The Clever Fox: Part Three (The Pleasure Hound Series) (2 page)

Though she hadn’t attended a birth before, Alyss knew that laboring was hard. She watched in part horror, part awe, as the child struggled to break free of its Mother’s womb. The baby girl came into the world kicking, screaming, and punching the air. The moment she came to rest in Chanyn’s open arms, the child settled.

Chanyn, who had been moaning in the agony of child birth, peered down at her daughter. The little girl, whom they named Dayna, had been cast from the safety of the womb with her limbs flailing, hushed in the crock of her Mother’s arms. She opened her golden brown eyes and stared at her Mother. Then a beatific smile broke across the child’s face. After just one moment of knowing her Mother, little Dayna’s eyes filled with trust and love. Chanyn’s smile was one of instant acceptance and adoration.

“Welcome home,” Chanyn whispered to her daughter.

Lord Khial and Jian surrounded the girls, the same trust, love and acceptance mirroring their own facades. They made a cocoon around the little girl who babbled nonsense. But they all looked down at her, nodding as though they understood and would support her in any way. They wrapped their arms around one another, binding the four of them together.

“Come along Alyss.”
 

Alyss jumped at the sound of her own Mother’s voice.

“It's getting late. We can find our own way out.”

Alyss looked from the open smiles, tears, and awe on Chanyn and her family’s faces to her Mother’s pinched expression of disapproval. Alyss ran her fingers over the fading marks of her wrists.

“Yes,” Alyss said. “You’re right. I’ll find my own way.”

Chapter Two

The Peacekeepers didn’t come that night. No one knocked on the door. The wind didn’t even rattle the windows. All was quiet without and within their home. In the morning, the sun’s rays broke the silence.
 

A beam of light shimmered over the sheets. Adom felt the warmth snap to his toes. The rays tick-tocked their hands up his legs, brushing aside the weariness from carrying Alyss’ limp body out of the storefront, cradling her in his lap as they crossed town, and then climbing the stairs of Jian’s home with his precious cargo, only to deposit his treasure in a bed that was not his own.

“It’s for the best,” Emet had insisted.

Even the memory of his tone rang false in Adom’s mind. And now, as the sun’s radiance rang over his face, Adom could no longer hide from the truth.

He rose from the bed. It did not creak when he displaced his weight. Neither he nor Emet had moved a stitch after finally laying down last night. Adom reached into his closet and pulled out trousers and a tunic.

“It’s for the best,” Emet repeated his words from last night.

Adom turned.

Emet lay wide awake with his eyes squeezed shut. The sun shone bright on his brown face. Emet raised his palm to block it out.

Adom turned from him and continued to dress.

“She’s better off with her sister.” The bed creaked in protest as Emet sat up. “And if she needs us-.“ Emet stood and turned his back on the sun, his eyes searched for Adom’s but Adom would not look directly at his bondmate. “If she needs anything, Jaspir will let us know.”

Adom finished buttoning up his trousers and made to leave the room. The floor boards groaned as Emet dashed across the room to intercept him.

“Adom, please. I had to protect you. Lady Angyla would’ve done worse to you.“

“I’m not the one who needed your protection, Em.”
 

“The law on this is not on our side.”

“
We
were supposed to be on
her
side.” Adom finally turned to face his bondmate, the man who had been his hero all those years ago. This man who Adom could always count on to separate right from wrong and stand firmly on the side of justice. “She came to us for a safe haven and we shoved her out in the middle of the night. I lost control with her last night. I admit that. I pushed too far, but I did not hurt her. She trusted me. I wish you would trust me.”

“I trust you with my life, with my body, with my soul. I risked my life for you, for us.”

“When we were hounds, and I bound that young woman, you quieted everything down, but that included me.”

“What are you saying?” Emet’s dark skin looked two shades paler as he waited for Adom’s answer.

Adom took the few paces necessary to bring him to the man he loved. Emet stood in the sun with his back to the light. Adom knew that Alyss was awake now, awake and alone and confused. Likely feeling abandoned. Would she retreat back into her cocoon? Would she never show anyone her colors again?

