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against the cool, granite counter and sucked deep breaths
into her deprived lungs.
"Holy shit," she gasped. Her body tingled and throbbed.
"What the hell was that?" No single kiss had ever made her
feel like this. Hell, the best sex she'd ever had in her entire
life hadn't left her feeling this... "Holy shit." She swiped her
hand over her mouth, then pushed her glasses up. Only her
midnight lover could do this to her, and he wasn't real.
Camden was very, very real.
"Jetlag," she said, desperately trying to convince herself.
"Just jetlag."
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74
Time and Again
by Anna Leigh Keaton
Chapter Six
"Please!"
Teri's own cry awakened her, and she sat bolt upright,
panting in the darkness. Her body hummed with arousal. Her
pussy throbbed.
"You fucking sonofabitch." Tears stung her eyes. She
pulled her knees to her chest and hugged her arms around
herself. "Get out of my head!"
Wenda...
She yelped and jumped from the bed. "Who's there?" She
flipped on the bedside lamp. The room was empty.
Wenda...my love.
Her heart leapt into her throat, nearly choking her. Who
the fuck was saying that? She went to the small office
connected to the bedroom and flipped on the light. Empty.
Computer off. Silent. Still.
She laughed at herself.
Her own voice made her jump.
"I don't believe this place is haunted," she proclaimed,
even as goose bumps popped out on her arms.
Wenda...
"Shut up! I'm not Wenda. I don't even know Wenda."
The gentle male voice seemed to sigh. Wenda...
Teri jerked open the top dresser drawer and pulled out her
fleece jogging suit. She tugged it on over her T-shirt and
shorts. A fluffy pair of socks followed, and then she grabbed
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by Anna Leigh Keaton
the door and jerked it open. The hallway was dark, but the
bedroom door across from hers stood open.
Standing in the doorway of her bedroom, she sucked in a
deep breath. This is stupid. I'm not afraid of the dark.
Silent on the stone floor, she tiptoed across the hall and
peeked into Camden's bedroom. He'd said she could come
over if she got scared, right?
Wenda...
Shut up! I don't hear you. Lalala.
Sheets rustled. Camden let out the softest little snort, then
settled again.
"Camden?" she whispered.
He was obviously asleep.
Remember me...my love... The voice faded away.
She shivered. Standing in the doorway of Camden's
bedroom, she didn't know if she should jump into bed with
him and hide under the covers or do that in her own
room...alone.
Crossing her arms, she hugged herself. I am not some
needy, frightened woman. Camden will think I'm a big baby if
I wake him up and tell him I heard voices.
"This is stupid," she whispered as she turned away from
Camden and his big, four-poster bed. Subconscious playing
games with me to get me into bed with him?
She almost laughed. Not her subconscious; her libido. A
thing that had no business here. So what if he kissed like a
god? So what if he smelled like heaven? He was a man, and
she knew what always happened after she slept with a man.
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Time and Again
by Anna Leigh Keaton
Hell, she hadn't even had sex with him yet and the midnight
lover was making his presence known.
"Bastard." Before she shut the door of her room behind
her, she stopped. She was wide-awake and knew sleep would
be a long way off now.
Who the hell was Wenda, and why was she hearing
some... No, she didn't hear voices. The castle wasn't haunted.
It was all a dream. She'd just awoken with the name in her
head, that's all. But she obviously wasn't going to get rid of it
until she solved the mystery.
She grabbed her glasses off the nightstand, slipped on her
tennis shoes, and headed for the storage room in the
basement. Looked as if Camden's would get his way, she
thought as she punched in the code and heard the seal
release.
After turning on the overhead lights, she went directly to
the first chest, slipped on her cotton gloves, then lifted the
lid. From when she took scrapings in the afternoon, she knew
that the ones at the back of the box were older than the
front. She lifted out the back five tablets, moved to the long
light table, and very carefully laid them out side-by-side.
She picked up her notebook and a pen from the computer
desk, then sat on the stool in front of the light table.
* * * *
I tell my son and his son's sons this tale to remind them
that nothing is more important in this world than the love of
the woman of your heart.
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Time and Again
by Anna Leigh Keaton
Teri jerked her head up and frowned. "You've got to be
kidding me," she muttered as she stared at the words she'd
just translated into English.
She looked back to the tablet to make sure she'd read it
correctly. She hadn't been lying when she told Camden she
hadn't read Latin shorthand since college over fifteen years
earlier.
No, she was fairly sure she'd translated it correctly.
She read on.
* * * *
I met my Wenda on a hot summer day during Emperor
Vespasian's reign. My father bought her to save her from a
vile merchant named Farberous. The streets of Rome,
supposedly paved in gold, were a hell worse than death to the
slaves captured in and brought from the north. Sweet Wenda
was one of those women.
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78
Time and Again
by Anna Leigh Keaton
Chapter Seven
Rome. 74 A.D.
"Titus! Son, where are you?"
Titus pushed away from the desk and his calculations of
their finances when he heard his father's panicked tone.
"Here, Father," he said as he entered the atrium from the
office.
Quintus Marinus stood behind the small form of a woman.
Her long black hair draped her shoulders, trailing in matted
locks over her curves barely concealed by a shredded tunic.
Her hands were tied together in front of her by rough rope,
and a gag remained in her mouth.
"Father?" he asked as he approached the nearly naked
woman. "Why is she still bound?"
"She is frightened and was fighting; almost took my eye
out." Titus saw the scratch on his father's cheek near his left
eye. "She does not speak our language." Quintus shook his
head. "She's "
Titus reached out to push the woman's hair back, but she
growled low in her throat and threw herself at him, raising
her hands with fingers curled to do maximum damage.
He ducked to the side, grabbed her bound wrists, spun her
away, and banded her up tight against his chest, her back to
his front. "Shh," he whispered in her ear as she struggled
against his hold.
She screamed through the gag, clawed at his arms with
her broken fingernails, and kicked at his shins. She smelled of
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by Anna Leigh Keaton
sweat and filth, and he did his best to hold his breath to keep
from inhaling her stench.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he said, keeping his voice low
and steady, even as pain shot up his leg from her attack. He'd
dealt with enough terrified slaves to know that only
tenderness and time brought trust. His first objective was to
get her to stop fighting him so he could remove her bonds
and check her for injury.
After long minutes, she slumped against him, breathing
hard, growling low in her throat like a feral cat.
"Good girl," he said softly as he loosened his hold and,
with one hand, reached for the ties of the gag.
As soon as the dirty cloth dropped from her face, she let
out a blood-chilling scream, turned toward him, and clamped
onto his bicep with sharp teeth.
He tightened his arm around her again and growled
through gritted teeth at the pain. He stood still though,
waiting. Waiting. Blood trickled down his arm, but still he
waited for her next move, afraid he'd lose a chunk of his flesh
if she didn't release him soon. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]