The Pleasure Rites Series

by Ines Johnson

  “No one should have the right to silence another’s soul,” Emet said.

  Alyss’ hands clutched at the wad of paper in her skirt pocket. Her thumb found an edge and smoothed it out.

  “Give bonded males a choice. If a male does not want to take part, you cannot take his sperm, his property.”

  Alyss nodded. “No one should be forced to do what they do not want.”

  “We could amend the original agreement,” Emet said.

  The way he looked at her, she got the sense they’d moved past the Insemination Bill. That he’d moved back into the past and was now referencing the agreement the two of them had made the previous day. The agreement where she would be allowed to sit for Adom and he would stand watch.

  “Perhaps,” the words tread carefully over Alyss’ tongue, “if all parties agreed to an engagement, then we could…move forward.”

  “Do you mean, my lady, if the lady and both of the males agree…?”

  “In a bonded triad, one…or both males could agree.”

  “I would agree,” he said.

  They stared at each other a moment longer, both taking heavy breaths as though they’d run a long and arduous race. A gavel sounded, which brought their attention round. Everyone in the room looked at them stunned.

  Sister Mychelle’s face beamed bright. She spoke first. “If the amendment is attached, the bill has The Chamber of Arts and Culture’s full support.”

  “The Chamber of Energy’s as well,” agreed the Sister Dynese.

  The gavel banged, and it was done. The Sisters filed out of the room through a back door. The crowd, who’d expected more of a gossip-worthy fight, dispersed as well.

  Alyss returned her attention to Emet. “What have I done?”

  “I think we struck a deal,” he answered, his face in a tentative grin.

  “For who?”

  But Emet could not answer. The Male Voice approached him.

  Alyss turned to face her own problem; a fuming Lady Angyla.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “That was not the outcome we discussed,” said the Male Voice. His voice didn’t boom loud, but Emet didn’t need the volume turned up to know that he’d disappointed his leader.

  “No,” Emet said. “But it's better than we could have hoped for, and it sets us up for the future.”

  “How so?”

  “It’s a compromise. It’s the first compromise we have been able to gain. It shows them we can work together. We’ve shown the Sisterhood it's possible to get their way if they give us something of ours in return.”

  The Male Voice considered Emet’s words. Finally he nodded. “Why don’t you take a long lunch.”

  Emet’s heart sank. He was being fired.

  “Afterwards we’ll discuss the wording of the amendment.” The Male Voice clapped Emet on the shoulder. “Good work, Emet.”

  Relief flooded through Emet. He shook the Male Voice’s hand, but a screeching shout broke the two males apart.

  “You stupid girl!”

  The sound of a loud crack and a whimper forced both Emet and the Male Voice to turn. Emet caught the sight of Lady Anglya striking Alyss across the face. Emet had seen violence in his life as an advocate. Women abusing men. Men abusing men. Peace Keepers abusing discards. But he’d never in his life seen a woman come to harm. His feet moved of their own accord, but he didn’t get far. The Male Voice grabbed his forearm in a vice and forced him to stillness.

  “In less than an hour’s time you have destroyed my life’s work. The legacy of an entire generation of women.”

  Alyss’ hand shielded her face with one hand. Her body turned away from her Mother, eyes on the floor from the force of the impact. Slowly, her head rose. The first thing her gaze locked on was Emet standing down the hall. From this distance Emet saw her golden eyes darken as she inhaled deeply. It was as though with every bit of oxygen that filled her breasts, the life seeped out of her in droves. By the time she exhaled and straightened herself she was preternaturally still, like road kill on the side of a country lane.

  Emet gave another tug of his arm, but the Male Voice held him firm. How could the man not want to rush to her aide as well? They both were advocates for justice. This was abuse. It was illegal. Righteous indignation mixed with the bile in his throat. Every instinct in him told him he needed to defend her.

  “This is not our fight, Emet.” The Male Voice’s words came out whisper quiet.

  “I did what you told me to do, Mother.”

