It seemed this night would be no different than the last weeks. He was beginning to tire of the company of his own hand and almost wondered if perhaps Demos wasn’t right. Perhaps Gaidres was a fool.
Scowling, Gaidres strode back into the ludus, bypassing the other gladiators and heading back to his cell. He kicked the door shut and a few seconds later a metal scrape told him the guards had decided he was retiring for the night and locked it. This was his life. Gaidres dropped onto his cot, one arm under his head, glaring at the ceiling.
He couldn’t keep his mind from Caelius. It was not as if he missed the man. His body craved relief, that was all. Gaidres reached his free hand down and jerked open the fabric of his subligar, cock already half-hard in anticipation. He exhaled and closed his eyes as he began to stroke.
As always, thoughts of Kerses filled his mind and he sifted through the memories before settling on one. His mind’s eye wandered, seeing the home they shared in the dark of night, their bedroom, their bed, and Kerses stretched out on his stomach, skin bare and inviting in the shadows as Gaidres approached.
Gaidres climbed onto the bed, crouching over him, cock nudging the smooth, firm curve of his lover’s ass. He smiled and bent to nuzzle the nape of the other man’s neck. He smelled, oddly, of fine oils and spice, making Gaidres’s cock swell even harder.
“Wake, beloved.” Gaidres urged sleek thighs to part for him, nestled his cock between the warm cheeks of the most beautiful ass he’d ever seen. His hands roamed over the other man’s skin, slightly damp with sweat from the sweltering summer heat. “Sleep is for those who know not the pleasures we do.”
His lover laughed. “Ever of the silver tongue, you are,” came a sleep-husky voice.
Gaidres grinned and gave the other man’s neck a sharp bite. “Lift your ass, my love, and I’ll show you the skills of my tongue yet again.”
In his cell, Gaidres’s hand stroked faster, breath shaky as his dream lover did just what he’d asked, lifting his round ass in silent offering. Gaidres groaned and squeezed his eyes shut as his hand worked furiously on his cock.
Gaidres began to work his way down his lover’s body, tongue following the line of his back, the salt of his skin sharp. “You are so beautiful.” He lifted his head, looking down. Fine golden skin, lean muscles, dark curls…Gaidres’s brows knit, as he sensed something was not as it should be.
“What do you wait for, my love?” his lover asked, turning his head. Caelius looked at him, dark eyes filled with longing. “I am yours.”
He cursed, sitting up in his cot, cock still raging hard as he panted and glanced around. The fantasy was gone, and Gaidres’s heart raced. Was there no escaping his Roman lover? Guilt warred with the frustration. How long had his fantasy lover been Caelius and not Kerses?
He dropped back on the bed, ignoring his aching cock. Despite its condition, the last thing he wanted was release. He wanted control of his own thoughts. But, like everything else in his life, it seemed Caelius controlled him there, as well.
Why was it so difficult to remain furious with him, then?
Caelius frowned as he watched the slaves spar in the marketplace, the doctoré by his side as they observed the mock battle. The month had passed and, as Gaidres had predicted, Hierocles, Aemilius and Ianuarius had not recovered. By this point, they would not. And Caelius had been forced to take them out of the ludus.
He’d kept his promise to Gaidres, though. He’d found work for Ianuarius in his household. Aemilius had been harder to place, as he had fallen in love with a slave girl Craxus had sold some months ago. It had taken a bit of negotiating, but they were now reunited and Aemilius had a new master.
Hierocles had been most vocal over his new situation and in the end Caelius had allowed him to remain in the ludus to continue tending the weapons and serving his former fellow gladiators. He wasn’t sure it was the best decision, but Hierocles had seemed so angry over leaving. He’d only settled down after Caelius had conceded.
“What of the Nubian, Dominus?” The doctoré indicated the slave before them. Muscles flowed under dark skin and the man had a fierce expression as he came forward and lowered his eyes. There was a pride in him that reminded Caelius of his lion.
“Was he taken in a raid?” Caelius asked in aside to Felix. He may not be able to take back what had happened to Gaidres. But after Gaidres’s tale, he couldn’t bring himself to give profit to those who engaged in such activities.
