Desire Has No Mercy

"Will you really enjoy being married to a woman who hates you?" she asked Rome.
"It could prove to be a fascinating experience," he returned. "It will provide me with the task of taming you, won't it?" He drew his fingers down the smoothness of her hair.
Julia jerked away. "Had my grandmother been still alive, she'd have had you bullwhipped."
"You mean you'd have told her?" He raised an eyebrow. "Somehow I don't think you'd have told a soul about that night. What did you do when you realized you had a memento from the bad-mannered Italian boy?"
"I cursed the very thought of you," she said. She tried to remember the boy he had been, but the memory was lost in the man he had become.