Her question roused me from my memories. “A few days ago.”
“Good, it’s time you learned how to make your body sing.” Momma wove the fronds into her signature complex design.
“I’m not ready.”
“Nonsense. You’re a woman of marriageable age now.” Momma looked up, her fingers moving in a blur as the basket took shape. “You’re part jinn. This is who we are, part of our needs. You must experience the joys of sex. My mother introduced me to its pleasures at the same age.” Her hands stopped moving. “We are spirits of fire. Here.” Momma touched her head. “Here.” She tapped her heart. “And here.” She pressed her hand between her legs.
It was no use reminding Momma that I was only half jinn. Since I did not have her strength and speed, perhaps I did not possess this three-pronged fire spirit. After all, we were different in many ways. Momma’s skin was almost as dark as obsidian; mine cinnamon hued. Her eyes were dark; mine golden. Her lips brown, mine the color of red agate. Her night-black hair coiled into a thousand spiral curls. Mine was a dark-brown frizzy confusion that needed oil to be tamed. “What do I have to do?”
Momma picked up the basket. “Don’t think. Let your body absorb each and every sensation.” She tugged on my thick plait. “You worry too much. It must be a human trait. Your father’s perhaps. Don’t think. Feel. Let the sensations wash over you.”
That didn’t sound too difficult. “Like floating on my back when the wadi flows?” Twice a year when the monsoon filled the wadi, I waded into the water and floated. The swirling water and warming sun stirred my senses, carried me into a divine realm of serenity.
“Different. Better. Much better,” said Momma. “The feeling defies explanation.”
Six months passed without any more mention of my initiation into womanhood. Momma had forgotten, which was fine by me.
Another month passed. I forgot all about it.
Until a young man, his arms swinging in time to his purposeful stride, walked up the steep, narrow path to our home.
Like other men in our village, his curly hair was close cropped, his beard trimmed, and his short tunic open to the waist. And yet I suspected he was a foreigner because he tucked neither a long blade nor knife into his corded belt. He was broad shouldered, with lean muscular legs, and his skin was the color of the dark-brown stripes of a sand cat.
Feeling like prey, I felt my pulse quicken and my limbs tense. Perhaps it was his predatory stalk through our uncultivated highlands, but somehow I just knew that he was the one who had come to initiate me into womanhood.
CHAPTER 2
Momma set down the half-finished basket and rose to meet the stranger. “Stand up, daughter.”
I stood on shaking legs and hid behind Momma.
“Ekene, at your service.” He flashed a wide, handsome grin of perfect white teeth.
Momma nudged me. “It’s time for your body to sing,” she whispered.
I stumbled forward, my feet heavy as rocks, my eyes darting from the ground to the beautiful man before me. “Momma…” My voice croaked like a frightened child’s.
Momma wrapped her comforting arms around my waist. “Like floating on a river.” Her breath tickled my ear. “Don’t tell him your name.” She gave me a quick squeeze before walking past him and taking the narrow path to the canyon beyond our house.
I watched Momma’s retreating figure until she disappeared around the bend.
“It’s okay to be nervous,” Ekene said when I stole a shy look at him.
“How long will it take?” I rasped, my voice dry as the desert.
The quick wince of disappointment passed so quickly over Ekene’s face, I might have imagined it.
“Pleasure is not measured in time.” Ekene held out his large hand. “Let’s sit together.”
I took his dark hand in mine. Warm. Dry. Confident. Solid as a walnut shell.
We walked through the doorway and into the mud-brick house where we sat on the rug. “Tell me about yourself, Young Woman With No Name.”
“I have a name—”
Ekene’s hand sprung out like a snake, his fingers sealing my lips. “Don’t tell me. Your momma did not want me to know either of your names. It’s a condition of the job.”
I was a job? A nameless job? I bristled and wrinkled my nose.
Ekene pressed his lips together in dismay. “Will you permit me to give you a name for today?” Ekene spoke with the deference of one addressing a queen. “I think it will be best for us both.”
“Um…” I stared at Ekene’s biceps. They were so large I thought his armband might pop off. Surely, they were twice as big as any of the men in the village. “Okay,” I said, my fingers impatient to run over his muscular curves. “Give me a beautiful name.”
“Mmmm…” Ekene scratched his beard. “I will call you Destiny.” His brown eyes dilated with warmth. “Because your momma said you have a great destiny.”
His peaceful manner eased my nervousness.
“That’s more portentous than beautiful,” I said.
Ekene’s brows lifted. “Gorgeous and clever.” He tucked fisted hands under his chin in thought. “A great destiny is beauty,” he said after a few moments.
My cheeks flamed, his studied gaze making me shy. I lowered my eyes, intent on the circles I drew on the carpet.
Ekene scooted close. Not close enough that our bodies touched, but close enough that I smelled his maleness and the mint on his breath.
“Do you have any questions?” He slid off the leather cord securing my braid and threaded his fingers through my tresses.
His intimate touch and ardent gaze set my body aflame. I burned from toe tip to head top. For the first time, I understood the heat of my smokeless fire heritage.
Questions? I had a thousand, yet I asked only one. “Is this your profession?”
“A small part of it.” With my hair now unbound, Ekene’s fingers massaged my scalp, sending pleasurable shivers down my neck. “I have a confession to make. I’ve never had the privilege of servicing a woman of your exquisiteness before.”
“I doubt that,” I said, despite leaning into his relaxing ministrations.
His fingers kneaded the base of my head. “I speak the truth. When I first laid eyes on you, my loins stirred and my heart quickened. The closer I got, the more charmed I became. There is a radiant destiny in your golden eyes, shining brighter than any star. I feel it in your presence…the glow of your inner strength. You have an exotic beauty, the smile of the sphinx, and a magical radiance that dazzles like a gem. There is nothing more captivating and dangerous than the perfect union of inner and outward beauty.”
I swayed farther into his caresses. “Dangerous?” Momma told me I was beautiful all the time, but that didn’t count.
With a featherlight touch that tickled my lips, Ekene traced the line of my jaw. “Men will swoon at your feet and do your bidding just to be in your presence. Jealous women will despise you for the power you have over men.” His lips whisked across my cheek.
I trembled with anticipation, the strange quivering in my body making me eager for more. I turned my cheek and my lips met his. Their soft warmth sent a thousand butterflies aflutter in my belly.