Free Secrets of New Pompeii by Aubrey Ross

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,