a Pleasure Rites, #1 by Ines Johnson (top ten books of all time TXT) 📗

Chanyn's face fell. Rianald was wrong. Dain had no interest in her in that way.

"I promise that the choice of mates will be yours," he continued. "And I hope..." He paused, uncertain, looking down at their joined hands.

Chanyn got the impression of Dain as a child asking for permission to have something he didn't think he deserved, but was desperate for it anyway.

"I hope," he began again, "that you will consider Khial and myself for a—"

"Yes!"

Dain startled at her response, then he smiled. "Good. I had hoped..." He squeezed their hands together. "This is good."

Chanyn's heart thudded in her exposed chest. She was sure Dain could see it. He gazed into her eyes. Was this it? Was her first kiss going to happen now?

Dain rubbed his thumb back and forth over her hand. His eyes dipped to her lips. Chanyn parted them in invitation.

Dain brought his eyes back up to her face, his eyes widening more as he looked at the desire clearly written on Chanyn's face.

Dain disentangled their fingers and patted her knee. "This is really good news," he repeated and then rose. "I'll make the arrangements today." He walked over to the large desk that took up most of the room.

"Arrangements? For the marriage?"

He glanced up. "Oh no, no. Arrangements for your training."

"Training?"

"Of course. With a Pleasure Hound."

Chanyn looked on, dumbfounded. He talked of marriage and then was about to get her some kind of dog to train. "A dog would be lovely, I suppose."

Dain laughed. "A Pleasure Hound is a man trained in the art of pleasing a woman." He said it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

Chanyn shook her head. "I still don't understand. Why would I need another man to..." To what exactly? Have sex with her?

Dain came back around from the desk and sat next to her once more. He reached for her hand.

"Chanyn," he began. His face now sheepish. "I've never... been with a woman before. I wouldn't know the first thing to do to please you."

"But shouldn't we, you know, figure that out together?"

Dain looked scandalized. He reeled back from her. "I would likely hurt you. A Pleasure Hound is trained to find out what pleases individual women. Then they teach the woman's bonded mates those particular techniques. It’s an ancient tradition going back hundreds of years."

Chanyn still looked dubious.

"In our culture women rule. When we are bonded, everything that I have will essentially be yours."

Chanyn knew that in the twentieth century women fought for and earned a place in the government and the right to own many forms of business. But she hadn't a clue that the roles of men and women had shifted so completely on its axis in the past thousand years.

"Chanyn, on this one thing I must insist. I want what's best for you. In this one aspect of our life together, a hound will help me in achieving that."

Dain looked at her with such earnestness. In the two days that she'd known him, he'd done nothing but look out for her best interest. She supposed this was just one more of those times.

And so she decided she would try.

6

"Come now, Jian. How long has it been since you've had a warm cunt on your rod?"

Jian shifted the packages in his hand as he walked along the paved way. The sun felt like a laser on his back, aiming right at his shoulder blades. A drop of water traveled down his spine. Jian ached to itch it away but his hands were too loaded down with the packages, necessary supplies for the Brotherhood, back at the temple.

"Unlike that little filly that got you in trouble all those years ago, I'm grown enough to know not to talk."

Lady Kathryn's conveyance sleeked down the street alongside Jian. Its conditioned air blowing out of the window, cooling him from the stifling heat. Jian glanced inside the car. A chilled drink awaited him in the passenger seat, along with ripe berries. He hadn't had berries in months. The temple could not afford such luxuries, and even in times when they could, his brothers felt it sacrilege to enjoy the fruit outside the presence of women, the divine creatures who made it possible for the earth to bear such divine treats.

"I'll pay you handsomely for your talents, monk."

Jian's eyes snapped to the older woman at the driver's panel. Though past her prime, Lady Kathryn was still lovely to behold. Silver at the roots of her hair, rouge to cover wrinkling skin, breasts lifted with the help of under wiring. She wore a deep pink chemise, the color of her own sacred fruit.

She'd armed herself in temptation, but the vile words that left her mouth turned Jian's spine to stone.

"I thank you for your attention, my lady. But the Code of the Brotherhood of the Pleasure Hounds binds me to tend to women only in the name of the Goddess." Not only did hounds exclusively serve women aiming to bear female children, they only served women in bonds, with the full knowledge and participation of their bonded mates. "If I'm not mistaken, you are past your breeding prime, and I do not see your mates about."

Lady Kathryn's face turned from serene seductress to scorned siren in a heart's beat. "Your Brotherhood is not long for the world as a result of your own lack of integrity, hound. Both your morals and your decrepit temple have holes. I won't offer mine, again."

She sped off, her wheels kicking dust up into Jian's face. He shifted the packages into one hand and, using his robes, wiped as much of the grime from his face as he could. He looked down at his robes and grimaced. The stain would not come out without detergent and soaps. Another luxury the Brotherhood could no longer afford.

Just as well. He had no clients to dress nicely for. With a sigh, Jian continued towards his beloved temple.

There were few people