Love And Fortune Ch 12

Chapter 12. Ritual Bonding

Ben had gone to the small kitchenette in the corner of Ruby's studio for her promise of a cold pitcher of lemonade in the refrigerator. He found it, and was grateful, because the last hour's activities had roused his thirst considerably. But he didn't complain, either, when Njau happened to follow him, perch her nude and supple form atop the stainless steel counter, and spread her toned legs wide in invitation.

His bracelet thrumming, his erection throbbing, he could not and did not resist such a temptation.

"You have the most amazing mind I think I've ever felt," he said as he stepped close to her. His hands traced up her thighs as he admired the view of her pussy, glistening wet beneath a neat black landing-strip. The Maasai woman's lips quirked up at his compliment; there he was, clearly in awe of her body, but he chose to praise her mind instead. And why wouldn't he? Mind and body were one for a devotee of Zawadi, both integral to her nature.

"I like to think of my mind like a spear," she said, not unaware of the irony of the metaphor as she spread her legs wide. "A tool one must constantly hone. Zawadi blesses her adherents with the gifts of psychic ability. But to attain true mental fortitude? A warrior's mental grace... mmm." Ben was running his length along her outer folds now, making her shudder and moan softly. "One must sharpen, refine, and hone it daily."

Feeling that sharp warrior's mind making a request of him, he smiled and reached over for the pitcher of lemonade and a nearby glass. He didn't break the motion of teasing Njau's entrance with his cock, nor did he cease to admire the sight of her lean, muscular form, while he poured her a glass and tipped it to her mouth. Even untrained, Ben's own psychic super-sense made such multitasking a breeze... especially when the end result was his and his partner's pleasure.

"Thank you... ngh, yes. Very refreshing." Njau sighed contentedly as he set the pitcher and glass aside, and their minds united with greater depth. He felt her essence. The hard edges of her will and her devotion to her goddess. The unwavering commitment to her oath to protect all her people from harm. All of these were blades to her advantage, cutting through the world to help her forge her own path.

But there was softness in her, too. Softness guarded to all but those she trusted. Softness that Ben penetrated as his cock went through a similar physical action at her dripping-wet lower lips.

Her long, teak-colored legs wrapped around his waist, drawing him in closer, and as her lips sought his he sank into her depths. They kissed. They fucked. Ben recalled here and there, soberly, that this was a woman who had escaped a ritual genital mutilation. That Njau had chosen to run and embrace her own destiny rather than allow the act to be perpetrated on her in the name of tradition. For that, he was more than proud of her. Proud and grateful, for here, they could share great pleasures. And Njau, her body untouched and her spirit unbroken, could experience every bit of them in full.

Inwardly, as he reveled with Njau, he mourned for all women subjected to mutilation like she would have been. Njau read all his thoughts as they connected through more than touch, sensing his concern, his outrage, his sadness. Of course, she understood. And her mind caressed his while they shared one another, enveloping his psyche with warmth and soothing, accepting comfort. She forgave those who she had run from. As a Zawadist now, she would do better for as many women and girls as she could reach. And as for anyone who sought to control or manipulate her, or anyone in her new tribe, now? She would cut them down with a lioness's ferocity.

In a way, Ben got his own taste of that ferocity. But it took on a different kind of edge as their bodies writhed and collided. A warrior and huntress through and through, even in matters of pleasure, Njau's motions were both graceful and fierce. As he slid in and out of her slick, gripping core, she ground against him in just the right ways. Reminding him she was no one to submit. Showing him her fire. Guiding him along in a dance of sensuality that would, even with his improved stamina and resilience, no doubt soon leave him breathless.

"You're incredible," he praised her aloud, between the gasps and the moans and the telepathic shudders of mutual enjoyment.

"As are you," she returned the flattery. She touched the wooden beads of his bracelet. "To be gifted the attention and protection of the goddess herself. This is no small gift. I sense within you that you are using that gift well... ahh, ahh, yes. Just like that."

As Ben quickened his pace and added a new, more vigorous angle of penetration, he beamed inwardly. Already in the last hour, he'd learned he could more than match Njau's fire. While anything but a warrior, he was a devotee of Zawadi all the same. To his stunning, statuesque partner, that made them equals... if not something more.

