Chapter Sixteen #2
“I do not blame him,” he said. “If muses entertain men, they must have that skill set and the beauty to match, as you do. Not everyone will look like you. Or sound like you. Or move like you.”
It was turning into a compliment, and Anosia smiled modestly, lowering her gaze. “There is an old saying,” she said. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
He snorted softly. “I am not the only one who thinks you are beautiful,” he said. “Others have thought so. The old man who comes every seventh day so that you can read his wife’s letters to him thinks so. Do not underestimate yourself, lady. You are formidable.”
She laughed softly. “I am simply trying to feed my children and house them,” she said. Then she paused before glancing up at him. “Shall I tell you what I did today?”
“Please.”
She wasn’t particularly forthcoming with what she wanted to say. Instead, she cast him a somewhat alluring glance and headed into the vacant solar.
Orion followed.
“A man came to see me today,” she said as they moved toward a bench and table in a cozy corner of the room.
“He has been here before. He likes to have me read the Bible to him, and I have done so a few times. Today, he came and wanted me to not only read to him, but dance for him as well. He is a wealthy merchant from Flanders, and he pays a great deal, but I sent him away.”
“Why?”
Anosia shook her head. “I did not understand it myself at first,” she said. “But it seems to revolve around you.”
He frowned. “Me?” he said. “Why?”
They had come to the nook with the stone bench and the heavy oaken table. She paused to face him.
“Because all I can think about is how you chased away the old man who wanted me to read his dead wife’s letters,” she said. “I am afraid of what you might do to a man if you know I have entertained him.”
She had a point. Orion wasn’t even sure what to say to that. He pursed his lips and looked away, wondering if his obsession with her was turning into something else.
Jealousy?
Probably. But she was an enigma to him, this woman who hid behind a name that meant “unholy” in the Greek language.
Aye, he knew that. He was an educated man and he knew quite a bit.
He was probably the smartest man in the room anywhere he went, yet he was obsessing over this woman, so much so that she felt the need to decline work that would bring her a good deal of money, all because she feared his reaction.
But why did she fear his reaction?
Was it possible that she was obsessing over him, too?
“I never said that I was going to do anything to a man you entertained,” he said.
“As for the man you were supposed to read to, all I did was tell him to go away. You and I were having a conversation and I did not want to end it, so I offered to double the wage he would have paid you for your time. I’ve never done anything to threaten you or those around you. ”
Anosia watched him as he spoke, the way he wouldn’t look at her. He was trying to deny her perception of his behavior toward her, but they both knew she was right.
“Orion,” she said softly, in a tone that sent shivers down his spine, “this is how I make my living. You, as a knight, earn wages from the king. We all have to earn our wages, and since I have no husband, it is especially difficult for me to earn money. I cannot have you impeding my ability to feed my children.”
“I never intended to.”
“Good,” she said. “Because I will be entertaining later this afternoon and I shall not send him away.”
His jaw twitched faintly. “I have not asked you to.”
“Thank you,” she said. “I am glad we are clear on the subject.”
He nodded, unable to look at her, and she started to walk away. But he stopped her.
“Anosia,” he said hoarsely. “May I ask you how much you make every month? Does it vary from month to month?”
She paused, thinking on his question. “I am not certain that is your business.”
“I know,” he said, finally lifting his eyes to look at her. “You do not have to tell me exactly. If you can just give me an estimate. Please?”
She thought a moment. “I can earn anywhere from ninety to one hundred and ten pounds a year,” she said.
“One year, I earned one hundred and twenty. My husband earned seventy pounds a year from the Earl of… Let us say that he earned seventy pounds a year. I must give at least twenty percent to Lord Chester, leaving me with about what my husband made every year. It is enough to feed my children and provide them with a nice home. They want for nothing.”
Orion looked at her, fully. “If I paid you eighty pounds a year to stop working here, would you consider it?” he said, sounding as if he were pleading.
