'Ladies,' she said, 'you all know I am three months gone with child. You have now to learn what is equally true. I am a virgin still.'
'A virgin and with a child,' they all echoed, several of them crossing themselves as they exclaimed.
'Listen and you shall hear,' proceeded Zuleika.
***
I was purchased from my parents in Fez, where we lived, by a young Moorish merchant. They, as well as myself, were delighted at the prospects which he promised of transferring me to the harem of some great Moorish pasha. The price paid was very high, as I was warranted a virgin.
The next morning we joined the caravan for the coast; mounted on my camel I enjoyed the trip in the highest spirits. Ali, my master, rode beside me on a fine horse which he managed with grace and vigour. His person was slender and his features, which were at the same time bold and amiable, captured my fancy. His attentions to my company were unremitting. His tent every night was pitched near my own to guard me from intrusion.
The last night that we were on the road I had retired early and was just sinking to sleep as the darkness fell when Ali appeared in my tent.
'What is your will, my lord?' l asked.
He bent down and kissed me. It was the first time he had done so. 'My wish is to make you my wife,' he replied.
'And why should you not, my lord?' I asked.
Then he told me all his fortune was invested in my purchase and that it would only bring poverty and misery on us both. We mingled our regrets with caresses which grew more and more ardent, until I found myself lying beneath him with my bosom bared to his kisses and my naked thighs parted. Between them I felt a gentle pressure which penetrated the hair and touched the more sensitive lips beneath.
I hoped that Ali had determined to marry me. I knew he would if he despoiled me of my virginity, for then my great market value would be gone. I lay passive with my eyes shut. A soft desire ran through my frame centring at the lips where Ali was pressing and making the pressure delightful. The longer he continued in this position the more I wished for a deeper and more satisfying thrust. But the gentle pushes he gave barely parted the outside lips. I could feel that they were stopped by the virgin membrane that barred any further entrance.
I grew wild with desire — I strained him to my bosom, and, pressing my mouth to his, I was relieved of a melting thrill. At the same moment I felt Ali's answering throb and a gush of his sperm penetrated to the depths of my loins, far within the still unbroken curtain of my virginity.
For a long time after we lay in a voluptuous but motionless repose. Then Ali tore himself from my arms.
'I must go,' he said, 'for I cannot resist another such temptation.'
***
'It is three months since that sweet but imperfect connection, which it is now certain will result in my being a mother.'
'And has no man touched you since?' I asked with deepest interest, as I took the splendid Moorish girl blushing in my lap.
'I can tell you,' replied Inez, 'why the Pasha, who never before suffered a woman to remain a virgin a single night in his harem, has spared her.'
***
He purchased her from Ali the day the caravan reached its destination. After having her examined by the old woman in his employ, she was brought here, and the same evening as soon as he had finished his supper he threw his handkerchief to her. She retired to receive him in her room alone, as only a virgin in this harem has the privilege of doing, for, as you already know, it is customary for us to receive the Pasha's embraces when we are all present.
I noticed Zuleika looked very reluctant — she was doubtless thinking of Ali, from whom she had so recently parted. I overtook her at the door of the bridal chamber. 'Let me take your place for tonight,' said I. 'We are the same size, and complexions will not show in the dark. The Pasha shall never know.'
'Can you indeed manage it?' she asked. 'If so, you are welcome.'
Then she hurried away and I entered the bridal chamber in her place, undressed, extinguished the light and got into bed.
Before a great while the Pasha came. He kissed me on the back of the neck, for I buried my face in the pillow like a bashful girl. Then he hurriedly undressed, and, stretching himself beside me, took me in his arms. My heart was beating violently for the success of my bold scheme, but this agitation he took for virgin fright. I answered in whispered monosyllables to his questions and shrank from every caress he bestowed on my bosom and thighs. He became, as I intended he should, only the more eager.
When at length he mounted me, I covered my face with both hands as if in a paroxysm of shame, and wrapping one of my legs over the other, held them tightly together. He had to lie with his thighs parted over mine. In this position he guided his crest between them, which worked its way between the hair and began to enter the tightly squeezed lips beneath. My passions had become so thoroughly aroused by this time that I could scarcely help opening my thighs and letting him have free entrance.
