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this is a last test of my worthiness to be his priestess? I don’t want him to have any doubts of me.
    He looked away from her, blinking. “I’m fearsome to humans in my other form.”
    She stroked his semierect shaft, which lengthened at her caress. “You’re fearsome in other ways, my lord, even in human form.”
    He caught her hand, lifting it away from him and kissing her fingers. “Wretch! Consider carefully what you ask. Egyptians respect and fear me for good reason. If I appear in all my glory, complete with the plumed crown and the disk of the sun on my head, I will frighten you. I don’t want you to be frightened of me, Merys. It would break my heart.” He gestured across the river, where the Nile crocodiles slumbered in the moonlight. “They’re far smaller than I.”
    Merys assumed a cross-legged position, hands folded in her lap. “I want to behold you. I won’t be scared, trust me. I told you, I’m of the priestess blood. A high priestess of the Crocodile God can’t fear his creatures or the Great One himself. Not in any form he might take, no matter what he might find it necessary to do.”
    Leaning back on his elbows, Sobek grinned. “Perhaps I could just become half human, half crocodile for you, would that suffice?”
    Merys shook her head. “No, I can see such a depiction in any wall painting in the temple. I want to see you, as the crocodile.” Dimples flashed in her cheeks. “I will grant you reprieve from wearing the crown with plumes and sun disk.”
    Apparently unconcerned about his nakedness, he stood, dusted the sand from his hands and strode away from her, then glanced over his shoulder. His eyes gleamed golden in the moonlight.
    Warmth pooled in her loins. He is so perfectly formed, all muscles and sinew. I’m the luckiest of women to be with such a lover, even if only once.
    Small flashes of emerald light dazzled her eyes. Then a crackling roar erupted in the air, as if a great fire burned somewhere close by.
    In the next second, a thirty-foot-long white crocodile lay on the sand, head turned toward her, golden eye slitted. Merys gasped. He glowed in the moonlight. He was huge, not only in length, but overall—maybe three times the size of the largest Nile crocodile. Entranced, she got to her feet. Draping her fringed shawl over her shoulders against the chill breeze from the river, she paced closer. He held perfectly still while she approached, as a crocodile does to lure prey, but Merys wasn’t afraid. His body armor shone iridescent, rainbows chasing each other across his dorsal ridges and sides.
    He rolled one sparkling citrine eye at her. Words poured into her head. Well? Am I impressive enough for you, Priestess?
    “Oh, Bek, you’re amazing.” Reaching out, she touched one of the gold-tipped ridges on his spine, running her hand along its length. His giant jade claws dug into the sand and he moved slightly. A tremor ran through his immense body. The tip of his tail twitched.
    There’s a reason Osiris and Isis send me to resolve problems, deal with difficult situations. None can stand against me. I can even protect Pharaoh from black magic if need be.
    She walked around him while his head swiveled to keep her in view. Slowly he curled his long tail in a big arc so she was completely encircled. No force on earth could get at me while you stand guard. Proud that he treasured her, she savored the feeling. A question stirred her peaceful enjoyment of the moment. “Does it bother you to be feared?”
    I never considered it one way or the other until I met you . His breath chuffed out, spicy and warm against her skin. Fear is one of my weapons, but I didn’t want you to be afraid of me.
    “And I’m not. How could I be? I know the man and the beast share one heart, one mind.”
    He returned to his human form and caught her close to him, lifting her easily off the sand. “And the heart loves you beyond all reason, but what we’re going to do about it, I don’t