by Jana Downs
The warm, wet tongue went to the other nipple and gave it the same treatment sucking, licking, and biting the tip until it was a faint cherry red and was beaded for his attention. Cass had some serious skills with his mouth, and Tobias could only pray that his cock got some of that hot touch before Cass got down to the more serious aspects of lovemaking.
“That’s it, Tobias. Come alive for me.” The deep note of his lover’s voice just wound him that much tighter. He needed Cass in a way he’d never needed anything before in his entire life. The cat’s mouth went southward, leaving a trail of heat in its path. All Tobias could do was gasp and arch into it, begging silently for what he wanted. By the time Cass finally made it down to suck on his hip bones, he was coming off the mattress in want.
“Cassisus! You’re a tease!” Tobias groaned as he switched hips and began sucking on the other one instead.
“Best things come to those who wait,” Cass said, obvious amusement in his voice.
“I’m waiting, but I’m not being patient about it. Damn, Cass, want you so bad,” Tobias managed in a tone that was more of a whimper. It was considerably less steady than he’d intended it to be, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Easy, lover. I’ll never leave you wanting.” Of that he had no doubt. The cat was something out of Tobias’s most erotic wet dream, and he could only want more when he was around him.
He gasped softly as Cassisus lapped at and sucked on his balls. Tobias’s head kicked back, and his heels dug into the mattress. “Stop teasing, put it in your fucking mouth, Cass!” he moaned, his hand drifting down on its own accord in an attempt to give some relief to his weeping erection. The gladiator smacked his hand away.
“Not yet,” Cassisus said, going back to his suckling. Fuck me. Is that too much to ask? He was going to go insane by the time Cassisus managed to get around to putting Tobias’s cock in his mouth. He was about to demand more touch again when a lubed finger suddenly pushed up into his unstretched body. He yelped, the burn instant and not unpleasant.
“Fuck! Cass!” Immediately his body spasmed around the thick digit before adjusting to the invasion. The head of his cock was engulfed by the hot mouth that was just suckling his balls, and then the finger stretching him began to fuck him in earnest. “Yes!” It was the only thing he could manage to articulate given the riot of sensation that was assaulting his body.
“Mine,” Cass rumbled as he came up for air. Tobias trembled as his mouth sank back down on his prick.
The torment continued for an endless moment as Cassisus worked two and then three digits into Tobias’s still-tight body. By the time the third finger fucked inside him, Tobias was ready to beg. He needed Cassisus’s hot cock stretching him and spilling his liquid pleasure deep into the confines of Tobias’s needy ass.
“Ready, baby?” Cass asked, his voice a breathless whisper of sound. Tobias couldn’t speak, but he managed to nod his head in the affirmative. He hoped that was enough.
Turned out it was because Cass reared back a split second later and slathered his thick rod with more of the lube that he kept stashed by his bedside table before he put both of Tobias’s legs on his shoulders, forcing his ass up. It was a completely vulnerable position, and that was all right with the mouse. He just needed his mate, and whatever way he could get him was all right.
Cass probed the entrance to his body one last time with his fingers before he took the head of his cock and pressed it inside. Tobias gasped at the stretch. He’d thought that because of the rough loving from the night before he would have gotten used to the rougher attention by now, but it turned out that it would take more than one round of Cassisus pounding inside him for his body to adjust to it. That was all right with Tobias because he loved the slow burn.
“Fuck me, Cass,” Tobias begged, squirming as best he could in the position the other man had put him in. He wanted Cass to give it to him rough. “Making love was yesterday. Fuck me now.” The words seemed to illicit the sort of response that he was looking for because Cass growled and did as Tobias asked. Tobias murmured the predator’s praises as he was fucked mercilessly. Makeup sex was the best invention ever. He was going to have to incite Cass’s temper in the future just so they could do this again.
