Page 100 of Enslaved
She thinks she’s in bed with Marcus,his brain cried out.
“I know it’s Mark,” she whispered as if she read his thoughts. Her hands skimmed over his hard muscles once, and then she was asleep.
When Mr. Burke opened the chamber door with the earl’s shaving water, Mark Hardwick’s eyes flew open guiltily. As the beautiful girl stirred in his arms, he said, “Mr. Burke, you didn’t see this.”
“Of course not, my lord,” Mr. Burke said calmly. He set down the water and departed as he did every other morning.
Diana, using his ribcage to lever herself up, blushed profusely. “I’m sorry, my lord.”
“I’m not; it was my pleasure.” His black eyes brimmed with humor. “And now that we’ve slept together, I think you can stop calling memy lord.”
She didn’t smile. “I want to thank you for helping me. I was terrified and you banished my fears for me.” She was in earnest, and covered with embarrassment.
He lifted his arms behind his head, stretched his muscular thighs beneath the velvet robe, and allowed his eyes to roam over her at leisure. “If I am Marcus Magnus, why are you embarrassed? Surely awakening in my arms is familiar to you?”
Her embarrassment was immediately replaced by a spark of anger. He was mocking her. “But totally unfamiliar to you. I remember every detail, you remember nothing!”
“I remember last night,” he said seductively. “Perhaps you can rekindle my memories. Let’s see, when you awoke with Marcus, your bodies entwined, surely he made love to you? Why don’t you let me—”
“Dream on,” she said sharply, tossing back her hair and scrambling off the bed.
He cursed low beneath his breath at the reaction of his body to her merest touch. Quitting the bed, he turned his back upon her to tend the fire.
He suspected she knew exactly how tempting she looked in the sheer lavender nightgown with that silken mass of gold shimmering about her shoulders. He was about to accuse her of running to him in the night on the pretext of a nightmare, but stopped himself in time. He knew her terror had been genuine. But now that daylight had arrived, so had her confidence and she was back to being a saucy baggage.
When he turned from the blazing fire, he saw that she was examining the map on his desk.
“This is wrong.”
He stiffened. “What the devil do you mean?” “This map of Aquae Sulis is wrong. Who drew it?”
“I did,” he said aggressively.
She lifted her lashes to give him a pitying glance. “Oh dear, your memory is abysmal.”
He closed the distance between them immediately. “I didn’t draw it from memory, I drew it from research.”
“Then your research is as faulty as your memory.”
“What’s wrong with it?” he demanded.
“The fortress covered a much larger area than you have drawn. The baths were inside the walls. They were built for the legionaries.”
The earl was about to contradict her, but suddenly what she said made complete sense to him.
“The fortress covered at least thirty acres. As well as housing soldiers, a huge barracks ran along the wall that housed slaves.”
His finger followed the path hers traced across his map. “Slaves?”
She looked up at him frankly. “They were your bloody slaves. Who the hell do you think built the roads and bridges? Not the Romans, though they get all the credit!”
“My engineers were the finest in the world!” He stopped, aghast at what he had been goaded into saying.
“Youdoremember!”
They were standing so close, their thighs brushed. Diana suddenly realized how revealing her nightgown was. “Oh lord, I forgot the doctor was coming,” she mumbled.
Diana was barely back in the peach-colored chamber before Nora came sweeping through the door. “Your bath’s ready and here’s a more respectable nightgown to pop on before the doctor arrives.”