“Emet, I love you. With everything in me, I love you. But you see the world in black and white, right and wrong. And I’ve always been a shade of gray. Alyss is…she’s not gray, she’s a riot of color. And she’ll never be quiet. I don’t want to be pushed down into a dark corner anymore.”

Emet recoiled as though Adom had struck him.

“Your instinct is to protect, but neither of us need protection. We need freedom to draw outside the lines, in a myriad of color, and to shout loud.”

Adom watched Emet’s shoulders sag as though his words uncorked the air from his chest. Adom’s fingers ached to reach for his ropes to tie Emet’s forearms behind his back and set him up straight, but he couldn’t. Not now. He had to find a way to help Alyss out of the darkness.

Adom marched out of the bedroom and into his studio. Memories of his night with Alyss assailed his mind. His sight caught on her painting. He looked at the girl on the canvas, flying so free. The world should see her like that. He would put it in the gallery alongside his work. It was the least he could do; share his fortune with the woman who was the cause of it.; bring her into the light beside him.

One by one, he loaded all the paintings. He loaded them all on a cart and pulled them out of the storefront. The sun lit his path as he pulled the cart across town until he found himself outside the art gallery. Geoffri the gallery manager, let him inside. Adom lined up each painting one by one.

The Awakening sequence, that began with the Goddess on the red earth.

The Birth of the Sun, which captured the first time Alyss sat for him.

The Lotus, with his muse still bound inside the cocoon of her petals.

The Worship, which captured man bowing before Her core.

And finally, the Butterfly, where his muse awakened and freed herself from the casings that had bound her her whole life.

“These are simply breathtaking,” the patroness, Lady Jayne, said as she entered the room. “Did you have a model for this?”

Adom had to clear his throat of the truth. “It's from my imagination.”

“You have a very vivid mind, Adom.” Lady Jayne’s finger grazed his shoulder.

Adom stepped to the side beyond her reach. “I’m glad they are to your liking, my lady.”

“It's simply astonishing that a man could make up something like this?” She indicated the Worship painting.

In the painting, a woman with skin the color of almonds stood before a man. Her long black hair cascaded in waves down her shoulders. The man’s face was unseen, only the dark curls at the back of his head were visible as the rest disappeared into the earth. Their torsos blended into one, disappearing into the earth as though they sank into its depths or rose from it. The carnal aspects of oral sex were hidden to common eyes, but they were clear to Adom.

This was the world Adom wanted to live in. A world where a woman opened himself to a man, allowing him to please her, trusting him to take her higher, both of them spreading joy to the earth, making it fertile.

He hadn’t made it up -the crinkle in Alyss’ eyes. The shape of the O of her mouth as she cried out. The tension in her legs as her orgasm took her. He hadn’t imagined Emet gripping her thighs. That glint of possession in his eyes. The hunger that glistened from his tongue.

“And then there’s this one.” Lady Jayne indicated the final picture in the line up.

“It’s a last minute addition,” said Adom. “I know her breasts are apparent, but it's not pornographic. It’s a young woman becoming free, expressing herself and spreading joy into the world.” Women were allowed to paint themselves half nude or fully nude. But when the brush was in a man’s hands it was called lude.

“I don’t think its pornographic, Adom. In fact, I want one done of myself.”
 

Adom looked around the room, but Geoffri was no longer present. He and Lady Jayne were alone, and she was advancing in words and distance.

“We could get started now while Geoffri hangs your work. I keep a bedroom upstairs for when I work late hours. It looks as though this portrait will take many hours into the night.”

“My lady, though I am flattered by your attentions, only my art is for sale and not anything else.”

“You have principals. I understand.” She looked at the butterfly painting again. “It's just I can’t help but notice this young woman looks so very familiar. She reminds me of Lady Angyla’s daughter. What’s her name?”

Adom stood by, mute.

“Oh yes, Alyss that’s it. Though it couldn’t be Lady Alyss. She’s an unbonded female and the daughter of one of the most powerful women in the city. She would never sit for such an erotic painting.”

She let the words trail off, suggestively. If only she knew what he and Lady Alyss had done together, it would likely make this old cougar blush.

