Barbarian Prize

by Deanna Ashford

  Taranis saw a number of the guests stand up. There were a couple of women among them and also the senator. He was certain that he would rather face an entire Roman army in battle than he would these people walking towards him.

  Sweat beaded his brow, rolling into his eyes, and he blinked uncomfortably, not even able to wipe it from his face. Standing here, chained to the floor, he could barely move and was unable to do anything to protect himself from what was to come. He had never felt so helpless, as the small group of people surrounded him. Their hands touched his arms, legs, chest and back, and he wanted to close his eyes and block everything out but he didn’t, as that would appear cowardly. So he stared straight ahead, trying not to move or flinch, as they poked and prodded him again and again.

  The guests all wore strongly scented oils and perfumes. As they crowded around him, the sweet odours started to make his head spin. He didn’t mind so much when the women touched him, as their hands were gentle and somehow it didn’t feel quite so demeaning. What would it be like to be sold to a woman of standing? Judging by the expression on their faces, these Roman matrons had only one thing in mind for him. None of them was unattractive and he tried to convince himself that it wouldn’t be so bad to become a rich woman’s plaything and spend his nights in her bed attending to her sexual needs.

  These thoughts were still filling his mind when he felt soft, pudgy fingers stroking his chest. ‘He is so handsome,’ said a lisping male voice, as the fat fingers rubbed and squeezed his nipples. Taranis fought to repress his automatic shudder of disgust as the short, pot-bellied Roman pressed his body closer. ‘So enchanting,’ he cooed softly. ‘With that arse what man wouldn’t want him?’

  ‘Have you tired of your pretty young Greek boy already, Gaius?’ The senator, a tall man with grey hair, spoke.

  ‘No, of course not,’ Gaius said petulantly. ‘But this one is so different – so masculine.’ He continued to paw Taranis, his hands moving down to stroke his flat stomach.

  ‘Masculine?’ the senator repeated. ‘By any chance, are you considering offering your arse to him instead of the other way around?’ he continued with a scornful smile.

  Taranis could feel other hands touching his buttocks but they didn’t concern him so much, as he knew that they belonged to a woman. He could feel her full breasts pressed against his back and the soft fabric of her silk gown brushing his legs.

  ‘You are being unfair, Aulus. Even you enjoy fucking young men on occasions,’ Gaius snapped. In contrast to his irritation, his touch was very gentle as he stroked the bulge of Taranis’s sex.

  ‘Maybe so,’ the senator said in a low voice. ‘But to freely admit that you desire to offer your arse to a slave –’

  ‘I never said that,’ Gaius protested. ‘I’m not turning into a cinaedi! You presume too much.’ The cinaedi were Roman men who enjoyed being the passive member of a homoerotic act. To publicly infer that an influential citizen would desire this was considered demeaning, even though such acts went on often enough behind closed doors.

  ‘Perhaps I do,’ the senator agreed, watching Gaius continue to paw Taranis. ‘Forgive my presumptions, my friend,’ he added with a wry smile.

  The loathsome slug’s hands began to slide under the scrap of fabric covering his male organs and Taranis swallowed his automatic groan of disgust.

  ‘Please.’ Maecenus placed a hand on the man’s arm. ‘I would ask you to desist.’

  ‘You are spoiling Gaius Cuspius’s pleasure, Maecenus,’ the senator pointed out, sounding more amused than angered. ‘He has been looking forward to this all evening.’

  ‘I have no such intention,’ Maecenus replied hurriedly. ‘You will discover why a little later, my most honoured and esteemed guests. If I could ask you all to return to your seats,’ he added, looking pointedly at the woman who was still standing behind Taranis, fondling his buttocks. ‘I have a small surprise that I’m sure you will all enjoy.’

  ‘Come, Poppaea, let me escort you back to your couch,’ Aulus said to her, gallantly holding out his arm.

  ‘Of course, Aulus,’ the woman agreed in a low husky voice, as she smiled and stepped towards the senator.

  ‘He’s not usually so protective of his merchandise,’ Gaius complained loudly as he reluctantly accompanied the other guests back to their couches.

