The Gladiator’s Master (11 page)

Before Gaidres could ask what he meant by that Caelius poured a thin stream of the oil, scented with herbs and flowers, over Gaidres’s shoulders and back before setting it aside and beginning to sweep his hands over Gaidres’s skin, massaging.

Gaidres’s eyes closed, exhaling at his touch. Caelius kept his hands firm as they kneaded the sore muscles and scrubbed sweat and grime to the surface only to gently whisk it away with the fine metal
strigil.

Caelius reached under the water and his slick hands came around to close on Gaidres’s cock. “All of you needs bathing, does it not?” His voice was teasing and Gaidres chuckled.

“Whore.”

“Guilty.”

He could touch Gaidres for an eternity and not grow tired of doing so. He kissed the nape of his lover’s neck before pouring more oil down over Gaidres’s chest and stomach. Caelius stayed pressed against his back as he massaged the oil into his skin before turning him around to wield the
strigil
again.

“I have never met a man who would tend to a slave in such a manner. Or in any manner at all.” Gaidres studied him as if trying to figure Caelius out.

Caelius brushed his mouth against Gaidres’s. “I tend to the man that I take to my bed. Is that so strange?”

“Perhaps not, in a normal situation.” Gaidres’s breath caught as once again Caelius’s hands slipped underneath the water to tease his cock. “But ours is not a normal situation, Dominus.”

Caelius chuckled and pushed Gaidres back to the lip of the pool. “You think too much sometimes, my gladiator.” He patted the smooth tile and gave Gaidres a teasing smile. “Sit up here.”

Gaidres’s muscles rippled as he levered himself up, his eyes curious, and Caelius stepped between his powerful thighs. He sighed as he began kissing down Gaidres’s chest and his tongue dipped into Gaidres’s navel. By the time he reached Gaidres’s cock, it was fully hard and waiting for him.

“Don’t stop me.” Caelius flashed him a sultry glance then sank his mouth over Gaidres’s cock. He tasted of salt and musk, just as Caelius remembered.

Gaidres leaned back on his hands, peering down at Caelius with an incredulous expression as if the idea of making him stop seemed simple-minded. He didn’t want Gaidres to get any ideas about what was proper and what wasn’t. And what he wanted was the taste of Gaidres coming in his mouth.

Gaidres brought one hand down to rest on Caelius’s head as he knelt before him and worshiped his cock. He wanted Gaidres to forget for a while that he was a slave and Caelius his master. Of everything Caelius was when they were alone, a master was the least of them. Gaidres had called him “whore” in jest a moment before, but it carried truth. Caelius had no inhibitions and a hedonist’s soul.

Gaidres’s eyes closed and his head fell back with a rough groan, fingers clenching on Caelius’s short curls. “By the gods…Who taught you such skills? I would thank them…”

Caelius chuckled, the sound muffled before he lifted his head, mouth sliding free of Gaidres’s cock with a soft, wet pop. “You have your secrets, my gladiator…and I have mine.” He then sank his mouth down again, taking Gaidres deep and swallowing around him. His cock filled Caelius’s mouth and the tight hands in his hair only increased his desire.

Caelius savored both the sound of Gaidres’s soft groans and the look of unfettered desire on his face. He had never had the opportunity to indulge in slow pleasures with Gaidres. And as much as the out-of-control cravings and unspoken conflict between them had excited him in the past, after the last week he had little heart for the battle. In a way, his intention to escape to the villa was to give himself an opportunity to heal and regroup. Maybe it would do the same for his soul-weary gladiator.

He slid his hands up Gaidres’s thighs, then one hand went to tweak Gaidres’s nipple as the other cupped his balls and teased them. Gaidres’s hand tightened before relaxing.

“You have a wicked mouth,” Gaidres said breathlessly. “And wield it with ruthless skill.”

Caelius hummed his agreement, tongue lashing as he stared up at Gaidres. When Gaidres didn’t look away, Caelius’s heart pounded.

He moaned as he tasted the first hint of what was to come, salty on his tongue. He stroked the lower half of Gaidres’s cock as his tongue swirled around the head and played with the slit before taking him deep into his mouth again. He bobbed his head faster now, sucking harder as the craving to feel and taste Gaidres spend himself in his mouth grew.

Gaidres shuddered, eyes closing and then flying open as if he didn’t want to miss a single instant of watching Caelius working his mouth on him.

