Than you so much to my beta-reader emma . ray, Saviour of the English Language, dear friend who works a lot to help me making sense of the stuff in my mind.

I was looking in the direction of the door every two minutes. Ella should have been back by now and I was starting to worry. What if something had happened to her? What if Alison had seen her around my Goddess? What if Ella was the bearer of bad news and was trying to find a way to tell me?

My parents were absent, as usual, and Ezra had tried to distract me with a reading of Plato but nothing could have soothed me.

The door opened and even if my eyes were already fixed on it, I was startled. I was so focused that everything was a blur. I had to clear my head but instead, I rushed towards Ella who had barely walked into the room.

"Did you see her?" I asked, in total panic.

"Calm down child," she said with her typical soothing voice. "I did. She told me to give you her name. Emily."

Emily. The sweetest melody my ears had ever been able to hear. Emily. Her name ran like water on my lips, falling on my chest and drowning my heart. A name clear as day for the most exquisite raven-haired beauty my eyes had been lucky enough to set upon. But quick, I needed to know more.

"What do you mean she told you to give it to me?"

"I think she saw you too," she answered in a smile. "She agreed to meet you, but it's going to be complicated. She just arrived at the DiLaurentis' so her absence would probably be noticed, but I think I can manage to bribe Lorenzo so that he helps me bring her to a cabin not too far from here."

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. And I was sure my heart had stopped beating. I was overwhelmed with thoughts and questions. Did she really want to see ME? Or was it just a plot from Alison to bring me to my knees? It was obvious the blonde had totally understood what had happened. She recognised the look I gave the young slave and that was why she had bought her. She told me she owned me now, was she going to use my Goddess against me? Or was what Ella had told me genuine? Did Emily really want to be in my presence? Could my feelings not be one-sided? And what if she only wanted to use me to save her from Alison's claws? I would do anything for her, even if my affections weren't returned. Anything.

"When could this happen?" I asked Ella.

"I need a few hours. It has to be tonight when Alison is away," she answered. "And I also need money for Lorenzo and the people living in the cabin I saw. They will lend it for a few sesterces."

"Anything you need," I said. "Ezra, please, go with her."

They left quickly and I was alone with my thoughts.

And now the wait begins.

Covered by the coat of Nyx, I arrived at the cabin first. It was a very humble house, with only a table and a small bed made of straw, probably the house of a modest dyer. It was clean though, with a floor made of clay and walls of dry dirt, and it was isolated enough so that nobody could be suspicious seeing me or my Goddess arrive. Candles were lit at strategic places, giving the place a charming touch and a smell of flowers. Ella's thoughtfulness, no doubt.

I had no idea of what to expect from the encounter. I was too nervous to think straight, too stressed to see clearly. I could hear my heart pounding in my temples. I was walking around, trying to evacuate all the bad thoughts that were compressing my head when Ella entered the room. She was leading the way to someone wearing a brown cape, face masked under a hood.

"I'll leave you two then," said Ella. "Remember Paige, at first light tomorrow you both ought to be back to your homes."

She left the house as quickly as she arrived, leaving the two of us completely alone.

The creature lifted her arms softly to unveil the most magnificent figure I had ever seen. Her glance was filled by so many different feelings I couldn't even name one. Her eyes were dark as night but even the slight light coming from the candles was able to reflect in them. They were glowing as two precious black pearls that you can only see in the richest houses of Rome. She lowered her head, probably conditioned by years of slavery.

"Don't look away."

It took me all I had to be able to speak. To be reassuring. But I was afraid the apprehension in my voice would have been perceptible even to a two-year-old child. She lifted her head slowly, unsure if I had meant it.

"My name is Paige. Paige McCullers."

"Emily."

Her voice. My Gods, her voice. Softer than the softest of silks. Purer than the purest snowflake. We were looking at each other and I was still incapable of deciphering what I was seeing on her face. As she was probably trying to do with mine. She broke the heavy silence.

"Why am I here ?" she asked.

"I wanted to see you," I answered, maybe a little bit too fast.

"But why?"

How could I answer to that question? How could I give her my heart when I had nothing else to offer her? How could I put this heavy weight on her when I knew nothing about the magnificent woman who was standing in front of me?

