a Pleasure Rites, #1 Ines Johnson (rainbow fish read aloud .txt) 📖

Alyss' eyes were alight, prideful that she'd solved this problem before any of the adult women could come to it.

"That's quite a good idea, Alyss," said their grandmother, appraising Chanyn anew. "It is high time we birthed more females into the family."

They all appraised Chanyn anew.

All her life Chanyn heard her mother's tales of leering men. But the way these women now eyed her, Chanyn felt leered at by the women.

She got up from her seat, turned, and without a word walked through the entryway, and out the door. Dain sat in the car with his head stretched back against the seat so that his neck was hyper-extended, his eyes closed. He jumped and clutched his heart when Chanyn opened the passenger side door.

"Take me home," she said.

Dain glanced at her, but asked no questions. A sad, sorry smile played at his lips. Chanyn wondered if he'd been worried about losing her to her family; or had he been worried Chanyn would cross that threshold and have her dreams of having a family dashed.

Dain turned the ignition and drove away from Chanyn's relatives and back to her new family.

10

For the third time, Jian woke to the guttural sound of his own voice. It had happened twice before during the night. Visions of Chanyn's head bobbing up and down on his shaft. The feel of her lips like velvet on his skin. His shaft throbbed, his body thrashed, and his release, as he lay without the ring's obstruction, shook him awake.

This time he woke in the common room. A few eyes of the elderly monks slid his way in admonishment at disturbing their peaceful afternoon of silent reading and meditation. Jian shifted in his robes, an uncomfortable maneuver as he tried to cover the damp impression left by the still raging stiffness of his shaft.

"How's the training going, young pup?"

Even though Jian was well past his adolescence, he remained the youngest hound in the temple. With no clientele in the past few years, the newer recruits all left. Even Jian's fellow training mates had long since left. Those three males had been the last class of trainees at the temple. The young males had been inseparable in their youth and throughout training. Closer to Jian than his own flesh and blood; but as the temple waned and could no longer support them, they each left. Jian never considered leaving. Though, in the first few years after the scandal, he'd been afraid he'd be tossed out on his ear.

Elder Gerry had been the one to sponsor Jian into the temple. Over the years he'd become very much a father figure. He'd come to Jian's defense after the scandal, a move Jian was sure had cost him upward mobility within the temple ranks.

Elder Gerry looked at him now in his peaceful, untethered way. A look Jian tried to master.

"I do not anticipate it will take very long," Jian said, in answer to Elder Gerry's question about Chanyn's training.

Jian could already tell that Chanyn was orgasmic. Even in centuries past, both women and men considered the female orgasm to be elusive. It wasn't elusive. It simply required patience on the part of both parties.

A woman needed to be relaxed and trust her partner.

A man needed to have a working knowledge of a woman's anatomy and an attention span longer than a gnat's.

Lady Chanyn had relaxed almost instantly with him, and her trust came closely on its heels. In the past, with other women, it took Jian many sessions just to get to the point where they would arch into his touch. Chanyn was a responsive woman. Jian doubted he could take much of the credit for her pleasure.

"The first payment should be in our accounts," Jian said.

Elder Gerry nodded. "It is indeed. I've sent for supplies. With the next installment we will be able to repair the roof."

Elder Gerry put a gnarled hand on Jian's shoulder and gave him a squeeze. Most often, the monk wore a serene, expressionless mask upon his face. But just now, the old man's lips quirked up, his eyes alight with pride at his young protégé.

"Good work, Jian."

"I just hope that the brothers see it that way," Jian said. He looked around at the faces of the monks.

Elder Gerry's eyes followed Jian's. "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Jian did. He'd been living on the street.

"I was doing a walking meditation," Elder Gerry said. "You were out in a park when I saw you. You had come across a dog."

Jian remembered. It was a handsome looking dog, golden brown fur and pale eyes. His elder brother had a cocker spaniel. That small dog had taken to Jian and, for its love of another, his brother had abused it.

"I saw you reach out for the animal, intending to pet it," said Elder Gerry. "But it growled at you and bared its teeth."

"It bit me, actually."

The dog had been collared and was an unlikely case for rabies. If the animal had been rabid Jian would've likely died. A discarded street kid didn't have much access to a physic's medicinals.

"That it did," agreed Elder Gerry. "I watched the cloud of anger descend upon your face. I thought certainly you would strike out at the animal. But you didn't."

Jian had been angry at the animal. He'd intended an act of kindness and was stricken instead. Jian had always been slow to anger and slow to strike out. The bite was only a scratch. His feelings hurt more than his skin. A closer look at the animal showed that its leg was trapped under a fallen log.

"You paused and in an instant your face changed from anger to compassion. That's when I knew you were meant for this order. You saw that suffering comes from suffering. One doesn't cause injury unless they are hurt."

"The dog changed his attitude when I removed the log," Jian said.

"I remember it differently. The dog never ceased growling and snapping at you while you moved the