“Dominus.” His breath hitched. For a moment disappointment flashed through Caelius. Gaidres had used his name during the long, dark night of Faustus’s birth. Why couldn’t he do so again? Their eyes met and Caelius’s heart raced as Gaidres spoke his name again. “Caelius.”

Such a powerful pleasure washed through Caelius then. Gaidres looked at him in amazement, threading his fingers through Caelius’s short curls, panting.

“Caelius.”

He increased his seductive efforts in response. His tongue and teeth and mouth strove to devour Gaidres, who moaned as the pleasure grew, surging higher and higher. He trembled and tugged Caelius’s hair, a warning he was close.

Caelius shook his head and lifted his mouth to speak. “Don’t stop me, please,” he whispered, before taking Gaidres into his mouth again, his fingers playing with Gaidres’s balls to aid him in finding his release.

Gaidres cried out his name, hips lifting, and Caelius thrilled at the pure passion in Gaidres’s expression. By the gods, he was gorgeous, all of his muscles taut, leaned back before Caelius and staring at him with his unusually blue eyes.

Then Gaidres cried out again and Caelius moaned as his lover’s cock throbbed in his mouth. The first splash of come landed on his tongue and he swallowed in pleasure. He continued to suck, taking everything Gaidres gave him until the man was spent and trembling, looking at him in disbelief.

Caelius lifted his mouth and kissed Gaidres’s cock before rising and slipping his arms around Gaidres’s waist. “Thank you.”

Gaidres chuckled hoarsely, arms coming around Caelius in return. “It is I who should thank you.”

Caelius tipped his head back to look up at him and then Gaidres was kissing him. Gaidres slid back into the pool with him, never breaking the kiss. With slow, lazy movements, he guided Caelius back to the end of the pool and the low bench under the water there. The kiss broke and Caelius panted as Gaidres sank down on the bench and tugged Caelius onto his lap to straddle him.

Caelius gasped, lips parted, and rose up onto his knees, rubbing against his lover as Gaidres’s hands swept possessively over his back and sides and ass. “Gaidres, please.” Caelius braced his hands on the edge of the pool and stared down at him.

Gaidres leaned forward to take one tightened nipple into his mouth as at the same instant one of his fingers pushed inside Caelius’s entrance. He cried out, hips bucking as he leaned forward and pressed his chest against Gaidres’s sucking mouth.

Caelius kissed the top of his head. All the desire he’d held at bay while he pleasured Gaidres flooded through him now, leaving him trembling with need. “Gods, Gaidres.” He moaned as the man moved his wicked mouth from one nipple to the other.

Gaidres pushed his finger deeper and Caelius twisted his hips as Gaidres found his spot. “No.” The sensation was too much. He groaned as Gaidres paused and shot him a look of inquiry. “Yes…I swear…you shall drive me mad with need one day.”

Gaidres laughed and gently bit Caelius’s nipple, sending a shock through him. “I endeavor to do so.” He pushed another finger inside and Caelius groaned, his head falling back.

“Like this,” Gaidres breathed against Caelius’s skin, fingers rubbing against his spot, before thrusting them just right into him. “And this.”

Caelius cried out and tugged Gaidres’s head back so he could kiss him. When their mouths met and tongues tangled, Caelius’s heart soared. By the gods, Gaidres owned him, held his spirit and heart within his hands. No man had ever been able to do that before.

It came upon him with blinding clarity that he needed Gaidres. Something about the man both soothed him and stirred him up, made him feel alive. But saying so would be a mistake. Gaidres felt as if he’d already failed one man who’d needed him and the quickest way to push him away and set him back on the path of self-destruction would be to ask for something more than passion.

Caelius clung to him with body and heart as if somehow he could lay his own small claim on Gaidres through the meeting of their bodies. The force building up inside him had very little to do with the passion between them. He was falling in love. Perhaps he’d already done so and was only now admitting it.

His heart thumped painfully as he kissed Gaidres back and ran tender hands over him. If this was love, then so be it. He’d never felt this rush of emotion for another person, the excitement and worry. And, given his fickle nature, he was unlikely to ever feel it again for another. Even if it couldn’t last, he’d savor it while it was here.

Gaidres ran his free hand over Caelius from back to thigh and groaned, breaking the kiss and shifting position. Caelius trembled, a disappointed sound escaping him as Gaidres withdrew his fingers and moved from under him. The disappointment was short-lived, however, as Gaidres urged him to bend forward, over the edge of the pool with his thighs spread wide and the water lapping at the bottom curve of his ass.