"I…I wanted to talk to you. To make sure that Alison hadn't mistreated you. I…know she is a bit challenging. You…you can go if you want to."

I was being careful. It could have been a trap, she could have been here because Alison told her to.

"I want to stay," she said. After a short pause, she spoke again. "I have never met someone as cruel as Alison."

Her voice was but a whisper, as if saying the name of Alison out loud was an offence to the silence itself.

I had to tell her. I had to be sure.

"I don't want you to stay because she ordered you to."

She was now looking at me with a sad and intrigued look. It was the predominant theory I had on why she was here at the moment, nothing else made sense. She was here because Alison wanted to use her against me, because Alison was playing a vicious game and wanted my demise.

"It is not why I stay. And it is not why I came in the first place."

"Why then?"

She slowly walked towards me. Her gait was feline, almost aerial. As if a river Nymph was taking its original form in front of me, she was becoming liquid and I was envious of the floor that was carrying her. I would have kissed the ground in devotion under her feet but I was standing transfixed on the spot, in total contemplation, and I was refraining myself from blinking to not lose her from sight. As if the fact of not seeing her for a mere second would risk making her disappear forever.

She raised her hand towards me, offering to receive mine, and her movement was so delicate that I felt like I was the Empress of Gaïa. My eyes had continued their journey without me noticing, from her eyes to her hand to the ground, and I was now staring at the floor.

"Look at me Paige."

Her voice was soft. It was not a command, not a question. It was almost a supplication. As if the simple fact that I had turned my eyes away from her was hurting her. I couldn't believe it. Was it a tactic from Alison to destroy me definitely? Did the Goddess tell her everything and was she about to barge in at any moment? Did she order her to conquer me, body and soul, to have leverage over me?

"Why then?"

"When Ella came to talk to me I… I knew."

"Knew what?"

Her tone had become trembling, as if she was broken, shattered. I hadn't taken the hand she had offered me and she let it fall limply against her thigh.

"That you too...you…I mean…that there was…"

She lowered her head, a gesture that had the effect of hiding her face in her hair. I couldn't see her eyes but I saw a tear roll off her chin and then die on the clay ground. How I envied this floor to receive such a divine elixir!

I was gobsmacked. Seeing how the majority of Romans were treating their slaves, I couldn't imagine that what she was trying to tell me was real. That she had felt how I had felt since the moment we saw each other. I didn't know anything about her and a voice inside my head was telling me over and over that she was simply trying to improve her situation, that she was forced to do that, to be here, that she only wanted to be nice to me so that I could free her from Alison. And even if the latter was true…I didn't care.

"Maybe I misread something," she said.

Was she offering herself because I was a patrician? I was still mute when she raised her eyes and met mine. Her doubts reflected mine. I was seeing her as completely disoriented, vulnerable, desperate to receive a word from me.

"I should go. It was a terrible idea."

I still hadn't opened my mouth. I was unable to. I was deprived of speech, captivated by her and the questions that were torturing me. She swiped her tear with the back of her hand, her head listless again, and passed by me to leave the cabin. I extended my arm, grabbing hers firmly but softly. She raised her head abruptly, leaving her face only a few centimetres from mine and I stretched my neck to cast a kiss upon her lips.

The Fates had woven my destiny so that I had found myself here, at this moment. So that my lips would meet hers. This instant was mystical. Magical. I would have denied my faith for her, worshipping Emily as the otherworldly creature she was. Her taste was giving new meaning to my mere existence, opening my senses to exceptional, unexplored feelings. I was her, she was me. No more doubts. No more fear. Nothing else than us. We couldn't be more different but nonetheless, us together, we were unique as much as in total fusion.

Our lips parted for what seemed to be an eternity. She caressed my cheek slowly, gathering a tear I hadn't noticed I had shed and she slipped her arm around my neck to tighten my whole body against hers.

She bent her head to my ear: "I knew there was something between us. The second my eyes settled upon you at the shop I-"

"Shhhh," I whispered.

She laughed for a short moment and I felt my legs failing at the sound. Her laugh was clear, frank, the sweetest of music my mortal ears had been able to hear.

