Sating the Lust God Read online

  Her words surprised Tamanna. Most of the women present were hoping to spend the remainder of their lives in the luxury of the temple.

  “If I’m chosen, I’ll never be with Shad again. He’s the man I love.”

  Tamanna’s brow furrowed. “Then why are you here?”

  “It’s expected of me. My mother and my grandmother have mated with the Lust God. It is not only an honor, but repays the Great Chand for keeping our people safe from the disease that nearly destroyed our people.”

  “If you don’t want to go to the temple, there are many women here just waiting to serve him.”

  “I promised my father and brothers I would come here today.”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Jas.”

  “Well, you’re here, Jas. You’ve fulfilled your end of the bargain.”

  The girl sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “Aren’t you afraid of being chosen?”

  Tamanna’s pulse quickened with anticipation. Yes, she was afraid, but even greater was her fear of not being chosen. When she’d looked into Chand’s eyes, she felt emotions she’d never imagined possible. The beginning of love, perhaps? Unless she was selected, she would never know. She couldn’t imagine being in love with a man and then being forced to give him up because her family demanded it.

  She rested a hand on Jas’s shoulder. “Love is not something that should be discarded because someone else expects you to follow a path they have chosen for you. Not only that, shouldn’t the woman who mates with the Great Chand truly want him?”

  “I hadn’t thought about that. He’s a god. I never imagined he might feel something for the women he claims.”

  The gong sounded from the temple, signaling for the women to begin their ascent. Tamanna and Jas rose. “Are you coming with us?” Tamanna asked.

  The slightest smile touched Jas’s lips. “No. I think I’ll go home.”

  “Good luck.”

  “And to you. If the Great Chand is truly what you want, then I hope you are chosen this year.”

  So do I, Tamanna thought, her stomach churning.

  Though a path had been cleared up the side of the mountain, its steepness made the journey difficult. By the time they reached the top, even the fittest of the group, such as Tamanna, were drenched in sweat from the long climb in intense summer heat.

  Three priests dressed in long, golden robes stood at the entrance of the temple.

  The tallest raised his hands to silence several of the women’s whispers.

  “You will follow me to the bath where you will prepare yourselves for the Great Chand.”

  Tamanna fell into step with her companions and followed the priests through the temple doors. The great hall was as she remembered it from last year. No rugs or tapestries covered the stone floor and walls. Except for the marble altar standing on a platform with six wide stone steps leading to it, the room was empty.

  They were led through the hall to a door leading down to the bath chamber, an enormous room in one of the temple’s lower floors. It contained a natural hot spring pool large enough for all the women to bathe comfortably together.

  The women were ordered to remove their clothes, wash, and anoint their bodies with scented oil and perfume. Each was given a belt of gold mail, the back and front triangular and just long enough to conceal their pubic area and indentation of their buttocks.

  While some of the women carefully arranged their hair high atop their heads in a classic style, others chose to let theirs hang free.

  Knowing her glossy black hair was her most attractive feature, Tamanna let hers cascade down her back and over her shoulders. It was long enough to partially conceal her breasts and she thought it might add an air of mystery since most of the women made a point to expose their bosom.

  Finally, the priests returned and escorted them back to the great hall where they were ordered to kneel in front of the steps leading to the altar.

  “Keep your heads bowed,” one of the priests stated. “No one is to look at the Great Chand without his permission.”

  Tamanna’s pulse skipped with anticipation. That’s exactly what she had done last year. She had looked at the Lust God and suffered for it through her obsession with a man she would probably never have.

  Or perhaps she would. Though he hadn’t chosen her, she had felt something pass between them, something that called her back to the temple. Something deep inside told her he had felt it, too.

  “Your servants, Great Chand,” the same priest spoke again, this time in a soft, reverent tone that announced to the women that the Lust God was in their midst.

  Tamanna’s hands trembled when she saw his feet step past her on the way up the steps. As before, golden cuffs hugged his ankles. She lifted her gaze slightly and watched the sensual play of muscles in his long legs while he strode across the lowest step. Back and forth he paced.

  He paused in front of her. Her heart hammering, she drew a deep breath.

  Now or never.

  She lifted her head and their gazes met. It was like stepping into a fire-lit room after trudging through an ice storm. His gold eyes widened a bit, their black pupils nearly filling the iris. His lips parted, revealing the tips of his gleaming white teeth. Some part of her was aware of the beauty of his dark, sleekly muscled body with its four powerful arms, yet she was unable to fully tear her gaze from his eyes. Passionate, powerful, yet lonely, they bore into her, demanding while at the same time pleading for fulfillment only she could give.

  A shudder of terror and passion ripped through her. Drawing a deep breath, she felt her nipples swell to aching peaks.

  Please, choose me, Great Chand. I am meant to be yours and you are meant to be mine.

  Chand stared at the woman, his immortal heart pounding in his chest.

  It was the woman from last year who had captured his interest more than any female he had ever known. Such a woman was dangerous. She threatened his very existence in this world.

  You do fear her. The Great Chand must avoid a mere mortal woman.