Gaidres gave him a wicked grin before sinking to his knees and burying his tongue between the cheeks of Caelius’s ass.

He gasped and a shudder rippled down his body. Words lodged in his throat as pleasure tore through him. He could only moan and pant, his hands gripping the edge of the pool.

“Gods, Gaidres. And you claim I’m the wanton.”

Gaidres laughed and pressed a kiss to the cheek of his ass. “You’re the one spread out on the edge of the pool, Caelius, not I. You should see the picture you make, trembling this way.”

Caelius smiled over his shoulder. “Similar to the beautiful picture you made moments ago.”

Gaidres’s eyes flashed again as he lowered his mouth, resuming his torments. He soon had Caelius pleading, torn between wanting more from his talented tongue and needing the sweet ache of Gaidres’s cock inside him.

“Please, Gaidres, I beg you.” Caelius moaned, unable to keep still any longer, hips twisting. “Come inside me.”

Gaidres couldn’t deny him. He stood behind Caelius, lips against his nape. “Here, Caelius? Or to the bed?”

Caelius shuddered, head tipping back against Gaidres’s shoulder as his ass rocked back, nestling into the cradle of Gaidres’s hips. “Anywhere. Just…soon, please.” He turned his face into the curve of Gaidres’s neck and swept his tongue across his pulse point. “Hurry.”

His eyes closed, savoring the need and the touch of Caelius’s warm lips and damp tongue. He rose from the pool, leaning down to catch Caelius’s arms and helped him out from the water.

He walked back toward Caelius’s room and the bed. The other man followed with need in his eyes. Gaidres had no words, but he could not look away. He had forgotten how much he enjoyed that look in a lover’s eyes. The look that told him they were his, that whatever he asked for they would give. There was much he thought he’d forgotten about having a lover—warm, soft things that both worried him and made him thrill inside. Caelius brought more out of him than simply pleasure, as much as Gaidres wished he could deny it.

He tugged, tumbling Caelius to the silk-covered bed and beneath him. Immediately Caelius spread his legs.

“Fuck me.” Caelius’s words made Gaidres’s cock throb as he stretched for the oil beside the bed.

“I intend to.” He claimed Caelius’s lips as he reached between them to oil his cock and guide the slippery head to Caelius’s entrance.

He cried out as Gaidres pushed inside. He paused when they were fully joined, his hand trailing down Caelius’s side to hitch his knee higher, touching every delicious inch in between.

He was a beautiful man, as beautiful as any Gaidres had known since…He shoved the thought aside. The past had no place in this moment.

The kiss broke and they panted against each other’s lips. Caelius stared into Gaidres’s eyes, locking his legs around Gaidres’s waist. He welcomed the embrace, the way Caelius held him close.

“You make me wild with want.” Caelius slid his mouth down to Gaidres’s throat to feast on his sweat-laced skin. Gaidres shuddered, hands fisting in the bed coverings. His craving for Caelius grew whether Gaidres came to him every night and they sated each other or whether Caelius kept him at a distance for a few days. Those days when he was not summoned became more and more unpleasant, as he waited and wondered what might be keeping Caelius from calling for him.

“Do it. Go wild for me.” He twisted his hips as he thrust, angling for just the right spot and, true to his word, Caelius arched, clutching him tight as their movements sped up, hips rolling against each other feverishly.

“As if I had a choice.” Caelius laughed, his nails raking Gaidres’s back. The sting of it sent rippling shudders through him and Gaidres groaned, tugging Caelius’s head back and claiming his lips. It was intoxicating, to drive a man so controlled in other ways to the point of madness with a simple touch, a kiss or a circling thrust.

Their tongues tangled, teeth scraping as they feasted on each other like a fine meal. This kiss soaked into his soul, filling Gaidres up in a way that made his heart pound with a mixture of thrilled elation and guilt-driven fear.

This wasn’t sating himself on Caelius and Caelius enjoying the hard use. For the first time, this was a mutual sharing. It terrified him even as he clung to it with desperation.

Caelius seemed to lose all his control, showing Gaidres with moans and sharp cries, with the urgent writhing of his body, just how wild Gaidres made him. And as their mouths parted and their gazes met, Gaidres could not deny that there was something…more. He took Caelius’s lips in a devouring kiss. When the kiss broke, their eyes met again and this time Caelius smiled.