Indian Spice

"Taste me." Maya ordered quietly.

"Let it linger in your mouth and excite your sense of taste how you would a glorious spice."

I did as she said before searching out more. I found myself lapping at her deliciously wet cunny until I could swallow and sense it in my throat. I reached a hand up to find her breast, a ripe fruit, pliable in my fingers. Smaller than my own but just as firm. Bubbies that sat close to her ribs rising and falling with her hurried breaths. I kneaded with my fingers, sensing her tremors of delight and the sudden jolts as I brushed against the hardened ruby-brown tips.

My other hand followed and for what seemed an age I caressed her globes and listened to her murmurs carried on shuddered breaths.

Maya rolled onto her stomach raising her buttocks towards my face until I was inches from her blind cupid.

"Eat me."

I did as instructed. Devouring her flower with a hunger. Even her small circular round mouth sitting just above her notch gleaned my attention much to my surprise. And even better, Maya reacted with immense joy to my tongue circling and pressing at it.

All sense of sin was flushed from me. I only wanted pleasure and to give pleasure. I found my hands sliding over her limbs and the fleshy orbs of her buttocks, searching out crevices to explore and hovering over any point which sent shivers through this woman.

I reached up under her belly until I found her fruits hanging where she had raised her torso. I pushed my tongue deep inside her fairest flower, and I let the deep ruby tips of her globes brush against my upturned palms.

"Uhhh." She gasped.

I felt her shudder, then jerk as my fingers closed tightly, squeezing her ripe fruits. Folds of delicate velvet parted with the press of my tongue circling the entrance to her cock lane. More nectar coated my lips, spreading over my face. Maya smelt and tasted like a fine, spiced honey.

I found her little boy and sucked it proud, flicking and teasing the hot little button. Maya was tensing and I knew she would suffer the sting of pleasure any moment.

Maya began to whimper, and her body quivered.

"Mmmmmm."

Then she bucked.

"Uhh, huh."

She tore herself away from me and I knew I'd achieved my aim. For a few moments, she trembled and spasmed in front of me, the flow of power between us reversed. In this instant, she was as vulnerable as me. A slave to her desire.

Finally, she calmed and the power of her words returned to hold me in awe.

"Now you begin to understand the joy God gave us with our bodies."

I stared down at my sweaty light-toned flesh, then at Maya's darker glistening body. I did indeed feel the joy.

Maya turned and took my face gently in her hands. She kissed me like a lover, her quail pipe invading my mouth to search out my own and join it in a sensuous ballet. I didn't struggle, just accepting the sensation and melting into her body. Our paps rubbed together momentarily easing the ache that invaded my nips once again.

Saliva trickled from my mouth in an unladylike manner. Sticky strings linked our lips. A messy mixture of fluids I would only have associated with a bunter or hedge whore until now. I didn't care. Only the pleasure of connecting with Maya's hot body was important.

She pulled back and manoeuvred us into another of those strange positions depicted in the villa's murals. I followed her lead eager to experience everything this woman had to offer me.

"Do to me whatever you wish." I begged.

Our legs scissored awkwardly, pushing our cunnies together. I held her shoulder for support, her own hands gripping my forearms. We moved as one, wet, slippery flowers pressed hard to peel open petals.

"Look at me." She said.

"See how much pleasure you bring to me.

I stared into her face. It was just as beautiful, even more so. But now it was flushed with colour and basted in sweat. The fire that burned in her was in her deep dark eyes and her tremble was on parted lips.

"Uhh."

"Mmm. Harder." She instructed with a growing desperation.

I pulled her tighter. Our pearls slid together amongst the folds of our two flowers in a slick wetness that covered our nether regions.

It felt glorious. My eyes watched my own movements, following the actions of my arousal. Something I would never have done with George.

An inferno built where we joined and the waft of salty heat filled our nostrils. Maya no longer held my awe. In this moment she was no more powerful than myself. Her face was red, her lungs fighting to fan the fire.

"Oh. Oh. Yes."

I felt as though I was teetering on the edge of a precipice. The two of us together under the Indian sun that squeezed past the curtain, ready to leap hand in hand from a waterfall into the churning waters of a maelstrom.

