Even more – her gaze is just as fiery as her hair.
“You should leave.”
The woman’s voice is flat. I’m shocked at her rudeness. Everyone else in the harem had been so welcoming.
I stop what I’m doing, turning away from the towering statue of an ancient warrior bearing a spear. As I face the stranger, I demand: “What do you mean?”
“You don’t belong here,” the girl coolly explains. “You’re not like us – and you’re not good for them. You should leave.”
Where is her hostility coming from?
It can’t be jealousy. She’s a woman from a harem, so must be used to sharing her men with others. It has to be something else.
I feel a sudden thrill of terror… If she suspects that I might be here under false pretense, which I am, I could have a big problem.
What if she shares her suspicions with the Aurelians? I need to find out what she knows.
“They saved my life,” I murmur. “I have to pay them back, and this is the only way I know how.”
I stare at the beauty, gauging her reaction.
She scowls. “By cleaning for them? By being their little maid?”
“Yes,” my voice isn’t so soft this time. “If that’s what they want, that’s what I’ll give them.”
Her eyes narrow. This isn’t just anger – but I can feel her hatred radiating from that cool, green gaze.
She hisses: “You’re dressed like a whore.”
I’ve been backhanded before. I’ve been hit, when Darr drinks a little too much and takes his frustration out on me for a job gone bad.
Yet, somehow – without touching me, or even raising her voice, this woman’s words hit harder.
This red-headed beauty standing in front of me is wearing a dress so thin it’s almost more revealing than if she’d been standing there naked. I can see every curve of her full-figured body. I can even see the silhouette of her large, round nipples through the near-gossamer translucence of the dress…
…and yet she is the one judging me.
It’s worse than being judged by a chaste priestess – and if it takes one to know one, I’m your girl.
…and yet, this eager member of an Aurelian harem is looking down at me.
My jaw drops. My quick wit fails. I can’t even think of a retort. I’m used to picking my battles carefully, keeping a low profile, staying out of trouble…
Unfortunately, trouble isn’t all too keen about staying out of me.
The redhead takes a step closer.
“You know what you are, Mia?” The use of my name is like an insult, and she wrinkles her nose when she says it – as if it’s a vulgar curse word. “You’re a shiny new toy. This happens every time we get a new woman in this harem – or, at least, it does until she’s fucked.”
I gulp.
“Yes,” the girl continues. “When she’s broken in, life returns to normal. Before that?” She laughs, a bitter yet melodic sound. “They obsess about her.”
The girl’s eyes narrow.
“So, don’t think you’re special. Just leave, or get it over with so we can have the balance restored. We need that.”
Get it over.
As if answering my unspoken question, the redhead clarifies:
“Get fucked!”
Normally, when anybody’s told me to ‘get fucked’ it’s an insult, like ‘screw you’ or ‘fuck off.’ This time, though, she’s being absolutely literal.
“Get fucked,” the girl repeats. “Until you do, every other woman in this harem is going to suffer. You say you want to pay them back? Then pay them back on your back!”
She snarls the words out, and doesn’t even wait for me to respond to her fiery accusations. Instead, she then just stalks away – slamming the door behind her.
I’m left there, stunned. Her hostility hangs in the room like a cloud.
I wonder what I could have possibly said or done to make her so mad – because there’s no way the Aurelians aren’t still sating themselves with the other women of the harem, right?
I mean, I know men. I might still be a virgin, but I know men are all the same.
Those three gorgeous, towering Aurelians might want me, but surely they can’t ignore all the other beauty that surrounds them. Added to that, everyone knows about the unquenchable sexual desire of Aurelians. I can’t be the only object of that desire. I don’t believe for one second that the Aurelians are as obsessed with me as they make out, no matter how they look at me…
…or make me feel.
I snarl, and shake my head.
No! The fiery redhead is just a jealous bitch. She’s just wishing she got a hundred percent of the Aurelian’s attention, and not just a tiny percentage. Compared to the other thirty women in this place, my arrival adds barely a fraction of fresh temptation to the mix.
Then again, I can’t be that mad. She feels exactly how I would feel, if I was in an Aurelian harem. The jealousy would drive me mad – and I feel I’d grow to hate all of the other women I share those men with. Somebody like Sarah – so sweet and grounded – is a better woman than I am. She humbled me with her kindness and welcome.
Sarah humbled me – but this redheaded wench did the opposite. She may have left, but her hostility hangs in the air. Suddenly, I no longer wish to be in this room – forever marred as the location of my humiliation at her words.
Instead, I leave – looking both left and right as I spent into the hallway to make sure the flame-haired bully is gone before I step out.
The corridor looms in either direction, stark and empty.
I walk down the hallway further, choosing another set of doors at random. They open and I gasp –instantly forgetting her when I see what’s revealed in front of me.
My lips curl up in an unbidden, delighted smile.
A huge, voluminous, library stretches ahead of me – as far as the eye can see.
Books!
Books are like heaven to me.
