Lucretia hesitated. It would be easy to lie and say that they’d been perfectly proper, but Dihya was her friend. “There may have been some…touching. And…” Lucretia closed her eyes andspoke so fast the words ran together. “I may have attempted to get him to agree to a truce by offering carnal favors.”
“Youwhat?” Dihya’s face displayed a strange mix of outrage and delight.
“He said no,” Lucretia added. Well, not preciselyno: he’d saidI want you freely, or not at all.
“Blessed Juno,” Dihya breathed. “What has gotten into you lately, Lucretia? You went from cursing Felix to running off with him and trying to barter your body.”
“I don’t know,” Lucretia admitted. “But please, let’s forget about it. It will not happen again.”
“Do you want me to try another curse on him?” Dihya asked. “I have the ear of some African gods who would love to get their hands on a wealthy Roman, no doubt.”
“No more curses,” Lucretia said sternly.
“All right,” Dihya said with an unconvinced shrug, but she permitted Lucretia to change the subject to other matters.
Lucretia worked until darkness fell, then pushed away from her desk with a tired sigh. Dihya had already left after Caeso came to collect her.
This time yesterday, she’d been gingerly climbing into bed with Felix. And then, a few hours later, not so gingerly rutting against him.
The events of last night still seemed hazy and dreamlike. But her body responded at the thought of it, and the residual pleasure sparking in her core was all too real.
She tried to explain it as simple lust. After all, she’d been widowed for a year, and even before that, her marital relations with Cornelius had been infrequent at best. But she’d grown proficient at satisfying her own urges over the years.
No, somehow it wasFelixher body wanted. The thought boggled the mind. Felix, her cold, scheming rival. Felix, who wanted nothing more than to destroy her.
Felix, who had never desired any woman but her.
There was something seductive about his single-minded interest, paired with his inexperience. Why was she so tempted by the thought of being his first?
She couldn’t afford to think of him that way. He was still her rival, still plotting against her. If she allowed herself to soften toward him, towanthim, it could only weaken her ability to strike back at him.
Her business—and her independence—had to come first. Last night meant nothing, and they would never speak of it again.
Chapter 18
“What are you doing here?” Lucretia demanded when Felix showed up at her office the next morning. Dihya hadn’t yet arrived, so there was no one to hold Felix off from striding straight into the back room.
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s rather a rude greeting.”
Lucretia rose to her feet and folded her arms across her chest. “In recent memory, your visits have either been to propose marriage or harass me about taking very reasonable action against you. So which is it this time?”
The angles of his face somehow seemed to intensify as he looked at her, giving him a shrewd look. “More similar to the former than the latter.”
“If you think another proposal—”
He held up a hand to silence her. “Not an offer of marriage. Rather, a counter-offer to what you proposed at the tavern.”
She blinked, taken aback. The memory of her brazen proposition rushed through her, warming her cheeks, but she strove to mask her embarrassment. “You refused. And to behonest, I’m not sure what I was thinking when I made that offer.”
“Are you open to hearing a counter-offer?”
She knew she should demur and send him on his way, but despite herself, she was curious. What did he mean, a counter-offer? “I suppose.”
He took a step closer, and she steeled herself against the heat sparked by his proximity. Her mind flashed back to that night, the feel of his body on top of her, pressing into her. He’d been as close as one could be without actually being inside her.
“In exchange for a truce, I accept your offer of a carnal relationship,” he said. “In addition, I would like your consent to apprentice your son.”
Her mouth fell open, thrown by the unexpected request. She couldn’t even dwell on her surprise at his acceptance of the bargain she wasn’t sure she still wanted to make. “Marcus? Why?”
