Page 44

One year later

L ucretia rested her hands on the rail of the ship as the port of Alexandria came into view on the horizon.

The deck rolled gently beneath her feet, but after two weeks of sea travel, she hardly noticed it.

The first few days had been an utter misery of seasickness, but after many prayers to Neptune and Amphitrite for mercy, her body had eventually become accustomed to the ceaseless motion.

It wasn’t just seasickness that plagued her in those early days.

At first, anxiety had been a constant thrum in her chest, a twisting in her stomach.

She’d cursed herself for allowing Felix and Marcus to convince her to come on this trip to Alexandria.

Every sway of the ship portended sinking, and every time they caught sight of another sail in the distance, it was pirates.

At least if they died, she reasoned in her darkest moments, the three of them would die together.

But the ship hadn’t sunk, they hadn’t even seen any bad weather, and no pirates were to be found. Felix had been a steady presence at her side, a reassuring voice in her ear whenever her worries threatened to overwhelm her.

As one uneventful day followed another, the tension in her chest eased, and she no longer spent every waking moment consumed with worry about shipwrecks or pirates or storms.

Marcus’s enthusiasm had also helped. It was hard to be anxious when her son’s eyes glowed with delight as he learned a new knot or wheedled the captain into teaching him a new navigational technique.

Though Marcus remained a somewhat ambivalent student when it came to learning the nuances of trade and commerce, he’d taken to sailing with an enthusiasm that reminded her of Cornelius.

She sensed he’d found his passion, though she might have wished his interest stayed with chariot racing or something else that would keep him on land.

Dihya and Siro had remained behind in Ostia to manage affairs while Lucretia and Felix were gone.

Their working relationship was tumultuous but somehow efficient, and Caeso’s baked goods smoothed over many a quarrel between the two deputies.

Dihya and Caeso had married the previous autumn as planned, and Dihya was now several joyful months into a pregnancy.

Lucretia smiled as she imagined how big her friend would be upon their return.

Felix, beside her at the rail, wrapped an arm around her waist. His fair skin had acquired a glow of color from the trip, and the wind whipped at his dark hair. “Almost there,” he murmured as he gazed out at the approaching land.

“The first thing I’m going to do is buy a hat.” Instead of an even, golden tan like Felix, Lucretia’s skin had gained a disagreeable array of freckles over the two weeks of being out on the sunny deck. “And perhaps some cosmetics.”

Felix chuckled. “If you cover up those freckles, I won’t know where to kiss you.” He had developed an irritating habit of kissing each new freckle as it appeared.

She scowled. “I can live with that.”

He pulled her closer, speaking low in her ear.

“The first free afternoon we have, I’m going to rent a pleasure boat and take you out on it.

Just the two of us. And then I’m going to strip you bare in the sunlight so your entire body gets covered in freckles.

That way I’ll have plenty of places to kiss. ”

A tendril of heat wound through her at his words.

Despite her dislike of the freckles, he presented an appealing picture.

Privacy had been at a minimum aboard the ship.

They were lucky to have their own cabin, as opposed to sleeping in a tent on deck like the crew and Marcus, but it directly bordered the captain’s cabin.

By the volume of the captain’s snoring audible in their cabin, Lucretia knew he’d be able to hear anything and everything they did.

To spare the poor man, they had refrained from indulging in each other.

After two weeks of such restraint, desire was a nearly constant tickle under her skin. And by the way Felix was holding her, she could tell he felt it too.

The crew was already making preparations to dock, adjusting the sails and doing indecipherable things with the various piles of rope that lay around the deck.

Marcus was at the aft of the ship, hovering at the captain’s shoulder as he surveyed the operations.

So no one was paying them any attention as Felix moved behind her, laying his hands next to hers where they braced on the rail.

His body pressed against her from shoulder to hip.

“Imagine being taken like this,” he whispered, breath tickling her neck. “On a boat by ourselves, nothing but the open sea for company.”

She gave an unsteady laugh as warmth gathered between her thighs. “I fear Neptune would be watching, if no one else.”

“He can watch if he likes.” He lowered his head to kiss the curve of her neck.

The touch made her arch against him, and her bottom bumped the swelling thickness of his cock. Her mouth went dry with want. “Felix,” she hissed, resisting the urge to rub against him. “Not here.”

He let out a growl of displeasure, but released her, moving to stand more decorously next to her.

He rested his elbow on the rail. Beyond, the Egyptian coast drew closer with every moment.

Lucretia could make out the curve of the harbor, marked by the famously towering lighthouse on an island just offshore.

They’d separated not a moment too soon, for Marcus came jogging toward them. “Captain says we should be docking in an hour or so,” he relayed, excitement lighting his hazel eyes. “We’re to enter the harbor under oar power, rather than sails, to have more control over the approach.”

“Excellent,” Lucretia said, smiling at him.

Over the past year, Marcus had learned to tolerate her relationship with Felix, as long as she held to her promise that Felix wouldn’t become his stepfather.

The arrangement suited Lucretia perfectly; Felix and Marcus were much better suited as apprentice and teacher rather than father and son, and the three of them got along better than she ever could have imagined.

Gone were the days of Marcus’s surly, sulking behavior. He seemed to grow inches every week, and boxing had taught him discipline and control. His knowledge of business and trade was increasing every day, thanks to Felix’s thorough tutelage.

An hour later, as promised, their ship docked in the harbor of Alexandria.

As Lucretia stepped off the gangplank, the boards of the pier seemed to lurch beneath her feet.

She grabbed at Felix, and he wrapped a steadying arm around her waist. Marcus was already halfway down the dock, eager to explore a new city.

“Careful,” Felix said. “Your legs are used to the movement of the ship. The solid ground will feel unstable for a while.”

She leaned into his secure hold. “I suppose I’ll just have to make sure there’s a strong, handsome man within grabbing distance until I acclimate.”

Felix chuckled. His fingers spread wider where they grasped her body, turning his hold from supportive to suggestive. “I’ve been aching to be grabbed at by you.”

Lucretia grinned at him, looping her arms around his neck. A rush of gratitude washed over her as she gazed at him. She had everything she’d ever wanted: a profitable business, a son who had found happiness and stability, and a shrewd business partner.

And Felix was more than just a business partner. He was by her side during the day as they coordinated shipments or inventoried cargo or updated their accounts. And though they remained unmarried, Felix spent nearly every night in her bed, pleasuring her with his usual meticulous attention.

After two weeks of abstinence, she was in dire need of some of that meticulous attention. She stood on her tiptoes and lifted her mouth to his ear. “Let’s see about that private boat, shall we?”

A spark of hunger flared in his gray eyes. He gave a low, rumbling laugh, then took her hand and led her down the dock.

Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed Felix and Lucretia's story, please consider leaving a review wherever you found this book.