by Nhys Glover
Asterius caught his breath when he encountered bare skin. I was suddenly on fire, and I could not breathe properly. My mouth was again as dry as a desert. It would be easy to blame it on too much sun during our voyage, but I had not felt this way until he climbed into bed with me.
“All right?” he asked, his calloused hand sliding across my upper thigh until it reached the curls between my legs.
I nodded again. Part of me wanted him to stop. Another part was desperate for him to go on.
I swallowed, and then swallowed again.
His fingers slid between my folds. The sensation was frightening and yet so very good. Asterius groaned.
“You’re so wet. Do you know what that does to me?” he croaked out, sliding his fingers up and down the folds.
I was embarrassed by what he said. Why was I wet down there? But Asterius didn’t see it as a bad thing. To him it was a good thing.
“A woman has a small version of a man’s shaft. It can be stroked in a similar way to what you did to me.”
He found a very sensitive spot and began circling it. I felt a wave of pleasure surge through me. Was this what it felt like for him when I stroked him? How had I not known my body held such potential for pleasure?
But why would I? It was where I bled and urinated. Why would I think there was pleasure to be found in such a place?
As Asterius continued to stroke and flick at what lay within my folds, I became overwhelmed by sensation. The ache of earlier became even more intense. I felt needy and desperate, at the same time as I experienced pleasure like none before.
A finger delved inside me. I bucked a little at the intrusion and at the guilty pleasure of it. I knew where he was, I had assisted with difficult births, after all. But it felt deliciously wrong to have a man’s finger probing me there.
But I could not stop him. It was like I no longer had control of my body. It jerked and writhed and melted without me giving it permission to do any of it.
Was Asterius feeling the same sense of power I did when I had him in my control?
I writhed against his hand, unable to stop myself. His finger kept delving in and out of my channel and then circling the sensitive spot in my folds.
Suddenly, his hand was gone. I wanted to cry out in disappointment. When he grabbed up my hand I nearly jerked it away in shock. What was he doing now?
“Let me show you,” he growled.
And I did, letting him place my hand where his had been. He brought my finger to the sensitive spot and I discovered a small hard pea I never knew was there before. When I touched it I felt pleasure.
“You can do this for yourself. When you need to. Now I’m going to do something you’re going to hate me for, but I’m going crazy touching you when I want to be tasting you.”
“Tasting?” I managed to get out.
He slid down the bed and, before I realised what he was doing, his mouth closed over my nether lips. He lipped them tentatively, as if waiting for a reaction from me. I was frozen in place, unable to comprehend what he was doing. He had his mouth there?!
And then all thoughts evaporated as his tongue slid into the folds and lapped at the hard, little pea I had only just discovered I had. The sensation was pure bliss, and I cried out, my hips jerking up to meet his questing tongue.
Gods, this was incredible. Now I truly understood the expression on Asterius’ face when I touched his naked shaft. This exquisite pleasure was unlike anything I had ever known before.
“You taste like ambrosia,” Asterius said on a deep guttural groan.
How was that possible? How could my taste give him so much pleasure?
But he was circling and flicking at the little pea and all thoughts disappeared yet again. His clever finger was inside me again and wriggling about. Panting and moaning, I arched into his hand and his mouth. Wanting more. Wanting...
The release was instantaneous. One moment I was reaching for something; the next what I sought was crashing over me like a wave. A bright, explosive wave of pure sensation. I cried out and stiffened as the wave swept me away. How long it lasted I had no idea. Forever? A moment?
When it was over I lay exhausted on the bed. Asterius’ cheek rested against my inner thigh. I was in shock.
“Are you all right?” he asked, amusement in his voice. That he used the same words I had used before dinner was not lost on me.
“How... How was that possible?” I croaked out.
“I have no idea. I just know it is. And you aren’t done yet.”
