He stopped short and turned to look at her. He should have known Giulia would have been listening to everything taking place in Andreas's chamber. It was not only the slut's golden beauty that had caused her to rise from one of his own brothels to own this fine casa. He reluctantly opened the pouch and pressed five ducats into her palm. "Someday, when I lose patience with you, I'll have you brought back to me," he said softly. "And I'll strip you naked and stake you out in an alley and sell that sweet-smelling flesh to every man who walks by. How do you think your fine lords will like you after a few weeks of such use?"
"You don't frighten me." She shrugged. "You cannot hurt me, Caprino. I have the protection of many powerful men here in Florence."
"Like that bastard up there?" Caprino jerked his head in the direction of the door at the top of the stairs. "Andreas has no power here in Florence. He rules only in Mandara."
"At present." Giulia's gaze lifted to look at the door he'd indicated. "Lion could rule anywhere. Men such as he are rare."
Caprino's gaze narrowed on her face. "Do I detect a trace of lust, madonna mia?Be careful, or you'll lose your one weapon in Cupid's battle. A whore must never lust; she must only be lusted after."
"He doeslust after me," she said fiercely. "For two years he has come to my casa. Never has he asked for any of the other women, only me." Then as she met Caprino's satisfied gaze she tried to shrug unconcernedly. "Not that it matters."
"I think it does matter to you." He studied her. "I wonder why? You have the most peculiar tastes. I find him quite ugly."
"How would you know? I've provided you with too many pretty young boys and wretched-looking men not to know how peculiar are your tastes, Caprino."
He tucked the purse into his belt and said mockingly, "He's far too rough for my refined taste. Soldiers can be so crude. But there's another five ducats for you if you find out why our brave condottiere wishes the services of a thief."
Giulia's gaze returned to the door at the top of the stairs. "I'll consider it. But he's not a man who babbles to a woman."
"Not even to la bella Giulia?" He turned away. "Seven ducats."
He opened the door and strode out into the street.
It had been a good evening's work, he thought contentedly. The stakes Andreas was hoping to win must be very high to make him yield to Caprino's demands with so little argument. If he was clever he might be able to milk this situation until it rained even more gold into his coffers.
He turned at the next corner and instead of proceeding to his own house off the piazza, he started in the direction of the Via Calimala and the print shop of Giovanni Ballano.
"You gave in too easily," Lorenzo said as the door closed behind Caprino. "I could have persuaded him to take less."
Lion lifted the goblet to his lips. "If Caprino brings me what I want, it will be worth the price."
Lorenzo shrugged. "If you believe it to be so."
"I do." Lion propped his feet on the table, crossing his legs at the ankles. "We leave the day after tomorrow for Solinari."
"If Caprino's thief succeeds in your little test."
"He'd better, or I'll let you have Caprino to persuade as you deem fitting."
The faintest smile lifted Lorenzo's lips. "No, you won't."
Lion lifted a black brow. "You think I'm too kind to condemn Caprino to your tender care?"
"I think you would take pleasure in punishing Caprino yourself, but you'd not give him to me." His gaze met Lion's. "Why do you persist in trying to save my soul when I lost it long ago? When I was a child of eleven, to be precise. That was when I killed my first man. What were you doing when you were eleven, Lion?"
"Following my father's banner, watching his men pillage and rape cities. I killed my first man when I was thirteen." He paused. "And I don't consider my soul lost."
"Ah, but your killing was bathed in glory and honor," Lorenzo said softly. "There's no glory in the world of an assassin."
"Killing is killing."
"If you thought that was true, you'd let me go after Caprino."
Lion smiled. "Perhaps I will."
"No, you won't. To do it, you'd have to live in Caprino's world. My world."
"It's not your world. Your world is Mandara now."
"Because you say it is?"
"Because you earned a place there thirteen years ago."
"With an assassin's knife."
"Which saved my life and avenged my father."
"Glory and honor." Lorenzo's gravelly voice was mocking. "You see how your mind works? I fear you have a grievous fault, Lion. Somehow you've managed to acquire the instincts of a bygone age. Chivalry will never prevail in a land where men like me can grow rich."
