Their second kiss was just as all-consuming as the first, everything she remembered and more. She opened her lips eagerly and his tongue plundered inside, exploring every last part of her mouth as if he were still hungry after their meal, filling her body with an aching fervour that seemed to build in her abdomen and radiate outwards. He wanted her. The thought brought with it a heady combination of triumph and vindication. Their bodies were pressed so closely together that his ardour was more than abundantly obvious. Quite powerfully so, she realised, somewhat alarmed by the pressure of his manhood between her legs. He definitely wasn’t wearing any undergarments.
She ought to put a stop to it, a small voice at the back of her mind still argued. Or at the very least she ought to tell him everything about herself first. It was wrong not to, but she didn’t seem able to stop, swept along on a raging tide of excitement and desire. She’d tell him later, she answered the voice guiltily, afterwards. Right now, all she wanted, needed, had to know was what the feeling in her abdomen and lower now, too, between her thighs, was building towards.
The hand between her legs moved upwards again, slowly and deliberately towards her centre, his fingers teasing the folds of her skin, and then all she could feel was stunned. What was he doing? She opened her mouth to ask, but his own closed over it with renewed pressure and she forgot the question almost at once.
After a few moments, he tore his lips away again, trailing a path over her collarbone and then lower, over the mounds of her breasts towards her nipples. She felt a jolt of surprise as his tongue found one and suckled, tracing circles around it before taking it fully into his mouth while his fingers continued to play with her.
She tipped her head back, gripping the bed beneath them in shock as a spasm of some powerful reflex shot down her spine and into the very core of her body, making all the tension there release suddenly, pulsing through every limb with a force that made her shake all over, as if she were in the grip of some fever. She’d never conceived that such a feeling was possible, as if her insides were somehow rearranging themselves all at once.
‘Marius!’ She gasped his name, clutching her arms around his shoulders again to steady herself. If she didn’t, she had a feeling she might lose herself somehow.
He lifted his head and placed his lips tenderly against hers for a moment, nuzzling them gently this time.
‘Get some rest.’ She had the vague impression he was smiling.
‘But...’ But she was halfway to sleep already, the trembling sensation gradually fading away, replaced by a feeling of satiated exhaustion.
‘When I get back...’
Chapter Seventeen
When I get back...
Marius twisted in his saddle, looking back towards Cilurnum’s gate in the silvery wolf-light of dawn and wishing he were riding back inside, back to the sleeping woman he’d left sprawled across a warm bed in a posture of what looked like languorous contentment. Instead he was riding north at his own request to find an enemy probably intent on killing him. If ever he’d needed proof of his own stupidity, this was it. Two nights and he still hadn’t consummated their marriage! Not that dwelling on the fact was going to make the tightness in his braccae go away...
He turned around again, facing the wilderness ahead. That was what most of his legionaries called it, a barbarian wilderness, many of whom resented their posting to this far-flung border of the Empire, disliking the cold, the damp and the desolate hills that seemed to roll on as far as the eye could see. He didn’t see anything barbaric about it. He loved the ruggedness of the northern landscape, the absence of turrets and palisades and trenches, the lack of rules and constraints. There were only a few Roman forts left beyond the wall, abandoned ruins mostly, but since none of them was visible from his current vantage point astride a grey stallion, there was nothing to spoil the natural beauty of the view.
Because it was beautiful, he thought with admiration—although still not as much as the woman he’d left behind. He scowled, seemingly unable to stop his thoughts from drifting back to her. She’d been fast asleep when he’d risen and strapped on his armour, not flickering so much as an eyelash when he’d draped another blanket over her shoulders.
At least she ought to be well-rested that morning, which was more than could be said for him. He would have done better sleeping on the wall itself. He wasn’t accustomed to sharing a bed in the first place and the physical tension between them had made things even more strained. And that was a monumental understatement. The way her curls had tumbled forward in a glorious cascade when she’d dragged a comb through them had driven him half-mad with desire. Then when she’d peeled her stola over her shoulders, wriggling out of the garment when she’d thought he hadn’t been looking, making the shadowy curve of her breasts beneath her tunica clearly, tantalisingly visible, his body had reacted almost painfully. She’d looked stunningly gorgeous and infinitely desirable, so much that the mere memory of it made him shift uncomfortably in the saddle.
He’d pulled her towards him simply to give her some room, although the moment he’d touched her he’d known it had been a mistake. He certainly hadn’t intended to take things as far as he had, especially after her somewhat over-emphatic and vaguely insulting pretence of tiredness. After that performance, he hadn’t intended to touch her at all, let alone to kiss her, but once his fingers had encountered the smooth curve of her waist he hadn’t been able to resist.
Her eager response had taken him completely by surprise and yet somehow—even now he wasn’t sure how—he’d forced himself to hold back. Despite the contradictory signals she’d seemed to be sending him, she’d been tense and vulnerable that evening and he’d still had no idea what about. He hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her and he’d needed to prove that to both of them, though the feeling of wetness between her legs had driven him to the very brink of control, so that it had taken all his self-restraint not to plunge deep inside her. So he’d focused on her pleasure instead, surprised by how well he’d succeeded. Her response had both aroused and frustrated him in equal measure, making the room seem to fairly crackle with tension for the whole rest of the night. The warm cocoon of their body heat had eventually lulled him into a fitful slumber, though it hadn’t been anywhere near enough, and even then he’d dreamed of her...
For some inexplicable reason, however, it hadn’t been her body that he’d dreamed of. It hadn’t even been the way that she’d moaned his name after she’d climaxed, though that had been particularly memorable. No, he’d dreamed of the bright gleam of her eyes when she spoke, the small dimple in her left cheek when she smiled, the patchwork of freckles across her nose and cheeks and, most of all, the way she’d looked standing on the wall the day before, poised and graceful and somehow contented-looking. Now he could hardly wait to get back to her and not just because he wanted to bed her, but because he wanted to just be with her, even if simply to gaze at her...
What the hell did that mean?
‘So what are we looking for exactly?’ Ario cantered up beside him and Marius shook his head, glad of the distraction.
‘I can’t say exactly. What I want is to find some sign of life carrying on as normal.’
‘All right.’ The Decurion snorted cynically. ‘That’s what you want, but what do you think we’ll find?’
‘I think we’ll find a gathering of warriors, or some sign of them. I think the tribes are joining together to launch another attack on the wall. And I think there may be more of them than we’re prepared for.’
‘You think a lot.’ Ario sounded neither conspicuously alarmed nor unduly surprised. ‘So essentially we’re looking for an army?’
‘Something like that.’ Marius gave him a sidelong look. ‘You know everyone in Coria still thinks I’m being alarmist.’
‘That’s because Coria isn’t on the wall. If it was, Nerva might sit up and take more notice. Not that it’s a criticism of him personally.’ Ario raised a hand before Marius could interrupt. ‘I know the two of you are close. All I’m saying is that it’s easy to be complacent when you’re not in the vanguard.’
‘So you believe me?’
‘Yes. I think something strange is going on and it’s safer to believe you than not. I hate surprises.’
Marius grunted and then pulled on his reins, steadying his mount as a bird burst out of the undergrowth ahead of them.