Desired: The Untold Story of Samson and Delilah (Lost Loves of the Bible) by Ginger Garrett

front of Samson. The act would reveal too much of myself. He would know that I was hungry. He would watch me choose what suited my tastes, and then watch my fingers pick the food up and carry it to my lips. He would know what I did with it, chewing, tasting, swallowing, wanting more.
    His mother, who had grown no younger by the firelight, approached me in the shadows where I stood.
    “Come here, girl,” she said.
    Astra’s hand grabbed mine, and she pulled me further back into the shadows under our roof.
    Samson’s mother stood there, one arm extended. She shot a horrid look at my mother, who was standing behind my father at the far end of the feasting tables. Mother pointed a finger into the shadows where we stood and then moved her finger toward Samson’s mother.
    It had already begun. I was becoming the property of this old woman.
    I pried Astra’s fingers off my hand and stepped into the fire’s light.
    “Closer, please,” she said.
    I crept toward her, uncertain of my fate.
    She rolled her eyes and walked to me, finishing off the distance between us. Grabbing me by the arms, she spun me around and dug her fingers into my spine, testing it up and down, then digging those same bony of fingers into the space between each rib. I could hear her huffing in disgust.
    “You’ve lost weight. You needed to flush out.”
    My blank stare infuriated her. Her nostrils flared. “Flushed. Made fat. Like our breeding goats.”
    I stopped breathing completely from the indignation, my breath frozen right in my chest. This woman wanted me fattened up, just like we fattened our goats before breeding. We checked the goats for the amount of fat between their ribs and along their backs. I was not a woman at all to Samson’s mother, not even a girl! I was a goat. I was livestock for breeding her little Hebrew half-beasts.
    The men’s laughter died down as they watched us. Aware of all those glittering eyes on me, the darkness of the night, and the snapping of the fire, we all grew silent.
    I moved back into the shadows and settled into Astra’s arms. I didn’t want to do those things that are done in the night, not with her son, and I didn’t want to breed his strange children. Breath flowed again into my lungs, cold night air, and I burst into sobs. Astra held me tightly.
    Heat burst through my tunic from a huge hand resting on my shoulder.
    “Why are you crying?”
    I did not move. Astra turned me to face him. Samson stood before us. I felt like a child standing in his shadow, with my tear-stained face and running nose. One of his thighs was bigger than both of mine put together. And he had a strange gift, a magic that stole over me, making me feel safe and terrified all at once. He made my stomach forget its food and wince from sharp new pains, pains of a hunger that was strange to me.
    “Do you want to tell me?”
    I realized I had not spoken. I opened my mouth but could not make any sounds. I shook my head and looked away from him, at the ground. He reached for my hand and brought it to his lips. His lips grazed my hand, the gesture of a kind man, and my legs almost went out from under me from the shooting pains that attacked my thighs when he touched me. His lips were soft, softer than anything I had ever felt, and warm, and his whiskers scratched the skin where they touched me. Goose bumps rose all over my arms.
    He did not release my hand. Instead, he led me to the feasting table and made room for me. He poured a bowl of wine and handed it to me.
    Under the flickering light of a torch, I saw Samson’s mother smiling at me as I accepted the wine. She nodded in approval, and I understood. This was what she expected of me as his wife, although I did not understand the significance. Maybe wine brought fertility. I would ask my own mother tomorrow.
    Little fool that I was, I smiled back at her, grateful to have perhaps earned her approval. I drank the wine and grew warm, letting the weight of so many emotions overtake me. I