"Uhhh."

Maya was rigid as her flood of bliss struck a second time. I followed almost immediately.

"Mmm... fuck, yes."

My back snapped to attention and the wave of delight swept over me taking my consciousness from me. I shuddered in unison with Maya before she went limp, and then we fell apart, each snatching breaths from the humid air.

I lay staring at the ceiling watching the shadowy patterns thrown by the curtain in the sunlight. I could still hear the throng of people outside and didn't doubt that passers-by had heard our moans of passion. The old man would have heard as would other guests in the house.

For the first time, I felt alive. And I was without shame or disgust.

"Is this how it is for you?"

I didn't have to explain. Maya understood perfectly what I was asking.

"Whenever I choose.

I have everything I want. A life of bliss and the delight of love with my Maharaja and his concubines. We are a family in mind, body and soul. Sisters."

She hesitated before asking what I had known for a while was coming.

"Join us, Rayne. Accept a new life that you can only imagine."

"The other girls. Would I... would I be expected to...?

"Only if you and they want to. Who and when is your choice."

"And the Maharaja?"

I pictured him from my one brief sighting of him at the dance. A fine example of a man. And now I realised what lay behind his acknowledgement of me. Why Maya had approached me. I had been singled out in that moment and everything since had been a gentle push along the path until I stood at a crossroads. My heart fluttered.

It was unbelievable I was considering giving myself to a man I had not even spoken to. That I would be expected to participate in the lurid behaviours covering the walls of his hall was incomprehensible. And yet...

"That is the one duty you must accept. But the Maharaja will lift you to heights of ecstasy I cannot. You will not wish to reject him. He is an accomplished lover who will turn your heat into a raging forest fire and then quench it with such satisfaction you will believe you are in your Garden of Eden. His seed will taste of the Heavens themselves. And his staff will fill you like no other. You will achieve the liberation of your soul."

Could it really be that good? Could I find inner peace by entering Purdah?

"But once I enter I can never leave. Do you know what you ask of me?"

Maya nodded.

"It is true. No complete man may ever lay eyes on you again. Only the Maharaja. You can leave, but if you do you can never return.

If you break purdah you will be cast out."

"And what about you? You come and go as you please."

"That is also true. And unusual I will grant you. Every purdah is different. Muslims and Hindus have their own rules. The Maharaja has his. They don't align with any of the religions exactly. More a combination of all that is good from each. And I leave only to do the Maharaja's bidding."

"And does that bidding include me?"

She didn't even hesitate.

"It does. He is captivated by your golden hair and fair complexion. He describes you as the sun on earth."

I stared up at the ceiling, watching several circling flies that had evaded the nets. To think a man of such standing as the Maharaja could be 'captivated' by me was very flattering. And it would be a life free from worry.

"And you?

Am I just a duty to be undertaken on an instruction?"

Maya twisted on the bed and placed her lips to a pointy nub. I shuddered as she planted a soft kiss on it before answering me.

"If it is, it is one I take great pleasure in. You will be my favourite amongst my sisters."

It was so strange to feel delight at another of my sex saying such words. I should be horrified. Instead, it made me long for more moments such as I had enjoyed in this room.

"It's unthinkable that an English girl could enter such a place." My words lacked conviction.

"It is not unheard of."

She rolled on top of me, pushing her leg between mine until her thigh pressed at the source of my torture.

"Uhh."

My body responded even though I knew it was another step towards the breakdown of my defences. Again, beginning with the gentle rub of her leg she was taking my flesh and lifting me to a bliss I'd all but yielded to.

"Will you guide me?"

That was it. That was the moment I was subdued. I was turning my back on everything I knew and understood. In just a matter of days, Maya had invaded my mind, absorbed my body and now I was letting her take my soul.

"I will always be at your side. I will guide you, teach you and love you. We will go to the Maharaja together."

I imagined she meant to introduce me but then it occurred to me that some of the murals had more than two participants in their act of... of... lovemaking. I was struck by how they were imprinted on my memory as though I had at my disposal an instruction manual on how I would finally enjoy my body. I quivered at the thought.

