Jaded by Anya Bast Page B

They were darker than the skies tonight. Anyway, it was Byron’s presence she was running from, not Alek’s.
    They sat in silence for a long time. Then, finally, Alek asked, “If you were in Milzyr tonight, what would you be doing?”
    “It’s Lansday evening, right? I’d be at a concert with Edgar. He loves them. We go every week.” She glanced at him. “Don’t look so surprised. It’s not all about the sex, Alek. My clients are lonely men. They want me more for companionship than anything else, friendship, conversation, not only for carnal pleasure.”
    “I am surprised.”
    “Most are.”
    “Byron tells me all men fall in love with you.”
    She snorted, looking down at the stone pathway that wound through the garden. “Byron is overly impressed with me.”
    “Or maybe he’s just talking about himself.” Alek murmured it while looking up at the moon.
    “In love with me?” Lilya jerked at his comment, her bemused smile fading. “Impossible.”
    Alek’s attention locked on her. “Why do you say that?”
    She shrugged, a lump growing in the back of her throat. “He can have any woman in the province. All he needs to do is crook a finger. He would pick an educated, cultured woman. He wouldn’t pick a courtesan.”
    “He spent ten months nursing one back to health.”
    She tipped her head a little at him and tried to smile. “I wasn’t a courtesan back then.” No, you were just trash, thrown away .
    Alek made a low sound of disagreement. “I guess maybe I know Byron a little better than you do. By the way, you may be lacking a formal education, but you are not lacking intelligence.”
    Eager to change the subject, she said, “He said you’ve been friends since childhood.”
    “We’ve gone through school, numerous girlfriends, and the loss of our families together. He’s more than just a friend.”
    They lapsed into a companionable silence. There was a note of wistfulness sometimes in Alek that she recognized both in herself and in the men she took as clients, loneliness. Yet Alek’s particular brand of loneliness wasn’t like that of the clients she took on; he wasn’t quite as . . . hopeless. He didn’t have any social awkwardness that prevented him from meeting women. No shyness or lack of confidence. Relationships were something he apparently avoided by choice.
    Maybe his loneliness was a choice too; she didn’t know him well enough to make a judgment on that issue.
    She liked Alek, but her feelings were nothing compared to what she felt for Byron. Could she be intimate with Alek now, after the full impact of what she felt for Byron had hit her? Would it be enough to see Alek as a client? Would it be enough to merely like him, to feel compassion for him, maybe see a little of herself in him?
    Or was her life as a courtesan over now? It was an important question.
    She moved her hand to cover his. At her touch, he looked over at her in surprise. She smiled. “You know, you might be an important man at that university, but you don’t know everything.”
    “I don’t?”
    She tilted her head to the sky. “You’re right that I never had a formal education, but I do know a bit about the stars. Astronomy has always been a fascinating topic of reading for me.”
    “Really? You’re right. I don’t know much about astronomy.”
    “And I’ve never seen the stars quite as bright as they are this evening.” She stood and held out her hand to him. “Care to walk with me? I’ll point out the constellations.”
    He studied her for a long moment, as if weighing his decision, then stood and took her hand. “I think Byron might be right.”
    They began to walk. “About what?”
    “All men falling in love with you.”
    She laughed. “It’s just an illusion, Alek, nothing more.”
    He stopped and turned toward her. Pushing her hair away from her face, he murmured, “I’m glad Byron brought you here.”
    She held his gaze for a long moment and then, just to see if she could, she went up on