For a Roman's Heart by Denise A. Agnew Page A

Great shivers of excitement assaulted her so massively she didn’t know how to respond. Her body didn’t care. It burned and tingled and demanded in places she didn’t even know she possessed until now. His body pressed along hers, every solid, amazing inch. Her fingers spread over his pectoral muscles and savored his battle-hardened sinew. She grasped his forearms, and his muscles rippled. When his hips undulated against hers, the hardness of his erection pressed into her stomach. A warm wetness ached between her legs. She yearned to press closer, to know a more intimate embrace. She gasped into his mouth, and with a groan he jerked back and stared at her. He did want her in the way a man wanted a woman.
    Adrenia yearned to discover more wicked feelings in his arms. Yet she feared what it could do to her, what it meant. All the things she didn’t understand and yet knew in the most secret regions of her mind. She realized, with awe, that Terentius shook with a fine trembling. This soldier wasn’t steady, wasn’t as invulnerable as she might have imagined before this moment.
    It terrified her. Tears rose to her eyes, but she shoved them back and took a gulping breath.
    He leaned in to kiss her ear, then whispered, “There is more. Much more I want…much more that you want. But we’ll have to do with this for now. As for your visions, I don’t believe in them.” His arms released her, and the incredible passion on his face left and filled once more with a soldier’s bearing. “I must go. You should stay here until I return.”
    “I cannot. Pella waits for me, and my parents will wonder where I’ve gone if I don’t return soon.”
    “Very well. But you must leave town immediately and return home. If there is unrest, it could spread.”
    “I’ll be fine.”
    “I wish I could take you home myself. I wish you could stay here. Tomorrow I will visit you to make sure all is well.”
    He opened the door and summoned a soldier. When the man stepped into the room, the soldier didn’t spare her a glance.
    “Crassus, take this woman outside to the front gate where her friend waits. Then you will escort them home. You will not fail to take them both home safely, do you hear me?”
    The man saluted. “As you will it, sir.” The soldier left.
    Though she knew he didn’t believe in visions, she said, “Terentius, beware of the man I mentioned. Remember what I said about his knife.”
    He nodded. “Go now.”
    She left with the other soldier, but before Terentius closed the door, she gave him one last, lingering look. Would it be the last time she ever saw him?
     
    Damn her.
    Adrenia intruded on Terentius’s thoughts as the cohort of soldiers, fifty strong, moved toward Durovigutum by foot and horseback. As centurion, Terentius led the grouping. Victor road alongside as they headed toward conflict.
    All thoughts of Adrenia’s pale beauty must be shoved aside. Returning to the battle mood he’d trained for since sixteen, he shifted to warrior. They could hear a disturbance somewhere near the forum, but Terentius understood the soldiers must make a quiet approach. The auxiliary men also understood. In order for the cohort to win this clash, absolute cohesion was imperative. Terentius tried to keep his mind on the work ahead, but his blood pumped rather than calmed. He ran his visit with Adrenia through his head. When the soldier had reported that she wanted to see him, his heart had leapt with anticipation.
    His resolve to forget Adrenia failed. Seeing her today had blown his control into small pieces. His jaw clenched. Goddess, what her parents had done to Adrenia. He wanted to charge to her defense, to whip her parents within an inch of their lives for cutting her beautiful black hair into spiky, unattractive clumps. Yet the spiked hair gave her a gamin appearance, a delicate and defenseless look that appealed to his masculinity. Seeing her, strange haircut or not, inflamed his desires. He wanted to tell her all