by Karrie Roman
“Very well, Marcus. Let us drill until dark, but once the night’s watch starts, let the men rest.”
“Yes, Centurion.”
Marcus left to organise the men while Drusus quickly finished his meal. There was no meeting called tonight for the officers, so Drusus walked over to where his men were drilling, instead. He ambled amongst them, commenting on and correcting actions as he saw fit. They were a fine group of men, and Drusus would back them in any battle—any fair fight that was.
As darkness came, Marcus dismissed the men. Some continued to battle each other in the firelight, while others relaxed and talked amongst themselves. A few took themselves to their tents, presumably tired from the day’s efforts.
Caius sat quietly beside Calpurnius as he raucously engaged with some of the men. Drusus watched him for a moment, admiring the way the flames flickered their light over his features. He wondered if Caius would make his way to his tent.
At that moment, Caius turned toward him and licked along his bottom lip. Drusus’s cock stirred immediately at the action. Caius spoke a few quiet words to Calpurnius who nodded and smiled at him. Then he stood and walked toward Drusus.
Drusus watched his approach hungrily. Caius was lithe and graceful; he possessed a body made not only for the rigours of battle but for pleasure. He stopped mere inches from Drusus and leaned close to his ear.
“I am hungry, Dru,” he murmured, his breath tickling Drusus’s ear.
Drusus knew immediately it was not hunger for food that Caius spoke of. He was teasing Drusus, seducing him, but Drusus could use words of seduction too. “I am famished, Cai, so get your plump arse to my tent for I have urgent need of it.”
Caius flushed, laughing as he all but ran to Drusus’s tent. Drusus was close on his heels, all the while admiring the view of Caius’s arse.
When he ducked through the flap of the tent, Caius was waiting for him, a small smile playing on his lips.
“Strip off your tunic, Cai,” he ordered. He was delighted when Caius’s smile grew as he followed his orders. “Get on the pallet—on your back.”
Caius moved quickly to lie on the pallet, his legs spread and throwing Drusus an inviting look. Drusus slowly undressed, lingering over the task while his eyes took their fill of the tempting man on his bed. His body sung with need for the man lying so deliciously naked before him.
When he’d finally disrobed, he slowly walked toward Caius. He was pleased to see Caius never let his gaze fall from him nor did the look of hunger leave his striking face.
“Dru,” he whispered as Drusus crouched between his spread thighs.
Drusus bent to kiss his lips, nose, cheeks and throat. Caius’s skin had the hint of salt from the days sweat on it as Drusus moved his mouth down the long column of his neck and onto the hard plains of his chest. His tongue found the bud of Caius’s nipple, worrying at it until it hardened, before moving to the other. He heard Caius’s faint moans above him.
He circled the nipple with his tongue before licking his way down to his navel and on further to Caius’s hard cock. Drusus licked around the head, gently pressing his tongue to the slit. Caius bucked beneath him so Drusus reached up with his hands to hold his hips in place. When he had Caius secured, he wrapped his lips tightly around the head of his cock, slowly lowering until the tip hit the back of his throat.
Caius continued to squirm and cry out as Drusus repeated the movement over and over. He knew if he kept it up Caius would spill down his throat, and while the thought of swallowing everything Caius had to give him was enticing, he had something else in mind. He pulled off Caius’s cock, gently licking at his balls before he returned to the luxuriousness of Caius’s full, warm lips. Kissing Caius was something he’d happily do all night, all day—forever.
“Dru,” Caius gasped. “I would…” His gaze flicked down and Drusus thought he knew what Caius was asking. He rolled off Caius, coming to rest on his back beside him. Caius rose up onto his elbows and turned to press his lips gently to Drusus’s.
Caius did not linger long at his lips. Instead he moved swiftly down to Drusus’s cock, engulfing it in the warmth of his mouth as though he was starved for it. His inexperience obvious but his enthusiasm delightful.
After a few moments, Drusus gently pushed him off, fearing he was close to completion. “Turn on your back and bend your knees,” Drusus commanded, using a tone usually reserved for giving orders to his men. The shiver which raked through Caius told him he approved.
