A Taste of Spice and Splendor

by Lacuna Reid

  I used to often get glimpses of him when things were tough. He was always beautiful, radiant, surrounded by golden light. It was probably just a childhood fantasy,

  “Yeah, well,” Lana says. “I stand by my convictions even if you’re a boring atheist. It’s not fair that you have a guardian angel and multiple hot soulmates – save some good karma for the rest of us!”

  I feel better after the conversation with Lana. When she leaves, I go back to bed and try to sleep off my hangover, but my head keeps spinning round with thoughts of Gino and El Cielo and my father and Cliff and Michel and my old job, and all the mistakes I’ve made in my life. Eventually, I fall asleep and go straight into the heart of the most intense dream.

  Chapter Seven

  Mya

  I look up at the dark sky. The new moon is finally here, and we are blessed that it falls on a perfectly warm night. It is a favorable sign from the gods. Anticipation hangs in the air for the sacred ritual ahead, and I can barely contain my excitement.

  I bathe and chant with the other priestesses. We anoint each other in the sacred oils and swirl the cleansing incense around each of us. We imbibe the herbal potion said to keep our bodies pure and virginal, so that only the God may touch us, and no mortal seed will contaminate our power. The mixture is bitter and tingles at the back of my tongue.

  We walk in slow procession to the main hall of the temple.

  More incense burns as we enter. The priests are lined up on the other side of the temple. Most of them already wear blindfolds. Amedes stands near the front. His eyes linger on mine as I walk in with the others.

  Alesia passes out blindfolds made of soft dark fabric, and when we put them on, the low lighting of the temple is obliterated into darkness.

  I close my eyes since I can’t see anyway and I wait.

  I wait and I hope that Amedes will choose me. I know we have a connection, at least for me. Every interaction with him leaves moisture building between my thighs and a heaviness in my breasts… but it’s deeper than just a physical attraction. I am drawn to him, much like I’ve always been drawn to this temple. It is my destiny.

  I never expected my first time would be in a room full of people, as a priestess I hadn’t expected to take part in the sexual act at all… but the people don’t matter as much as the purpose. We are all here to worship the divine, and I want more than anything to be the vessel of the Goddess. I want Amedes, as the embodiment of the God, to touch me everywhere, including in those deep dark places where no one else has. And now that I know it’s possible, I feel so strongly that this is part of the reason I’m here, on this earth.

  Chanting starts up from the other side of the temple along with a slow beating drum from somewhere. I notice as the last of the temple lights are extinguished, casting us into complete darkness. Is this why the Rite is on the new moon? So, that no one can see anything, even if they tried to sneak up and spy on us?

  The chanting continues, and I join in on the parts that I know. Then, there is a flicker of light, as if someone is carrying a single flaming torch across the room. This must be the choosing. My breath catches in my throat. Please let it be me… please… please. The light flickers right past me and I sink under the weight of disappointment. It’s not me, he has chosen someone else. He must have chosen beautiful Alesia, the high priestess who knows what she’s doing, not someone as clueless as me…

  Then, the light flickers back into view. It stops right in front of me. I take a deep breath. I feel another hand on mine, taking it gently, leading me forward into the dark… leading me towards the altar. My entire body shivers in anticipation. I can’t see anything and I wonder how I can possibly get up onto the altar, but then I feel a strong hand at my back and another reach under my legs, lifting me up easily and laying me onto the surface of the altar.

  “Mya,” the God whispers in my ear in Amedes' voice. “Do you want to submit yourself to the will of the Goddess and the God in this way? I’ll go no further without your consent.”

  “Yes,” I whisper back, conscious that the chanting will drown out our conversation, that no one other than Amedes will hear. The chanting echoes all around us, soft and thick and flowing, as if we are enclosed in a private room made of liquid words. In this chamber, I can feel the Goddess all around me and within me.

  I become the Goddess. I see nothing and everything.

