by Autumn Dawn
Jayems grinned with satisfaction. “Her new duties as my lady are demanding.”
Jasmine decided not to touch that one.
Noting her interest, he laid another line of soldering wire and heated it with his torch, shaping the frame of his project. With his eyes still on his work, he asked, “What was it you wished to know?”
She flicked away a speck of ground glass on the bench top. “Keilor and Fallon...they’re about the same age?”
“Keilor is two years older.”
“Oh.” She propped her elbow on her black clad knee and rested her chin on her fist. She’d adopted the comfortable loose trousers and tunic of the male formal attire, and she was much more comfortable in those clothes than she’d been in the beautiful gowns she’d been given to wear. It was difficult to relax in a dress that probably would have taken a month’s pay—back when she still had a paying job—to buy. All she could think of when she wore one was how guilty she’d feel if she damaged it. There were times when she felt like a maid mistaken for a movie star and put up in a fancy hotel on credit. She kept waiting for the day when the management figured out she was an impostor and came to collect the rent. “What happened to Keilor’s parents? I never hear anyone talk about them.”
Jayems reached for another piece of glass with a trace of a frown. “They were murdered in an ambush when he was eighteen. He and one of his friends were the only ones left alive.” He glanced at her stricken face. “He still visits his family’s memorial on the anniversary of their death each year. He brings his mother jasmine flowers. They were her favorite.”
She looked down, unable to say a word.
“She would have liked you.” He chuckled. “Had she been still alive the night you became ill, I would have suspected her immediately of slipping you the Sweet Surrender.” He was pleased when she grinned wryly. It was good that she could find humor in that night.
Jasmine sobered. There was something else she needed to ask, something that had been keeping her up nights. “Jayems...are your cousins always so...flirtatious with women? Or is it the Sylph thing, do you think?” Her eyes darkened with painful wisdom. “I’m not naive enough to think that it’s my great beauty and charm that attracts them.”
Jayems slowly turned to face her. “If you wish to know what is in their hearts, ask them, Jasmine. They will tell you the truth.”
She sighed heavily. “That’s not how it works where I come from. It would be—” she searched for words, “—not exactly presumptuous; definitely nerve wracking, and...” she took a deep breath. “...a man wouldn’t necessarily tell me the truth. He might say something that made me trust him and then—”
“Betray you?” He searched her eyes. “Here it is a matter of honor for a man to speak honestly to a woman who asks after his feelings for her. I know my cousins. They would not lie to you.” He frowned at her thoughtfully. “I don’t think you realize just what your position is here, Jasmine. Rihlia claimed you as a sister, and as her lord and mate I accepted her claim and you into my family. That is why the Haunt calls you Lady. I’ve taken responsibility for you. No one will dare treat you lightly.” He slanted her a mischievous look. “Nor will they court you without my permission.”
She eyed him doubtfully. “You approved all the men who sent me gifts?”
He laughed. “No. Each was told before hand that no match would be permitted with the Lady Jasmine, but the Haunt are stubborn men, and much taken with you. Besides, Rihlia thought their gifts would cheer you.” A sly look crossed his face. “What did Keilor bring you?”
Jasmine felt embarrassment march across her face as she muttered hastily, “N-nothing much.” That was true. There hadn’t been much to that nightie, and Jayems certainly didn’t need to know she wore it every night, or that some nights she fantasized about....
Jayems looked down at his project, and she could tell he was trying to hide his knowing smirk as she hastily made her excuses and left. She didn’t need him coaxing any more revealing non-answers from her. Next thing she’d know, she’d be spilling all the details about the hot fantasies that took over her mind the moment she lay down in her lonely, decadent bed. Fantasies of a hot, naked male body covering her reflected in the mirror above her bed, moving over her endlessly as he—
Jasmine tripped on a dust mote and swore. Forcing herself to pay better attention, she made it to her room without further mishap. She called for the lights and made a slow tour of her indoor garden as she considered her problems.
