Over the Wine Dark Sea

Down below, the thin silk showed him the groove between her legs -  like most women who lived among Hellenes, she singed away the hair that grew around it.   'You look -  lovely.' Sostratos' voice sounded hoarse even in his own ears. He might not be madly in love with the Keltic girl, but that didn't mean he didn't want her. Oh, no, it didn't mean that at all.   'Indeed and I'm glad you think so,' she said, cocking her hip at a provocative angle. She pointed to the glass vial. 'And what might you have for me there?'   Sostratos started to say, I might have anything, but he'd used that joke before. Some people repeated themselves endlessly, not even noticing they were doing it. He wasn't -  he hoped he wasn't -  that sort of fool. Other sorts? Possibly. He handed her the vial. 'It's rose perfume from Rhodes,' he answered.   Maibia opened, sniffed, and sighed. 'Sweet it is -  like you.' She dabbed on a little, then closed the vial and cast her arms around his neck. He could feel her body through the silk chiton as if she were bare, too.   Before very long, she was. The next little while passed most enjoyably indeed, at least for Sostratos. Maibia kissed him on the end of the nose, then leaned down and bestowed another, similar, kiss. 'There, you see?' she purred. 'Was I not worth waiting for?'   That brought Sostratos around to what he'd come to the brothel for -  to one of the reasons he'd come to the brothel -  faster than he'd expected. He sat up in bed and stroked Maibia's hair, which was a distracting mistake. 'There's something you need to understand,' he said.   'And that is?' Maibia found a way of her own to be distracting. She glanced up at him, mischief in her eyes. 'How soon your spear's ready to pierce my flesh, now?'   'No.' Sostratos tossed his head. To prove he meant it, he sat up in bed and pulled away from her. 'What you need to understand is, I'm not nearly so wild for you as Lamakhos and his slaves think, and you're not going to squeeze me dry no matter how hard you try. The harder you try, in fact, the more annoyed you'll make me.'   His tone got through to her. She was mercenary -  considering what life had given her, she had to be mercenary -  but she wasn't stupid. Fear replaced mischief on her face. 'Why didn't you just have 'em thump me, then?' she asked sullenly. 'I know some who'd take their pleasure from it, sure and I do.'   'I wouldn't,' Sostratos said. 'Here is the bargain: I will not buy you, no matter what. I've already told you that. But I will let you play the hetaira with me and have your little ways -  so long as you don't do it often enough to make me angry. That will give you a better chance to go on playing the hetaira after I leave Taras, it is not so?'   Maibia studied him as if she'd never really seen him before. Maybe she hadn't. Maybe hope and greed had kept her from noticing the person inside the man who enjoyed her body. 'Not just cool, but cold-blooded as a frog y'are!' she exclaimed.   Sostratos shrugged. Most of the time, he would have taken that for a compliment. 'I can only be as I am,' he said. 'Meanwhile, you didn't answer my question: is it not so?'   'Sure and it is,' the redheaded Kelt said seriously. 'Having to take any horny spalpeen who walks in . . .' She shuddered. 'If you were in a boy