Crimson and Steel

by Ric Bern

  “Yes, Lord. Thank you, Lord.” Javad clasped his hands in thanks and bowed in obeisance.

  “If you vary from this plan I will allow Braxus to gut you in the forum in broad daylight,” Marcus said in a matter-of-fact tone. “Do not fail me.”

  Chapter Seven

  Kell slumbered while her master was away. She drifted in and out of consciousness, the cool night air bathing her body. Nestling her head into a satiny pillow, she drew the sheets over her oiled skin and curled up. Never had she slept on so comfortable a mattress. The stuffing seemed to mold to her weight, and was somehow soft and firm at the same moment. She inhaled deeply and smiled. Marcus’s scent was on her pillow.

  She woke from her light sleep to the sound of sandaled feet sliding on the flagstones of the corridor leading to the chamber. Kell sat up and pulled the flimsy bed dressing around her, holding her breath. The door eased in slowly, as though the opener wished to do so silently. A lit taper flickered as it was held into the room, guttering in a brass candlestick. The face of the praetor was illuminated by the luteous, coruscating flame.

  Kell released her pent-up air in a great sigh. “Lord, it is you.”

  “I have roused you.” He set the candle before the mirror to light the room more fully.

  “I was awake, waiting for you to return,” Kell replied, lying but a little.

  Marcus sat on the foot of the bed and bent to unlace the leather thongs of his hobnailed sandals from his calves. She moved to kneel behind him, letting the linens fall away from her. Still nude from their earlier lovemaking, Kell placed her slender fingers on his tense shoulders and ran her hands over his back and neck.

  “Best not to wait on me when I leave in the night,” he said. “Many nights I will not return. If there is unrest in the city or danger on the frontier I must be gone until the trouble has passed.”

  Kell nodded in understanding as she kneaded his muscles. He had been languid when he left their bed, and now he was all knots and distress. She leaned in and kissed his nape and smoothed her palms down his arms, squeezing his biceps and triceps. Kell felt his tension loosen under her touch, and he turned his head to look at her.

  He then reached up to cup the back of her head, tangled his fingers in her hair, and drew her in to sup from her. Their lips met, and he angled his over hers so that he could slide his tongue into her mouth.

  “Javad is going to get his killing done,” he said softly as he broke away.

  “Why say you so?” she asked, hugging him from behind and resting her chin on his shoulder. They looked on one another in the mirror as they spoke softly in the night.

  “He has upset a brutal man with influential friends. He will most likely die in the woods tomorrow, unless his man finds the runaway. Better there than in my streets,” he stated pragmatically, as though such murder were the most banal thing in his world.

  Kell leaned in and pecked him on the cheek as she listened. She then nibbled on his lobe and exhaled hotly into his ear through her nostrils. Marcus let out a rumbling moan and leaned into her ministrations. Her deft hands slid down his scarlet tunic and clutched at his cock, tugging it free of the fabric. She rolled the skin along the shaft and felt his prick swell with blood. The veins filled and bulged as she strummed her thumb over the head and bit at his neck. She teased him relentlessly with her steaming purrs.

  Marcus stood and disrobed in one movement. He turned to face his woman, passion lining his visage. Like a baby bird awaiting a meal, Kell leaned forward, opened her mouth, and gobbled his cock as it waggled to and fro. He tangled his fingers in her flaxen hair as she bobbed her head up and down.

  She pursed her lips and hollowed her cheeks, humming gently on his prick. Twisting her mouth and swirling her tongue, she sank down to the base of his cock and back to the head over and over again. With one hand she raked her nails across his ass, and the other palmed and tugged at his balls. She gave a firm dig at the flesh between his sac and rear with her middle digit, and a thick drop of hot liquid coursed across her pink tongue. Marcus held her head in place and thrust his hips, fucking her face, forcing his cock into the back of her throat until she gagged and choked. She spit his prick out in a long, slick movement and drew a rasping inhale, tears streaming down her face.

