The Devil's Match (The Devil DeVere #4)(15)

The woman’s smile broadened in a show of pearly white teeth. “The most valuable and treasured secrets of the erotic arts, Khanum. How to bring my lord utter rapture melded from mind, body, and soul.”

“He sent you for this!” Diana shook with uncontained rage. “Of all the unmitigated gall!

“Efendi does not send me.” Salime scowled.

“No? Then why have you come?”

“Has he not chosen you above all others?” Salime asked.

Diana emitted a scornful laugh. “He may choose whomever he likes, but I will have none of him!”

Salime’s brows drew together, and her mouth puckered with an air of disdain. “You would refuse the honor to become the Iqbal, his favorite?”

“Yes, I refuse him altogether.”

Salime rolled her eyes and expelled air in a sound of disgust. “How dull of understanding you English women are! Do you not realize the power a woman may wield with her hands, her mouth, her sex? In my land, the woman who pleases the sultan commands the key to his kingdom. For a satisfied man is but wet clay in her hands.”

“I assure you there are some English women who understand that concept well enough. As for me, I have no desire to command his kingdom or anything else.”

Salime appeared skeptical. “I think not, Khanum. When you came to him that night, your face may have been hidden by your veil, but your fire was not. I think mayhap you do desire the key to his heart.”

“You are misguided if you believe he has one.”

“Are you blind as well as dull witted, Khanum?” Salime asked.

“I am inclined to accept our differences with reasonable tolerance, Salime, but I shan’t bear your insults,” Diana snapped.

“The truth offends you?”

“The truth? The man is shallow, self-absorbed, and devoid of integrity. He is incapable of deep feeling.”

Salime shook her head with a scowl. “He is also a fool to care for one who does not even know him.”

Diana was befuddled. “I know him well enough and am confounded why you should defend him so.”

“Why? Because he saved my life and at some expense to his own,” the exotic woman replied.

“How?” Diana demanded.

“You wish to know all? Then I will tell you, Khanum. I said I was cast from the Harem; I was drugged and cut by an unknown rival, taken far across the city away from Topkapi Palace, and left in the street. I had no money and no way to find my way back even if they would have taken me back in. Worse, I had no protection. I was discovered by a slave trader who raped me before taking me to a brothel to sell me into prostitution. Efendi saw me there.”

“Efendi?”

“Lord DeVere. He had seen me dance at Topkapi. He arranged to buy me instead. This was no small thing, Khanum.”

“To buy a slave? I daresay he could afford a thousand of them.”

“You do not understand. In my country infidels may not buy slaves. There is a severe penalty. Only those of my faith may do so.”

“Then how did this come about?” Diana asked.

“Efendi, my lord, had to profess the true faith and sacrifice his own flesh to the knife.”

“I don’t follow your meaning,” Diana said.

“He had to convert to Islam and be purified by circumcision, Khanum,” Salime explained.

Diana’s mouth formed a silent O. She studied Salime for a long, incredulous moment and then scoffed. “He bought you for his own selfish pleasure.”

“He did not! He bought me and then freed me out of nothing more than pity. You cannot tell me my lord has no feeling, no integrity. It is a lie.”

“But are you not a woman of pleasure, Salime?”

“Yes,” she said proudly. “But it is now my choice to be so.”

“But why?” Diana asked. “Why would any woman choose such a thing?”

“I was already ruined and had no dowry to wed. Thus, I could only hope to make my living by dancing or by prostitution. Scarred as I am, I would have been among the lowest of the low in my country. Here I can remain partially veiled and am considered an exotic flower to command a premium price. I have much money saved. I shall not work long. Maybe one more year, and then I retire a wealthy woman. Perhaps I open my own house, or mayhap I shall go to France or Italy. I have freedom that I never knew in my country.”

“Are you not his mistress?” Diana asked.

“Not in any sense you would understand, Khanum. I massage him. I dance for him. He allows me to serve him this way because I desire to do so, but he does not demand from me. He does not take. He has never spent his seed inside my body. It is only you he wants, and so I will do all in my power to ensure that you will please him well.”

“This has been a most enlightening conversation, but I fear once more that you are misled. I have no interest in Lord DeVere—to be his mistress, his odalisque, or anything else.”

Salime exhaled an exasperated sound. “What woman would not wish such a man? It is not you, but he who would soon be enslaved, heart and soul—prostrate at your feet! You are a fool to refuse what I freely offer, Khanum, so I waste no more of my precious time. Should you, however, come to your senses, I may be found at King’s Place. But do not wait too long, for perhaps my services will then not be so cheap.”