Judith

Judiths’s room was over the tavern with a window that looked out onto South Gate Road and Drivers’ Square below. Whenever she was free, she would place two flower pots on the sill as a signal to Damon that he might come and visit. Despite the heavy carpet that was hung over the window to keep the chill out, she still put the pots on the sill when she was free. He was very busy these days, but she knew he would come if he could.

The town was crowded these days with merchants and farmers come to register for the tax census. They crowded the inn and filled all the available rooms, but they brought little extra business to Judith. She had time to stand in the window bundled against the cold and observe the life in the square below, watching the merchants come and go and listening to the peddlers haggling and arguing with one another. There was always something to see in the square.

And so she was at the window along with the two flower pots at twilight on this cold day when she saw Damon himself moving through the crowd in the Square. His hat and cloak could not disguise his body nor the way he moved, which she would have recognized anywhere. Even in this light she could see his flashing smile as he joked with the merchants.

She just had time to check her face in the bronze mirror and run a comb through her long, curling black hair before she heard Reuben the Innkeeper bellow over the noise in the tavern: “Judith! Judith! You have a visitor!”

She stopped to fluff the cushions on her bed and then ran excitedly down the stairs, almost bumping into two wealthy landowners from Sharon returning to their room after their evening prayers. She found Damon just starting on his way up. “Damon!” she exclaimed.

He answered with a smile, his whole face coming alive, like the sun breaking through a cloud. “Judith! Come have some wine. I’ve just ordered a jar.”

She flushed deeply. Despite her profession, despite the fact that she was older than him, the sight of Damon always made her feel like a nervous girl. Without a word she let him lead her back down to the crowded tavern where they found a table between a group of Roman soldiers and a party of Sadducee Jews. The Jews glanced at her with disapproval and moved their stools away, but Judith was too happy with Damon to take notice.

They sat on low, backless stools as Reuben put the flagon of wine down, and she poured for Damon and herself. To herself she recited the Hebrew benediction over the wine--for whatever good it did, she thought. Damon raised his cup in a salute and they drank.

“Perhaps the gentleman would like some bread and olives with his wine? Or a bowl of soup on such a cold night. Freshly made?” Reuben was not one to miss an opportunity for some business..

“No, no. This is sufficient for now. This is all.” Damon said.

Reuben smiled and bowed low and Judith knew that as soon as he was out of sight he would bite the coin Damon had paid with to make sure it was real gold. Only then would he be satisfied.

Normally Reuben didn’t allow the girls to have their own male friends as it wasn’t good for business. But he approved of Damon, who always bought at least one flagon of wine, and who, as the son of a very wealthy Greek merchant family, would not be likely to run off with a common whore like Judith.

“Do you have much time?” Damon asked her.

“All evening.” she said smiling at him. “But you never know.”

Damon smiled. “We’ll have all evening tonight.” he said. “I’ll pay Reuben for a whole night.”

“Oh Damon you shouldn’t waste your money.” she said, but then seeing the worried look on his face, she stopped..

“I have something to tell you.” he said seriously, and her heart leaped into her throat. “I’m being sent to Damascus. To run the family interests there.”

She controlled herself. She had learned to control herself with Damon. “Damascus? But that is so far.” she said. “How long will you be away.”

He looked at her and she knew the answer. Her heart sank..

“It is to be permanent. There are no plans for my return.” he said. “My uncle Phineas is very ill, and his children are too young to manage the business. The family needs me there.”

She reached for his hand, forgetting their arrangement. “Damon, no!”

“It is not hopeless though Judith.” he said. “You know what I’ve told you.”

She quickly filled their cups again. It would not do to talk of it here. She told him so with her eyes.

“Judith,” he said, “I don’t care who hears. Marry me and we’ll be together always. You’ll go with me to Damascus.”

Some of the Jews at the next table overheard and turned their faces towards them. Judith lowered her eyes, blushing. “Damon, please. If Reuben hears…”

Damon glared at the Jews who quickly went back to their business. He looked around the crowded room to see if anyone else was eavesdropping. Judith feared for him. One day his pride would get him into trouble, she was sure of it.