  I hear the clanking of ceramic and smell sweet oils of poppy and woodrose. Then I feel them on my feet. Gentle, cool hands in the hot night slide up from my ankles, slowly. I let out a sigh as his fingertips reach my thighs.

  As if in response to my arousal, the chanting and drumming becomes louder and faster around us.

  Amedes' hands loosen my robes, then brush up over my hips and slide around the sides of my breasts, anointing me with the sacred oil.

  I can sense he is here, leaning over me. He pauses for a moment, before lowering his face towards me. His lips brush against mine gently at first, and then with more pressure, as I respond.

  A jolt of lightening shoots through my body, and the moisture builds and melts between my thighs. Then, he presses his body against mine, sighing into me as I feel the full weight of him. His hardness presses against the mound of my kusthos, sending delightful shivers of pleasure through me.

  I surrender to the moment and let the Goddess take over my body. She strokes my hands along the taut lines of muscle of Amedes’ chest, causing the God to quiver in ecstasy. She pulls him down by his robes into another demanding kiss, arching up, so that I press more deeply into his body.

  Amedes grabs hold of my shoulders, pushing me down into the Altar and pulling back my robes so that all of my skin is exposed to the warm night air and to him. He kisses a trail down from my mouth to my neck, down the centre of my chest between my breasts, pausing to stroke them gently with his fingers. He kisses down around my belly and the line of my hips, and then he tastes me.

  His tongue is like heaven against the soft outer folds of my kusthos. I feel myself opening up like a flower, and then his fingers are there, teasing and building pressure. A searing pain builds along with the pleasure, bringing with it a sense of terrible beauty, of awe radiating out through the chanting.

  The tension inside me is building to the point where it’s unbearable. There’s an ache, like a deep burning thirst that must be quenched. The Goddess draws my arms down to reach for her God, pulling him up with more strength than I could muster alone, inching him closer and closer to the place that I need him to fill.

  “Mya?” he whispers as the tip of his péos slides between my silky thighs, coming to rest at my opening.

  He is asking for permission, and I am begging for him to fill me, to quench my ache for him.

  “Please…”

  And with that the Goddess grips the God by the shoulders and pulls Amedes right into me.

  Amedes lets out a long slow growl as he slides his full length into me. It burns in a way that only intensifies my pleasure, colliding with something deep and resonant inside me, sending waves of delight out through every cell in my being.

  He pulls back and thrusts again, thudding against my clitoris, and grinding there for a moment, increasing the pressure until I almost scream, until I’m on the verge of climax, and then he pulls back again. Leaning down for another kiss, he drives himself even deeper into me and the pleasure and pain sear through so strongly that I claw his back with my nails, wanting more, wanting everything, wanting nothing but this moment to continue forever. His thrusts continue, and I raise my hips to meet him, eliciting more deep growls, which send more shivers radiating from my center outwards.

  Just as I am definitely on the brink of climax, Amedes pulls back. Kissing my temple, he whispers in my ear, “Mya, you are the one I have been waiting for all these years, you are my soul mate. You complete me.”

  I know that every word he speaks is true, and yet my mind flickers to the other men who have sent shivers through me, and for a moment, I can’t help but
imagine them here, with us, doing unspeakable things.

  The thought makes my Kusthos tremble and Amedes growls, thrusting down on me from higher up so that the ridges of his péos stroke against my clitoris. He thrusts my legs up against his hips, so he can penetrate into the deepest reaches of my sex.

  He begins to pick up speed, building more and more... Every thrust echoes in our heartbeats and in the sounds of the drums until the darkness is obliterated by light, and in that moment, everything else fades away; the temple, the chanting, everyone vanishes except the two of us: we are the God and Goddess, reunited. We collapse together into bliss. Amedes kisses me deeply. Stroking the hair back from my face while I bask in the heaven of stars I seem to be floating in, he whispers, “Mya, my love, my true love, my goddess.”

