by Jana Downs
“Cock tease,” Cass quipped, dragging the privacy partition to the front of the cell and positioning it over the door.
“I learned from the best,” Tobias said, groaning. “Always running around your cell naked, cock just out there for the whole world to see, ass so fine that I just wanted to sink my teeth into it. God, Cass, I feel like every second since I met you has been a tease.”
Cass puffed up with pride over Tobias’s admission. He liked that his soon-to-be lover found his body appealing. He was finally going to get to be with his mate, and the beauty of the moment finally sank into his being. The fight from earlier was all but forgotten. After all, it wasn’t like it would be their last fight. All things considered given their differences, it was a miracle they didn’t fight more often.
He crossed to his dresser and fished in the top drawer for a bottle of lube. He hadn’t taken a virgin ever, so it was a new experience for the both of them. He imagined that he would just have to go slow and hope for the best. He took a deep breath in an effort to calm his thundering heart.
“Tobias, if anything feels uncomfortable just tell me. We’ll work it out together, baby.” He felt high, like he was about to get a hit off his own personal cocktail of drugs designed just for him. He turned back to Tobias and looked over his lover’s perfect form.
“Hurry, Cass. I want you.” Those chocolate eyes were full of raw lust, and Cass growled in desire. His cat purred loudly, the sound filling the room. Tobias shuddered. “I love when you do that. I can’t wait to feel that against me everywhere.”
Cass had to put a restraining hand at the base of his cock to keep from shooting at the words. If he didn’t take the edge off his own lust he was going to be ravaging Tobias with all the feral hunger percolating through his bloodstream.
“What do you get from being with me?” Cass asked. What had he done to deserve this beautiful man in his bed?
Tobias swallowed and licked his lips and a slight scent of unease filled the air. “Just you, Cass. You’re more than enough.”
He was probably nervous.I’m such an ass. I should’ve been more considerate. “Don’t worry, little one. I’ll take care of you always.” He crawled onto the bottom of the bed and put his hands gently on Tobias’s knees. “Spread for me, baby. Let me get you ready for me.” It would probably be easier the first time if Tobias went on his stomach, but Cass didn’t want to deny him the intimacy that making love face-to-face would give him.
“O–okay,” Tobias murmured, spreading his legs. His mate trembled, and Cass felt the power and privilege of his position. The trust was a heady thing.
He rubbed Tobias’s tight thighs, massaging the tension from the muscle in an effort to calm the other man somewhat. The slick he kept waited patiently on the nightstand. He reached for it and smeared his fingers with the substance.
“Cass,” Tobias whispered as Cassisus’s slicked fingers massaged his eager entrance, circling and dipping inside to tease the nerve endings into relaxing.
“That’s it, baby. Relax for me.” Cass rubbed against his pucker, circling, before pushing one finger inside to the first knuckle. Tobias gasped and clenched down on his finger. “Push out, Tobias. Just relax. Let me in. This is right. We’re mates. Everything we do together is right and perfect.” He hoped the encouragement would anchor the other man so that he wouldn’t get too upset. Cass couldn’t say he’d ever taken a virgin before, but he knew from his own experience that it was a frightening one just because it was so new. Tobias groaned and pushed back, squirming. Hmmm, eager mouse. Tobias would match him hunger for hunger. Cass knew it by the already-thirsty expression on his face.
He worked one finger in, pushing and withdrawing it in mimicry of what they would be doing just as soon as Tobias was ready for that next step.
“More,” Tobias begged, his hips starting to move in counterpoint rhythm to Cass’s. Hot arousal drew Cass’s balls up tight. If he didn’t get inside his mate soon, he was going to blow. Another finger added to the first along with more lubrication. He was surprised when Tobias’s body swallowed both fingers eagerly. “Fill me, please, Cass…”
“Don’t want to hurt you, sweet,” Cass murmured, adding a third finger. He was well endowed, and the last thing he wanted to do was accidently injure his Tobias by being overeager. If only there was some way to keep from losing his mind between now and then.
