ontrol, and the bed into a battlefield with Jake always walking away victorious.
Inwardly Lexi sighed. ‘Lovemaking’—that was a misnomer. Love didn’t enter into their relationship. A wry smile twisted her full lips as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Lust, yes, an indefinable animal attraction; whatever label she put on it didn’t really matter. At least she was mature enough to accept it as just that, without having to label it ‘love’. But sometimes, in the afterglow of passion, when Jake with almost indecent haste distanced himself from her, as though to touch her in anything other than passion disgusted him, she could not help feeling, deep down in the darkest reaches of her mind, his callous rejection, and grieving the loss of the tactile, loving man she had first married.
‘Lexi,’ she heard the roar, and ran the short distance through the hall and out of the front door.
Jake was standing holding open the door of the lethal looking black Bugatti, a frown on his handsome face. Her heart lurched in her breast; he was wearing stylish Armani tailored shorts in a navy linen and a lighter blue polo shirt. The Mediterranean sun had darkened his skin to a deep, polished bronze, and he looked as lethal as the car.
‘At last, woman. Who was it told me we had to visit Pompeii in the morning, before the sun got too hot?’ he queried mockingly, then grinned wickedly.
She knew what the grin was for. ‘And who was it delayed a poor girl in her bed while he had his evil way with her?’ she teased back easily.
A slow, sexy smile lit his blue eyes. ‘Touché. Now get in the car.’
It was like a day out of time. Jake relaxed completely from the cold, guarded man Lexi had become used to the past few days and became a typical tourist for the day. Lexi did not question the change. Her nerves were shot and she was glad of the respite from the constant tension that had fizzed like an unexploded bomb between them; the least spark and they were at each other’s throats. With a sigh of contentment she settled back in the passenger seat of the monster car and, straightening the short skirt of her simple blue sundress over knees, she determined to enjoy herself.
Having parked the car in the area provided, Jake surprised her by taking her hand, and, laughing together at a middle-aged tourist buried under a mountain of cameras, hand in hand they made their way to the entrance of the ancient city. Hundreds of tourists spilled in an ever-increasing horde from the dozens of coaches arriving seemingly every minute, the jostling crowd and the multitude of different languages filling the hot morning air.
A small, thick-set old Neapolitan man grabbed Jake’s arm. ‘Guide, sir? I, Luigi, am the best.’
Jake glanced at the old man. ‘I don’t...’
‘Yes, let’s hire him,’ Lexi urged. ‘It is a huge place and I hate to admit it but, although I’ve been once before, I’m not that knowledgeable.’
It was a brilliant decision; Luigi, with speed and a bit of deft manoeuvring, ushered Jake and Lexi through the crowd, the entrance fee paid, and up to the Porta Marina, the ancient gate that the public had to use to enter the city, in a matter of minutes.
Jake’s hand squeezed Lexi’s, and she glanced questioningly up into his handsome face. ‘You were right, Luigi is worth the money solely for getting us to the front of the queue and in.’ He smiled.
‘Stop.’ Luigi’s upraised hand and the fact that he had planted himself directly in their path meant they could do no other but obey, and for the next few hours the little man managed to fill their heads with more facts about the ancient city than any guidebook could possibly accomplish.
‘First, I give you the background and then we proceed,’ Luigi told them authoritatively. ‘Pompeii was a settlement and first given its name in the eighth century BC. Built at the end of an ancient lava flow from what was considered the benign Mount Vesuvius, one hundred and thirty feet above sea-level at the mouth of the river Sarno, it was for centuries the trading place between the north and south Italian states, conquered by many and occupied by a few; it had a population of twenty-five thousand. Then Vesuvius, suddenly, on the twenty fourth of August, 79 AD, shortly after midday, violently erupted, blacking out the sun. Red-hot volcanic matter rained down on the hapless people, buildings crumbled and then, when the ash fell, all forms of life were extinguished. For centuries it was considered a place of evil and one thousand, six hundred years passed before excavations were begun and a further hundred and fifty years before it could be said the city was rediscovered.’
‘He can certainly talk,’ Jake murmured softly in Lexi’s ear, ‘but he knows his stuff.’ And, following the little man, they strode up the steep paved ramp that led to the gate’s two archways; the left hand arch had been designed for pedestrians and the other for horse-drawn carts, the ruts in the stone-paved road were deep and easily discernible, and the same gauge was still used on today’s railways, Luigi informed them proudly.
‘It’s incredible!’ Jake exclaimed, eyeing the streets and houses. ‘Two thousand years on and one can see exactly how people lived.’
Lexi agreed and, walking beside him, watching the light in his eyes, the intensity with which he examined every aspect of the place, she was filled with a bittersweet memory. He had shown the same enthusiasm years ago when they had first wandered around Castle Howard.
The Temple of Venus, the mighty open space of the Forum, they wandered through them all, and gazed in awe at the remains of the Basilica dating back to pre-Roman times. The triumphal arches of the temple of Jupiter, and the Temple of Apollo caused Jake to comment, ‘They certainly hedged their bets where their gods were concerned.’
‘But it did no good,’ Luigi piped up. ‘Nature is all-powerful, always has been and always will be.’
‘I think we have a homespun philosopher for a guide.’ Jake bent his dark head and whispered in Lexi’s ear, she glanced up at him, a smile curving her full lips.
‘I think you may be right,’ she murmured as Luigi led them into the Forum Baths.
‘See: hot and cold baths; central heating; drainage; everything you would find in a modern city today. They had everything we have today. Nothing changes,’ Luigi declared, and as they walked on he pointed out what had once been a dress shop, and two doors down a barber’s shop.
Grinning at Jake, Luigi said, ‘Then as now, the lady went to the boutique, and the man visited the barber and waited to pick up his lady and pay the bill. Nothing changes.’ Jake and Luigi chuckled in masculine bonding, while Lexi gritted her teeth and grinned, thinking, Male chauvinists.
Further on they stared in awe at the brilliantly coloured wall-paintings in the Villa of the Mysteries. Outside again, they gazed sombrely through iron bars into a warehouse where dozens of common household items, bowls and jugs and figures, an arm, a torso lay, all coated in the pale grey stone.
In a glass case lay the body of a young woman, obviously pregnant, petrified in stone for all eternity. Lexi shivered and, freeing her hand from Jake’s, walked away. She looked around at the high walls, the scrolled pillars, the streets and houses, her eyes misting with tears.
She felt an arm curve around her shoulder, strong fingers kneading the soft flesh. ‘Are you OK, Lexi? The heat getting to you?’ Jake’s deep voice asked quietly. She glanced up through thick lashes, and noted the concern in his dark eyes.
‘Yes, no. I don’t know,’ she murmured.
‘Reminded you, did it? The pregnant woman.’