The trouble was, both men were so appealing. At different times she had felt desire for them both, and it made it all the harder to choose, or so she told herself. She skittered away from the knowledge that her midnight fantasies always revolved around the dark haired cousin. The one that didn’t want her. She knew the danger of wishing too hard for things that weren’t meant to be. Wasn’t she a modern woman? She could be objective.
For a half-hearted second, she entertained the idea of enjoying them both. Some women wouldn’t hesitate. Body and soul rebelled, though. She could never be one of those women, and didn’t aspire to be.
Keilor the aloof was so impossibly sexy, and Fallon too charming for his own good. The men were like champagne and dark rum; one was bright and sparkly and made her insides bubble, while the other burnt the throat going down, but—oh! It lit a fire inside.
She’d always been a champagne kind of girl, but lately she’d been craving a more potent kind of brew. Frightened, bold, sexy—that’s how Keilor made her feel, but she feared what he might unleash given the chance. Total loss of control, of emotional distance. He had her teetering on the brink of a fatal loss of common sense. What if he pushed her again and she admitted her feelings? Nothing would catch her at the end of the free fall, certainly not him.
Desire was such a wild thing; there was no hope of taming it. At times in her life she’d tried to kill it, bury it, and ignore it, but always—always!—just when she thought she was safe, she’d turn around, and it would bite her on the butt.
The only thing to do was to accept it and take control. She could choose not to act on it. At the moment that was not a problem. Her mind might be calling up endless fantasies, but her nerve endings weren’t sharing them. At best she felt only a flicker of desire at the sensual looks Keilor and Fallon occasionally sent her way, and their casual—but potent—touches left her unmoved.
She traced the centerline of a lemon tree leaf with her stiff right hand. Perhaps she was obsessing. She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. What she needed was to get out of this room, collect Rihlia and hunt up an adventure. Jasmine grinned. After all, if she wasn’t having fun, she had only herself to blame.
“This isn’t what I had in mind,” Jasmine muttered as she watched Rihlia’s aunt, mother and cousin shuck their robes and wade, buck naked, into a huge pool of warm mud. Rihlia was already reclining in the repulsive stuff up to her neck, her arms stretched out along side the semi-rough granite edge. The same stone formed all four walls of the pool’s enclosure, as well as the large, roughly squared path stones that wove through the mud spa’s neatly clipped grass. Against one wall a small waterfall splashed down a wall of darker stone and collected in a circular pool. The wall directly opposite it held tall arched niches sheltering stone statues representing the four seasons. Thinking to delay—indefinitely, if she had her way—playing in the mud, she decided to take a closer look.
She hadn’t taken two steps when Rihlia called out playfully, “Coward!”
Jasmine scowled at her. “I was just going to look around.” If she’d happened to take all day about it, well then, that was all right, too. Rihlia gave her a knowing look, and she sighed, admitting defeat. Reluctantly she unfastened her belt, shucked her robe and got hastily into the pool, not nearly as comfortable with her nudity as the others.
Modesty not withstanding, it still took an effort of will to sink into the warm, clinging mud, and she was grateful she’d pinned her hair securely up in a twist. Rihlia
took one look at her face and burst out laughing. She hunched her shoulders and scowled, and even Urseya and Rhapsody chuckled.
“Don’t be such a sour pickle, dear,” Portae chided, dipping down to coat her chins in the mud. “Volcanic mud is famous for its healing properties. You’ll love it once you get used to it.”
Urseya smiled, catlike, and leaned back, dipping her long, dark hair into the muck. “It’s also extremely good for the skin.” She raised her head and sighed, leaning back against the edge of the pool, murmuring, “Some of us need all the help we can get.”
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed a fraction, and she saw Rihlia frown. If she’d suspected Urseya had no use for her before, it was confirmed now. Unfortunately, the subtle insult seemed to be lost on the older women, or at least Urseya’s mother.
“Don’t be silly, dear, you know you’re beautiful,” she told her daughter fondly, “—and if I’ve read the signs right, Keilor is finally beginning to notice as well.” She sent Rhapsody a sly look. “Perhaps we’ll even be celebrating two wedding feasts this year.”