  Taranis watched them, hoping that his humiliation was at an end, although he didn’t believe it was. He tried to recall what it was like to recline on a couch dressed in a toga being attended by slaves, eating, drinking and laughing, perhaps discussing politics or the state of the Empire, but he couldn’t. That former life seemed only part of a half-remembered dream.

  Maecenus clapped his hands, then sat down on the chair one of the slaves had brought him. The musicians began playing an eastern tune with a hypnotic beat and a dancer glided on to the floor. She was slightly built but with unusually large, firm breasts for such a slim figure. Her skin was the colour of amber and she had long straight, black hair, which brushed her buttocks as she swayed in time to the music.

  Her nipples were painted gold and she was totally naked apart from a narrow, flat-linked gold chain around her hips. As she glided closer to Taranis, he saw that another chain was attached to it. The chain was barely visible, hidden between the cleft of her buttocks, threaded between her naked pussy lips, only reappearing where it dissected the mound of her denuded sex.

  She moved closer to him, swaying her hips and making strange voluptuous movements of her belly in time to the slow evocative rhythm of the music. She was pretty, very pretty, and so close to him now that he could see the delicate beads of perspiration on her dusky flesh.

  She appeared to be dancing just for him and not the guests. He couldn’t help remembering the Roman parties he had attended, where slaves had been forced to put on erotic sexual displays to entertain their guests. Was he expected to play a central part in a similar lewd indignity?

  The dancer began to touch him, brushing her fingers sensually over his naked flesh, and, despite his nervous trepidation, his body responded and he started to become aroused. Still moving in time to the music, she sank to her knees. Leaning back, she opened her thighs wide, so that he had a near-perfect view of her naked pussy. Between her sex lips, he could see the gold chain digging into her moist rosy flesh. The gold links pressed against her clitoris and every time she moved they rubbed erotically against the entrance to her tight little cunt.

  She rose gracefully to her feet and pressed herself close to him again, rubbing her gold-painted nipples against his lower chest. ‘You want me, don’t you?’ she said huskily, as she reached round him to squeeze his buttock cheek. ‘My master was told by the bathhouse slave that the generous size of your cock would please him, especially when it was fully aroused,’ she added, as she unfastened his scanty loincloth and pulled it off. ‘I want to see it, as do his honoured guests.’

  As she stepped away from him, she dropped the small piece of fabric on the floor, leaving him naked and exposed. Filled with impotent fury, he glared at Maecenus as he pulled uselessly at his chains.

  The girl wasn’t finished with him yet, however. She moved closer again and ground her pelvis against his body and he felt a strange mixture of despair and excitement well up inside him. Still swaying in time to the music, she slid to her knees and gently took hold of his cock. Sensuously, she licked the tip, then slid her lips over the domed head. The warm wetness of her mouth increased the fire in his veins and he felt the organ start to stiffen.

  Despite his fears and his shame, his body still automatically responded to the pleasurable sensations of the girl’s soft lips and he felt his cock grow harder. He became even more aroused as she pulled his shaft deeper into her mouth and gently caressed his balls. He couldn’t move, couldn’t pull away, all he could do was stand there and submit to this lecherous indignity.

  ‘No,’ he groaned as her tongue flicked over the taut skin of his cock-head.

  At first he was so bound up in
all this that he didn’t realise what else was happening, not until he felt other soft hands caressing his body. Maecenus had ordered the other two dancers to join their companion. The women rubbed their huge breasts against his naked flesh, their hands stroking every part of him. Surely no man, not even the great Jupiter himself, could withstand this, he thought, as he felt them squeeze and caress his balls. Slim fingers slid between his buttock cheeks and gently circled his anus. The women’s hands seemed to be touching every inch of his flesh, invading every nook and cranny of his body. Yet still he fought his arousal, willing himself not to respond. But the battle was useless, as his sexual excitement grew stronger and stronger.

  Lust overwhelmed him, and he knew without a doubt that he was agonisingly close to coming. He felt his belly contract and his balls begin to tighten as the dark pleasure overcame his will to resist. Suddenly, to his surprise, all three women stepped away from him and knelt submissively in front of Maecenus.

