Instead of replying, I pulled him to me, crashing my lips against his.
“Tell me you want me,” I demanded as I positioned myself over him.
“I want you.”
I closed my eyes, holding the words tight inside me.
“Say it again.”
“I want you.”
“Good.” I smiled down at him. “Now show me.”
34
“You weren’t in your bed last night.”
I had barely stepped foot in Penelope’s quarters before the accusation speared me.
Stifling a groan, I turned to find Actoris grinning from where she was sitting cross-legged on the floor. Despite having been bathed and brushed, her short hair still stuck out in a tangle of wild spikes around her head.
“How do you know where my bed even is?” I shot back.
“Because mine’s next to yours,” she said smugly. “Penelope made me her ‘handmaid.’ Fanciest title I ever had.”
“And who gave youthat?” I gestured at the dagger she twizzled between her fingers.
“Thratta did. Says I can come hunting with you next time.”
“You’re too young to hunt.”
“I’m old enough for a man to pump a baby into me but not old enough to hunt my own food?” She tapped her chin with the flat side of the blade. “Seems dumb.”
“It’s dangerous.”
“Serving drinks in a room of drunk, horny, old men is dangerous, and I was doing that when I was six.”
Defeated, I collapsed in my usual chair by the hearth, massaging my temples. “Just do me a favor and keep away from me when you’reholding that thing.”
Actoris made a few jabbing motions through the air, an unsettling grin split across her face.
“Good morning!” Hippodamia chirped as she swanned into the room, looking as radiant as ever. “Oh gods! Who gave Actoris a knife?”
“Apparently Thratta did,” I replied.
Hippodamia shook her head dramatically. “That Thracian will be the death of us all.”
“And where wereyoulast night?” A soft voice came from behind my chair as two hands landed on my shoulders.
I turned to find the large, dark eyes of Autonoë staring down at me. I dismissed her question with a noncommittal grunt.
“What’s this?” Hippodamia asked with far too much eagerness for my liking.
“Someonedisappeared during the celebrations and didn’t come home,” Autonoë told her with a knowing grin. “Care to share with us where you went, Melantho?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on,pleeeeaseee,” Hippodamia whined.