He fucked his mate with his fingers for what seemed like eternity before he was finally satisfied that the smaller man wouldn’t be hurt by their joining. By the time Tobias was at that point, Cass was sweating profusely and hard enough that he could fuck through cement block and not strain anything. “Ready, baby?” Cass asked, surging up Tobias’s body and positioning himself between his spread thighs.
“Yes!” Tobias cried out, obviously as eager to get to their joining as he was.
Cass positioned his legs on either side of his hips before stuffing a pillow under Tobias to elevate the mouse’s ass so he could get a better angle. The entire time, Tobias watched him with hungry eyes, panting softly.
As he got everything into place and took himself in hand, he looked down at Tobias’s beautiful body, soaking in the image. His mate was finally in his bed, in his domain, and he’d come there of his own volition. The idea filled Cass with pride. He had always wanted to be the type of man who his mate would be proud to call his own, and Cass knew by the way Tobias was looking at him under his dark, lowered lashes that he had indeed become such a man.
He probed Tobias’s entrance with his pulsing, pre-cum-slicked prick and groaned when his mate’s body opened to accept him. He trusted him to not hurt him, and Cass would be damned if he broke that trust. He was careful as he worked his hips forward in slow increments in order to seat himself in Tobias’s hot body.No one else has been where I am.And no one else would be there again if Cass had anything to say about it.
“Cassisus, move! I’m not going to break!” Tobias snapped, pushing into Cass’s hips to afford him deeper penetration.
Cass’s eyes flew wide in surprise. “Eager, mate?”
“Yes!” Tobias growled, moving restlessly on Cass’s length. “Need you. Come on, Cass. Give me all of you.”
The words snapped something inside Cass that pushed him over the edge from man to Beast. His cat screamed his desire and Cass’s now-claw-tipped hands gripped Tobias’s hips in a brutal grip.
“Mine!” he snarled, thrusting forward into Tobias’s passage almost violently.
“Yours,” Tobias snarled right back, meeting him thrust for thrust.
I am so lost.It was the last coherent thought he had before he lost himself completely in Tobias. The hot cavern squeezed his prick so hard that he was pretty sure the top of his head was going to blow off any second, and the noises of need Tobias was making in regular intervals were doing a good job of stealing his sanity away.
It wasn’t long before orgasm was only a few thrusts away. He could feel it burning up his spine and clenching his sac into a tight ball of want. “I’m close,” he rumbled, sweat dripping down his neck. He closed his eyes in an effort to forgo the inevitable. However, the sound of their joining flesh just seemed to wind him that much tighter.
“Cass!” Tobias yelped, his back bowing at a nearly impossible angle before he shot the hot, sticky proof of his desire in the valley between their joining bodies.
Cass groaned as Tobias’s ass pulsed and gripped him as his mate shuddered through his pleasure. The scent of his spunk filled the air, and it threw the gladiator headlong into his own orgasm. He thrust forward once, twice, three times before groaning out his release and filling Tobias’s body with Cassisus’s cum. The mouse’s eyes widened in surprise, and he groaned as his body was pitched into another orgasm in time with Cass’s. Together they were spent.
Cass’s body trembled with an effort to keep from collapsing against Tobias as utter exhaustion took the place of the intense desire of before. Had pleasure ever felt so good? He doubted it. He was pretty sur
e that he had busted a lung a second ago from panting so hard.
Tobias looked up at him, his brown eyes filled with a sense of wonder and no small amount of contentment. “Is it always like this?”
“Better,” Cass rumbled. Though, God help him if it got much better. He would probably go insane from it if that happened. He wondered if he would survive sex like that for the rest of his life. He chuckled at the thought.
“I feel funny,” Tobias said, stretching a bit before rubbing Cass’s hips with his legs, which were still wrapped snugly around Cass. “Almost drunk.” He yawned. His mouse was feeling the same exhaustion as he was.
“It’s probably a combination of the best sex ever and the pheromones in my cum,” Cass said, pulling out of Tobias with a groan. He felt a little pang of protest as he did so from his cat, but that was all right. They would do it again soon. “When I release inside you, it’s like mate overload from what I’ve read.”
