Page 80 of The Tenth Muse

eight

. . .

Aurelia

It took nearlya week for Selene to send a note. After observing the conversation she’d had with her mother in the kitchen, I wondered if I would ever hear from her again. The note said little. It just asked me to meet her in Temple of Akatei’s library. When I read the time she’d proposed, I hurried to dress. I had less than an hour to meet her.

As I rushed through the lobby of the Palace, I spotted a face I recognized: Lysistrata Endymion. The old witch was one of the oldest sorcière alive on Okairos, and had been the head librarian for the Order of Mysteries for as long as anyone could remember. She didn’t know me, of course, but seeing her piqued my interest. The woman rarely left Nuva Troi, or even the Order of Mysteries archives.

I put in a pin in that information and caught a cab out front. The ride to the library was beautiful; sweeping views of the sea in one direction and a better and better view of the ancient city of Nea Sterlis as the cab climbed the steep switchbacks into the Temple District.

Everywhere flowers bloomed, the fragrance of the lemon groves and lavender filling the city. Bright geraniums andbougainvillea dotted the city’s stucco buildings with sprays of color, blue agave in cool contrast to the purples and reds that filled the city. There was nothing like Nea Sterlis when spring’s cool chill turned to summer.

The days were already getting warmer, and today promised to be hot. The cab dropped me off at the Library. Selene sat primly on a bench outside, dressed in a striped linen sundress with a fitted bodice and a gently flared skirt. Her hair was held back by the same silk scarf as the day we’d met.

I took her hand immediately when she stood to greet me, pressing a kiss first to the back of her hand, and then her palm. She let out the smallest of sighs when my lips brushed the skin of her palm. I needed her to make that noise again, so I trailed my lips to her inner wrist, kissing the pulse point there, delighting in the way her heart raced.

“What are you doing?” she breathed.

“What you asked,” I said as I let her wrist go, snaking an arm around her waist. “Seducing you.”

The tension in her body went languid with my words, her back arching as she pressed her body into me. She raised her chin, her lips parting as her eyes closed. She wasn’t wearing a lick of glamour, and a constellation of light freckles had appeared over her nose. Selene smelled of flowers and warm skin; behind that, she smelled of arousal.

If I kissed her, I would need to be inside her, with my face buried between her thighs. If I didn’t kiss her, I would die. I chose something in between. I brushed my lips across each of her rosy cheeks, enjoying the way she flushed for me. When I reached the shell of her ear, I whispered, “I cannot kiss you here, Selene.”

“Why not?” she asked, her voice dripping with the kind of need that set my skin ablaze.

Selene Krane was exactly what I wanted, provoking in conversation and pliable in my hands. She would beg for me, and when she cried my name, I would make a mess of her. I drew the lobe of her ear into my mouth, sucking gently on it, reveling in her soft moan—right here in public, where anyone might hear her. “Listen to the way you’re moaning,” I whispered. “I’ve barely touched you.”

She pulled back a little, her eyes ablaze with the challenge. “I can be quiet.”

I smiled, running my knuckles along her sensitive jawline. “I don’t believe you.”

Selene raised an eyebrow as her bottom lip jutted out, just slightly in a pout. I wanted to bite it, but I restrained myself. She needed to beg.I couldn’t wait for her to beg. “What are we here for?”

Her eyes narrowed sharply at me. It was obvious she was frustrated. Desire strung tight in my abdomen, pulling all my senses taut. This was the best game possible. Each of us getting exactly what we wanted. And Iwasgoing to have her in every way I wanted. That much was obvious.

I’d never been one to relish the chase.

What I liked was the anticipation.

“I needed to talk to you somewhere private. The Library has muffling spells of all kinds. They are unassailable.”

I smiled. “Then by all means. Let us test the strength of those spells.”

She bit her bottom lip, her eyes wide with that earnest look again. That look would be my undoing. Selene looked like shetrustedme. I let that thought sink in as she walked us through the front door, signing us into the library with her card. Vaguely, I heard the clerk remind her that she had one guest per month, and she’d now used her allotment.

I followed her deeper into the building, bypassing the reading room and common areas. The Library of Akatei was ancient, its walls thick, carved from alabaster. Selene’s hips swished from side to side as she led me through a twisting honeycomb of abandoned halls.

“This is the cloister,” she explained when we reached a hallway crowded with doors. “My carrel is this way.”

“Your carrel?” I asked, nearly breathless with the idea that we were so alone.

“Yes,” she answered, taking a key from the pocket of her dress. “My parents are professors, so I am always given preference. We’ll be absolutely alone here.” She had stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. The way she inserted the key slowly into the lock, while never breaking eye contact with me, was decadent, almost filthy. Everything she did was sensual. “And the muffling spells in the cloisters are so thick that no one would ever hear me scream.”

Heat rushed through me, despite the pervasive chill of the cloister. If I’d thought I had the upper hand here, I was wrong. Eagerly, I followed her into her carrel. It was a tiny room, with just enough room for a small bookcase, a tiny desk and a hard chair. Selene lit the witchlights with a word, and then slid onto the desk as I shut the door.

When I turned back to her, the expression on her face had changed, but I wasn’t sure what to make of it, so I simply waited for her to speak. “I need your help,” she said.

---