“This work is from my own imagination.” It wasn’t a lie. It was how he’d seen Alyss the moment he bound her hands and hooked her up onto his rig.

Lady Jayne squinted. “But it looks so unlike most of your other work. Look at these lines, and this color palette. It's as though an entirely different artist painted this.”

Lady Jayne’s smile widened to flash shark, white teeth. Beads of sweat pooled at the base of Adom’s neck. What had he been thinking bringing this painting here? He’d wanted to give Alyss a chance to have her work admired by others, to set them both free of their artistic confines. He’d wanted her to see she had true talent that would be seen and appreciated for the great work it was. Instead, he’d placed her before this pariah.

“Its a good thing it's not Lady Angyla’s precious daughter. If it were I’d have to call the Peace Keepers and have you taken away for visual slander against an innocent female.”

Lady Jayne’s grin went even wider. Adom was certain she’d swallow him whole any minute.

“I’ll tell you what,” she sauntered closer.
 
“We’ll keep this painting out of the showing. You can replace it with one of my likeness, which we’ll hang in my home for our eyes only. We can get started now.”

She stared at him, waiting to see what move he would make.

Adom held his tongue and felt like a hypocrite. Just an hour ago he’d lectured Emet about not being silenced, about living out loud and in the light. Now he found himself about to step back into the darkness, forced into a line of someone else’s definition.

But what choice did he have?

If Lady Jayne told anyone that Alyss had any ownership in the work, she’d be ruined and her Mother would have Adom thrown in jail.
 

Lady Jane held out her hand. “Come now, Adom. Let’s begin.”

Chapter Three

Emet shut the door to the storefront behind him. He turned into the bright sun and had to shield his eyes from its glare. The sun’s rays found their way throw his fingers. Emet jerked his face to the side and Adom’s words from earlier rattled in his head. He ducked into his conveyance and started the ignition to head into work.

It was true that Emet saw the world in black and white, right and wrong. But the comment about seeing Adom as a shade of gray? Emet didn’t understand what that even meant. Adom was his friend, his lover, an artist and an idealist. Emet saw him clearly. Where was the gray?

The situation with Alyss, too, was black and white. It was wrong what her Mother did to her. Wrong that there was no precedent of law to protect young girls. But his hands were tied in the matter. Alyss wouldn’t press charges against her Mother, and even if she did, a hearing on the matter would eventually reveal her connection to Adom and Emet, which would place them in harm’s way. The lines were stark. There was no gray.

He’d done the right thing. It was unheard of for an unbonded woman to live with two males that were not her mates or, at least, her betrotheds. When others found out it would have caused scandal for all three of them. Adom would be shunned from any reputable gallery, his dreams dashed. Emet would have a tough time advocating the rights of man-kind, and that’s if he would even be allowed to remain in his post. And Lady Alyss would…?

She would what?

What did she have left to lose?

Her Mother had discarded her. She had no place in the Sisterhood. Her only desire was to be Adom’s muse and to create her own artwork. Surely she’d be able to paint while living with her sister, safe in the outlands.
 

Out in the middle of nowhere.
 

With three individuals more interested in the science of rodents and plant life…

It didn’t matter. She was away from her Mother. Away from harm. She would be fine. It was for the best.

Emet pulled up to the Sisterhood. He didn’t remember the journey it had taken to get here. He turned off the engine. He sat in his car. His fingers would not release the wheel. His foot tapped the gas pedal. After ten minutes sitting in the parked car, he put the key back in the ignition and headed away from the building. Twenty minutes later, he pulled up in front of Jian’s house and nearly tore through the door running over the manservant.
 

He spied Jian walking towards him down the hall. “You’ve heard the news?”
 

There was such joy in Jian’s face. Last night he’d given both Emet and Adom a stern look as they carried an unconscious, young lady into his home; a young lady whose arms were covered in rope marks.
 

“Our daughter is here,” Jian beamed. “She arrived early this morning.”

The news stopped Emet in his tracks. “Jian, that’s fantastic.”

“She’s perfect Emet. Wait until you see her.” Jian tugged him down the hall.