Carolyn Faulkner Bound By Love (pdf)

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was sure. She could no more look away from what he was doing to her from the pain he was causing her
than she could have defeated him in the Arena.
Finally, she couldn t stand still and take it one second longer Brietta tried to wrench away from
him, from the source of her pain, but thought better of it when she began to think her nipple was being
torn off.
Still keeping that tidbit between his teeth, he managed to growl, Stand still, little bird. All of
your frantic movement is just making it worse.
She hated that he was right, and that she had already decided in her own mind to do as he was
commanding, but now it would look like she was obeying him, and Brietta couldn t have that, so she did
exactly the opposite and began to fight him for all she was worth. He ended up letting go of his precious
captive, but only long enough to get a better hold on her. As hard as Brietta tried and she knew her life
as she knew it was on the line here, that if this man was able to overpower her, which seemed depressingly
inevitable, that nothing she knew would ever be the same and despite all of her training, she ended up
being defeated by the basest of methods brute force. With those arms wrapped around her there was no
place she could go certainly not towards the barbarian, and not backwards, either. As he tightened his
embrace, moving became less of a concern and breathing replaced it. The man was atrociously strong,
and he kept her bound against him, waiting with apparent infinite patience while she struggled futilely,
reduced, really to only being able to move her feet, and that just the barest of bits.
29
At one point, he lifted her entirely off her feet, so that she had no choice but to lean against him for
support. She kicked at his shins almost dutifully, because she knew that was what she should be doing,
but with no real heart in it.
She was well and truly caught, and chances were that she wasn t going anywhere until he decided
to let her.
If he didn t kill her first, or sell or give her to someone else.
Like his men.
All eighty of them.
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Chapter TWO
He waited. Like the hunter warrior he was. His patience seemed infinite while she strove to look
anywhere but at him. Eventually, though, her ribs started to ache, and there was nowhere else to look.
Brie didn t want to give him the advantage of closing her eyes, so she looked at him.
The triumph she saw reflected there felt like he had kicked her in the gut with those huge Roman
boots. She saw her own defeat in those deceptively calm brown eyes.
She had met her match. More than her match.
Not that she would ever give up. He d have to kill her. In the long run, she knew she d prefer it to
what he probably had planned for her.
Once he finally set her down, though, he managed to shock her again although, in retrospect she
wondered why she was surprised at what he d done by removing the tattered rags of her shift entirely by
grabbing the collar and ripping what had been a carefully stitched seam in sturdy if rough fabric,
proving to her again, silently, just how strong he was. The beleaguered garment fell away from her and
she was forced to stand there in front of him in all her naked glory. When Brietta s hands and arms came
up automatically to cover herself, her eyes wide and shocked, she found them slapped away in an almost
matter of fact manner, as if he had anticipated that move from her and had dealt with it expertly before,
no doubt, in other situations just like this.
By the Gods, what bounty you were hiding under those rags! he breathed, taking in every inch
of exposed, rapidly rosying flesh. He spoke in Latin, as if it was an uncontrollable utterance that just had
to come out in his native tongue. And Brietta was doing nothing to disabuse him of the notion that she
didn t understand Latin.
Brietta tried again to shield herself from his lascivious view, but found her hands knocked away
with more force this time.
Hands by your sides if you move them again, I ll bind them behind you. He issued the threat -
in her native language - with a carelessness that shouldn t have surprised her, but it did. He must ve been
used to situations just like this, probably having looked over many a prisoner - in just such a humiliating
manner in his time.
She didn t think she could possibly be any more mortified than she already was, but then he
proceeded to prove her wrong. He took a few small steps away from her not too far, but far enough that
he could really look at her. He even stepped away shortly to bring the brazier closer, so that he could get a
better look at her, as if she was some sort of oddity or freak that he needed to examine in minute detail.
He even went around behind her, cupping her bottom with those rough-palmed hands and making her
start. Stand still! he barked. I won t tell you again, woman.
From that point on during the humiliating inspection, he never stopped touching her his
fingertips callused of course were dragged up her back and across the small width of her shoulders,
then, as he moved around to face her again, fluttering over her collarbone then around to the back of her
head.
Lucius regarded the woman carefully, not quite believing the rumors about how hard she had
fought when captured, and how many men it had taken to throw her into the pit which, he now
admitted to himself, was a mistake of the highest order. He gathered her hair which was, despite the
inevitable dirt, incredibly soft and silky in his palm close to her scalp and wrenched her head back, hard [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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