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Coming next month

THE WARRIOR’S brIDE PRIZE

Jenni Fletcher

‘I won.’

‘What?’

‘The game. I won.’

‘Oh.’ Livia stared at Marius blankly. Did he expect her to congratulate him? ‘And you woke me to tell me that?’

‘No.’ His expression shifted to one she hadn’t seen there before, as if he were uncertain of himself. He seemed to be having trouble finding words. ‘There’s more…about Scaevola.’

‘Has something happened to him?’ She felt a fleeting, very fleeting , moment of concern. If he was hurt in some way then it would explain his absence. Although it might also postpone their wedding, she thought hopefully.

‘Not physically, but, yes, in a manner of speaking. He ran out of money.’

‘You mean he was gambling?’

He inclined his head and she rolled her eyes scornfully. Of course he’d been gambling and now he’d run out of funds again, just as he had in Lindum. She was amazed he’d had anything left to play with in the first place. Then she tensed as another thought struck her. Was that why Marius was there? Because Scaevola owed him money? Had he come to ask her to pay the debt? Her mouth turned dry at the thought. Surely that couldn’t be the reason he’d come to wake her and yet…what else could be so important?

She pulled her shoulders back, bracing herself for the worst. ‘If he’s indebted to you, then I’m afraid I can’t help. I don’t have any money of my own.’

He drew his brows together so sharply they met in a hard line in the middle. ‘I’m not here for money, Livia. Is that what you think of me?’ His gaze dropped to her mouth. ‘After last night?’

She tensed again as the low, intimate tone of his voice sent a frisson of excitement racing through her body, though she forced herself to ignore it. They shouldn’t talk about last night.

‘No. You’re right, I shouldn’t have said that. I just thought…’ She licked her lips, trying to put her confusion into words. ‘I don’t think of you like that, but why are you here, Marius? What’s so important about a game? Did Scaevola lose so much?’

‘Yes, but it’s not about money…’

‘Then what?’

He muttered an expletive before answering. ‘He staked you.’

‘What?’ Her body seemed to go into shock, though it took her brain a few seconds to catch up with the words.

‘He had no money left so he staked you.’

‘In a game of tabula?’

‘Yes.’

‘You’re saying that he offered me as a prize?’

‘Yes.’

‘And that you won?’

‘Yes.’

‘o you won…me?’

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