my distance while I’m here.” Cami took a deep breath. In spite of how strongly attracted she was to both of them, that was the best choice. The only problem was it might not be possible. Not only because they wanted her, but because that pull to them seemed to increase every moment she was with them.
“Yet they are interested in you.” She swept her eyes down and then back up and her eyes lingered on the right side of Cami’s face.
“Yeah, I know, not their usual fare. Definitely not small and slender.” Cami turned and began walking down the hallway. No reason not to explore since this conversation didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Zinnia wasn’t a physical threat.
“Where are you going?” The woman’s voice rose in indignation.
“Just walking. We’re not going to agree on anything with this, because there’s nothing either of us can do. There’s no use talking about it. Although you might not like it and I might try to dissuade them, they’re going to do what they want to do.”
“They won’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do.” The woman hurried to catch up with her.
“No, they won’t, but I never said that I wasn’t attracted to them. I said that I wanted to keep my distance and that there were reasons why I’d rather do that.” Cami pushed open a door and looked into the room. It was a bedroom, but the bed wasn’t covered with a drape and all of the flat surfaces had a fine layer of dust. “Even knowing that it would be better to stay away from them, I still want them.”
“You’re right. You’re not what they usually look for in a woman. Which means they either see something other than the physical or that they want you in spite of the fact that…” Zinnia’s voice trailed off and she shot a glance over at Cami.
“In spite of the fact that my looks leave a lot to be desired.” Cami slid a glance over at the woman. As if she wasn’t fully aware of the fact that compared to Zinnia, she faded into the background at the very least and looked hideous at the worst.
“I didn’t mean that. It’s just that you’re different from me and the others they’ve favored.” Zinnia shook her head. She looked a little horrified.
“I can’t understand it either. I’m not petite, and if they ever call me perfect, I’ll know they’re lying. My body and face is so far from that, even I wonder about it. Maybe now that they’re back among the type of women they favor, they’ll see that they want something different.” Cami gave a small shrug, but she really didn’t see that happening. Agitation rose in her. She didn’t want that to happen.
“They won’t.” Zinnia shook her head and grimaced. “What happened to you?”
Cami slid a glance over at Zinnia. She couldn’t understand what the woman was doing now. First, she’d been confrontational and now she seemed curious. She wondered for a moment if she should tell the woman and then sighed. It’s not as if it was a secret that Linc and Colm were after the Ardin and others had heard parts of her story, so they would probably find out some of it anyway.
“The Ardin, well, men claiming to be Ardin, of my Thent beat me and then cut me,” Cami said flatly. It was getting a little easier to talk about it, but she wasn’t entirely sure that was a good thing. Talking about that time kept it present and at the front of her thoughts. She wanted to put it behind her.
“What did you do?” Zinnia’s head cocked to the side.
“If you mean to earn some kind of punishment, nothing. I brought their meal. They wanted someone else and decided to take it out on me. They became angry at the smallest things and when they were angry, someone paid. That day, it was me.” Cami exhaled and moved down the hallway and pushed open another door.
The room seemed to be in the same state as the others, but she decided to go inside and look at it a little more closely. The carvings on the mantle of the fireplace caught her eyes.
“What kind of things made them angry?” Zinnia’s eyes rounded and her face paled.
“Almost anything could set them off.” Cami ran her fingers over the carved head of a tiron on one side of the fireplace. It was gorgeous. The white stone