Double Your Pleasure Bundle (27 page)

Chapter Five - Interview

"Great Lord Theodoros," protested Enlil. "This is outrageous. You can't let them get away with it. It's an insult to this sacred event! And think of that poor girl—they'll make her service all three of them at the same time, you know they will!"

"Damn right, and she'll enjoy every moment of it," snarled Phorbas. "She's
ours
. We won her!"

Theodoros sighed. "Lord Enlil, I agree that the outcome to this round of the auction is somewhat...unorthodox," he began, apologetically. "But there isn't actually any rule against multiple Children of Lilith pooling their funds to bid on a single candidate."

Enlil began to protest, and Theodoros raised his hand to silence the other Child of Lilith.

"However," he continued, "as you well know, the candidate is not compelled to accept the winning bid if she finds the outcome distasteful. In that case, we would ask that the winners withdraw their bid, and allow the next-highest bidder to offer for the candidate."

The crowd in the courtyard was utterly silent as they strained to hear Theodoros's every word.

Theodoros turned to Melis. "Lady Melis," he said in a ringing voice. "Do you accept the winning bid?"

Lord Enlil turned to face her. She couldn't see his expression behind his veil, but she sensed triumph oozing from him. She was
his
, his posture proclaimed, and he was ready to claim her.

He frightened her, but could she really sell herself to the three brothers?

From the obscure hints her mother had voiced, and after her experience with Stathis, Melis had thought that becoming a
philtata
would simply mean opening her legs and letting a Child of Lilith push his cock inside her.

The reality, it seemed, was going to be very different. And just how did one go about doing...
that
...with three men? Especially, like Phorbas had implied, they wanted her to serve them all at the same time?

Everyone was waiting for her to make her decision. Melis took a deep breath, her heart pounding so loudly that she could barely hear her own voice.

"Yes, Lord Theodoros. I accept the winning bid."

The courtyard erupted in a pandemonium of shouts, whistles, and applause. The three brothers applauded wildly and gave victory cries.

Lord Enlil stood as if frozen. "You're making a grave mistake, girl," he growled, before turning away.

* * *

One of her new masters gallantly helped a shaking Melis down from the dais. When she stumbled on the last step, her legs feeling numb and strengthless, he put his arm around her waist, supporting her.

Melis felt hard muscle through the layers of fabric separating them, and smelled something faintly spicy, like laurel leaves. She let herself yield into his strength.

"Why us? Why not Lord Enlil?" Phorbas asked her, in that wonderfully-rough voice of his.

"Because he scared me," Melis said, simply.

One of the other brothers—Nomios?--scoffed at this. "And
we
don't scare you?"

"I'm sure the temple gossips told you all about us while you were getting ready," said the one who had introduced himself as Agreus. "We're mad, bad, and dangerous to know." He sounded wry and self-deprecating.

"But you don't enjoy pain?" Melis asked, cautiously. "You're not going to...hurt me?"

The strong arm around her waist tightened, pressing her against Phorbas's side. "Ah, so someone
did
warn you about that pervert Enlil! Good!"

One of the other two took her hand in his. In defiance of custom, he wore no gloves, and his palm felt cool and callused against hers.

"Sweet Melis," he said, silkily, and she recognized Nomios's voice. "If we make you scream, I promise it won't be because we're
torturing
you."

Behind them, the auction was moving on to the second candidate, and Theodoros was beginning to ask her the same questions he had asked Melis.

The three Children of Lilith steered Melis to the wide, shallow steps leading up to the main hall.

"Where are you taking me?" asked Melis, confused. She had thought they were going to take her to their lodgings to begin the inevitable ravishing. 

"Into the shrine of the goddess," Agreus said. "We wanted to speak with you in private before the binding ceremony and celebration."

Speak with me?

Cold dread crept up Melis's spine, and made her stomach feel queasy. What did they want to her to say?

In her experience, men did not simply converse with women. Give orders, yes. Interrogate, yes, Bed, yes. But
conversation
? That was something men only did with their equals—other men.

She didn't think they would ravish her in the temple hall. So, it was going to be an interrogation.

Her heart sank. Did they suspect the truth?

As she fretted, Phorbas, Nomios, and Agreus led her up the steps to the entrance to the temple's main hall. They pushed open the massive bronze doors decorated with exotic flowers and serpents, revealing a vast, dimly-lit space.

The great hall was deserted, and Melis took the opportunity to look around the dim, incense-scented interior of Lilith's sanctuary.

The roof was supported by tall fluted columns, and the ceiling beams, high above, were lost in the shadows. The marble-paved interior of the hall was mostly bare, furnished only with stands of gilded bronze in the shape of serpents twining around the branches of stylized trees. Oil lamps hung suspended from golden chains in the serpent's mouths.

At the far end of the hall, Psyche saw a life-sized alabaster statue standing on a dais. As she hesitantly walked forward, she saw that it was a beautiful young goddess with long, flowing ringlets of dark hair, wearing a golden diadem in the shape of poppy blossoms and poppy seed capsules. Her fingers were tipped with long talons instead of nails, and a pair of folded wings rested against her back, nearly concealed under her flowing tresses.

The goddess was clad in the long-skirted, bosom-baring gown of Kreta, and her generous breasts were tipped with large, dark-painted nipples. Her eyes, inlaid with precious lapis, were large and staring, and she grasped a golden serpent in each upraised hand.

A bench of polished dark wood, inlaid with a pattern of poppies in red coral and ivory, stood before the dais.

"Lilith, our goddess and divine ancestor," announced Nomios, leading Melis to the bench.