While Caius wriggled into position, Drusus reached for the vial of oil. Once he had it, he settled back between Caius’s legs. He took the oil and drizzled some over Caius’s hole and then his own fingers. Drusus carefully pushed first one and then another finger inside Caius. When he felt him begin to relax at the intrusion, he added a third finger, stretching him in preparation for his cock.
“Oh gods, Dru, I love having you inside me. Any part of you,” Caius moaned.
Caius’s words floated through Drusus’s mind, filling him with longing and pride that he had such an effect on the young man. Drusus pulled his fingers away from Caius and shuffled closer between his spread legs. He positioned his cock at Caius’s entrance but stopped and turned his gaze up to Caius’s eyes. His pupils were blown wide, his desire for Drusus evident. Caius’s gaze lowered.
“Do not look away from me, Cai,” Drusus commanded and was rewarded with Caius returning his gaze to him.
Drusus slowly pressed inside, mindful of Caius’s inexperience. One day he would love nothing more than to sink inside Caius and pound into him hard, almost brutally as his lust commanded him, but until Caius was more used to being penetrated he would take him slowly and gently.
“Please, Dru. More.”
“Gods, Cai, you tempt me so,” Drusus gasped as he finally sunk inside Caius.
Caius wiggled a little beneath him, the sensation so intense that Drusus’s eyes rolled back in his head. “You want more, Cai?”
“Please,” he groaned.
Drusus put his hands on the back of Caius’s thighs and pushed his legs back even farther. Caius’s body was supple and flexible, moving easily to where Drusus placed it. Then he pulled out almost to the tip before sliding back in. Drusus knew he couldn’t keep this slow, seductive pace for long; his body was urging him to take Caius harder, to find his release.
Tentatively, he gave Caius a harder thrust. When Caius reacted with a grunt followed by a long drawn-out moan of pleasure, Drusus repeated the move. Over and over, he thrust into Caius, each movement a little more out of control, a little harder, until a tingle gnawed at the base of his spine.
Drusus slipped a hand between their bodies and grabbed Caius’s cock. He pumped it in time to his unrestrained thrusts until Caius’s cock pulsed in his hand, and his warm seed spurted onto his skin.
Caius’s sounds were decadent, the most erotic noises he’d ever heard. Drusus thrust hard a few more times before he reached his pleasure, his hips a frenzy of movement as he pumped his seed into Caius’s perfect arse.
When his senses returned, he released his grip on Caius’s thighs, allowing them to drop back to the bed in a far more comfortable position. They were both panting hard as they fought to calm their bodies.
“By the gods,” Drusus murmured. “I am in awe of you, Cai.”
“And I you.” Caius smirked, the seducer once more beneath his lover’s skin. Caius was going to tempt him to the very underworld if he was not more cautious.
After Drusus had washed them both with a wet cloth, they settled down together on his pallet, their arms wrapped about each other.
“Have you had many lovers, Dru?” Caius hesitantly asked.
“Perhaps not a lot for a man of my age. But I’ve enjoyed a few over the years.”
Caius twisted a little in his arms, and in the flickering light of the lantern Drusus convinced himself that he spotted jealousy cross Caius’s features.
“Any women?”
“A handful. My tastes are m
ore for a male body.” Drusus let his fingertips lightly trace over the firm flesh of Caius’s chest as he held him.
“The men talk—especially city men—of their conquests a lot. I think it is very different growing up on a farm as we did.” Caius sighed a little as Drusus’s finger traced over his nipple. “I did not go to brothels, and though we had slaves, they were for work around the farm, not to provide an unwilling body for us.”
Drusus was thoughtful a moment. He thought he heard anger in Caius’s tone when he mentioned slaves but wasn’t quite sure. His family certainly had no body slaves, and Drusus doubted he would have used them if they had. He much preferred a willing partner, one who desired him back.
“You do not approve of such things?” Drusus asked.