“You like it rough, huh, Tobias?” Cass rumbled, growling low in his throat. The purring that Tobias loved so much filled the air in the cell and the sound of their smacking flesh was a symphony of delight to Tobias’s ears. This was pure fucking magic.
“I like you rough. Gentle sometimes. I need rough today.” How he managed to make that sentence make sense was anyone’s guess because he honestly wasn’t sure how he did it.
Cass chuckled. “I get it, lover mine.” Then there was no more room for words as Cassisus pulled almost all the way out of Tobias’s body before thrusting forward quickly. He set a pace that was deep and hard and perfect. Tobias’s eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he could only moan his thanks as he was transported into outer space by the man in his bed. His body cried out its satisfaction with every feral lunge. The cat had amazing aim because he managed to score Tobias’s pleasure spot with every movement of his hips and seemed to anticipate just what would take Tobias to the next level. He was glad Cass was his forever because otherwise he was ruined for all future prospects.
Tobias came suddenly. The bark of surprise issued out of his mouth the same moment that his sticky cock erupted in a fountain. His oversensitized body continued to throb, ratcheting up the intensity to a level Tobias was pretty sure should be illegal.
“Again, Tobias,” the gladiator demanded, pushing his hips forward faster as his body lost his rhythm and orgasm swamped him. He didn’t want to come again, didn’t think it was possible to come again, but come again he would, just because Cass wanted it, and he knew the second he felt Cass’s warm seed fill him that he would do as his mate commanded. Two thrusts later, Cassisus gave a cat scream of satisfaction and pulsed inside him. Tobias grabbed hold of his own cock and jerked it in time to Cass’s movements. The first spurt of liquid splashed against his inner walls and it was all over. Tobias screamed so loud it echoed down the corridor, and his body trembled, jerked, and spilled yet more pleasure against his stomach and chest.
Finally, they collapsed together, spent.
Chapter Ten
“Good God. I’m dead,” Cass said as he gently pulled his body out of Tobias. “I don’t know if I’ll ever have sex again.”
Tobias forced his eyes opened. “Amen.”
“Keep it down!” someone shouted from down the hallway. “Some of us are trying to sleep!”
Tobias’s cheeks heated. Damn. He’d been really loud.
Cass chuckled. “Easy, Tobias. The Ludus has no real walls. They’re jealous of me.”
“With sex like that, they have good reason,” Tobias said before he thought better of it. His cheeks got hotter as his mate’s big belly laugh caused more shouts from the neighboring cells. “Shh! You’re going to wake the whole block.”
“I suppose,” Cass drawled. He drew Tobias into the circle of his arms with Tobias’s cheek resting on the firm muscle of his chest. “So you want to tell me about your terrible day?”
Tobias sighed. “I did, but the sex cured me of the need to share.”
“Well, I’m not sleepy yet, so you might as well tell me. Besides, I want to know about what you worked out with Flavius.” Cass traced circles on Tobias’s arm as he spoke. The gladiator smelled like a pleasant mixture of sex and contentment.
Tobias pressed his ear to Cass’s chest and listened to the comforting thud of his heartbeat. “My family exiled me.” The weight of the admission sat on chest like a fifty-pound dumbbell.
Cassisus tensed. “What the hell? What does that mean?”
“In shifter groups like ours, it means that all the house servants aren’t talking to me. I can’t go back to the hall we share to sleep, and I’m not allowed in the kitchen unless I have been officially asked to be there. I’m excluded from th
eir lives until my appeal,” Tobias explained, snuggling in closer to his mate.
“Why would they do this? You haven’t done anything!” Cass protested.
Tobias shrugged one shoulder. “Being with you is seen as disrupting the natural order of their world. My new ideas of equality are seen as radical and dangerous. They figure if they cut me off from the rest of the house servants I’ll either go away or break it off with you.”
“And are you?” Cass asked.
“Am I what?”
The gladiator squeezed him tighter. “Are you going to break it off with me?”
