The Bow of Heaven - Book I: The Other Al - By Andrew Levkoff Page 0,54

the humiliation of her rejection would be much easier to bear than remaining silent forever. I had watched our friendship grow for years; the closer she matured into womanhood, the more dissatisfied I had become. Did she too yearn for more? How would I know if I did not ask? Every chance meeting with her left me feeling like a stone struck by flint. What better place and time than here and now to discover if heat would ever produce flame?

I had the shell on the string and the string almost tied above her wrist before she woke. “Alexander,” she said, stretching luxuriantly. “I fell asleep.” The movement of her arm caused the uncompleted knot to come apart. The single scallop escaped again and lay separate from its brethren. I reached for the bracelet but found myself holding Livia’s wrist instead. I would have pulled away but she held me and said, “I dreamt of you.”

“Truly?” The softness of her skin made the hairs on my arms prickle as if a thunderstorm were nigh; her resolute grip was hardly necessary. “The best dreams are gifts,” I said. “In sleep we give ourselves the things we want but cannot have in our waking hours. Was yours one of these?”

Livia laughed, a light but ruffled sound. “It was.”

“Well?”

“I cannot tell you.”

“I see. Then you must ask your mother for a salve. You look as if you have tarried too long in the sun. Or perhaps those rosy blooms grow from a different stem?”

“You are impertinent.” She pulled her hand away; was there reluctance, or was I merely dreaming for something I could not have? “What were you doing watching me sleep anyway? Oh ho! What’s this? A garden growing in Alexander’s cheeks?”

“Not at all,” I said, lying poorly. “The day warms. I was passing and noticed your bracelet had come undone.” I felt Apollo’s eyes on me and resisted the urge to look up.

“Oh, this thing. It’s always coming apart. Were you trying to fix it?” I nodded. “So now you are become both jeweler and atriensis to the house of Crassus. Congratulations.”

“Merely an apprentice. Perhaps for both positions. Fixing your bracelet was not the hard part. Repairing it without waking you was the test I could not pass.”

“I am glad of it.”

She sat up, flicked a leaf from her tousled hair, and straightened her tunic. The many greens of her eyes, a sunlit forest suddenly thrown into shade, transported me for a moment to the woods of Elateia and home.

“Here,” she said, holding out her arm once more. “Please?” I bent to add the last shell to the string but Livia said, “No, not that one. Keep it, you know, to think of me when you hold it.”

There it was, the miracle that would silence Little Nestor forever. I worked to conceal my elation. “It’s a good start,” I said, putting the shell in my belt bag.

“Good start? You assume much, Alexander of Elateia.”

“Do I?”

“What would you have of me then? Would my lord command me to forfeit even more shells? Oh, but we’re not talking about shells now, are we?”

“I am not your lord.” I retied the bracelet. When it was done, I bent and kissed the top of her hand. “And no, we’re not. The truth is, Livia, though I shall treasure your gift for all my days, I need no token to keep you in my thoughts. You are rarely out of them.”

“Alexander ...”

“No. Please do not speak if I have misjudged this moment. I could not bear to hear the sound of it.”

“I cannot speak,” she said, rising to her feet. I stood with her, but left my heart upon the ground. “I cannot speak,” she repeated, taking both my hands in hers, “and kiss at same time. Can you?”

Our eyes locked to speak of an ardor I had thought one-sided. To learn otherwise fueled a strength I did not know I possessed. I wrapped Livia in my arms, pressing her own behind her back. Her yielding body sent suns bursting in my head; my ancient timidity shattered. She arched as our lips met, tender at first, then insistent. She pulled against my grip to free her hands, but I held her fast. She moaned, part complaint, part animal need. I released her. The moment her hands were free she threw them about my neck. Our kiss continued, interrupted only by the need for breath. My hands drifted through the unending the seas of her hair, my