Laelia

He was standing in the door. Julian was willing to risk being caught by the other slave women in the room. He was watching Laelia sleep. She tossed and turned, as if in the throes of a nightmare. Her long lashes fluttered but didn't open. Laelia looked like a fresco of Persephone he had seen, resting underneath a tree. She was just missing the garland of flowers around her red hair.

He'd have to consider having her sleep in the adjoining room, when he went to Rome. He slowly closed the door.

A few hours later, she woke. She had to move well before dawn, and it was still the middle of the night. Laelia changed into a stolen tunic of Aidin's and pulled her hair back tight. She thought about cutting it off, but she doubted that it would help her if she ran into soldiers or bandits. Her body would betray her before her long hair would. But from afar she would look like a red headed boy.

Laelia mixed a giant bottle of tincture, enough to keep Master Lucius alive for several weeks. The proportions were tricky in a batch of this size, so she decided to make three. She wrote down instructions in Latin for time of day to administer, as well as indications of worsening of the disease, and illustrations. At least her conscience would be clean. Or, cleaner. The guilt was barely manageable. But her determination was strong. She didn't want the alternative. She may have been a slave, but as a doctor, she had merit and esteem. Laelia couldn't imagine being a mere toy to such a cruel man, losing more of her innocence that she already had.

As for belongings, she didn't have anything that she wanted to take, beyond a beautifully carved knife from Aidin and a few secretes she had in the bottom of her small handmade trunk. She stole some bread, wine and cheese from the kitchen.

Laelia didn't know where she was going. But she was leaving this place, which had been a home to her for so long. She left a note in Aidin's drawer- not saying where she was running, just that she would miss him. She couldn't wake him to tell him. Aidin would have insisted on going with her. They both knew the penalty for fugitive slaves. In her desperation, she was willing to pay with her life if she was caught. She would not have his death on her head as well.

When she slipped out the door, it was well before dawn. She prayed at the altar, to the house gods, before running into the forest.

Most of the first two days was an easy passage, and she only saw deer, birds and squirrels on her journey. She ate very little, knowing her food would have to last her. The next settled area where she would not risk capture was about a fortnight away on foot.

Each night, she found a safe, large tree. She climbed into it, tied herself to a large limb, and managed to fall asleep early despite the discomfort. Laelia was exhausted every single night. She rationed her food so heavily that she had very little energy to spare.

Before she drifted off to sleep, she did often think about Master Julian. She knew now that she had felt a longing for him, for much of her life. However, he had all but extinguished her feelings with his savage behavior the other night. While she knew he had done nothing outside of his rights as Master, she also knew that his rights with her encompassed almost everything but death.

On the third day, she woke to a lot of noise. An armored band of men was singing a bawdy song. Roman soldiers. Right below her. Ye gods. What were the chances? They looked unwashed and positively savage.

Laelia continued to lie absolutely still. Her heart was pounding. Her palms started to sweat. She prayed to Diana for protection.

She would have been safe, unless a young man, more likely a boy, looked up as he drained his cup of wine.

"General- sir- there's some sort of large beast on that branch. Or a person."

His superior looked up. More like a small person than a large beast. He chortled. "I bet it's some poor slave, tired of working the field, trying to make his way as a refugee into the next town. Or a thief. Whichever one of you can bring him to me the fastest, if the man has a reward on his head; you can have half of it. The rest goes towards the company." Rewards for escaped slaves were common. Laelia was so nervous her ears were ringing. But she knew she couldn't let her fear allow for them to catch her.

Men started to scale the branches. Luckily, Laelia had been an experienced climber, as a precocious child. She scrambled down the branch and latched onto another tree. Then she shimmied down before the soldiers knew what was happening. She would have made it too, if she hadn't ran into a metal breastplate, attached to a very large man. The impact sent her to her knees. She felt a sword tip held against her back. Fantastic.

The man was not only large, but he had a mouth full of false wooden and metal teeth. He tried to smile charmingly at her, which was terrifying. She had to clasp her hands together to stop them from shaking.

"General, it's a pretty girl. We could all show her ...the pleasure of our company." He winked at her. Laelia had to hold back the impulse to cry.

The man he was addressing, their superior, looked at her vey strangely. The red headed girl looked very familiar to him. She looked like an unusual girl slave he had seen upon visiting Lucius Caecidius in Rome, many years ago. He ignored the large man's... suggestion.

"Which house do you run from, slave?"

She swallowed hard. If she said she was a freedwoman, she would be gang raped, and possibly even sold again. If she said she was a slave of a faraway house, it would be obvious, from her relative cleanliness and her belongings, that she was lying. If she said she was a slave of Lucius and Julian Caecidius... she shuddered at the thought of returning.

"I belong to Julian Caecidius. Sir." He noticed that she meekly averted her eyes as she said Sir.

Well trained.

"We were planning on stopping to deliver him a message from the Emperor. He has to return to Rome. We'll bring you to your master then." He looked her up and down, and thought,

I'm sure there's a reward for this one.

"Hold out your arms." She did, seeing the hopelessness of the situation. He tied her arms, then her legs. The general turned and gave his men a stern look.