Felix blinked in surprise. “I do not know, Dominus. I will inquire for you.”
“Do that, please.”
Felix slipped off as the doctoré gestured for the Nubian to turn around. “If I may speak freely, Dominus, he would be a prize to add to your ludus. He would give Marius and Rufus the competition they need.”
“I will consider him, Doctoré. There are a few others I wish to see before I make my final decisions.” Caelius gestured to the slave as he turned around again. “What is your name?”
“Kashta, Dominus.” He didn’t have the accent of other Nubians Caelius had heard. So not taken in a raid, then, or if so, very young. Though there was a fierce pride in him, Caelius didn’t sense any of the smoldering anger that so marked Gaidres. Well, there were many other ways to become a gladiator than through the raids.
“How came you to be a gladiator?” Though he didn’t care for those taken in raids, neither did he want a murderer in his ludus. Not when the sparring was so rough and tempers flared often.
“My mother was a slave, Dominus, when they saw how I grew they entered me into the ludus of my previous master’s family.”
That made sense. The man towered over the both of them. But he could not have been out of training long, not with his skin relatively unscarred. Felix returned to his side and confirmed Kashta’s story, though the Nubian seemed young to have gone through a gladiator school. He’d attend his first real games in whichever ludus took him.
Caelius frowned again. He did not have the heart for such decisions but he wasn’t the type to leave important matters entirely in the hands of those around him.
“I think you’re right, Doctoré, he will be a fine addition. Felix, see to it.” Caelius acknowledged Kashta with a tilt of his head, then turned to go look at other prospects. This whole business kept Gaidres in his thoughts. Kashta was a beautiful man in his own strange, exotic way and he hadn’t even stirred Caelius’s interest.
If he hadn’t known beyond a doubt that it would have caused Gaidres pain he would have long since given in and sent for him again. But no matter how much he could awaken Gaidres’s desire, given what had happened to him at the hands of Romans, calling for him only would have pricked his hurt more, so Caelius let him be.
Now if only Gaidres would return the kindness and leave Caelius be, in his thoughts and his dreams.
“Come…take your pleasure on me, my beautiful gladiator.”
Gaidres startled awake, panting hard as he stared up at the ceiling and for a long moment wasn’t sure where he was. His cock throbbed under his subligar and he groaned, reaching down to adjust it. It was then, hand on cock and half-awake, that he realized…he’d dreamt of Caelius.
Not Kerses.
Guilt mixed with fury filled him and he surged to his feet, raking a hand through his hair. What was wrong with him? First Caelius crept into his thoughts as he pleasured himself, and now his dreams? No one had ever invaded his sleep before. No one had ever dared to take the only time when his former life and his love were still his. But Caelius…like the arrogant, self-assured Roman that he was, strode in and filled Gaidres’s mind with his honeyed words and sensual promises. Pushed away the laughing green eyes he clung to every night.
The more he thought of it, the more angry he became. Caelius did this. Well, he would not stand for it! He would purge the man from his mind during waking hours so that the night could once again belong to its rightful owner.
He strode to the door of his cell, grabbing the iron bars wedged into the wooden opening and r
attling the door on its hinges. “Guard! Guard!”
“Quiet, you!”
Gaidres glared at the guard through the bars, all but hissing in rage. “I demand to see Dominus!”
“It’s the middle of the—”
“Now!”
He knew the guards had orders that he could call upon Caelius at any time, but it’d been a month since their last encounter and he could only hope they still stood. He couldn’t wait. He would never be able to sleep until he cleansed Caelius from his thoughts and blood.
He dogged the heels of the guard as he was led into the villa, pacing as they stopped just outside Caelius’s chambers and the man proceeded to argue with the two guards on watch about whether or not to disturb the dominus. Gaidres was about to end the argument on his own by shoving past them when he heard movement from within the chamber.
“What is it?” Caelius’s voice sounded sleepy, and flooded Gaidres’s mind with images of him warm and hazy-eyed. His cock throbbed.
“Apologies, Dominus, but the gladiator Argon insists on speaking with you now.”
“You know my orders. Send him in.”
Gaidres growled as he pushed past them into the chamber to find Caelius just rising, a sheet of silk wrapped around him. “Gaidres, what is—?”