  Chand’s chest tightened and he ground his teeth. It was the annoying man whose flesh and bones he shared. Of all the people the priests could have chosen to allow his entrance into the world, it would have to be a man of integrity, one who was too stupid to appreciate the power Chand gave him. Not only did he have the honor of dwelling within the same body as a god, but the god’s longevity was now his. The priests had killed for even a glimpse of such power, but Kabir fought him constantly, disturbing the few short days of carnal existence Chand was allowed each year.

  I fear no one, Chand replied, his spirit battling Kabir’s. Least of all a woman.

  Then choose her.

  She does not appeal to me.

  You can’t deceive me, Great Chand. Kabir’s use of the god’s title was not reverent, but mocking. Not while you and I share this body. A glance at this woman and your cock is rock hard and aching. Is it her beautiful breasts that arouse you? Her brown nipples are stiff, peeking through her veil of long, black hair. Can you imagine how they would taste on your tongue?

  Her breasts are no different than any other woman’s.

  Then is it her mouth, Lust God? Her full, moist lips that would slip like velvet over your shaft?

  They all have lips.

  Then it must be her eyes. They look at you with lust --

  All women look at me with lust.

  Let me finish. She looks with lust, but also with desire for your soul. She sees both of us. She knows what we crave, and if she gives it to us, then you will be lost.

  I could never be lost to a woman.

  Then prove it and choose her.

  Chand wished there was some way to throttle the bastard lurking inside him, but all he could do was smother his spiritual voice even more.

  Unless you confront her, Chand, she will haunt you forever because you want her. You want to know what it’s like to mate with a woman who desires your mind as well as your body. None of
the women you have taken have bothered to look into your eyes. Even when you order them to look, their expressions are always of lust, fear, and greed.

  Chand’s fists clenched. She lusts and fears, too, you foolish man!

  Yes, but instead of greed, compassion glows in her eyes. Will you fall in love with her, Great Chand? Will she claim your divine heart?

  Never.

  Then choose her. Only once each year are you allowed the joys of the flesh. For once don’t you want to taste the spiritual and physical warmth only a woman such as this can offer?

  Perhaps Kabir had a point. Mating with her would undoubtedly be different than any of the others. He was a god, superior to her in every way. He would control her and there was no possible way that he, an ageless immortal being, could fall in love with a mere mortal inside of a week.

  The woman’s rich brown eyes were still fixed on his, pleading, promising, making him burn with desire. It would feel wonderful to claim every inch of her smooth, tan body, to plunge his cock deep inside her wet satin sheath.

  He pointed at her and she drew a visible breath. Two priests grasped her arms and tugged her to her feet. Chand heard the priests murmur something about the other women, but he paid little attention. He stalked out of the hall to the corridor leading to his private chamber.

  A priest followed him, hurrying to even keep the traditional five paces behind the Lust God. “Great Chand, you haven’t selected the usual ten women to entertain you prior to choosing your mate.”

  “And you dare question why?”

  “Please, My Lord, this humble priest only wishes to remind you that should a woman claim your heart, the spell that binds you to this world could be broken and --”

  “And I don’t need the likes of you to remind me!” Chand stopped and spun, his hand closing around the priest’s throat and pinning him to the stone wall. He glared into the man’s terrified face and snarled, knowing the gesture exposed his sharp, white teeth and made him appear all the more threatening. “Tell me, sniveling parasite, do you believe a mere mortal slut will tempt the heart of a god?”

  “N-no, Great Chand. Of course not. I just --”

  “Are concerned about your illusion of immortality? Just as I know that without my presence you will wilt and die like a weed, I realize only the coldness of my heart allows me to exist in this world.”

  “I didn’t mean to offend you, My Lord,” the priest rasped.

  Chand’s grip around his neck tightened. “Remember, priest, alive or dead, you and your companions belong to me. You cannot continue living in this world without my blood, and if you die you will meet me in the netherworld. My prison is the ocean of darkness through which all souls must pass in death and I can detain any that I choose, so you will do well not to offend me.”

  “Yes, Great Chand.”

  With a serpentine hiss, Chand dropped his hold on the priest who sank to his knees, rubbing his neck and gasping.

  The Lust God continued down the corridor until he reached his private chamber.

  In his fury, he had nearly forgotten about Kabir. Now the man haunted him again.

  You know how greedy and evil these priests are. You know that after drinking your blood the only way they can survive is by stealing the blood of mortals and they do this by imprisoning your chosen mates.

  I told the priest and I will tell you, I don’t need a reminder of the circumstances surrounding my cursed existence.

  You don’t want to hear about the despair in the harem you built.

  There is no suffering. If the priests mistreat any of the women, I would know about it and they would suffer upon my yearly return. The women live like queens.

  In a gilded prison.

  If you are repulsed by their situation, then why did you press me to select a woman you and I both desire?

  You mean a woman whom we both could care for.

  Pathetic man. You are just as selfish as I am. I use these women to gain a few days in the flesh, and you use one with the hope of freeing yourself.

  Kabir’s spiritual voice remained silent and Chand smiled.

  You don’t like hearing the truth, do you? You still consider yourself a pure, untouched priest seeking to do what’s best for his people. For centuries you have immersed yourself in lust. Remember, every woman in the harem pleased our body. Each time we thrust our cock into feminine flesh, you felt the same pleasure as I did. Never forget that.

