Out of the Ashes (32 page)

He paused and took a deep breath.

“But I wouldn’t, even for one minute, wish that I had never met you, and that I wasn’t here with you right now.” Leaning down, he softly kissed her lips. “Don’t you know, for the first time in my life, I’ve found something—someone—worth dying for.”

“No, David. Don’t say that.”

“Why not? It’s the truth. If my life were to end right here, right now, I’d die happy because I got to hold you in my arms in these last moments.”

A tiny tear slipped down her cheek, and he caught it on his fingertips.

“I love you, Sera. I pray to God that He doesn’t take you from me just when I’ve found you.”

She cupped his cheek. Never before had she seen such love in anyone’s eyes. Love for her. It was as though he’d been a part of her for a lifetime, maybe more. She couldn’t imagine living without him.

“Then let’s make this moment last forever.”

She watched his eyes darken as she pulled his face down for a kiss. His lips touched hers gently, the tip of his tongue teasing the sensitive skin like the brush of a feather. She shivered in his arms, wanting to crawl up his body to get closer until she became so much a part of him that they could never be separate again. She opened her mouth to him, allowing him entry. He deepened the kiss, pulling her tighter against him until she thought she couldn’t breathe unless he did it for her.

David shifted and slowly pressed her down onto the canvas, covering her body with his. He slipped his knee in between her thighs and she cradled him, squeezing his hips to hold him to her.

He let out a yelp and rolled away, his face contorting in pain as he clutched at his leg.

“Oh, David. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” Sera sat up, wanting to put her hands on him, but afraid she’d hurt him more. “Maybe we shouldn’t—”

“No!” he barked, startling her with his vehemence. Then his features softened. “If you stop now, it will kill me for sure.”

“But I don’t want to hurt you.”

“If you do, it’ll be worth it, I’m sure.”

Sera looked at his bandaged leg, held stiffly out in front of him.

“But how?”

David smiled. “I think we can find a way to work around it.”

He pulled her face down to his, silencing any more protests with his kiss.

She melted into him. How could she ever refuse this man? How could she ever deny her heart? Deep inside, she knew this moment was meant to be, even as the war raged all around them.

Pushing herself up off his chest, Sera eased her leg over his body so that she straddled his hips, careful not to touch his leg. He looked up at her with so much love in his eyes she thought she might explode from the force of it.

His hands skimmed up her thighs, pushing the loose bottom of her panties up to bunch at her hips. Sera clasped his hands, stopping him before he could expose her completely. Instead, she brought his hands up to cup her breasts. David kneaded them gently, guided by the squeeze of her hands on his. Finally, she released his hands to let them do their magic on her body.

Every touch made her body sing, every stroke made her senses soar. Her hands traced down his strong forearms, feeling the muscles beneath his warm skin bunch and tense. She threw her head back, acutely aware of the soft feel of her hair on the skin of her back.

She felt him slide the straps of her bra off her shoulders. The thin barrier disappeared and the heat of David’s hands seared her sensitive skin. She looked down at him, his eyes intense on her face in the brief flashes of light from the exploding shells.

A bomb exploded close by, sending several stones from the wall across from them toppling to the ground. David pulled her down on top of himself, protecting her head and back with his hands as best he could. As the shower of dust settled, Sera pulled back and looked deep into his eyes. She trembled with fear and with love for this man.

He pulled her down again, kissing her lips with the joy of life. They might not make it through the night, but at least they were alive for now.

With gentle pressure, he urged her to move up his body, kissing her neck, her collarbone, until his questing lips found her breast. White, hot fire shot through her body as he pulled her nipple into the moist heat of his mouth. She bucked and arched against him. Running her fingers through the dark waves of his hair, she pressed him to her, begging without words that he take more of her. David caught the rigid tip of her nipple in between his teeth and gently tugged. She jerked from the pleasure-pain of it. Then he soothed her with his tongue.

“Oh, David.”

When she thought she could stand no more, he moved to the other breast and continued his slow torture there. She arched and started grinding her hips against his in an effort to alleviate the throbbing ache there, but it only served to stoke the fires to blazing.

“Oh, God.”

David groaned, too. He stopped his relentless assault on her body and pushed her up until she once again straddled his thighs.

What was he doing? Why was he stopping?

He took her hands and guided them to the waistband of his trousers, then let go. He didn’t have to speak the words. His eyes asked the question for him. He was letting her decide, letting her determine if they would go any further.

In answer, Sera’s trembling fingers unfastened the first button, then the next, until all were undone. That task completed, she looked to David, not sure what to do next. He arched his back off the ground using his uninjured leg and pushed his trousers down his lean hips. Sera followed his lead, helping him ease his torn pants over the bandage.