"Chivalry? My God, you're demented, Lorenzo. No one is more of a realist than I. If you want chivalry, I'm afraid you'll have to apply to Marco."
"I agree your brother is sickeningly pure and honorable, but I suspect you're infected with a less virulent form of the same disease." As Lion started to speak, Lorenzo held up his hand. "Perhaps you don't adhere to the philosophy, my friend, but the instinct is certainly there. Look how you've insisted on trying to keep me by your side so I wouldn't return to cutting the throats of the illustrious noblemen of Naples."
"Most of them needed killing."
"But I never inquired whether they did or not." Lorenzo smiled faintly. "Killing is killing."
"By all that's holy, Lorenzo, will you stop turning my words against me? Why will you not admit that you're no longer what you were?"
"Because I am what I am and what I was and what I will be."
"Cristo!" Lion drew an exasperated breath. "And what are you then, damn your cryptic soul?"
A sudden smile lit Lorenzo's narrow face. "I told you I had no soul. I am many things but I can think of only one that has merit."
"And what is that?"
"I'm the friend of Lionello Andreas," Lorenzo said softly.
Lion gazed at him suspiciously. "I have the uneasy feeling you're making mock of me again."
Lorenzo raised his brows. "But of course," he said blandly. "How can a man who has no soul know friendship? I'm glad you're so perceptive. It shows I've trained you well in these last thirteen years."
Lion swore softly beneath his breath. "Lorenzo, someday I'll--"
"My lord, the hour grows late." Giulia Marzo was standing in the doorway smiling at them. "If you please, I'll show Messer Vasaro to his chamber. Does he wish a companion? I have a sweet little Sicilian girl who could show him much pleasure."
"Lorenzo?" Lion glanced at Vasaro.
Lorenzo shook his head. "Not tonight."
"Nor any night of late." Lion gazed at him speculatively. "I fear you're beginning to have the tastes of a monk. It was not always so."
"I'm an old man of forty-four. Perhaps I've lost my virility," Lorenzo said lightly as he turned and moved toward the door. "I find my books more stimulating than these fair flowers at present. But pray don't let me stop you from frolicking in Venus's garden."
"I won't." Lion's lingering gaze ran over Giulia's bare shoulders and then down to the fullness of her breasts. "I promise you."
When Giulia returned minutes later, Lion was still sitting in the same position, his feet propped on the table, his gaze fixed thoughtfully on his wine goblet.
"Vasaro is a strange man." Giulia closed the door and leaned back against it. "Are you not afraid to call him your friend? Caprino says Vasaro is--"
"No worse than any of us," Lion interrupted. "We live in violent times, and a man must be violent to survive and hold what is his."
"Or take what is another's?" Giulia asked, amused. "Is that why you need a thief?"
His gaze narrowed on her face. "I have no liking for questions, Giulia." He smiled. "In fact, I consider the forming of words a sinful waste from lips that are so accomplished at other occupations. Take off your clothes, cara."
Giulia felt the muscles of her stomach clench as she looked at him. She was breathle
ss and trembling--but not surprised for it had been this way with Lion, since his first visit over two years before. Caprino was right in judging Lion as not handsome. Some might even call him ugly as Caprino had done. His features looked as though they'd been carved from stone by the bold stroke of an ax instead of the delicate chisel of an artist. His cheekbones were too broad, his black brows straight slashes over eyes that were night dark and seldom held any emotion save wariness and cynicism. His lips were well shaped but they, too, held a hint of both sensuality and cruelty. His dark hair was still as closely barbered as the days when he had worn a soldier's helmet, and his body, though lithe, held none of the slim grace of the courtier. Even as he reclined in an indolent position now, his loose white shirt gave hint of the power of his massive shoulders, and the gray hose revealed the might of trunklike thighs and muscular calves.
Power, Giulia realized with a start of surprise. Not only did Lion Andreas possess physical strength and power, but also an inner strength and power far beyond those of other men... certainly beyond those of any man she had ever met. His curiosity about life, about what was going on around him was more intense, his potential for good or evil more extreme, his appetites stronger, than in anyone of her experience.
