Page 15 of Blood Slumberm

“Don’t you dare tell me my table manners are rusty.” She frowned and reached for a cloth to wipe her mouth but only succeeded in smudging it.

“I’m sure you got plum tart on your face intentionally, to test my decorum.” He held up his own napkin. “May I?”

She hesitated an instant, then leaned closer. Gently, slowly, he dabbed the sweet filling off her face.

A searching look came into her big brown eyes. “Where did you learn to ask a woman’s permission before you touch her? They don’t teach those manners here in Cordium.”

“Orthros,” he replied.

“You’ve been to the Hesperines’ kingdom, then?”

“It’s a queendom, you know. That’s where I spent my first ten years as a Hesperine.”

She propped her hand under her chin to study him. “Is Orthros as hideous as it sounds in the tales?”

“No,” he said truthfully. “It puts Cordium to shame.”

“That is not what the legends say at all.”

“You prefer the truth, do you not?”

“And why should I trust a Hesperine to tell the truth?”

He sighed. He had once wondered the same. Troi fiddled with the ring on his smallest finger, then decided to show it to her. “You surely have an eye for fine jewelry. Tell me, was this made anywhere in Tenebra or Cordium?”

She took his hand. Her fingers, wrinkled from her long bath, teased his palm as she studied the gold band and red moonstone. Her aura tugged at the ring, testing the spells on it.

“I have never seen such a jewel anywhere in mortal lands,” she admitted at last, “nor sensed the magic that crafted this.”

“All of Orthros is like this ring.”

Her eyes glittered with challenge. “I should not be surprised. Hesperines are known for being beautiful and seductive. And dangerous.”

“What does the magic in this ring feel like to you?”

She paused, as if searching for words.

“The truth is more dangerous, Celandine,” he reminded her.

“The magic feels pure,” she murmured.

“Under Orthros’s beauty, there is more beauty. In truth, Hesperines are disgustingly honest and annoyingly good-hearted. I have no idea how I became one.”

Her lips twitched. “No violent females wreaking havoc? No deadly orgies?”

“Sorry to disappoint you. The Queens are the most peaceful beings I have ever met. And none of my Hesperine lovers ate my heart.”

She raised a brow. “Making conquests in immortal beds as well, I see.”

“If I regarded a Hesperine woman as something to be conquered, she would toss me out on my arse. And with her magic, that would hurt.”

He was rewarded with Celandine’s sparkling laughter. “Perhaps I would like Hesperine women.”

He refilled her wine, but her gaze was on his face, not the pouring liquid. He felt the rush of knowing he had captured her attention.

“When Hesperines share blood and pleasure,” he said, “it is anything but a conquest.”

She lifted her wine to her lips, breaking her gaze from his. But he heard the way her pulse raced.

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