Ghost in Her Heart (10 page)

Dagon was bewitching her good sense.

***

The moment Dagon saw her, his mouth went dry.
A fall of shimmering silk disguised her breast on one side, but on
the other, he could see the faint delineation of her peak. Every
curve and hollow was faithfully outlined, making him feel weak. It
was all he could do to move away from the door and accept the brush
she shyly handed him.

She followed his wordless gesture, seating
herself gracefully on his cushions as he knelt behind her to work
on her damp hair.

As if on cue, his brothers galloped in from
the next room.

“Did you bring the beads? Good!” Devin
collected his from her open palm. “I’m the oldest, so I get to put
mine in first.”

Dagon tried not to sigh at the verbal
jostling that came next as his brothers worked out the order of who
would get her attention next.

If he’d had his way, she’d be alone with no
one but him.

He almost regretted having the counsel test
her. The process was lengthy, and the barbarian in him wanted to
make his own choices. Now. At least the banquet would offer a
needed distraction. As he silently brushed Vana’s silky hair, he
wondered how she would take the proceedings.

Tonight they would celebrate the first of the
weddings.

Chapter 4

Vana felt like living flame. Dagon hadn’t
felt she was dressed enough, so he’d sent Keg to fetch earrings, a
glittering necklace and two wrist bracelets for her. Now she wore
enough gems to rival a princess, and only a fool would doubt what
role she was being primed for. No other woman of the harem wore
gems like her, though a fortune must have been spent providing
clothes for them. But what Vana had been given went beyond comfort.
She doubted even her new status as the prince’s new mother would
have landed her in such luxury.

She slid a look at Dagon. He knew what he was
doing, dressing her so richly, placing his gems upon her, though
she hadn’t figured it out until it was too late. The way he looked
at her, the way he kissed…those weren’t figments of her
imagination.

Over the course of several dinners, she’d
learned the names of some of his people. The counsel members at the
banquet looked at Dagon chidingly. Maybe they didn’t approve of
her. Would it make a difference? Because if she had to marry
anyone, Dagon was someone she could bear.

The king of the Beasts was not a man easily
thwarted. Witness the surrender of her heart.

He took her hand and seated her at his right
hand. No other woman ever sat there, no matter how often he visited
the bride chambers. She didn’t think anyone else had ever been in
his rooms.

Their kiss had made all the difference.
Before it, she’d still been desperately plotting to escape. Now,
she wanted him. Dagon kissed her and touched her soul. She would
give much more than her body when she lay with a husband. She was
not prepared to give that treasure to just anyone.

The kiss had affected him, too. His glances
were warmer, more possessive. A new awareness shimmered around
them, as heady as the taste of adoc and more tempting. As drummers
assembled in the wide aisle between tables and began to pound a
rhythmic call, she wished they could lose the crowd and find time
alone. She wanted to talk with him and find out if her feelings
were returned. Did he really want her?

Deep notes vibrated up from the soles of her
feet, drawing her attention to the area before them. A space had
been cleared before the tables, and a line of musicians sat
cross-legged before their drums, pounding a slow, steady beat. In
the shadows, larger drums joined the call with solemn voices,
lending a shivering bass to the music. The doors opened at the end
of the banquet room, spilling forth six couples in shining robes.
Scarlet, bronze and metallics in strong geometrics predominated on
the men, and their robes reached below their knees, while the
women’s ankle-length robes glowed in cool tones of blues, greens
and purple.

“What’s happening?” Vana asked, watching the
drummers warily.

Sipping his wine, Dagon chose not to
answer.

The man to her right was happy to provide the
answer. In his late thirties, dark haired and sharp-eyed with
intelligence, his harshly angled face was not classically handsome,
but it held an appealing kind of strength. “It’s the wedding drums
you hear. Those couples are to marry tonight. “ He looked at her
with the kind of hungry interest so prevalent in the male Beast.
“We have not been introduced. My name is Kynan.”

“Vana,” she murmured in return. Wary of his
blatant interest, she looked back at the couples, starting a little
as she recognized Ser and Jen, the lead couple. A quick glance at
Dagon shown him to be watching her calmly. Was he waiting for her
reaction?