"The old girl was quite a rule-breaker in her own time," commented Phorbas, with what seemed like blasphemous insolence. "Pity that so many of her descendants act like someone shoved a stick up their asses."

"Please, be seated, Lady Melis," said Agreus.

She obeyed, and the three brothers lined up before her.

Agreus spoke again, his words formal. "Melis, will you look upon our countenances and accept us for who we are?"

"I—" Her mouth felt dry.

She licked her lips nervously. Everyone in Kitros loved to speculate what the mysterious Children of Lilith
really
looked like, under their enveloping robes and veils. Were they men or monsters? Now the mystery would be revealed to her. "Yes. Please."

"Oh, good," Phorbas said, sounding relieved. He pushed back the deep hood of his robe, and tore the long veil from his head. "I can't stand these fucking things. They're stupid and uncomfortable."

"Behold, I am the eternal mystery, a Children of Lilith," Nomios intoned with mocking solemnity as he copied Phorbas's actions.

Melis gaped at him. This wasn't what she had expected.

"It really doesn't make much sense, does it?" agreed Agreus, busily shedding his own robes and veils. "You would think that being able to work magic like controlling the winds and weather would be impressive enough on its own."

"It's those idiots on the Council of Oligarchs," Nomios said. "And the Great Lady Aenea is the worst. All that manure about the
dignity of our positions
and a
sense of mystery fosters worship
. I think she actually
believes
the tripe she spouts. "

"And then she got the rest of the idiots to pass a law about having to cover up in public," Phorbas added gloomily. He kicked at the pile of blue fabric crumpled in a heap on the ground, and the heavy silk shimmered and billowed in response.

Melis stared as three handsome, broad-shouldered young men with astonishing silver hair emerged from the cocoons of their robes. Their faces were beardless, with smooth tanned skin, sharp features, and bright golden eyes.

They all looked nearly-identical to each other, save for the length of their hair. Phorbas wore his in a warrior's cropped spiky style. Nomios, on the other hand, sported glossy, waist-length tresses that must be the envy of every woman he knew. Agreus had a mop of short, tousled curls that framed his handsome features in charming disorder.

Each of the three had a pair of goat's horns that sprang, thick and curving, from their temples. They were dressed in simple linen tunics, dyed blue to match their robes. And the legs that emerged from beneath their garments were muscular, covered in thick silver hair, and inhumanly-jointed at the knee. Melis looked down and saw that their ankles narrowed to cloven hoofs instead of human feet.

Satyrs
, thought Melis, torn between relief and wonderment.
I've been won by three satyrs!

"Like what you see, pretty girl?" asked Nomios, with a wink.

"Are you triplets?" she asked.

Agreus shook his head, smiling. "I'm the oldest, followed by Nomios. Phorbas is the baby of the family."

"I've been an adult for
years
now," growled Phorbas.

"But you're still the youngest, and you'll
always
be the baby of the family," said Nomios, in a needling tone.

Phorbas and Agreus sat on the bench, one on either side of her. Nomios moved to stand behind her.

Melis felt his hands on her shoulders, and then unexpected relief as he began to massage them with a gentle pressure, softening muscles knotted from nervousness.

She felt an answering pulse of desire at his touch.

"Speak the truth, now." Nomios's voice was gently chiding. "You've traveled a long way and endured many dangers to arrive here. Why enter the auction? Why accept our bid?"

His fingers, clever and strong, were kneading her neck now, releasing days of tension.

Melis didn't want to confess that she was no longer a virgin, in case they sent here away, but she didn't dare lie to a Child of Lilith, either. She only hoped they wouldn't force her to tell them the whole truth, humiliating as it was.

Sitting in this shrine, surrounded by these three beautiful men, and with the wide lapis eyes of the foreign goddess staring at her, she felt her courage falter.

"My parents didn't have enough money saved for my dowry," she said. "I
knew
that. But...I let Stathis kiss me. And I liked it."

She stopped, feeling all of the anger and pain return. She had spent weeks in the grip of an infatuation for the golden-haired fish merchant's son, trying to attract his attention without seeming too bold.

"Just kissing? Nothing...more?" Phorbas asked, skeptically.

Her heart sank.

"He—he touched me. My breasts...and then I let him..." Melis whispered, her face burning with embarrassment. She prayed they would ask her no more.

At a village festival three months ago, Stathis had finally kissed her. The sun had set, providing privacy in the pockets of deep shadow between the widely-spaced torches.

Kissing him had felt so thrilling that she hadn't protested when, after a while, he slipped his hands down the neck of her gown, and cupped her breasts, caressing her soft, smooth skin.

Hot hunger had kindled in the pit of her belly, pulsing between her legs in time with her heartbeat. She had wanted more of the wonderful sensations playing havoc with her self-control.

Fumbling with haste, Stathis had dragged her around to the back of a house, away from prying eyes. There, he had bent her forwards over a wood-pile, pulled up her gown, and without further ceremony, pushed himself roughly inside of her.

It had hurt at first, a burning invasion that gradually eased as he grabbed her hips and began to move. But just as it was starting to feel good again, he had shuddered and gasped, and withdrawn, leaving her with his seed oozing wetly down her thighs.

Her overwhelming emotions at that moment had been disappointment and the sickening sense that she had just made a huge mistake.

He had kissed her, mumbled "thank you," and "beautiful," and left so quickly he was almost running as he rejoined the others in the village square.

She was never alone with him again. Within a month, his parents had married him to Demetria the salt-merchant's daughter, who came with a generous dowry.

It was then the truth became bitterly apparent to Melis. Marriages like that were not arranged overnight. Stathis had
known
he was about to be betrothed, and had ruined her anyway, the villain.