When beautiful Zephromae watched her brother get taken away as a tribute slave, she knew she must rescue him. Her childhood sweetheart, the noble and courageous Alexander, followed to protect her. But he couldn't save her from a ruthless king, the lust of a savage prince, or the fury of a spiteful queen who had power over them all.
But Zephromae possessed a secret strength that no one could have possibly imagined—and she would not hesitate to use it. Set in Crete in the heart of the Minoan culture, Captive of Desire sweeps the reader into an ancient world of adventure and romance.
When beautiful Zephromae watched her brother get taken away as a tribute slave, she knew she must rescue him. Her childhood sweetheart, the noble and courageous Alexander, followed to protect her. But he couldn't save her from a ruthless king, the lust of a savage prince, or the fury of a spiteful queen who had power over them all.
But Zephromae possessed a secret strength that no one could have possibly imagined—and she would not hesitate to use it. Set in Crete in the heart of the Minoan culture, Captive of Desire sweeps the reader into an ancient world of adventure and romance.
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Overview
When beautiful Zephromae watched her brother get taken away as a tribute slave, she knew she must rescue him. Her childhood sweetheart, the noble and courageous Alexander, followed to protect her. But he couldn't save her from a ruthless king, the lust of a savage prince, or the fury of a spiteful queen who had power over them all.
But Zephromae possessed a secret strength that no one could have possibly imagined—and she would not hesitate to use it. Set in Crete in the heart of the Minoan culture, Captive of Desire sweeps the reader into an ancient world of adventure and romance.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781626813335 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Diversion Publishing |
| Publication date: | 02/06/2019 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 284 |
| File size: | 4 MB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Athens, 1450 B.C.
The sun rose over the Acropolis, tinting the Temple of Athena Polias and the Erechtheum with soft hues of coral and gold. This was a day like any other — except for the bindings about Zephromae's wrists and ankles — except for the black sail gliding ever closer to Athens with its evil golden eye glaring menacingly at the helpless city.
Perspiration ran down Zephromae's brow to sting her topaz eyes. For hours she'd struggled in frustrated rage against the linen strips binding her. She stopped for a moment to catch her breath. The small shed at the back of her house which held her prisoner sweltered with heat. Not a breath of air stirred. Only her youthful strength and nine long years of sorrow and determination gave her the power to keep up her struggle.
Her father had secured the bonds well, after forcing her from her bed in the middle of the night, with her own Alexander as his cunning coconspirator.
She could hear Alexander s voice through the wall now as he tried to reassure her parents. "This plan will work. Would I sink to such depths of deception, tell Zephromae that Serpio was home, and then drag her out in the night to be bound and hidden, if I weren't certain of my scheme's success? I do love your daughter — more than I've ever loved anyone. But she still refuses me. And for what reason? She loves me; I know she does. Even if she hadn't told me so in words, I'd know from the look in her eyes when we're together. But still she won't name a date for our marriage. I know the reason for her constant delays. Each year as the anniversary of Serpio's departure for Crete approaches, she steels herself to her imagined fate. She still dreams of going to find him. But once the ship has come and gone without her, she'll give up her mad scheme."
"Mad scheme," he called it! Was it mad to want her brother back? Alexander had betrayed her. He had promised to go to Crete with her, to help her rescue Serpio. She tore more furiously at her bonds when she heard her father's voice.
"I know you mean well, but what if we're found out by the Cretans?" "We won't be found out," Alexander responded confidently.
"Zephromae is safe. Plans are already underway for our wedding. I'm sure she'll marry me once her chance to go to Crete is past."
Zephromae ceased her struggle for a moment and closed her eyes, imagining her wedding to Alexander. A hot tingling quivered up her legs and crept through her whole body. She thought of herself in Alexander's arms, his firm strength pressing against her own pliant flesh in their urgent need for each other's love. She'd longed to know that feeling.
Alexander's voice snapped her back from the warm glow of her imaginings. His words struck her like a slap across the face.
"Serpio is dead! There can't be any doubt after all these years."
