Page 31 of Enslaved
“Because I am unmarried,” she explained.
“So?” he asked, still not comprehending.
“Where I come from, a girl must remain virgin until she becomes a bride.” Diana’s cheeks were flushed with the intimacy of the subject.
“Why?” Marcus demanded. “It serves no purpose to preserve a hymen. There is no logic, no benefit.”If that is true, why does the possibility that she is virgin drive you to the edge of madness? Why is your manroot ready to burst?
“I don’t know,” Diana whispered. “I only know that in my culture no man would take you for his wife if you were not intact. If an unmarried female is physically ruined, she is worthless and disgraced. It is the single most important thing in a young woman’s existence,”
It angered him when she spoke of her culture and her previous life. “Have I not told you that from today your past existence is wiped away? From this day—this night, you are mine. Your sole purpose in life is to pleasure me. Come!”
His voice was imperious; his face as proud as a Roman eagle.
Her anger flared immediately. “And have I not told you that I will not willingly become your slave!”
He stood up and pointed to her. “Youaremy slave, as you will soon learn!”
“Perhaps I am your slave, Roman”—she lifted her chin defiantly—“but I am not yourbedslave. Not without a flogging! Are you savage enough to enjoy me after you have whipped me bloody?”
He descended the steps to her. Though she knew not how, Diana did not retreat from him. Marcus Magnus came so close, they were almost touching. “I shall bloody you, but my weapon will not be my whip.” His black eyes bored into hers, mastering her with his dominant presence.
Pick me up and carry me to your bed,a wicked voice inside her cried.
He could smell the Egyptian musk and something else, far headier. His mouth descended upon hers in a kiss that was brutal in its intensity, designed to prove to her that he was the master, she the slave.
Her mouth was deliciously soft and compliant beneath his, then suddenly she fastened her sharp little teeth into his bottom lip. He had to give her golden hair a vicious tug to force her to let go.
She drew back panting, a victorious light glittering in her amethyst eyes. “’Tis I who bloodied you, Roman.”
He drew back his arm to knock her to the floor. Then it was as if the gods held back his fist to prevent him from felling her. Marcus realized with a sickening twist of his gut that if his blow had connected, he would have smashed the delicate bones of her face. He strode to the portal, flung it open, and bellowed, “Kell!”
Within a minute the slave master entered the sleeping chamber. He lowered his eyelids so that the general would not see the light of admiration that he felt for the new slave. He knew instantly that Diana had not yielded to him. Knew also that she had kindled a towering desire in Marcus that he had never experienced for another woman. His enormous arousal lifted his linen tunic. He seethed with anger and lust, a fatal combination.
“Thisladythinks she is too fine to come to my bed. She is not convinced that she is my slave. I am sure that between the two of us, we can persuade her to the truth that I own her. Together I know we can prevail upon her to accept her fate.”
“I will do my best, General,” Kell said. His hand fell upon the handle of his flagellum, but before he could brandish it, he was surprised to see Marcus Magnus blanch at the punishment he threatened.He wants her desperately and he wants her unmarked. I wonder if she knows how much power that gives her?
Marcus Magnus’ face was a bronze mask. “Replace her fine silk with an ugly brown toga and cover her fancy hair with a plain head cloth. Scrub her face so that it is free of flattering lip salve and eye paint. Give her only bread and water.”
“I’ve worn ugly clothes all my life,” she cried defiantly. “It matters not one whit to me!”
“Ah, but now that you have had a taste of looking exquisite, your female vanity will not put up with ugly rags for long.”
Damn you, damn you, Marcus Magnus, you know exactly how to attack my pride.
“At five tomorrow morning put her to work scrubbing my tile floors. I believe there are at least a score in my villa. It should take her until nightfall to make every last one spotless. Then you will bring her once more to my couch and we will see if theladyhas had a change of heart.”
Her chin went up with the hauteur of a goddess. “I shall deny you throughout eternity.”
His black eyes blazed into hers. “One way or another, I will have you on your knees to me!”
* * *
If I do not put space between them, their sparks will set the villa ablaze,Kell thought.
Diana followed the slave master down an upper hall. He selected a small airy sleeping chamber for her and took her inside. Blazing torches showed her it was plastered in an apricot color with a terra-cotta tiled floor. A design of the Celtic Sun God, Sul, was at its center. The head of the bed was made from wrought iron, painted gold with a design of a many-rayed sun upon it. The covers were cloth of gold that looked like woven sateen and brocade.
There was a corner hearth with the same sort of oval dish atop a brazier that she had seen in the general’s chamber. There was also a dressing table with a mirror of highly polished bronze. All in all, it did not look like the room of a slave.