  The blood sang in his ears, his body screamed out for fulfilment and at first he wasn’t really totally aware why this was happening, as Maecenus dismissed the women, then stood up and stepped over to him. ‘Magnificent, is it not?’ Maecenus pointed at Taranis’s erection. ‘Almost as large as the god, Priapus, himself,’ he added with leering pride. ‘Lords and ladies, who wouldn’t want to own this pleasure giver? Is it not worth any price?’

  How vulnerable and exposed he was now with his erect cock standing stiffly out from his groin. Maecenus touched the rampant organ, tapping it gently so that it swayed and caught the light, gleaming with the remains of saliva from the dancer’s mouth. Taranis had never been forced to face such abject humiliation as this. He willed his erection to subside but for some bizarre reason his degradation served to make it remain frustratingly erect.

  ‘Come, Senator, come, Aedile,’ Maecenus invited, looking towards the couches where Aulus Vettius and Gaius Cuspius were reclining. ‘You wished to examine the merchandise more closely and this is your opportunity.’ He gave a lascivious chuckle as he glanced back at Taranis, whose cheeks had turned scarlet with embarrassment.

  Gaius, with a slave’s help, struggled to his feet and waddled forwards, red faced and sweating profusely. ‘By the gods,’ he said breathlessly as he reached Taranis. ‘My cock is almost as hard as the slave’s.’

  ‘But not half as generously sized,’ Aulus rejoined as he followed him. ‘Gaius got so excited he almost came on his couch.’ He winked slyly at Maecenus. ‘You old goat, you certainly know how to display your merchandise to the best effect. I wager that they’ll be fighting to bid for this one at the auction tomorrow.’

  ‘Indeed, I hope they will,’ the slave trader replied, stepping aside to allow the two men to get closer to Taranis.

  ‘Come, Gaius, you can do what you like to him now – touch his cock, examine his nether mouth – the choice is yours, is it not,’ Aulus said derisively. Yet there was a strange look of cold lust in his eyes that decried his contempt.

  Hold fast, Taranis told himself, the two warriors you admire above all else, Achilles and Alexander, both welcomed men as well as women into their beds. However, that didn’t serve to reassure him at all, because he had never ever felt even the slightest desire for another man, let along a fat slug like Gaius Cuspius.

  He did his best to remain steadfast but he still gave a slight, almost imperceptible shudder as Gaius’s damp pudgy hand took hold of his cock. His erection had started to diminish a fraction, so Gaius began to pump the organ enthusiastically. Up to this moment, Taranis had thought he’d reached his lowest level of degradation, now he knew that was not so. He clenched his jaw and stared straight ahead, focusing his eyes on nothing, trying to pretend that it was Sirona’s hands on him not this loathsome slug’s.

  The trouble was that only made his cock stiffen fully again, and he heard Gaius’s soft sigh of bliss. ‘You and I could be so good together. You’ve no need to fear me, barbarian. I would treat you kindly if you pleased me, very well.’ The pumping turned into a slow sensual caress as he whispered softly, ‘Your cock looks so delicious I could take it in my mouth right now.’

  Taranis was appalled. His erection should have sunk like a stone but, to his eternal damnation, it didn’t. He was even more terrified because he’d begun to find a dark unexplainable pleasure in being abused by this man.

  ‘You would have to be very careful if you ever decided to let this man fuck you, Gaius. You are unaccustomed to such strange pleasures, because in the past it is you who has always done the fucking,’ Aulus said. ‘Judging by the massive size of this slave’s cock, he’d probably split you in two at the first attempt,’ he mocked, his cold grey eyes focused on the erect member. ‘It is far safer for you to consider fucking him, at least for the time being,’ he continued, casually fondling Taranis’s buttocks.

  ‘He is very large,’ Gaius agreed, this time not appearing to take offence at the senator’s deliberately derogatory comments. ‘That bitch in eternal heat, Poppaea, would love to buy him. She’s had so many lovers, her cunt must be as big as the Aqua Augusta by now. But I’ve no intention of letting her get her greedy hands on this prize.’

  ‘Poppaea can afford to outbid you if she wishes,’ Aulus pointed out. ‘Unless you intend to bankrupt yourself, of course.’

  ‘You are rich enough to outbid both of us,’ Gaius retorted jealously, as he continued to stroke Taranis’s cock.