  Chapter Eight

  Mira

  The next morning, I'm still in a blurry sleepy brain state when my alarm goes off. I throw everything I have that’s worth taking into my suitcase and backpack. This includes almost all my clothes except for the things that are so worn and full of holes that I probably should have already thrown them out anyway.

  I’m half tempted to leave bills behind, along with all the rest of this rubbish but I’m worried it might come back to bite me, and anyway, as my new job includes free accommodation, I might actually finally be able to pay the damn things. I squeeze the wad of envelopes down the side of my suitcase and then zip it up.

  I put the envelope of documents from Gino in my handbag along with my favorite lippy, my wallet, passport, and my mother’s comb. It’s one of the few things of hers that I could take when I left home without my father noticing. It’s a half-circle, made of a dark carved wood and printed with exotic red and white flowers.

  I’m really doing this.

  The plane ticket from Gino is first class. My father never let me travel as a child, and neither did my controlling ex, Cliff. They both preferred to keep me at home while they travelled the world on luxury business trips. In the last five years of relative freedom, I’ve taken a few flights by myself but I’ve only been able to afford coach, and I’m rather looking forward to having a bit more comfort this time.

  I need to figure all this out, I tell myself. I’m going to Barcelona to find out why all this is happening… all the dreams… and the connection with Gino. I’m not just selling my soul to some wealthy design cult. This is a good job and I’m creating a new life for myself.

  I tell myself a lot of things, but ultimately, I get on that plane because I’ve run out of places to hide.

  Chapter Nine

  Mira

  The pilot’s voice sounds over the intercom. Welcome to Barcelona. It’s apparently late afternoon but it’s totally the wrong time of day for my body clock. The flight was delayed for several boring hours, in which I drank mediocre airport coffee and scrolled through social media. At least, once I got on-board, the first-class flight was enjoyable. I ate all the snacks, drank the mini bottles of alcohol, and even got some sleep, but my brain thinks it’s morning, creating a kind of dreamy feeling as I stroll through the duty free stores at the airport, ignoring the urge to buy large packets of chocolate. I finally make it out to the main doors.

  The air is dry, even at this time in the early evening. That’s what I notice as I walk out of the airport. A man calls out to me and I don’t know whether to turn or run away.

  “Mira? Mira!”

  How does he know my name? I keep walking, then realize I have no idea where I’m going. How did I miss this next step? It must be in the pack of papers that Gino gave me. I was thinking of just getting a taxi, but of course I need to know where to direct it.

  “Mira Krom!”

  I turn to see a man in a suit with a sign. The sign has my name printed on it, and El Cielo’s logo at the bottom. I can feel my cheeks redden. Maybe there were no directions in the pack. Maybe this kind of thing is just normal for Gino, so he didn’t think to inform me.

  I apologize about four times to the driver as he takes my suitcase, escorts me to an expensive black car, and opens the door for me.

  I feel like a celebrity as I’m driven through the streets of Barcelona by chauffeur. I would have enjoyed it more if it wasn’t the kind of thing my father would be used to… that he could afford to waste money on, the kind of thing Cliff would have his assistant arrange when he was traveling for work, not that he ever took me with him.

  I shudder just thinking about all those years of being left alone in Cliff’s big cold expensive house, knowing I was surrounded by cameras, that he would be checking up on me, that there were so many things I wasn’t allowed to do.

  This is different, I remind myself. This is a job, not a relationship... It’s not a life sentence. These men have no power over you.

  When I left Cliff, I left with nothing. I couldn’t go back to my father for help since he was almost a carbon copy of the man who held me hostage under the guise of “love”. I’d had enough. It was claustrophobic. I could barely move in that relationship. He wouldn’t even let me finish the Cordon Bleu chef training that I was doing before we met – the training I’d had to run away from my father and get into debt to start in the first place. Somehow, I unknowingly ran right back into the familiar controlling web of my childhood… but that’s all behind me now.

