a Pleasure Rites, #1 by Ines Johnson (reader novel .TXT) 📕

"You have no rights to touch a female. Get out of my house and back into the fields where you belong."

"Yes, my lady." The boy rose, keeping his head bowed. He walked backwards out of the room and disappeared.

"Merlyn go and wash your hands," her Mother instructed. "Who knows what diseases that third might carry. And take your rodents with you."

"Yes, Mother."

Merlyn grabbed the glass cage, blood smearing on its sides. She made haste down the halls. Once inside her laboratory, she deposited the cage on the lab table and grabbed another plaster.

"Did they like it?" Alyss barely spared her a glance from her newest creation of purple, green, and yellow.

"No," Merlyn admitted as she washed and bandaged her hand.

"They would have if you'd figured out how to make stripped humans."

Merlyn pressed the bandage to her hand and slipped out the nursery's door. She walked towards the back of the house and slipped out the back door. Once outside she headed away from the house towards the gardens. Before she made it a few steps, a hand reached out to her.

"Let me see it?"

Merlyn nearly jumped out of her skin, but she quickly settled when she looked into those dark eyes once more. "Jaspir, you startled me. I nearly screamed."

Jaspir took her hand in his. He unwrapped the bandage she'd just put on. His fingers were warm pressed against hers, and he stood so close that his thigh brushed hers. Merlyn knew she should back away. He'd been tossed out of the house for daring to touch her wounded finger. He'd likely be thrown into jail for standing close enough to touch her thigh.

She held still.

Jaspir's head was bent over, examining her finger. Merlyn saw the dirt under his fingernails. She always used gloves in her lab when handling materials. Grime underneath the nails was hard to remove and carried microscopic diseases.

"It doesn't look so bad," he announced, but he didn't let her hand go. "Those rats were sterile?"

"Of course." Merlyn felt indignant at the thought of running a messy lab. "And they weren't rats, they were mice."

"Does it hurt still?"

Just a slight twinge, nothing painful. Merlyn shook her head in answer to his question.

"Don't lie, Merlyn. I know it hurts."

"How could you know?"

"Because when you hurt, I hurt too."

"That's not possible, Jaspir. There have been studies done on telepathy, and the science is not sound."

"Then how do I know you're still hurting?"

There were a number of logical answers. He'd seen her bitten. He'd likely been bitten by sharp teeth before and knew of its lasting effects.

"I could kiss it better for you," Jaspir said.

"A kiss?" Merlyn frowned. "There's no medicinal value in the lips. In fact human mouths contain an array of germs—"

The impact was soft, like crashing into her pillow at night after a long day behind her microscope. Jaspir pressed his lips into hers. Warmth flooded through her, like when she pulled her blankets over herself on a cold night. Merlyn felt the oddest impulse to snuggle into Jaspir as she did into her mattress when the sun peeked through her bedroom window when she wasn't yet ready to rise. It was with that defiance in mind that she stayed in his embrace longer than she should. In the end, it was Jaspir who pulled away.

He should have looked shamed, taking such a liberty with a female, but he didn't. He looked weary, resigned. His dark eyes burned into her. "I know," he said.

Merlyn blinked. "You know what?" Her voice came out a hoarse whisper.

"I know that we would never be allowed to bond," he said. "But it’s already happened."

It had? Merlyn's fingers came to her mouth. Bonding ceremonies were the exchange of words, a contract on paper signed by the female, and vows spoken aloud by males. There was no such contract written between them.

"My heart is yours, Merlyn," Jaspir vowed. "It was yours the first moment I saw you. Do you remember the first moment I saw you?"

Merlyn's mind took a moment to clear and call up the memory. "You were here in the garden, covered in mud. You'd just planted this bush." Merlyn indicated the plant. In the center was a starburst of red seeds. The petals were green and the stem purple. It was a hybrid. Their master gardener had been teaching Jaspir to graft plants, taking two separate plants and joining them to make something new, something rare, something stronger. Merlyn found the science behind it fascinating.

"You looked at the plant with such disdain," Jaspir said. "You were certain it wouldn't survive the coming winter. Then you turned to me and asked that I report on its state, come spring. It was as though the world shifted off its axis that day, and everything revolved around you. This plant shouldn't have survived, but I wouldn't let it die because I wanted to come and tell you that it thrived. I wanted to see your face when you looked at it in the spring."

And he had. Jaspir had sought Merlyn out to tell her about the plant. She hadn't believed that it survived, so she went with him to see for herself. She'd been sneaking into the gardens nearly every day afterwards to watch its progress for the past three months.

Jaspir twined his fingers around her wounded hand. Merlyn noticed that all pain, all twinges, were gone.

"I knew I loved you on that first day," Jaspir said. "But all these months later I realize something else. That I would serve you all my days, and wait an eternity of winters, just for the privilege of looking upon you. One day, I'm going to buy a piece of land and graft you a field of impossible flowers. You'll see."

"Ahem."

The sound of someone clearing their throat made Jaspir and Merlyn spring apart.

Before them stood a young boy about their age. His skin was pale and his hair the color of red, a paler shade than Alyss'. His green eyes glared at Jaspir who, though standing