by Cate Rowan
She raised a brow and one corner of her mouth. “Do you think you should be embarrassed about your couplings? That they should be hidden in the dark of your mind? How quaint. Sex is pleasure, and I am all about pleasure. Others,” and she flicked her fingers in a dismissive gesture, “can fuss about what should be done with whom. I take what I want, when I want it.”
Her gaze upon him intensified, and stirred the hair on the back of his neck. He could have sworn she’d licked her lips like a cat after drinking cream.
“Darius, I will not judge you for enjoying yourself. Indeed, I commend you for giving in to desire. And yet,” and her pause sent ice down the back of his neck, “has a woman ever fallen in love with you?”
Suddenly he felt as if a chasm had opened at his feet, and whether he fell into it or not depended upon his reply.
If his brothers had been asked that question, would they fall into the pit with him?
“We haven’t,” he answered carefully, “stayed in any one place for very long. Not since we were small children.”
“Of course. You’ve been mercenaries, or pickpockets as needed. On the wrong side of the rules, as it suited you. In other words, my kind of man.”
She stood still in front of him, but he could have sworn her warm finger slowly traced his spine; his body reacted in spite of himself.
“But Darius, your history of travel doesn’t really answer my question, does it? Moving from place to place might make falling in love more difficult, but doesn’t preclude it.”
He tried then to think through all the women he’d bedded. There was, as Ina seemed to know, quite a long line of them. Willing, friendly, sensual . . . some who’d loved it rough with bites and returned his play with scratches and satisfied growls. Some had loved it quick, some slow, but all had wanted it, and him. Still, had any loved him? “I don’t think any had that kind of love on their mind.” Why under all the stars did it pain him to admit that?
“You don’t think so. Which means you aren’t sure. And if any of them had . . . would you have returned her love? Or would you have pitied her for it, or taunted her, or even run from it as from a watchman who’d seen you steal a meal?”
The tension in the air sharpened, and his heart thumped in his chest. “I suppose that would have depended on the woman.”
“Would it? If the right one had come along, would you have fallen for her?” She drew a finger down his biceps, then splayed her hand on his forearm. “Would you have sensed her need, and then given her your love and protection?”
He held back a snort. As if Ina needed protection! Her sudden helpless act seemed as false as the coins in his pack.
But her questions hovered in his mind. Other people had always looked to him for love and protection, but they’d been his brothers, so of course he’d done it. Would he do the same for a woman?
Inside, he shook himself. His mother had showed him all too well that women in love were either crazy or trouble. Then his aunt had proven women could never be trusted. Hurting, he went on the offense. “Why do you ask? Did someone not love you?”
Her eyes flashed. “We are here in your chambers, a man and a woman desiring each other. Is that not enough reason?”
He’d hit the mark, and knew it, yet somehow she still had the upper hand. He folded his arms over his chest to feign nonchalance. “As you pointed out earlier, men and women can have desire without love.”
She smiled then, slowly, as if she had won. “So you do desire me.”
In his mind, he felt her thighs wrapped around him, felt her shudder as she climbed, heard her cry out . . .
He didn’t like this game she was playing, whatever it was. The rules were known only to her. But despite who he had always been — a thief, of necessity — he tended toward honesty. “You already know I do.”
She glanced down at the evidence and licked her lips, then drew closer, teasing him with the nearness of her own body, lush and ripe. Her perfume smelled of incense and secrets.
Yet he didn’t give in. “Lady Ina, why are my brothers and I here?”
“You chose to come to my palace.” She shrugged. “You tell me.”
He shook his head. “Your palace appeared to us in a bleak rain that was strange for this time of year. Did you send that rain?”
“You showed up at my door,” she countered.
“Was it you who moaned when it opened?”
She smiled again. “In anticipation of your arrival, possibly.” She eyed him, assessing, and changed tactics like a veteran strategist of many wars. “You are tougher than your brothers. You had to be, didn’t you, with your mother sick and your father gone?”
Something in him ached at her words. “How did you know that?” And how far would her games go?
“I know many things, Darius. I know your pack is full of counterfeit coins, though you haven’t mentioned that to your brothers.”
When his head went up, she laughed. “You’re trying to protect your brothers even now, aren’t you? By staying clear-headed, in the palace of a sorceress. But perhaps,” she said, “I am simply a woman, craving a man.” She slid a finger under the shoulder of her own tunic, nudging it down and exposing a curve of perfect skin.
Heat spread along his own skin, and his cock ached. Yet still he didn’t move, wouldn’t give in.
“Ah,” she said with a slow nod. “You want something else as well. You want your brothers out of this palace and away from me. But their desire for me is in the way.”
His heart thudded, knowing he’d been maneuvered onto dangerous ground. “It is.”
“Then why don’t we bargain, Darius? You want your brothers out of here, and a job for them, and money. I can give you those things. If you do something for me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “That something being . . . ?”
“I have gifts for a friend. You and your brothers could take them to her. That way your brothers are away from my . . . shall we say, influence. And I will give you this.” She closed her hands together, and when she opened them again, one of the golden lamps lay there, glittering in the low, sultry light cast by the others.