Tobias shook his head, anger firing through his chest. “No. I’m not going to be bullied into leaving my family or giving you up. I’ll go appeal to the elders and try and make them see reason. If they’re really so stubborn that they want me excluded from their community because of who fate chose to make my mate, then that’s their problem.”
Cassisus considered him for a long time, his fingers still tracing the circle on his arm as he waited. Tobias was lulled into the rhythm of that circular movement, eased by the calm that was created by being with his mate. “Maybe I should come with you,” Cass said just as Tobias was about to drift into dreamland.
The words penetrated his haze of tiredness. “Uh, I don’t think that’s a good idea, Cass.”
“Why not? Wouldn’t it be good to see your mate supporting you and standing by you?” Cass asked.
“Yeah, if I wanted to intimidate the hell out of the entire house. Bringing you would be like someone bringing a bomb to a peace talk. It doesn’t send the right message.” That was the most eloquent way Tobias could phrase it. If he wanted to appear threatening, of course he’d bring his six-and-a-half-foot gladiator predatory mate along. But it wasn’t about that. He needed to put his case to the elders and hoped that they would see reason. He knew his mother and father would probably back him up, but he needed the support of the other heads of household, including his aunt and uncle, as well as the kitchen staff’s elders, and the grounds staff.
Cass chuckled. “I suppose you have a point. Still, they won’t hurt you, will they? Because I will not be okay with that.”
“My kind isn’t known for their violent tendencies, Cass. Honestly, the worst they will do will be to toss me out of our meeting.” He hoped so anyway. He remembered the anger rolling off his cousin in waves a few hours before. Almost immediately he banished the concern. Fear didn’t mean that someone was going to try and hurt him.
“I want you to be careful, either way. People get a little insane when you threaten their beliefs,” Cass said, kissing the top of Tobias’s head.
Tobias sighed, loving the fact that someone was so protective over him. This being mated thing is nice, he thought, snuggling into the gladiator’s warm embrace.
“How do you feel about cleaning up before round two?” the cat wondered as Tobias started to drift.
Tobias raised his head and looked into Cass’s face. “Are you serious?”
Cass looked at Tobias with a smug expression locked firmly in place. “As a heart attack, lover mine. I like makeup sex, but now I’d like slow and dirty sex. There are different types, you know.”
Tobias groaned. His mate was trouble. Not to mention insatiable. He was going to be sore again tomorrow. But, somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to care.
* * * *
The next day, Tobias made his way into the servants’ part of the house as quietly as possible. As one of the exiled, it was technically forbidden for him to enter here without an official reason to be, but he had reason. One of the gardeners had sent him a note that instructed him to come after working hours and meet with the heads of household. He was going to be given a chance to state his case. Though he imagined that no one would necessarily try to hurt him for having the audacity to come at all, he could do without the withering stares since he was nervous about his meet and greet to begin with.
He’d gone to the Ludus to tell Cass that he would be late tonight, if he came at all, and the cat had reluctantly agreed. It hadn’t made his lover all that terribly happy at the prospect of sleeping alone, but that couldn’t be helped. Tobias had to do what he could to mend the fences. It was becoming increasingly hard to do his job since none of them would speak or acknowledge his presence. Getting a note from Flavius for every little thing he needed was getting tedious, and though he didn’t mention anything, Tobias knew Flavius was getting annoyed with the necessity as well.
As much as he liked to think that he and Flavius were friends of sorts, he didn’t want to push his luck when it came to the things that Flavius would put up with. He was already having a new cell constructed for him and Cass that would be ready when they got back from Europe, but still.
The narrow hallways to the servants’ quarters were just as he remembered them, cramped, poorly lit, but with the same elegance as the rest of the house, including a very long floor runner that carried down the very long hall at the back of the house. The mice could reach any part of the house from this hallway. The various holes and doors that lined either side were convenient places to either hide or travel through, and Tobias knew every one.
