woman in the world. When it came time to give her a compliment, did he praise her beauty? No. He praised her mind.

That did it. It was over. Women everywhere concluded that Navius Bushnell Sr. was the best boyfriend in the history of romance. If he believed that mined diamonds were evil, and his brilliant and beautiful girlfriend thought they were cruel, then the public believed that, too. Sales of mined diamonds plummeted. The value of mined diamonds dropped so much that people who'd been stupid enough to collect expensive jewelry because they thought it was a safe investment rushed to sell their collections before the price fell even more. Dumping all those stones on the market destroyed the industry. There were bankruptcies and foreclosures and mountains of diamonds that couldn't be sold at any price.

Nav's grandfather won - with the help of a gorgeous woman who was apparently also a genius.

"There's a very good biography of my grandfather. I remember him pretty well. I mainly remember that he and my grandmother were crazy about each other. They died when I was young because aging was incurable back then, but even when they were very old, they acted like teenagers in love."

"I'd like to read it," Meen said.

"It's called Better In Every Way. I'm sure it's available somewhere. Business school students still read it."

Meena looked at her bracelet, thinking about Nav's grandmother using it to help the man she loved achieve his dream. "I'm very flattered," she said.

Nav took her hand. They looked at each other for a long time, enjoying the moment and saying nothing.

"I feel like the luckiest girl in the world," she said. "You've done everything a man could do to make me happy. I was very glad when you bought me, and I'm even more glad now." Meena paused, then said, "There's only one thing that would make this perfect."

"And what is that?" Nav asked.

"I wish I knew a way I could give you pleasure in bed. All I do is lay back and let you take care of me. I don't know how to take care of you. I understand that you say I should learn these things later, and I'm sure you're right. I just wish I could show you how much I care for you."

It was her first week of enslavement. It was her only request. It was a reasonable thing to want. Nav knew she'd been bioengineered to be generous and caring, and she was being thwarted by her innocence. She couldn't help wanting what she wanted.

"If that's what will make you happy, that's what we'll do," Nav said.

When they returned to their suite, Meena slipped off her heels, walked to the middle of the room, and turned to face Nav. By this time, she knew what he wanted. Nav kissed her lips and neck, then pushed the straps of her gown off her shoulders. It fell to her feet. She stepped out of the dress, then slowly turned around so Nav could see her from every angle. Meena had done this enough times that she felt a deep satisfaction from Nav's gaze. Of all the things she'd experienced that week, the feeling of being adored was unexpectedly satisfying.

They went to the bed and took off Nav's clothes together. She wondered how he would show her ways to give him pleasure.

Nav remembered that Meena sucked his cock the very first time they made love. She did it because she wanted to taste it, not because she was trying to please him, but she learned quickly that she'd discovered a way to make him hard.

Nav sat on the bed and had Meena kneel between his legs. "Suck my cock," he said. When she complied, Nav took her head in his hands and gently worked his cock in and out. "Use your tongue," he said. "Use your lips." He signed in pleasure as she sucked his cock as deep as it would go.

It wasn't long before she was working on him like an experienced cocksucker. Nav took one of her hands and showed her how to work the part of the shaft that wasn't inside her mouth. His reaction let her know that she was giving him pleasure. It made her feel wonderful.

Nav knew he was about to cum. "Meena, don't stop sucking when I cum," he ordered. "Keep sucking. Suck every drop down your throat. I want to feel you suck my cum right out of my balls."