Naughty Bits 2 by Megan Hart, Saskia Walker, Charlotte Featherstone, Portia Da Costa, Cathryn Fox, Lilli Feisty, Elliot Mabeuse, Jenesi Ash Page A

standing in the shadow of her doorway, waiting for her brother the priest.
    This was the sun as she loved him best, as Aton, old and mellow, his day’s journey almost done. Soon he would sink under the edge of the west to engage in his night of struggles and tribulations with what lay in the darkness below, but Tia had perfect faith in her gods, and knew that he would emerge victorious as ever. She wished she could say the same for herself.
    But already here was Kheneb, her elder brother, striding across from the shade of the other side of the street with his priestly staff in his hand, his white robe adorned with a turquoise cloth across his shoulders. He was arrayed in a fine panoply of jewelry, which explained the four armed temple servants who accompanied him a respectful three paces behind. There were always thieves about, and a priest at night was no safer than a pharaoh’s tomb.
    â€œGood evening to you, my little sister. You are all ready, then?” he asked. His eyes glowed with affection, but he only allowed himself the faintest smile. Kheneb was a powerful priest at the temple of Hathor, and he knew how to maintain a suitably grave and pious face in public.
    Tia nodded her head in a small, polite bow, then smoothed her black hair back from her face. “As my elder brother wishes.”
    He smiled at her formal greeting and looked her over critically—her spotless white gown, the string of turquoise around her neck, the bracelets on her arms. She was pleased that he approved of how she looked, though it did little to allay the growing nervousness in her stomach. She was not really frightened, just a bit anxious about what lay ahead.
    The town was coming alive in the cool of the evening, some shops closing for the day while others were just opening. The tavern owners were raising the reed shades that kept out the daytime flies and heat, sweeping the sand and dust from their establishments, setting out their signs and banners. Two boys herded a flock of geese into the shade across the road while a third led two mud-spattered oxen back from the fields by the river, giving the priest and his party a wide berth. This was a favorite time to shop and socialize, in the cool of the evening before full darkness fell, and already people were emerging from their houses, dressed in their fine linen skirts and gowns.
    Out came the fine ladies of the evening, too, perfumed and oiled so that their skin gleamed, their mascara perfect, and Tia watched them as she always did, seeking to learn the secrets of their grace and charm. Tia knew how men loved beauty, and these women had that beauty that went deeper than just appearance. They moved with the grace of the river, the mysteries of the gods in them, and Tia envied them deeply.
    Tonight she looked fine, as well. Her black hair had been dressed in the Hathor manner: parted in the middle andbrushed out with a bit of sweet oil until it positively gleamed. The hairdressers had seen to her makeup, too, lining her large, dark eyes with powdered malachite, also sacred to the goddess, and coloring her lips with the juice of the pomegranate. Her robe was new, of the finest linen, and so were the sandals on her feet. Kheneb had even purchased jewelry for her, the first she had ever owned, and she was sinfully proud of the necklace, bracelets and earrings of turquoise and gold, colors also favored by Hathor. As the daughter of a powerful and well-placed priest, Tia had never been poor, but tonight she was dressed as beautifully as the wealthiest lady in Thebes, and for the first time her brother had to treat her as a woman and not a child. It amused her to see him struggle with this change in her, but he had no choice. The foreign goddess would only accept women as priestesses; she had no interest in flighty little girls.
    It was not far from here that Tia had first known the pleasure of a man’s embrace with a handsome young captain from Pharaoh’s guard. Pharaoh