  Fingers still laced in her tresses, Marcus pulled her up and savaged her with a kiss. His mouth slid over hers, and their tongues danced, sparring and tangling as serpents between their mouths. He then slid his paws down to her hips and tossed her into the middle of the bed without warning. Kell laughed with surprise and bounced, so easily manhandled by her new master. Marcus crawled after her, his shoulder muscles straining and defined in the nacreous half-light. He smoothed his hard hands down her thighs, spreading them wide. Her inner lips parted as she moved, leaking nectar. Nostrils flaring in anticipation, he snuggled his nose lightly against her clit and inhaled her scent. Kell gripped his hair in her talons and pawed at her breast, lost in sensation. Sizzling heat emanated from her molten core.

  Marcus extended his tongue and lapped at her pussy, licking into her furrow, parting her petals. He dug his deep into her sheath and closed his mouth on her sex. His chin pressed firmly into her soft rear as he angled his lips over her sex, sucking her pussy into his mouth and running his tongue over the tender folds. Honey gushed from her core as she writhed against him. Jaw glistening, he leaned back a few inches and placed three thick fingers on her sex. He rubbed her cunt in slow circles, smearing her juices over her inflamed petals. Marcus teased and taunted her clit, only caressing it now and again as his digits made their circuit.

  She cooed and clenched at this attention and then cried out as he swatted her throbbing clit. Bucking in the sweet chaos of pleasure and pain, she balled her fists in the sheets. He struck her once more, and she lifted her hips from the bed. Her form half-twisted, she forced herself down, only to be struck before her ass rested on the bed. She flushed and her breath caught in her throat. Unable to control her body’s spasms, she quaked.

  Marcus pulled her legs over his shoulders even as she quivered. He sheathed his throbbing root into her gushing pussy while her orgasm still coursed through her. The general was merciless in his thrusting. He placed a hand on either side of his slave girl and widened his knees for balance. His seed sac slapped wetly against her ass as he pounded into her. Every bit of her cunt was stretched wide as he plumbed deeply. Kell struggled to catch her breath, pinned down as she was. The rocking motion of his thrusts caused her breasts to sway back and forth on her chest. Even the bed shuddered and lurched under his assault.

  The general paused in his attack and panted, perspiration glazing his flesh. He rolled to his back and pulled his woman with him, remaining sheathed as he moved. Marcus drew in a full breath and let his hands wander over her body, cupping her teardrop-shaped breasts and dragging his fingertips down her sides.

  Kell smiled at her master and circled her hips. She splayed her fingers on his chest and gyrated her hips, his cock embedded in her womb. Now and again she gave his prick a squeeze with her inner muscles, her sapphire gaze peering into his coal black one. She then began to rise and fall on his cock, lifting herself on her knees and languidly resheathing on his vein-covered root. As she humped him she never stilled in the orbital movement of her hips or the clenching of her pussy. When she had as much of his cock in her as she could take, she ground her mound against him and felt a delicious sensation in the back of her neck, a warm fondness coupled with physical lust. Up and down, back and forth she fucked him, squeezing and clenching, grinding down, her soft hands caressing his chest and belly.

  Marcus set his jaw and rose. He pulled his slave girl into his desired position quickly and with purpose. Kell looked up after being put into place and saw her reflection staring back at her. She was on her hands and knees. The candle that he had brought with him was still guttering and limning the room as it rested before the lion-crested mirror. Marcus knelt behind her and easily sheathed into her sopping pussy. She pressed
back eagerly, laying her head to the side so she could watch as her master took her.

  The general gripped his woman by her waist and plunged his prick deep into her womb. He caressed her elegant back, fingers spread. She lay before him in supplication, her golden hair frayed and tangled from lovemaking. He dug his root firmly into her pussy, bucking his hips and clenching his ass. His balls rocked back and forth and then slapped against her. Kell pressed back against him, meeting his thrusts.