"I'm growing impatient, cara. Must I beg?"
"You never beg." She started across the room toward him, unfastening the rope of pearls binding her fair hair. "You take." She dropped the pearls onto a table beside him. "And take." Her palm caressed his thigh and she felt the muscles harden beneath her touch. "Until I cannot even lift one little finger."
"How cruel." He lifted her hand from his thigh and pressed the palm to his lips. "I wonder that you still receive me when I so misuse you." His tongue stroked the sensitive flesh of her palm. "You always smell of roses. When I'm away from you I always remember the scent... "
"When you're between the thighs of one of your other whores? You come to Florence only two or three times a year. Who pleasures you when you leave me?"
He glanced up, his dark eyes twinkling. "Perhaps, like Lorenzo, I find solace in Plutarch and Aristotle."
She smiled reluctantly. "Not you. There's too much hunger in you. I doubt you could last a week without a woman. Do you keep a strumpet at Mandara to service you? I know that--" She broke off as she felt the sharp edge of his teeth on her palm exerting just enough pressure to send a thrill of lust, not pain, through her.
Lion's large hand reached up to caress her throat. "Does it matter that there are other women?" His fingers gently stroked the hollow where her heart was pounding wildly. "Why? I never ask you how many men you service when I'm not here." He pulled down the square neckline of her gown to bare her breasts, one callused palm moving to the left. He spread his fingers over her breast and watched the nipple tauten in response. "It's what we are together that concerns me." He leaned forward and his lips closed on her now distended nipple, and she felt his warm tongue tease and caress the distended tip.
"Lion... " She swayed toward him, her fingers tangling in his hair. "I could come with you to Mandara."
His head quickly lifted and his eyes became shuttered. "No."
How stupid to make such an offer. It had tumbled out before she'd thought it through, and, she knew, it was generated by sheer jealousy of those other women in his life. Lion would never take her to Mandara. He would not even talk to her about his life away from her. "I was only joking," she said quickly, rubbing her swollen breast teasingly against his lips. "Why should I give up my fine life here in Florence? I have everything I want. Money, beautiful jewels, and one man is much like another."
"True." Lion's tension eased. "But there's only one Giulia," he said lightly. "Giulia, the divine." He stood up and pulled her toward the bed across the room. "Giulia, the generous."
She could see the hunger growing in him, his manhood pressing hard and bold against the material of his hose. Lust speared through her. "Generous?"
"I'm in the mood to test your kindness tonight." He smiled as he sat down on the bed, spread his legs, and pulled her down on her knees before him. He took her palm and brought it to his lips before lowering it to cover his rigid manhood. "And you are going to be generous to me tonight, aren't you, cara?"
Tonight, tomorrow, for a few days. It would never be more than that with Lion. But what did it matter? Her hand moved slowly, teasingly on his body as she gazed up at him through her long lashes. He was aroused, hurting, feeling with an intensity that made her heady with power. She was filled with breathless excitement. Lion would be wild, strong and lustful as a satyr, insatiable as he always was when aroused. More. "Yes," she whispered. "I'm going to be very generous, amo mio."
"You don't seem to understand, my enchanting Sanchia," Caprino said mildly. "You have no choice. You will go to the piazza and relieve the gentleman of his purse. Then you'll bring the purse to me and I'll see that you're suitably rewarded. You will do this or you will never lift another purse in Florence ever again."
"Why me?" Sanchia asked fiercely. "I told you earlier today that I didn't want--"
"This is a special task."
"It's too soon. I can't--" She broke off as she realized her voice was rising. She cast an anxious glance at the door of the shop set in the alcove behind her. Giovanni mustn't know she was out here with Caprino. It was only because Giovanni had started on his third jug of wine of the evening and was unlikely to notice her absence that she had dared to slip out when Caprino had appeared a few minutes before. "You know I can't leave the shop in the middle of the day. Giovanni will ask questions."
"And you will lie." Caprino shrugged. "It's not as if you haven't lied to him before."