She loosened her grip and I found myself breathless. As if every inch of my body was deprived of oxygen, as if my whole being was dying from her absence. She was looking at me tenderly, getting close again, brushing my face from the tip of her nose and she put her lips on mine again. Every kiss, every caress was erasing the pain of her absence. We were two soulmates, and we had the opportunity to finally be one. However, I moved away from her.

"What's wrong?" she asked, worried.

"What will happen tomorrow?"

"Don't think about that. There is only now, there is only you and I."

She took my hand tenderly and guided me towards the bed of straw that was lying on the floor itself. We sat, eye to eye, heart to heart. She took my face between her hands gently, kissing me more and more passionately, slipping her left hand in my hair, undoing braids and loops. Her grip tightened on the back of my head and I could feel her desperation to feed from me, as I was being affected by a fire that would burn everything in its path if I let it out. She slid her free hand all along my back, from bottom to top and stopped at the brooch on my shoulder, starting to undo it.

Doubt began to choke me again.

"I…are you…sure?"

"Aren't you?"

I had nothing to answer to that. I had never felt something that strong, as if a herd of wild horses were racing in my chest, and the urgency of the situation – knowing if I ignored it I might never get the chance again - decided for me. I answered to her with a kiss, like a sentence said with the lips to reassure her without uttering a sound. Her hand went back to its course, tracing a delicate path from my cheek to my shoulder. She detached my toga and uncovered my body as she would have unwrapped the most fragile thing on Earth. I shivered under the fabric's touch.

"Are you okay?"

"I am. I truly am. Don't worry."

She stood up and undressed in a single movement. Her cape and her toga fell on the floor in a small flop and I was surprised I was still able to hear. All my senses were numb. She was naked, as Venus in her shell, and she was standing a few feet away from me. I could touch her just by stretching my arm but I was petrified. She was completely offered and I was the one she was making this offering to. Me. Paige McCullers. I was about to lay with a Goddess.

She pushed me slowly onto the bed, straddling me and covering my body with kisses. Her hands were delicately following my sides, caressing me everywhere. I put my hand on her back and froze. I felt numerous scars under my fingertips, signs of the bad treatments she had to suffer, and she noticed my turmoil.

"It's in the past. I am with you now. I am free for the first time in forever."

I arched my back to raise my upper body and kiss her. I was overwhelmed by emotion. I couldn't figure how people could mistreat her to that extent. How could people – beasts - that despicable hurt my Goddess, my aspiration, my inspiration? I slipped my hand through her hair carefully, pressing my face in the hollow of her neck and covering her with kisses.

There was only she and I and the whole world was now quiet, but it also roared a symphony around us, in celebration of the union of our souls as well as our bodies. I had never felt what I was experiencing under her touch, under her caresses, her exploration. I had never been intimate with anyone before that moment, and by discovering Emily I was discovering life, love and ecstasy.

We were lying next to each other, satiated with one another. I let my fingertips run from her navel to her chin, making her shiver and laugh whenever I hit a sensitive spot. Dawn was starting to colour the sky and with it the worries and the fear were slowly crippling from my stomach to my heart. It was time to go, as the cabin was about to retrieve its inhabitants.

We had decided to meet again at this place tonight to leave Pompeii. I had money, it would be difficult but not impossible to runaway together as she wasn't bearing the DiLaurentis mark yet. Me, from noble appearance, skin as white as milk, travelling with my slave. I had refused thinking about her in that way but she had convinced me with multiple kisses that it was the best solution.

She got out of bed and went to look for her toga on the floor. Her warmth was lingering on the bed and I traced the void she had left with my forefinger, trying to feel her as she wasn't by my side anymore. I couldn't resign myself to letting her go back to Alison and her twisted family.

She looked at me tenderly and smiled. I felt my whole body weaken again, her smile having an unreal power that could have brought me back from the dead. I managed to get out of bed, all strength having left me, and to dress. It was time. We had to leave each on a different way to not raise any suspicion from people we could meet this early.

We kissed passionately, like it was the last thing we would do in our lives.

I couldn't refrain from looking back as she was starting to turn at the corner of the street. She stopped to look at me. Our glances met, willing to be reassuring, to give the other the strength we were both lacking. Speaking without saying anything.

The kind of love words you can only say with the eyes.