She hesitated. She couldn’t tell him she’d been an attorney, and she didn’t want to tell Drakon how she had believed her abilities made her omniscent. She’d believed what she thought she’d seen when she touched the evidence, but that had led to an innocent man being convicted. It had been a long time since she’d dared to trust her abilities again. Even now, she worried that she was seeing what she wanted to see instead of a true vision. She couldn’t explain any of that.
Footsteps rushed toward them. Korinna puffed as she crossed the courtyard. “A message has arrived for you, kyria.”
Zoe recognized the word for lady. “From Charis?”
“Yes.” She leaned forward as she caught her breath. “She says to tell you that Agnodice has been arrested.”
“What?” Zoe cried.
“Who?” asked Drakon at the same time.
Zoe switched into defense attorney mode. “On what charge?”
“Rape.” Korinna straightened. “I am sorry, kyria, to bring you such tidings, but the servant sent here urged me to tell you immediately.”
“Thank you.” Zoe waited until Korinna walked away, then said, “Tell me about your legal system, Drakon. Is someone innocent until proven guilty or vice versa?”
His familiar scowl returned. “Why do you care about the fate of a rapist?”
“Because Agnodice can’t be a rapist.” She motioned for him to sit by the pool. She whispered, “Because Agnodice is a woman.”
“A woman accused of rape?” He laughed. “What man would admit that he had been forced by a woman?”
She drilled him with her fiercest gaze. “Because whoever accused her doesn’t know the truth of her sex. Some dumb-ass husband must have walked in while Agnodice helped with a birth and jumped to conclusions that she was a strange man who was taking advantage of her weakened condition.”
He grew serious. “You are jesting.”
“No. Athens has banned women from being midwives. Stupid law! Women would have died if she hadn’t helped. Now she’s been arrested, and you should be furious.”
“Why?”
“Because she helped Charis birth her son.”
He mumbled an oath, then stood. Clasping his hands behind his back, he walked around the pool. He stared into the water.
Zoe watched him. He was a strong man who believed only in black-and-white, no shades of gray. He had no doubts his psychic ability was a gift from Poseidon. He believed he could serve both Poseidon and Archippos. “Drakon, you must help me help her,” Zoe said when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer.
“You? What can you do?”
“I have defended many people who were arrested.”
He walked around the pool. “But you cannot defend Agnodice.”
“Give me one good reason why not.”
“You are a woman.”
“Then you must be her defender.”
“Me?” He laughed without humor. “I will not destroy my family’s reputation in order to save a woman who broke the law.”
“It’s a stupid law! Agnodice has kept women from dying. Instead of putting her on trial, you should be giving her a ticker-tape parade.”
“A what?”
Zoe waved aside his question. “She helped your sister. How can you ignore that? Isn’t there any honor left in Athens?”
He yanked her to him, his eyes narrowing to silver slivers. Fury practically steamed out of his pores as he said in a low, tight voice, “You tell me why I should care, Zoe, but why do you care what happens to this woman?”
“Justice—”
“It is more than justice. Why do you care?”
Zoe didn’t hesitate. Maybe it was how his heart’s tempo grew faster when he held her. Maybe it was the strength of his arm around her. Whatever it was, she wanted to trust him.
“I know why there is a shadow in your vision,” she whispered.
His eyes searched her face as his own grew stoic. “Why?”
“Agnodice has something I seek. A piece of bronze. If I don’t return it to its proper place, the whole world will be shadowed for the rest of time.” Zoe waited for him to denounce her as a kook.
He stared at her, then sighed. “What can I do to help?”
“You believe me?” she asked, astounded.
“I believe the shadow Poseidon has shown me is growing darker and more malevolent. Tell me what you need and what I can do.”
Zoe paced the courtyard. She’d tried to eat the food Korinna brought her at midday, but she wasn’t hungry. She had asked the servant to have a message delivered to Charis about the plans to help Agnodice. How long would it take Drakon to convince Agnodice’s jailers to let him see her?
Long shadows stretched across the courtyard by the time the door to the street opened and Drakon walked in. Zoe ran into his arms. He kissed her like he feared she’d disappear if he stopped.
“Drakon?” she asked. “What’s wrong?”
He let her go. “I convinced Agnodice to let me speak on her behalf at her trial. It will be held in the agora tomorrow.”
“In exchange for the bronze fragment?”
“Yes. As soon as she discovered I wanted it, she negotiated for my help.”
“A smart woman.”
“A smart woman is a dangerous woman.”
“Are you sure she still has the bronze piece?”
“I saw it.”
“You did? Were the stars of the Great Bear’s constellation on it?”
He took a strand of her hair that had fallen from its ribbons and wrapped it around his hand. “You said you have defended criminals in your own city. You must teach me how to persuade a jury to heed me.”
Her breath caught at his genuine faith in her. He believed in her even when she didn’t believe in herself. She hadn’t realized how much she needed someone like that in her life, someone who trusted her to know the right thing to do and believed that she would do it. “The most important thing is to believe that your client is innocent. Your belief will come through in your words.”
“Tell me everything you want me to do.”