Tobias grunted out something, but his eyes were already sliding shut in sleep. Cass chuckled. He’d worn his mate out. He glanced around his cell. It was filled with his things, most of which he didn’t really own. He looked back in his bed. Tobias was really and truly his. With a smile on his face, he rolled out of bed and went to clean up.
Chapter Nine
Tobias woke to the sound of echoing footsteps. He frowned in his sleep. It wasn’t unusual for him to be woken up on any given morning to his family chattering or the guards changing shifts, but the echoing threw him off. What were they walking on to produce such an effect?
“Tobias, sweet, let’s get some clothes on. Corbin will be here in just a minute and I don’t want to have to bust my lanista in the face for looking at your gorgeous body without a stitch on it,” a familiar voice said, calling him out of the realm of dreams. It had been a pleasant dream, too. He had been at the far end of the estate at the cabin that Flavius had promised him, sitting on the front porch while he watched his Cassisus tend the small vegetable garden he’d had him plant a few months previously. It had been full summer, and the heat had been perfect. He was still warm, as matter a fact…Then the words penetrated his mind, and his memory replayed for him every detail from the night before. He had spent the night.Damn.I’m probably late.He was sure Flavius wouldn’t be mad at him for staying with his mate, but still.
“Where are my clothes?” he asked, his voice filled with gravel from sleep. He slowly opened his eyes to see Cassisus lying beside him, his head propped up on his hand with a soft expression on his face.
“You may have left them outside the cell,” Cass said, looking amused. “However, I’ve got a T-shirt you can wear until you are able to retrieve them. I also might have a pair of sweatpants we can rig up to fit you, but you’re going to look like a little kid playing dress up.”
Tobias nodded, but his mind was stuck completely on Cass’s face. Fate had given him a mate worth more than anything. Last night had been the most magical experience of his life, and he had Cassisus to thank for it. “Last night was amazing,” he whispered as Cass bent down to press a reverent kiss to Tobias’s cheek.I’m well and truly yours now.That part may have gone unsaid, but it was true. Already Tobias’s animal was bonding to Cass, solidifying their mating and making it impossible to think of any possible future that didn’t include Cass in it.
Cassisus’s smile widened into a grin. “Yes, it was. Thank you.” He pressed their lips together, and Tobias’s arms immediately wound around his neck.
A harsh knock against the iron bars made them jerk apart. Tobias’s eyes flew to the privacy partition that the cat had thoughtfully put up. At least he didn’t have to worry about people seeing him naked. His heart warmed. His mate may have been big and bad, but the guy was a veritable teddy bear in the way he treated Tobias.
“Come on, Cassisus. Get up!” Corbin’s voice barked from outside. “We’ve got a ton to do and little time to do it.”
“I’m up, Corbin. My mate is here. I’ll say good-bye and then come out,” Cass called back. He pushed himself up and crawled over Tobias’s body. It was a wonder Tobias had slept so well with Cass. The bed was only an extra-long twin bed. They had to have slept excessively close in order to be able to even fit on the bed they’d shared.
“All right, but hurry it up. I want you to have a good breakfast before we start training.” With that, the footsteps walked away down the corridor.
Tobias remembered the warmth of the sunshine. It had to have been Cass’s body heat. The dream itself had been beyond beautiful. His mind turned to the future. Now that he was fully committed to his mating with Cass, it only made sense that he would include Cass in his plans for the small living space that Flavius was granting him. He smiled at the idea. How wonderful would that be? “Hey, Cass?”
“What sweet?” The cat was digging in the wardrobe that was pushed against one wall, searching, no doubt, for clothes.
“Do you think the master would let us live together?”
Cass turned his head and raised his gaze to meet Tobias’s. “I would hope so. We’re mated now. There isn’t anything technical about our joining. It would only make sense that we would grant us the opportunity to comingle. I can’t live with the mice, but perhaps he’d let you live in my cell.” He glanced at the bed. “I’ll see about getting a full-size mattress from the lanista.”
He must’ve done as Tobias had asked and forgone any thoughts of rebellion against Flavius. It was a relief. Flavius was a good man, and Tobias wanted to disrupt as little of their life as possible in their joining.