Before I had a chance to ask what he meant, his mouth was back on me, and the pleasure was back in delicious ripples, even better than before. I felt the tension building again, knew where I was headed and welcomed it. And in moments I surged over the edge and saw the white lights and felt the pleasure exploding through every cell in my body.
Asterius did it again and again until I begged him to stop. It was too much. Gods, how was it possible to have too much pleasure?
When he gave in to my pleading, he slid up, his head coming to rest on my bare belly. My tunic had been rucked up sometime during the episode. I loved the feel of his soft hair against the tender flesh of my stomach.
Asterius sighed like a contented man. “I can’t work out if discovering how responsive you are is a good thing or bad. In one way, it’s good because it was everything I expected of you and more. In another way it’s bad because... because it only reinforces how unique you are. How special. And how impossible finding this again will be.”
I could hear tears in his voice now, and I understood just what he meant. He had shown me pleasure I never knew existed, and I knew that no husband Pater found for me could or would do what Asterius had done to give me pleasure. It was not necessary for a wife to feel this kind of desire... this kind of enjoyment in the marriage bed. All I had to do was let him give me a child. At least now I had a little more understanding of how that would happen. A knew about rampant ‘cocks’ and the way a finger could slide enticingly inside my body.
“My husband will not do this, will he? He will not work so hard to give me pleasure?” I made it sound like a question when I knew it was not.
“I... I don’t know. I doubt it. The whores were shocked that we wanted to know what gave them pleasure and then wanted to give it to them. They said men just stuck their cocks inside them and rode out their own pleasure. Some didn’t even kiss them.”
I thought about this. Maybe patrician men were different from slaves with whores. Yet, somehow, I doubted it. Why were my men different? Why did they want to give the women they paid the same kind of pleasure they received? How did he even know how to do what he just did to me?
“I... I can understand how a woman could touch herself like you showed me. But how did you know to put your mouth there? I mean... Gods, I... I do not know what I mean!” I felt fire spread into my cheeks.
“A woman can use her mouth on a man’s staff. I said there were more intense pleasures to be had, remember? And one girl said her friend had done what I just did to you. She said her friend tasted her there and gave her incredible pleasure. So, of course, we had to try it.”
“A girl with another girl? How odd. I know men can be together. Marcus is like that. But I did not know girls could. I... I do not think I would like that. Not from a girl.”
And it was not just the thought of a girl putting her mouth at my core that made me squirm in revulsion. The idea of a strange man doing it felt the same.
I followed that thought to its conclusion. What about Typhon, Talos or Orion? How would I feel if they licked at my folds until I came apart in bliss? Yes, I would enjoy that. As much as with Asterius. But anyone else? I imagined other gladiator students I knew well from my time as Cassius. They were almost as well-built and powerful as my pack. Some just as handsome. But no... no, I did not think I would want any of them between my legs.
Then my mind went to what Asterius had said. That a woman could put her mouth on a man as he had put his mouth on me. Could I do that to A
sterius? Did I want to? If it gave him the kind of pleasure he had just given me, then yes, I did.
“Can I do that to you? Can I put my mouth on you?”
Asterius groaned. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve wanted to hear you say that? How long I’ve imagine your lovely mouth around me? Sucking me off until I explode. So... yes... gods, yes, you can.”
He had removed his tunic to sleep and was wearing only his loincloth. So it took only a moment before it was gone.
“Can I beg another favour?” he asked unevenly.
I grinned at him smugly. “You know I am still floating on a blissful cloud and will say yes to any favour.”
He grinned back at me. “That was what I hoped. I have to make the most of this. You might hate me tomorrow.”
I would not let thoughts of tomorrow or the future intrude on my bliss or the closeness I felt with this man right now. Tomorrow did not matter. Only this moment did.
“Take your tunic off and let me see you. All of you.”
It was easier to do than I expected. Almost a relief to be rid of the chafing coarseness of the tunic. Much better to have the slick feel of Asterius’ skin over hard muscle against my flesh.
