Free The Golden Lion (Knights of Passion Series 2) by Evie North Page A

palace where she should not be. One day she wandered into a room that was usually kept locked. It was the room where it was whispered that the magic objects were kept, but on this occasion the careless guard had left the door open.
    She saw a golden orb with jewelled patterns on it, and some pieces of bone in a velvet lined casket, and a few other strange things she did not recognise. And then she saw an old roughly woven cloak with embroidered symbols on it.
    Thinking that this could not possibly be anything important she picked it up and swung it around her, wrinkling her nose at the strange musky smell of the cloth. Just then the guard came from a room next door, and Batilda knew she would be punished for being in here. She stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for him to shout at her, to drag her before the Sultan.
    But he didn’t.
    He didn’t even look at her.
    It was as if he could not see her, although she was standing right in front of him. After a moment he went out again, and from the voices and laughter and then the groans of passion, she realised he had a woman in the other room and that was why he was neglecting his duties.
    Carefully Batilda removed the cloak and set it aside and then she crept back to the harem.
    The event puzzled her but after some time she understood what had happened. It was the cloak that stopped the guard from seeing her! It must be. And it also solved another puzzle.
    For some time t he women of the harem had claimed there was a ghost that came to them in the night. Often they would awaken to the sensation of someone touching them, only to find there was no one there. In fact, Batilda herself had once seen the woman beside her, half naked in the heat, moaning as invisible hands caressed her breasts. She could actually see the flesh being depressed by those ghostly fingers, and it had frightened her and made her determined always to wear all her clothes at night, even if it was unbearably hot.
    Could the ‘ghost’ have been a mortal man wearing the cloak? And could the cloak have the power to make that mortal man invisible while he wore it?
    I t so happened that Batilda was able to test her theory the next night, for as she lay half asleep in the harem she became aware that one of the other women was sighing, and then moaning. Carefully, Batilda rolled over and lifted her head so that she could see what was going on.
    Several feet away from her, o ne of the harem women lay naked upon her bed, and it seemed to Batilda that her flesh really was being touched by ghostly hands. First her breasts began rippling as if someone or something ran their fingers over the fleshy curves, and then her nipples were tweaked into firm peaks. She could see the skin on the woman’s stomach being stroked and then her mound, and then suddenly her outer lips were being pressed open. The little bead began to move about and Batilda stifled a giggle.
    The woman moaned loudly, arching her body toward the intruder’s busy hands, and a moment later she cried out as her climax came. The next moment she was sitting up, eyes wide, shrieking about the ghost.
    Batilda heard footsteps moving by her and quickly put her leg out. She felt some thing strike her shin and then there was a grunt and a tumbling sound as the invisible person fell. A moment later she heard him get up and run for the door.
    She smiled to herself. Whoever it was, and she was pretty certain it was the randy guard, would return the cloak to the locked room. But now she knew its powers Batilda was determined to use it for herself. Suddenly the world outside her sumptuous prison had opened up to her and with a little bit of planning and luck she could escape.
    It wasn’t difficult.
    The next time she went wandering she bribed one of the slave girls to tempt the guard away. She waited until the girl was kneeling before him in the other room, her mouth filled with his cock, and he was too far gone to notice Batilda as she quickly snatched up the cloak,