Lust Eternal by Sabrina York Read Free Book Online Page A

blinked. Not having normal human needs, he’d forgotten.
She’d been here for several hours now. Had several glasses of champagne. “Over
here.” As he opened the door, a waft of roiling steam rolled out. “This is the
bathing room. There is a—I think you call it a toilet—there off the main
chamber.” He pointed.
    “Oh, sweet Jesus, thank you.” She half ran, half skipped to
the recessed alcove at the far end of the pool.
    He stood at the door, waiting for her, staring at the alcove
in which she’d disappeared and annoyed at himself for that. He was hardly a
love-addled pup to moon after a consort.
    But Aimalee was so different. He had been stunned by her
enthusiasm, the way she had embraced their love, taken charge. He had to admit
he’d liked it.
    Oh, he always liked sex but this was different. He liked
this more.
    A lot had happened in the past one hundred years. The mirror
had shown him more changes in that short time than all the other centuries
combined. And one of the things that had shifted significantly was the role of
women in society. With few exceptions, the women who had come to him in the
past had been tentative, a little submissive. They had certainly expected him
take the lead in bed.
    Aimalee brought a whole new flavor to the enterprise. Though
shy, she was more adventurous than his past consorts. Not afraid to say what
she thought, take what she wanted. Not afraid of him.
    He really liked that.
    Maybe a little too much.
    She emerged from the alcove, wreathed in relief. Her mood
was definitely lifted.
    His was not.
    “Are there any other rooms?” she asked.
    He bit his lip. “Just one. But I cannot show you that room
yet.”
    She frowned. “Why not?”
    He took her arm and led her from the humid bathing room. The
breezy atrium was cool in comparison. “It is the fantasy room. It remains
locked until the lamp decides to open it.”
    “That’s odd.”
    It was not odd. Not odd at all. The lamp would not open the
fantasy room until they were both ready to explore her deepest, darkest sexual
desires. Not until there was trust and acceptance…and love. But this was not
something he could tell her. He certainly couldn’t tell her that at that point
their journey together would be at an end.
    “The lamp is ever inscrutable.” He could tell from her
expression she was annoyed by his ambiguous response. But really, he didn’t
care. Couldn’t care. There were things about the lamp Aimalee did not need to
know. And despite her curiosity, things she should not be allowed to discover.
    He led her over to the balustrade and gestured toward the
stone stairs curling down the cliff. “In addition to the seven rooms, there is
the garden tier below and farther down, the beach. You are welcome to make
yourself at home here. However you wish. If there is anything you desire, you
need only ask and the lamp will provide.”
    “And if I ask to go home?”
    He merely smiled sadly in response. That was one request the
lamp would not grant. The gods knew he had asked often enough.
    * * * * *
    The next morning, Keeshan emerged from the mirror room after
another frustrating session to find Aimalee had awoken and was no longer in the
sleep chamber.
    Though he’d only been away from her a few hours, a great
hunger for her presence stirred within him. Oddly enough it wasn’t a physical
desire. No, this was a longing seated deep in his soul. To hear her voice, her
laugh. To see her smile.
    Anxiously, anticipation trilling within him, he set out on a
hunt for her. There were only a few places she could be. He poked his head into
the bathing room, the playroom and the library to no avail so he headed for the
garden.
    He found her there, in the lovely lace dress, sitting by the
fountain, trailing her fingers in the sparkling water. Her back was to him but
that didn’t mitigate the snarl of attraction rumbling through him. Everything
about her fascinated him, entranced him. The way she held her head, the