Secrets of New Pompeii

by Aubrey Ross

  Dario laughed as he closed the lid and sat on one of the trunks. “Food must be better at your ludus than mine.”

  Sparing him only a wan smile, Naloni went on. “If the scenes were as damning as we expected them to be, we would have shown them to Father. If Father refused to act, Stevon was prepared to go public.”

  “You’re serious about this?” Dario abandoned his momentary isolation and sat on the opposite corner of the bed from Max. “You’re really helping the resistance?”

  Naloni sat against the wall, her legs extended between them. “Laetif Xyell recruited Elaina and Elaina recruited me.”

  “Xyell’s sister and his wife are both part of the resistance?” Dario shook his head then released a disbelieving laugh. “That must be one dysfunctional family.” He was quiet for a moment, apparently lost in thought then he asked, “Do you know if Poliantus’ teams were able to record anything useful before we threw a fly in their ointment?”

  “I have no idea.” Naloni didn’t want to like him. He was brash and obnoxious, but she was starting to understand his sarcastic wit and his underlying motivation. “Is your timing always this bad?”

  He grinned. “Would you like to find out?”

  “Not in this lifetime,” Max answered for her.

  Dario resisted surrender a moment longer. “How do I know anything you’ve told me is true? You could both be full of shit. I have no way to verify anything you’ve said.”

  “I might have ulterior motives, but Max has no reason to lie to you.”

  “He could be protecting you.”

  She shook her head and glanced at Max. “I lost the right to his protection a long time ago.”

  “All right, since we’re being all chummy here, tell me how you met.”

  Max passed the canteen to Dario, his gaze carefully shuttered. “Go on, Your Imperial Highness, tell him how we met.”

  Squirming beneath the intensity of their combined stares, Naloni debated what to say. The mystic regression Bertram had guided her through left the events clearly etched in her mind. “I don’t think rehashing all that is beneficial to anyone.”

  “Fine. I’ll start,” Max volunteered. “I’d been on Fedoros less than a year when this incredibly beautiful woman was pushed into my cell. She told me the founders were pleased with me and she was my reward. I was still concerned that she was being coerced in some way, but would you turn down…her?” He swept his arm toward Naloni.

  “Hell no.” Dario looked at her, eyes narrowed with speculation. “Had someone bullied you into sleeping with Max?”

  She covered her face with her hand too humiliated to look at either of them. “No. It was entirely my idea.”

  “So why did you do it?” Max’s question sounded more like an accusation. “Once I found out who you were, I couldn’t begin to understand your motivation.”

  “Are you a gladiator…groupie?” Dario asked. “Is that the right word?”

  “Yes, the word is correct, but no, I’m not a groupie.” If she admitted her mistakes and dealt with her feelings, could she grow stronger from the events? Hadn’t that been what Bertrom promised? She looked at Max again and chose her words carefully, needing to purge her pent-up emotions without risking further pain. For either of them. “What I told you was not that far from the truth. Father was about to sell me to a lecherous old man.”

  Max’s brow shot up. “In other words, he’d arranged a politically beneficial marriage without consulting you?”

  No one could have missed the challenge in his tone. She accepted the criticism and continued. “I was angry and hurt that he hadn’t even attempted to find me a husband who would appeal to me personally as well as benefiting his empire.”

  “So you arranged for Max to ruin you?” Dario easily anticipated where the story led. “Oldest trick in the book. Well, one of them anyway.”

  “I didn’t set out to sabotage the betrothal, at least not consciously. I just wanted the first man I—”

  “You were a virgin?”

  “She’s a princess, asswipe,” Max snapped. “Of course she was a virgin.”

  “I wanted my first experience with sex to be with a man of my choosing. I intended to fulfill my obligations to Fedoros after that. I just needed a few nights for myself.”

  “Why Max? What drew a genteel princess to a vicious gladiator?”