  There was not a quiver in Alyss’ voice. Gone was the woman who chattered nonsensically about her hair bows and barrettes. Gone was the woman who’s eyes lit up at the brush of Adom’s paints. Gone was the worthy adversary he’d locked swords with only moments ago.

  “The bill has passed,” Alyss continued, “and you can begin your trials.”

  “Only with consent. You allowed men the right to think. This sets a bad precedent; men having a say. Just the added time I now have to devote to explain to those imbeciles will slow me down. It took enough of my time to find basic enough language to explain the procedure to you. Since you are no good to me in the Sisterhood chambers, you can be the first to join the trial.”

  Alyss inhaled again, and if possible, appeared even deader from the outside looking in. “But you said if the bill passed I wouldn’t have to-"

  “Now I’m adding an amendment to our agreement.”

  Alyss’ composure broke. Though she stood still, she teetered in her heeled shoes.

  Her Mother’s eyes appeared to light up at seeing the devastation befalling her child. “See what happens when you change the terms on an agreement?”

  Lady Angyla turned and headed down the hall. She glared at Emet and the Male Voice as she passed them. Emet wanted to follow behind her. To bring down the full brunt of the law against her offensive hand. But how could he? They were alone in the hall. No other woman had witnessed the offense, and no Peace Keeper would take a male’s word on such an unimaginable matter.

  When Emet turned back Alyss was gone. Emet took off in the only direction she could’ve gone. He heard the Male Voice call his name, but he didn’t turn back. He made his way down the hall. He found her looking out a window at the cloudy sky. The clump of artwork clenched in her fist. He approached her cautiously as though she were a severely wounded animal. When he was upon her, he reached out his hand, but pulled it back at the last moment.

  “My lady?”

  Alyss turned her head.

  “Are you all right?” It seemed such a stupid question after what he’d witnessed, but he was at a loss for anything else to say.

  Her eyes narrowed as she seemed to think over the question.

  “What she did -your Mother- striking you, that was illegal. If you would make a statement, I could help you press charges.”

  Slowly she shook her head from side to side. Female child abuse was practically unheard of in today’s society. If Lady Alyss wouldn’t stand up for herself, there was nothing Emet could do. His hands clenched at the injustice of it all.

  Emet was about to ask another lame question like ‘Is there anything I can do?’ when she spoke. He had to lean in because her voice was so quiet.

  “Have you ever felt that there was something inside of you that wants to burst free, but it can’t because you are so weighted down by the real world?”

  “Yes, my lady.” Emet felt that way nearly every day since becoming an advocate. There was so much injustice in this world against males. More than he or the advocates in the Male Voice’s office could ever hope to handle.

  “What do you do? How do you break free?”

  Emet leaned his back against the windowsill so he could see her face. “I go to Adom.”

  Her eyes sparked. “Adom?”

  Emet held up his forearm. He slid the cuffs of his shirt back to reveal his wrists. The marks were faint, but close inspection showed that Alyss understood what he was referring to. Whenever the pressures of the world got to be too mu
ch, Emet offered his wrists, his legs, his body to Adom to bind. In the pressure of the ropes he found his release, his freedom.

  Alyss looked to her own wrists. With her free hand, the hand that didn’t hold the crumpled drawing, she rubbed the marks there. Emet watched her eyes lose focus as she rubbed at the indentations.

  He kept still, remained silent. Not wanting to break the trance. He ached for her to feel relief. Felt impotent that he had none to offer her himself.

  He watched her thumb rub at her wrist. Watched her eyes flutter closed. Her lips opened on a trembling breath. Her head dipped back slightly.

  Emet gripped the windowsill to keep himself from reaching out to her. He wanted to take her into his arms and make any memory, any fantasy she was having a reality. But he held still. Thankful to be a witness to her temporary relief.

  Her hand opened, and the crumpled paper fell to the floor. Her head jerked up at the sound of the paper crashing to the ground. Her eyes opened. The brown of her eyes eclipsed the gold as they came to rest on the wad of paper on the ground.

