Barbarian's Soul Read Online Free Page A

those glittering-jewel eyes.
    The man still did not move, and neither did Adria. He did not change his stony expression but watched her with an unearthly calm. He meant to intimidate, which Adria refused to allow. She raised her chin and returned his scrutiny, fighting down the urge to ask what it was he found so interesting. Even as the thought passed through her mind, he cocked his head and scanned her body from head to foot and back again, lingering a beat too long on her breasts.
    Adria fought the urge to cover herself, trembled with outrage and awareness, warmth spreading through her body with his bold perusal. Reflexively, she pressed one hand against her belly in a vain attempt to ease the knot of heat that had kindled there. He ended his inspection by once again holding her gaze, raising one winged brow, the corner of his mouth lifting just enough to be called a sneer.
    Adria’s gasp was lost in the noise of the market. The arrogant ass!
    “A hex, the heathen put a hex on me,” moaned the patrician woman, accepting a second cup of wine from the shopkeeper, her demeanor less frightened than eager. Adria rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the man, only to see his broad back as he strode down the street.
    Adria cursed as she realized she was craning her neck to see where he’d gone. His path had been swallowed by the crowd who were once again milling about the market. Disconcerted and not liking it one bit, Adria pushed all thoughts of the foreigner from her mind and returned her focus to the fruit stand.
    Nasim, the produce vendor, sent a rotten-toothed smile over his shoulder at his stall guardian, chuckling when the monkey slapped the hand of a man trying to gauge the ripeness of a melon. Adria stifled her own laugh at the look on Nasim’s face when he realized the man was a paying customer. He rushed over and pulled the creature away by its leash, securing it to a hook in the stone wall behind the stall and began offering profuse apologies to the offended man.
    Ah, distraction. A gift to any thief.
    Flipping her plait behind her, she slipped from her observation point and strolled casually toward the opposite side of the wooden booth. Nasim and his monkey were both chattering away at the customer who seemed to enjoy the groveling and was currently considering the merchant’s offer of a free head of cabbage for his trouble. Keeping one eye on the trio, Adria opened the coarse cloth bag slung over her shoulder and began to fill it with fruit.
    The howling squeal nearly deafened her.
    For one long moment, her vision tunneled to wide open mouth and bared fangs. Spraying saliva, face twisted in fury the creature was lunging at her, pulling at the leash which suddenly seemed too flimsy to keep the snarling beast away from her fingers which were frozen, curled around a plump orange. Nasim’s shrill voice pierced through the daze.
    “Thief!”
    Adria’s senses snapped back into place. She snatched one more orange and crammed it into the sack, spared a look at the vendor who was stumbling toward her, eyes bulging and mouth twisted in rage. Put a purple vest on him and he’d look like his monkey.
    “Thief!” he shouted again.
    Between Nasim’s cry’s and the wretched monkey’s infernal squalling, a crowd had thickened around the stand erecting an immovable wall of humanity that blocked her escape.
    This was a problem.
    Adria pushed back against the sagging belly of a large woman, rolled along her girth in an effort to squeeze through the throng. Instead she was shuffled closer to the stand.
    “Street rat! Thief!”
    Nasim’s glare pinned Adria.
    A shiver of fear combined with a rush of nerves urged her to action. Punishment for thieves ran the gamut from prison, to public floggings, enslavement or, Adria swallowed hard, death. In all the years she’d survived on contributions from Rome’s merchants, she’d never been caught and she had no intention of beginning now.
    “Yes, thief,” Adria