Deadly Games

Crickets sang to each other in the shrubswhile Amaranthe waited for him to explain further.

“I do not like you seeing him,” he finallysaid.

“Because…?”

“You know why.”

She spread her arms. “With any other man inthe world, I’d be positive, but this is you. Lord GeneralUnreadable.” Besides if it was what she thought, she wanted to hearhim say it.

His sigh was so soft she might have imaginedit. “It makes me jealous.”

Dear ancestors, she might have wantedhim to say it, but she had not truly expected him to admit it. “ButI’ve told you how I feel about you, and you chose not to doanything about it.”

“I told you why.”

Amaranthe was torn between rolling her eyesin frustration at him and being tickled it bothered him to see herhaving dinner with another man. She took a few steps to thefountain and leaned her hands against the damp stone rim. “Let mesee if I’ve got this. You’re not willing to have a relationshipwith me, but you don’t want me to have a relationship with anyoneelse either.”

“Yes,” Sicarius said. “Is thatacceptable?”

She snorted. “No, it’s not.”

Sicarius joined her by the fountain. “Ithought not, but you raised my hopes.”

Amaranthe rubbed her face to hide a smilecreeping onto her lips. She ought to be furious, but thiswas progress for him. Incredible to think it from a man overthirty-five years old, but he had probably never been jealous ofanyone in his life, nor told a woman he cared. “I wouldn’t havethought you were the type to do something so frivolous ashope.”

“A recent development.” Sicarius extended hisarm, a hand out to her.

She stared at it, not sure what he wasoffering. She tried to read his face, but the darkness hid what fewcues he gave. A warm breeze whispered through, ruffling his shorthair.

Amaranthe stepped toward him, and he drew herinto a hug. At first, she could only stand there, shocked. Despitethe chiseled muscles beneath the thin fabric of his shirt, hisembrace was gentle. She grew aware of his scent, of shaving soapand weapons cleaning oil, and inhaled deeply. Closing her eyes, sheleaned into him and slipped her arms around his waist. Her knucklesbumped against the hilts of knives, and she smiled in bemusement.Only Sicarius would bring all his weapons to the smooching cornerof the Imperial Gardens.

He lowered his head and rested his cheekagainst her temple. His soft exhalations warmed her neck, and heatcurled through her body. She wanted to see if he might beinterested in a little more than a hug, but she didn’t. He alwaysseemed like a feral animal in moments like this, and she feared anyshow of enthusiasm would send him stampeding back into his denwhere he’d hide behind a wall of emotionless stoicism.

“You’re the only person who’s ever wanted togive me happiness,” Sicarius said.

That puzzled her until she remembered whenshe had said that, in her talk with Basilard the week before. “Doyou eavesdrop on every conversation I have with othermen?”

“You can’t call it eavesdropping just becauseyou don’t notice me in the area.”

She snorted again. He sounded like he wasenjoying himself. Probably because he had gotten away with stealingher from her evening with Deret, and she was not giving him a hardtime about it. “You’re stealthier than a cat’s shadow. You can’tpossibly expect me to notice you when you’re lurking.”

“Perhaps you have not been assiduous enoughwith your training.”

“I can’t believe you’re blaming me for thefact that you’re a chronic eavesdropper.”

“What did you expect from an assassin?” heasked, tone teasing-or as close to it as he got.

Sicarius drew back, and Amaranthe caught hiswrists before he could step away completely.

“We haven’t resolved anything, you know,” shesaid.

He extricated one hand and pointed to thebench. He probably wanted to sit and discuss the situation, as ifit were some battle plan they were concocting. Shaking her head,she returned to her seat.

“Just to be clear,” Amaranthe said, “thisjealousy of yours, it arises from the fact that you’d like tobe…uhm…” She groped for a word. With anyone else, she would saylovers, but that implied emotions she doubted he would ever admitto-if he could feel them at all. “…Bed friends,” she said, thenrolled her eyes. Lovers would have been better. “It’s not just someterritorial dog-peeing-on-a-lamp-post thing, right?”

“Bed friends?”

Yes, he probably thought she was sillybecause she didn’t simply say what she meant, but, curse him, hewasn’t saying what he meant either.

“Are you voting for that one or mocking theterm?” Amaranthe asked.

“Yes.”

Someday she was going to learn not to givehim those sorts of questions. “Somehow, I think things would begoing easier for me if I’d stayed on the hill, drinking Deret’swine.”

“You like a challenge.”

She grew aware of the warmth of his thighagain. “Would it truly be so detrimental if we…were a we? If it’sabout the men being jealous that two out of the six people in thegroup get to have…bed friends, that’s not really a problem whenwe’re in the city, right? They can go off and find their ownpartners. They wouldn’t even need to know. You’re about asdemonstrative as a rock, and I think I can manage to keep my handsoff of you while the others are around.”

“Really,” he said dryly.

Though she doubted Sicarius would fail tomiss spies in the bushes, she lowered her voice to a whisper tosay, “If it’s about Sespian, I can understand you not wanting moreobstacles between you two, but it would be my choice. Evenif he does still have feelings, which is unlikely.”

“You might decide he’s a better choice.”

“Oh, I’m certain he is.” Amaranthe grinned,though the deepening darkness probably hid it. “But, as you pointedout, I like a challenge. Why would I want to spend time with someadoring, warm youngster when I could have a stiff, aloof assassinwhose idea of romance involves throwing knives and running upstairs together?”

“That’s not romance; that’s training.”

“Is there a difference for you?”

“Slight.”

Sicarius stood, breaking the contact betweenthem.

Amaranthe sighed. Cool evening air whisperedpast her arms, and dew-touched grass flicked at her bare toes. “Iguess this means you’re not going to demonstrate what thatdifference might be?”

“Not until this is over.”

“This being our…exoneration? And youhaving a chance to talk with Sespian?”

“The latter in particular.”

Amaranthe fought down a grumble. So, she gothim if she found a way to put him and Sespian together, sohe could have his chance to explain everything to his son. Settingthat up had always been her intent, but she was not sure how longit would take.

She supposed she ought to find it encouragingthat Sicarius cared enough about righting things with Sespian notto want to steal his girl, but, cursed ancestors, she wasn’this girl. And he had surely gotten over that fleeting infatuationby now anyway. He had been drug-addled at the time after all.

“In the meantime,” Amaranthe said, “I get tospend my nights sitting chastely in the team hideout?”How… wholesome.

“We could add an evening training session toyour regimen.”

She groaned and dropped her head in herhands. “You have a disturbing sense of humor.”

A long moment passed before he said, “Offer aproposition.”

“I don’t know.” Amaranthe shruggedhelplessly. “I can wait. I just need to know…. Well, we’ve nevereven kissed. How am I supposed to know if all this is worthit?”

She winced as soon as the words came out. Shehadn’t meant to imply that he wasn’t worth waiting for, justthat she didn’t know if they’d actually have a physical connectionwhen they actually-

“Worth it?” Sicarius asked, sounding,for the first time she could recall, offended.