Renewing her assault on her bonds, Zephromae snarled through clenched teeth, "He is not dead! I'm coming, Serpio! I promised, and neither the trickery of our parents nor my love for Alexander will cancel that pledge. Let Alexander default on his promise, but I will not!"
With a final, wrenching effort she used her teeth to tear through the strips about her wrists. Quickly she unbound her ankles. Staring through a chink in the wall, she watched the black cloud with the dreaded golden symbol of Crete's double axe grow ever larger as it skimmed over the calm turquoise of the Aegean. There was still time. King Minos's great ship was just making port. Its colored clouds of perfume drifted over the city to her. The king had promised to remember her and take her on this voyage. She meant to hold him to his word.
Zephromae smoothed her waist-length hair, a richer, bolder bronze now than it had been in her younger years, and looked about. She quickly tore off the black matron's shroud, a device of her mother's in case her daughter were discovered by Minos's men. They had been known to search for hidden virgins in the houses at the base of the Acropolis.
Zephromae stood naked in the center of the bare room. She cast about for something, anything of virginal white, to cover herself. Spying the guazelike netting stretched over a high window, she hurriedly ripped it down and wrapped her body in it. The filmy material covered, without concealing, her proud breasts, slim waist, and well-formed buttocks. The rest of her shapely form remained bare, but there was no help for it. The curtain couldn't be stretched any farther.
A last, hasty glance through the crack in the wall told her she'd have to hurry. The choosing was already in progress. She heard screams from the throng as each virgin or youth felt the touch of the dreaded scepter. She tried not to think of her own mother's anguished cries to come when she saw that her daughter had escaped to present herself to the foreign king.
She would have to put wings to her feet to reach the dock in time. Smashing through the old dry wood of the shed door, Zephromae hurried unnoticed through the deserted streets to the dock where all the citizens of Athens, old and young, stood gathered.
The crash of splintering wood brought Alexander and Zephromae's parents instantly out of the house. Spying her near-naked daughter running toward the quay, Zephromae's mother gave a horrified cry and crumpled to the ground.
Alexander immediately gave chase, his heart pounding in his ears at the thought of what might happen if he didn't catch up with her in time.
Not until she heard Alexander's hoarse cry, "Zephromae! Zephromae, stop! This is madness!" did she realize how close she was to capture.
She forced herself to more speed and called back without turning, "I'm going, Alexander! I have to!"
Still running, but not gaining much on her, Alexander shouted into the wind, "Then you don't love me? You'll never be my wife?"
Zephromae brushed aside the tangle of hair from her face and the tears from her eyes to call back, "I do love you, but I'm going to Crete. Come with me, Alexander, and marry me there — or wait for me here. I'll return with my brother safely beside me."
Many eyes stared at the scantily clad Zephromae, and among them, those of Prince Lepdus, Minos's son. Having come of age, his first royal duty was to conduct the tribute ship to Athens and choose the sacrifices for the bull ring.
Seeing the flaming hair of this exotic beauty as she was chased through the streets, Lepdus recalled his father's parting words to him: "There is one to look for, Lepdus. You see this scar on my arm? At a tender age she inflicted this wound which I now display like a trophy from battle. You'll know her on sight. Her hair isn't dark like most of the Greeks'. It glows like the fire of Vulcan's forge. Take care with her. She has a temper! But I want that one — above all others — and not for the bull ring. Rank has its privileges, and I plan to exercise mine as king by taking this girl. What a prize! Don't return without her, or you will have failed in your first duty to me."
Lepdus's black eyes sparkled with lust as he stared at this most beautiful and sensuous of all the virgins he'd seen. Yes, he would choose her as part of the tribute. But, as his father had said, she would never see the inside of the bull ring — or his father's bed, if he had his way. Possession and his own rank counted too. His Chamber of Lilies would be her prison and his delight. If he must marry his sister Metra, as tradition dictated for the future ruler of Crete, he would choose this one as a pleasure mate. Yes, he'd make this shining virgin his.