  It’s still just light enough to make out the scenery around us as we drive. I watch as the old stone buildings become sparser, and fields and grape vines begin to pepper the view outside. We drive higher up into some mountains, eventually pulling into a long tree-lined driveway.

  There was no sign for El Cielo, no way anyone would find it here, in between the vineyards, without knowing exactly where to look.

  “Where exactly are we?” I ask the driver. “Are we still in Spain?”

  “We are in – in between,” He spoke with a thick accent. “This land – no country, both? Who knows?” He chuckles.

  It’s like entering a kind of fairy land. The forest here is lusher and denser than the dry fields and vineyards in the surrounding countryside.

  There’s a wild feel to the place, sprawling and untamed. It is both ancient and timeless, elegant and rustic, ethereal and exquisite. The majestic buildings appear through the trees, familiar from the photos I saw online.

  I’ve never seen anything like it in person before, and it’s so much more impressive in real life. The old weathered, cement silos covered with vines are now unusual towers in their own right. The rows of Spanish gothic windows make it look like an old monastery. The shadows between the buildings and the pathways through the forest hint of secrets, just as the atmosphere of the place whispers of eternity.

  I’m lost in my own euphoric daydreams as the car pulls up under an archway covered in grapevines. We’re in front of the main building, and I can see a well-lit entrance. The driver insists on carrying my bag in.

  A man is standing in the lobby as we approach. I recognize him from the website as the architect himself: Theo Brodeur.

  He’s tall with golden brown skin and dark hair, except at his temples, which are flecked with grey in a sexy-older-guy kind of way. Everything about Theo is confident and commanding, right down to the square shape of his jaw. As we make eye contact, I feel a jolt of electricity sweeping through me, making my skin prick and the hairs on my arms stand on end. I look into those dark brown eyes, and something draws me in. Suddenly, everything around me feels familiar, as if this isn’t somewhere I’ve never been before, as if it’s a long-awaited home coming.

  Chapter Ten

  Theo

  She should be here any minute.

  I cross the courtyard, through to the lobby, admiring the roundedness of the structures of El Cielo and remembering that first moment I glimpsed the old abandoned factory all those years ago. It was a crypt. A monument to an older industrial era, and now it is a living, breathing building, full of life and full of greenery. It took years to train those vines to grow down the silos, to green the roofs, and to transform the in
terior into its current splendor. I like to celebrate my achievements, but this is not the time.

  I enter the lobby. Marina, our office clerk is behind the counter, and Victor is there with her. He has been my assistant here since we first started the renovations and now he manages the day-to-day running of the place. He tries to update me on the expenses for the pool renovation, but I’m only half listening. My attention is fixed outside, waiting for her.

  Finally, the car pulls up. It seems like an eternity until the girl walks in. Gino said she was special; said she might be the one we’ve been looking for.

  I’m struck by her piercing green eyes and curves. Thank you, Gino. Then, she smiles at me, and I’m floored.

  I was expecting something. I don’t know what; a spark, a tingle of recognition – but not this full lava flow of feeling pouring out of me. I can barely contain myself.

  It’s complex: longing… passionate desire… but also pain, guilt, regret. She might not know it, but I have a lot of making up to do.

  I want to pull her in close, to kiss her, to take her to bed right this minute but I restrain myself. Gino said she needed time and space. He said she had a pattern of running away from her problems, and we must make absolutely sure we are not one of them.

  Gino always does his research. How he found her, I have no idea. There are billions of people out there, and we were looking for one whose name we didn’t even know in this life. He said he just saw her one day. She walked past him on the street in New York. I’m sure that’s possible. It’s probably how people meet their soulmates all the time, but it seems so unlikely.

  I introduce myself and reach forward to kiss her cheeks. The sensation of her skin against mine burns through me like an inferno. I brace myself against my own desire to crush Mira against me, to claim her.