Cleopatra's Secret: Keepers of the LIght by LYDIA STORM Read Free Book Online Page B

table. Everything was instinct as a power took them over, moving through him, through her. He could hardly tell where he ended and she began. He felt the primal divinity of the Goddess in her touch, the strength of the fertile earth in her hands as they pulled him closer and caressed his bare back. The call of the sea rushed through his ears as he closed his eyes and worshipped her full body with his lips, pressing her thighs open to nuzzle her damp sex, lapping her up like the waves against the perfect pink shell of her, his tongue unleashing soft moans of pleasure from Cleopatra’s lips as her head fell back against the silk cushions in a haze of pleasure.
    He felt the honey of her loins, and the sweet flower-like softness of them, as his fingers penetrated the sacred darkness of the Goddess. An erotic shock of all creation hit him as his fingers probed the womb of the Mother. He could wait no longer––he throbbed to be inside her.
    Her dew drenched body yielded to him and she cried out a name.
    Was it his? The God’s?
    But he lost the ability to discern anything at all as his body entered hers. The sounds, smells, vision of the chamber around him melted away as their flesh merged. Cleopatra had become simply a vessel for Her. It was the fever of Isis that burned emerald light from her eyes. Their movements were the deep churning of the oceans, the gravity pulling the weight of the planets through the heavens. And then even that was surpassed: there was only blinding light, eternal and unending, filled with a divine ecstatic love.
    The immortals had joined in heavenly union, and with the mingling of the lover’s physical bodies, their souls entwined and irrevocably became one. He felt an almost unbearable rapture as he came to a climax. Then all faded as he collapsed on his lover’s breast, the throb of her heartbeat a gentle drum to lull him to sleep.
     
    ***
     
    Antony awoke to find himself alone in a bed of pure white silk. In fact, he could just barely see through the gauze curtain surrounding the bed that the entire room was a dazzling white, much too bright for his bloodshot eyes. He lay stricken, feeling the gentle sway of the barge beneath him, his hands and forehead clammy with the stale sweat of the after effects of the wine and those damn herbs the priestess had given him. In the pit of his stomach he could feel nausea rising, but he lay very still just breathing in the healing sea air that wafted in the small windows at the top of the room.
    He closed his eyes again and images of the night before flooded his mind, coming like the momentary remembrance of a dream. He saw the deer’s mortal demise, remembered in bewilderment how he had felt the animal's pain. He recalled the God entering him, the earthy scent of the nighttime forest, and the great banquet which must have taken place here aboard this vessel.
    Antony sat up and a sudden jolt of pain surged through his head. He grasped his forehead and reclined back a bit on the pillows. All was quiet. Last night the barge had been filled with the voices of holiday revelers. Everywhere he looked there had been dancers in brightly colored costumes, the priests of Isis with their shaven heads, servants, musicians, everyone in the world it had seemed. Now the boat was silent as a tomb. Even the tiny lapping waves which washed against the barge were quiet. Where had they all gone?
    Where was she?
    But he couldn't think of her now, or what had happened between them. It was simply too much to consider what it all meant for him, for Rome, for the Gods. He had never felt confusion like this the morning after a night of love. He buried his eyes in the palms of his hands trying to block out the pain in his head.
    He felt the silk of the bed and sheets against his skin. This was her bed. He pressed his face against its softness and closed his eyes.
    He started at the touch of a cool hand on the back of his neck. He looked up. Cleopatra stood above him, dressed in a