Eventually the Haunt became so successful at
killing charmers that efforts had been made to breed them, but that
had proved unsuccessful. Charmers were a wildcard mutation, and
defied all efforts to recreate on demand. Thank God.
Now she understood why Keilor had been so
repulsed by her in the beginning, and so angry. He and Jayems must
have truly cared for Rihlia to go through all the effort to first
humor her, and then to protect the dreaded charmer from their
countrymen.
And speaking of their countrymen, just how
opposed to her were they? Could she expect a lynch mob if she tried
to wander out alone? She shivered, knowing she could never hope to
outrun any Haunt who wanted her blood.
Taking a deep, calming breath, she reminded
herself of the cadets.
They
certainly had no aversion to
her. Maybe it was just the older generation she had to watch out
for. It would pay to be wary, though. Now that Rihlia had accepted
her role as Jayems’ wife, there was no reason to go back to Earth.
There was nothing there for them now.
Besides, she sort of liked it here. The
weather was mild, the people interesting, and if she discounted the
poisoned desserts, the food was the best she’d ever had. In fact,
if she could just figure out how to live two hundred and fifty more
years, life would be just about perfect.
“Tell me about your cousins.”
Jayems looked up from the stained glass he
was soldering, not the least bit startled, and Jasmine knew that
he’d heard her outside the door of his hobby room. She pulled a
stool up to his workbench and looked with interest at the vice.
Grinding and polishing tools and sundry pieces of colored glass
were neatly arranged on the work surface.
“Your wife is taking a nap.” She shook her
head. “I think the privileged life is going to her head. I swear
she spends half her days napping.”
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 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 on the bill. “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. 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.”
She grinned wryly. It was good to find humor
in that night.
The mood didn’t last. 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 charmer thing, do you think?” Her eyes darkened
with painful wisdom. “I’m not naive enough to think it’s my great
beauty and charm that attracts them.”
Jayems turned to face her. “If you wish to
know their hearts, ask them, Jasmine. They will tell you the
truth.”
She sighed. “That’s not how it works where I
come from.”
“Here it is a matter of honor for a man to
speak honestly to a woman who asks 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 what your position is. Rihlia claimed you as a
sister, and I accepted her claim. You became my family. No one
would dare treat you lightly.” He slanted her a mischievous look.
“Nor will they court you without my permission.”
She eyed him. “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 her face flush. “N-nothing
much.” That was true. There hadn’t been much to that nightie.
Jayems looked down at his project, and she
could tell he was trying to hide his smirk. She hastily made her
excuses and left.
She made it to her room without mishap and
called for the lights. She made a tour of her indoor garden as she
considered her problems.
They were both good men. She skittered away
from the knowledge that her midnight fantasies always revolved
around the dark haired cousin. He wasn’t the type to commit. She
knew the danger of wishing for things that weren’t meant to be.
Keilor was 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 girl, but
lately she craved a more potent brew. Frightened, bold, sexy—that’s
how Keilor made her feel. He had her teetering on the brink of a
fatal loss of common sense. What if he pushed and she admitted her
feelings?
She traced the centerline of a lemon leaf
with her stiff right hand. Perhaps she was obsessing. 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.
Chapter 12
“This isn’t what I had in mind,” Jasmine
muttered. She watched Rihlia’s aunt, mother and cousin shuck their
robes and wade, buck naked, into a pool of warm mud.
Rihlia already sat in the repulsive stuff,
her arms stretched out along the rough granite edge. The same stone
formed pools privacy wall. Large, roughly squared stones wove in a
path through the spa’s neatly clipped grass.
A waterfall splashed down over one wall and
collected in a circular pool. The wall directly opposite it held
tall arched niches with stone statues representing the four
seasons. Thinking to delay—indefinitely, if she had her way—playing
in the mud, Jasmine decided to take a closer look.
She hadn’t taken two steps when Rihlia called
out playfully, “Coward!”
Jasmine scowled. “I was just going to look
around.” If she’d happened to take all day about it, that was all
right, too. Rihlia gave her a knowing look, and she sighed,
admitting defeat. She 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 up in a twist.
Rihlia took one look at her face and burst
out laughing. 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. She looked entirely too satisfied.
“Some of us need all the help we can get.”
Jasmine’s eyes narrowed 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 has noticed as well.” She sent Rhapsody a sly
look. “Perhaps we’ll be celebrating two weddings this year.”
Jasmine stiffened. “I thought Keilor was her
cousin.”
“Oh, he is, dear, but not a first cousin,”
Portae explained with a touch of condensation. “It would get very
tiresome if we insisted on calling him ‘third cousin Keilor’ all
the time, don’t you think?”
“Definitely,” a deep voice responded.
Jasmine looked up in shock to see Keilor
standing at the edge of the pool. Embarrassed, she sank a bit lower
in the concealing mud.
No one else seemed to take his presence
amiss. Rhapsody inclined her head. “You have some message,
Keilor?”
He nodded 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, 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.
She and walked over to the waterfall to rinse, as poised as if she
were out for a stroll. When the procedure was repeated with his
aunt, Jasmine hastily looked away. Even reminding herself that lots
of cultures saw nothing wrong with nudity did little to help.
Urseya extended her hand, 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.
“I’m sorry, cousin,” Keilor answered
politely, 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. She jogged off to the falls.
Jasmine boggled at her.
Keilor looked at Jasmine. He extended his
mud-dampened hand.
Jasmine slouched a little deeper into the
muck. “Um, I think I’ll just hang out here for a while.”
Keilor cocked his head. “Is there some
problem?”
She closed her eyes and jigged her head a
little, arguing with herself. She decided to just tell him. “I’m
naked.”
His voice deepened with amusement. “I had
assumed as much.”
She swallowed. Suddenly nerve endings she’d
sworn were fried began hopping. 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.” It sounded prissy, under the
circumstances. It was obvious he was just being polite.
He raised a brow. “We’re hardly in
public.”
“You’re the public,” she said, hoping he
would take a hint before she managed to die of embarrassment. She
risked a glance at the others. They were leaving. That did it. She
was definitely staying put until someone came to rescue her. No way
was she going anywhere near him covered in only a thin layer of
mud.
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, and slimy as well.”
Jasmine shuddered. What nasty little
creatures they had on this world!
He looked 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 made to leave.
“Wait!” He looked at her inquiringly and she
bit her lip, reluctant to play the fool, but… “So what does this
mud borer do? Suck blood?” she said, attempting to joke.
Keilor frowned. “I thought no one had
mentioned it.” He glanced at the smooth surface of the mud. “It
is
hatching season, but still…” He shrugged. “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.
She crossed her arms over her breasts and
spun around, giving him her back.
It was every bit as enticing as her front had
been. This was a body he would have wanted even without her charmer
spice. With it… “Beautiful,” he murmured.
Her shoulders hunched. “Go away!”