  She shrugged, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around her knees. Just thinking about those long-ago nights awakened her body, creating heat between her thighs and hardening her nipples. “I’m not as genteel as you think.”

  “Is that so?” Dario grabbed her ankle and tugged her leg away from her chest. Spotting her pebble-hard nipple, he grinned. “Have you always liked it rough?”

  “Her sexual preferences are none of your business.” Max smacked his hand away, allowing Naloni to bend her leg.

  Dario ignored him and shifted to his knees. “I watched you watching the tableau. You were flushed and fascinated. Which position made you hottest?”

  The rebel in Naloni surged to the surface, refusing to be cowed by his provocation. He expected her to blush and simper. Well, simpering wasn’t in her nature and she wasn’t ashamed of her desire. “I understood the crowd’s frustration. The players had wonderful bodies, but none of them were very good actors.” The ache between her thighs intensified. She’d been horny ever since she entered the sexually charged atmosphere of the festival, and being this close to Max, knowing he still wanted her, only stoked the fires slowly building inside her. “Once they started actually fucking, I couldn’t look away. I felt bad for them. It was obvious they were in way over their heads, but no one can watch genuine passion without being moved by it.”

  “Sounds like an interesting challenge.” Dario’s brow arched and his eyes gleamed. “Let Max go down on you and let’s see who comes first, you or me.”

  Chapter Five

  Lust rolled through Max with violent intensity. He understood why Dario was provoking Naloni. Dario’s resentment ran deep and he needed an outlet for his anger and frustration. But why was Naloni adding fuel to the fire? Didn’t she realize Dario wasn’t going to back down? The harder she pushed the more aggressive Dario would become.

  Their power struggle cast Max in the role of referee, and he was doing his damndest not to act on his own carnal impulses. “No one is going down on anyone,” he grumbled. It would be so easy to pull her away from the wall and kiss her soft red mouth while he worked her pants down along those endless legs.

  “Fine.” Dario lowered his fists to the bed, bringing himself closer without actually leaving his corner of the mattress. “I’ll lick her pussy and you can watch.”

  Her hazel eyes shot Max a look of unmistakable panic. Possessive hunger launched Max into action. In an instant he was behind Dario, his forearm banding his throat.

  Dario laughed and held up his hands. “It was only a suggestion. I’m not blind. She wants you, not me.”

  “What she wants is to return to her father.” Liquid heat and stark longing waited as he looked into her eyes. “Isn’t that right, Princess? You were finished playing with me a long time ago.”

  “It wasn’t like that, Max. You left me.”

  If she’d flung the words in anger, he could have responded in kind, but her features softened and sadness expanded within her gaze, eclipsing even her desire. He would not comfort her! She had lied to him about everything. Their entire relationship had been based on an illusion. “I left a charming, spirited breeding slave who was determined to live life on her own terms. I don’t know you.”

  “I tried to tell you.” She lowered her face, hiding behind her sleek black hair. He knew the strategy well. She used it whenever her emotions became too strong to conceal.

  Shoving Dario away, he knelt at her side and tucked her hair behind her ear. She wouldn’t look at him but at least he could see her features. “You never told me because there was nothing worth saying. You would never be content in my world, and I’
m not welcome in yours.”

  Miraculously Dario remained silent. He sat back down and watched the exchange with obvious interest.

  “We could have moved to one of the colonies or left the star system,” she whispered. “We could have found a way.”

  “Now you’re being naive. We were allowed those three weeks because your father believed you were relaxing with one of your female friends. If we’d attempted to leave the planet without his permission, he would have hunted us down.”

  “Those three weeks?” Dario echoed. “You smuggled him beyond the barrier?”

  “I wanted him to see that life was more than violence and pain.” She angled her head, freeing her hair.

  “How did you find out who she was?” he asked Max.