Deirdre came out of the back with another flagon of wine for the soldiers. Deirdre liked soldiers, she’d told Judith, because they always came quickly. Plus they tipped well. She said she could do four or five an hour on a good night.

A soldier grabbed her wrist now and Deirdre let him pull her into his lap, laughing with delight and kicking her feet to show off her legs.

Judith took advantage of the diversion to whisper to Damon, “Darling, you said you wouldn’t talk about that anymore. You know I can’t marry you. I’m a whore. A Jewess and a whore. Your father would disown you. I won’t do that to you.”

He glared at Judith and she glared right back. They were both very stubborn. Other than that, it would be hard to find two people with less in common. Judith was dark and voluptuous, her charms apparent even through the winter robes she wore, while Damon, whose family came from the North of Greece, had blonde curly hair and ice-blue eyes in a fair face. He was strong and burley, and Judith loved to be held against his broad chest when they made love. It made her feel so small and protected.

“I could buy you.” he said. “I could still borrow the money and buy you outright from Reuben.”

She shook her head sadly. “I’ve told you, Damon, I’m not a slave. And it’s not that I don’t want to go with you. I love you, Damon. I’ve never loved any man as I love you. But I won’t destroy you. What will they say when they learn that you’ve married a Jewish whore? Who would even look at you?”

“No one would know. Damascus is far from Bethlehem.”

She smiled at him. He was so innocent in so many ways. “You can’t run away from rumors, Damon. Believe me, I know. The truth would follow us.”

Deirdre was laughing hysterically as the soldiers tickled her, and her foot inadvertently hit their table, making the cups jump. Damon was on his feet in an instant.

“Sorry, citizen.” the soldier said. He laughed. “She’s a lively one.”

Judith stood. “Come Damon. Come to my room. We don’t need anymore wine. I need something else from you. And let’s not hear any more of this marriage talk., please?”

Damon let her lead him from the Tavern, up the dark and narrow staircase where they had to squeeze past a heavy landowner from Galilee on his way down. Even the hallway was crowded with men doubling up in rooms and arguing over the choice sleeping spots. But Judith’s room was down at the end of the hall and around a bend, where it was less noisy.

Damon had no sooner let the heavy carpet fall against the doorway than Judith was in his arms, pressing her body to him. He wrapped his arms around her and held her fast and they kissed hungrily. He slid his hands down to her bottom and lifted her up against him, and they fell onto the deep pile of cushions that was her bed.

She loved him passionately, and he loved her for her passion. She was an animal when she made love, so unlike the dry and staid Greek women he’d known, all products of wealthy homes, all too well-bred to show their feelings. Judith was like fire in his arms. There was no one else like her.

She rolled over on top of him now and straddled his body, her brown legs emerging from her robes. She pulled a thick blanket up over her shoulders, making a private tent for them, and she undid the buttons on her bright, striped blouse. She knew he loved her breasts, and she liked to tease him with them, arching her back to make her blouse tighten across them, then letting the buttons pop open revealing her heavy tits, then watching his face, the light in his eyes. She could feel his cock stiffening against the inside of her thigh, and the thought that this man was growing hard for only her made her tremble with excitement.

She leaned forward, her long black curls falling around them, her face showing her arousal. Her lips were like sweet fruit on his own, soft and warm and yielding, her breath hot in his mouth as their tongues conversed, hers teasing, his forcing its way into her, showing her what his cock would soon be doing between her legs. Her naked breasts scraped against his chest and she pulled his toga open to expose more of his flesh to her.

She was too aroused, wanted him too much to play at kissing for long. She quickly twisted off of him and got on her knees, her long hair falling over his groin.

“Judith.” he protested, “We have all night!”

“I don’t care.” she said, grabbing his cock in her hand, “I want to do this. I want you in my mouth, darling.”

She knew he loved this. It drove him wild. And she loved it too. She loved to feel his heat and weight in her mouth, against her tongue, loved it when he got so carried away he became almost brutal with her, forcing his cock down her throat.

She sucked at him and played with his foreskin, a delight that never lost its fascination for her. All of her customers were uncircumcised, but she had always found them somehow obscene. She found Damon’s terribly wicked and arousing.

