thirteen #2
For some reason, she couldn’t maintain eye contact with Sulim.
“I’ve got a lot on my mind. And I’m sharing a bed with my mother. Very little privacy. You like to go out and hide early in the morning… well, maybe I like to go for late-night walks after everyone is asleep. I don’t sleep that much, anyway.”
She turned her head back toward Sulim. “That whole to-do with my mother reading your auras earlier set her off a bit. She’s talking about all this research she wants to do. Ah, I’ve said too much.”
“It was very kind of her to do a reading. I’m sorry it exhausted her so much.”
“Suppose the tattoo even affects the great Lady Dunsman. Who knew?”
Something about the way Mira said that was not very convincing. “So… does she think my husband and I are a good match, then?”
Mira’s assured smile fell off her face. “She said that you all have very similar, if not identical, auras. Well, two of you were soulmates. For all you know, you’re Graella’s soulmate.”
“Oh, don’t joke about that. I don’t even fancy her that way.”
“Really? She’s cute.”
“For the love of… don’t flirt with her, all right? She’s got enough going on without you coming along and pulling a Rollih and Iri.”
“You just assume I get that reference?”
“You’ve had centuries to read all the established canon I never will have the time for.”
That made Mira laugh with her whole chest, the sound coming out of her mouth akin to how Sulim always caught people off guard. “You’ve got a point there. Look, I’m not interested in her, either. I was just giving you a hard time.”
“Why?”
“Because I like you.” Mira pulled something small out of her pants pocket, unwrapped a piece of thin paper, and revealed either a candy or a piece of medicine. She popped it into her mouth. “Or have you already forgotten?”
Sulim watched as Mira’s tongue pushed the candy against one of her cheeks, their gazes never dropping from one another. The longer Sulim sat there, the easier it was to see in the dark. “Do you think I easily forget things? Let alone shit that happened yesterday?”
Mira shrugged, pulling out another piece from her pocket. “Want one?”
Sulim furrowed her brows at having the subject changed already. “What is it?”
“Lukah. It’s just a candy.” It rolled around Mira’s hand. “My mom loves these. I raided her stash. We’re getting more soon, anyway.”
Tentatively, Sulim plucked it out of Mira’s hand without touching her skin. The first thing she noticed was the intense scent of spice when she unwrapped the candy. “What’s the flavor?”
“Uh, luk.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
Mira pursed her lips, her bare feet up on the ledge as she wrapped her arms around her knees. “It’s a reed that grows in swamps and other warm and humid places. It’s sour and spicy.”
Sulim sniffed it, recoiling. “Mostly spicy.” She glared at Mira. “This isn’t like yaya, is it? Where all the julah are so resistant to its effects that it’s nothing to you, while it’s a controlled substance for humans?”
“I mean, it won’t get you drunk or high, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Sulim gently licked one side of the candy.
“Oh, come on, you’ve got to actually put it in your mouth.”
As if to prove a point that even she couldn’t parse, Sulim popped the whole candy right on top of her tongue and closed her mouth. Almost instantly, she gagged, her palate attempting to process the sheer amount of sour soaking her spit while her tongue burned.
“That’s it.” Mira nodded. Sulim clutched her hand to her chest as she used what wits she still had to refuse spitting out the candy. “It will put hair on your chest, huh?”
Sulim’s only recourse was to clamp the ball between her teeth. After a few seconds, her tongue calmed, and her throat wasn’t as likely to close. “This is awful,” she said, muffled.
“I should have mentioned that half of all julah hate these things. Women like my mom are weird outliers. My dad says he can’t even kiss her if she’s been eating these.”
As amusing as it would have been to imagine the High Priest saying such a thing, Sulim’s survival instincts were too strong. Imperative to not die right here. She was impressed by how quickly the candy began to melt. Soon, she would be free.
“You did this on purpose.”
Mira chuckled. “Of course I did.”
“Why?”
She should have known. Why else did Mira give her such a tenacious look?
“So I’d have an excuse to kiss you again.”
Of course she did.
Sulim accepted it. Mostly because she knew this was where the conversation headed since the moment she joined Mira over here on the dark side of the ballroom, in the middle of the night, no less.
When no one else is awake. Not a single servant.
So, why shouldn’t Sulim assume that the family’s guest had an ulterior motive for talking to her?
And why shouldn’t she assume that Mira would get another kiss from her?
All Sulim didn’t know was how this stupid interaction led to more seduction from the exact person she should not be interacting with. Until Mira leaned forward, cupping her hand behind Sulim’s head and earnestly pulling their lips together.
Oh. Oh.
Spice exploded on her tongue again. From Mira’s tongue, of course.
But I like it now. There was no sour—only a slight tang slipping down her throat as Sulim closed her eyes and leaned into it, the candy gliding from her teeth, rolling over her tongue, and passing to Mira’s as the two of them made out like young lovers on the windowsill.
I’m so awake right now. Every inch of her skin, every nerve ending. Awake. On fire.
She was in danger.
Mira pulled away, leaving Sulim stilted on the sill. The candy was gone from her mouth. It briefly appeared between Mira’s lips before disappearing down her throat.
“Tell me…” She leaned back, one leg dangling over the edge of the windowsill while she considered Sulim with a furtive look. “When do I get to make love to you?”
Sulim hopped up from the windowsill, determined not to let Mira see how flustered she was. Thoughts of more and right here continued to plague her now that she was more awake than when she wandered down here looking for privacy. What fucking privacy?
“You’re a tease.”
Mira was genuinely scandalized by that as her fingers spread across her shoulder and her eyes widened. “I’m a tease? You’re the married one.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Let’s just say…” Mira pulled her other leg up and turned, her legs extending to where Sulim had been sitting. She looked out the window and up at the night sky. “If you weren’t married, I would have already discovered every secret in your body.”
Sulim had nothing to say to that. Nothing demeaning.
Nothing apprising. All she could do was stare at Mira in the dark, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths.
That’s a pretty necklace. A green stone rested atop Mira’s breasts.
Does she place it there on purpose? So I looked at her chest?
It slightly glistened in the muted light of the ballroom at night, taunting and enticing Sulim to ask about it.
As her hands curled into fists, Sulim spun around and marched out of the ballroom.
It took her another two hours to calm down enough to fall back asleep. She eschewed going for her morning ride in favor of sleeping in… and avoiding such an incorrigible guest.