  She rose to her elbows and looked over her shoulder at him, unsatisfied with the hazy reflection of the polished bronze. Her ardor boiled over, and she groaned, wriggling her ass as she humped back. How lucky she was to have a master of such high station, as well as a generous and disciplined lover. She clenched her sheath and reached between her thighs, rolling her clit between her fingers.

  Marcus began to thrust awkwardly, and his sac drew tight up against his shaft. He managed three more bucks before he embedded his cock deeply into her and exploded. A fountain of cum streamed into her clenching pussy. Kell felt his thick semen jetting against her inner walls and that sent her into yet another orgasm. She milked his pulsing cock from every ounce of his seed, pressing back hard to ensure he stayed sheathed. Ribbons of hot cum filled her to overflowing until his white cream dribbled down the backs of her thighs. Even after his essence was spent and his sac was drained, his cock throbbed, urging more, but there was none. Panting, he ran his hands over his woman’s ass for a long while before withdrawing.

  Marcus stretched out on the broad bed and gathered her in his arms. Kell rested her head in the middle of his chest and tangled her legs with his. Sleepy and sated, she held his hand and nuzzled his flesh, kissing his nipple now and again. An owl called from a nearby tree, and her eyelids began to feel leaden.

  “Lord,” she whispered, “Lord, when we lay together before…”

  “Hmm?” He moaned, idly drawing on her the small of her back with his fingertip.

  “When we lay together before you said something just as Lucian called you away.”

  “I did?”

  “Yes…about a girl. I asked you why you had chosen me at the auction before seeing any other girls. You said that I ‘looked like she did.’ Who was she?”

  “Oh.” His hand stilled. Kell stiffened for fear of having upset her new master. “Rest easy,” he soothed, running his palm down her side. Kell shivered as his calloused palms scraped against her skin. “When I was a young man, younger than you are now, I was an officer like Lucian. But I didn’t assist a praetor with the minutia of day-to-day camp life. I was a cavalry officer. I served in Germania, at a fort on the Rhine. The 30th Legion Ulpia Victrix.”

  Kell turned her head to look at her master. She rested her chin on folded hands, watching his lips and eyes as he spoke. The candle was nearly out and the flame flickered wildly, casting shadows across his face as he reminisced. She reached out and touched his hair where it grayed at the temples as he continued.

  “I led patrols across the river to gather reconnaissance about the barbarian’s movements. We often clashed with wild tribesmen in enemy territory and raced back to the safety of the fort with our tails between our legs. One summer they revolted en masse. That was my first taste of real war. And that is where I met my wife. I took her as a captive and made her my slave. I fell in love with her. In my youth I made her my everything. She was my life, aside from my obligations to the army. I married her, gave her her freedom. And then she died giving birth. Along with the child—a son.”

  “Lord, I am sorry,” she said, laying her cheek back on his chest. “I should not have asked you to tell.” Tears welled in Kell’s eyes and fell on his breast.

  “No, no. I have not uttered these words in a long while, and it feels good to share them.” He caressed her back and let out a warm chuckle. “Do not let an old hurt of mine trouble you. It is long past.”

  “Not long enough to keep you from buying one who reminds you of her,” she uttered murmured most delicately.

  “True,” he replied gently after a pause.

  “Is she the girl on the wall?” She looked up to him with tear-dappled eyes.

  He nodded. “You have seen the fresco?”

  “Yes. She was beautiful. She looked very happy. Did you paint it?”

  “I did.”

  “I want to make you as happy as she did, Lord,” she said faintly, barely audible over the breeze.

  “And I you.” He kissed the top of her head.

  Kell snuggled down into his chest and pressed her rose petal lips to his hand. “Good night, Lord.”

  As she slipped into slumber she vowed to make as indelible an impression on her new master as his first love had imprinted on his heart.

  Chapter Eight

  Asmin stirred as a shaft of sunlight lay across her eyes. Her lashes fluttered open. A crack between the deer hide and the cave opening allowed this beam to strike her perfectly across the face and rouse her from slumber. She was not upset by this, as she had desired to rise early. She was not finished showing her appreciation to Ulf.