“I would rather show you.” She offered him her hand and led him to the pool. All day she had waited for him, knowing that if he were successful, she would soon return to her time. Never to see him again, never to touch him again, never to have him touch her. “Turn your back to me.”
He must have sensed the craving in her breathless whisper because he obeyed. It took her only seconds to pull the pins from her chiton and let it fall to the stones.
“Can I turn around?” he asked.
“Not yet.”
She walked down the steps into the pool. The pool was about as deep as a hot tub, so she sank into it until the water reached her chin. Telling him to face her, she watched his eyes flick from her to her discarded chiton.
Slowly she stood. She released her hair ribbons as his gaze focused on the water’s surface. His chest rose and fell quickly, and she smiled. He was enjoying the view, and she was enjoying him watching her.
Combing her fingers through her hair, she kept it from concealing her breasts. She let her hands glide down her sides and curve along her thighs. Her breath quickened, even though he wasn’t touching her. Not yet.
He knelt by the pool and assaulted her mouth with rapid kisses. When his tongue tantalized hers with long, slow strokes, she moaned and let her tongue join his in an unrestrained dance.
He lifted his mouth and whispered, “I am of Poseidon’s line, and you must be of Aphrodite’s. She rose from the sea and became his lover.”
“Join me in the sea.”
With a smile, he jumped in, splashing water. She laughed. She’d never seen him so uninhibited, and she wanted to be, too. She watched as he loosened his tunic and let it fall to float in the pool. Now it was her turn to admire his well-sculpted pecs and those fabulous abs. She knew then he was the man she’d had sex with her in that vision in the temple. Her eyes slid lower, and she saw that he was erect. Making love with
him for real would be even more breathtaking.
He sat behind her. She felt his hardness against her spine as he began to trickle water over her shoulders. He drew her hair aside to tease her nape while his other hand curved up her breast and around her nipple. As it hardened at his touch, he laved her ear with his tongue.
She wanted to give him pleasure, too, so she slid away and turned to face him. With a laugh, she poured water over his head. He laughed, but she saw his intensity. He was fighting to keep from exploding. His control was awesome, and it made her want him more.
Leaning across his legs, she pressed her mouth to his. He was as hard as the stone surrounding the pool. Before she could do more than run her fingernails lightly along the unyielding wall of his chest, he seized her by the waist. A mischievous glint was her only warning before he drew her deeper into the water.
“Come into my world, sweetheart,” he whispered.
“Yes.” The word became a gasp as his mouth edged down her neck.
He pushed her knees apart so he could edge between them. His tongue followed the curve of her breast, and she writhed beneath him as she stroked her hands down his back and over his bottom. As his lips carved a fiery path across her belly, she fought to breathe. Her toes curled up against his hips as she wrapped her legs around him. Each touch of him against her most sensitive skin was lightning hot, and she wondered if the water would boil around them.
He raised his head and smiled. “You make a good goddess of love, sweetheart.”
“I was wondering when you were coming up for air,” she panted as her breath pounded through her.
With a smile that made her heart halt in midbeat, he slipped under the water again. This time, his tongue jabbed up into her, stroking and probing and sending the intense need for release through her. His finger replaced his mouth when he had to take a breath, but he did not pause as he took her higher and higher.
She came with a scream she was sure could be heard throughout Athens. Ecstasy undulated through her, and she wanted to give him the same pleasure.
She drew him up and pressed his shoulders against the pool. Her slow journey along his chest and across his taut abdomen brought wordless moans from him. The textures of his skin, lightly dusted with hair, excited her to a fever pitch once more. When she ran her tongue along his rigid shaft before drawing its tip into her mouth, he thrashed beneath her, creating a tsunami in the pool.
He pulled her up and captured her mouth. She tasted her own intimate flavor on his lips as he raised himself over her. Grasping his hips, she steered him into her. He must have been close to the eruption point, but he was gentle, sliding in and out with slow, even strokes as she caught her breath. When she matched his need, he thrust harder and deeper. She peaked again and again, the intensity beyond anything she’d felt with any other lover, before he found his release deep within her. As he shuddered against her, she knew she had found everything she wanted and more.
Chapter Seven
Drakon was sitting beside the pool when Zoe came out of his bedroom. He stood. Their night had been thrilling and exceeded what he’d experienced in his visions. She was dressed in a chiton that matched the color of her eyes. Korinna must have found it for her and arranged Zoe’s hair, as well. Jewels sparkled among her dark curls as she walked toward him.
“Are you ready?” he asked, fighting his craving to carry her back to his bed and make love with her all day long.
“I am.” She put her slender fingers on his arm. “Are you?”
“I hope I can remember everything you told me last night.”
“If you lose your way in the defense proceedings, look at me. I will tell you the next step.”
Drakon nodded. During the interludes between their lovemaking, she had taught him several legal phrases in a strange language she called Latin. She could shout the words to him, and nobody else would understand. Yet there was an easier way.
“Zoe,” he said, “if you would let me help you refine your psychic skills, we might be able to communicate without words. You could stay here.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t trust me?”
She framed his face with her hands, being careful not to touch his bruised cheek. “I trust you completely. I have to learn to trust myself.”
