beach. He wanted to go back there with her as soon as possible. He wanted to take her away from all the death and anger that consumed him when he was in this stupid city. But he had to be Cardinal. Or else he’d be dead.
He’d considered killing himself for a long time. Defiance kept him alive. But now he had another reason to live.
Her.
Last night, he finally realized what Pompei had really done to him. How deep the abuse had rotted out his soul. Last night he had made her hit him. He had hurt her. It was about taking. It was about anger. The poison that had seeped into him finally reared its head. Like a tapeworm buried in his stomach, it came out for the tasty treat that was dangled in front of his mouth.
And like the harpy that she was, she ripped it out of him at the core. She faced down the viper in his soul. It didn’t scare her. She wanted it. She met the real him and told him that she loved him.
He shifted and climbed from the hot tub to dangle his legs in it. “Roll over, sweet girl.”
She obeyed without question, rolling onto her stomach, and folded her arms to rest her cheek on them. He hummed. She hadn’t even hesitated. She really did trust him. He began to massage her back, and she groaned almost profanely. He scooched closer to reach her better.
“Oh, fates, Nero,” she murmured into her elbow. “Where have you been all my life?”
He laughed. She was such a funny thing once she came out of her shell. He kept kneading her skin, working the knots out. He had been taught to do this when he had been a slave.
His mind flashed images in front of his head. Of Pompei over him, hitting him. Beating him until his body was forced to respond to it against his will. Of Pompei using that as a sign of consent.
The image brought a lot less pain to him than it had even yesterday. It didn’t spark an anger in him like he had felt before. And he knew why. He placed a kiss between her shoulder blades as he chased away the tension in her muscles.
“I didn’t know I had so much garbage to work out. I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“Work out your garbage as much as you want.” She was clearly basking under his touch. “I told you—I loved it. Maybe don’t do that all the time. I might not survive.” She chuckled. “But it didn’t scare me. When you’re angry, I’d rather you take it out on me than some poor dumb senator who crosses your path.”
“They’ll name a holiday in your honor and built statues to venerate you.” He grinned and kissed her shoulder again. “Hope?”
“Hm?”
“Will you marry me?”
She rolled onto her back and reached for his hands. She twined her fingers with his. She was lying there naked, covered in a thin sheen of sweat and water from the hot air and the tub. She was the most beautiful thing he could ever imagine.
“You’re going to ask me to marry you right here, right now?”
“Technically, I asked you a while ago.”
She laughed and picked his hand up to her mouth and kissed his fingers. “Yes, Nero. I’ll marry you. And I’ll marry you happily.”
He kissed her. He kissed her with everything he had in him. He picked her up from the ground and crushed her against his chest. She had to push him away after a moment or two, laughing.
“If you smother me to death, I can’t marry you.”
“Psh. Details.” He laughed and hugged her to him again, careful not to strangle her this time. He was laughing and crying at the same time. “Hope…oh, Hope, I love you. I’ll be a good husband, I promise.”
She stroked her hands through his hair. He loved the feeling of her nails on his scalp. “And I vow to be as good of a wife as I can be.”
“You already are…you’re already more than I could ever ask for.”
She kissed him. Gentle and tender. She rested her forehead on his.
For the first time in his life…Nero felt at peace.
The next week went by in a blink. Hope couldn’t even fathom what happened. It was all such a flurry of action and information that she wasn’t sure which end was up. It was all planning and announcements—one meeting after another after another.
There was a wedding to plan. A parade. A citywide