The Champion's Prize

Book excerpt: You win, you live. Lose … you die. Wine, women and winning: the three things that all gladiators want. Cassian, recovering from the illness that nearly killed him, wants them more than most. A champion gladiator, a man of unbridled passion but never love. He has sworn that he will never let another woman into his heart. His title and keeping it are all that matter to him. Until her. Violetta, innocent and devout, her only desire is to survive serving the monster who bought her as a slave at thirteen. Years later her dreams of serving the temple are destroyed when she is given as a gift, not to the gods of Olympus as expected, but one that rules the arena sands, and her heart. Owned by different men Cassian and Violetta fight and pray for each chance to lay eyes upon each other, to reach out and touch one another. A bargain between the lanista that trains him and the silk merchant that owns her means that Cassian’s victories will bring Violetta to his bed. With his woman as the prize Cassian will fight any enemy, even his own pride, to have her in his arms. The only question is; with stakes this high what is the cost of a loss?