Moonlight Becomes You: a short story by Linda Winstead Jones Page A

Mrs. Sedley continued, "I feel I must tell you everything."
    Good heavens, there was more .
    "I mentioned that Anya was called a goddess."
    "Yes," Julian said suspiciously.
    Mrs. Sedley set about wringing her hands again. "Apparently she was a... ummm..." She lowered her voice to a whisper. "A love goddess."
    "A love goddess."
    "And I told you she was treated like a queen?" Mrs. Sedley continued.
    Julian's heart dropped. "Yes."
    "Well, actually she was the king's paramour, his... his concubine."
    The same heart that had dropped a moment earlier rose into his throat. "I see. This would be the English pirate, Terrence Whetherly?"
    "His son, Sebastian."
    The offspring of the pirate and an island woman, no doubt.
    "Naturally, we don't want the world to know of these transgressions, but I did think you should have all the pertinent details."
    "Very kind of you to be so honest."
    "Anya tells me she cannot have children, but since this will be an arranged marriage, and you will be leaving in a few months time, I don't see how that detail would affect your decision."
    Julian tried to decline, but the "no" caught in his throat. Was he actually considering this preposterous proposition? A love goddess? The mistress of a self-proclaimed king? Four months of his life to see his dream come true.
    "Perhaps you should meet Anya before we go any further."
    Mrs. Sedley turned slowly, took two steps, and lifted a silver bell from the end table by a burgundy velvet padded chair. Almost immediately, the butler appeared.
    "Show Miss Anya in, Peter."
    With a barely disguised sigh, the servant nodded and briskly left to do as he'd been instructed.
    "I should warn you," Mrs. Sedley said in a lowered voice. "We have tried to reform her, but Anya continues with her unconventional ways. Some I am learning to accept. Others are more difficult to withstand. You should be prepared."
    "For what?"
    "For anything." She sighed.
    Julian heard the butler's clipped step and harried voice moving closer to the parlor where he and Mrs. Sedley waited. "But Miss Anya..."
    "Silence," a crisp, feminine voice ordered. "I have asked you not to speak to me unless you are bearing a message of some importance. Your opinion is of no importance."
    "But Miss Anya..."
    "I should have my grandmother whip you for your insolence. Did I not tell you to be silent?"
    Julian turned to face the doorway as the voices came nearer. Peter was not deterred by Anya's threat. "But your grandmother gave specific instructions..."
    The butler stopped speaking when Anya reached the open doorway and stopped there, laying her eyes on Julian in a bold, almost fearless way. She had long, unbound red hair that fell well past her waist. Lush lips that would never be proper, no matter what training she received. Wide eyes blue... no, green... perhaps both... that latched on to his as she stepped into the room.
    She wore an array of jewels. Dangling pearls at her earlobes barely peeked out from her wealth of red hair. Around her neck she wore several necklaces. More pearls, a ruby pendant, an onyx teardrop, and a worked gold piece of delicate leaves. Her wrists, both of them, were similarly adorned, as was one ankle.
    And she was naked, but for a brightly colored scarf that had been strategically placed around her waist, knotted there, and left to hang so that it covered the apex of her thighs and half of one shapely limb. Her unbound hair covered her breasts to some degree, but an abundance of bare flesh was most shockingly revealed.
    "Anya!" Mrs. Sedley whispered hoarsely. "What did I tell you...."
    "I am not naked," Anya said as she placed herself before Julian and lifted her eyes to his face.
    "You promised you would wear shoes this afternoon," Mrs. Sedley continued, reprimand in her voice.
    Anya was not affected by the rebuke. "They pinch my toes." She began to circle around Julian, her movements like that of a cat, slow and graceful and... deadly. Her eyes raked up and down his body. Julian remained