“It sounds like Gaul. And there’s an island to the west of it, Hibernia, where even Caesar’s legions never reached.”
“What’s there?” she asked.
“Celts,” he replied, and grinned.
“You’d be right at home,” Larthia said.
He kissed her.
“I don’t care where we go,” Larthia whispered, climbing on top of him. “I’m tired of being Lady Sejana, it was never very rewarding work. I just want to be with you.”
He rolled her under him and began to make love to her once more.
In the next room, Marcus and Julia lay curled together like puppies in a basket, drowsily watching the moon rise through the slit of a window in the wall.
“Are you surprised to find yourself in these luxurious accommodations this evening?” Marcus murmured teasingly, stroking her arm.
“I’m surprised to find myself still alive.”
“Did you think I would just let them kill you?” he asked incredulously.
“I knew you were in jail, Marcus, I didn’t think you would have much choice.”
“Septimus got us out, but even if he hadn’t, I would have found a way. Verrix and I were working on it when Septimus showed up, I wasn’t planning to sit in that cave while Livia and her minions buried you alive.”
“She must be having apoplexy, in her mind making an example of me was the only way to restore her reputation.” Julia suddenly started to giggle. “Did you see Verrix punch her?”
“She’s lucky it was Verrix. I would have done a lot worse to her.”
“She’ll be walking around with the bruise until the next nundina. I’d like to hear her explanation of it.”
“She was coming at Verrix with nails and teeth bared, she looked like a she-cat in heat.”
“I guess I’ve spoiled her glorious retirement,” Julia sighed. “Livia had an unblemished career for over a quarter century before my defection.”
Marcus made a dismissive gesture. “There will be a new scandal next week. By the time she leaves in two years she’ll be revered again.”
“I suppose so.”
“I can’t imagine why you’re worrying about her, she didn’t give a fig about you.”
Julia sat up and studied his face in the light of the single candle on the washstand.
“Do you really think we can get away from Rome without being caught?” she asked.
“If Antony wanted us, we’d be in custody right now,” Marcus replied flatly. “He’s letting us go. He is a relentless enemy, but he can also be a good friend.”
Julia settled back into the curve of his arm. “I want to have lots of children with you,” she said happily.
“You’ve made a good start on it already,” he answered, laughing. “But we can always practice for the next one.”
“Let’s practice,” Julia said, and they did.
– THE END –
Doreen Owens Malek is the author of over forty books and lifelong fan of romantic fiction. She lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with with her husband and college student daughter, a mini dachshund and a sun conyer parrot. Her home is situated just a few miles from the spot where General Washington crossed the Delaware River during the Revolution, Doreen would like to tell you a little about herself in her own words in the hope that it will enhance your pleasure in reading her work.
“I came to writing by a circuitous route, starting out as an avid reader of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights and Gone With the Wind and Rebecca and any other similarly themed books I could find. I first worked as a teacher and then attended law school when I desired a more lucrative and independent career. Just after I got my JD my mother died, and the impact of her mortality, and by inference my own, drove me to take a chance. I had always been discouraged from pursuing a writing career by the volatile nature of the business and the relatively poor chance for success. But the realization that I did not have an unlimited supply of time encouraged me to do what I had always wanted to do the most—get published. I sold my fledgling novel to the first editor who read it, and I have been writing ever since. I have written short stories and books, nonfiction and fiction for juveniles and adults, contemporaries and historicals and paranormals, but my favorite literary pursuit is and always has been romance. I’ve won many awards and have millions of books in print. But nothing is as rewarding as hearing from my readers, so please use this website to communicate your thoughts and criticisms, as I am always eager to learn from you.
I started writing romances because I so loved reading them, hoping that I could duplicate for others the enjoyment and satisfaction I felt as a fan of such stories. A romance novel rarely disappoints me: in an uncertain world filled with tragedy and sadness, reading about an appealing woman finding a strong man to love her and share her life is the perfect escape. I never tire of imagining adventurous scenarios for my characters and detailing their path to fulfillment. I like to read and write stories in which the main characters overcome obstacles to get together, and then stay together because their mutual devotion cannot be denied no matter what else is happening around them. They always HELP each other and reinforce the quaint but enduring notion that love conquers all – at least in the fictional universe of my imagination. So pull up a chair and take down a book – or pick up a Kindle – and join me in a world where the heroes are tough and headstrong but never boorish and the heroines are feminine and sympathetic but never helpless.”
See all of
Doreen Owens Malek’s
Kindle eBooks on Amazon.com
HISTORICAL ROMANCES
Released 2012
by Doreen Owens Malek
THE PANTHER AND THE PEARL
An Amazon Best Selling Historical Romance
in the United States and the United Kingdom
“In the Ottoman Empire of 1885,
the Pasha of Bursa could have anything
he wanted…except her”
The American Beauty: When an innocent excursion to Constantinople took an unexpected twist, Sarah Woolcott found herself a prisoner in the harem of young and virile Kalid Shah. Headstrong and courageous, Sarah was determined to resist the handsome foreigner whose arrogance outraged her—even as his tantalizing touch promised exotic nights of fiery sensuality.
