They deposited Dani’s bags in the car and turned to walk three blocks east.
“There’s no sales person to flirt with anymore, so feel free to do your own shopping while I hit the lingerie store.” Dani used her most practical and efficient doctor tone.
“Who says I flirted with the clerk?” He smirked. “I think shopping for women’s…things with you will be a lot of fun.” He thrust his hands into his pockets and followed her.
The shop overflowed with new colors and new collections for summer. It had been a long time since Dani had shopped for anything other than serviceable underwear and she was momentarily overwhelmed. When the salesperson approached, she didn’t know quite what to ask for, but Huxley didn’t seem to have any such problem.
“She’ll need a half-dozen push up bra’s, some sleepwear and socks, and,” he looked around at her ass, and then back to the clerk with a wicked grin. “Some of those cheeky hip hugger panties to match the bras.”
Once again, the helpful-help sales clerk paid no attention to Dani, but did manage to draw her eyes away from Hux’s stunning brown ones long enough to ask Dani-Lee her size.
“Forty-C.” It was always embarrassing to admit how wide she measured across her back, and now Huxley knew the worst…that was if he truly had a grasp of women’s underwear…and it seemed he did.
He strolled off with the clerk, pointing. But not to be bullied, Dani picked out some things on her own. With her few items in hand, the overly helpful woman let her into a dressing room, adding Huxley’s pick to her pile.
“Let me know if I can get you anything else,” she chirped. “I’ll go select a few nighties and sleep tees I think might look good on you. Take your time.” She rolled her eyes back toward Huxley who had taken a seat opposite the cubicle. “You’re boyfriend’s going to be good for business.” She giggled in a low voice.
Dani-Lee blushed, mortified. This was the first and last shopping trip she’d ever undertake with the blond giant. She mentally grumbled as she stripped down, and then turned to get an ass glance at the panties when the door to the dressing room burst open.
“I have these PJ’s for you to try…Oh!” The clerk didn’t seem the least bit contrite that she’d intruded. “That set looks marvelous on you. Let’s see what your boyfriend thinks.” The woman stood back and swung the door wide open.
Holy smokes. Dani gulped. There was no mistaking what Huxley thought as he got a good look. His eyes slowly drank her in from the top of her tousled head to the tips of her pink-painted toenails. His eyes smoldered and Dani felt a palpable heat where his gaze caressed her body.
“Mmm. I think he likes it.” The clerk flushed next to her, even though an ancillary part of the tableau. “I’ll, umm, go find you some socks.” She scurried away as if burnt.
“That one’s going to be my favorite.” Huxley pointed to her bra. His voice emerged low and gruff.
Dani took a step back as he got to his feet. “Wh…what are you doing?” she stammered. His feet slowly moved in her direction.
“I need to feel it,” he murmured, his eyes glazed.
“Nonsense!” Dani exclaimed, but her words didn’t stop him. She panicked. Dani twirled into the dressing room fast and shoved at the door, getting it closed. But dammit, her hands worked clumsily as she fiddled with the small lock.
Huxley pushed against it with purpose and Dani-Lee had no choice but to trip awkwardly and let him in. He towered over her, backing her up against the wall before bracing his hands on either side of her head.
“Pretty.” He looked down at her heaving chest. “And you smell gods-damned good, too.” He brushed her long curls back and nuzzled the side of her neck, inhaling her scent.
Dani’s knees nearly buckled. “P-p-public place,” she whispered.
He kicked the door closed with his foot and drew her back into his arms, then leaned his weight there to keep it closed.
“Not so public.” He captured her lips with his own.
While the heady onslaught held her enthralled, his hands came up and his thumbs swept the sides of her breasts. She moaned into his mouth.
“That’s it.” He tore his lips away to praise her. “You are incredibly beautiful when you’re aroused.”
She cried out as one hand left her aching breast and moved to cup her ass, bringing her closer to the hard, pulsating heat of his cock that now lay up against her stomach.