“If I begged you to marry me, would you? I know it is foolish, but I cannot stomach the thought of you dancing for the coins they throw you, or reading to old men who simply want to look at your lips and think lascivious thoughts, or appreciate your heaving breasts as you breathe. They do not respect you for the right reasons, Anosia. I know that is not your name and I hate calling you that, but you have given me nothing else.”
She looked at him in shock. “Oh… Orion,” she finally breathed. “You should not say such things. You will hate yourself for doing so.”
He shook his head, his jaw tense with emotion. “I will not,” he said. “I mean every word. Please… may I at least know your real name?”
She made her way back to him. Taking him by the hand, she led him over to the stone bench that was built into the windowsill. She sat him down, standing next to him as she gazed down upon his sad, lowered head.
“Now,” she said calmly, “what is this all about? You behave as if I am the only woman you have ever spoken to in your entire life, and I know that is not true.”
He was looking at the floor, at her feet. But she was standing so close that he reached out to take her hand, her soft fingers in his big, rough mitt. She tried to pull away but he held her hand tightly.
“Is there nothing about me you find attractive?” he finally asked. “Is there nothing I can say that interests you in the least? Or must I face the fact that you do not find anything redeemable about me?”
She smiled faintly because the man was beginning to wallow in self-pity. “Of course I find you attractive,” she said. “You are a glorious example of a man, finer than anything I have ever seen. But…”
He looked up at her. “But what?”
“But you are a knight for the king,” she said. “You come from a fine family who, I am certain, are expecting you to make an advantageous marriage. How do you think they will react when you tell them that you found your wife at Aphrodite’s Feast, entertaining men?”
“Do you let them bed you?”
Her warm expression faded. “That is truly none of your affair.”
“Does that mean you have something to be ashamed of?”
“I have done nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Then you do not let them bed you.”
“As I said, that is none of your affair.”
Orion was verging on losing control. He was holding her hand, positioned close to her, and she was being evasive with him.
He was doing what he’d accused old men of doing—watching her lips as she spoke, wondering what it would be like to kiss those lips.
He was obsessing over a woman he hadn’t even kissed, which was ridiculous, but he couldn’t get her out of his head.
Without anything to say to her, because she was right and he knew it, he simply lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it warmly, gently, and sweetly.
“I am sorry,” he whispered, his mouth against her flesh.
“Forgive me. But there is something about you I cannot put out of my mind, no matter how much I try to. I am an honorable man, Anosia. My intentions are true. But if you would rather stay here and entertain men for money, then clearly, you prefer that over an honorable marriage. I have no recourse for that. I am sorry if I have angered you. That was not my intention.”
With that, he stood up, towering over her as he kissed her hand again and gazed deeply into her eyes. It was such an intimate moment, full of power and promise if Anosia would only relent. It was clear, as she gazed up at him, that her willpower was wavering. Perhaps everything was wavering.
Perhaps she just couldn’t resist him anymore.
Something in her snapped.
Before Anosia realized it, she stood up and wrapped her arms around Orion’s head, pulling his mouth down to hers.
Orion responded instantly to her, engaging in a heated kiss as tongues plunged deep.
He was so surprised that he ended up stumbling back into the wall with his big arms around her as if to never let her go.
Anosia had her arms around his neck, trapping him against her, and when she suckled his tongue, Orion nearly went out of his mind.
With a growl, he picked her up and set her on the table next to the bench.
Anosia was not a maiden. She was a woman, with woman’s needs that had been pent up for years since the death of her husband. Even with those needs, she’d never accepted money for sex. That simply wasn’t her way. But now that she had Orion in her arms, things were changing.
Now, she was on fire.
She took on the dominant role. She had to.
Anosia wrapped her legs around his hips, skirts and all, holding him tightly as they furiously kissed.
She allowed his hands to roam, and he went from holding her tightly to stroking her arms, eventually moving to her thighs.
When she didn’t stop him, he grew bolder and moved to her buttocks, using them as leverage to pull her body up against his.
Her legs were parted and his body was wedged in between them even though they were fully clothed.