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“No. It looks flashy and useless.”
With an arrogant quirk of his lips, Raider lifted the dagger to chest height and ran his thumb along the curve of its jeweled sheath.
“Oh, not at all,” Raider purred in a way that Seth, annoyingly, felt in his cock. “It’s silky smooth, perfectly honed for sliding deep—”
“Step the fuck back.” No one toyed with Seth, not like this. He didn’t care if his dick was into the game. In fact, that only made it worse.
Raider didn’t yield right away, and it pissed Seth off that the challenge in those amber eyes had his body lighting up in a way that made painfully clear why he’d hovered so long at that curtain.
It didn’t matter. The man was attractive—so, what? He was also, patently, not Seth’s type.
Besides, Seth had work to do.
Finally, smiling a little, Raider stepped back. He swept his kaftan aside, flashing his bronze-skinned abdomen. He made a show of sliding the dagger into his violet sash.
“You’re not from here,” he observed.
“Clearly,” was all Seth offered. He wanted to shoulder past the man and storm out, but his work came first, so he forced himself to say, “I heard you mention Jamil. Know where I can find him?”
Raider’s amber eyes danced with amusement. “Is that what you came here to ask Yusef? No wonder he put you in the back room.”
“He is going to buy a rug!” Yusef shouted from the front.
Raider called over his shoulder, “I do not think so, my friend. He was looking for your back door.”
“I signaled you to stop him!”
“And I did, but he doesn’t want to be held”—did Raider linger on the word like Seth thought he did?—“and he’s not stealing anything, so I think I have to let him go. As for Jamil”—that rakish grin flashed again—“I’d try Ahmet’s tavern.”
CHAPTER 2
RAIDER LET THE RAAKI burn a delightful path down his throat. It had been a long week of sun and sand guarding his haul. A lone traveler with laden packs tended to attract attention from thieves and bandits, and this trip had been no exception. Only Raider’s unique abilities—and certainly not Roth’s divine intervention—had saved him.
Still, the payout had been worth the trouble, even if the silks and dagger were the least of what he’d earned.
Raider had told that besotted il-Kemsan lord he could get into the palace and deliver the man’s lovesick message to the lovely Sheqel without her father, Prince Faisel, being any the wiser. A good thing Raider had been right—because he’d needed the better part of the lord’s payment to clear a gambling debt.
Had it been his own gambling debt, Raider might have skipped out on it. But it would have been a shame to see such a fine pair of legs as Nadju’s broken. Raider had spent many pleasurable hours with those legs wrapped around him. So when Nadju had pleaded for Raider’s help with trembling hands and such sweet kisses, what choice had he had?
Besides, Raider loved a challenge, and slipping into the palace had fit the bill. The gold-sheathed dagger had been an unexpected bonus. (What had Prince Faisel been thinking, leaving something like that lying around?)
Raider slid the pottery cup back across the bar, along with one of the drahms he’d gotten from Yusef. The haggling had gotten ridiculous by the end, and Raider had very much enjoyed reaching a settlement that included both denari and drahms. (Yusef had been very annoyed by then.) The merchant hadn’t been willing to buy the dagger, but that was all right. Raider kind of liked it.
Even if it was flashy and useless.
“Something funny?” Ahmet asked as he refilled Raider’s cup from the jug of raaki.
“Oh, just a pleasant memory.”
As Raider threw back the second cup of raaki, Ahmet raised a bushy dark eyebrow and indicated the jug. “You want me to leave this?”
“You have such good ideas. That’s why I come here.”
Amusement played across Ahmet’s broad face. “That’s not the only reason you come here.”
Raider grinned. He had been pretty obvious about scanning the tavern for potential company.
“You know me so well.”
