How could that be?
Her hand groped her chest where the blade had cut into her body, but she found nothing. Had it all been a dream?
Slowly she rose from the floor and stepped to her desk chair, flopping down into the cushion. She tapped the mouse of her laptop left on to check the time—one thirty-five p.m. She then checked the date ... impossible! According to this, only minutes had passed, not days or weeks.
She wouldn't believe it, but there on her desk was her lunch, a half eaten ham and cheese sandwich and an almost empty soda can. She touched the can and it was still cold from when she had gotten it out of the soda machine.
Julia closed her eyes and rested her forehead in her hands on the desk. Her head was beginning to pound as she thought on what had just happened. Had she traveled back in time? It seemed impossible, but yet the evidence here in her workroom suggested she never left. The entire experience had seemed so real.
Marcus had seemed real.
He was real.
It was all real.
Wasn't it?
Chapter Nine
Her rational, twenty-first century mind couldn't believe what had happened was real. Julia turned to her heart instead. It was all real. She had traveled back in time to meet her one true love—Marcus. Her heart refused to deny his existence. Marcus had been real, and she loved him. Still. No distance of time could ever make the strength of her love for him fade.
She'd taken time off of work for several weeks after she returned to the present to come to grips with understanding what exactly had happened to her. Time jumping, realistic dreams, or visions of past lives—each seemed a possible explanation. It took her time to accept her experience as magical and unexplained, for her to move on.
But could she move on from losing Marcus? Part of her couldn't. Just thinking of him pained her. She'd reach out in the night for him, but only found the cool softness of the bed sheets. She needed Marcus. She wanted to be close to his memory.
Thus, Julia decided to leave her small apartment in the D.C. suburbs and moved to Italy. She secured a position within the Rome Museum at the Borghese Gallery. She'd begun courses in modern Italian. Her work in translating ancient Latin made learning the modern language extremely easy.
Settled in her new Rome apartment and her job at the museum, Julia was happier than ever before. Only at night when the streets were quiet and she was alone in bed did sadness creep into her heart.
In the middle of March, Julia decided to tour the remains of Circus Maximus. Located in the valley between Palatine and Aventine hills, very little remained of the massive structure she'd known from her experience. Regardless, being there would bring her closer to Marcus.
She stood peering out onto the field where the history was clearly marked into the ground. Ruts carved into the ground about the field were the reminders of a time when Gladiators and chariots were cheered on by 350,000 Romans in the stands. Several fires had damaged it and reconstructions since the time of Julius Caesar could not save the mighty Circus.
She walked out onto the grassy area where the spina had once stood, and she sighed. Would she remain heart broken for the rest of her life, pining for a man who had lived over two thousand years ago?
A tear trailed down Julia's cheek when she had an odd sensation come over her. She turned and off in the distance down the field, a man was walking toward her. Dressed in stone washed jeans and a crisp white oxford shirt, he looked like just another tourist. Her eyes could not leave the man as he drew closer.
Then recognition hit her with an intense emotional burst.
Marcus.
Frozen to the spot, she waited in shock as he stopped about fifteen feet from her. He smiled and she cupped her cheeks within her hands. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she shook her head in disbelief.
"I knew I'd find you here. Something pulled at me to come,” he said.
"Marcus?” she whispered.
He nodded. “Hard to believe, isn't it?"
"But ... how?"
"There is a little I remember of that day three months ago. I remember you at my side, crying, begging me not to leave you. I didn't want to die. I wanted to live. Then something happened. The next thing I knew, I woke up behind the wheel of a car. The car had crashed and I was hurt badly."
She took a step closer to him.
"Remember you said you stepped into the body of Julia, Caesar's niece?” At her slight nod, he continued. “I think I did the same thing."
Every doubt of her experience flooded through her mind to be dismissed. It was true. She had ‘lived’ in the past, even if it was for a brief while.
He held out his hand to her. “Do you think you can love me, Marcus DiCicco, as you loved Marcus Atronius Magunnus once?"
"Only if you can love me as Julia Williamson, and not Lady Julia, Caesar's niece.” She gingerly placed a hand into his and he pulled her to him.
He cupped her face in his hands and brushed away her tears with his thumbs. “I'm not sure I can love Julia Williamson.” At her cock of a brow, he added, “But I think I can love Julia DiCicco."
She laughed and melted into his gentle caress of her face. She closed her eyes and breathed in his scent of sandalwood and pure, intoxicating male—a scent uniquely Marcus. “Please, kiss me,” she pleaded softly.
Without a word, he leaned down to her face and kissed her lips. The light touch of his lips across hers was just as she remembered—just as she had dreamed night after night since her return to the present.
He couldn't taste her deeply enough, and when his gentle brushes turn into devouring kisses of passion, Marcus felt his world tip once again. No longer a stranger in a strange time, a misplaced man in the body of another, yet very much his, Marcus let all reasoning and conscious rational dissolve beneath the kiss of his beloved Julia.