A special rug had been laid down to mark the
aisle where the couples walked. Jen and Ser walked to the head of
it, then turned and faced each other, hands clasped. The other
couples lined up behind them. Dagon rose and joined three other men
already at Ser’s side. Each carried a piece of pole framework and a
curtain, which they quickly raised above the couples.

The drums rolled. Honored wedding guests and
aids alike exchanged knowing grins.

Vana sent a nervous glance at Kynan, hoping
for an explanation.

Grinning, he said, “Each new husband will
strive to be the last one to lower his booth. Ser is very
competitive. I’ve placed my bet on him.”

As the booths stayed up for long minutes, she
asked in a strangled whisper, “What are they doing in there?”

Kynan smirked. “Whatever they like. The
wedding booths are often the start of the seduction.” His eyes
heated as they slid down her in appreciation.

Grateful for her bodyguards, Vana swallowed
and looked back at the booths.

One by one, the men inside reached out and
signaled their readiness. The frameworks fell down dramatically
with a few tugs, leaving the revealed couples looking rumpled―and
wearing each other’s robes.

The drums beat on, disguising any noise that
might come from Ser’s booth. Moments slid by, lengthening the
chances of Ser’s wedding going down in infamy. Finally, after even
Dagon was raising a brow, Ser signaled his finish. Their curtains
swished down, revealing a very flushed and rumpled looking pair,
both dressed in the other’s robes.

Ser’s attendants laughed and clapped their
red-cheeked friend on the back, offering teasing and
congratulations. Jen they kissed on the forehead, offering rakish
smiles and words that made the new bride redden like a cherry.

There were toasts and dancing. Vana did not
see it.

Adoc was served. She did not taste it.

For when Dagon returned to his seat and heard
Kynan quietly insisting on his right to visit Vana in the morning,
Dagon said nothing. He just looked at them with a mildly interested
expression and turned his attention back to the dancers as if his
interest in her had never been.

Betrayed, Vana stared straight ahead, then
agreed to see Kynan. Obviously, she didn’t have a choice. After
all, as he had reminded her, she was still unmarried, and
unclaimed. Though he never said it, it was plain that he was going
to check her out with an eye to changing that.

And Dagon didn’t care.

A dull throbbing began in the base of her
throat as she sat there, unsmiling, the dust of her pretty
delusions floating around her like chaff. Dagon didn’t want
her.

Then fury replaced pain. That jerk! If he
didn’t want her, then he shouldn’t play with her emotions. She shot
a fast look at him and caught an expression of hot aggression on
his face, directed at Kynan.

Surprised, she looked at Kynan, who was
shouting encouragement to one of the grooms. The anger morphed into
confusion. What was going on?

***

Dagon wanted to drag Kynan off by the hair
and disembowel him. Never mind that the man was a friend. Never
mind that he was just doing the counsel’s will, testing Vana to see
if she could be seduced from Dagon’s side. He hated every minute of
it, and as the celebration dragged on, he wanted to put an end to
it. By the look on her face, Vana felt the same.

Taking a deep breath, Dagon forced himself
not to glare. The betrayal on her face had hurt. From her point of
view, he must seem as if he’d been playing with her. It was just
the sort of ugly assumption that would drive her into another man’s
arms, but he’d promised not to interfere with the test. If he acted
on his instincts now, Kynan would be clutching a broken jaw and
Vana would be over his shoulder.

So much for kingly decorum.

It hurt him to hear her inviting Kynan to a
picnic with her sons in the morning. Never mind that she had little
choice. His brothers had been jabbering on about it, excited
because she’d promised to bring all their favorite foods.
Originally Dagon had planned to charm an invitation from her, but
now…she’d likely throw her adoc in his face if he tried.

As he watched Kynan trying to charm Vana out
of her foul mood, Dagon promised himself that there would be no
more of this kind of testing. He also gave Kynan one day. If she
didn’t allow herself to be charmed in the gardens, he wasn’t
getting another chance. Let the counsel mutter—he’d been a fool to
agree to this idiocy. She wasn’t Ellyn, and he wasn’t his
father.

