City of God Read Free Page A

See.”
    She arched profoundly, one of those supple adjustments of her body that always astonished him, and her hips realigned so that he could take her effortlessly, in an act of possession as natural and undemanding as a whisper. It would have been against nature to refuse a generosity offeredwith such elegance. He moved the hand that had stroked her belly so it gripped her thigh, pressing her more closely to him. Both golden lilies were touching him now, wrapped around his legs. She was a silken splendid butterfly, tiny but exquisite, cocooned in his bulk. Her sigh of pleasure—more a vibration than a sound—thrilled him as if it were again the first time, three years earlier, when she was thirteen.
    “You are astonishing,” he said when he could speak.
    She gently pulled away, then settled back against his body and pulled his hand back to her belly where it had been before. “What do you feel, lord?”
    “Samuel,” he corrected. “If I have to tell you again, I will spank you.” Her smile was hidden from him, but he knew it was there. “For real this time.” He attempted to sound severe. “You won’t be able to sit for a week.”
    “I am sure I will deserve it. You are right in all things, lo—Samuel. But you cannot spank me now.”
    “Why not?”
    “It maybe…” He heard the hesitation though she hurried to cover it. “Maybe disturb harmony. Your tai-tai never lose harmony. Never.”
    Repetition was the way the Chinese conveyed emphasis. Tai-tai meant not simply wife but senior wife, she to whom all other wives—if such there might be—owed allegiance. Devrey knew both things, but he seldom remembered to repeat a word he meant to strengthen. As for the rest, it wasn’t practical.
    He had married Mei-hua in the room beyond this one, in a ceremony he remembered as a bewildering shimmer of gongs and incense. Afterward she had been brought to this bed on its raised red satin platform hung about with quilted red velvet to perform her first duty as his wife, to sit absolutely still for hours and demonstrate her inner harmony. Meanwhile Devrey had been taken downstairs to eat and drink, and only occasionally remind himself that if he stepped out the door he would be not in this exotic Chinese world but on Cherry Street in New York, a few steps from the busy waterfront. Four hours later, when he had returned to the bedroom to claim what was his, Mei-hua was exactly as he’d left her. Except for her smile of joyous welcome.
    “You could never be disharmonious,” he said now.
    His voice was steady, the words without any hint of anger or disapproval, but she could feel his fury in the heat of his skin and the coldness of his breath. “I try never displease you, lord.” Not true. She had tried very hard. For many months now, as soon as he left her after lovemaking, she lay for long, boring hours with her feet above her head so his seed would find the son-making place deep inside. She had eaten only son-making food, though it was not always her favorite. Only the gods knew how hard she tried. And Ah Chee.
    Mei-hua could not see the bedroom door from her present position, but she knew beyond doubt that her servant was near, probably listening. “I do nothing to displease my lord. Never. Never.” Big lie, but never mind.
    “Samuel,” he corrected again, delivering at the same time one slap to her buttocks. Light enough to be playful but hard enough to sting.
    Mei-hua stiffened and rolled away, clasping both hands below her waist as she did so. “Husband is correct. I deserve beating.” She jumped off the bed, got the bamboo stick they used to close the red velvet curtains, and brought it to him, kneeling on the platform and leaning her head on her folded arms on the mattress. “I stay like this and husband beat back and shoulders until they bleed, only no part below waist. Then I will never—”
    “I have never beaten you, Mei-hua. Why would I start now? Above or below the waist.” He got up and put