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intrigues me.”
    “Really? I thought she was too—”
    “Thin. I know.” Terentius threw his optio a grin. “You didn’t have her in your arms.”
    Victor’s perplexed expression filled with amusement “She is very skinny.”
    “Sweetly small. She could use more meat on her, but I felt her breasts on my arm.” Just the thought of her breasts cupped in his hands hardened his cock to granite. Yes, he would like that very much.
    “Tonight we’ll find female companionship, and you’ll forget the tiny Adrenia.”
    As Victor urged his horse to go faster, Terentius yelled after him, “You can screw all you want. I’ll sleep.”
    But he knew dreams of Adrenia’s shining eyes and plump lips would haunt his night. Urgency built inside to find an excuse, any reason, to turn his horse around and ride back to her. To see if the steady desire still boiling in his blood would disappear at the sight of her.
    Somehow he knew she needed him and in those minutes together they’d connected.
    Then he remembered she was a Briton, not a Roman citizen. A woman below his station. Britons had broken his world when he was sixteen. He shouldn’t care whether she lived or died. Resolved to slake his lust as Victor planned, Terentius shoved thoughts of sloe-eyed Adrenia right from his head.

Chapter Three
     
    “Mankind have been created for the sake of one another.
    Either instruct them, therefore, or endure them.”
    Marcus Aurelius
    Roman Emperor (AD 161–180), AD 121–AD 180
     
    A Day Later
    After Terentius and Victor dismounted from their horses, they stood for a second and took in the villa before them. Terentius had reason to be impressed. While not as large as his family’s former villa near Deva, Cordus had done well for himself. Obviously his many tenants, including Brigomalla, sprawled across the lands in rectangular houses and roundhouses, while Cordus enjoyed the features of a full estate. Terentius knew this one would feature baths, at least one kitchen, and prominent public rooms. In fact, if Terentius was right, the octagonal-shaped building attached to the far end of the villa might be a bathhouse. He’d heard of massive villas that would outstrip this one, like the one just west of Noviomagus. Still, this complex sprawl showed that a military veteran could do well for himself.
    Terentius and Victor walked into the entrance once the slave at the door admitted them. They followed the slave into the atrium, and Terentius saw this structure was much bigger than he’d first realized from looking at the outside. The slave that had taken their introductory papers left them standing while he rushed to find his master.
    Victor turned in a circle. The black and white mosaic floor showed birds, a lion, lizards and snakes. Frescos with elaborate colored architectural views lined the walls. Panels laden with isolated figures were marked off by borders and featured pavilions and mythological figures. In the center of the atrium, water filled a rectangular impluvium . An opening in the roof allowed water to fall into the impluvium . To one side of the room ruby-colored curtains flapped in a slight breeze that sailed through the wide opening into public rooms.
    Victor was wide-eyed. “Fuck me. I haven’t seen a place like this in some time.”
    Terentius remembered his family villa and it filled him with homesickness, a feeling he couldn’t remove no matter how many years went by. You cannot return home. No, he had no true home as a soldier. He went wherever duty took him.
    Above a niche were carved words. Victor said, “ Pro salutem redditum ac Victoria. For health, the return and victory.” He smiled. “Those are words I can live by.”
    “And I. Come. We are rude exploring this private area.” Terentius returned to the atrium and Victor followed, of course.
    The large, shaggy-haired slave came back into the atrium. “Please, sirs. If you’ll come through this way to the courtyard, the dominus will meet you there