Through weeks in the hospital and then physical rehab, Marcus had worked to recover for this very moment. He was driven to see her again. He'd come to realize his fate paralleled Julia coming back for him, and he was sure he would meet her again. He had flashed forward in time to be with her ... to hold her and love her.
She pushed lightly against his chest and he broke their kiss. His breath was short, but he felt invigorated and surprisingly alive for the first time in months.
"So much has happened, so much we can't easily explain. But I think we should talk about this and where we plan on going from here,” she said.
"How about I take you to lunch and we can talk over some wine and food?"
"That sounds perfect."
In thirty minutes they were sitting at an open air Rome café. After Marcus ordered some wine, he reached across the table and clasped her hand. “I still can hardly believe I found you in this time."
"I am believing more and more in magic these days,” she said as the waiter brought their glasses and popped the cork.
"Me, too."
Once the waiter had left, she squeezed his hand. “I moved to Rome to be closer to you. I gave up my life in the States just to follow a memory I was unsure was real. I swore what I had seen and experienced really happened, but I couldn't explain it. I'd thought I would go mad."
"What made you finally decide to come here?"
"When I saw an advertisement for a new research director position through the Rome Museum. I thought it was fate telling me to follow my heart, not my conscious, analytical mind. So, I applied and got the job."
He watched her face light up when she spoke of her work, and he swore to find out more about this woman. He'd fallen in love with her in the past, but did he truly know her in the present?
"What does Marcus DiCicco do for a living when not sweeping women off their feet at historical landmarks?” Her tone was light and friendly, and he smiled, enjoying her easy freedom.
"Turns out ... I ... own a very successful vineyard in Tuscany.” He reached for the bottle of wine at their table and pointed to the label. “This is one of mine."
Vino Bello DiCicco. He w
as the owner of a Tuscan vineyard?
"Funny, I find the entire process of making wine fascinating. I have been studying the varieties and trying new combinations to try and improve the taste and quality. Granted, I've only been working at the vineyard for a few weeks, but I seem to instinctively know what I need to do to run the business."
"You don't live here in Rome?"
"I came today on business. It was the first time I've been to Rome ... in this time. Once I got here, it was like an invisible force pushed me to go visit Circus Maximus. I think I stood in awe for an hour just looking at the area that once was filled with cheering Romans.” He paused, then added, “Then I saw you."
She said nothing for a few moments and he sat waiting for her to respond. He covered her hand with his, clasping her hand between his own.
"Is our meeting destiny?"
"It was magic.” He was sure it.
"When we were together in the past, there was so much threatening us. Were we brought together by fear, or do we have a chance to make a future now, here in my time?"
"It's my time, too, now.” He comforted. “I belong here. I belong with you."
"But you know me as a woman of means who lived in fear of her uncle. I don't even have an uncle. All I have is a brother. Theo. He's stationed in Iraq."
"No family ties for me. Seems Marcus DiCicco is alone in the world.” He paused then confessed, “I don't want to be alone. Please say you will marry me."
"I want to. I do. But we hardly know each other. Do we have a chance?"
"I believe we do. I love you.” He stopped and reached over to touch her face. “Do you love me, Julia?"
She turned her face to his touch. Her heart leapt in her chest and a familiar moisture gathered between her legs. Yes, it would work. She'd missed him, needed him in her life. “I love you more than anything."
"Then marry me."
She smiled. Love would be the basis of their marriage. It would be more than most marriages. With an excited flutter of her heart, she nodded and agreed without hesitation, “I will."
* * * *
"I'm still not sure as to what happened. You said you woke up in a car after it crashed. What happened to make you take that body?"
He sat on her couch in her little Rome apartment. It was small yet cozy. Her living room opened to a beautiful scene of a back street where neighbors hung their laundry to dry on old clothes lines and music drifted up from another apartment. “I don't think I stole a body, per se. I think the memory was awakened during the crash."
"As in a past life?"
He nodded. “Exactly."
"It's a lot to take in."
"Probably best if we don't dwell on the whys,” he said as he tightened his hold upon her sitting next to him. Close to him, she felt whole. It was a feeling she'd missed since the day of the chariot race. “I have you here, alone. The evening is warm and romantic, and the music is soft and seductive. Let's not waste another moment of our lives trying to explain away how we came to be here."
She shivered in his arms when he blew lightly across her earlobe. She closed her eyes and sighed, relaxing into his embrace as he lightly kissed her ear and the side of her neck. He cupped her breast and gently squeezed her nipple. It hardened in an instant.
Marcus touched her and her senses went into overdrive. He teased her nipple through the lace of her bra, and her skin burned for more. She turned her head to him, seeking his mouth, needing to taste his kisses. She threaded her fingers through his thick black hair and leaned into his kiss. Her tongue slid along his, urging him to dive into the passion they ignited. She needed to feel him within her, to have him possess her. It had been too long since they last came together in love.