For a long time after I cast off the tunic, Asterius stared at me. His hands came up to cup my breasts, weighing them in his palms.
“I thought you would have dark nipples. But they’re rose coloured. Huh,” he muttered almost to himself.
“Dark like yours?” I asked, reaching out to finger his small tight nubs.
“No, like the whore’s. The one who looks like you.”
I drew away from him, suddenly mortified by what I was doing. He was comparing me to a whore... a prostitute he had used because she looked like me.
Asterius drew me back to him and pressed me flat against his body, his big arms wrapped tightly around me. He was imprisoning me, and yet it felt more like a sanctuary. I lay my head against his muscled chest and listened to his heartbeat. Fast. It was beating too fast. And his staff jerked beneath me, hard and insistent.
“You didn’t want to hear that, did you? I’m sorry.”
I nodded against his chest, enjoying the glide of skin on skin, all thoughts of the other woman gone as sensation took over.
“Let me go, Asterius. I want to feel... Just do it, all right?” I demanded, unable to put my desire into words what I wanted. He reluctantly released me.
I began sliding my naked body over his, feeling the sensations in my nipples and belly and thighs. Asterius groaned with pleasure, enjoying what I did as much as I did.
“Rub your hair against my belly and cock,” he told me as I continued to slither over him like a snake.
I did it, gently brushing the short, soft curls over his skin. When I reached his ‘cock’ as he called it, I stroked first my hair and then my cheek against the hard flesh. He moaned again and writhed a little, as I had done when his mouth was on me.
Wondering exactly what I should do, I decided to experiment. If he did not like what I did, he would tell me. So I licked along the outside of his shaft were the thick vein ran purple and engorged from base to tip.
Asterius let out a gasp and buried his hands in my hair. I licked up and then down, just as I had done with my hands.
“Take me into your mouth,” he coaxed.
The only way I could do that was if I put the big, mushroomed tip in my mouth. It was a large thing. But I could try. There was liquid on the top and I tasted it experimentally, expecting not to like it. Instead, I found I enjoyed its salty stickiness.
Asterius groaned again. “You’re killing me, she-wolf. Watching you indulge your curiosity... it is pure torture.”
I frowned. “I am sorry. What should I be doing?”
He laughed. “That wasn’t a bad thing. It’s a very good thing. I want you to enjoy your exploration. But it’s driving me insane just watching you do it. My cock is screaming to have your lips wrapped around it.”
I grinned, deciding to stop driving him insane. Opening my mouth wide I took him into my mouth, watching his face while I did it.
Gods, he looked like he was on the Elysian Plain. Bliss consumed him.
“Move up and down, taking as much into your throat as you can,” Asterius urged in his deep growl I was coming to associate with sexual desire.
I did as he asked, though I could not take much as the head was more than a mouthful already. I made do with stroking the length with my hands. That seemed to please him enough that he writhed beneath me in a very satisfying way.
“Suck me in,” he pleaded.
That confused me, but I decided he meant for me to suckle as a baby did. That might be what he required. Oh, yes, that was it! He let out an anguished cry, pulled me off him, and let the white liquid spray over his belly and chest in a way I was coming to recognise.
When he collapsed back against the pillow, I slid up his side to rest my head on his shoulder. Should I ask if I did it well enough? I knew it was not necessary, as his actions had told me all I needed to know. I may not be as good at it as the whore who looked like me, but I could learn. And it was definitely something I would enjoy learning.
Chapter Fourteen
ASTERIUS
The next weeks were the best in my life. I was living the dream. The girl at my side and in my bed was the one I’d loved for five long years. The one I’d never believed I could have, even in this limited way. And yet here I was, sharing every minute of the day and night with her, giving and taking pleasure so sublime it sometimes brought tears to my eyes.