My monthly period was just passing off, in the latter part of which a woman is peculiarly susceptible to desire, but I made him gain his way by the hardest pushing. Not only were my thighs locked, but I tightly contracted the muscles of my sheath at the lips. He would give a fierce but ineffective thrust, then he would squeeze and suck my breasts, until at last my wantonness became uncontrollable and I gave way with a feeling that unnerved me, letting his shaft plunge into the hilt. He spent profusely with a long sigh of triumphant satisfaction.
I gave a sigh equally profound; I could not help it. But it only completed his delusion, for he thought it was caused by pain I suffered at the rupture of my maidenhead. He petted and consoled me with kisses and caresses till we were both ready for another embrace. This time he did not expect me to be especially coy at his embrace. Then he fell asleep.
I knew he would awake in the morning with a stiff shaft, so just before dawn I went and took a bath and put on my most seductive apparel, adorned myself with all my jewellery and perfumed myself with musk. Soon I heard him call, 'Zuleika, Zuleika!'
I hastened to his bedside. 'Zuleika begs that you will excuse her my lord,' said I. 'Pray have some mercy on the poor girl.' Then I turned down the sheet and exposed the blood stains occasioned by my monthly period. 'See,' said I, 'you have butchered her.'
'Then you must come to bed with me,' said he. This was just what I sought and I lost no time in doing so and for the third time I got all I wanted.
***
Inez ended amid the hearty laughter of the ladies. As for me, I had been caressing Zuleika; her plump bosom, her smooth belly and her grand thighs passed in review under my hand. She concealed her face on my bosom but she made no resistance. Perhaps she no longer thought of Ali.
I ventured even to insert my forefinger between the lips which concealed her maidenhead. It stretched from side to side of her entire sheath, save the little orifice that is never closed. She raised her face, which was overspread with crimson blush; her eyes were shut, but her mouth pouted for the kiss which my lips fastened upon it.
The voluptuous stories and the wanton situation had done their work upon her. My intrusive finger perceived the throbbing of the lips between which it was inserted. My shaft had become as rigid as bone. The glands clung to the base all ready for action.
As soon as Inez finished speaking I laid Zuleika on her back upon the cushions, spread her thighs wide open and mounted her. My crest was at once buried where my finger had lately explored. I gave a push that strained the virgin membrane, but it had the strength which characterised the rest of her splendid physique, and bounded back like India rubber. Her whole form quivered at the touch.
Furious with lust I wrapped my arms around the small of her back and braced my whole strength for another thrust. My crest went plunging in, tore through the curtain of her virginity and rammed against her pregnant womb.
'Allah! Allah!' she cried, tossing her arms wildly upwards and rolling her eyes towards heaven. Whether her pain or her pleasure was most exquisite I did not know, but my whole being seemed to centre in my loins and gush into the superb Moor. Then I sank prostrate and exhausted on her bosom with everything gratified.
'The baby has been fed,' said Inez, which caused another laugh among the ladies.
'See Zuleika,' said another in an alarmed tone, 'she has fainted.'
Zuleika had indeed become very pale. One gave her a glass of water and bathed her forehead; another took the scarf from her hand and staunched the blood which was flowing from between her thighs. I supported her head on my arm and gave her kisses which before long she began to return. Then she threw one of her thighs over me to conceal the trace of her wound, saying to the lady who had been using the scarf that she bequeathed it to her.
This lady's name was Laura, and she was an Italian. It was the same who had melted at the touch of my fingers during the first story. She was about twenty-four and the most fleshy lady in the room. Her immense bosom and buttocks quivered as she moved, but rounded out again in perfect contour when she was still. She had dimples on her cheeks and chin, dimples at her elbows and knees and dimples at her hips.
Her features were very pleasing, with a rosy mouth, a saucy retroussйe nose and eyes that were dark in expression and shaded by long lashes. She wore her long hair in puffs supported by a tall shell comb — perhaps to add to her height, which was only medium, notwithstanding her enormous weight. Still her waist was not overgrown, and her wrists and ankles were pretty.
'I think I shall have time to tell a long story,' she said, glancing ruefully at the diminished little object between my legs. Amid the titters caused by this remark, she seated herself on the opposite side of me from Zuleika, where she could caress my genitals with one of her hands while she proceeded with her story.