  Emet bent to pick it up. For the second time today, he unfurled the parchment. The colors were already fading from the abuse it had taken. Emet had never been one to understand the abstract, but he deciphered the representations here. The vines were Adom’s ropes. The engorged petals floating off into the wind was Lady Alyss’ core. This was her interpretation of last night.

  Emet’s eyes connected with hers. They were no longer dark and bleak. There was a spark of gold in her irises. The flecks resembled a small bundle of embers struggling through refuse and debris to stay lit.

  “Come here.” Emet took a step towards her.

  Her body stiffened.

  “I just want to hold you, my lady.”

  “Why?”

  “To offer you comfort.”

  “Aren’t we enemies?”

  Emet shook his head. “We’re mildly cordial.”

  A laugh startled out her chest, causing her shoulders to shake. Emet took advantage and brought her into his arms. She came willingly. Her arms felt cold, but after a moment, they warmed to him. She fit perfectly inside his frame.

  “I suppose I must go to the outlands with my sister.”

  “Why would you do that?” Emet buried his head in her hair. It smelled of berries and sunshine.

  “You heard what she said back there, about being inseminated. I can’t do it. I won’t do it.”

  Emet wanted to jump for joy. There was the fiery woman he’d locked swords with earlier.

  “I don’t have a place in the Sisterhood any longer without my family’s backing. I have no money, no skills.” She laughed, but it was humorless. “I’ve been discarded. Have you ever heard of such a thing? A female discard?”

  Emet pulled her tighter into his embrace. She breathed into his chest.

  “Its going to be horrible. My sister lives in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with her two bondmates.”

  “I know. I’ve been there.”

  “You have?”

  “Jaspir’s my brother.”

  The cottage was one story with two bedrooms. The second bedroom they’d converted into a laboratory for Lady Merlyn and Lord Liam to run their scientific experiments. There would be no space for Lady Alyss and what Emet expected was her massive wardrobe and accessories.

  “You could stay with us.” The voice sounded unfamiliar to Emet’s ears, but he’d felt his lips move, felt the air rush through them, and knew that those were his words.

  “With you and Adom?”

  “We have a spare room. It was my home office, but I rarely use it.”

  “I couldn’t.” She finally pulled away.

  Emet didn’t allow her to go too far.

  “It would be improper. We’re not bonded and I have no desire to bond. I’ve lived all of my life bound to my family. I just want to be free of them, of everything.”

  “It's just a room.”

  Alyss looked into his eyes. He pulled his lower lip into his mouth to catch the moisture that seeped out at the thought of her body laying so near his at night. Alyss’ eyes watched the movement of his lips, his tongue, and desire flared beneath her hooded gaze.

  They both saw the lie. Those four walls would never withstand the heat between the two of them. If she agreed to this crazy idea of staying in the bedroom beside his, he would be in that room and between her legs before nightfall. Her eyes flared as though she read his thoughts. But the way she opened her mouth, Emet sensed words of protest coming forth.

  “Adom needs you…for his work.” The words came out in a rush.

  “Adom?”

  “Yes.” Emet pulled her to him once more. He ran a hand down her spine. It came to rest at the base, just above her ass. The same ass he’d had a handful of last night. “Adom needs you. As his muse. For his work. He’ll be opening for the gallery soon. You would do him a great service to be at his beck and call day…and night for any final paintings or…touch ups.”

  “And you?”

  “Me? I…I would help him…the two of you…in the studio… Help you pose. Like before. If you needed me to. If it were your choice.”

  * * *

  Chapter Sixtenn

  * * *

  Dusk reached up into the day and pulled down the curtain of night. Adom stopped walking and held still while the light blue rays, illuminated by the dimming yellow sun, shaded into a light purple in a matter of moments. He stared in marvel at nature’s unique canvas. The Goddess was, indeed, the ultimate artist.