In the darkness, she could just barely make him out, naked except for the bandages. Crawling up to kneel beside him, she took in his reclining form with hungry eyes. Undoing the clasp of her bra, she slid it off her arms. She shimmied out of her panties, until she was as naked as he was. With an animalistic growl, David pulled her down across his chest, crushing her to him. He took her lips in a kiss meant to brand her, claim her as his, for now and always.

And she was his. Body and soul.

His hands roamed down her back, burning a trail of fire on her skin. David positioned her legs so that she once again straddled his waist. She could feel the long, hard ridge of him pressed against her stomach. With one shift of his hips, he was poised at the entrance of her, waiting like an eager traveler to be allowed inside.

Grasping her hips, he eased himself slowly into her. She felt herself stretch to accommodate the intrusion, a hot burn traveling up inside her body. She hissed, closing her eyes to the unfamiliar feeling.

“Sera?” David stopped, holding her hips in his hands, half in and half outside of her. She saw the shock on his face, the sudden realization of the resistance met inside her.

“For heaven’s sake, don’t stop now!”

Gripping her hips tighter, he pulled her down in one swift motion, filling her completely. Their mingled moans filled the air, his of pleasure, hers of pain.

Ever so slowly, David guided her hips up and down. The motion burned at first, but then her tense muscles eased, and her body flowed to accept him.

He urged her to go faster, and soon she was riding him of her own volition, trying to ease the rising ache within her. No longer able to support herself with her hands on his chest, she leaned forward and placed one hand against the wall behind his head, the stones rough under her palm. At that angle, his mouth easily found her breast, sending bolts of electricity from her nipple to between her legs and back again.

“Oh, God. David!”

His hands gripped her buttocks, pushing her down, driving himself deeper with each thrust. She could feel the pressure building inside her, like a volcano about to erupt.

He must have felt it, too. He released his hold on her hips and cupped her face in his hands.

“Look at me, Sera.”

And when she did, the world exploded around her.

Through the pounding of her heart, she could feel him pulsing inside her, filling her with an essence more powerful than life itself. As the last shudders rippled through her body, she collapsed against his.

David wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” She was so shaky, she could barely utter the words.

He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, across her back, slick with sweat and the heat of the night. She felt sated and exhausted at the same time.

“Are you
sore
?”

She smiled against his damp skin. “A little.”

There was a pause, then David finally spoke. “Sera, didn’t you and Giovanni ever…? I mean, weren’t you two…?”

She didn’t answer for the longest time.

“No,” she finally sighed, blowing her soft breath across his bare chest. “I didn’t want to repeat my mother’s mistake. I wanted to make sure when it happened, it was with the man I loved.”

“But you loved him, didn’t you?”

She felt him hold his breath, waiting to hear her answer.

“I’ll admit I was attracted to him. Maybe I even thought I loved him, but something always held me back. Something always stopped me.”

“What?”

The question hung in the air between them.

“I’ve asked myself that same question many times.” Finally, her eyes rose to meet his. “Now, for the first time, I know the answer.”

She placed her hand over his heart, the beat within his chest echoing her own.

“I was waiting for you.”

With the dawn came a calmness of spirit, both inside and out.

Outside, the bombing had stopped hours before, while inside the heat of passion had ebbed into a serenity of what was to come.

David watched Sera sleep. She seemed so peaceful that he hated to wake her. He didn’t want to see her sorrow at what the Allies had wrought on everything she loved. Unfortunately, he knew reality would intrude on their hiding place sooner or later.

He bent down and gently kissed her soft lips.

“It’s morning.”

Sera blinked groggily as she came awake.

“It is?”

He watched her glance up at the sky, the dawn clouds above them just beginning to lighten with the first rays of the rising sun.

She smiled. “We made it through the night.”

“It appears so.”

“It’s over, then?”

“The air raid? Yes, it’s been over for hours.” David looked at her. She seemed so small and vulnerable, wrapped up in the canvas tarp by his side. “But it’s only just started for us.”

Sera shook her head.

“David, I’m a big girl. You don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do.” He stopped her with a bone-melting kiss. He pulled away before things got out of hand—again—and rested his hand on her belly. “I, for one, do not intend to leave any souvenirs behind.”

The idea moved him in a way he never thought possible. He watched tears well in her eyes, and he could tell the tender gesture touched her, too.

She covered his hand with her own, cradling her womb where even now a new life might have already started to grow.

“You don’t have to make any promises.”

“Yes, I do.” He stopped her from saying more. Now that he’d started down this path, he was determined that there would be no room for doubt for either of them. “Now that I’ve found you, I don’t ever intend to let you go.”