Maya saw my acquiescence in my eyes and lay her body down mine, slipping between my legs. This time I gave myself to her without fear or confusion. Without shame or thought of sin.

SEVEN

I moved to dress myself. With my fire quenched I was again becoming self-conscious of my nudity. And I had a need of some normality that would allow me to see things objectively. To understand what I was agreeing to with a clarity of thought.

"No. Not those."

Maya had other ideas.

"It's time to let go of the ribbon and lace you conceal yourself with. Modesty and propriety belong only to conform with English ideals that have no place here."

Maya with no such qualms around her nudity opened a wardrobe and lifted out clothes like her own.

"These are what you shall wear from now on."

She laid them out on the bed in front of me.

"The top is called a Choli. The lower garment is a Lehenga. And this is a Dupata scarf." She said drooping the pink and gold cloth over me, purposefully letting her fingers brush my bare skin to leave me quivering and impress her control of me.

The richly coloured material touched me with a lightness. I would feel like a queen in such luxurious garments. And without the corset, I would feel free. Unrestricted.

"It's beautiful." I said looking down at myself in just the Dupata.

"Or there is this."

She lifted out a beautiful green and gold silk sari.

"It is my choice of wear. Cool and un-restricting."

One piece of cloth wrapped around the body. I understood exactly what she meant by uni-restricting. Beneath it my cunny would feel the free flow of air and my bosom would sway as freely as I'd noticed hers did.

"I would feel undressed wearing this."

"Bare skin is not seen as a sin by Indians. Before the Islamic invasion, a woman would not have commonly covered her breasts at all. Today things are not so traditional.

Many wear a blouse and even a petticoat with the sari, an introduction of the English for your obsession with modesty. I choose not to."

"You do not." I observed.

"I cover myself in public but in purdah, I prefer only to drape it over my left shoulder in a style known as nivi. It is not so secure to wandering eyes as to be acceptable to the English administrators and soldiers though. It bares much of the upper body."

I ran my fingers over the delicate material imagining how it would feel against my skin.

"I like this." I said wondering how it would feel to go out in public with so little covering me. But then I would never be in public again once I joined with her world.

"Dress. Then you will be ready to enter the Purdah again."

She stepped away from me and waited.

"I..."

She looked for me to voice my final protestations, ready to quell them with the magic of her charm. But I couldn't find any words that didn't ring hollow. In truth, I had made my decision. It only remained for me to take the step.

Maya smiled.

"I have shown you everything. Given myself to you as I wish to do many times more.

Now it is up to you Rayne. You must decide.

Be at one with India, or go back to your life as an English girl and whatever that may bring."

Maya knew I had limited funds and no alternative course presenting itself. She also knew I couldn't turn away from the delight she'd brought to me. The idea that I might be a wife to another George who lifted my skirt occasionally to sink his tackle in me while never quenching my own fire was unbearable.

But to commit to a lifetime in Purdah...

I surrendered silently, wrapping the brightly coloured sari around my waist before draping it over my shoulder. I arranged it carefully to retain so modicum of modesty. It was light and free, I felt naked as we left the room. The old man gave me a cursory glance as we passed which brought a blush to my face, and then I found myself outside. An English girl now at one with my adoptive country. I had the tremor of fear, knowing only a thin silk separated my naked body from the thousands of eyes around me. That just the folds of fine material covered a cunny exposed as never before. And my fruits swayed freely under the thin material in a way I'd never dared to be seen. With the nervousness came liberation.

We took a rickshaw back to the villa, Maya holding my hand in an open display of affection I could never have accepted before today.

"What about my things at the Coolidge's?"

"I will arrange for them to be brought on."

I thought for a moment. What did I actually want? I only had clothing I would never wear and a few trinkets. And of course my Bible. A symbol of a life I was turning away from.

"No." I said firmly.

"Dispose of them. Everything except my personal documents."

I wanted nothing. From now I would be a new person with no connection to my old life. Even the Bible I'd had since childhood could not lead me to the spiritual cleansing I sought. Another person would have said I was betraying God, or even that I had been abandoned by God. In reality, I felt it was something altogether different. God had shown me a truth. That he wasn't the deity of a Christian or any other monotheistic religious text. He was a spiritual presence, nature itself. As much a part of me as he was the heavens. Beyond the ability of man to define and constrain.