Her mind was open to him. No secrets. No walls. He saw as plain as the nose on her face that he'd exceeded her expectations. That she'd wanted him from the start, for his being a devotee of the goddess, a blood-relative of Belle's, and a trusted companion of Nakessa. But that when things had actually begun? Oh, she'd had no idea he'd be so good. So attentive. So satisfying.

He leaned close to her, their minds now mingling at a deep level, her hand still stroking along his bracelet's beads. Even as pleasure stole most of their attention, he noticed and dwelled on a detail. "You don't have a bracelet," he spoke, his lips almost close enough to graze hers. "With a mind as strong as yours, I'd almost have sworn you must have at least the smaller model."

"I... hah, have no need for one," the Maasai woman told him. "Not every devotee needs to rely on such a channel. I forged my bonds... ngh, naturally, through the earth and its energies and my own connection with the goddess. That is... ahh, enough for me."

"I can see that." He sensed truth and strength in her words. And he matched that strength by redoubling his thrusts.

He thought about all the amazing devotees that must have existed in the world. Not just to Zawadi, but to many Living Goddesses. Adepts and sages who had worked a lifetime to connect with a deity in the flesh. People like him who had received a goddess's favor by sheer coincidence. People like Belle, doing a goddess's good will by bringing together whole communities and living happily alongside their devoted. People like the gorgeous, powerful warrior beneath him. A fighter and survivor whose passion, duty, and strength of mind and heart could have eclipsed his tenfold. Such things, he would have admitted without a second thought. Not long ago at all, he'd been only a web developer in a shitty suburban apartment, living an insignificant life, never having imagined he might achieve anything.

And here he was, buried inside Njau. Who wanted him. Who was, he realized -- with no small amount of pride -- already shaking with an orgasm he could feel washing over her body and mind.

He didn't stop fucking her even after her peak had come and gone in a shuddering, heaving, gasping tide. Her mind, just as hungry as her body, told his with bared boldness that she didn't want him to stop.

"I want you... to teach me." He spoke to her psychically, letting his mental presence caress hers, reaching deep. "To feel energies and connect with the world like you do. To be as intimate and open to the goddess as you are. To be the best devotee I can possibly be."

"It would be my pleasure to instruct you... mmm, and the goddess's as well."

"And I want you to show me how to train my mind like a warrior," he continued, complementing the request with a sharp upward thrust of his hips that drew a gasp from her lips. "How to use it as sharply and effectively... mmm, as I can. Because..." His bracelet pulsed, and a powerful sense of destiny's tug came over him like it had back at the Tree of the Living -- only for a moment, but there, and powerfully there at that. "I think there's going to be a lot up ahead of me. Times when I'm going to need it."

Njau looked up at him with deep, soulful eyes. Her cunt muscles, as taut and trained as any other aspect of her fit, lethal physique, clamped down on his cock. Her hips rocked, pushing and pulling at him in concert with his movements. She was answering his request not just with words, but with deep, tangible, tactile meaning.

"I will impart what I know." Her confirmation was steadfast. Her telepathic voice carried that same iron resolve. "And you will learn well, lover. With skill, patience, and devotion, you will rise... and, mmm, I imagine that in the meantime, we will -- ah! -- continue this. Yes?"

"I'm all yours," he told her. And he surrendered to rising pleasure, his loins bursting with release, pouring into the Maasai beauty with a deep, grateful sigh.

***

Ruby's pencil danced across the sketchpad in her lap. Seated on a stool, still nude and still buzzing from multiple rounds of joyous coupling earlier, she had a good view of the action in the kitchenette. Njau on the countertop, legs spread. Ben between them, cock pumping into her depths. Their lips locked in a kiss. Their hands roaming all over each other's bodies. Ruby's hand worked the pencil like it had a mind of its own. With artistic focus and passion guiding her motions, she let her eyes wander back and forth from her subjects to the paper, sketching out a rough but promising likeness of the scene before her.

"I see your inspiration is flowing." Nakessa, lingering close, ran a hand along Ruby's shoulder as she looked over the artist's work.

"Mmm. Certainly is," Ruby replied with a grin. Leaning in, she let the nude, gorgeous Kenyan woman steal a kiss. "And you? What do you think of our new guest?"

"He's lovely," Nakessa said. "Curious. Attentive. Eager to please, and to learn."