"Not often." Lies were sometimes necessary to survive, but Sanchia had found that an occasional lie surrounded by the truth was much more likely to be believed. "And not unless it was important."
"But this is important. It was you who came to me three years ago and asked to be trained. Out of the goodness of my heart I made you one of the finest thieves in all of Florence and what did I ask in return? Nothing."
"Two thirds of every purse I stole is far from nothing."
"I could have asked for all but a few ducats."
And gotten it, Sanchia thought wearily. She would have had no choice but to give in to his demands. Caprino got his share or there were no thefts, whoring, or killings in Florence. "I've never tried to cheat you of your share, Caprino."
"I know. Such a virtuous child. It warms my heart." He took a step closer. "How are your three little friends? I hear Bartolomeo is becoming quite as skilled as you as Giovanni's helper in the shop. How old is he now?"
"Ten," she said warily.
"And Elizabet? I saw her a few days ago. Such a lovely maid, all golden hair and soft pale skin. She must be fifteen by now."
Sanchia stiffened. "Fourteen."
"Old enough," Caprino said. "When are you going to send her to me? There are easier ways for a pretty pullet to make her way in the world than the one you've chosen for her."
Sanchia's initial surge of panic was quickly washed away by anger. "Stay away from her, Caprino."
"Ah, now that's what I like to see. A little fire." He studied Sanchia objectively. "You're really not bad-looking. A little color in your cheeks and a few pounds on those skinny bones, and I might be able to use you too." He brought his lace-trimmed kerchief to his nose with a moue of distaste. "After a dozen scented baths and a thorough perfuming."
"You do use me." Her lashes lowered to veil her eyes. "I steal for you."
"Only enough to feed that brood you hold so dear."
"It will have to satisfy you."
"But I'm never satisfied. I'm a very greedy man. Haven't you realized that yet, Sanchia?" He smiled faintly. "Give me Elizabet and I'll share the ducats I get for her. I might even be able to persuade Giulia Marzo to take her. Your Elizabet could become the courtesan of a rich and powerful lord. Fine food, pretty gowns--"
"No!" Sanchia saw the frown forming on Caprino's fac
e and instantly began to placate him. "Not yet. Perhaps in another year."
"Why not now?" Caprino's voice lowered to a silky threat. "I'm desolate you're not returning the kindness I've shown to you. Ingratitude make me very unhappy. First you refuse to do me a small favor in the piazza tomorrow, and now you're hoarding that sweet child from me and telling me--"
"I'll steal the purse," Sanchia interrupted. Then, as she saw the flicker of satisfaction on Caprino's face, she realized with frustration that he'd gotten exactly what he wanted from her. He had used the threat to Elizabet to force Sanchia to steal again. Why had she expected anything else? Caprino always got what he wanted through guile or cunning or force. Still, it had been only a threat this time, she thought with relief. "Why do you want that particular purse? If I see an easier--" She stopped.
Caprino was shaking his head. "It has to be the man I point out to you. And why I want it is no concern of yours." He turned to go. "The piazza at two. Don't be late." He glanced back over his shoulder. "If I don't get that purse, I'll have to seek... compensation. You understand, Sanchia?"
"I understand." A shiver ran through her as she met his gaze. "You'll have your purse."
"Good. Such a sweet child." A moment later he had faded into the darkness, and the breath Sanchia had not realized she had been holding came out in a rush.
Dio, she had been frightened. She had known it was only a matter of time until Caprino realized Elizabet's potential value to him. Nothing and no one escaped Caprino's notice for long if it meant money flowing into his purse, but perhaps she had staved him off for a little while.
She stood gazing at the darkness into which Caprino had disappeared. Something would have to be done soon about Elizabet, who was becoming too comely for Sanchia to protect. She had caught Giovanni gazing often at Elizabet of late. His eyes held the same lust he had had for Sanchia's mother. Soon he would attempt Elizabet, if Caprino hadn't already forced the girl into one of his brothels. One solution to Elizabet's problem had occurred to Sanchia, but it would take more ducats than she could manage to salvage from her share of the purses she snatched for Caprino. Perhaps if she could find a way to get away from the shop more often--