The question died on his lips as he seemed to recognize the need in Gaidres’s gaze and froze. The way Caelius’s eyes widened with thrilled desire told him that however far above Gaidres he was in status, it was beneath Gaidres that he wanted to be right then.
Gaidres no longer bothered to give any false deference. No nod or lowering of his eyes, only furious emotion. Caelius wet his lips, and Gaidres growled as he reached him and tore the sheet from his body, pushing him back on his rumpled bed.
“Don’t disturb us,” Caelius gasped to the guards as Gaidres came down on the bed with him. Mouths met hard and Gaidres swallowed Caelius’s moan, plundering his mouth and then roughly turning Caelius over onto his stomach. “Gods, Gaidres…please.”
Gaidres didn’t say a word, reaching for the oil kept beside the bed and sloshing some of it over Caelius’s upturned ass. He bent low over him, sucking and biting the man’s neck. Caelius pleaded and Gaidres gave him what he begged for, shoving aside his subligar and freeing his cock to rub against Caelius, prodding his eager hole.
“Yes…yes, fuck me…” Caelius panted, rocking back against him and then letting out a rough, broken groan when Gaidres did exactly that.
Gaidres surged forward, sinking into the tight grip of his body, and growled. He caged Caelius’s wrists, pinning him to the bed with his body, and thrust. Caelius’s fingers clenched, breath rushed from him as Gaidres filled him.
He wasted no time, spared no moment for Caelius to adjust. The other man seemed not to care, eagerly lifting his hips and angling back to accept Gaidres’s rolling thrusts. He shoved his knees between Caelius’s thighs and forced them wide, opening him as much as possible and bracing himself for stronger thrusts. The man was so tight, tighter than a woman, tighter than Gaidres’s own fist in his dark cell at night.
Caelius felt every bit as wickedly pleasurable as he had before. For the first time Gaidres let himself enjoy every moment of their coupling…If he was going to purge Caelius from his dreams, best he get his fill while he did not yet sleep.
Caelius writhed underneath him and begged for more of the unrelenting thrusts, which Gaidres was more than glad to give him. Were the situation different, Gaidres would be spilling over with obscene words, hissed endearments, demands. It went against his nature to hold them back, but he did.
“Gaidres…gods…” Caelius moaned, clenching around him. He gripped Caelius’s wrists hard enough to leave marks, raked his teeth across the Roman’s neck. Caelius would feel this fucking for hours, if not days, afterward. “Gaidres…Gaidres…don’t stop…I beg you.”
He had no intention of stopping, his breath coming in hard pants as he took Caelius He hadn’t realized how deep the need for release had become over the last month. That was all it was. That was what he told himself as the pleasure spiked through him like a bolt from the gods.
He released one of Caelius’s hands, sliding his own down to grasp his hip and lift him to his knees. The punishing thrusts rocked them both and with each one now Caelius shouted, his one freed hand gripping the silk beneath him, other hand still caged by Gaidres’s fingers.
“More…more, Gaidres by the gods…” That the man could even speak was a miracle, as Gaidres didn’t think he could accomplish the same. He had no words, saying it all with his body as they surged and rocked and fucked like wild beasts.
Abruptly, Gaidres withdrew, ignoring Caelius’s frantic, disappointed cry. He flipped the man to his back then, hiking Caelius’s leg high over his shoulder as he came down atop him and slid inside him again. Strong, long-fingered hands clutched at his shoulders now that they were free and Caelius stared up at him, his dark eyes wide, looking at him like he was a god. He could get used to looks like that, after years of being nothing.
The expression on Gaidres’s face struck Caelius to his core. Intense, holding back none of the raw pleasure as he had before, as if he had let go of the furies that hounded him long enough to truly enjoy this.
Gaidres would find pleasure, but not ease for his soul, and Caelius longed to give it to him. Though, at the moment, there was nothing he could do at all, no words he could say anymore, only desperate, needy cries as his orgasm came screaming closer with each thrust.
Caelius’s lips stung, his thighs ached and his lungs burned as if he wasn’t getting enough air. Caelius had thought that maybe he’d over-imagined his earlier reaction to Gaidres during the month-long drought he’d been without his lover. But he’d been wrong. If anything, the absence had only fueled the flames even hotter.
