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

"When I return to the temple, I'll be taking vow."

"A vow?"

"Of celibacy."

Chanyn's eyes widened.

"When a hound takes the vow of celibacy, he no longer leaves the temple walls. I won't do the carnal work of a hound any longer. Hounds need compassion to minister to bonded mates. Compassion to see the needs and desires of all sides in the bond. Compassion comes from the heart.

"For so many years my heart was wounded. I never treated the wound and it festered, leaving behind an ugly scar that left me closed, closed to see the needs and desires of others. Until you. You've healed me, cleansed me. I am a man reborn because of you. You've healed my wounded heart. Your mates have restored my sense of compassion. But I can no longer do my duty."

Jian tucked Chanyn's head against his chest and wrapped the rest of his body around hers.

"I can no longer do my duty," he repeated, "because in the morning when I leave, I'm leaving my heart here with you."

18

"By the Goddess, you're right."

Khial's face tightened, along with his fists, as he narrowed his eyes at the Physic who gaped at the second set of test results. His eyes went from the Physic to Chanyn, who sat stiffly on the examination cot. Chanyn wasn't paying the Physic much mind. Her gaze, trained out the window, focused on the domes of the Temple of the Pleasure Hounds which were off in the distance. The full domes, pointing up to the sky towards the Goddess, abreasted the view of the one story fertility clinic.

"You have been bonded less than a week." It wasn't a question, so neither Khial nor Chanyn answered the Physic whose attention was still trained on the results on the tablet screen.

The past few days, Chanyn had been sad. She put on a strong front whenever she came to visit Dain in his sick bed. She read to him, brought him plants and flowers from his mother's garden, lost gracefully at the board games Khial could tell she understood better than she let on.

When Dain slept and she and Khial were left alone together, her smile would fall away. Khial allowed her her sadness. He'd sit with her quietly; take meals with her side by side in a companionable silence neither of them felt the need to fill.

"Pregnant after one coupling. And a girl too."

They had waited the requisite three days it took for gestational chemicals to make themselves known. It was standard to run a gender test with the pregnancy test. The test was strong enough to detect some type of protein present in male offspring. The Physic ran the test twice in search of this protein, though she called it a plague. Chanyn was plague free, which meant that she carried a girl in her womb.

The Physic eyed Khial accusingly. "How did you accomplish this?"

Khial scowled at her, but the menacing look bounced off the older woman.

"We used a Pleasure Hound," Chanyn answered.

The Physic turned to Chanyn. "A monk?"

"Yes, Aunt Angyla."

Khial squinted at Lady Angyla, trying to find the resemblance. He saw the same cinnamon brown skin, though Lady Angyla's looked more like rough, tree bark. They both had the same high cheekbones, but where Chanyn's were often held high in defiance, Lady Angyla's were angular and arrogant. In the end, their eyes outlined their true characters. Lady Angyla's eyes were a cold, metallic gold. Chanyn's churned with life, malleable, begging for hands to mold her and her flesh.

"The hound's rituals worked in just one session with my mates," Chanyn said, a hint of pride in her voice.

Lady Angyla quirked an eyebrow. "And you've only been with your mates? No other—"

"We're done here," Khial grasped Chanyn by the hand. She came off the cot without protest, swinging her legs to the floor and her body into his side. Khial marched them out the door and past the gaping Physic.

Long after they were out of the office, out of the building, and nearing the car, Khial noticed he still held Chanyn's hand firmly in his.

"Sorry," he said releasing her hand.

"I didn't mind," she said.

Khial's discomfort must have read on his face because she continued.

"I actually needed a hand. My back hurts a bit."

He opened the car door for her and handed her inside. She continued talking as he drove.

"I was expecting to be sick in the mornings, but not yet. Just this low ache in my back."

"You're only a few days with child."

"With child," she repeated. She placed her palms gently on her flat stomach.

Khial turned the ignition and pulled onto the road. He couldn't believe they'd created another living being. Well, she and Dain created it. The children of bonded mates were claimed equally by both fathers, though most often you could tell where the child's genetics originated with a long glance. Khial and Dain originated from two different ethnicities. It would be clear to whom the child belonged. But it still didn't negate the fact that Khial was going to be a father.

Suddenly, he felt the nausea that Chanyn had avoided. Khial had no good memories of his fathers. When he did think of father figures, he thought of Dain's fathers. He saw their two smiling faces as they looked down at their son. He remembered a large hand beckoning him to join them in a game, another holding out a seat for him at third meal. As the memories of those two males grew stronger in his mind, the nausea in Khial's gut dissipated.

From the corner of his eye, he caught Chanyn's face. Another series of memories came to mind. Chanyn standing over the boar, a fierce protector to men she hadn't even known. Chanyn leaning forward in the front seat of the car next to him with wonder in her eyes. Chanyn caressing Dain's flushed face with care while sitting beside him on his sick bed.

"For what it’s worth, I