Did he?
The idea took him by surprise. Marriage had no place in his carefully planned future. He’d always considered the army his life and yet the thought of marrying her made all his other ambitions seem less important suddenly. But it was impossible. What good was wishing in the face of hard reality? Even if her marriage to Scaevola didn’t go ahead, he could never offer for her. For one thing, her brother would never consider him a good enough match and, for another, he doubted that she’d want to ally herself to a man with his family history. Who would want to share his family dishonour?
‘I’m sorry.’ Her expression turned apologetic as the silence lengthened between them. ‘I shouldn’t have said that. What must you think of me?’
‘I think...’ he spoke slowly, trying to work out his feelings as he did so, ‘...that I’m grateful to you.’
‘Grateful? For what?’
‘Because if you hadn’t poured that wine over him, I would have rammed his teeth into the back of his skull.’
‘You would?’ Her eyes widened with a look of surprise, quickly followed by a hint of laughter. ‘I think I might have enjoyed that.’
‘Except that I would have been in prison by now.’
‘Oh.’ She turned serious again. ‘Then I’m glad that I did it, whatever the consequences.’
Her gaze flickered towards the door, as if she expected those same consequences to rush through at any moment, and he curled his hands into fists again. Somewhere Nerva and Scaevola were discussing that very subject. No doubt Scaevola was still furious. He wouldn’t forget such an insult, nor leave it unpunished either, though whether he’d take his revenge before or after the wedding was another question.
As much as he hated to admit it, she was right to be anxious. And once she was married to Scaevola there would be nothing he could do to protect her. She’d be completely at the other man’s mercy.
Somehow he found himself standing in front of her. ‘Isn’t there any way...?’
‘No.’ She shook her head even before he finished the question. ‘There’s no way out. I told you, my brother has arranged a marriage he thinks will be useful to him. I don’t have a choice.’
‘But if you told him how Scaevola insulted you?’
‘Scaevola didn’t say anything that Tarquinius wouldn’t agree with.’ She gave a brittle-looking smile. ‘They’re similar in a lot of ways. In any case, I can’t go back to Lindum, not unless Scaevola himself breaks the arrangement, and even then...’
‘Then?’
Her expression looked haunted again. ‘Then I don’t know what would happen. Tarquinius might not take us back. He might say it was all my fault. I’m trapped.’
She twisted away from him, but he put an arm out instinctively, her final word ringing in his ears. Trapped. Just like him, she was at the mercy of powerful men who thought they could treat people however they wanted, as if human beings were just pawns in a game in which they decided the rules. He’d spent thirteen years of his life pushing against the bars of his own cage. He couldn’t bear the thought of abandoning her in hers.
‘Livia.’ He murmured her name and she stopped moving at once. Her orange tunic was lower cut than the one she’d been wearing the day before so that he could see the curve of her breasts above the fabric, rising and falling erratically, barely a hair’s breadth away from his arm.
‘If there were something I could do...’ His voice seemed to have gravel in it.
She looked up at that, her lips parting slightly as her breathing seemed to accelerate even faster. ‘You could kiss me.’
He held himself completely still for a moment, wondering if he’d misheard her. Then she took hold of his outstretched hand, enveloping it between both of hers before lifting it to her cheek.
‘Unless you think I’m a red-haired savage as well?’
‘You know that I don’t.’ Her cheek felt as smooth as the silk she was wearing. ‘I think you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen anywhere in the Empire, but you’re marrying another man.’
‘Who might come back at any moment.’ She rubbed her cheek against his hand briefly before pulling it away. ‘You’re right. I just wanted to know how it would feel.’
‘My hand?’
‘No.’ Dark lashes fluttered over luminous blue-green eyes. ‘I wanted to know how it would feel to be kissed by someone I wanted to kiss... Just once.’
Somewhere in his mind he registered a dull sense of surprise at what the words suggested about her first marriage, but he didn’t bother to dwell on it. He didn’t need any further encouragement either. He reached for her instead, cupping the sides of her face in both hands as he lowered his mouth towards hers, kissing her with an intensity that seemed only to build in strength. Her lips were soft and warm and tasted faintly of wine, intoxicating in more ways than one and arousing beyond measure.
He deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue along the seam of her mouth before slipping inside. She let out a faint gasp, her body stiffening in surprise, before she looped her arms up around his neck and lifted her own tongue to meet his. Emboldened, he pushed his hands through her hair, teasing his way through the curls before sliding them over her shoulders, past the rounded curves of her breasts and down to her waist, pulling her towards him so that their bodies were pressed tight, even tighter than they had been that morning, only now with no armour between them.
He moaned against her mouth and she broke the kiss, tipping her head back with an echoing murmur of pleasure, and he sank his mouth against the smooth line of her throat, inhaling the faint verbena scent of her skin. He felt his groin tighten even more in response. He wanted her. At that moment, he wanted her so badly that he was prepared to risk everything to have her. He’d never wanted any woman so much. Her hands moved over his shoulder blades and he pressed his lips against the mounds of her breasts, feeling almost ferocious with need. So did she, if the sharp stab of her nails against the back of his neck was anything to go by...