Mastered By Her Slave
()
About this ebook
Rome, 80 AD
Torn between a forced marriage and the threat of assassination, Clodia is desperate to escape the cruel, dangerous world of the Imperial city. But the greatest challenge the young widow faces is her forbidden desire for the one man who can save her–her fearless bodyguard slave.
A proud warrior brought to Rome in chains, Artair's hunger for freedom is almost as strong as his hunger for his beautiful domina. Artair's fierce loyalty to Clodia soon leads him into the brutal gladiatorial arena, where he is prepared to sacrifice his life to defend her honour...
Read more from Greta Gilbert
Seduced by Her Rebel Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Thrall to the Enemy Commander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForbidden to the Gladiator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaved by Her Enemy Warrior Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Roman Lady's Illicit Affair Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spaniard's Innocent Maiden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5In Thrall To The Enemy Commander Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spaniard's Innocent Maiden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnslaved by the Desert Trader Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Forbidden To The Gladiator Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnslaved By The Desert Trader Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Mastered By Her Slave
Related ebooks
A Worthy Gentleman Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Good Man for Katie Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnlacing Lilly Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Lady's Guide to Tempting a Transylvanian Count : a Gothic Historical Romance: The Lady's Guide, #6 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarried to the Dark Marquess Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Night with the Laird Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Matter of Convenience Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOklahoma Sweetheart Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlessandra Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Rose Red Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOne Night of Scandal Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCharlotte Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn Inconvenient Wife Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJosette Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Playing the Rake's Game Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsForbidden Lord Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5A Marriage of Rogues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Marquess’s Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBarbarian Bride Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnlacing Lady Thea Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTennessee Waltz (The Homespun Hearts Series, Book 1) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Saxon Outlaw's Revenge Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Temptation's Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Highland Champion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLady Isabella: Ladies of Disgrace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAn American in Scotland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tamed By The Barbarian Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Seduction Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Flirting With Ruin Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Baron's Quest Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Historical Romance For You
A Kingdom of Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I Come Home Again: 'A page-turning literary gem' THE TIMES, BEST BOOKS OF 2020 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Prejudice Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dragonwyck: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Years to Sin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lady's Tutor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Versions of Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bred By The King In Public: Dominant King Erotic History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Bastard Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Something Wonderful Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Memory Keeper of Kyiv: A powerful, important historical novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cold-Hearted Rake: The Ravenels, Book 1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Visitors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Slave Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Alien Seduction: Outing the Flames of Passion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Bound To Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Diaries of Miss Miranda Cheever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Whitney, My Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Barbarian's Concubine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pride and Pleasure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Home Child Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Tudor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon A Time: A Collection of Folktales, Fairytales and Legends Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kent Family Chronicles Volumes One Through Three: The Bastard, The Rebels, and The Seekers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Garden in England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Accidental Empress: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Dweller on Two Planets Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Devil’s Submission Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Green Darkness: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Mastered By Her Slave
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Mastered By Her Slave - Greta Gilbert
Chapter One
Rome, 80 AD
She examined the captive’s hands, searching for a sign from the gods. Her very life rested upon this choice.
Do you favor him, Clodia? Or shall we look at some others?
asked her sister, Davena.
Clodia ran her finger down the man’s stomach, sensing him shudder. He was one of so many, his bare torso pressed between so many others—a tragic horde of ill-fortuned souls filling the marketplace with their misery.
"The mango says these are from Pompeii, her sister added.
Can you imagine? Surviving the eruption of that terrible volcano? Such brave boys!"
Clodia marveled at Davena, how easily she sauntered past the men she called boys,
breathing in the smell of a pink gardenia while her own slaves cooled her with ostrich-feather fans.
Clodia herself could not pretend any enjoyment. She found the slave market shameful, the essence of Rome’s brutality. Yet she knew that coming here was the least of her sins.
She was the wife—no, the widow now—of mighty general Paulinus, the man who captured Queen Boudica and brought the wild tribes of Briton to their knees.
Glory to Gaius Suetonius Paulinus,
the guests had cheered at her husband’s funeral games. But Clodia could not bring herself to join them. It was no secret that her husband had been a butcher. Over ten thousand Iceni women and children slaughtered in a single battle. Ten thousand innocent lives erased. All for the glory of Rome.
Clodia begged the goddess Minerva to erase her thoughts. But no matter how much she wished to forget Paulinus’s deeds, she could not. Neither could she escape the thought that in some sense, the blood her husband had spilled was on her hands, too.
And now, as the Fates would have it, so was his money.
Paulinus had no men in his family. No sons, nephews or brothers to carry on the Suetonius name. By law, then, Clodia inherited everything.
It was the worse fate she could have ever imagined. Paulinus came from an old Roman clan, the kind who found Roman law tedious. It was said that Paulinus’s sister, his closest blood relative, had already set a price on Clodia’s head. Or so they whispered at the baths.
Clodia looked up at the man before her. Somehow, she had not let go of his hand.
Apologies,
Clodia murmured, placing it gently by his side. His finger grazed the back of her hand, igniting an invisible spark where it touched.
When she looked up, the man was peering down at her, a curious gaze in his blue-gray eyes. But before she could blink he was looking forward again, his eyes fixed on some invisible horizon.
He was lean, filthy, and smelled of the sea. His hair was thick and yellow and grew in serpentine ropes that mingled with his beard, which grew so long and tangled it seemed stolen from Medusa herself.
He was a ghastly vision, but his power could not be concealed. He stood two heads taller than Clodia, his arms full, his legs long and solid as tree trunks.
But will he do what I require, when the time comes? There seemed no way to be sure.
At the edge of the piazza, Clodia spied the long toga of the city’s most famous gladiator trainer, the procuratore of the Ludus Magnus. The man’s slight build and delicate manner belied a boundless ambition. Even Clodia had heard of his efforts to maintain the favor of the emperor with increasingly bloody spectacles.
Now, the procuratore’s assistants were surveying the captives, who appeared to have been plucked from every corner of the Empire. There were war-weary souls from Judea, black-skinned Numidians from the Mauretanian sands; and rebels from Germania and Britannia, with eyes the color of stormy seas. At the procuratore’s commands, the largest, healthiest-looking men were being marked on the cheek with ash.
If she did not act, Clodia knew that the man before her would also be tagged for the gladiator school. And for him, as for the others, there would be no education. The inaugural games needed victims as well as heroes, and Emperor Titus had made no secret of his desire to anoint his new amphitheater in a river of blood. In two short days, these men would most certainly be dead.
Damnati ad gladium. Gladiator’s