Total pages in book: 22
Estimated words: 20872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 20872 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 104(@200wpm)___ 83(@250wpm)___ 70(@300wpm)
“I’m not going to ask you again,” I warn. “Take them out.”
If I see one more young innocent pair of eyes filled with terror, then I’m going to run a sword through my own heart. I can’t take it anymore.
“Out! Out!” Septimus snaps as he starts grabbing the girls and tossing them back into the hall.
My eyes wander to the girl on the end and my heart seizes in my chest when I see the innocence radiating off her.
Hunger like I’ve never felt before penetrates every cell in my body. I’ve never desired anything more in my life.
No, not desired. Needed. If I don’t have this girl, I’m going to light the empire on fire. I’ll thrust my sword into every last living thing. I’ll kill anything that tries to keep me away from her.
My body stands on its own, everything about her pulling me closer, drawing me in.
She doesn’t cower like the other girls. This one is staring right back at me, watching me with a curious gaze. Her blonde hair is a mess. Her fancy dress all dirty and shredded at the bottom. She has dark circles under her green eyes, but there’s a fire in them, a fire that even slavery can’t extinguish.
“I said out!” Septimus snaps as he grabs her arm.
She whimpers as he pulls her away from me.
“Let her go,” I growl in a voice that’s so primal I don’t even recognize it.
Septimus releases her at once and rushes out of the cell when he sees the fierce look in my eyes. He slams the door closed and locks it before I can make him pay for touching my girl.
“I’m glad we finally found one that you like, Kaeso,” he says with a nervous smile. “Enjoy her innocence.”
He quickly leaves. The desire to knock down this iron cage and crush his throat for talking about her in that lewd way is strong, but not as strong as the pull to stay near her.
I feel it invading every part of me, transforming me, molding me into something new. Into a man whose obsession with this girl stands above all else.
“Don’t be scared,” I whisper as I slowly walk up to her. She barely comes to my chest. She’s so tiny. She’s so perfect.
“I’m not scared,” she says as she gazes up into my eyes, tilting her head back to see me.
Those eyes… they stare past my harsh rugged exterior and seem to be seeing into my soul. Gripping it, seizing it, claiming it as her own.
It’s already hers. I’m already hers.
I can’t stop looking at her. She’s the finest thing I’ve ever seen.
Flawless skin that looks as soft as the most delicate silk, lips as sweet as a ripe juicy peach, hair that brings goosebumps on the skin of any man lucky enough to touch it.
My hands are shaking at my sides as I look down at her. She doesn’t belong here in this cell. She belongs in Olympus with the goddesses. By the side of Venus.
And that’s when it hits me…
It must be her.
“Venus?” I ask in a deep shaky voice.
Those green eyes scrunch up in confusion. “No.” Her tiny voice makes my heart thump like the hooves of a legion of horses charging into war.
“You’re a goddess?” I ask. I reach for her and then drop my trembling hands. She’s too perfect to be touched by a wretched beast like me.
“I’m not. I’m a slave. Like you.”
The awe that’s taken over my body is quickly being replaced by a vicious fury that I don’t know if I can control. A slave? The thought of other men with their filthy hands on her pure skin is making me enraged. Heat sears through me as I grit my teeth, wanting to hunt them all down and make them pay in the most violent way possible. This girl is mine alone to touch. Mine alone to defile.
“You’re not a slave anymore,” I say, vowing it to her, to myself, to the gods in Olympus. “You belong to me.”
“I’m your slave now?” She doesn’t cower like the other women who have been thrown at my feet. Her chin stands proudly, her bright green eyes defiant as she stares up at me.
“No,” I say as I gently reach for her hair. Her eyes never leave mine as I let the silky blonde strands fall through my fingers. “But you belong to me. No other man will touch you or look upon your virginal body in a lecherous way again, or I swear that I, Kaeso Vinicius, will pluck their eyes from their skulls and snatch the soul from their bodies. I will burn Rome to the ground before I let another man touch what’s mine.”
The wet damp air charges with a dry heat as her eyes roam down my giant arms. They’re covered in scars from long ago forgotten battles and gashes from long-dead opponents stupid enough to stand against me. I’ve always stood several heads over my fellow men. Even as a child.