One morning they were in her green chamber and Eos was wearing a robe of diaphanous white silk. She had never worn white before. In the midst of their conversation she rose unexpectedly to her small bare feet and came to stand before him. The white veil she was wearing floated about her like a cloud. The pink and ivory tones of her skin shone through the material as the light played on her. Seen through the silk, her image was ethereal. Her moon-pale belly was as sleek as that of a hunting greyhound, with a mysterious triangular shadow at its base. Her breasts were indefinite creamy orbs, tipped with strawberry aureoles.
'Do you truly wish me to unveil myself, my lord?' she asked.
He was so taken by surprise that he could not reply at once. Eventually
he said, 'It seems that I have waited all my life for the moment that you do so.': 'I want you to have all of me. I will hold nothing back from you.'I set no conditions on you. I expect nothing from you in return but your love.' She threw back the silken sleeves and held up her bare arms.
They were slim, rounded and firm. She took the hem of her veil between those tapering fingers and began to lift it from her face. She paused at her chin. Her neck was long and graceful.
'Be very sure that you wish to look upon my face. I have warned you what the consequences may be. My beauty has enslaved all before you who have looked upon it. Will you be able to resist it?'
'Even if it destroys me I must do so,' he whispered. He knew that this was the fateful moment when they joined battle.
'So be it,' she said, and raised her veil with infinitely tantalizing deliberation. Her chin was rounded and dimpled. Her lips were full and curved, charged with red blood to the colour of ripe cherries. She licked her lips. Her tongue was tapered and it curled at the tip like that of a yawning kitten. It left a glistening trace of saliva on her lips, then drew back between small, lustrous teeth. Her nose was narrow and straight but flared slightly at the tip. Her cheekbones were set high, and her forehead was wide and deep. Her arched brows formed a perfect frame for her eyes, which were dark jewels that seemed to dispel the shadows with their glory. They looked deep into Taita's soul. Each separate part of her countenance was perfect. Taken as a whole, it was incomparably lovely.
'Do I please you, my lord?' she asked, as she swirled the veil off her head and let it float down to the green malachite tiles. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders in a sable cascade shot through with ruby lights. It hung to her waist, springing and curling, vibrant with life of its own.
'You do not answer me,' she said. 'Do I displease you?'
'My mind cannot encompass your beauty,' he said, in a voice that shook. 'There are no words that can describe even a tenth part of it.
Having looked upon it, I understand how it may burn a man to ash as though he were caught up in a raging forest fire. It terrifies me, but I am unable to resist it.'
She glided closer to him, and the perfume of sun lilies enveloped him. She stood over him until he was forced to turn his face up to hers.
She stooped slowly and placed her lips on his, warm and soft. Her curling kitten tongue slipped deep into his mouth. For a fleeting moment it twined round his own, and then it was gone, but the taste of her filled his mouth like the juice of some wondrous fruit.
She whirled away across the malachite tiles. Her translucent robe billowed round her as she arched her back and pirouetted until the back of her head almost touched the bulge of her buttocks, her hair brushing the tiles. Her feet danced until they blurred with speed. His eyes could not follow them. Then they stopped and she stood on tiptoe, still as a statue, only her hair swinging round her.
'There is more, my lord.' Her voice took on a deep, throbbing intensity he had not heard before. 'There is much more. Or have you seen enough?'
'If I gaze upon you for a thousand years, I will never see enough.'
With a toss of her head she threw her hair off her shoulders, and stared at him with those smouldering eyes. 'You stand on the lip of the volcano,' she warned him. 'Even at this late stage it is possible for you to draw back. Once you take the plunge there will be no return. For you the universe will change for ever. The price will be high - higher than you can imagine. Are you prepared to pay it?'
'I am ready.'
She slipped off the robe over one shoulder. Its curve was perfectly harmonious with that of the long, delicate neck. She let the robe fall lower, and one breast strained to be free. She released both. Round, full and womanly, they swung against each other. She let the robe drop until it caught on the curve of her hips. Her belly was as smooth as a field of newly fallen snow. A fiery ruby glowed in the pit of her navel.
She undulated her hips and the robe slipped down her slender thighs to garland her ankles.
She stepped out of it and came naked to him, with that long gliding stride. Once again she leant over him and put an arm round the back of his neck. With the other hand she cupped one of her breasts, drew his face towards her and eased the nipple into his mouth. 'Take suck, my lord,' she whispered in his ear.
As he drew on it like an infant, the nipple swelled between his lips and it began to exude a thick creamy fluid. Taita relished it, until she pushed his head away and drew it out from between his lips. 'Be not so greedy,' she admonished him. 'My body has many delights for you to savour. You must not satiate yourself too soon.'
She stepped back and ran both hands down her belly with a smoothing motion. His eyes followed them slavishly. She moved her feet apart and bent her knees, spreading her thighs. He watched her hand burrow between them, deep into the cloud of dark hair. Then she brought it out again and held up a forefinger. It was glossy with a pellucid dampness.
'See how I long for you,' she whispered huskily, as she touched the tip of her wet finger with her thumb. When she parted them, a gelatinous thread stretched between them. 'This is the true ambrosia that all men crave.' She came to him. 'Open your mouth, my lord.' She slid her finger between his lips, and the heady scent of her sex pervaded his senses.
She reached down with her free hand under the hem of his tunic and took hold of his manroot. Already it was as hard as ironstone, but in her cunning fingers it stretched harder and longer still.
He looked deep into her eyes and saw in them a stark, predatory hunger that had not been there a moment before. He knew that it was not for what she held in her hand but his very soul that she lusted. Now she placed both hands upon him, lifted him to his feet and led him to the couch. She knelt before him, loosened the straps of his sandals and slipped them off his feet. She lifted her head and nuzzled him, taking him between her lips and sucking voraciously. As she stood up again she lifted his tunic over his head, then pushed him back on to the couch.
She stepped over him with one leg as though she was mounting a steed, then crouched over him to guide him into her secret depths.
He uttered a deep groan as the pleasure became so intense it was transmuted into agony. She froze immobile over him. The muscles deep inside her pulsed and contracted, tightening as inexorably on him as the coils of a python round its prey. She locked him in a union so powerful that neither could break from it. Her eyes gazed into his, filled with the triumphant glare of a warrior about to make the killing stroke. 'You belong to me.' Her voice was the hiss of a serpent. 'Everything you are is mine.' No more dissembling, she had stripped off her disguise to reveal her true colours.
He felt her carnal invasion begin. It was as though a barbaric horde had besieged the citadel of his soul and was battering down the walls. He rallied all his powers to resist her, closing his gates to deny her entrance, hurling her back from the breach. The look in her eyes changed to consternation as she realized he had enticed her into an ambush. Then her expression became murderous, and she surged back into the attack.