Forbidden to the Gladiator by Greta Gilbert

Author:Greta Gilbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2018-09-07T19:30:49+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

It was not just her nearness. Nor was it her soft, warm body, which fit inside his so perfectly. Or the smell of her, or the heat of her, or the way her breaths came in fast, lusty puffs. It was her. Just her. Arria.

‘Turn towards me, Arria. Please. Let me see you.’

She paused, frozen. ‘Do you not wish to imagine that I am your wife?’ she asked.

Such a simple question, born of a staggering kindness. ‘No, my darling, I do not. I wish to see you.’

Silence. Slowly, she rolled over to face him. ‘There is nothing to see, I fear,’ she said, though her tone conveyed relief. ‘It is too dark.’

‘Then I must imagine your face,’ he said. He propped his head in his hand and stared at her across the darkness. ‘I remember the first time I saw you,’ he mused. ‘You stumbled against the fighting-pit wall just as they were announcing my name.’

‘I remember,’ she murmured. ‘Your eyes startled me. They seemed to change colour in the torchlight. I did not think they were real.’

‘I did not think you were real. When I saw you lean over the rails, I thought I was being visited by a goddess.’

She chuckled. ‘As if I—’ she said, but he gently ran his finger over her lower lip and she ceased to speak.

‘Forgive me,’ he said. He removed his finger, realising his mistake. How could he presume to touch her lips after rejecting her only hours ago? An apology was in order and at the very least an explanation. But how could he tell her what was in his heart if he did not understand it himself?

Arria, you have haunted my dreams, ruined my plans and caused me to betray the memory of my wife. I return your curse, for yours has consumed me utterly.

He could feel her uneven breaths on his face. Her departure was imminent. He could feel it in his bones. When finally she spoke, he could hardly believe his ears. ‘Cal, do you wish to make love to me?’

He drew a long, incredulous breath and as he exhaled he was no longer locked inside a dungeon. He was running across a long, grassy plain with the sun on his face, looking out over the sparkling sea.

‘Yes, Arria, I do.’

He moved closer, pulling the blanket over both their shoulders, his heart full to bursting. The woman that he had shunned only hours ago had just offered herself to him again. This time, he would not be a fool.

‘May I kiss you, Arria?’

‘You wish to kiss me? But I thought you did not kiss—’

‘I have wished to kiss you since the moment you pressed your face against the bars of my cell.’

To Hades with his rules. They did not apply to the woman who now lay by his side. She had come to know him and, by some miracle of the Fates, she wanted him anyway. And by the Hound of Hades he wanted her back.

He made bold to touch her lower lip once again.

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