Kushiel's Scion - Jacqueline Carey [189]
I thought about Sidonie.
After our parting, I had done my best to push her out of my thoughts, and what I had accomplished on my own, Claudia Fulvia had completed. But I thought about her now. The way she had stood, fearless, as I clutched her shoulders. Her dark Cruithne eyes set in a D'Angeline face. The spark of unfulfilled passion between us. On the surface, she was all cool composure, but there was somewhat wilder and deeper beneath it. Somewhat I longed to taste.
Do you forget that Kusheline blood flows in the veins of House L'Envers?
Oh, I had forgotten. But I remembered it then, and now.
"Better," Erytheia said. "Much better."
And so I lolled in my chair and thought about Sidonie and forgot the passage of time, until Silvio went to answer a knock at the door, and Claudia Fulvia entered. She glanced at me and her generous lips curved in a smile, and I stopped thinking about Sidonie altogether.
"Well!" Claudia said brightly. "Let's see what we have here."
My body creaked with protest as I stood, and my numb right leg nearly buckled under me. I put down the grapes, wrapped the purple cloth around my waist, and went to peer over Claudia's shoulder as she contemplated the rough sketch. Erytheia waited, her face filled with confident pride.
It is a strange thing, to see oneself captured in charcoal. The pose was everything Erytheia wanted, lounging and indolent. And yet there was tension in it, too. In a few bold lines, she had captured an expression at odds with the seeming ease of my body.
"Such a smolder!" Claudia murmured, stroking the whitewashed board and nearly smudging the charcoal. Erytheia bit back a protest. "Were you thinking of me, darling?"
I smiled at her. "Mayhap."
"Oh, mayhap." She arched one brow. "I'll have to make sure of it." She turned to Erytheia. "Yes, I'm pleased. Let's proceed. And the other matter… ?"
"Ah, yes." The artist raised her voice. "Silvio! Come, I want you accompany me to the apothecary. He promised a shipment of lapis would arrive this day." She reached for an hourglass on a stand near her easel, which she used to track her models' time, and turned it upside down. "We will return anon."
Claudia inclined her head. "My thanks, Lady Erytheia."
I waited until they had gone to ask. "Is she one of you?"
"One of us?" Claudia put on a bemused tone. "What do you mean?"
"The Unseen Guild," I said.
"Mayhap," she teased. "Now why don't you go sit in your chair? I want to be certain I know exactly what you're thinking about when I look at this painting."
"Claudia." I caught her arms. "No. I'm tired of games."
"Will you threaten me?" She looked amused. "Dear boy, the game goes on whether you like it or not. And if you want to learn to play it, for now, you'll do it on my terms."
"And if I don't?" I asked.
Her nails raked my bare chest. I could feel heat coming off her in waves, smell the scent of her arousal. Her fox-brown eyes were bright and sure. "Oh, but you do."
An answering ardor swelled in me, mindless and compelling. I took a sharp breath. "And what price do you offer, Claudia? Will you tell me about a dead man near the docks? Or another outside my insula?"
She pressed her body against mine, one reaching lower to cup and caress me. The blood pounded in my veins. "I might tell you all manner of things if you swear allegiance to the Guild, Imriel," she breathed. "But first, there's the matter of your training."
Fettered by desire and half hating her for it, I succumbed.
It was as raw and primal as it had been the first time. Claudia led me to the chair and bade me sit, and I watched as she undressed, the glory of her body emerging from folds of shimmering silk. The late, lazy sunlight filling the atelier made her flesh gleam. I stopped thinking as she knelt astride me, the tips of her breasts brushing my lips. I let myself get lost as she lowered herself onto me, rising and falling, the slow, steady churn toward rapture.
And