The last bit seemed to excite Ruby especially. "Oh, you two talked about the Living, didn't you?"

"We did. And he's looking to absorb all the knowledge he can."

Ruby kept working her pencil. To sketch was almost subconscious for her. What her mind dwelt on beyond that was how she'd felt back when she'd first discovered for herself that the world was full of very real magic and very real goddesses. Intimate, sensual experiences she'd shared with Belle and the rest of her Haven sisters. A connection that had brought her to her knees in worship, and to her peak in ecstasy.

All things she had never thought she might experience. Things she had never even known she wanted.

In university back in the UK, Ruby Blomfield had double-majored in fine art and anthropology. The former was her highest passion, but a deep, powerful curiosity had drawn her to the latter as well. She'd studied the history of many cultures around the globe, and found that she loved learning about the ways of ancient peoples who had worshipped their deities through art, music, epic poetry... and, in many cases, through physical affections with one another. Orgies. Wild gatherings of maenads. The fertility rites of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. The sacred dances of India's temple maidens. All had fascinated her... and all, in a secret part of her mind that she kept locked up tight back then, fueled fantasies like no other. Fantasies of being among such a group. Joining in on their revelry. Celebrating her own body along with theirs.

Back then, they'd only been fantasies.

She'd taken the opportunity to travel across Africa when it had come. She'd gravitated toward Kenya for its rich culture and history, and had found the opportunity to do volunteer work in between her studies. While doing good for lots of people in need, she'd also found herself more artistically inspired than she'd ever been. Ruby had kept her sketchpad handy. She had drawn the amazing people she met -- tribespeople and urban locals alike -- and filled page after page with sketches of landscapes and wildlife. She had taken in every sight and sound and scent and taste that she could.

And she had begun to feel something powerful and ancient drawing her mind right back to the old fantasies.

She'd met a striking young woman from the United States on a volunteer project in a remote Kenyan settlement. Isabelle -- or Belle, as Ruby had later learned to call her. Belle had shaken Ruby's hand. Helped her carry supplies. Asked her questions about her background, and seemed genuinely interested in hearing the answers.

And that night in their hostel, once everyone else was asleep, Belle had pinned Ruby to the wall in a little alcove, and those fingers that had carried crates of medical supplies all day were suddenly exploring Ruby's body, knowing exactly how to make her sing, delving and questing until they found every secret spot Ruby had never shared with anyone.

Ruby remembered moaning and shaking like mad as Belle whispered in her ear, telling her about how she'd felt it too: the ancient power of this land. Telling her what she was planning to build. All while those fingers fucked and teased and played with her.

And then? Ruby had cum harder than ever in her life.

She remembered her eyes latching onto the wooden bracelet on Belle's wrist right then. Not a fashion statement, she'd realized, but something genuinely special. Something that meant more than she could understand at the time, but something that would soon open up a whole new world to her. She would learn from Belle that there was more to this reality than she'd ever dreamed.

From there, it had felt natural to follow Belle anywhere. And to fall into bed with her every chance they got.

Ruby had helped Belle build the Haven. She had met so many amazing people as it came together, and more after it was finished. She'd lived the dream of any anthropology enthusiast, meeting and bonding with representatives of so many different countries, cultures, and walks of life -- all of them united under the common thread of a culture entirely new to her. A goddess more real than any Ruby had ever read about in myths or holy books. A goddess whose presence was felt in every inch of the Haven's community, every moment in the lives of the women who lived there. Through much of her previous life, Ruby had been decidedly agnostic. But now? She was a devout Zawadist.

And she'd devoted herself to poring through every volume the Haven was gradually collecting; every text and tome relating to those who were called the Living Goddesses. She'd decoded ancient writings with Priyanka's help; she'd translated forgotten texts alongside Nakessa. She'd learned about the practices of shamans and priestesses and sages around the world -- and discovered which rituals among them were in reverence to genuine spiritual beings. Beings she could place on an ever-growing diagram, tree-shaped and widespread, which she was using her artistic gift to illustrate beautifully.

Now, as she finished her rough, impressionistic sketch of Njau and Ben in the heat of passion, Ruby turned to Nakessa and smiled. "He came to us to learn, didn't he?" she asked. "He's figured out how that bracelet works. Definitely knows the Goddess. But there's more... mmm, lots more he could know."