As she slaved over his loins she squirmed out of her gown so that she was fully naked for him. He had one hand on the back of her head, the other on her ass, squeezing softly, enjoying the feel of her. He ran his fingers lower, over her anus, and down to the lips of her sex, already moist and hot. When he touched her here she yelped and wiggled her behind back at him.

She pulled her mouth off his cock, trying to catch her breath but she kept her hand going on his cock, up and down as she licked the taste of him off her lips. “Oh Damon! Touch my pussy! I want you to fuck me deep, darling. I want you to fuck me all night long.”

She swallowed him again and he did as she said, running his fingers along her crease as her ass waved in the air and she squealed around his cock. Finally it was too much for him and he pulled her off.

“Roll over.” he said hoarsely. “I’ve got to have you now.”

“No, no!” she said, “Let me. Let me fuck you, Damon. Let me.”

He couldn’t protest, not when she was this hot. She threw a naked thigh over his body and raised up on her knees, took his stiff pole in one hand and held it straight up. He raised his head to see her spread the lips of her pussy with her other hand, and he longed to taste her, to kiss her there, on her pink wet treasure, her flower of womanhood.

But she would not let him do that now, he knew. Her face had assumed that wild, feral look that thrilled him so, the sign that she was fully aroused and needed his cock in her. Her eyes were half-closed and her nostrils flared, her lips puffy with excitement, her face almost angry. She lifted her hips and fit the head of his cock to her, then dropped her head and screwed herself down on his hard prick, unable to contain the soft wail of passion that spilled from her lips as she worked herself down over his thickness.

He was always so big, so hard. He went into her and he kept on going, as if there were no end to him. If she thought about it at all, she thought that she had a public part of herself that she gave to her customers and a private part that only Damon could reach, the part where she kept her true love and passion, only for him.

He reached it now and she jerked her head up, her eyes seeing nothing, all her attention focused on his cock in her body. “Oh Damon! Oh Damon! I’m yours! You have me all!”

For a long moment she did nothing but feel him stretching her out, filling her with his manliness. Her legs trembled slightly, and he felt it on his cock and groaned. She remembered to say the blessing for wonderful gifts received, and she muttered it rapidly beneath her breath, for if she thanked God for anything, she thanked him for the man between her thighs right now, the best thing that had ever happened to her.

In return for her prayer a quick orgasm ripped through her, making her whole body quake, and she smiled as it washed over her, making her nipples hard and making her pussy clench at her lover’s prick.

She felt him start to move, and she couldn’t have that. She wanted to do all the work, make all the effort, and she began to rotate her hips as she’d learned so long ago from the belly dancers, using her thighs and the muscles of her stomach to churn in tight, lewd circles, making his cock touch her everywhere inside.. Her efforts were immediately rewarded when Damon winced and thrust her hips up into her in a spasm of pleasure, and she cooed in her throat. She would never tell him, but she loved having control of his pleasure like this; she loved giving to him.

She put her hands on his broad chest and looked down at him, a wicked smile on her face. “My master likes that?” she asked him teasingly, “My master likes his slave to fuck his big hard cock? My master loves to drive his slave crazy with love for him? Fuck your slave with your big cock, master! Fuck her hard! Make her scream for you, master. Make her scream when she comes on your big dick!”

He loved to hear her talk like this. He hated what she did for money, he hated her being with other men, but he loved when she played the whore for him, when she used all her whore’s tricks, because when she did these things to him, he knew she meant them.

Unable to control herself any longer, Judith raised her knees until she was squatting on his cock and began to lift herself up and drop down, squeezing him with her pussy as she rose, milking his cock. She put her hands flat on his hard stomach and rode him, grunting and moaning with the effort, the obscene sound of his cock sluicing through her juicy flesh just making her hotter.

She lowered her head again, all her attention on her fucking, on the pleasure building in her pussy. She grabbed Damon’s hands and put them on her breasts. “Squeeze them! Pinch them, Damon. I’m going to come! You’re going to make me come! Oh fuck! Fuck me, Damon! Fuck me hard!”

