Chapter 6

She had survived the reception and it's endless well-wishers. The way the old women had gushed over her growing up and the old men had leered rubbed her wrong but she could have handled it. What had been excessively, unnervingly annoying had been the young women talking to her but not even attempting to hide their appraisal of her guardian. The jealousy had been almost unbearable and a complete surprise. Every time someone had looked at him with the same hungry look that reflected her own feelings she had felt a powerful possessiveness. She was allowed to think of him as hers, but only as property never as a potential lover. There were rumors of women who took their guardians for lovers. Rhia had no idea if the stories were true but she was considering her dream.

The goddess had called him a “gift”. Does one actually receive such gifts from a goddess and did you dare refuse it or question it? Her body certainly wanted to accept him as more than a meat shield and her soul tingled with nearly uncontrollable excitement at the possibility of playing.

Rhia wasn't an innocent, completely. She had been touched, had touched. She was no stranger to the pleasure that came with touching a lover. Part of her was ashamed of her brushes with pleasure but she knew she could never give it up no matter how disapproving her superiors would be.

She decided to set it all aside for now in favor of the shining sun and her garden. Perhaps it would be a good setting for an attempt at friendship with the unnerving man who had seemed to so eager to give his life over to her control. Resolving to earn his loyalty and give his sacrifice meaning she swept out of the room and down the stairs, knowing he would instantly fall into step behind her from his position in the shadows.

She went directly to the maze, knowing they would be alone, an important part of her plan. After taking a few “wrong” turns they came to a bench in a clearing. This was one of her favorite spots. There were overflowing beds of daffodils that bloomed constantly, always greeting her with their sunny dispositions.

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“Will you sit with me?”

Niall was not entirely surprised by her request and even prepared several arguments against her. Now, faced with her beauty haloed by the sunlight filtering through the foliage that provided the sweet smelling floral walls, it became a test of his training. He was willing to follow the Goddess down this path but not without caution.

“With all due respect my lady, that is not permitted.” Ha!

“Permitted by whom?” She looked around dramatically, “There are only two people here. I am certainly permitting it by making the request. That leaves you. Are you going to permit me to get to know you a little before we spend forever together?”

She looked so young and mischievous with her full lips pulled into a knowing smirk and her sparkling violet eyes twinkled under her raised eyebrows with something he couldn't place. Something deep inside him seemed to take notice, as if waking from a long nap to a new exciting smell. It needed to know what knowledge was locked away behind those starlight abysses. It stretched toward her and urged him closer. Not feeling capable of an intelligent response he just grunted and crossed his arms.

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As the days passed Rhia and Niall grew comfortable with each other and started a friendship. They took walks in the garden and she spent hours reading aloud to him from her favorite books. They both found it harder to leave each other at night and more exciting to come together in the morning.

As the days stretched to weeks Rhia noticed a straining in her body. It pushed her to get closer when he was near and ached when he wasn’t. When she watched him move she became damp and her most precious of paces tingled. She knew she wanted him, she could only hope that she would eventually feel the same about her husband, when one was finally appointed. If only she could wed Niall and fulfill the apparent wishes of her goddess. Maybe she could be one of those women who did their duty to husband and got their pleasure from their guard.

Immediately dismissing the thought she struggled with what she knew was her only real choice. She would have to go to him as the goddess intended. They would have to leave or she would have to face the death of the man she loved and bear her own public punishment beside him. She would have to make some plans before allowing herself to go through with it. She needed to know how they would escape and where they would go. She also needed to tell Inara goodbye.

She put careful thought and work into her escape from this life and her quiet seduction of Niall. She worse her dresses with a few laces loose enough to show ample cleavage and brushed against him at every opportunity. She looked at him in every sultry way she could imagine. At least she hoped it was sultry rather than a sick cow, he always seemed so puzzled or irritated when she did it. He scowled and grunted and shrugged away.

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Rhia was going to drive him mad with her looks and the little touches with soft parts of her body. He tried to move away and discourage her with looks of own, filling them with as much indifference as he could with just a touch of irritation, but then there were the times she truly caught him off guard and he was sure she saw those moments of surprise.

It was hard to hide every reaction he had all the time. When the soft curve of her breast brushed against his arm or she allowed him a glimpse of the creamy flesh straining at the colorful laces on the front of her dresses. He frequently worried that his appreciation would be obvious beneath his leather kilt.

Niall knew he needed to protect her but he battled with himself over what he needed to protect her from and how. Defying the goddess could bring swift and severe punishment however he had witnessed the penalization of those who broke this particular law. The would kill him, any number of horrific methods could be used and he didn't want to consider those possibilities. Not nearly as much as he wanted to avoid the thoughts of what her punishment would involve after she witnessed his gruesome death.

Still, he couldn't stop himself from imagining what it would be like to hold her, touch her, kiss those full lips, bite her long graceful neck. He imagined the way she would taste, all sweetness and spice. Every time she came close he allowed himself to fill his nostrils full of her scent of honey and flowers. She was a growing addiction and that meant there would eventually be only one choice left to him. It filled him with guilt, amongst other things.