When we arrived at the villa it stood as before. A monument to the Maharaja's great wealth and power, but this time I also viewed it as protective. An oasis of peace and calm in a noisy, disorienting land. I wanted to feel it embrace me with comforting arms and bathe me with the love it contained.

I stood at the heavy curtain for a moment. Searching my soul for any doubt. Once I entered here I was committing to becoming a concubine to the Maharaja. To do his bidding whenever he summoned me. I thought again of the murals that lay in the first hall beyond this point. Of the contorted positions the characters in them were twisted into, and I knew I had to know that pleasure. Maya stood back, waiting like a school ma'am for a child to show the lesson had been learnt.

A eunuch stood watching. An incomplete man who would never know the joy of making love. A man who had that promise taken from him at a young age so that he could become the perfect protector of all that resided beyond this point. Other than the Maharaja, his kind would be the only men who ever laid eyes on me again.

I stepped through leaving the world of England, the Empire and its stuffy conventions behind.

EIGHT

For a week I enjoyed my new home, unrestrained by convention or the embarrassment foisted on me by upbringing and church. Here I could dress brightly, or swim naked in the pool. I lived for the day, and concerns for my future lifted away forever.

To my surprise, there were upwards of fifty girls rather than the twenty I'd assumed. It was more like a little community than how I had imagined. Each bringing something to the others. Some were teachers and readily passed their knowledge on to the less educated. Others looked after young children that I hadn't seen before and I grasped that I too would likely give birth here if the Maharaja deemed me worthy of being summoned.

Some mornings I questioned my sanity. But by breakfast, I was again becoming the obedient willing participant in my enslavement as whatever magic this place held gripped me afresh. This morning I had questioned what drove my insatiable hunger. The spices perhaps.

The fire which constantly engulfed me turned me into something I hardly recognised but I'd mostly avoided answering its call. Once I'd succumbed having found a secluded part of the garden. I wasn't yet ready to behave with abandonment as many of the girls did. But each day I was getting closer.

All the while I waited for the Maharaja to summon me how a child would wish for Christmas.

For most of the day, the bright sun fell into the open garden, warming the sheltered space. It was an oasis open to the sky that occupied the centre of the villa. I would lay naked on the grass thrilling myself with my unaccustomed exposure. I was unconcerned that my pale complexion was no longer protected. Slowly I was taking on an even shade of brown. Not as dark as the Indian girls, but also no longer the pasty pale washed out look of an English lady who had never been exposed to sunshine. My skin had begun to glow and despite the very British attitude that translucent pale skin displayed my social status, I'd accepted, at Maya's insistence, that I looked healthier.

Once, Maya had taken me back to the hall with the murals and talked slowly through several of them, explaining the beauty of what they portrayed, and describing in detail how each would feel. I must admit some reticence still remained in me to hear it, but after we had drunk tea Maya had again taken me to her private quarters for instruction. This time exciting my quim to new heights over and again until I'd screamed myself into oblivion.

Eventually, the day came I had expected, waited hopefully for, and feared. The day when a servant girl came and spoke to Maya before pointing to me.

I had been selected. I had been summoned to please the Maharaja. My heart pounded as though to burst free from my chest as I waited patiently to be told where I should go.

Maya approached me with a smile. It wasn't the probing or knowing smile that only sat on the lips. This time it filled her face.

"Come. I will take you to the Maharaja."

I snatched a few quick breaths to calm myself. Already I could sense a tremble and the first hot coals in my belly.

"Stand straight and be respectful in front of the servants.

When they are gone, then you can relax and be yourself."

"Thank you, Maya."

"The maharaja is an attentive and understanding lover. Follow his lead. He will take you to heights that even I cannot.

I will be there to guide you as needed."

I followed Maya out through the curtains and along the corridors. As always she seemed to float on an air of confidence I could only wish to acquire. Following behind I felt more like one of the servants. She led me up a flight of wide stairs and along a corridor I had never seen towards the Maharaja's quarters that seemed sunk even deeper in this never-ending palace.