  Adom had spent the morning working on his final painting for the gallery. With the masterpiece done and drying, he’d felt incapable of keeping still. He closed the shop and walked to the other side of town. His feet carried him to the only other place he’d called home; the Temple of the Pleasure Hounds.

  Having renounced his vows years ago, he was no longer allowed upon the grounds. Adom stood at the gates, gazing at the round spires. He’d loved his time inside the temple’s walls. Everything inside was a thing of beauty to him as a child; the ornate archways, the majestic columns. He would stare at the mosaics on the stone floors for hours, and still each time he passed, he would find a new pattern.

  It didn’t surprise Adom that he’d thrived in the structured constancy of temple life. Clearly defined lines showed an imaginative mind the exact boundary of where it needed to tread in order to thrive. That is why the constriction of ropes and bondage gave certain individuals freedom and clarity. Adom wished he could tie Lady Alyss and Emet together so they would come to an idea outside of the boundaries of the lines society had drawn for men and women.

  Adom knew his dream was unlikely. Rules existed because people believed they needed to protect what was theirs. They didn’t practice the Goddess’ teachings that all of Her creation was interconnected and the self was an illusion.

  Adom pushed away from the gates of the temple. Before leaving the property, he stuffed an envelope into the letterbox. It was the gems Lady Alyss paid him for the rope dress. Adom knew the temple was on the upswing. After Jian’s success in orchestrating Lady Chanyn’s conception, the temple had taken on new recruits. But Adom always tithed a portion of his earnings back to the place that had taken him in when he was a discarded third son.

  With that business now taken care of, he could stall no longer. Adom turned and trudged back home under the cover of night. He knew that news of the outcome of the Insemination Bill awaited him across the threshold of his home. He wasn’t sure if he wanted his bondmate to greet him, elated that he’d beaten Alyss. Or if he’d prefer to comfort a distraught Emet because Alyss dealt a crushing blow to the Male Movement.

  When Adom arrived at the shop, the door was open. He was certain he’d locked the door this time. Down the hall, he spied the light to his studio illuminating the stairwell. Emet had no reason to go into Adom’s studio without him. Adom went down the steps uncertain if he’d like what he was about to see. At the door of his studio he gasped.

 
Seated before his easel was Lady Alyss, her arms covered in paint. Her right hand worked furiously over the parchment. Adom stood in the doorway behind her and watched her work.

  It was a self portrait. In the painting, her head was thrown back in ecstasy, the tendrils of her hair stretched outward like rays of freedom. On her plump red lips was a heart-aching smile, so brilliant Adom felt tears prick the edges of his eyes. The lower half of her body was encased in a cocoon. But the cocoon was cracked, and from the torso up she’d broken free. Her body was a lush movement of orange, black and white, just like the monarch butterfly dress she’d worn only days ago. Her brown arms were crossed at her chest, to cover her ample breasts. From her back sprang the purple wings of a butterfly. From the crown of her head spilled a rainbow spilled as though her curls spread her love of color to the world.

  “This is me.” Her words were possessive, slightly manic.

  Adom hadn’t even recognized that she’d stopped her brushwork. She looked at the painting with the same awe he was sure shown on his face at each of his creations.

  Adom’s eyes came to rest on hers. “Yes. It is.”

  A smile spread across her face as her fingers hovered over the canvas. He hadn’t heard the question in her voice, but it appeared as though she took his affirmation as a confirmation of her soul.

  “How did you know? About me?” Her eyes searched his. “All this time, something’s been aching to get out of me, and this…” She pointed to the painting. “You could you see this when I couldn’t see it myself? This is who I’m meant to be. I didn’t realize how trapped I was until you tied me up.”

  Adom let out a small laugh. The ropes had worked for her in freeing her creativity. He only wished they would work in the political arena. Adom looked around. “Where’s Emet?”

  Her eyes never left the painting. “He stayed behind at the chambers.”

  “What happened today, my lady? With the bill?”

  She tore her eyes away from the painting of her true self and gave Adom her full attention. “It passed.”