“But there are so many things in the way. You’re from America, I live in Italy. The war…”

“It doesn’t matter. None of it matters. We’ll find a way. I love you, Sera. I’m not going to ever risk losing you again.”

Sera reached up and touched his face.

“I love you, David.” She drew in a deep breath, as if drawing on some inner courage. “From the moment we first met, I felt like I’d known you my entire life. That, somehow, you’ve always been a part of me.”

In saying those words, she gave David her heart. He cupped her face in his hands, realizing what a precious gift she had given him. He bent down and kissed her with all the love he had in him.

He sighed heavily when he finally broke the kiss.

“As much as I’d like to stay here and make love to you all day long, we should probably get going.”

Sera tossed back the canvas tarp that had shielded them throughout the night and stood. With her back to him, David admired her shapely form, naked in the dawn. She looked so beautiful to him in that moment. All too soon, she covered herself with her bra and panties, the white cotton now smudged with dirt and stained with his blood.

She found his pants and helped him pull them on over his bandaged thigh. Their shoes followed, and soon they were both as dressed as they could be.

Sera plucked at the loose leg of her dirty panties.

“I can just imagine the tongues wagging when they see me walking through town dressed like this.”

“I’m not looking much better.”

“Yes, but at least you being shirtless is socially acceptable. Me in my underwear is a totally different matter.”

She was right. One look at her half-naked appearance, and the busybodies in town would assume the worse. Like mother, like daughter. It wouldn’t matter if he married her or not. Sera’s reputation would be ruined.

David scooted himself to a sitting position against the wall.

“Hand me my knife.”

Sera picked the weapon up off the ground and handed it to him without comment. It was only after he pulled the canvas onto his lap and started cutting at the material that she questioned him.

“What are you doing?”

“Making you a dress.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” When he finished slicing a long strip several yards long, he cut one of the remaining ropes off the corner. He tucked his knife back in its sheath and held out his hand to her. “Now, if you don’t mind helping me up?”

She took his hand and pulled him to his feet. David wobbled a bit until he found his balance.

Taking the piece of canvas he’d cut, he draped it over her left shoulder, overlapping the sides at her waist.

“If you will hold the sides together, madam?”

He felt a small tremor race through Sera’s body as he reached around her to tie the rope around her waist. He wasn’t immune to her, either. As he drew back, he couldn’t resist stealing a small kiss. But once their lips touched, it was as if they hadn’t made love all night long. He couldn’t believe he could want her again so soon, but he did.

With a groan, he pulled back and took in the makeshift dress. For the moment, he just watched her standing there. Then the sun broke over the wall and a brilliant ray of light temporarily blinded him.

Blinking through the glare, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Instead of the coarse rope around her waist, she wore an ornate belt of small golden links. Instead of brown hair falling in tangled waves about her shoulders, the locks were pulled up and styled in soft curls around her beautiful face. And instead of a filthy piece of bleached canvas, a white Roman gown draped her slim figure.

He closed his eyes, trying to make sense of what he saw.

“David? Is something wrong?”

When he opened his eyes, she was back, just as she should be, his Sera.

“No, it’s just that…” She wouldn’t believe him if he told her. “You look like you were born to wear a toga.”

She ran her hand down the canvas, smoothing out the folds as if it were a gown made of the finest silk.

“It’s not half bad, but I don’t think I’ll be able to work in the ruins in something like this.”

She turned then and looked out the doorway.

“Speaking of the ruins, I guess it’s time to leave.”

* * *

Sera was almost afraid to walk through the opening.

It was too silent outside.

Letting David lean on her, they stepped out into a very different Pompeii. The once cleared street was now a minefield of rubble, scattered with stones shaken loose from fragile walls by the vibrations of the bombs. Bits and pieces of wood, plastic, and even some metal littered the ground, tossed over the wall from the German camp by the force of the blasts. She didn’t want to examine the debris too closely, afraid of what she might find. No doubt, many of the German soldiers had not survived the night, and she didn’t want to see evidence of what was left of them under her feet.

Finally, she dared to look at the excavation site, and her heart nearly broke at what she saw.

The tent over the body cavity was ripped to shreds. A large, gaping hole was torn in the middle of the fabric, the edges of white canvas still attached to the supports waving in the breeze like tiny flags of surrender. A beam of sunlight pierced through the opening, casting a glow over the mound like a spotlight on the stage.

Gone was the rounded, earthen dome dotted with white spots of dried plaster. Instead, jagged lines and fissures fractured the hard volcanic crust, revealing glimpses of its white interior.

“Oh, no.” It looked worse than she could have imagined.