  Her head came up. She was obviously interested in his answer. Not interested enough to ask the question herself. No, that wasn’t fair. He’d intentionally given her the wrong impression, had thought it would make their inevitable parting easier on both of them. “We were at a private resort. She made sure we had a suite with no direct communication and no access to the data stream. Unfortunately, the gift shop didn’t get the memo. I walked in to purchase a pair of sunglasses while she was at the pool and they had an imager running in the corner. The feature was on the emperor’s upcoming birthday and one of the graphics showed him with his children.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” She rested her head against the wall and stared up at the ceiling. “I thought your story was crap. You’re not afraid of anything. I couldn’t believe you felt overwhelmed by the realities of Fedoros, but you wouldn’t let up. You would accept no other option.”

  “You spent three weeks on the outside and chose to come back here?” Dario shook his head, eyes wide with disbelief. “Are you insane?”

  Many lonely nights Max had asked himself the same question, but he didn’t want to be a part of the outside world without Naloni and there was no way her family would let him be with her. Rather than respond to Dario, he looked at her and said, “You never tried to see me again.” It was a feeble argument, but it was all he had left.

  “You told me not to. You insisted that any contact with you would only reopen your wounds and cause you more pain.” Tears escaped the corners of her eyes and she furiously batted them away.

  “She loved you too much to hurt you anymore,” Dario murmured. “Even I can see that.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Max insisted. “On either side of the barrier the truth remains the same. She is literally a princess and I’m basically a slave.”

  Dario pushed to his feet with his first warm smile. “Sounds like I need to take a walk. I’ve never seen a couple more in need of makeup sex.”

  Max just shook his head, but Naloni blushed, the splashes of color against her pale skin making her even more beautiful.

  Pausing long enough to drag a flashlight out of one of the trunks, Dario departed through the smaller door on the opposite side of the chamber from where they’d entered.

  “What happens now?” Naloni looked up at him, no longer trying to hide the conflict raging within her. “Will Dario let me go, or am I still your prisoner?”

  “He’s not going to hurt you. I won’t let him.”

  “That’s not what I asked.”

  He sighed. She was using this ill-fated escape to push him away. He wanted to crush her to him and silence her with long, deep kisses. But what would that accomplish? After their passion was sated, nothing would have changed.

  Frustrated as much by his helplessness as her persistence, he pushed to his feet. As long as she remained in reach, there was no hope of conversation. He wanted her too badly. And she wanted him. It was there in her eyes and the trembling of her lips. She’d always been delightfully open, abandoned to their passion.

  He had to stop thinking about the past! A relationship had been impossible then and it was impossible now.

  “I don’t know what he has planned,” Max admitted. “He challenged me to the wrestling match to make sure I’d be there tonight, but the rest just sort of happened. He told me to follow his lead. I had no idea you were his target.”

  “This passage has obviously been here awhile. I’m dying to know more about it.”

  “As am I.” The conversation felt awkward and cumbersome because neither of them wanted to talk. “Why did you never marry?”

  “You sound disappointed.” And she sounded annoyed.

  “Not in the way you mean. I obviously didn’t want you to marry the lecherous old man, but it saddens me to think of you alone for all these years.”

  She stood as well, tossing back her hair as spirit lit her gaze. “Why?”

  “You know why.” He had no intention of falling into her trap. If he touched her or let her touch him, they would both go up in flames. “How did you get out of the betrothal?”

  “Vito tracked me down at the resort three days after you returned to the ludus.”

  “Tracked you down?”

  “I was devastated, Max. I couldn’t think, couldn’t eat. I didn’t check in with security and Vito was worried.”

  Guilt twisted his heart. He hadn’t meant to hurt her. No, that wasn’t true either. At the time he’d been furious and he’d wanted her to understand how deeply lies could cut. Once he calmed down and was ready to talk, he’d had no way to contact her. And she had never returned.

  “So you told Vito about me?” He skimmed the surface of the conflict, unwilling to dive into the murky depths.

  “Not exactly. It was obvious I’d been with a lover and that I’d been dumped.”