Jasmine stiffened, and her eyes contracted a little as she demanded, “I thought Keilor was her cousin.”
“Oh, they are, dear, but not first cousins,” Portae explained with a touch of condensation. “It would get very tiresome, though, if we insisted on calling him ‘third cousin Keilor’ all the time, don’t you think?”
“Definitely,” a deep male voice responded, and Jasmine looked up in shock to see Keilor standing at the edge of the pool. Swiftly she sank a bit lower in the concealing morass, but other than Rihlia, no one else seemed to take his presence amiss.
Rhapsody inclined her head inquiringly. “You have some message, Keilor?”
He nodded his head respectfully. “Your friend, Lady Liselle, is here. You said you wished to be notified the moment she arrived.”
“And you rushed over here to bring the message yourself?” Portae gave her daughter a significant look. “How thoughtful.”
“I was nearby,” he explained smoothly, extending a hand to assist Rhapsody from the pool. Jasmine’s eyes got wide as the older woman thanked him as politely as if he’d just handed her a cup of tea and walked over to the waterfall to rinse off. When the procedure was repeated with his aunt, Jasmine hastily looked away, too embarrassed to watch. Even reminding herself that lots of cultures saw nothing wrong with nudity did little to help.
It came as no shock when Urseya extended her hand to her cousin, along with a sultry smile, and slithered out of the pool. She murmured something to Keilor that Jasmine didn’t quite catch, proudly standing before him in all her mud-slicked glory, inviting his perusal.
“I’m sorry, cousin,” Keilor answered politely, but with just a touch of distance. “I’m afraid it would be only courteous of me to assist the other ladies as well.” He extended a hand to Rihlia while Urseya walked off, trying to hide her disappointment.
Much to Jasmine’s amazement, Rihlia took it.
“When in Rome,” she murmured, and hopped out of the pool with all speed and jogged off to the falls.
Jasmine boggled at her.
Keilor didn’t even glance her way. He was far too busy watching Jasmine with a look of intense anticipation. With a great deal of relish, he extended his mud-dampened hand. “Lady?”
Jasmine slouched a little deeper into the muck. “Um, I think I’ll just hang out here for a little while longer.”
Keilor cocked his head curiously. “Is there some problem?”
She closed her eyes and jigged her head a little, arguing with herself. Just spit it out, Jas.
“I’m naked.”
His voice deepened with satisfied amusement. “I had assumed as much.”
She swallowed. Suddenly the nerve endings she’d sworn were fried began feeling little sparks. Yippee, I’m healed, she groaned silently. Talk about bad timing. “Where I come from we’re taught not to walk around naked in public.”
Dang, that sounded prissy, even if it was true.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw him raise a brow. “We’re hardly in public.”
She risked a glance at the others. They were leaving. That did it. She was definitely staying put until someone came to rescue her or Keilor left. No way was she going anywhere near him covered in only a thin layer of mud. It would be almost worse than being completely naked.
“We don’t walk around naked in front of other people, either,” she gritted out, hoping he would take a hint before she managed to die of embarrassment. Blast, but the man was persistent!
He was silent a moment. “Has anyone spoken to you of the mud borer?” he asked gravely.
She looked at him as if he were insane. What was the man talking about?
“It’s about this long—” he measured a space of about nine inches between his index fingers, “—and hollow, like an intestine. About that texture, as well, and slimy.”
Jasmine shuddered. What nasty little creatures they had on this world!
He looked dubiously at the mud and then around at the manicured lawns. “Not that we’ve had any here in nearly a month,” he murmured, almost too softly to catch. Jasmine gulped. He was pulling her leg, wasn’t he? He rose to leave.
“Wait!” He looked at her inquiringly and she bit her lip, reluctant to play the fool, but...She tried to look only casually interested as she asked, “So what does this mud borer do? Suck blood?” she said, attempting to joke.
