For a Roman's Heart by Denise A. Agnew

deserter?”
    “Exactly.” He returned to stand close to her once more. “Please do me a favor?”
    “If I can.”
    “This man is dangerous. Brutal. I know there are many men like this and that you often travel without protection.” He frowned deeply. “That worries me.”
    That traitorous blossoming heat started low in her stomach once more. “You’re very kind, but I don’t have a man to protect me. My father is sometimes with me, but he can’t be everywhere I am.”
    This time, when he reached up to touch her hair, she didn’t recoil. “I understand. But please, please take care. Don’t go to the Haunted Woods by yourself.”
    “I thought you didn’t believe in haunted places.”
    “I believe in places where evil is done…or was done. And perhaps people can feel that evil and mistake it for a haunt.”
    She shivered delicately as his hand caressed her cheek. “You shouldn’t touch me this way.”
    “I won’t touch you this way if you say no.”
    “Why do you touch me like this?” she asked, breathless.
    His hand left her hair and caressed her cheek. “Because since the day I saw you, I felt something I have never felt before. It makes me long for something I shouldn’t. I asked you not to fear me Adrenia, but maybe you should.”
    She trembled from inside, a great shaking that had nothing do with trepidation and everything to do with acknowledging that something deep and different pulsed between her and this man. “Please…”
    “Please stop touching you? Or please don’t stop?”
    “This is improper.”
    “It is.”
    Before she could move, he shifted closer. He tilted her face toward him, drawing her mouth upwards, leaning down. She hovered on the verge of discovering her first kiss, and the passion stirring like a whirlwind inside her reached for him. Just this once she’d like to know a man’s lips on hers.
    Not just any man.
    Only this man.
    A pounding on the door made them both jump, and he stepped back.

Chapter Five
     
     
    “ Odi et amo: auare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio,
    sed fieri sentio et excrucior. ”
    (I hate and I love: why I do so you may well ask. I do not know,
    but I feel it happen and am in agony.)
    Catullus
    Latin Poet, c. 84–54 BC
     
    Terentius stalked across the room, his gaze etched with clear anger at the interruption. Adrenia wasn’t sure if she felt sorry or elated. Terentius threw the door wide open, and Victor stood there, big body blocking the light.
    Victor saluted, then he saw her. “I beg your pardon. I didn’t know you had company.”
    Terentius sighed and let him in. “What do you want?”
    “There is trouble near the square. A large riot. A cohort is ordered to put down the uprising.”
    “Damn it.” Terentius growled his words. “Arrange outside. I’ll be right there.”
    Victor left, and Terentius turned toward Adrenia. “I’m not leaving without this.”
    Before she could blink, his hands speared into her short hair. He held her steady, and his mouth came down on hers. A quick, hard press of lips to lips. He drew back.
    That is all? She wanted to ask. It was too little…too…fast.
    His gaze held that angry edge, but from what she wasn’t certain. A wild anxiety burst inside her. A vision of what could happen flickered in her mind’s eye, fast and horrible. A knife came up, digging into his side before he could block the blow.
    “Please, please take care,” she rasped the words. “I had a vision. Watch for the big, hairy man with the beard and long black hair. Watch his knife.”
    His frown deepened into utter confusion. “You have visions.”
    Goddess, he would hate her. Never wish to see her again. Perhaps it was for the best. She swallowed hard to clear the lump in her throat. “Yes.”
    He did something she didn’t expect. His powerful arm came around her waist, and this time he slid slowly into another kiss. This one touched one corner of her mouth lightly, then the center of her mouth, then the other corner.