Kay Hooper - The Wizard Of Seattle

Still, he reminded himself, if he and Antonia were caught here after the sun went down neither of them would be able to use power. And riding a female wizard beneath the Curtain might, after all, prove a different experience, one well worth attempting…

Antonia arrived nearly an hour later, leaving only a few hours of daylight for their meeting. As agreed, she was alone; if any of her Sentinels had accompanied her, they were to wait at the outskirts of the Old City unless and until they were summoned to attend their Leader. She approached Varian's new building with a brisk and confident step, and he watched from the window as she followed the path among the ruins.

He was pleased by her red hair, having forgotten she was one of the rare redheads of Atlantia, and the graceful vitality of her slender body certainly belied her years; he knew she was roughly his own age, but she certainly didn't look it-at least from a distance. She, too, wore plain clothing, a shapeless robe over a white shift, belted to hint at her slim waist, the colors drab. But that hair… Bright red, long, thick, and unbound, it was all the color she required to present a vibrant appearance.

Varian stepped back into the center of the room, his gaze on the wide, open doorway, absently adjusting his tunic to better disguise his arousal. He adopted a relaxed, unthreatening posture, arms hanging loose at his sides as he stood squarely on both feet.

Antonia entered the building, halting several feet from Varian. Her blue eyes studied him, and her expression was somewhat detached without being especially unfriendly. She even smiled slightly when she spoke in a cool but curiously intense voice.

"Hello, Varian. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me. I'm sure neither of us will regret it."

He bowed slightly. "Anything to keep the peace, Antonia. I have every faith in our ability to come to some understanding. Shall we sit down?"

She went to the chair he indicated while he went to the other, both of them smiling and courteous and guarded. Varian was a bit disappointed to discover she looked nearer her age now that she was closer to him, but that didn't change his state of arousal. He'd been less excited by the thought of riding a beautiful woman than by the thought of riding a female wizard, so a few frown lines and the slight roughening of the skin hardly mattered to him. Besides, her body, though slender, was certainly voluptuous enough to suit him.

He poured wine for both of them (she seemed pleased by the jeweled goblets, just as he'd expected; even the most lofty of females enjoyed pretty things), and for a time they merely sipped the wine, sampled a few of the delicacies, and talked politely about neutral topics-though there were few enough of those once the deplorable condition of Atlantia's groundwater and the upsetting tremors had been discussed.

When the first silence fell, Antonia broke it with a smile and a matter-of-fact statement. "You know, of course, that Atlantia cannot survive under the present conditions."

"I suppose not. But we have attained a kind of harmony, wouldn't you agree?" He returned her smile, leaning back in his chair, with his legs extended and spread apart.

"Not so much harmony as an armed respite," she disagreed in a polite tone. "You males keep to your mountains for the most part, we females cling to our city-and our society grows ever more shattered."

"What do you suggest?" he inquired lazily, only one hand moving as he held his goblet and swirled the red liquid inside around and around rhythmically.

Antonia set her goblet on the table at her elbow and folded her hands in her lap, studying him. She had been a little disappointed at first; he was rougher and coarser than she'd expected, with none of Merlin's grace or elegance- or strength. Though Varian was tall and solidly muscled, and his thick hair was the deepest shade of black, he seemed to her like a drawing of beauty and power that had been rubbed and smudged by an unkind hand. Lines of dissipation marked his handsome face, a certain heaviness hung about the jowls, and his black eyes were not liquid but were as hard and dull as two pieces of coal.

Still… there was something about him she found exciting. Physically, she found him quite compelling. The lacings of his shirt were loosened, revealing a riotously hairy chest that kept drawing her gaze, and his slumped posture was curiously provocative.

Antonia had concealed her own sexuality, wrapping herself in layers of calm, but as she went on talking to him she slowly, carefully, allowed that part of her to surface and begin probing toward him. Wary after the mistake she'd made with Merlin-moving much too quickly and bluntly-she intended this time to take things slowly. After all, it was hours yet until darkness fell.

"I suggest we try working together," she said pleasantly. "It won't be easy at first, but I believe Atlantia can only benefit. I'm sure we can devise a series of laws, for instance, to protect both men and women of power and enable us to live and work together as we did in the old days."

"The other males like living atop the mountains," Varian murmured. "I doubt they'll be easily persuaded to change at this late date." Her eyes, he thought, were lovely. Like the one still-pure lake left in Atlantia, blue and dear and seemingly bottomless.

"I'm sure you could persuade them to at least listen."

"Perhaps-though I'd probably be more successful at using force rather than persuasion." Had he thought her skin rough? Odd. She had the complexion of a much younger woman, he decided, translucent and silky in appearance. Just a touch of color, of inner heat…

Antonia smiled. "However you… command them… the means can be justified if our goal is reached."

"Assuming we agree on the goal." Her mouth was remarkably erotic, Varian thought, watching it move as she spoke and listening to the words with only minimal attention. The lips were red and full and moist, conjuring images in his mind of how they would feel and look touching various parts of his body, trailing across his skin…

"We can discuss what we mean to do," Antonia said in a pleasant tone, and smoothly went on doing just that. Advancing suggestions on how they might repair the damages to their society, by either bringing the males down into the valley or allowing the females into the mountains. The latter made more sense as their removal from the valley might well cause the Curtain to disperse once and for all. Putting forth her ideas for new laws, for standards of behavior, for ways in which the men and women of power might work together.

As the sun sank lower and lower in the western sky, Antonia talked softly, explaining her ideas not because she expected him to approve of her plans but simply to fill the silence as she slowly exposed her potent carnality to him in the urgent bid to seduce him. She intended to rule him completely, to chain him and dominate him with silken bonds of lust, and to that end she worked subtly to fill him with a burning desire for her.

Only for her.

Her one experience lay in the brief encounter with Merlin, and from that Antonia had drawn one dangerously false conclusion. She assumed that in order to dominate a male sexually, it was necessary to light the fires of lust as well as provide a steady supply of fuel to maintain the blaze. Because she had found Merlin so cool to her, and because he had been able to resist her, her manipulation of Varian was as intense as it was subtle. She poured everything she had into the attempt, never realizing that all males were different, and that, for this particular male, filling his mind with erotic thoughts and his body with carnal sensations was like pouring oil on an inferno. The result-a conflagration she would have no hope of controlling once it burst its bounds.