In Rome in the year 79 Claudia, a high born widow, is promised in marriage to yet another elderly man. She despairs of ever finding a young, virile husband and learning the pleasures of the bed that poets sing about… Until her brother returns in triumph, bringing with him a slave who sets her body aflame and her heart aglow.Karl can fulfill her every desire because she owns him—until she finds herself enslaved by passion.On her way to her marriage in Pompeii, the deadly flames of Vesuvius provide the perfect escape to new life and a new understanding.