Read Online Bloodline by Alan Gold - Free Book Online

honey as he walked toward Naamah’s rooms.
    He found her naked except for a sheath of the sheerest gossamer covering her body, lying on her bed propped up on one arm, and smiling at him.
    â€œI knew you’d come to me tonight, my king, my lion,” she said. “I know what mood you wear after you have spoken to those priests of yours. You desire to have your mind and body eased by your loving wife from Ammon.”
    Solomon straightened to his full height and looked at her with skepticism in his heart. “And what if I’d have chosen my first wife tonight? What if it had been Tashere the Egyptian I went to?”
    â€œThen you would have enjoyed a long and restful night’s sleep.”
    Solomon snorted and stepped closer to the bed. He felt a stirring in his groin.
    â€œCome to me, my lion of Judah. Let your Naamah soothe your mind and excite your body.”
    Solomon, lord and master of Israel and many lands and nations beyond, was helpless in her presence. Any resolve he might have had with other wives, no matter how skillfully they pleasured him, disappeared immediately when he was with Naamah. She wasn’t the most beautiful, nor was her body as comely as many of his other wives, nor was she as young and nubile, but she knew how to pleasure him, drawing him to her like bees to a ripe and newly opened flower.
    He slipped off his cape, undid the fastenings on his tunic, and in the blinking of an eye stood there naked, prone, and rigid. Naamah smiled and beckoned him with her finger to come to her. Solomon mounted her bed and reached for her breast, cupping it in his hand as he kissed her tenderly. What he didn’t see was Naamah beckoning with her fingers behind his back to three of her most beautiful naked slaves standing just beyond the doorway. They entered her bedchamber, climbed onto her bed, and pleasured Solomon while he was still kissing Naamah.
    It took longer, much longer than the previous night, for her lion to be spent, emptied, and satisfied, but as with all men the end came loudly and definitively. As he lay back on her cushions, she dismissed the three slaves and lay beside him, holding him in her arms.
    â€œWhy do you let these priests offend you, my king?” she whispered. “In Ammon, my father would have had them nailed to a cross like the Assyrians and the Akkadians when they wish to punish somebody. It can take a man a day or more to die in agony. If you did that to one of your priests, the others would do your bidding immediately.”
    His voice hoarse from his cries during lovemaking, he said softly, “I can’t go against them. In your land you have many gods, and your father, the king, is the greatest of your gods. But we are not like you. We have just one god, Yahweh. And anyway,Yahweh tells us that we mustn’t be cruel in our punishments.”
    â€œMy lion, I have just felt the potency of your sword. You have great power. It should be you that wields it, not the priests,” she said.
    â€œIf I move against the priests, then the people of Israel will spurn me.”
    â€œThen appoint a priest who will wield Yahweh’s sword for you and not for himself. Then both the priests and the people will be your subjects.”
    But she didn’t know whether he’d heard, because as she stroked his hair she realized that he was asleep.
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    T ASHERE, DAUGHTER of Pharaoh Shoshenq and first wife to King Solomon the Wise, had for many years been a devoted wife. But the sands were shifting, and as she made her way to the throne room she eyed with suspicion the people she passed.
    Tashere had been the first wife Solomon had taken. When Tashere was Solomon’s only wife, she was lavished with gifts and a palace and attention. Now Solomon had hundreds of wives. Each day it seemed she saw a woman whose face she had never seen before. Of course they all knew her and greeted her courteously as first wife, but each diminished her a little and