That decided, he tried to relax and enjoy the
celebration. The sounds of laughter and party joy washed over him,
alleviating some of his tension. Now if only he could resist the
urge to crash her party in the morning long enough for Kynan to
prove his point.

***

“Wow! Kynan is coming? Yay!” The twins
bounced as if they’d won an hour of free shopping at Toys R Us.
Apparently the man was a warrior of some fame. He’d even been
elected to participate in the trials for electing the Tzar, but had
declined.

Vana wrinkled her nose. Big whoop. She still
resented his unwanted interest. Why couldn’t he have taken a liking
to that big-breasted Swede or the southern twins? Worse, she’d lost
sleep wondering why Dagon had let Kynan horn in on his action. And
why had he hidden his anger about it until he thought she wouldn’t
see?

Frustrated again, she slammed the lid shut on
the picnic box and drafted the mutinous Roac to carry it from the
kitchens. The other boys were already loaded down with their share
of drinks, dishes and toys. From the scowl on his face, Roac hated
every minute of it.

Good. A new member to her Bad Mood club. Like
he’d been having fun dicing veggies, anyway, she thought in grumpy
satisfaction.

The gardens were planted in raised beds of
gray-veined red stone, and covered several acres. Flowers bloomed
in every conceivable corner, and the area was littered generously
with arbors and gazebos. The boys chose one formed of living tree
trunks, plunking their burdens down on a polished round table cut
from the cross section of a single tree. Without regard to their
amazing surroundings, they immediately set up a game of tag.

Vana backed away from the living canopy of
pink and white blossoms to gape. Never had she seen such a
beautiful spot. And the scent! At first she thought it came only
from the fuchsia-like blooms, then she realized that every step she
took on the mossy groundcover released a heady perfume. A closer
inspection revealed tiny blue flowers among the mossy leaves.

“Pretty, isn’t it?” a male voice drawled.

Vana turned and frowned at Kynan. “It has its
charms. But then, so does Earth.”

He smiled at little at her barb and waved his
hand at the table. Roac must have set it up and sneaked off, for he
was nowhere in sight. “Shall we sit? By the vigorous way your sons
are splashing in that pool, I don’t think we’ll see them for a few
minutes.”

A glance showed the boys hard at play in the
shallow water. From the way they were splashing, they’d be lucky if
any was left in the stone basin by the time they were done.

Just as well. She had some things to say to
her would be suitor.

They’d barely seated themselves on the
polished wooden seats when she demanded, “What’s going on? I know
Dagon was angry with you last night, and from what the boys say,
you two are supposed to be friends. So why are you here with me
instead of him?”

His brows shot up. “Direct, aren’t you?”

She stared him down. “I’m not in the mood to
jerked around, no.”

Kynan took his time selecting a slice of
fruit before he spoke. “Do you want so badly to be Tzara?”

“You can take your titles and stick it in
your craw. What I want is between me and Dagon.”

A naughty smile curved half his mouth. “Then
you lust for him? From all reports, I’d thought you were still
panting after a chance to run back to Earth.”

Now that made her chin go up. Of course she
hadn’t given up on returning…probably. It depended. And she’d been
busy. It wasn’t that easy to pry information from her squirmy sons.
So far she was still in the dark as to exactly how she’d gotten
there, let alone how she would get home. And as for using Roac to
get the information she wanted…somehow the opportunity hadn’t come
up. Or she hadn’t wanted it to. Every time she thought about using
him, a lump formed in her throat and she couldn’t do it. Maybe it
made her a fool, but she was beginning to care about these people
and how they felt about her.

“I tell you what,” Kynan said at her
hesitation, “I’ll make it easy for you. I’m a man of rank here. I
have the means to see you returned. Lie with me, and I’ll take you
home. My word on it.”

Shocked, she gaped at him. He just sat there,
as calm as if he hadn’t just proposed she whore for him. “No!
Never! I don’t do that kind of thing.” Some friend. What would his
buddy think?