He couldn’t stop the shudders with each snap of Gaidres’s hips, or the pleas for more and harder as Gaidres rutted with him. He wanted it again and again until neither of them could move, only to wake up in a few hours to sate each other once more.
He shouted Gaidres’s name, dug his fingers into the gladiator’s shoulders as he hooked his other leg over Gaidres’s hip. Closer and closer, still staring up into those wild blue eyes, feeling everything tumble out of control. Those rough hands on his body and, gods, Caelius melted inside. He couldn’t think as the hunger he’d been denying roared through him. He couldn’t even beg anymore, just cry out Gaidres’s name and look at him with pleading eyes.
“Gaidres!”
He growled, dropping his mouth to slant across Caelius’s in a devouring kiss and then reached between them to stroke him. He needn’t have bothered, because the moment their tongues tangled, Caelius came apart beneath him, groaning into his mouth as he came. It tore through him as Gaidres continued to ravage his mouth and then as the last ripples faded and he thought he had lost his mind, Gaidres’s own climax hit. The kiss broke as Gaidres rode it out, slamming into him with every throb of his cock before finally stilling, panting hard.
For long moments they didn’t speak, they didn’t move. Gaidres’s face was buried in Caelius’s neck and Caelius didn’t remember how it got there. He liked how Gaidres nestled close and once again those soft emotions stirred inside him. Strange, tender feelings, and the want to soothe Gaidres’s battered soul.
Gaidres shifted against him, the scent of him overwhelming. Sweat and sex combined to make an aroma more arousing than anything that could be bottled. Caelius wasn’t the only one affected. Already Gaidres’s cock stirred, still buried inside him. He rolled his hips, and Caelius gasped.
“I am not done with you, Dominus. Tonight you are mine.” Gaidres rolled his hips again, harder this time as his cock stirred even further. “Isn’t that what you long for? Tell me so.”
Gaidres lifted his head, his gaze promising that he would take his pleasure as Caelius had requested in the past. He hoped his gladiator had gotten enough sleep the past month, because neither of them would get any this night.
>
Caelius bit back the soft, broken cry of surrender, though from the gleam in Gaidres’s eyes he wasn’t successful. “It is what I long for.” And never had he had a lover who dared to make him his. He quivered as he realized that Gaidres wouldn’t hesitate any longer to take what he wanted.
“Say it,” Gaidres demanded, eyes wicked as he rocked his hips again, making Caelius moan.
“Please, Gaidres.”
“Say it, Dominus.”
Caelius couldn’t think. Too much, too soon and still Gaidres kept circling his hips, his cock swelling inside him, nudging against overly sensitive spots. “Tonight, I am yours.” And any other night Gaidres wanted.
He shivered, crying out again as Gaidres let go of his leg and the man’s mouth came down on Caelius’s throat. The shadow of his beard scraped against his skin and Caelius writhed underneath him, his breath catching. “Gaidres…a moment…”
The air around them clung to their skin, thick with the heat of summer and the weight of their exertions. Gaidres rolled, tugging Caelius with him so that he was sprawled across the gladiator’s broad chest, the man’s cock now fully hard inside him. “No, Dominus, you wanted this.” His hands came down to Caelius’s hips. “Now ride me.”
Caelius stared down at him and then determination filled him as he decided to make Gaidres as wild as the man made him. There was a quick flash in Gaidres’s eyes, as if he wondered whether he’d miscalculated, but before he could change his mind Caelius braced his hands on Gaidres’s chest, clenched his inner muscles and did just as he’d been told. Rode.
Gaidres’s head fell back against the bed, eyes closing with a long, loud groan. His fingers tightened on Caelius’s hips and aided his slow movements. He looked like something sent from a dream.
“Like this, Gaidres?”
Gaidres opened his eyes and nodded, licking his lips. “Like that, Dominus.”
Caelius shuddered and leaned low over him, their faces close, their breath hot as it mingled. Gaidres slid his arms around him and Caelius enjoyed the decadent, delicious feel of sweat-slick bodies moving together, so tangled that he could not tell where one ended and the other began.
The Gladiator’s Master Page 9