The gold in her palms would mean enough funds for him and his brothers to live lives of leisure and not want for anything. They would never again go hungry, never have to worry about where they’d be able to sleep at night.
He could provide for them in a way his mother and father never had.
He reached toward the lamp, but she pulled it away. “If you agree to help me first.”
“Why not hire a messenger, or a caravan?”
“These aren’t ordinary gifts, nor is it an ordinary journey. It takes special men to make this journey. Men who are willing to take a risk or two to get what they want. Does that describe you and your brothers, Darius? Have you taken risks in your life? Because I have.”
He thought of how he and his brothers had set off to find work after Jasper had been discharged for his temper. He thought of the false coins he’d used to pay for rooms for the three of them and for their beer. And before that, to the times he’d pilfered bread from the baker’s sill, or palmed apples from the market for them all. And then back further still, to when their family had been intact, to the blood he’d spilled for his brothers — from the cuffs and punches thrown by the parents who were supposed to love them, the blows he’d taken in his brothers’ stead. Hell yes, he’d taken risks. “I have, as well.”
“Then you won’t mind a few more. Not when the reward is so great.”
“Why not deliver these gifts yourself?”
“I have my reasons, and wealth. You need a job for yourself and your brothers. This way we both get what we want.”
“You’re used to having others do things for you, aren’t you?”
“I like useful things, and useful people. And speaking of that . . . Or maybe not speaking at all . . .” The lamp disappeared from her hands. She reached up, clasped his neck, and pulled his mouth down to hers.
He’d never been kissed in that way b
efore, as if he were the prey and she the hunter. Despite himself, he liked the warmth of her body pressed up against him, the hands that wrapped around his back, the fingernails against his spine. He’d kissed a lot of women, but her mouth was more talented than any of his previous lovers. She did things with her tongue that made his knees waver even from his warrior stance, and he liked that too.
He decided, with what little was left of thought, to ignore the dirtiness he felt while this lust was coursing through his blood.
She slid her hands around to the front, and down, and shortly he wasn’t thinking at all.
They made it only to the floor. Was it his imagination, or did a bearskin rug suddenly appear beneath them? But that was a fleeting notion, as her skin and curves were under his hands, tantalizing, mesmerizing. Together they tangled, touching, gliding, lusting. Then she was under him, rising up to meet him, slick and hot as he buried himself inside her. Light flashed behind his eyes as he found her rhythm and pushed her higher. Her scream echoed in his ears like a siren’s call as he brought her to her peak and then reached his own.
Her skin tasted of salt, and hunger, and a darkness that unnerved him when it echoed within him, too.
When he sat up, she remained lying down, and stretched like a cat — or a lioness — before glancing up at him through lowered lids. “You have talents. Be good to womankind and spread them about.” Wholly unashamed of her nakedness — and why should she be, when she looked like a goddess? — she reached for her tunic. The gesture almost felt like a dismissal.
“Is that what men are to you — useful?”
“Some of them.” She grinned. “But alas, only some.”
It struck him then how many times he had been on the other side of this situation, self-satisfied and intent on quickly departing from his lover. He felt a vague sense of shame, but shoved it aside. He needed his wits about him now, not feelings.
He had lost control, lost his way, ever since he’d agreed to go with his brothers to Ina’s palace.
But no matter what, they needed money. Money for work was an honest exchange. And as Lady Ina had noted, it would get all three brothers away from her. “We’ll take the gifts to your friend.”
“I know.”
And she left.
9
As the sun rose above the brim of the earth, Inanna stretched in her soft bed, well sated at last. These three men were such fun to play with. She was well pleased with these brothers for many reasons.
With her consort Dumuzi gone half the year, she had wearied of an empty bed. She was the goddess of sex and war, after all, and waiting patiently wasn’t in her nature. Nor was fidelity. Especially since Dumuzi hadn’t earned hers.
His betrayal when he’d thought her dead on a hook still stung.
Her sister Ereshkigal was welcome to keep faithless Dumuzi in her dreary halls for six months each year. Though when Inanna became Queen of the Underworld at long last . . . well, she would see just how grateful Dumuzi might be if she were to free him from each half-year’s bondage.
Once she’d taken the throne below and become Queen of the Underworld as well as Queen of Heaven, she would finally get the recognition she deserved. All of human civilization would worship her as supreme and build magnificent temples in her honor, as they had once done in Uruk.
But best of all would be the deference she would claim from the entire pantheon of gods. She would be unstoppable. Even Enki, the god of water and human culture, would have to hail her power. Even Enlil, god of wind and storm. Even An, god of the sky.
Even Gilgamesh.
And then, at last, perhaps she would feel content. Would feel she had enough.
But then Inanna began to think of what else she might do once she had the dead of the Underworld in her control . . . and as she looked up at her ceiling of gold, jewels, and stars, she smiled.
Morning arrived, early and painful. Darius’s head throbbed like it had doubled in size and his stomach had soured like old milk. What in the hell had invaded his body last night?
And then he remembered. Maybe he had, uh, invaded the hell.
