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TIME FOR AN ARCHEOLOGICAL LESSON
It might strike some people as strange to find erotic inspiration in an archaeological site, but that’s what happened to me with Spying the Alcove.
But let me start at the beginning. As you may know, my novel is loosely based on a true fact and set in the Sicilian ruins of Selimos. I’d visited the place about 5 years ago, loving its hot Sicilian sun, the blue water, the green valleys, the horizon blurring in the distance between sea and sky. Exaggerations, you might say, yet like Valerio, I could hardly believe what my senses assured me was real. Incredibly as it seems, the place spoke to me from the shadows of what had once been tall, proud, elegant buildings now littering the land with their crumbled sandstone. Walking through the ruins,
No, I’m not going crazy, at least I don’t think so. I do believe in reincarnation and the Indian philosophical way of looking at life as an eternal cycle, rather than a one-shot deal, so it didn’t seem odd to feel like I’d returned home, a place I knew inside out however distant in time and place. These sensations lingered long after I’d left the ancient city, resurfacing with all their power when my mate told me of the curious incident regarding the Roman medallion.
During excavations of a 1st century Roman family tomb, archaeologists found the medallion depicting a couple making love on a triclinium, just like I describe it in my book. To the general surprise, it turned out the couple wasn’t the same one that had been buried together for centuries, the man obviously not the woman’s husband. No, it was probably a passionately devoted lover, testifying his love through the exquisite artefact, a token so special she didn’t have the heart to leave behind, not even in her grave. The story sounded fascinating and no better or more sensual setting could I find than Selimos’s plateau of crumbling ruins lost at the edge of the Mediterranean Sea. And nothing describes it better than the following never before released excerpt taken from Chapter One, the beginning of the story itself.

Spying the Alcove
By Laura Tolomei
Genre: M/M, M/F/M, M/F, Fantasy, Paranormal, Romance
Publisher: eXtasy Books
ISBN: 978-1-55487-347-0
Release date: August 1st, 2009

BLURB
When his assistant declares sex is to be shared for it’s too precious to lock away in a drawer or save for an exclusive use alone, that it’s free, and has no limitations except our own and gender should never be an acceptable limit, the Professor has trouble accepting this simple concept despite the intriguing tale of a Roman matron’s journey into erotism. Apparently two unconnected stories—Valerio and Andrea in modern day Sicily, Lidia and Brutus’s hot passion in 1st century AD—an ancient medallion will bring them together as Valerio spies the sensually burning alcove in an increasingly unbearable sexual tension.

EXCERPT PG
The sun shone brightly over the Selimos plain, coloring the ruins and making the distant Mediterranean sparkle. Like golden bits of straw, the blue water glistened at every wave, the image fuzzy under the glare as sea and sky melted into one at the far horizon.
Today’s the hottest one so far, Valerio thought, wiping the sweat from his brow. At this rate, we won’t survive June. He stopped digging to take his glasses off and wipe them dry. Placing them back on, he gazed at the ruins lying all around him, the ancient stones carelessly scattered on the plain or neatly piled in mounds at the building’s foundations.
Not much remained standing of the once proud city of Selimos, destroyed twice by a spiteful fate disguised around 400 BC as Carthage, then in 250 BC as Rome. Named after the celery plant, its official symbol, Selimos had held twenty-five thousand people at the height of its prosperity.
Valerio knew all the history, but somehow it became irrelevant whenever he looked at Selimos’s breathtaking views, which gave the place a feeling of being out of the world, closer to the gods than to humans. Hardly a casual effect, Valerio considered, perfectly aware of the powerful connection to the divine that pervaded the entire area. Standing on the city’s farthest western end, the roaring sea at his feet, there was no doubt in his mind the founders had followed the Greek tradition of selecting their locations based on how holy the place felt. And this is as holy as it gets, he mused, taking in one single glance the blue sky, the yellow sun, the blue-green sea, the sandy soil with its brown stones and the green hills at the back. Maybe it also explains its doom, certainly the work of a vicious god, jealous of its beauty.
Destiny had tied Selimos to Segesta, its long time enemy, which it had tried to defeat repeatedly, never actually succeeding. Eventually, this blind obsession had cost the celery city its own integrity. As history taught, its first destruction was the result of an allegiance switch during the disastrous Greek military campaign in Sicily. As an independent city, Selimos had moved against Segesta, believing its Athenian ally would never spare any resource to save it from a destructive assault. But the ill winds of war had caused Segesta to switch sides and its new patron, the mighty Carthage, destroyed Selimos instead, killing sixteen out of the twenty-five thousand inhabitants.
Rebuilt in later times, the city thrived again, even if it never reached its previous heights, until war between Carthage and Rome sealed its fate forever. After Rome’s victory in the second Punic war, Selimos suffered destruction for the second and last time.
Quite a short, violent history for such beautiful settlement, Valerio reflected. Eventually though, destiny had paid its debt to Selimos. Today it was the largest archeological site of Europe, a part of humanity’s treasures. Located in Sicily’s southwestern border, set on top of a hill overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Selimos lay in the fertile valley of two rivers, surrounded in the south and west by water while green plains embraced its northern side. The city had a linear design with a complex structure made of temples, sanctuaries and a necropolis, all protected by an impressive set of defensive walls. Archeology had also uncovered many private homes, which testified to a rich city flourishing on trade and agriculture. Too bad, the only building still standing was Temple E, dedicated to Hera according to some theories. The rest of what must have been Selimos’s architectural magnificence was just rubble as if the city had suffered a major earthquake, its ruins resembling the pieces of a giant puzzle designed for an unknown god’s amusement.
“Hey, Prof, look what I found,” a voice interrupted his thoughts.
The Professor raised his head and smiled at the young man coming his way. “Yes, Andrea, what is it?”
Taking the object from his assistant, a strong electrical current cursed through him the second he touched the warm stone. Andrea’s fault no doubt, the Professor reasoned, shaking his head. The young man had always struck him as being magnetically charged, maybe because of his looks, quite handsome for a man if Valerio was any judge. True, he seldom noticed outward appearances, focusing instead on the inner worth, but the sparkling green eyes, blondish hair and tall slim body made more than one woman’s head turn around.
“This is amazing,” Valerio agreed, looking at the artifact. It was a terracotta medallion, a household knick-knack, judging from its small size. He brushed off the last soil residues, thinking it was another of the innumerable bits and pieces they had already uncovered. But the surprising picture on it stopped him cold. Looking closely, Valerio almost blushed for it depicted a man and a woman making love on a triclinium, the Roman laid-back couch used during official meals. The two of them lay side by side. The man behind the woman held her right leg high in the air while his cock, clearly visible, was halfway inside her vagina. The details were remarkable, both sexes finely designed, the faces showing the pleasure they must have felt in real life.

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