Centurion's Honor (Imperial Desires, Book One) Read Online Free PDF Page B

chambers, Anan was surprised to discover they’d left something behind—a deep, aching longing within her for something she was a fool to want, yet she was powerless to ignore, and certainly could not deny.

Chapter Four
     
    The next morning, Anan strolled through the empty vestibules of her villa. The thud of sandaled feet striking the stones embedded in the ground, along with ragged, stilted breathing from its three owners, were the only sounds to be heard.
    She’d learned from her father that in order to be a good master in a household full of slaves, one had to be generous. After such a long night of revelry she’d allowed her servants the day to themselves. Her home would not cease to function without them for just a day, but now she regretted her charitable gesture.
    Burnished rays of sunlight filtered through the arched columns of her home, heating her skin, but the warmth it ignited along her flesh paled in comparison to the frissons of fire clawing its way through her belly as she pretended to ignore the presence of the two men who walked behind her.
    Cassius had requested a tour of her estate so that he might position his men strategically throughout her villa and across her lands, but now that her home was all too silent and empty of any servants who were awake, she wished she’d feigned a passing infirmity to avoid being alone with the two men.
    They walked in silence, interrupted ever so often when she pointed out something unique or they asked a question.
    The silence was torture.
    That they pretended as if the events that transpired the night before had not happened was even more so.
    Anan acknowledged she’d had far too much wine, but what about Titus and Cassius? They’d had none. As inconceivable as it was, she was forced to accept they’d spoken truth.
    They found her pleasing—the both of them.
    They desired her—the both of them.
    It had been so long since a man had touched her intimately, with longing in his eyes. It was foolish to invite these two Romans into her bed. But she did not think she had the power to resist them, not when they stared at her so openly with lust and desire brimming in their eyes. That was why she walked ahead of them, only addressing them briefly and barely meeting their gazes. She could not trust herself alone with them, she could not trust herself to resist them.
    It was foolish to invite them into her bed.
    A woman who had not experienced passion in so long, it was foolish not to.
    She stepped from her villa onto the wide expanse of land spread out before her, the sun beating down upon her.
    “And here is where we keep our sheep,” she said, gesturing toward the small wooden fence that corralled the sheep she raised for their wool. “Our pigs.” She pointed at a similar wooden pen across from where the sheep were housed. The pigs she raised for their meat.
    “What do you harvest there?”
    Anan glanced in the direction of where Titus pointed. “Apples, figs, grapes for the wine. A number of fruit. And beyond those trees there are more, full of olives.”
    She noted the surprise on their faces with a measure of pride. The Romans may have taken her territory, but after her father’s death, she’d demanded a substantial parcel of land in exchange for her willing submission to the dictates of the Empire. This villa, this farm, was of her own making, and she’d done well by it in harvesting both livestock and vegetation.
    “The stables over there. Do not tell me you raise horses as well?” She nodded, smiling at the awe in Cassius’ voice.
    “That is the most impressive feat of this estate,” she said, making her way over to the stables with both men on her heels. “The horses I breed here can often be found in a number of your Roman chariot races.”
    Anan entered the expansive stable, the smell of hay and manure tickling her nose. It was a familiar smell, a welcome one. Her father had been an expert in horse flesh and she’d spent a great deal of her