Free Tangled Web by Crista McHugh Page A

more at ease after he logically plotted the consequences. “It would be political suicide.”
    “Not everyone is as far-thinking as you.”
    “Just out of curiosity, where are you hearing such things?”
    A playful grin split Marcus’s face. “In the shipping business, you hear a lot of rumors at the docks. It helps that I can blend in easier there. As long as they don’t see my eyes, they think I’m a typical Elymanian sailor.”
    Titus rubbed his jaw, mentally cataloging all his potential enemies. When he reached twenty, he stopped. “It would be helpful to know who was behind it.”
    “I’ll keep my ears open. In the meantime, don’t let Pontus’s gift go to your head. And by head, I mean the one above your shoulders, not the one below them.”
    A twinge of unease coiled in at the base of his spine. “Surely you don’t think she’s a threat, do you?”
    “She has access to you when you are your most defenseless.”
    He remembered how she had blindfolded him the first night. He’d let his guard down completely, had left himself vulnerable to her. If Pontus had sent her to harm him, she’d had ample opportunity to do so. “You don’t have to worry about her. The only thing she’s done is torture me with her teasing.”
    Marcus cocked a brow. “You mean you haven’t—”
    “No.” Titus stood and paced, trying to work some of his frustration out. “It’s not that I don’t want to. I just can’t bring myself to…”
    “To what?”
    “To force her to do something she doesn’t want.” He remembered how it had been with Lucia. She’d lay there in their bed as he came inside her, her expression one of bored acceptance rather than pleasure. She’d been forced into their marriage as much as he had, and they had both been completely miserable. No wonder she’d sought pleasure in another man’s arms. He thought he’d done the right thing by offering her a divorce so she could be with the man she loved, never thinking she would rather preserve her Deizian honor by drowning herself than lose her place as his wife.
    “She’s a concubine, Titus. They’re only trained to do one thing.”
    He couldn’t deny that she was well skilled in the art of seduction, but something didn’t quite fit. She seemed too well-educated, too well-travelled to be a woman who’d spent her entire life pleasuring men. There was something in her past that she wanted to keep hidden from him. And if he wanted to gain access to it, he’d have to be patient.
    “Maybe, maybe not,” he replied.
    …
    Azurha sat on a bench while an Alpirion slave pinned her hair into place. How odd to be waited on by someone of her own race. She couldn’t tell if resentment or envy glowed from the girl’s eyes when they met, but she was glad not to have to meet her gaze for now.
    So far the gods seemed to be on her side. After taking inventory of her resources this afternoon, Azurha decided to use a slow acting poison to kill Titus.
    It troubled her a bit to realize she couldn’t bring herself to kill him with her own two hands. She’d never had that trouble before, not since she sliced her master’s throat with a broken piece of crockery. Why the hesitation now? Was it because he seemed to seek out her opinion, to value it as though she was one of his trusted advisors rather than a simple concubine? Was it because he seemed content once again to allow her into his bed yet not seek his own pleasure from her?
    The memory of his tongue exploring her most intimate recesses made her sex quiver. That was why. No man had ever worried about what she wanted, about what she thought and felt. Even after gaining her freedom, she still answered to the whims of her clients. Posing as a concubine, she should be serving the emperor, fulfilling all his sexual fantasies, not moaning in pleasure when he sucked on her clit.
    Her skin flushed, and when she heard the locks to the harem click, she almost bolted for the door. She craved one more night with