The Turkish Prince: Never had he encountered a woman who inflamed his desire like the blonde Westerner with the independent spirit. Although she spurned his passionate overtures, Kalid vowed to tempt her with his masterful skills until she became a willing companion on their journey of exquisite ecstasy!
PANTHER’S PREY
THE SEQUEL TO
The Panther and the Pearl
In 1895, Turkish Rebel Malik Bey must
choose between his country’s freedom and
his passion for a forbidden woman
He rode from out of the Turkish wilderness atop a magnificent charger. Dark and mysterious, Malik Bey swept Boston-bred Amelia Ryder into an exotic world of sultans and revolutionaries, magnificent palaces and desert camps. Amy wanted to hate her virile abductor, to escape his heated glances forever. But with his suave manners and seductive charm, the hard-bodied rebel was not mere thief out to steal the proper young beauty’s virtue. Amy grew ever closer to surrendering to unending bliss in Malik’s fiery embrace.
OTHER
HISTORICAL ROMANCES
by Doreen Owens Malek
THE LION AND THE LARK
A Roman officer and his Celtic captive
transcend the barriers of war
to find an undying passion
The Year is 44 B. C. Julius Caesar is dead. And as rebellion divides Italy and Britain, a Roman centurion and a Celtic princess forge a bond no woman or man can rend asunder…
To ensure peace between her tribe and their savage conquerors, the exquisite Bronwen has been promised in wedlock to a high-born Roman tribune. But the British beauty is also a secret spy ready to risk her life to free her people.
Dispatched to Brita
in by Mark Antony, Claudius is irresistibly drawn to the flaxen-haired, cobalt-eyed Bronwen. Yet he knows he dare not trust the woman who is bound to him by law––not love.
THE HIGHWAYMAN
A tempestuous story of
love and betrayal in
Elizabethan Ireland
It was a bold and perilous plan – disguising herself as a boy and stealing aboard a ship bound for the far-off shores of Ireland. But from the moment orphaned Lady Alexandra Cummings arrived at besieged Inverary Castle, her life and heart were no longer her own. Captured by rugged Irish rebel Kevin Burke, the daring English noblewoman became a pawn in a dangerous game of treachery and betrayal.
For she lost her heart to the one man she dared not trust, and her passion could not be swayed by reason. But cruel fate tragically plunged Kevin into exile and Alexandra into a loveless marriage. Enemies and lovers, their forbidden desires swept them across a divided realm. A man and a woman bound together pledged their lives toward liberty and love.
TORCHLIGHT
A mine owner’s daughter
in post Civil War Pennsylvania
is irresistibly drawn to the union organizer
working to destroy her father’s company
One look into the fires of Sean Jameson’s rebel eyes and Elizabeth Langdon knew she would forsake everything for the shattering pleasures of his forbidden embrace. Sean was bent on the destruction of all her family stood for, but Elizabeth vowed her love would triumph over the society that tore them apart.
Sean tried to keep away from the woman who represented all he could never have–but one illicit moment with Elizabeth, and his hunger for her rivaled his commitment to the rebellion he led. How could he resist the daughter of his sworn enemy, when her heart spoke the language of his soul?
RECENT CONTEMPORARY ROMANCE
RELEASES BY
DOREEN OWENS MALEK
www.doreenowensmalek.com
Brand new, never before published
Contemporary Romance
AMANDA’S BLUE MARINE
Available for digital download
at Amazon.com, and in print at
www.doreenowensmalek.com
Amanda’s Blue Marine marks the return of Doreen Owens Malek to publishing after a 12 year absence. It is with great pleasure that Doreen presents her new, never before published contemporary romance Amanda’s Blue Marine.
When Amanda Redfield, an assistant district attorney from a wealthy and prominent Philadelphia family, is being harassed by a mysterious stalker, she meets Brendan Kelly, the police detective assigned to her case. Smart and capable but deeply troubled, Kelly protects Amanda while he works to find her tormentor, but his disturbing presence and rogue behavior disrupt Amanda’s settled life. She is helplessly drawn to the sexy and charming but barely controlled cop, and as their passion grows she must choose between her prosperous and settled past and an uncertain future with a man whose own life is spiraling out of control. How she draws on her wits and resources to eventually rescue Kelly emotionally in the same way that he rescues her physically makes for a powerful and satisfying love story.
Look for the reissue of the
enormously popular
A MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE (1989)
available for digital download at Amazon.com
Taylor Braddock. His name brought back memories of a man so handsome that a young girl had fallen in love–and made a fool of herself. A man so unique he’d spoiled Sharon Philips for any other love.
But now her father’s will had joined their lives once again. In a final attempt at matchmaking, Dad left half his California horse ranch to Sharon, the other half to Braddock - provided they were husband and wife.
A quick wedding. A quick divorce. A quick sale of the ranch. It seemed simple. But time had only fueled their passion. Could Taylor erase ten years of pain and show Sharon that loving him was her destiny?
