Knowing that this woman would be enjoying a group of us was the irresistible force. Yet I knew in my heart that it was my own wife whom I wanted to be...among those men. That was the source of my longing and desire. I had met my wife a little later in life, and in that first flush of passion and intensity, she told me about her previous lovers. As we enjoyed concerts, movies, dinners around town, we bumped into men who she had slept with. I lost count after the first ten. Her experience, and. It was a happy laugh, and he smiled."Give me that map," the older lady growled. She studied Angelique's eyes for a moment, and then put a mark on the map. "Tell them Vera sent you," the old lady suggested.Angelique smiled her thanks to the lady, and made Theo buy her a single flower. She held it to her nose as she pointed at the map and told him, "Take me there."He seemed more than pleased to be spending more time with her. She wondered if he would feel the same way in the morning.At first, she. .. and the rainy season had just passed. It was the perfect camouflage for an ambush, which was exactly what this lopsided fight needed. It was a sour reprieve, as the village men would look down at their hands and see the only thing left of their home covering them. Their wives dowry, their children's toys, the wood door they spent an entire season carving, the tools they had gathered for countless generations; it all covered them. Aromir didn't see that when he looked at his hands, he saw his. Troubling was the fact that my fogged up brain wasn’t able to put two and two together, so I just stared at him dumbly. Even when he got up and came to stand over me, I still couldn’t take my eyes off him. Up close he was even more appealing than before. I hope it is just the alcohol talking, because I faintly remember being married, and the cold stone on my ring finger was quite a chilling reminder. Frowning slightly at my left hand, as if it offended me, I absently began to run my right hand.