Read Online Naughty Bits 2 by Megan Hart, Saskia Walker, Charlotte Featherstone, Portia Da Costa, Cathryn Fox, Lilli Feisty, Elliot Mabeuse, Jenesi Ash - Free Book Online Page B

with lips and hands and body, using all their skills to please her. And if they did, if she found them entirely to her liking, only then would Tia assent to their embrace and let them come to her. Only then, and only if she were certain of the approval of the goddess within her would she open herself to them and take them, and in so doing know a pleasure few mortal women could even imagine.
    Could any young woman seriously refuse serving the gods in such a way?
    They turned off the side street and headed west toward the Avenue of Osiris that ran along the banks of the Nile, just in time to see the last edge of the sun sink below the vividly green palms on the far side of the river, flooding the facades of the buildings with fiery light. The moment of sundown always moved an Egyptian’s heart, and the party paused while Kheneb pronounced a quick thanksgiving and a prayer for the safe journey of Ra through the subterranean land of Duad below their feet. As always, darkness fell as quickly as the sun, and before they had gone very far, two of the guards trotted off into a beer shop to borrow a flame for the lamps they carried.
    â€œTia,” Kheneb said tenderly. “You do not have to do anything you don’t want to do. You know that, don’t you?”
    â€œOf course I do, my brother.”
    He stared at her, apparently waiting for her to tell him that she was unwilling to go through with this, but Tia just looked with perfect equanimity across the tops of the palm trees to the broad swath of the Nile, where a royal barge painted in blue and gold could now be seen racing downriver, brightly lit with numerous lanterns. From the sound of their laughter Tia knew the rowers could not be slaves. So most likely it was one of Pharaoh’s sons, perhaps Nekhet himself, who, as the prospective betrothed of the Mitanni princess, was overseeing the building of Astarte’s temple. He was reputed to be a dashing and fearless young man, given to acts of valor and gallantry and known for the reckless way he handled a chariot, as well as for taking his barque racing along the Nile. Tia watched the barge for a while, but she could not make out who was at the helm. She waited, enjoying her brother’s discomfiture at her silence.
    Kheneb finally made a sound of exasperation and turned away. More than she, he was of two minds about this arrangement. He wanted the political victory that would come of allying the new goddess with Hathor, and yet he feared entrusting his little sister to the barely civilized influences of the foreign goddess. He loved her dearly.
    The guards came back, bearing their lamps on poles, and the little party started out again.
    â€œNow, you will let me do the talking,” Kheneb said, bending close to her in a final inspection. “And you will remember to sit or stand erect and not fidget. The priestess’s name is Illana, and she speaks fine Egyptian like a normal human being, not all that coughing and throat clearing of the Mitanni. She was brought to Egypt as a child, and has served Great Pharaoh’s ministers as an interpreter and counselor. Sheknows many in the great Double House herself and is not without considerable influence. She is also a consecrated priestess of the foreign goddess, so don’t fail to show her respect.”
    They at last stepped out into the wide Avenue of Osiris, the finest in the city, running along the banks of the Nile and fronted on both sides by stone temples and the buildings of Pharaoh’s government. There was a ceremony going on in the great Temple of Amun, the Hidden One, and the glow from many oil lamps spilled through the maze of pillars and out into the street where a loose crowd of undesirables milled about, not allowed in the temple, but eager for the god’s blessing. The sight of the golden lamplight among the blue and purple shadows stirred Tia’s heart. Kheneb ceased his brotherly chatter and drew himself up into his