He rocked his pelvis into her, and she grabbed his waist and responded, wildly. “Huxley?” Was that her throaty voice? “What are we doing?” He laved her neck with his tongue. His hands touched everywhere. “You’re driving me out of my mind, she whimpered. “You’re so good at this…and I’m so…I’m so…” She felt him draw back, his breathing ragged.
“And you’re…so out of my league.” He seemed to cool off instantly, putting space between them and leaving her achy and wanting. Her pussy was wet and zinging—firing on all cylinders—and she moaned. He wasn’t going to grab the keys and drive her hard.
“Forgive me, Dani.” He dragged a hand through the blond bangs that constantly fell into his eyes.
He drew farther away and shook his head as if to clear it. “You’re far too good for someone like me. Far too smart and genuine.” He dropped a light, apologetic kiss on her bare shoulder and opened the door. “Try on the rest of your things. I’ll be waiting out on the sidewalk.”
What had just happened? Huxley had overwhelmed her senses…and then rejected her. What had he meant that she was too good for him? Was he just like all the other men who’d turned her down? She’d found in the past, that once she admitted to being an accomplished surgeon, men eyed her as if she had the plague. She hadn’t thought Huxley was like that, but he’d certainly just given her every indication he was.
Twenty minutes later, Dani-Lee hit the street, walking blindly.
Huxley caught her by the shoulder, but before he could say anything, a voice sounded across the expanse of sidewalk.
“Mr. Abelard?”
Dani popped out of her stupor. A dapper older gentleman hailed Huxley from in front of a prominent men’s clothing store known for catering to the very well-healed.
“Mr. Abelard! Mr. Abelard. Is it you?”
Huxley turned toward the voice and with apparent reluctance, he acknowledged the man. “Yes, Henri. It’s me. It’s nice to see you again.”
“How long has it been, sir? Two years? Three? I’d say you’re far overdue for some new suits. Are you coming in?” The man looked around, and seeing Dani asked. “Where is Mrs. Worthington today?”
A kind curiosity surrounded the well-dressed gentleman but Dani suddenly felt chilled to the bone. Who was Mrs. Worthington?
“I’m not with her at present, Henri. I’m actually not even here for myself. I’m helping to outfit a friend.” He indicated Dani-Lee and Henri nodded knowingly at the lingerie-labeled bags they held.
“Yes, I see.” Suddenly the little man looked discomfited. “Well, do tell Mrs. Worthington I send my best, and I hope to see you both again soon.” He scurried back into his store.
Dani stood rooted to the spot. What had that been all about? Huxley’s face hardened. She turned to him and opened her mouth, but he took her less than gently by the elbow and spun her about.
“Don’t ask,” he said in an unyielding voice. “Don’t ever ask.”
Chapter Eighteen
Lahar misted onto the terrace where Marduk and Tess caught some late afternoon sun. “I think we’ve found a lead.”
The genius god and Shamash had been working tirelessly to uncover bloodlines that originated with the gods back in the 1600s.
Bloodlines that would lead them to potential Chosen, and this latest thread must look good. “From Absu, I assume?” Marduk gave a knowing smile. Absu had been the most active, sexually, with the women of Merrymount.
Lahar’s invisible face reddened. “No. Actually from me.”
“Who was the woman you impregnated, Lahar?” Tess asked gently.<
br />
“She was a healer. An herbalist who came over from England to join the Cape Ann Colony in what is now northeastern Massachusetts.” Lahar’s face took on a distant look. “There had been some trouble there, surrounding either her work or her color, I’m not sure which. She never told me. But Kate…that was her name…left the north shore and ended up with us in Merrymount.
“As you are aware, Thomas Morton was ahead of his time and extremely tolerant of…differences.” He studied his feet. “He had no problem when she and I had a thing…a brief thing. But Kate eventually got restless and heard tell of a tribe of natives living in the Connecticut River valley looking for a new healer. Because they didn’t care about the dark color of her skin, she packed up her bags and followed her dream. As I recall, she got a local guide to take her to the Pocumtucs and I never heard from her again.
