Fantasy Lover

'Julian,' she said, her tone chiding. 'You are human.'

He pressed his lips together, his gaze now shadowed and guarded. 'Am I? Is it human to live for two thousand years? To only be allowed to walk the earth a few weeks at a time?'

He looked around them at the women who were trying to sneak a peek at him over and around racks. Women who came to a complete stop as they caught their first glimpse of him.

He swept his hand out, indicating the spectacle around them. 'Do you see them doing that to anyone else?'

His face turned hard, dangerous, as his gaze delved into hers. 'No, Grace, I've never been human.'

Needing to comfort him, she reached up and placed her hand gently against his cheek. 'You are human, Julian.'

The doubt in his eyes wrung her heart.

Unsure of what she could say or do to make him feel better, she let the matter drop and started for the door. She was almost to it before she realized Julian wasn't with her.

Turning around, Grace spotted him easily enough. He'd gotten sidetracked in women's lingerie and stood next to a rack of extremely skimpy black negligees. Grace's face flamed. She swore she could hear the lecherous thoughts in his mind.

Worse, she had better go get him before one of the women offered to model it for him.

She quickly went up to him and cleared her throat. 'You ready?'

He gave her a slow, thorough once-over that let her know he had a vivid image in his mind of her wearing that gauzy thing. 'You would be breathtaking in this.'

Grace looked at it skeptically. The thing was so flimsy it was pretty much transparent. Unlike Julian, she didn't have a body that turned anyone's head, not unless they were extremely desperate. Or had been in prison for a couple of decades. 'I don't know about breathtaking, but I'd definitely be cold.'

'Not for long, you wouldn't.'

She sucked her breath in at his words, not doubting the truth of it for a minute. 'You are so bad.'

'Not in bed, I'm not.' He dipped his head toward hers. 'I'm actually very-'

'There you are!'

Grace jumped back at Selena's voice.

Julian said something to Selena in a strange language Grace didn't understand.

'Now, now,' Selena said with a chiding note in her voice. 'Grade doesn't understand ancient Greek. She slept through the entire semester.'

Selena looked at Grace and clucked her tongue. 'See, I told you one day it would come in handy.'

'Oh, yeah,' Grace said with a laugh. 'Like I knew back then that one day you were going to conjure up a Greek love-sl…' Grace let her voice trail off as she realized what she'd almost said in front of Julian.

Embarrassed, she bit her lip.

'It's all right, Grace,' Julian said quietly.

Still, she knew it bothered him. There was no way it couldn't.

'I know what I am. You can't offend me with the truth of it. I'm actually more offended by the word Greek than I am love-slave. I was trained in Sparta, and fought for the Macedonians. I made it my habit to avoid Greece as much as possible before I was cursed.'

Grace cocked her head at what he'd said, or more to the point what he hadn't said. There was nothing about his childhood.

'Where were you born?' she asked.

A tic started in his jaw and his eyes darkened ominously. Wherever his birthplace had been, he didn't care for it. 'Very well, I'm half Greek, but I don't claim that half of my heritage.'

Okay, big nerve there. From now on, she would drop Greek from her vocabulary.

'Back to the black nightie,' Selena said. 'There's a red one over here that I'm thinking would look a whole lot better on her.'

'Selena!' Grace snapped.

She ignored her, and led Julian to where the red negligees were kept. Selena picked up a sheer red baby-doll number that was split down the front and only held together by two ribbons at the shoulders and one in the middle. Crotchless red panties and a lace garter belt completed the ensemble.

'What do you think?' Selena asked as she held it up in front of Julian.

He gave Grace a speculative glance.

If they kept this up, she was going to die of embarrassment. 'Would you two stop?' Grace asked. 'I'm not wearing that.'

'I'm buying it for you anyway,' Selena said in a firm voice. 'I'm relatively sure Julian can get you into it.'

Julian gave her a droll stare. 'I'd rather get her out of it.'

Grace covered her face with her hands and groaned.

'She'll come around,' Selena said conspiratorially.

'I will not,' Grace said from behind her hands.

'Yes, you will,' Julian said, as Selena went off to pay for the red negligee.

There was such arrogance and assuredness in his words. She could tell the man wasn't used to anyone defying him.

'Have you ever failed?' she asked.

The teasing in his eyes faded and she saw the veil come down over his face. He was hiding something with that look, she knew it. Something very painful, judging by the sudden tenseness of his body.

He didn't say another word until Selena returned and handed him the bag. 'Now,' she said. 'I'm thinking some candlelight, nice mood music, and-'

'Selena,' Grace said, cutting her off. 'I appreciate what you're trying to do, but instead of focusing on me for a minute, can we talk about Julian?'

Selena glanced at him. 'Sure. What about him?'

'Do you know how to get him out of the book? Permanently?'

'Absolutely clueless.' Selena turned her attention to Julian. 'Do you know?'

'I keep telling her, it's impossible.'

Selena nodded. 'She is stubborn. Never listens to a word said unless it's the word she wants to hear.'

'Stubborn or not,' Grace inserted, focusing on Julian, 'I can't imagine why you'd want to stay cursed in a book.'

He looked away.

'Grace, give the man a break.'

'That's what I'm trying to do.'

'Fine,' Selena said, finally giving in. 'Okay, Julian, what wretched awful act did you commit to get sucked into the book?'

'Hubris.'

'Ooo,' Selena said ominously, 'that's a baddie. Grace, he may be right. They used to do things like rip people to shreds over that. You should have paid attention in your Classics class. The Greek gods are really vicious when it comes to handing out punishments.'

Grace narrowed her eyes on both of them. 'I refuse to believe that there's no way to free him. Can't we destroy the book or summon one of your spirits or something to help?'

'Oh, so now you believe in my voodoo magick?'

'Not really, but you did manage to get him here. Can you manage to help?'

Selena chewed her thumbnail in thought. 'Julian, what god was most partial to you?'

He took a long, deep breath as if completely bored by their questions. 'In truth, none of them were overly fond of me. Being a soldier, I sacrificed mostly to Athena, but I had more direct contact with Eros.'

Selena flashed him a wicked grin. 'The god of lust and love, I can see why.'

'It's not for the reasons you think,' he said dryly.

Selena ignored him. 'So, have you ever tried to appeal to Eros?'

'We're not speaking to each other.'

Grace rolled her eyes at his flippant sarcasm.