Zephromae stopped abruptly in front of Prince Lepdus and stared with confusion and defiance into his unfamiliar face. She recognized the resemblance — the high cheekbones and finely flared nostrils — but his smooth bronzed features showed none of the wise lines etched by age which King Minos wore so well. And the eyes. These eyes shone like cold, polished lava stones rather than the warm darkness she remembered in the king's.
Disappointed fury moved her to demand, "Where is King Minos? He promised to take me to Crete on this ship. Am I to be denied my wish and my fate after waiting so long?"
It both amused and pleased Lepdus that she continued to stare directly into his eyes, unlike the other meek and weeping virgins he'd chosen. This one would be a charming challenge.
He bowed slightly and let his gaze travel over her swelling breasts, heaving now with the exertion of her run, the soft glow of her sweat-dampened limbs, and the passionate blaze in her eyes.
"Allow me to introduce myself," he said. "I am Prince Lepdus, of Crete, son of Minos, sent on the king's mission of tribute by royal command. And you are?"
Relief flooding through her, she answered, "My name is Zephromae. Your father took my brother, Serpio, away from Athens nine years ago. What news do you bring of him? Is he alive and well?"
The smile uncurled from his lips, and Lepdus raised a jeweled hand for her silence. It was forbidden in Crete to speak openly of past bull-leapers. Zephromae's words would bring ill fortune.
"I don't know anything about your brother. But my father has told me about you. He ordered me to bring you to him." Lepdus reached out to caress her soft shoulder, then whispered, "And now I see why. Zephromae. A name as enchanting as its owner."
Zephromae closed her eyes and inclined her head slightly toward the prince to receive the touch of his official acceptance.
He laughed softly at her willingness. Then the perverse side of his nature formed a scheme in his mind. Raising her head with one finger, he sighed. "What a shame! Especially when the king wanted you so. But I already have my quota of virgins."
Zephromae opened her mouth to protest, only to have it covered immediately by the prince's lips. He held her fast and kissed her deeply. She felt her body shaking.
He released her abruptly and smiled. "Yes, you'll do nicely. Perhaps we can work out a bargain to exchange you for one of the other virgins." He turned to the crowd and called out, "Who'll pay me in gold to ransom his daughter?"
Alexander, almost close enough to touch Zephromae, found himself mobbed and shoved back away as the tribute virgins' fathers pressed in offering all they owned in the world to buy back their daughters.
"Zephromae!" he screamed to her. But his cry was lost in the mad scene surrounding her and the prince.
When the highest bid had been determined and counted out, Zephromae watched the joyful reunion between a delicate girl of twelve and her happy but now impoverished family.
Prince Lepdus smiled into Zephromae's eyes and raised his scepter to make his choice of her official. But before he could touch her, a scream of rage filled the air. Zephromae felt herself whirled away from the prince, the gauze tom from her body.
Alexander caught her up in his powerful arms and forced his way through the crowd. For an instant, she glimpsed the shock of disbelief on Prince Lepdus's face, then a blur of color and sound swirled around her. Zephromae's only impression now came from the impassioned blaze of Alexander's gray eyes.
His voice rasped as he flung himself away from the dock, pushing people out of his way, "I can't let you go! We'll hide in the mountains until it's safe. You're too precious to me, Zephromae. You have to forget all about Serpio. No one survives the bull ring."
Zephromae tried desperately to struggle out of his arms. "No, Alexander!" she persisted. "We have to believe that Serpio's still alive — that we can save him. You have no right to take me away like this."
"I have every right! I love you, Zephromae. If it weren't for your good name, I'd take you here and now, in front of the whole city. King Minos would never accept an impure tribute. But I can't do that to you — not even to save you. Escape is the only answer, and then marriage. I've waited so long to make you mine."
She thrashed about, still trying to free herself from her lover's hold. People in the crowd cried curses on the gods that such a disgraceful scene should add horror to this already most horrible of days.