Cass held up a pair of gray sweats and a black T-shirt with triumph. “It is my lounge stuff for when my brother comes over and watches TV, but it’ll do.”
Tobias nodded. “Maybe the master will grant us our own space on the estate,” he said, getting a feel for how Cass would react to such a thing.
The cat laughed. “I don’t know, sweet. Flavius doesn’t even let his gladiators wander around the school unescorted. I seriously doubt he’ll let me run the grounds.” He paused. “Have you given any thought to whether or not you would be willing to travel to Europe with us? I know traveling is hard, but I would miss you terribly if you weren’t with me.”
The admission of affection warmed Tobias exponentially. He would have to talk to Flavius and see if he could work something out about the cabin. After all, when Tobias had negotiated last time, Flavius had accepted his terms readily. Just to be on the safe side he’d keep the cabin reward to himself until he knew for sure, but the prospect was still pretty exciting.
“I will go to Europe with you if Master Flavius lets me,” Tobias said, catching the clothes that Cass pitched to him. “I could help out a lot with Flavius’s affairs while I am there, so it shouldn’t be too hard to convince him.”
Cass nodded and pulled on the cloth that he wore to gladiatorial practice. His firm buttocks encased in the strip of cloth just made Tobias hungry. He was lucky to have such a gorgeous mate. He’d known a few of the house servants who hadn’t been so lucky. Beyond his beauty, Cass was a good man.
“Admiring what’s yours?” Cass teased as he adjusted the side straps on his clothing.
“Absolutely,” Tobias said, licking his lips. If he had an eternity of free time, he would love to spend it exploring every gorgeous inch of Cass.
“You can take your ungodly handsome mate for another test drive after supper tonight,” Cass said, grinning. “I know it’ll be hard to wait that long, but I have confidence in your ability to survive a few hours without looking at my gorgeous bod.”
Tobias rolled his eyes. “Yeah, you’re pretty until you open your arrogant mouth, cat.” He didn’t mean it by a long shot, but that was beside the point. He didn’t need to feed his lover’s ego by agreeing with him.
“I’m wounded, Tobias,” Cass quipped. He went over to the partition and folded it up and tucked it against a wall. “At least the privacy wall worked well enough.”
Soon we’ll have a whole cabin to ourselves. That wil
l work even better.Tobias smiled at the thought. Life was definitely looking up. He went over to his mate and wrapped his arms around his waist before looking up at him. “I’m a lucky man.”
“Hmmm, likewise. I hope you’re not still waffling about us,” Cass murmured, kissing the shell of Tobias’s ear.
Tobias shivered. “No way.”
“Good. Then I am a happy man as well.”
“Come on, bro. Corbin is waiting, and Flavius has sent for Tobias,” Faustus said from outside the cell. They both jumped at the sound of his voice. The other gladiator chuckled. “Good lord, you guys. Get the lead out. It’s just a few hours.”
He was right. It was just a few hours. Tobias kissed Cass’s cheek. “I’ll see you later, mate.”
Cass winked. “Counting the seconds, lover mine.”
* * * *
Tobias made his way back to the main house with a swing in his step. Life was good. He’d finally made peace with the idea that Cassisus was his mate, finally given in to the sexual urges where he was concerned, and finally felt like he was right where he belonged. As soon as he convinced Flavius that Cass would behave if he was allowed to live at the cottage with him, life would be damn near perfect.
Giotto stepped out from one of the servants’ halls with three other house servants. “You’ve got some nerve swaggering around the house like you own it.”
Instant unease blossomed in Tobias’s chest.Crap.He’d forgotten about Giotto’s disapproval of his joining with Cassisus. “I’m late to a meeting with Master Flavius.”
“Don’t patronize us, Tobias. We saw you sneaking out of the gladiator’s cell this morning like a meat-whore,” one of the kitchen falcons spat.
Tobias gasped at the insult. A “meat-whore” was a really nasty name for a shifter who prostituted himself for in-house favors with higher shifters and humans. They were considered race traitors by nonpredatory shifters. He gritted his teeth. “Get out of my way.”