  I cannot. Kabir’s sorrow crashed against the frozen barrier around Chand’s heart. It was salty and hot, eating away at the ice, but only the outer layer. The Lust God had made his defenses thick. Impenetrable. No matter how strong Kabir’s emotions, they would never break through.

  Now, you hypocrite, we will take the woman I have chosen and we will sate our lust with her soft, mortal body.

  Chapter Four

  Her legs trembling, Tamanna followed two priests down the torch-lit corridor. For the first time, true horror struck her. She had been chosen to mate with the Lust God. Images of him danced through her mind. Tall, powerful, possessing golden eyes and four magnificent arms, he was completely inhuman. How could she hope to satisfy such a vigorous, masculine being? The Deity of Death and Fertility, a complete contradiction, he was among the strongest of the gods, with only his father, Ailesh, possessing more power.

  Had she been mad to think she could satisfy him, let alone touch his soul?

  The priests stopped outside a door at the end of the hall. Tamanna also paused, her heart pounding. She tried to control her breathing and appear unafraid. She must have succeeded, since the priests were staring at her with a hint of anger in their red-tinged eyes.

  “Remember to show the Great Chand the utmost respect, woman,” one of the priests warned, his voice almost a whisper.

  “It is you who need to show respect and remember your place, priest,” boomed a deep voice from inside the chamber.

  Both priests and Tamanna jumped at the displeasure in the Lust God’s voice. Apparently his hearing was quite keen, to have caught the priest’s softly spoken words.

  “Send the woman in and leave us.”

  Exchanging glances, the priests motioned for Tamanna to step inside before they turned and walked down the corridor.

  Drawing a deep breath, she curled her hand around the doorknob. Slowly, she entered the Lust God’s chamber.

  It was a vast room, about half the size of the great hall. At the farthest end of the room, steam rose from a hot spring bath sunk into the floor and surrounded by black marble. In the center of the room, in front of an enormous fireplace, stood a polished wooden table and four matching chairs. A basket of bread, cheese, and fruit along with a bottle of wine rested on the table.

  The bedroom area, directly in front of Tamanna, captured her attention most of all. Long black curtains were drawn back from a bed large enough to comfortably fit five tall men. Black silk sheets and six fat pillows adorned it. Matching curtains draped the nearby window so the only light in the room emanated from several strategically placed torches in the walls.

  A portion of the wall to Tamanna’s right moved backward. From a hidden room, the Great Chand emerged. Having discarded his loincloth and jewelry, he stood before her in his naked glory. His dark skin gleamed with ginger-scented oil that seemed to make his every chiseled muscle stand out harder and more beautiful than ever before. Tamanna’s breathing quickened when her gaze fixed on his thick cock emerging from a crinkled nest of gleaming black hair. The ruddy head with its enticing eye called for her to suck it. The balls beneath were heavy, like those of some great male animal waiting to claim its mate.

  “On your knees, woman,” he growled.

  She dropped to the floor, though continued to stare defiantly at his cock for a moment before lifting her gaze to his brilliant golden eyes.

  He smiled, revealing the pointed tips of his teeth. “You have a rebellious nature. I like that. Nevertheless, you will learn obedience, lovely one.”

  Lovely one. Her
pulse skipped at his compliment. She wanted him to find her attractive.

  “Come to me. No. Do not stand. Come to me on your knees.”

  She moved forward. When she reached him, his cock was at her eye-level. Staring, she saw the pattern of veins beneath the skin and the ridge along the underside. The bulbous head fascinated her. She wondered if it felt as velvety as it looked. The desire to prod the little opening with the tip of her tongue was almost overwhelming.

  “Take me in your mouth, lovely one.”

  Again, she lifted her gaze to his. “My Lord, don’t you even wish to know my name first?”

  One of his hands lashed out and grasped a handful of hair at the back of her head. He held it snugly, not enough to cause pain, but with enough force to let her know how easily he could hurt her, if he so desired.

  He spoke softly, yet with underlying irritation. “I am a god. If your name was important to me, do you think I would not already know it?”

  For some reason, his words wounded and angered her. Her eyes must have reflected her feelings, because he smiled again, a sinister twisting of his voluptuous lips.

  “Did you think to capture the heart of a god?”

  How had he known that? She drew a sharp breath and shook her head.

  “Speak when I ask you a question!”

  “No, My Lord.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “To please you. To… offer you thanks for keeping our people safe.”

  “You believe that offering your puny mortal body is thanks enough?”

  Her anger and hurt turned to hatred. Why had she come to the temple? Finally she realized what a fool she had been to give up her entire life for a stupid dream.

  His hand moved from her hair to her face. Cupping her chin, his gaze fixed on hers. Those harsh golden eyes narrowed slightly and a hint of emotion darted through them. Slowly, he began caressing her face. His hands stroked her cheeks and forehead. He ran a fingertip over her lips, then caressed her throat with feathery touches that soothed her in spite of her rage. His second set of hands entangled in her hair, his fingers threading through it with a lover’s gentleness.