He wondered how his brothers were doing in their chambers. They’d all shared a lot of beer the night before, so perhaps this was the result.
But possibly they’d all shared something else, as well.
He winced, and it wasn’t just because of the pounding in his head.
Blurry-eyed, he couldn’t see his clothes. He suspected they were across the room somewhere, which, in his current state, felt like miles. Naked, he turned over (cautiously, very cautiously) and fumbled around his pack to find his spare tunic. As his hand brushed against the coin pouch full of counterfeits, he paused, trying to recall something. Something hazy, about gifts for someone, and a journey he had promised he and his brothers would take to get them there. And about a golden lamp as a reward at the end.
But possibly that was all just a bad dream.
He was pretty sure he’d have to get out of the bed — which was entirely too comfortable as well as mostly stable, unlike his body — to find out.
Groaning, he abandoned the pack and eased himself out of bed, then stumbled unclad across the floor until he reached the bath. He was grateful to find it filled with clean, warm water, and after a few minutes’ soak and a scrub, he felt at least marginally more awake and aware.
Once again he found his discarded clothes from the night before cleaned and neatly folded on the bath steps. That was something he could get used to; he didn’t like that possibility. Wealth was one thing; hell, if the dream was real, he might even acquire some in the form of that golden lamp. But magic . . . well, magic was something far beyond him and his very ordinary life. Getting accustomed to it could be dangerous.
When Darius left his room, he found Val loitering in the hallway once again, and this time wearing a distinctly punchable smirk.
“I’d ask you,” Darius said in a deliberately bored voice, “what happened to earn you that expression, but I’m pretty sure I can guess.”
Val’s smirk didn’t loosen, but his reply was forestalled when Jasper swung open his door and glared at both of them. “Must you yell?” he said in a hoarse whisper.
Mildly amused, Darius didn’t moderate his volume. “I had as much to drink as you, but I handle beer-head better.”
“I handle it just fine, and other things, too.” Jas’s eyes glinted.
Val waved his arm between Darius and Jasper. “Hello. Shut up and listen to me for a moment, would you?”
Jas rolled his eyes. “Only when you have something worth listening to.”
“How about ‘Lady Ina came to me last night soon after dinner’?”
Jas smirked and crossed his arms. “Did she now? What did you do, play marbles? Or hopscotch?”
“Not unless they’re played naked.” Val smiled like a winner.
“Interesting,” Jas said. “Too bad she didn’t find your game satisfying. Because later she came to my door for real adult games.”
Val straightened up. “She did not.”
“She did.”
“Filthy liar,” Val said. “You can’t stand that she’s wanted me ever since she laid eyes on me.”
“Is that so?” Jasper raised his brows mockingly. “Her nail marks down my back would say otherwise.”
“You slimy son of a toad —”
“Ah ah, if I’m one, then so are you, my brother —”
When Val cocked his elbow to make way for his impressive right hook, Darius shoved at his shoulder to push him off-balance. “Shut it down, you babies. Neither of you did the job right, so I completed it.”
Stunned, they both stared at him. “You were with her last night, too?” Val said.
He hadn’t intended to admit it, but it was the quickest way he could think of to stop their bickering. Unfortunately, he hadn’t thought beyond that.
Val’s blue eyes evinced betrayal and Jasper’s green ones outrage.
Darius wasn’t used to explaining h
imself, but something urged him to now. “I didn’t know she’d gone to either of you.”
They didn’t seem convinced, and a furious silence vibrated in the air. Darius turned to Jas. “Look did you know she’d been with Val?”
Jasper’s brows lowered. “No,” he ground out.
Darius nodded. “Fine, then. See? So let’s drop it.” And then he remembered he couldn’t, not quite. He shuffled his feet. “I got us a job.”
Jasper lowered his brows again. “So did I.”
“Me too,” Val said reluctantly. There was a short pause.
“From Ina,” all three said in unison.
“Well, isn’t this cozy,” Val quipped, scowling, and then started chuckling. Just like that, the mood in the hall shifted.
Darius let out a breath, thankful for Val’s sunny personality. He gave Val’s shoulder a quick clasp in gratitude. When he did the same to Jasper, Jas’s face didn’t soften but he did give a nod. Darius chose to take that as a reconciliation.
“Let’s go find her, then, and get our marching orders.” Darius wanted to shrug off last night, but that might require another bath to rid himself of an invisible layer of slime.
At mid-morning, the three brothers swung up their travel packs and made their way toward Ina, who waited for them in the center of the castle courtyard. Once in the open air, Darius turned his gaze and stared up; above them was only sun, yet outside Ina’s magical grounds, low clouds hovered. It was as if the gods were inside the yard, bequeathing peace.
Or as if they were outside it, sending a warning that rain and pain were on their way.
His gut had been churning for some time now. He had a dark feeling they might regret this job, but it seemed the best of their meager options. Here was a chance to earn not merely a good wage for a change, but a life-changing one. A chance to start over, anywhere they liked, in comfort. A chance to lead lives he could only have dreamed about until last night, when Ina had come to him.
When she had come to each of them. All three brothers. And problems come in threes.
