Read The Gems of Raga-Tor (Elemental Legends Book 1) for Free Online Page B

but I don’t know what…I mean how to ask you,” she said nervously.
    Eris didn’t like the look he saw in her wide eyes. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t like it; it was more that he couldn’t allow it. He sighed quietly, inwardly. It seemed he was fated to never be in a place long before the wenches got up the nerve to ask why he never took any of them to his bed.
    He was hardly ignorant of his extraordinary physical appearance and in his more ‘ordinary’ past had often used it to his advantage. That advantage was all but gone now given his peculiar, and most despised, situation.
    “Listen, Kaitay—”
    “No, Eris, let me finish,” she said as her hands played with the laces of her bodice. His voice was kinder now and she decided to take a chance with him. “I…we…well, mostly me. I wanted to know why you have never asked any of us to share the night with you. Do you find us all so unattractive?”
    “No, not at all. You are all quite comely. Right now, I have a lot of work at the caravan warehouses. I’m tired.”
    “But all men need to rest and enjoy themselves…sometimes,” she said quietly. With a gentle, unexpected tug at the laces, her dress fell open to reveal her pert breasts, which she cupped in her hands. Slowly, she walked toward him and shrugged the bodice lower on her silky shoulders.
    Oh, gods! Eris swallowed hard and found it almost impossible to take his eyes away from her. He fought to control the urge that rose up so uncontrollably swift within him. Verin give me the strength of your celibates , he begged his god. Though he rarely asked favor of man or god, this time he was sincere. He couldn’t bear the thought of going through the sorcerous change twice in one day. Once in his lifetime was once too many—to say nothing of how he would explain his unusual trick at the breakfast table the next morning.
    “Kaitay, please,” he said, struggling to keep emotion out of his voice, out of his body. “I’m tired. I want to wash up and go to sleep. It’s been a long day. Maybe we can talk about this tomorrow?”
    “Oh, all right,” she pouted. She stopped beside him and leaned down to put her arms around his neck. “But let’s only talk a little. I want to see what other tricks the city’s newest hero has to offer.”
    Kaitay let her lips linger on his salty cheek as her right hand unexpectedly reached down and grabbed him high on the inside of his thigh. Before he could stop her, her hand slid forward into his groin. Eris swallowed even harder and fought the urge to strangle her on the spot. He didn’t dare touch her, not even to push her away.
    “I guess you really are tired,” Kaitay pouted, when her caress didn’t find what she expected. “Go to sleep. I’ll have your breakfast waiting at nine bells.”
    With one last look of appeal, she reached down and grabbed up his boots. Eris didn’t respond. He barely looked at her.
    “Maybe tomorrow,” he whispered as Kaitay pulled the door closed behind her.
    As soon as the metal latch fell into place, Eris fell over and buried his face in the rough pillow. He breathed deeply and tried hard to concentrate on something else. He discovered that the longer he carried the curse, the harder it was to resist feminine temptations.
    “Charra-Tir be damned!” he swore and punched the pillow. “Before long I’m going to be stuck as a woman, because this curse will have turned me into such a dog of a man.”
    Eris lay still a while longer. The skirmish with Slott suddenly replayed in his mind. Whether or not his god had any hand in the sudden change in thought could hardly be known, and he gladly traded his rising lust for the anger he felt when facing Slott, and later the red beard. In what seemed like an hour, but was only a matter of minutes, he felt the tension ease. He breathed deeply and wrinkled his nose. He stunk.
    He stood and stripped off his salt-encrusted clothing. It smelled almost as bad as the water and slimy things