Ferox felt as if the sand was shifting beneath his feet. He couldn’t find his footing, thrown off-kilter by this woman’s delusions of managing a gladiator.
She turned to leave, but this conversation wasn’t finished yet. His hand flashed out, grasping her wrist. Her skin was warm, and her arm seemed as flimsy as the stem of a flower. He felt as if he could break her with a single clench of his fist; he’d broken the bones of men much bigger than her with his bare hands before.
The awareness of her fragility prickled over him like a scratchy cloak, and he dropped her arm.
While Velia might be dainty in appearance, her manner was anything but. In less than a day since meeting her, he’d already witnessed her somehow acquire a gladiator, get punched in the stomach by that same prospective gladiator, and now she seemed bent on trapping Ferox into some sort of agreement to train her novice.
“If we are to…work together…” The words tasted strange in his mouth. “…which I’m still not agreeing to, mind you…then I have some questions.”
“Oh? Well, perhaps I have some answers.” She grinned as if this was all a grand entertainment.
He started with the question that had been at the forefront of his mind since meeting her. “How does a girl like you end up here?”
“A girl like me?” She gave her head a coquettish tilt, but her eyebrows twitched in a way that hinted at real surprise, as if it had never occurred to her that her presence here might raise questions.
“The only women I’ve seen within these walls are either slaves, prostitutes, or Penthesilea. You’re none of those.”
“No,” she agreed. “I’ll tell you the truth, if you really want to know, but it may scandalize you.”
“I’m not easily scandalized.”
“We’ll see about that,” she chuckled. She ambled over to a nearby bench and perched on it. Ferox tried not to notice how the change in position made the fullness of her thighs more prominent against the wooden board. She patted the spot next to her, but he shook his head. He needed to keep some distance between them, as if circling an opponent he wasn’t ready to engage yet.
“My parents sent me to live here a year ago,” she said. “It was only supposed to be for a month, but, well, I liked it, so I stayed.”
“Yourparentssent you here?” Parents were supposed to protect their children. Especially their daughters. What kind of parents sent their daughter to live somewhere as insalubrious as a gladiator training school, unprotected, surrounded by the roughest of men?
But Velia, from the little he had seen of her, seemed to be thriving in her unconventional home. She fascinated him. He couldn’t imagine someone—a young woman, at that—making achoiceto live here. As opposed to having no better options, like those who volunteered, or having no options at all, like those enslaved as he’d been.
She sighed. “My coming here was a punishment—at least, it was meant to be. Growing up, my parents always threatened to send me to live with my uncle in Rome if I displeased them. They told all sorts of stories about him. I half-expected him to have scales or horns when I first came here.” She laughed. “But last year, they finally had enough of me and made good on their threat.”
“What in the underworld could you have done to deserve that?”
“That’s the scandalous part,” she admitted. She glanced down for a moment, the first hint of diffidence she’d shown. “I don’t know if you’ve ever lived on a farm, but it’s extremely boring. More than boring—it was suffocating.” She tossed her braid over her shoulder. “I needed tofeelsomething. To pretend I had some sort of control over my life. So I may have engaged in some…unwise behavior.” Her gaze lifted to his, and a hardness entered her blue-gray eyes, as if anticipating his scorn and disgust.
He took a step closer. “What sort of unwise behavior?” He had a fairly good idea from the way she was speaking, but he wanted to hear the truth.
“I think the polite way to put it is that I was rather free with my affections.” Her mouth quirked. “The impolite way would be that my mother caught me mid-tumble with a man.”
Heat gathered on his face, which irked him. Why washethe one who found this embarrassing to discuss? He wasn’t sure what to say, but he felt some acknowledgment was needed, so he offered a grunt.
“Do you want to know the worst part? I was atop him so I couldn’t even claim I’d been forced,” she said with a chuckle.
He recognized that she was attempting to make a joke, but the thought of her atop some unknown man did something strange and thorny to his insides. He gave another grunt, unable to meet her eyes.
“See, you are scandalized,” she said with sarcastic triumph.
“Not scandalized,” he muttered. “Or if I am, it’s at your parents for sending you to live in a place like this. Parents are supposed to protect their children.”
He finally dared to look at her, and she cocked her head as if attempting to make sense of his reaction. Her sharp gaze held his. “Well, mine decided I wasn’t worthy of their protection some time ago.”
Her words made a disorienting feeling rise within him, a strange desire to pull her close and wrap his arms around her and not let go for a very long time. He gave himself a shake to jostle loose the bizarre flood of instinct.What is wrong with you?
“So, have you decided you don’t want to be in business with a woman like me?” she continued when he didn’t reply. “Or are you thinking I’ll be free for the taking now that I’ve confessed my past wantonness to you? I’m not, just so we’re clear. I’ve been chaste as a Vestal Virgin since setting foot in the ludus. Despite beingsurroundedby temptation.” She waved an expansive hand at the men training around them.
Ferox couldn’t tell if she was joking with that last comment. She must be; if he were a young, pretty woman, the last man he’d want would be a rough, battle-scarred gladiator. But he shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking any of that.”
“So what were you thinking?” she asked.