"I need to make love to you, Julia,” he whispered against her lips. “I feel like I am going to burst if I don't."
"Please,” she moaned in response.
He needed no further plea. He whipped off her shirt and played a moment with the lacy edge of her bra before ridding her body of its constraints. As her breasts fell free, he immediately took a pert nipple into his mouth and laved upon its berry-like texture.
She groaned and he looked up to see her lost in the moment—her head thrown back and her eyes closed, her body sunk into sexual abandon.
He suckled her one nipple and then the other, driven to give her pleasure, to hear her noises of ecstasy as she climbed higher to the point of no return.
She slipped her hands under the edge of his shirt and pulled it over his head. He loathed to give up the responsive nipple he sucked upon, but the simple contact of her skin against his was too intoxicating. She was hot, her flesh on fire with need only he could fulfill. He realized this quickly. Julia was not a woman who gave of herself easily. Only love and true devotion appealed to her heart. And those belonged to him. No other woman could ever match her—from the past or present. There was only Julia.
He made short work of her jeans, unzipping the thick fabric and pealing it down her legs. The practical underwear of bright pink cotton was plain, yet incredibly sexy. He'd seen pictures of models in magazines who only hoped to drive a man wild like Julia did now.
He took off her panties and she lay gloriously naked before him. She touched her body with exploring hands. She cupped her own breasts and pinched their tips. He moaned as she excited herself further.
But this couch situation was not going to be very easy to maneuver. Then again, it was a perfect height for him to sample the nectar glistening her sex.
Unable to resist her feminine honey, he positioned her hips closer to the edge of the couch, her legs over his shoulders, and he leaned in and breathed her sweet perfume, uniquely Julia. With a finger, he tested her folds, finding more of her honey slick and abundant. He lowered his mouth to the bud of her clit and lightly ran his tongue across the quivering surface. Julia whimpered loudly as his tongue found her clit again and again. He covered it with his mouth and sucked the little organ to her increasing bellows of delight. He pushed two fingers into her seeping hole and she climaxed violently, clenching down around his fingers. He continued to suck and lick her clit, drawing out her orgasm, wanting to hear the beautiful sound as long as possible.
When her climax began to ebb, he moved away to quickly remove his jeans, releasing his massive erection. She looked up at him and drank in the glorious body before her, muscular and powerful. She felt weak with desire as he climbed onto the couch and between her legs. Gently he pushed her onto her back and slid on top of her. His weight was not only arousing but comforting. He was her Marcus, the man she thought she'd lost ... the man she'd begun to believe had only been a figment of her imagination.
Nudging her legs open wider, he paused before her opening. The engorged head of his cock rubbed against her clit, covering him with her juices. She moaned, thrusting her hips upward, urging him to enter her. He didn't need any further encouragement. In a moment, he knew his control would break.
He entered her in a swift stroke, and she screamed out his name as his cock filled her, stretching the walls of her sex to accommodate his great size. He pulled back then, he thrust back inside. Torture. Pleasurable pain. He wanted to pump into her with wild abandon but didn't want to rush the exquisite feeling of her body encasing his length.
Slowly, he pushed in and out of her, and he held onto his control by a thread.
"I'm going to come, Marcus,” she panted.
"Don't rush it,” he said in a husky voice as he continued the torture of entering then retreating.
"I can't help it. You feel so good. I missed you inside me."
It almost broke him as her inner muscles clenched about his cock.
They bonded with each thrust, each connection. They were destined lovers—brought together despite time and history. Magic had forged the chain that linked their hearts and souls, and now, they would never be separated again.
He pumped into her body, wild in his need, hungering for her surrender, yearning for this completion. He licked th
e sensitive skin of her neck, tasting her light salty sweat as he moved within her as his climax hit. Her muscles squeezed him with each climactic wave.
Ecstasy was written upon every beautiful feature on her face. Her eyes closed and her lips puckered and slightly opened, she was the vision of a woman at the pinnacle of beauty—abandon within the embrace of her lover. She opened those obsidian eyes that had struck him from the beginning, and she pleaded breathlessly, “Oh God, Marcus, come with me."
He kissed her savagely unable to resist the overwhelming passion she evoked in his heart. Nothing could hold back his orgasm and he freed his restraint, spurting his essence deep into her body. He pumped into her, and she screamed against his mouth as her body convulsed about him. Her tongue danced with his as they joined once again.
Time couldn't keep them apart. His heart swelled with love as his body emptied into her. She was not only the woman he thought he could never have, she was the peace he'd dreamed of, wished for, during his time as a slave.
Once his orgasm subsided and his heart beat slowed back to normal, he lay to her side, pulling her into his arms and stroked her hair.
"My sweet Julia, I love you."
"I love you, too."
"Promise me that we will never be apart again."
She moved closer to his body within his embrace, and sighed. “I promise, Marcus. Not even time will come between our love."
The End
* * *
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The Gladiator Page 9