  The barbarian still held her as they nestled together on their sides, his fingers laced together over her belly. Asmin wriggled her rear against his groin and found his prick had also awakened. She smiled slyly to herself and gingerly rolled over in his arms to face him. Looking upon him as he slept she smiled, then pressed slightly, and he rolled the rest of the way onto his back. Very gently she lifted the fur blankets to reveal his nude form. Already she had become aroused. No civilized men looked like this. No muscular man she had ever seen had thighs nearly as big around as their waist. From his shoulders to his hips he was a granite V, and his powerful legs allowed him to carry that weight as slyly as a panther. Ulf’s cock twitched in his sleep, pink and half-erect. She quietly crawled down and positioned herself between his legs.

  Asmin smiled wickedly as she leaned in and kissed his cock, right at the junction of the shaft and balls. His prick lurched and bobbed to lie on his chiseled belly. Asmin pressed her nose to the underside of his stiffening shaft and licked its entire length, pausing to swirl her tongue on the head. She mewled with satisfaction and did this again, this time sucking the cap gently into her bee-stung lips and tasting the dab of fluid that had leaked out of the slit. Asmin again went to the base of his now fully erect cock and drew one of his balls into her mouth, pursing them so she could gently nurse on his sac.

  Ulf had roused and was sitting on his elbows, entranced at the show she was performing for his benefit. She reached up and gripped his cock as she locked gazes with him and stroked his shaft, letting the soft skin roll up and down over the head as she purred against the tender jewel she held in her lips. She licked and sucked the other ball and exhaled hotly through her nostrils as she tugged firmly on his prick, causing more liquid to seep from the head. This she smeared around with her thumb, and he jerked his hips.

  Asmin moved from his balls to the head of his cock. Gripping his shaft firmly in her left hand and supporting his balls in her right, she knelt over his throbbing need and dragged her swollen lips over the glistening head. She circled his dick with her soft mouth, flicking at it with her little, pink tongue now and again to illicit a twitch of his leg.

  With a wicked smile she exhaled gently on his now very purple cock and lightly rubbed the flat part of the head with the soft pads of two fingers, all the while looking in his eyes and wondering if he would allow her to continue her teasing. Circling this most sensitive area with her fingertips, she slowed her movement until her digits were hardly moving at all, squeezing his shaft with alternating pressure. Ulf’s eyes looked as though he were about to burst from the tension. She then grinned broadly and engulfed his cock with her mouth.

  She began slowly, moving her head up and down as she pursed her lips. Hollowing out her cheeks, she inhaled through her nose when necessary, continuing to cup and playfully tug at his sac. Occasionally she would relent to take a deep breath and to lick at his prick.

  �
��Good morning,” she said happily between laps.

  Ulf smiled back languidly, tangling his fingers in her long hair.

  Asmin took his cock in her hand and tugged it as she leaned up to steal a long, lingering kiss from her host. She then nestled back between his well-formed thighs and continued to lavish attention on his prick. Bobbing her head more briskly, she began stroking his shaft and palming his balls. Her fine hair draped over his legs, and he moaned, obviously enjoying the sensations. She again paused for a moment to tease the sensitive ridge on the head of his cock with her breath and the pads of her fingertips until his pleading gaze begged for mercy. Her eyes full of mischief, she then plunged his cock into the back of her throat.

  The she could feel that Ulf was close. His balls were rising tight to his shaft, and his hips were bucking up from the furs. She screwed her lips up and down in a circular gyration, slowing down with each tortuous circuit. A humming thrum began to emanate from her throat, and she pressed into the area behind his dangling balls to massage a hidden gland known by all pleasure slaves.

  Ulf gripped the sides of her head and stiffened. A fount of seed erupted in her mouth, and she struggled to swallow all that he offered, even as she coaxed as much as she could from his pulsing body. Her fingers probed deeply to stimulate his orgasm, and her tongue swirled around his throbbing cock. His cum filled her mouth, invading every part, jetting between her teeth and behind her lips, and trickled down her chin.