“I assumed she perished during the plague years, or even in the Mohawk wars. Later, in Deerfield, during the King Philip Wars, the militia took out a large portion of the local native population. So if she had survived previously, there was no doubt in my mind that she had to have been killed in one of the many skirmishes. I never imagined that she survived.” Lahar huffed out a breath and his dusky skin grew rosy. “Let alone carried and gave birth to…my child.”
He sat heavily on a patio chair. “I know, in the rational part of my brain, there was nothing I could have done about it. We had enough troubles of our own and had already been banished to the Blue Hills. But I could have at least checked on her.” He snorted. “A lot of good it would have done me, being invisible.” Lahar seemed to be taking it hard.
Marduk felt his pain.
“You loved her.” Tess came over and placed her hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
“I did,” he choked out. “And even though she wasn’t my Chosen, I asked her to marry me, but she couldn’t conceive of a life tied to an indentured servant.”
That’s what we had all been, Marduk thought bitterly.
“She said she’d ‘done her time,’ and one night she just slipped away. I never saw her again. She’d been either owned or indentured before and it had left a very bad taste in her mouth.”
Tess must have sensed his turn into melancholia and sought to distract him. She quickly changed the direction of the conversation. “So the descendant you’ve located. Where is she?”
“That’s the funny thing. She was easy to trace, up until a certain point. She’s like the others we have found. A perfect female bloodline directly back to me. I haven’t yet got an address for her, but I have a birth record that says she was born in Northampton. I’m hoping she still lives out in the western part of the state in the Pioneer Valley.” He looked up as Marduk towered above him. “Someone needs to go out there and find her.”
Marduk let Lahar down as gently as possible. “We can’t my friend. At least not now. With Erra on constant vigil, we don’t dare send any gods out. You know Erra can seek our energy, although the western part of the state is pretty far afield. But Nergal has the power to find us wherever we are. All Erra has to do is ask him for your location, and the war god could get to whomever he is seeking…and get to this new girl first.”
Tess obviously thought on a more personal level. “What’s her name?”
“Gloria Wingfeather.” Lahar seemed stunned that someone―a part of him―was out there, somewhere, walking around.
Marduk put a hand on his shoulder. “There’s no doubt that Gloria needs to be found, but the only one who can possibly do it undetected is Huxley.”
“Well, we know where he is, Marduk. But it’s not safe to call him on his cell.” Tess reminded him. “According to Lenore, the PP can easily track the call, but is it secure to head-talk to him now that he’s in a permanent location?” Tess questioned. “Or should we assume Nergal is attempting to monitor every communication that goes in and out of here.”
Marduk nodded his head, pondering. “If we send any of the gods to talk to Hux, Erra will just follow.” Tess’s brother was not as indestructible as a god. “But if we distract Erra long enough, and assume that Nergal is too busy in the Underworld with all his visitors to be available on a minute’s notice, Lahar should be able to sneak out, hand Huxley a note, and be back before anyone can trace him. The whole thing would only take seconds. What do you say, Lahar? Do you want to give it a try?”
“Absolutely.” Lahar’s face lit up but then fell just as fast. “Only I’m not sure what will get that asshole off his constant vigil. You’d think now that the idol has gone to the Underworld, he’d give up and go home.”
“One would think, but I’ve never been sure of what’s in Nergal’s or Erra’s heads,” Marduk griped. “As for a distraction, I think Kulla can help us out. He and Erra have never been enemies. At one point, Kulla built a temple to honor him.” Marduk snapped his fingers. “And now that I think of it, perhaps we might benefit from the fact that Erra was completely smitten with the goddess Ishtar Dinitu back in the day.”
He wasn’t going to extrapolate for Lahar or Tess. He’d have to wait and see if things worked out. “I’m going have a word with Kulla,” he told Lahar. “You be ready to roll with the necessary information for Hux as soon as you hear from me. Got it?”
Lahar nodded.
Marduk gave him the name and location of the hotel where Hux and Dani-Lee were staying, and watched Lahar copy off everything he and Shamash had uncovered concerning Gloria.