She had taken only one step toward it before David stopped her with a hand around her upper arm. It wasn’t a forceful restraint, but more like a caress, like the touch of a bracelet on the skin.

“Sera, wait.”

The concern in his eyes warmed her heart. His hand on her arm felt comforting, natural. Was he trying to stop her? To prevent her from seeing what the Allies had done to the plaster cast? What did it matter? She would have to see it sooner or later.

He seemed to read her thoughts and released her.

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

She smiled, but it felt pained.

“Better to do it now, while we’re alone, than reveal our greatest discovery destroyed in front of the others.”

She turned and took first one, then another step toward the mound, afraid of what she might find when she drew near. She stopped and looked back to him once more, reaching out her hand to him.

“Come with me.”

He hobbled up to her, and together they approached the mound.

“Is it ruined?”

At first glance, it looked as though it was. Then Sera knelt to examine it closer. She pried one of the chunks off in her hand and lifted it carefully from the mound. Beneath, the stark white of the plaster cast glared up at her. She reached out and removed another, then another.

Unlike the plaster cast of the child, where they’d had to painstakingly chip the volcanic matter away, the pieces of the mound peeled away easily, like the cracked shell of a hard-boiled egg. With each chunk that fell away, more of the cast was slowly revealed.

Her heart began to pound. The cast underneath seemed to be untouched, perfectly preserved.

“I think it’s okay.”

David struggled to lower himself down beside her.

Her hands shook with each piece of hard
ash
she removed. What should have taken them hours seemed to take only minutes as the hard shell fell away to reveal the white plaster cast beneath.

“I think I found a leg over here,” David said.

“I’ve got a head.”

“Here’s a hand. It looks like he’s holding onto something.”

“No.” Sera sat back as the mid-section was revealed. Her stomach tightened in knots as the reality of what lay beneath set in. “He’s holding onto
someone
. It looks like there are two of them in here.”

Surprised, David glanced from the cast, to Sera and back again.

“Are you sure?”

“Look,” she pointed to a raised area. “There’s the form of an arm here. And here,” she indicated a hump on the smaller figure, just below the other’s arm. “It looks like the curve of a hip.”

“So what do you think?”

Sera swallowed, her mouth suddenly gone dry.

“I can’t be sure until we uncover more of it.”

Her fingers itched to pull another chunk from the pile, but then she looked at David, sitting on the ground with his injured leg stretched out beside him, and guilt tugged at her conscience.

“But we should get you to a hospital first.”

“Are you kidding? And leave this half-finished?” He shook his head and smiled at her. “I made it through the night. I think I can handle a few more minutes here. I’m not about to let you do this without me.”

Sera grinned. He was going to make a fine archeologist yet.

She retrieved some of the tools to carefully chip away at the more stubborn pieces of the volcanic casing. The minutes turned into hours as the sun slowly rose up over the walls of the ruins. By the time they were done, the glowing orb sat high in the sky.

David used one of the tent poles to pull himself to his feet. Although she was sweaty and dirty, a shiver raced through Sera as she removed the last of the hardened ash from around the heads of the victims. Below were two faces, looking so peaceful and calm, like two lovers asleep in each other’s arms.

Excitement and sorrow blended together, threatening to overwhelm her.

“Can you tell what… who they were?”

Sera shook herself, trying to bring herself back to the detached archeologist she needed to be. She examined the figures more closely.

“This one over here,” she pointed to the larger one on its side, “is definitely a man.” She cocked her head, noticing the impression of a wide belt at his waist. “By the looks of him, he was a slave.”

“How can you tell?”

“See the wide belt he was wearing? It’s likely a slave belt. And the impression of the weave of his garment is very course, low quality.”

“And the other one? It looks smaller. Is it a woman?”

Sera looked at the other figure, partially covered by the man’s body.

“It is.” Then she looked closer. “This is interesting.”

“What?”

“Well, like I said, he’s obviously a slave, but she appears to be from the upper classes. The style of her garment is much finer than his, and instead of a slave belt, it looks like she was wearing one of metal or maybe even gold links. It’s odd to find them together like this.”

She looked up and noticed his face had gone rather pale.

“David, what’s wrong? Is your leg hurting you?”

“What? No. What else can you tell about them?”

Sera nodded, wondering why what she’d said seemed to bother him so much.

She stood and walked around the figures until she stood beside him, and he wrapped his arms around her, much like the man held the woman before them. In that instant, a wave of energy coursed through her, beginning in her toes and traveling up through her body to tingle along her scalp. It was as if a connection from the past reached out from the plaster cast and suddenly linked her to the tragedy of centuries ago, now lying revealed before her eyes.