Keilor frowned. “I thought you said that no one had spoken to you of it?” he glanced at the smooth surface of the warm mud. “It is hatching season, but still...” He shrugged. “There’s probably nothing to be concerned about. Most likely you’d sense it moving about in the mud before it attached to you, anyway.” His brow cleared. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” He turned away.
He didn’t get three steps before she called urgently, “Wait!” There were little swirls in the viscous pool now and then, and sometimes she almost though she felt a brushing...like...a soft little body- “Yiieee!” she yelped, and leapt out of the mud, splashing brown gunk everywhere. Hastily she backed away from the pool, actually forgetting for about five seconds that she was stark naked.
He didn’t.
For all of five precious seconds Keilor could neither think nor move as his entire attention riveted to her gloriously mud slicked body. Then she noticed him.
She crossed her arms over her breasts and spun around, giving him her back.
It was every bit as enticing as her front view had been. Yes, he decided, this was a body he would have wanted even without her Sylph spice. With it... “Beautiful,” he murmured with reverence.
Her shoulders hunched slightly. “Go away,” she ordered in choked tones.
Instead he moved up beside her and offered her his hand. She turned her back on him again, and he sighed with a touch of impatience. “This could get dull.”
With a gust of exasperated breath, she spun around and marched towards the pool, hips swaying temptingly with every step. Plunging into the waist-high water, she immediately sank down to her neck beneath the opaquely foaming pool. “You’re a real jerk, you know that?”
He made himself comfortable on a small boulder beside the pool where he could watch her. “It seems you’ve said that to me before.”
She gaped at him, shocked that he would bring that up. Belatedly she tried pretending ignorance. “I’ve probably called you that on more than one occasion. Difficult to remember them all.”
He gave her a slow, heated smile, making her flush. “Odd. I remember everything about you. Would you like me to remember with you?” His voice dropped an octave. “I remember the fire in your eyes as you first fought me,” he murmured. “I’ve never been so challenged by a woman. You excited me.” She looked down, unable to meet his eyes, but he could see the tell tale rise and fall of her chest. “I can almost see again the curves of your sweet body, and the way it twisted as you fought to deny my touch and your own passion.” She shuddered, and a ghost o
f a smile touched his lips. “I’ll never forget the fury in your eyes when I dressed you, denying us our release.” He took a quick breath. “I dream of it.”
She didn’t interrupt.
“I was cruel that night,” he admitted. “To both of us.” He waited until she chanced a look at him out of the corner of her eye. “I knew you’d claim yourself forced, that you’d fight yourself and me right up until release and after you’d caught breath enough.” He paused, giving her a chance to deny it. “It was tempting to do it anyway,” he said fiercely, and he knew his eyes were glowing golden with proof of his desire. “You’ve a passion to rouse a dead man, and I am very much alive.” He reached out and released her hair from her twist.
She stiffened as the mass tumbled softly down her back to trail in the water.
He traced the curve of her ear. “Even now I know you feel it. Your trembling speaks for itself.”
She pulled away. “I’m not a dog, Keilor. I don’t do tricks, and I won’t lie down on command.” Her jaw clenched. “Nor will I be petted by whoever takes it into their head to play with me.”
He let his hand fall. “You think I play with you?” he asked carefully, unsure whether it made him angry or merely wary. The woman had a bad habit of tangling his emotions.
She snorted. “I think you play with any woman stupid enough to cross your path, Keilor.” She gave him a hard look. “Tell me you haven’t played this particular game before.” He was silent a second too long, and she nodded angrily. She’d expected as much. “What is it that excites men like you, huh?” she demanded. “The thrill of the chase? Some asinine male need to stalk and conquer?” His eyes narrowed dangerously, but she didn’t care. “Save it for someone who appreciates it.” Her gaze swept past him and focused on Rihlia, who was waiting at the end of the path. “Sorry to keep you waiting. I’ll be right there.” Without sparing him a glance she exited the pool, nearly brushing against him as she passed, and unwittingly teasing him with the scent of Sylph desire.