"There certainly is," Nakessa confirmed with a nod. "And I think you'll be the perfect one to teach him."

Ruby's thoughts danced as she contemplated this new opportunity to share her knowledge and her passions -- and, lest she ignore that this was a part of the deal, serve this amazing man who'd earlier blown her mind. Her hand drifted down, brushing past the sketchpad in her lap to slip between her legs, where there was still a remnant of Ben's seed lingering from their earlier romp. She scooped it up, sighed dreamily, and licked it off her fingers.

"I can't wait to get started."

***

With evening falling, with new lovers sated and left to their own devices in Ruby's studio, Ben made his way from the artist's workshop.

He'd parted from Nakessa, Ruby and Njau with promises sealed: Ruby would open his eyes to the knowledge of Zawadi's pantheon. And Njau would impart upon him the lessons of the mind. And in between all that? There was sure to be more fun like what they'd already had.

A walk back through the Haven's gardens only heightened the sense of inner peace that filled him. The flowers' heady scents wafted on a gentle breeze. Nighttime insects hummed and trilled. The setting sun painted the skies with pink, orange, and purple. And as he came to the communal meeting space, he saw it already filling up after a long, pleasant day with Haven residents who had wrapped up their work, who were arriving now to gather and socialize before dinner, rest, and... well, whatever manner of lovely things would come between those events.

Ben smiled at the scene. He admired how the beauty of the surrounding landscape mirrored the beauty of its inhabitants, with faces as diverse as their customs, their laughter bright, their thoughts friendly, their emotions a myriad of colorful psychic flavors.

Before he could make it very far, though, he heard his name called from a path that led off through a tangle of garden flora. And as he turned, he saw Eleni and Moka approaching, hand in hand, their faces beaming, their minds pleased to see him.

Ben approached his women, smiling, and held his arms out to them as they all came together. For a few moments they shared a quiet telepathic silence as they held one another and exchanged warm physical contact and deep mental impressions. None had to say anything for the others to know how they'd spent their days.

Eleni and Moka learned instantly of Ben's meeting with Ruby and Njau, their encounters in the studio, the way their passions had mingled. In turn, Ben got a pleasant mental recap of a calm, relaxing day for the pair. They'd explored the Haven grounds, talked to residents, picked produce from the gardens, waded naked in the stream. Lunch for them had been a picnic by the same gentle water: pita bread with fresh hummus, tabbouleh salad, sliced red tomatoes and basil -- all ingredients fresh and locally grown.

When their greeting broke and they came back to verbal communication, it was Eleni who spoke first. "Makes sense," she demurred, "that you'd have that kind of fun. Knew you'd have no trouble finding willing partners to play with here... even without the rest of us tagging along."

"You'd have liked Ruby and Njau," he bid her back. "Missed you both while I was exploring."

"We missed you, too," Moka cooed. "But we made good use of the time to ourselves."

Eleni smirked. "Yes. And we're glad we had it." Her hands traced over Ben's shoulders. "I imagine the others will be returning soon. Just got a little telepathic hint from Yuki to come to Belle's house... think she, Efi, and Danae have got something planned?"

Ben recalled that the three had gone to the kitchen to discuss cooking. Maybe they'd made a decision to work together on dinner tonight? That would seem very much in character... and if the Haven's chef, Adriana, had joined them, then there might be a veritable feast on the way.

"We should head that way, then," Ben suggested. His stomach rumbled. "I kinda skipped lunch."

"Hey, you were busy," Moka said, playful as ever. "Can't blame you for having fun."

As the trio took off toward Belle's house, they kept their minds open -- and soon, as familiar telepathic signals homed in and pleasant energies rose, they weren't the only ones on their way. Before long, many of the other small groups that had split off earlier had come to join them -- with stories and knowledge and more than a few notable pleasures to share.

Shaheen and Aimee had worked out in the gym... then returned to the bathhouse for a well-deserved second soak. Rasha and Aya had given Alicia a kind of makeover, Haven-style: her long raven tresses were now intricately braided, with flowers and beads woven in. Priyanka, Lenore, and Belle had been to the library, and Lenore was grinning with excitement as she told of all she'd learned of Zawadist customs, dating back to pre-colonial Africa.