Damon filled his hands with the warm, soft, meat of her breasts, loving the feel of them, so heavy, so rich. Judith was panting like an animal now, each breath accompanied by a little cry of impending orgasm. She turned her face to the ceiling and whined, screwing her hips violently around on his deep-sunk cock and she cried out sharply, a cry loud enough to be heard out in the hall, perhaps out in the street itself.

Quickly she put her hand to her mouth and bit down on it to stifle her scream. Her eyes rolled back in her head and her eyelashes fluttered and then she came, her hips slamming down on his, her pussy throbbing on his cock, her thighs gripping him tightly.

He dug his fingers into her breasts, clenched his eyes shut and felt the semen burn up from his balls, He too cried out from between clenched teeth as his come tore the length of his cock and blasted into Judith’s clutching pussy, bathing her with its molten heat. She ripped at her own breasts in passion as she felt him explode inside of her again and again and she looked into his eyes and saw the depths of his pleasure there, and she felt her heart, her whole body melt for him. Damon, her Damon.

“Judith, you must marry me. There’s not much time. We can be married by a priest of your religion if you like. I don’t care. But you must come with me. I love you, Judith.”

She lay with her head on his chest as he played idly with her hair. From the hallway came the heavy sounds of sleep. Downstairs it was quiet.

“Perhaps you will not stay there as long as you think.” she offered. “Some months, a year. I can wait that long to be with you, darling.”

“No. Why wait at all. We shall be married and that’s an end to it.” he said firmly.

She wouldn’t argue, but she knew she simply couldn’t marry him. She knew what would happen if she went through with such nonsense. Scandal and ruin for him. He would certainly be disowned and exiled from his family. This was not Greece. A prostitute here was less than worthless. She was an embarrassment, a disease, a repository of sin. She would taint him and drag him down, and she could not live with herself if that happened.

And he did not understand at all. He thought she was afraid only of public opinion, which is what she’d told him. But the truth was more personal: she knew she was just not worthy of him. She was a whore, and there was no way she could forget that. She would carry her shame with her all her days, and no amount of pretending, and no starting over could ever erase that stigma from her heart. He deserved better.

Damon held her close. He loved her for her passion, for her heart, for her unreasonableness. She was so unlike the women he knew in Greece who were more rational and who knew enough to see through their mythological fairy tales. Judith’s religion was just like her, childish, emotional, and filled with superstition. But he loved this about her too. It suited her.

She awoke some time later, lying on Damon’s chest, the blanket over them, warm in their own private space. Something had awoken her, but she didn’t know what. Only the small oil lamp on her table was burning.

She went to the window naked, and pulled back the carpet. There in the Square below, just by the front door of the tavern, was a woman seated on an ass, the dust and grime of her journey still on her cloak. Hardly even a woman; Judith thought, more like a young girl. Even from here she could see that the woman was very pregnant, almost grotesquely so. And she did not look well.

She heard voices from downstairs, Reuben’s and someone else. She turned back to the window and as she watched, the woman turned her face up to look at Judith, who stood naked and shivering in the open window. The girl’s face was placid, very calm, not the face of a woman about to give birth, and she smiled gently at Judith..

She dropped the carpet and stepped back. She looked at Damon fast asleep, then she dressed quickly, throwing on her robe and a heavy cloak and stepping into her sandals. Taking the small lamp, she picked her way along the corridor amidst the sleeping bodies and down the stairs.

“No, no, it’s just impossible!” she heard Reuben say in a harsh whisper. “There is just no room. Look about you. I have people sleeping in the tavern. This is not the place for a woman in her condition. It’s out of the question.”

Judith crept down the last few stairs. The tavern was filled with sleeping bodies, and Reuben was standing near the door holding a lamp talking to a man in traveling clothes. He could only be the woman’s husband.

“Reuben?” she called in a whisper. “What is it? What’s happening.”

He turned towards Judith angrily. “Hush you. This is not your affair. Go back to bed.”

“Do they need a room?” Judith asked, coming forward. “They can have my room. I’ll awake Damon…”

“You’ll do no such thing.” Reuben said. “There are other inns.”

The man at the door now turned towards Judith. He was considerably older than his wife; surprisingly so. His eyes were sad and kind. “They are all full.” he said. “You are our last hope.”

“Well I am sorry, friend, but I simply cannot squeeze you in. It’s just…”