  ‘If by some chance I decided to purchase this slave, would you expect me to allow you to have use of him as well?’ Aulus raised one eyebrow questioningly. His hand slid in the crack of Taranis’s buttocks and stroked the entrance to his anus. ‘You expect much from me, old friend.’

  ‘I expect nothing you are not prepared to give,’ Gaius protested.

  ‘Maybe so.’ Aulus seemed unconcerned. ‘However, I wager this slave would much prefer to service a woman. These barbarians from Gaul have plebeian tastes.’

  ‘Don’t forget that he was born and bred a Roman,’ Gaius muttered. ‘He might prefer female flesh at first, but over time I can persuade him to think very differently.’

  ‘What manner of persuasion were you thinking of?’ Aulus asked, surreptitiously easing his finger into the tight brown ring of Taranis’s anus.

  Taranis clenched his teeth, trying not to move or betray any emotion at all. This intimate intrusion into his body was a totally unfamiliar occurrence and he had never experienced a sensation quite like it before.

  ‘Kind or cruel, whatever proves necessary,’ Gaius continued, unaware of what Aulus was doing to Taranis. ‘He’d soon learn to enjoy the pleasure I have in store for him. After all, one hole is much like another – both gratifying in their different ways.’

  ‘Would you think that, slave?’ Aulus whispered huskily in Taranis’s ear, pushing the finger even deeper for a moment. Taranis tensed, certain his cock had grown even harder still because the sensation was so strangely intense. Then, to his relief, Aulus removed the offending digit and stepped towards Gaius. ‘I think that is enough for now.’ He gently eased his friend’s hand from Taranis’s cock, then smiled broadly at Gaius. ‘On reflection, perhaps I should bid for him. He is a little too mature for my taste, but I might well enjoy chaining him down and fucking him. Once I’ve had my fill, and tamed him adequately, I would be more than happy to pass him over to you for a time, old friend.’

  ‘Knowing how cold and cruel you can be, Aulus, even to those of your own blood,’ Gaius said, lust still distending his pudgy features, as he watched Aulus take hold of the captive’s engorged shaft, ‘I’m certain that you could tame him with consummate ease.’

  ‘Precisely!’ Aulus said, his fingers feeling as cold as ice to Taranis. ‘I demonstrate.’ Aulus pinched the end of the organ between his thumb and forefinger in such a way that it made the unwanted erection immediately begin to subside. He looked challengingly at Taranis for a brief moment then turned to address Maecenus. ‘I think we’ve all seen enough, don’t you?’

  ‘I
f you say so, Senator,’ the slave trader immediately agreed in a very obsequious manner, as if Aulus Vettius was not to be upset at any cost.

  Julia was feeling flustered and rather nervous by the time she and Borax arrived at the auction house the following morning.

  ‘We are quite safe, my lady,’ Borax assured her, knowing that she was concerned because this area had a rather shady reputation. ‘Half the nobility of Pompeii is here it seems,’ he said, glancing at the litters and chariots parked at the front of the establishment. ‘This auction has prompted a lot of interest,’ he continued, as he led her inside the building. ‘It appears that everyone is curious to see the barbarian warriors from Brittania and their leader.’

  Maecenus had arranged to auction off all the inferior merchandise first, and saved the best for last, hoping that the richer attendees would perhaps be tempted to bid for the cheaper slaves as well. However, his plan had backfired a little. The auction was almost complete and most of the wealthier and most important citizens had only recently arrived. Even so, all the chairs at the front were occupied and there were barely any places left on the benches behind them.

  ‘I’ll find you a chair,’ Borax said, surveying the crowd.

  ‘Don’t worry, I’ll find a space on the benches; there is no need to make a fuss.’ To be truthful, Julia didn’t want to sit at the front with Poppaea and her friends, or next to Gaius Cuspius and his cronies. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to their cutting comments and facile remarks.

  Borax led her to a bench. He didn’t even have to ask the elderly man at the end to move along because, when the man saw the stepdaughter of Aulus Vettius approach, he immediately slid along the bench to make a place for her.

  ‘Thank you,’ Julia said with a polite smile as she sat down. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Borax to sit on the bench beside his mistress, so he was forced to step to the side a few paces to prevent himself obstructing the view of those behind him.