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“ W elcome back,” Lucretia greeted Felix as she entered his dining room a few days after his return.

She’d tried not to seem too eager to see him, waiting several days after he sent word of his arrival back in Ostia to arrange their next meeting.

Now, setting eyes upon him for the first time in two weeks, she wanted to run into his arms, but held back and greeted him with a decorous nod.

“How was your sister’s baby?” she asked, stretching out on the dining couch beside him.

He shrugged. “She eats, sleeps, cries, and burps, so I gather she is quite the success.”

Despite his nonchalant words, his eyes lit with warmth as he spoke of his new niece. Lucretia smiled. “Did you enjoy the countryside?”

Another shrug. “It’s pleasant enough, but the quiet is almost deafening. It hurts my head. Sometimes the loudest thing is the breeze ruffling the leaves in the trees.”

“You prefer the dulcet tones of sailors swearing at each other in the harbor?”

He shot her a quick grin. “I do.” He poured her a cup of wine and passed her a tray of poached fish. “Speaking of the harbor…there is something I wished to ask you.”

Lucretia froze in the midst of serving herself a portion of fish. Something to ask her? Her mind shot back to the conversation with Marcus about marriage and Felix and liking each other…”Oh?” she said, the syllable unsteady.

He glanced at her as he filled his own plate with roasted duck.

“While I was gone, Siro received some correspondence from one of my key suppliers in Cyrene that he’s trying to hike his prices on me.

So I thought some in-person negotiation might be the most efficient solution.

It’s only about a nine day sail from here.

I would like to invite Marcus to join me, if you are agreeable.

We would leave next month. I expect we'd be gone for four weeks.”

“ Oh .” Relief coursed through her that the question wasn’t what she feared.

But the relief was chased by a suffocating anxiety at the thought of Marcus on a ship voyage.

She sat up, food abandoned. "A nine day sail? That’s quite far.

He’s never been away from home. And what if something should happen?

What if he should get sick, or injured, or homesick, or what if he doesn’t like the food—”

Felix took her shoulders in a gentle grip. “Breathe, Lucretia.”

She gulped in a breath, let it out, then took another one, slower this time. The way he was holding her reminded her of that day on the beach after the shipwreck, when she’d been spiraling into guilt-ridden agitation. He had soothed her, even though they were still enemies then.

She met his eyes, and their cool grayness calmed her, like a cloudy sky after a raging tempest. “I don’t know if I can let him go,” she confessed.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms in a comforting rhythm. “Marcus is almost a man. It would be good for him to see something of the world. I think the trip would teach him a great deal.”

“I know.” She had to think of what was best for Marcus, not fall prey to her own fears.

“Do you trust me to look after him?”

She let out a deep exhale. “I do.”

“So…do I have your consent?”

She closed her eyes. Images of all the terrible things that could happen on this voyage flitted behind her eyelids, so she opened her eyes, anchoring on Felix’s face.

She tried to think of all the ships that arrived safely in Ostia harbor, day after day.

All the sailors that spent their lives voyaging from one port to another.

Marcus would be safe with Felix, and the voyage would be good for him. “Yes,” she finally said.

“Thank you.” His hands didn’t leave her shoulders. To her surprise, he drew her toward him for an embrace, his arms wrapping around her body.

Another calming breath left her lungs, and she hugged him back. For all they’d done together, she and Felix had never actually embraced like this. It felt so good to lay her head on his shoulder and be enveloped in the heat of his body.

“I know that was difficult for you,” he said, voice low and tender. “I hope you know, I don’t take your trust in me lightly.”

Warmth kindled in her chest, chasing away the last traces of anxiety. “I hope you know, if anything happens to Marcus, I will curse you a thousand times over.”

He chuckled, the sound vibrating through her. “I’d expect nothing less.”

She drew back from the embrace, smiling up at him.

The feeling of his strong arms around her made desire swell.

Her body had hungered for him these past two weeks, and she couldn’t deny her appetite any longer.

“Now, since you’ve been gone for so long, I think a review of our previous lesson is in order.

” She pivoted to rest her foot on the surface of the couch, then took a handful of her dress and lifted it to expose one calf.

His eyes tracked her movements, and a greedy grin lifted the corners of his mouth. “There’s only so much one can accomplish with independent study.” He reached out to grab her dress, yanking it up to her hips.

She giggled and parted her legs, allowing her head to fall back as he lowered his mouth between her thighs.

Felix’s fists thumped against the sand-filled leather bag swinging in front of him. Marcus was due to meet him here shortly, but for now, Felix was alone, which gave his mind plenty of freedom to wander.

Ever since Felix returned from his trip to his family, the question of marrying Lucretia loomed large in his mind.

The more he thought about it, the more he was sure he wanted her as his wife.

He wanted all of her—from her intelligence and her business expertise to her carnal knowledge and tempting curves.

He had always known he would marry eventually, but whenever he pictured his future wife, it was a vague, blurry image of a quiet, dutiful woman who would manage his household and raise his children.

Someone conventional, unchallenging, easy to like, if not love.

He had never dared to imagine a woman like Lucretia.

There was Marcus to consider too. Felix had grown fonder of the boy than he ever expected when Marcus first wheedled him into giving boxing lessons. He could easily imagine adopting Marcus as his heir, if Lucretia didn’t wish to have more children or if the gods didn’t bless them with a son.

But no matter Felix’s feelings, he was still uncertain of Lucretia’s desires. Would she even entertain a proposal from him? What if she refused him for the second time?

Her rejection of his first proposal had been merely a snag in his old plans to overtake her business operations. But if she refused him again, when he truly wanted to marry her for her , not just her ships, it would crush him.

The thought of it now, of her possible rejection, was enough to make his stomach churn.

He stepped back from the bag, breathing hard, and passed a linen-wrapped hand over his face to wipe the sweat from his brow.

He wasn’t brave enough to face the risk of Lucretia turning him down. What if she felt nothing for him? She clearly enjoyed their sexual exploration, but what if that was as far as it went for her?

He could have sworn he detected something deeper upon his return. She had seemed genuinely happy to see him, and she’d agreed to trust him with Marcus’s safety on their upcoming voyage. That had to mean something. But what if it wasn’t enough?

In this situation, too much boldness could ruin everything. A circumspect approach would be more prudent. So he would wait, try to suss out if she harbored any deeper feelings toward him. Once he was sure, once he was certain , he could attempt another proposal.

If she did reject him, it would fully cement his bachelorhood. He would find someone to adopt as his heir in the coming decades; perhaps Herminia would have a son. But if Lucretia didn’t want to be his wife, he had no interest in anyone else.