Typically, this hall was bustling with people traveling to and from chores and various duties in the house, but the hall was empty at this time of night. The servants were early risers due to Flavius’s schedule, and though they preferred to keep nocturnal hours naturally, they didn’t unless they were on duty on the night staff.
He ducked into the doorway that was open on his left. This way led to the heart of the servants’ quarters, and if he wasn’t mistaken, Master Flavius nor his father before him had bothered to venture this far into their territory. The mice had been very proud of that fact for whatever reason. His father had told him more than once about the significance of the fact that even in a human-run household, the mice ruled the walls. Of course, Tobias didn’t imagine that the birds or the yard shifters had any say-so in the matter.
At the far end of the hall was a door that led to the meeting place. If anything important had to be discussed it was there the shifters went to talk about it. He swallowed as the plain oak came into sight. He wasn’t sure how this was going to work, and the speech he’d put together during the day now seemed superficial and somehow less important than when he’d written it.
With a deep breath, he pushed open the door. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but this wasn’t it. He was surprised that the room was mostly empty. One of the kitchen birds, a hawk by the smell of him, and another bird of prey that Tobias couldn’t place, were sitting closest to him around a pull-out table that someone had set up with a bunch of lawn chairs around it. The elders were playing cards, and it looked like poker. His elders, the two oldest women in his nest, sat beside the birds, and then, continuing around the table, two of the outside staff, the stable manager, a retired race horse, and his son.
“Um, I’m here for my meeting?” Tobias managed, trying to figure out what their angle was. None of them seemed overly concerned about his presence. They all looked like grandparents. It was hard to be overly intimidated. Well, he amended, with the exception of the stable master’s son. He looked like he was maybe a few years older than Tobias.
“Yep. I imagine you are. Take a seat at the table, son. We’ve got some things to discuss with you,” the hawk said as he lit up a fat cigar that was probably from Flavius’s “secret” stash.
Perplexed, Tobias went over to the table where a spare chair had been left out and sat down. It was the strangest thing that had ever happened to him, and that included finding out he had a cat for a mate. What was going on? He’d imagined a hearing where his whole clan was assembled and there would be debate and arguing and all sorts of heated discussion. This was weird and oddly informal.
“So, how do we do this?” Tobias asked. Confusion was probably written all over his face, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was beginning to feel like they weren’t taking this seriously, and that was
not okay.
“We deal you out five cards, goofball. You know how poker is played with a five-card draw, Tobias. I taught you when you were a pup,” Elder Julia said in her cigarette-sweetened voice. She was the oldest person in their nest, and she was also the type of person who would bake him cookies but still beat him senseless if he deserved it. Sweet but fair was her way of life, and Tobias had felt the sting of her hand on his backside more than once growing up.
“What about the meeting?” Tobias was beyond confused.
“We’re in the meeting, dummy,” Elder Julia quipped, shuffling the card deck in slow, practiced movements. “We’ll start the hard part in a minute. Let’s start with the easy bit. Do you know what you’re accused of?”
Tobias frowned. “Uh, I’m not sure. All I know is that Giotto and his buddies called me meat.”
A disapproving murmur circled the table. Elder Julia shook her gray head, looking furious. “You aren’t accused of being a race traitor, Tobias. We’re all well past division among shifters, and if you are sleeping with Master Flavius, lord help you when your cat finds out. No. You are accused of failing to bring your mate before the elders for an official blessing. Therefore, you rejected your nest and therefore the way of life for nonpredatory beings.”
“What? That’s what this is about?” Tobias asked incredulously. “You’ve got to be joking. I didn’t know until the other night that I was even going to stay with him!”
The stable master snorted. “I don’t know if I buy that. The gladiator, Cassisus, is your fated mate. What did you think was going to happen? No. The proper course of action was to bring it to our attention the moment you decided to enter into a relationship with the cat on any level. We knew you were brooding about finding out, but you didn’t follow the proper channels before you went back to him.”