MARRIAGE IN NAME ONLY
Best seller from 1995
Years ago Ann Talbot had been forced to leave Heath Bodine without a goodbye. Now she was back, and though Heath still had the power to make her insides quiver with longing, he had changed. Yes, he was proposing marriage. But not out of love—out of revenge. And Ann knew she had no choice but to say yes.
Heath intended to make Ann pay for running out on him. But no matter how much he tried to deny it, living under the same roof and sharing the same bed with her was going to prove his undoing. Because he didn’t just want her body, he wanted her heart as well...
NEW DIGITAL RELEASES
JULY 2012
BLACKFOOT AFFAIR
(Contemporary Romance)
Can a tribal activist forget his past with
the last woman on earth that he should love?
Prim and proper lawyer Marisa Hancock was out to win a controversial case that had tempers flaring, but then she ran up against the opposition––in the sexy form of Jackson Bluewolf. With his sensual swagger and fiery ways, Jackson posed a bigger challenge than any courtroom confrontation ever could!
From the minute Marisa took over for the opposing side, Jackson hungered to see her in action––in and out of the courtroom. Though he’d been burned once before by another blonde beauty, he couldn’t help wanting to melt the elegant Miss Hancock’s icy defenses with some maneuvers of his own. But he certainly didn’t expect to ever risk his heart––or to ignite desires impossible to cool.
JUNE 2012
AN INDIAN AFFAIR
(Contemporary Romance)
He chased fugitives for a living,
but she was the biggest bounty of his life
He was a half breed, as hard and proud as his Seminole ancestors, bitter about his elegant Bostonian mother’s abandonment of him, and a bounty hunter, tougher than the criminals he tracked. Andrew Fox was dangerous to the men he hunted for a living and to the women he chased for pleasure. He needed no one–until Lucinda Warren came to town.
Shy, reserved Lucinda was as civilized as Fox was wild. He knew she was wrong for him–and he fought against his passionate need for her. She was the most precious prize he had ever captured, and to keep her he was, finally, willing to pay the highest price of all–his love.
GABRIELLE’S BULLY
(Young Adult Romance)
There’s a new boy in Gaby’s school…
and he will change her life forever
She never would have noticed him, except that he was in her trigonometry class and that he dressed like a throwback to 1962. Soon she began to notice other things...that he was a star athlete, that he wouldn’t allow himself to be pushed around by the class bully, that he liked to read poetry, and most important of all, that she was falling in love with him.
At first this discovery was pure happiness. But all too soon their relationship swept them into deep waters. Now Gaby wasn’t at all sure that she would be able to cope with her newfound tumultuous feelings and continue to see the boy she loved.
SEASON OF MISTS
(Young Adult Paranormal Romance)
First Book in the Collection of
Cupid’s First Strike – Teen Love in the 80’s
When seventeen-year-old Cory met Tom she knew at once that he was everything that she had always wanted; he was gentle, understanding and funny. Every time she saw him, she fell more deeply in love. She wanted to cherish this newfound happiness, but she was tormented by the mystery that surrounded him like the autumn mists. Why did he always insist on meeting her in the same place? Why didn’t he want to meet her friends? Why wouldn’t he ask her out on a real date?
Could she love a boy whose lips told her he loved her but who eyes held secrets he refused to reveal?
MAY 2012
DEVIL’S DECEPTION
(Contemporary Romance)
His presence in her life had been a lie…
how could she now trust his love?
Devil’s Deception has a mafia princess for a heroine and an FBI Bureau Chief for a hero, so the st
ory gives new meaning to the notion of “opposites attract.” Brett Devlin is a fed planted in the home of Angela Patria in the guise of her bodyguard to get the goods on her drug smuggling uncle. When Devlin finds himself instantly attracted to the lonely, withdrawn beauty who is Patria’s innocent niece, his life becomes complicated very quickly. It is Devlin’s job to be with Angela at all times since he is supposed to be protecting her, and this task makes it impossible for him to conceal his growing feelings for the woman he is deceiving on a daily basis. How this dilemma is resolved and the embattled couple wind up together makes for a satisfying read, and watching straight arrow Devlin unbend enough to fall for the gangster’s ward is touching as well as amusing.
DANGER ZONE
(Contemporary Romance)
He was a loner with no loyalties…
until her love transformed his life
Danger Zone has a tough, cavalier loner for a hero in Steve Colter, and the fun in this story is watching Karen Walsh worm her way gradually into his mercenary’s heart and break down his defenses. He tries hard to resist her and maintain his independent existence but the reader can tell from word one that he will eventually surrender. The story takes them around the globe but never far from each other’s thoughts, and when at the conclusion Colter transforms his life to keep Karen with him it is gratifying and fulfilling but not a surprise. The story also features a wise and witty best friend for Karen in Linda Folsom, a savvy Brit with a wicked sense of humor who keeps the saga humming along on the rare occasions when Colter is offstage. All in all it’s a fast moving and absorbing tale.
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