  “I didn’t dump you. I just returned to my world and left you in yours.”

  She ignored the justification. “When he couldn’t talk me out of my depression, he became more aggressive with his inquiries. He spotted us on the resort’s surveillance vids. He recognized you immediately and couldn’t decide who he wanted to kill first, you or me.”

  “Then Vito told your father?

  “Of course not.” Each of his conclusions seemed to agitate her more. She slipped her hands into her pockets, which left her breasts temptingly revealed beneath the thin material of her shirt. “Vito managed the ludus. You were his responsibility. If he’d told Father, it would have reflected badly on him. He dragged me back to the palace and told me that I was banned from Gladiator Games. I wasn’t even allowed to attend the grand opening of New Pompeii and that was the social event of the century.”

  “And the betrothal?” He couldn’t help but smile. That was all he’d really wanted to know. Had she endured a scandal to be rid of the lecherous old man?

  “Vito told Father I had an affair with one of his men. He claimed I had sworn him to secrecy and he had no intention of breaking his word. Vows are important to Father, so he never pressured Vito for a name. All Father ever asked me was if I had been pressured in any way. I told him I hadn’t and we never spoke of it again. The betrothal was quietly dissolved and Father never contracted another one.”

  Unable to resist the cosmic pull of the only woman he’d ever loved, Max touched her arm. Her skin was soft and warm, addictive. “I can’t pretend I’m disappointed. It tortured me to think of you as another man’s wife. I have missed you so much.” The admission escaped with his sigh and she took a step toward him.

  “I’ve had seven proposals since you left, but I couldn’t bear to think of myself with anyone but you.”

  Had she sought comfort in another man’s arms? He shouldn’t ask if he couldn’t accept her answer. “Did any of them…” He couldn’t speak the words.

  She smiled, understanding the unspoken question. “You were my first and you’ll be my last. That’s all that matters.”

  “Agreed.” He raised his hand to her neck, tracing her jaw with his thumb. “Dario fried your chip. We can go anywhere we want. Are you really willing to leave your life behind? There is no way I will ever be able to give you the sort of life to which you’re accustomed.”

  “I understand that
.” She licked her lips and lowered her lashes, shadowing her eyes. “I understood that way back then. I would have—”

  He pressed his thumb against her lips, stopping her recrimination. “We cannot waste time on the past. We can’t change the choices we made. We can only learn from them and move on.”

  Her lips parted beneath his thumb and she lightly nipped him. “That’s almost exactly what Bertrom told me yesterday.”

  “Who is Bertrom?” Her tone lacked the sensual purr that accompanied thoughts of a lover.

  “He works at the palace and has some unbelievable abilities.”

  “A colonist?”

  She nodded. “He told me you were about to reenter my life. He didn’t say anything about you being naked or that you’d kidnap me.”

  He smiled and wrapped his arm around her waist. “Technically Dario kidnapped you. I was his accomplice, and I am not the only one who has been naked recently.”

  “Well, if we’re going to blame all this on Dario,” she smiled up at him, “he did leave so we could have makeup sex.”

  Max returned her smile, feeling relaxed and unfettered for the first time in years. He wasn’t sure where life was leading them, but they were finally headed in the right direction. “I hadn’t realized there were different kinds of sex.”

  She laughed, a light, musical sound. “There is slow-and-tender sex, fast-and-furious sex, I’ve-missed-you sex, and I-will-miss-you sex. There is angry sex and makeup sex.”

  He brushed her lips with his and whispered, “I want to try them all.”

  Her lips parted beneath his and excitement spread through his body, stimulating his senses and awakening his soul. Without her, he merely went through the motions of life. He focused on surviving each endless day so he could return to her in his dreams.

  “Is this real?” Her lips moved against his as she spoke, the caress even sweeter than their kiss. “I’ve dreamed of you for so long, I’m afraid I’m about to wake up.”

  “It’s real, love. Somehow we found our way back to each other.”