Christina Phillips - [Forbidden 01] by Forbidden Page B

lady.” She heard the challenge in his tone, as if the fact somehow irked him.
    She tried to calm her racing pulses, her incoherent thoughts. There was a question she hadn’t asked, because she hadn’t thought he would respond.
    “Would you tell me if I did?” Her voice was breathless.
    “You’d have to ask me first. Then you’d find out.”
    She darted the tip of her tongue over dry lips, saw the way his eyes followed the movement before once again locking with hers. “What is your name, Roman?”
    The breath stilled in her chest as she awaited his reply. A part of her was convinced he wouldn’t reveal such a personal detail, simply because she refused to share hers. But another part of her, the illogical part, wanted to know his name. Wanted to savor it on her lips, wrap it around her mind and hold it close within her heart.
    His mouth twisted into an enchanting lopsided smile, and for one shimmering moment Carys forgot he was a Roman, the enemy of her people, and saw only a man who had haunted every moment of her life for the last three moons. A man she feared could, too easily, haunt the remainder of her existence if she wasn’t careful.
    “Tiberius.” He kissed one knuckle. “Valerius.” Kissed a second knuckle. “Maximus.” He turned her hand and drifted his lips across her open palm.
    “Tiberius.” The foreign name sounded strange on her tongue. He smiled once again, released her hand and stepped back.
    “Close friends call me Maximus, my lady.”
    And what did his lovers call him?
    The thought slithered through her mind. Strange, for until this moment she hadn’t considered he might have other lovers back at the settlement that she’d been told now surrounded the Roman fortification.
    And the thought grazed her senses, wounded her soul. Even though she knew she had no right to be so injured. What the Roman did—what Maximus did—when he wasn’t with her was none of her affair.
    “Then I shall call you Maximus.” She saw his eyes darken as she said his name, and banished her troublesome concerns. She would please Maximus so thoroughly this eve that he wouldn’t wish to fuck any other woman but her.
    “And I shall call you”—he paused for a telling heartbeat—“my lady.” And his firm, sensual lips twitched, as if he tried to prevent a smile.
    “Yes.” She was his lady. She would always be his lady, even after their paths diverged. But she wouldn’t think of that. Not now. Not when she had other, far more fascinating things to consider. Such as discovering before tonight the secrets of satisfying a man so thoroughly he would rather fry his eyes in boiling oil than look with lust upon another woman.
    “Meet me here at sunset.”
    Again it was a demand. From a man used to having his word accepted without question. But what did she have to question? She wanted this as much as he did. And sunset was the time she would have suggested herself.
    Had he thought to ask.
    “Very well.”
    Beneath her leather-clad feet the earth stirred and discordant vibrations shivered through her soul. Maximus’s soldiers grew impatient by his absence.
    She couldn’t explain how she knew such things, or why the wise Cerridwen had chosen her as her acolyte. She knew only that the two were intrinsically connected, and to ignore the signs of the earth was to ignore her beloved goddess herself.
    With a soft sigh she bent to retrieve Maximus’s helmet. It was heavier than she expected. She brushed her fingers through the proud plumage before handing it toward him.
    “My lady.” He inclined his head in thanks as he took his helmet. “Until tonight.” He paused, and gave her a searching look as if trying to see inside her mind and find her secrets. “Keep safe.” And then he turned and marched back into the shaded woods.

    Aeron bowed before the ancient Druid in the small oak grove at the outer edge of the sacred spiral’s protective perimeter. As always, he hoped she couldn’t see into his heart and