Page 115 of Firebird
She smiled, and the sight gripped me with a wave of tenderness. “They are tears of joy,” she promised, kissing me sweetly, tenderly.
I accepted her sweetness, her soft caress of lips and tongue, the beast inside me satiated for the moment. Gently, I pulled out of her body on a hiss. She made a soft noise of disappointment. I kept her in my arms and settled on a stone bench, pulling her legs across my lap and her head to my chest.
There was a mess between her legs, which I wiped with a fold of my tunic. Her soft, tender flesh made me stiffen with dread. When I’d tucked her close against me, I finally asked, “Has he touched you?”
“No,” was her immediate reply. “As I told you, I’m able to protect myself.”
But there was a catch in her voice.
“Is that why you’ve come to beg favors of the goddess Minerva?” I asked gently, tapping her cloth-wrapped hand where I’d watched her cut her palm.
She tilted her head back to look up at me, and I relished the sight.Her affectionate, adoring gaze must’ve been mirrored in my own. She reached up and cupped my jaw.
“My darling Julian.” She smiled again and I was her slave on the instant. But I always had been, since that moment I watched her dance beneath the moonlight in the Carpathian Mountains. “Do not worry. All is well in hand.”
“I did not know Dacians worshipped Roman gods.”
She pinched my chin to punish me, which made me chuckle. “Minerva knows me, a child of Dacia. It matters not I was born outside her favored patrons. Someone wise told me the gods know us whether we worship them or not.”
“Mmm.” I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, inhaling her hypnotic scent. “So what have you asked of her?”
She paused, tracing her fingertips across my cheek and the bridge of my nose, seeming to memorize the planes she caressed. “For what we need.”
She swallowed, and I began doing my own exploration, tracing a single finger down her throat.
“But I had to bind the bargain with a treasure,” she admitted, her voice husky. “I had to give up the aureus.” There was heartbreak in her eyes.
“You bound your prayer with your most precious treasure?”
“No,” she answered quickly, gripping my jaw and brushing her thumb across my cheek. “I keep my most precious treasure with me always.”
When I frowned, she said, “Your love.” She dropped her hand from my face and pressed her palm to her chest. “I keep it here, well-guarded.”
My entire soul wept as I pulled her tight against me and slanted my mouth over hers. We kissed tenderly and gently—mouths, cheeks, brows—pouring our affection into each other until I couldn’t hearthe rain or the storm at all anymore. The soft brush of lips and tongue eased my turmoil for the moment. Until we were interrupted.
“Malina,”someone whispered nearby.
We broke the kiss and Malina jumped to sit upright on my lap. A slim blonde woman stood in the alcove leading into this vestibule where we’d blocked off the world for a few stolen moments.
She waved for her to come. “We must go.” She looked back toward the exit. “Doro is anxious.”
Instantly, I clutched her in my arms and pressed my forehead to the base of her neck, inhaling the scent of her hair. “No,” I whispered.
“I’m coming, Rhea,” she promised and shooed the woman away, then she stood between my legs, turned, and hugged me against her breast. “When will the deed take place?”
No need to explain what deed she meant. We’d discussed killing Ciprian the day she was taken from my home.
“In two or three nights. Can you come back to the temple tomorrow? I should have a definite answer then when all the plans are set.”
She gripped my shoulders and pushed me back. With me sitting on the bench and her standing, we were face-to-face. “I’ll find a way. Same time? I believe it’s easier to get out of Ciprian’s house during the morning hours.”
My entire body locked with revulsion. “Promise me he hasn’t hurt you.” I’d already scanned her arms and legs for any sign of violence, of bruising, and had found none.
“I promise.”
I stood and embraced her close. She pressed her cheek against my sternum. “Only a few days more,” I whispered into the crown of her head. “Then we’ll be gone and I can take you somewhere safe.”
The dragon purred from within at the thought.