“I do not approve of slavery. I know it is the way of things, but I have watched slaves cry as their children are sold away from them, or if one of them meets their end. I have seen them bleed and scream under the whip—as I would. I do not see them as beasts, Dru. I see them as people.”
Caius’s thoughts on slavery were dangerous ones to have in Roma, though in truth, Drusus tended to agree. Slavery was fundamental to the Roman way of life, and Drusus wasn’t sure how Roma would work without them. That didn’t mean he didn’t feel for those trapped under the brutal Roman slave machine. He and his family had always treated their slaves well, though—he had to admit—indifferently. It was simply the way of things.
“What would you have done when you became master of your house, Caius?”
Caius drew up on his elbow and pressed a kiss to Drusus’s lips. “I’d have freed the slaves and asked if they wanted to work for me as paid labourers. My father would scream from the underworld, I’m sure, but I abhor the idea of men in bondage to other men.”
Drusus pressed a return kiss to Caius’s nose. “A noble thought, my little dreamer. I wish that you may one day see it to fruition.”
Caius snuggled back down into his arms. Drusus played gently with his hair, occasionally dropping a kiss onto his head. It was only moments before he heard Caius fall into a deep sleep.
This would be the way their days would pass over the next few months—long days of marching and hard labour setting up camps; evenings spent practicing fighting skills with the men, and then the nights—the wonderful nights spent alone with Caius, talking, laughing and loving. There were worse ways to live one’s life.
Chapter Ten
FOUR MONTHS LATER…
“Drusus, wait!” Marcus shouted.
Drusus heard his optio clearly but kept walking. He was furious and needed to get as far as possible from the feast—and Varus—before he did something that would see him crucified before the legions.
“Drusus,” Marcus huffed as he finally caught up to him.
“I am not fit for company, Marcus, and I would not vent my anger upon you if I can help it.”
“I can see that, Drusus. The vein upon your forehead looks set to burst from beneath your skin. What has happened?” Marcus persisted, ignoring Drusus’s foul mood as only a friend can.
“That fool will see us all dispatched to the underworld, Marcus,” Drusus spat.
“Who? Varus?”
Drusus shouldn’t say such things about his legate, but no one else was around and he trusted Marcus implicitly.
“Segestes comes to him with yet more details of the plot to set a trap for us, and still Varus refuses to listen. Even now that word comes of a supposed uprising to lead us north, as Segestes said it would, he ignores good sense. We march into unknown territory to attend to an uprising I am certain is of Arminius’s making.”
Their campaign in Germania had gone much as it had every other year since Drusus had arrived here. Certainly, their summer months were more peaceful than those legions serving in the Pannonian war. By all accounts, the war in Pannonia and Dalmatia had been a gruelling one; its embers still not dampened.
In spite of the peacefulness of their campaign, Drusus had remained alert and watchful for a plot by the tribesmen. He had not failed to notice how close Arminius had become with Varus. They were constant companions, with Arminius often sharing Varus’s dinner table. Drusus thought it was a dangerous friendship.
Drusus’s fears had been confirmed tonight at the last feast before Varus led his legions back across the Rhine for the winter. Segestes had specifically warned Varus. He’d been able to uncover how Arminius planned to lure Varus north with word of a rebellion, but his words had gone unheeded with Varus even suggesting that it was Segestes’s personal vendetta against Arminius for marrying his daughter without his consent that was the cause of the trouble. While Drusus had seen personal grudges before, Segestes had proven himself a better man than that—at least to Drusus. It was unlikely Segestes would stoop to this in order to drive a wedge between Roma and the young Cheruscian leader. In Drusus’s opinion, Varus had unwisely put the conspiracy down to an invention by the wronged Segestes.
For a moment at the feast, Drusus had been hopeful when the prefects and some of the other officers urged Varus to take heed of Segestes’s warning. But ultimately, the idea of a trap had been dismissed, Varus even going so far as to rebuke his officers for slandering his friend Arminius.