That I could not claim her completely seemed less important now than it had at the beginning. I had come to realise there was far more to sexual pleasure than just rutting. Exploring Accalia’s beautiful body, watching her pleasure, was as enjoyable as driving home inside the body of a whore had ever been. Those short minutes of pleasure had been raw, intense and relieving, but this... this was constant. A constant stream of pleasure as delicate and fragile as a butterfly’s wing.
There had been dangerous moments when her desire and mine had almost pushed me to break my vow. But, somehow, I’d always managed to keep my head. The thought of Accalia hating me was even more repellent now than it had been when she first told me what would happen if I gave in to temptation. I wanted her more than I ever wanted anything in my life, but I also wanted her safe. And there was always the possibility I might plant my seed in her if I took her virginity. That would shame her in the eyes of her father and her world. I couldn’t do that to her.
And she still clung to the idea that her virginity was not hers to give away. That it belonged to the man her father chose for her. A stranger who would likely not know what a precious gem he was getting. He would take her virginity as if it were his due. Then he’d dismiss it and her, while he sought out a slave to do the things he wanted done. Things he’d never expect his sweetly innocent wife to ever do.
What if she tried to do to him what she did so brilliantly for me? He’d label her a whore and want to know where she’d learned a whore’s tricks. He might even doubt she had been a virgin at their marriage and divorce her.
I tortured myself with thoughts of this stranger long into the night when Accalia slept soundly at my side, her soft breathing a balm to my soul.
She sent a missive to Marcus as soon as she could and there had been several in return from him. The first told her he and his men had escaped unscathed from the fight with Camellia’s men. They had barely drawn their swords and the cowards had run away, their tails between their legs.
But there had been more strangers watching them, and Marcus was sure that the men had not witnessed Accalia and me escaping by ship. So they buzzed around Marcus and his family like flies on carrion, waiting for a glimpse of her.
Then at the end of the second week of bliss a missive had arrived from her father telling her it was safe to come home. Camellia had been dealt with and wouldn’t be a problem anymore.
When she read the papyrus out to me, my
heart turned over in grief. A crazy part of me wanted to gather her up and take her away to the ends of the empire. We could be happy, she and I, somewhere away from Rome’s control.
But it was a pipedream. I could never do that to her. Though I had never believed it possible, I had been given more of my girl than I could ever have expected. She had been mine for more than two blissful weeks. Closer to three, by the time I got her safely back to her home. Most people never got that much pure happiness in their whole lives. I would be greedy to ask for more, especially as I knew what it would cost Accalia to leave with me.
We took ship the following morning. And because we had become a common sight around the town, we had no trouble finding a ship that didn’t require me to show papers. Accalia remained dressed as a woman, and for three and a half days she rested at my side on a pallet we brought with us for the voyage. If my tunic was soaked through with her tears every night I made no comment on it. What could I say, “I’m sorry?”
How could I say such a thing when I wasn’t sorry for a moment of it? And I would do it again in a heartbeat, no matter how much that heart might ache now that our time was coming to an end.
I hired a cisium and drove us to Natalinus’ villa. That I didn’t sleep a wink in the slave’s quarters there was only to be expected. I missed her soft body next to mine. I missed the sound of her sleeping. My heart felt raw with grief and pain, and the kind of anguish I never thought myself capable of feeling. This intensity was Typhon’s domain, not mine. I was the easy-going one. I was the one who never let troubles get them down. I was the one who never cared much about anything at all. I just lived the moments as they came.
Now I was deeply troubled, and I cared too much. I couldn’t live in the moment anymore because all I wanted to do was live in the past. And I did, every second I could. I brought up every precious second of my time with Accalia and relived it anew. Savouring it like I used to savour those sweet treats Accalia brought us.
Gods, I missed that time as well. The innocence of it. The camaraderie of it. Now it was gone forever. When my pack-mates came home they would be heading for the arena. I might be too, if this escapade with Accalia counted as my trial. But it had been too easy. Not a trial at all. Therefore, I expected I might have to remain for another year and undergo it again next year.
