Page 18: — Being male

We danced.  I gave myself over completely.  I'd have let him take me any way he wanted.  He made me feel so sexy and safe. 

As we danced, I could feel lust coming off him like heat.  But then he reached out and put the feeling inside me and let me feel it as if it were my own — that was scary. 

"Know what it is to be male," he said.  "Imagine living with that urgency all your life.  Understand how strongly men of your culture fear this beast of mine within them, just as you fear the lady's in you. 

"They fear the animal within will betray them, ignore their wishes, kill love's precious tenderness in his ravenous hunger, and drive them mad if he isn't fed.  Too many betray themselves trying to control him, break him, and finally in their desperation, placate him. 

"And I would not deny that a dog, child or other animal who's abused can turn savage, but well treated I am a true beast: wary, shy, alert with intuition, a steadfast friend.  I give myself willingly to the deep mating bond, and I make a tender, playful, nurturing father.  You feel how fierce and wild a lover I am.  "