“To add to his foolishness,” Drusus continued, “Varus sends some cohorts to winter with the Germanic tribes at their request and allows most of our officers to return directly to Roma for the winter. We march now with depleted numbers—and unofficered—to an uprising that I have little doubt is a trap. For the gods’ sake, Marcus, the Nineteenth is to be led by Faustus, their chief centurion.” Drusus exclaimed, completely horrified by Varus’s questionable decisions. “But worst of all, he sends Arminius on ahead to round up men from the tribes to swell our numbers.”
“You think Arminius has different plans?”
“I’d wager my life Arminius is rounding up tribesmen to fight…but against us, Marcus, not with us.”
“We have all been training hard, Drusus. We can only hope that when the trap is sprung—”
“Varus ties our hands, Marcus, and there is much at stake—too much. The men—all of them—Calpurnius, you and…and Caius,” Drusus murmured the final name, riddled with grief of what might befall them.
Marcus clapped his hands to Drusus’s shoulders before turning him so he could look him in the eyes. Drusus watched his old friend struggle to find words of comfort. Marcus would recognise, as well as Drusus, the precarious position they were all in.
“We will all fight our best and to the end, Drusus. We will pray to the gods it will be enough.”
“I have no doubt of the courage and skill of you and the men. I fear only that Varus’s stupidity will leave us in the open with our cocks blowing in the wind before the enemy.”
At his words, Marcus laughed, the joyful sound instantly relieving the heaviness of their conversation.
“Oh, Marcus, I would give anything to see us all safely back at Vetera. I have never been so afraid of a looming battle.”
Marcus huffed a laugh and shook his head a little. “You have much to lose now, Drusus.”
“I have always cared for the men,” Drusus countered, offended that Marcus had thought him callus to the well-being of his men.
“I know this. But there is your brother now and…well, of course, your love for Caius….”
Love. Drusus had not spoken such words about Caius. He had no experience of such love at all for himself, though he had seen it between his mother and father. He cared deeply for Caius; he knew that, but love…?
“How does a man know it is love, Marcus?”
Marcus laughed again, but not unkindly. “I can only speak for myself, Drusus, but love is when you wake every morning with your first thoughts about him and your last thoughts at night filled with him. You ache for his presence when he is not near; you can hardly drag your eyes from him when he is. It is love when you know that his life is of far greater importance to you than your own.”
Drusus watch
ed his friend as he spoke. There was an air of sadness about him right then, so much so, that Drusus knew Marcus had loved—and lost.
“I am sorry, Marcus. You have lost a great love?”
“I never had it. I loved him but he… He loves another now,” Marcus whispered.
Marcus was talking about him. He’d concluded months ago Marcus cared for him, but he had not realised the depth of that feeling. “You are a great man, Marcus. I pray to the gods that love will find you.”
“Gratitude, Drusus. I think we have more important things to pray to the gods for right now. Come, it is late, and we march out early tomorrow. We should both take our rest.”
Drusus and Marcus walked back to their tents together, talking quietly about nonsense. He truly cared for Marcus, almost wishing it could be more. But after Marcus’s words, Drusus had little doubt where his heart lay.
At the door of Marcus’s tent, Drusus embraced him fondly. He suspected the coming days would be tough ones, but he would have this quiet moment with Marcus if he could.
After saying goodnight, Drusus returned to his tent. As he entered, his gaze was drawn to Caius’s sleeping form by the firelight. The light and shadows flickered over his naked body, highlighting his taut muscles. He looked like some beautiful creature right out of Elysium.
Drusus walked over to the pallet and carefully sat beside his sleeping form. He trailed his fingertips down Caius’s spine, barely touching the smooth skin. Caius moved slightly so Drusus pressed his lips along the skin his fingers had just touched.
When he raised his head and looked at Caius’s face, he noticed his eyelids fluttering as though about to open. “Are you awake, beloved?” he whispered.
Caius’s eyes opened wide and blinked up at him. “Beloved?” he questioned, smiling softly.
“Yes. Is the word welcomed?”
Caius sat up and grabbed his face. He kissed Drusus with his usual sweetness that immediately turned hungry. Drusus marvelled that the desire he felt for Caius had not waned at all, even after all these months together.