Marduk made haste and misted out.
Kulla had all the gods―who weren’t otherwise occupied―on construction duty framing up two guest houses at once. Emesh, Enten, Absu, and Anshar focused on one, and Dumuzi, Ishkur, Ninurta, and Kulla on the other.
The idea was to finish them at the same time so that Kulla’s curse of being sent to the Underworld at the completion of a building project would only have to go into effect once.
Archie the dog, never far from Dumuzi’s side, made himself useful dragging away all the scrap to a large pile to the right of the worksite where it would be chipped up later and used for ground cover.
Marduk misted into the middle of it all and almost got beaned by a hammer swung at full extension.
Emesh eeped. “Whoa there, boss man. If you want to get nailed, all you have to do is let me know because I’m the man for the job.” Emesh let his eyes stray up and down Marduk’s colossal frame and sighed. “Such a waste.”
Marduk laughed. “Talk to Tess about that, Emesh. She thinks things are just as they should be.” He looked around. “Where’s Kulla?”
“He’s behind door number two,” Emesh said, pointing his tool at the other cottage. “Tell him we’re running low on nails, and instead of buying more, why doesn’t the cheap bastard spring for some nail guns. This old-fashioned stuff is for the birds.”
“You’ll have to bring it up with him, but I don’t think it will matter. If Kulla had his way you’d be using pegs and mallets, so consider yourself lucky.”
Emesh just rolled his eyes and went back to work.
Marduk walked the distance to the other structure, admiring the arts-and-crafts lines that became apparent. The cottages would make lovely additions to the main house, and he was sure there’d be some fighting about who would be moving in when they were finished. He spotted Kulla up a ladder measuring for a roof truss.
“Things look to be progressing rapidly,” Marduk spoke up to him.
“The boys like to have something to do,” Kulla replied. “I’ll have to think of something else to build after this. It’s been a while since we all had a project to work on together.”
Marduk could see the truth in it as good-natured banter echoed all around. It felt like old times now that they had other people to worry about besides their core group. If the gods could defeat Erra and Nergal, these feelings of productiveness and worth could go on indefinitely. What an incredibly uplifting prospect.
“I have a favor to ask.” Marduk lowered his voice, almost drowned out by the sound of
a table saw.
Kulla snapped in his tape measure and came down the ladder. “It must be important.”
Marduk nodded. “It is. I need you to distract Erra for me so that Lahar can leave the compound undetected.”
“Gladly,” agreed Kulla. “Any ideas on how I can accomplish that?”
“I remember a story Dagon told about Erra being smitten with Ishtar Dinitu.”
“Goddess of the dawn. Sure, I remember. He was all over her at one point. Unrequited, of course.” Kulla smirked.
Marduk ignored that. “I wondered if you could lead him to believe that you’re dedicating these structures to her, and ask for any suggestions he might have to add to the architecture since he knew her so well and could anticipate what she’d like. You know.”
“I get it. Pander to his ego and get his brain thinking about the babe he never nailed…”
“That’s right. Oh. And not to get off the subject, but speaking of nailed, Emesh thinks a compressor and nailguns might not go amiss.”
“In his dreams.” Kulla dismissed the idea instantly. Just like Marduk had surmised, the god liked the sweat and hands-on that manual labor allowed. “When do you want me to call Erra?”
“Right now. Only wait until I’m gone so he doesn’t suspect anything. For some reason, he hates me, even though I’ve never been able to figure out why.” Marduk shrugged. “I never had anything to do with the guy.” He took a few steps back from Kulla. “I’ll keep tabs from inside the house and send Lahar out as soon as I see that Erra’s engaged.” He misted away.
Everything went down as he had hoped with the war god. When nothing looked amiss, Marduk implemented his end of the plan.
He quickly sent word to Lahar, who accomplished his task and was back in the compound in under thirty seconds.
The thunder god furrowed his brow. Things seemed to have gone too well, and nothing good ever came of that.
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