Zephromae's emotions began to do battle within her. She ceased her fighting and leaned her head against Alexander's shoulder, breathing in the male musk of his heated body. She half hoped he would make the escape good. She did love him — she'd always loved him — even when he'd treated her like a child, a pest to be teased and taunted as no more than his best friend's little sister. But since the loss of Serpio, Alexander had become much more to her than a childhood adversary and substitute brother. Their love had blossomed into a mature, lasting relationship. Only her own stubbornness had kept them apart.
Perhaps Alexander's thinking was clearer than hers. Serpio would want them to be together. He had loved them both.
She relaxed in his arms and nestled her lips against his neck. He knew best. She should have realized her folly sooner.
"Yes, darling," she whispered. "Take me far away. I want to be your wife. More than anything I want you to love me."
Her words of encouragement sped Alexander's flight until suddenly, out of nowhere, Prince Lepdus appeared before them. With a silent motion of his braceleted arm, he ordered one of his bull-guards to stop the fleeing couple.
One swift, sharp blow from the staff of the guard's double axe ended Alexander's escape, rendering him senseless. Zephromae tumbled from her lover's arms to lie stunned and bruised in the dust of the road.
When her vision cleared, Alexander was gone. Only his blood on her naked breasts remained to suggest what had happened.
She hadn't heard Prince Lepdus growl to the guard, motioning toward the unconscious Alexander, "Take care of this one!"
Prince Lepdus removed his flowing robe of peacock feathers stitched with pearls and placed it around Zephromae's shoulders. He helped her up and whispered, "I want to hide your beauty for myself alone." He adjusted the cloak, letting his fingers play over her breasts for a moment before he turned to another guard and ordered, "Take this virgin to my private quarters. I'll see to her well-being personally."
Even in her dazed state, Zephromae noticed the prince's emphasis on her innocent state. What had she let herself in for?
The rough-handed guard seized her arms, and again she heard the prince's gruff orders. "Gently with that one! I don't want her damaged further."
A wave of dizziness swept over Zephromae. She looked down at Alexander's drying blood. Where was he? Had he fled to escape the guards? More likely he was hiding somewhere — waiting his chance to board the ship and rescue her. The thought offered her some measure of comfort.
She heard her mother cry out from somewhere among the sea of faces watching the parade of virgins board the ill-fated ship. All about her Zephromae heard the pitiful sobs of her six sisters of destiny. But she had no tears. This was the ship she had longed to board — her dream of so many years. But still she remembered Alexander's touch and heard his loving words ringing in her ears.
Suddenly an ominous thought crowded out all others. Could Alexander be dead? She remembered the guard, but after that she'd fallen. If the blow had been fatal, Alexander might be providing food for the squids and fishes in the bay at this very moment. She closed her eyes tightly to force out the terrible vision.
How could she, even at her most impetuous, have done this to the man she loved? She entered Prince Lepdus's opulent quarters in a dark, angry mood.
When Zephromae heard the door closed and bolted behind her, she felt another door lock in her brain — the entrance back to her old life and everyone she had ever known or loved. All hope of ever seeing Alexander again vanished with the click of the lock.
Zephromae strode to and fro, unable to still her heart's frantic beat or her body's motion. She took no notice of the couch of gold covered in scarlet silk or the carved ebony chairs inlaid with ivory. Her bare feet paced the floor without her realizing when they touched the cool mosaic or left it to sink into the plush fur rugs.
When Lepdus entered, she was standing in front of a long Egyptian glass, not knowing that her image stood before her. But at his look to her and then the twin Zephromae in the tall mirror, she recovered enough to pull the peacock robe more closely around her shoulders.
He advanced on her and tore the iridescent garment from her shoulders. She tried to pull away. He laughed, and held her so that she had to stare at her own reflection while his hands explored her.
"Your beauty shouldn't be hidden, Zephromae, Not from me, at any rate," he whispered. "Let me look at you."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Captive of Desire"
by .
Copyright © 1981 Becky Lee Weyrich.
Excerpted by permission of Diversion Publishing Corp..
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