A time when he had commanded his destiny, and the known world had been his for the taking.
And now he was...
His throat tight, Julian closed his eyes and removed the beads from the ends of his hair before he started unbraiding it.
As his fingers loosened the first braid, he looked down at the pants he had dropped on the floor.
Why was Grace doing this? Why did she have to treat him like a human being?
He'd grown so accustomed to being treated as an object that he found her kindness toward him unbearable. The other summoners' cold, impersonal distance had enabled him to tolerate his sentence, to not remember who and what he'd once been.
What he'd lost.
It enabled him to only focus on the here and now, and on the momentary, fleeting pleasures to be had.
But human beings didn't live that way. They had families, friends, futures, dreams.
Hopes.
Things that had been lost to him centuries ago. Things he would never know again.
"Damn you, Priapus," he breathed as he viciously uncoiled the last braid. "And damn me."
Grace did a double-take as Julian finally left the dressing room wearing a pair of jeans that looked as if they had been made solely for him.
The tight tank top Selena had loaned him stopped just below his hard, narrow waist and the jeans rode low on his lean hips, leaving just a tiny peek of his hard, flat stomach and the small coffee-colored hairs that ran from his navel downward to disappear under the denim.
Grace had a strong desire to walk up to him and slide her hand down that inviting pathway and investigate where it led. And all too well, she remembered the sight of him standing naked in front of her.
Drawing her breath in sharply between her teeth, she had to admit he looked good in jeans. Even better than he'd looked in shorts-if such a thing were possible.
Sunshine was right, he had the best butt denim had ever cupped and all she could think of doing was running her hand over that rump and squeezing it tight.
The female salesclerk and woman beside her stopped talking and gaped.
"Are these acceptable?" Julian asked Grace.
"Oh, yeah, baby," Grace said breathlessly before she could stop herself.
Julian gave her an amused grin that didn't quite reach his eyes.
Grace moved around him until she could see what size the pants were.
Oh, yeah, nice, nice butt!
Distracted by his shapely posterior, she inadvertently let her fingers brush against the skin of his back as she touched the tag. She felt Julian tense.
"You know," Julian said, looking at her over his shoulder. "That would feel a whole lot better if we were both naked. And in your bed."
She heard the sharp intakes of breath from the salesclerk and customer.
Heat exploding over her face, Grace straightened up and glared at him. "We really need to talk about what kind of comments are appropriate when we're in public."
"If you took me home, you wouldn't have to worry about it."
The man was relentless.
Shaking her head at him, Grace found two more pairs of jeans, a few shirts, a belt, a pair of sunglasses, socks, shoes, and several pairs of large, ugly boxers. No man could look good in boxers, she decided. And the last thing she wanted was for Julian to be any more appealing.
She made him change into a navy crew-neck shirt, his jeans, and running shoes before they left the department.
"Now you look almost human," she said teasingly as he came out of the dressing room.
He gave her a cold, dead look. "Only on the outside," he said in a voice so low she wasn't sure she heard it.
"What was that?" she asked.
"I'm only human on the outside," he said louder.
She caught the anguish in his gaze. Her heart lurched.
"Julian," she said, her tone chiding. "You are human."
He pressed his lips together, his gaze now shadowed and guarded. "Am I? Is it human to live for two thousand years? To only be allowed to walk the earth a few weeks at a time?"
He looked around them at the women who were trying to sneak a peek at him over and around racks. Women who came to a complete stop as they caught their first glimpse of him.
He swept his hand out, indicating the spectacle around them. "Do you see them doing that to anyone else?"
His face turned hard, dangerous, as his gaze delved into hers. "No, Grace, I've never been human."
Needing to comfort him, she reached up and placed her hand gently against his cheek. "You are human, Julian."
The doubt in his eyes wrung her heart.
Unsure of what she could say or do to make him feel better, she let the matter drop and started for the door. She was almost to it before she realized Julian wasn't with her.
Turning around, Grace spotted him easily enough. He'd gotten sidetracked in women's lingerie and stood next to a rack of extremely skimpy black negligees. Grace's face flamed. She swore she could hear the lecherous thoughts in his mind.
Worse, she had better go get him before one of the women offered to model it for him.
She quickly went up to him and cleared her throat. "You ready?"
He gave her a slow, thorough once-over that let her know he had a vivid image in his mind of her wearing that gauzy thing. "You would be breathtaking in this."
Grace looked at it skeptically. The thing was so flimsy it was pretty much-transparent. Unlike Julian, she didn't have a body that turned anyone's head, not unless they were extremely desperate. Or had been in prison for a couple of decades. "I don't know about breathtaking, but I'd definitely be cold."
"Not for long, you wouldn't."
She sucked her breath in at his words, not doubting the truth of it for a minute. "You are so bad."
"Not in bed, I'm not." He dipped his head toward hers. "I'm actually very-"
"There you are!"