“I can help.”
“You need to help Agnodice now.” She lowered her hands.
“Are you afraid to open yourself to me?”
She stared down at her clasped hands. Why was she hesitating? She’d opened herself to him last night when they made love in the pool. She’d just said that she trusted him. Maybe the Greek gods had heard her and intended to make her prove that vow was true. She took a steadying breath, then said, “There’s nothing more important than retrieving the fragment. All right. What do I need to do?”
He walked to the pool and knelt. “Put your hands in the water.”
Zoe complied, and he lowered his own hands in it. She gasped when she saw the water rippled as if a strong wind had whipped through the courtyard. He grasped her hand underwater.
A huge form rose from the water. Drakon had seen the likeness every day at Poseidon’s temple.
“Omigod!” Zoe gasped.
“Exactly,” said the sea god, sounding like a pounding wave upon the shore. “Here, I am known as a god, but, Zoe, you Navigators will learn the truth if the medallion is reassembled and you take your rightful place with us.”
“With you?” she asked. “If you’re from the Pleiadian Council that planted the medallion pieces throughout time, help us retrieve them.”
“I cannot, because the quest is yours. But I have given my son everything he needs to help you, Navigator.” He smiled. “Almost everything, I should say.”
Poseidon put his hands on their heads. Images filled Drakon’s head. A strange world filled with wonders. Zoe’s world. Her time. She had come back in time to find the bronze piece in hopes of saving Earth.
Drakon saw her eyes were wide with amazement. What knowledge was Poseidon bestowing on her?
“Never doubt what you know in your heart is true, Navigator,” Poseidon said. “Trust your heart and heed it. You failed to once, but you will never make that mistake again. Trust your heart and those within it.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“Thank you, Navigator.”
Drakon watched, astounded, as Poseidon bowed to her. Poseidon winked at him with an ungodly grin, then vanished. The pool grew still.
Standing, Drakon helped Zoe to her feet. She clung to him and trembled. Or was he the one quivering like a tree in a storm?
The agora was busy when Drakon walked with Zoe toward the Heliaia, the court on its southwest side. Jurors were gathering as he found a place where Zoe would have a good view of the proceedings, and he would have a good view of her.
“You’ll do great,” Zoe said, squeezing his hand. “Remember who’s on our side.”
He turned to speak to a man standing next to him. He must act indifferent to her, or he would call attention to them. How could he be indifferent to this stunning woman he loved?
Love? Where had that come from? He had known her little more than a day. Yet he could not imagine tomorrow without her or the following day or all the days to come.
Drakon bowed his head as prayers were recited. That was the signal for court to begin. He drew in a deep breath as more than two-hundred jurors took their seats. He glanced toward the magistrate and smiled. It was Archippos, a fair and rational man.
Beside him, Zoe swore under her breath before saying, “Remember that the most important truth must not be spoken to that misogynist. That alone would be enough for him to convict Agnodice.”
Agnodice was brought forward. A broad-brimmed hat hid her face, and the small bag that he knew held her midwifery tools was tied to her waist.
“Agnodice, you have been accused of rape.” Archippos motioned to a scrawny, nervous man. “Praxiteles, you made the accusation. You may speak unti
l the water-clock is empty.”
“What clock?” Zoe whispered.
Drakon pointed to two jugs, one set above the other. The upper jug had a hole near the bottom. When Archippos pulled the plug, water began to pour into the lower jug. Archippos sat, leaning forward.
Praxiteles was brief. He had found Agnodice with his wife who was in bed. What other explanation could there be but that his wife had been raped and was too ashamed to admit it?
“I could come up with a dozen,” Zoe muttered.
The crowd for the lurid case was growing larger. Women paused in their shopping to listen, as well.
After Archippos thanked Praxiteles for his testimony, he asked, “What say you, Agnodice?”
“Now!” Zoe gave Drakon a push forward.
“I will speak on Agnodice’s behalf,” Drakon shouted.
A rumble of shock reverberated around the agora, and everyone froze.
Archippos stood and intercepted Drakon. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he said, “You should not do this, Drakon.”
“Would you ask me to disregard Poseidon’s will?”
Archippos stepped away. “I will not contest a god’s will, but you must ask yourself if you have seen truly.”
“I always do.”
“You may be blinded now.” He looked toward Zoe. “Aphrodite can baffle a man’s clearest vision.”
Drakon swallowed his chuckle. If Archippos had any idea of what had happened last night…. “I understand.”
“Do you?” He raised his voice so everyone in the agora could not fail to hear him. “There are good reasons why women should be kept in their place.”
Drakon did not answer as Archippos walked back to his chair. The insult was aimed at Zoe, but he must not let it unsettle him.
The water-clock was reset, and Drakon began using the principles that Zoe had outlined. Ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat was the first. The burden of proof. He hoped he remembered the details, because he’d had a difficult time thinking of anything but making love with her.
“My fellow Athenians,” he said, “he who accuses must prove guilt, not he who denies. Because Agnodice was in Praxiteles’s house does not mean there was a rape. Your wife was almost ready to deliver your child, wasn’t she, Praxiteles?”
The Greek Lover Page 4