"Don't be fools. Julian Caecidius had a boy castrated for fucking the Emperor's horse. Imagine what he would do if he found out one of you fucked his slave girl. I'll keep my cock, thank you."

The men grumbled, but they did as they were asked. Soon it was time for them to sleep. Laelia sat awake on the ground. She feared rape or death from these men, but dawn rose without harassment from them. She didn't fear them as much, any more. In fact, she was shocked that they respected their general that much.

She feared returning home.

They marched back for two and a half days. Laelia didn't have difficulty keeping up with the men, even with only her legs unbound. She was hardly thinking about it, her heart was pounding so hard.

Once they arrived, she was whisked away by a characteristically cold and logical Eryx. His sympathy was somewhat lacking. "I know why you did what you did- but poor choice, dear Laelia! You should have heard him. I wouldn't trade places with you for all the sesterces in Rome."

She looked at him, terrified, eyes full of tears.

Eryx cleared his tellingly high, serious voice. "Well- I suppose, if you give him that face, it won't be as bad for you. You know the possibilities for punishment. You could be sold to the whorehouses or the mines; you could be branded on your forehead with the word 'fugitive.' So why, in Diana's name, did you do it?"

She softly said, "I wanted to keep my pride, Eryx."

As well as my virginity. Well, somewhat.

"Well, that's gone now. When he's angry with me, I just grovel as well as I can, and swallow my pride. So to speak, in your case." He gave her a quick look up and down. She was coated with dirt. The girl had gotten a bit skinnier, which the Master wouldn't like, but her body was still very feminine. "Wouldn't work for me, but maybe if you take off your dress, he might reconsider selling you. Let's get you a bath."

She didn't have much choice in the matter; he dragged her into the cold bath water from the morning. "I'm not to leave you unattended, of course. Take off all your hair. All over your body. Let's get you some negotiation tactics, sweet." She glared at him until he at least turned his back to her. "I have no interest in what you have, Laelia. Don't worry."

She stripped off the gown efficiently, and folded it neatly on the cold floor. She managed to remove the hair with as much speed as possible. After that, she scrubbed herself thoroughly, and she was rinsing her hair out when she asked;

"I'm terrified. I know he is angry with me. What would you do, Eryx? I know you wouldn't put yourself in my sandals, but I need any advice I can get. Please, dear."

Laelia didn't hear a response, so she finished scrubbing and turned around. "Eryx?"

Her master was standing there, smirking at her. He was going to debase and violate her. It was going to be a lot of fun, and he was pleased she had given her unspoken approval by running away. Now he could make her beg for it. Laelia looked so good with water rolling off of her slender nude form. It reminded him that he had a nice bath back in Rome, where he could have a lot of fun with her. Bending her over the marble, she'd be nice and slippery, easy to pry open and fuck. His imagination ran wild.

Her mouth was open wide with shock, and she was surprised if he couldn't hear her heartbeat from where he stood.

''if I were you, my dear, I'd get on my knees and beg. I think that would be an excellent beginning."

She knelt down beautifully on the stone floor, and prostrated herself. Without sarcasm, this time.

He watched her beg. "Please master. I'd do anything, just don't brand me. Don't sell me. Please." She shyly, nervously looked at him from underneath her lashes, not quite letting their eyes meet. He couldn't tell if she had meant to give him that glance as a calculated tactic, or if it had come naturally to her. It looked natural.

He raised a patrician eyebrow. "Perhaps you can enlighten me, as to what anything entails."

She knelt looking up but avoiding eye contact, her green eyes full of fearful tears. Her small hands rubbed up and down his thigh. He had to clench his fists. He wanted to rub her creamy little thighs back, and make her shudder. She breathily said, in her most rehearsed "sexy" voice, "I'll be a good slave for you. I could please you, any way you like. Master," her hands now rubbing softly up the shaft of his very erect cock. She stroked every inch of him. "Please keep me." He couldn't decide if this was torture or heaven, his cock pulsing in her soft white hands as she played. She licked his shaft, slowly. She took all of him in her mouth, as slowly as a snake swallows its prey. Laelia felt like she was going to gag, but she sucked as gently as she could, torturing him. She showed him what a good slave she could be, the whole time she was drowning in her own anger and disappointment with herself.

Julian could see right through her manipulation, but it felt so warm and wet he couldn't bring himself to stop her. He resisted the urge to start ramming himself down her throat. The girl was sucking him so nicely. He hadn't even been between her legs yet, and he was now so hard, pulsing, in her mouth but thinking about taking her pussy. He wouldn't care that she was a virgin. She would feel too nice to be gentle, and she deserved to get it rough, for thinking she could get out of punishment. Well, perhaps he just wanted to make her suffer a little.

He let her suck slowly until he came; he couldn't help but thrust as he let her have every drop. She felt him go softer, but not completely flaccid. He pulled her little chin up so she was staring in his eyes. He could see it made her quite anxious. "Did you think you could get on your knees and I would forgive you? This is just the beginning, girl." He picked her up, and carried her to the black hide chair across the hall, in an empty room.

He pulled out some rope and tied her slender legs to the legs of the chair, careful not to hurt her, but also careful that it was tied tightly enough that she couldn't move. Julian tied her hands together, over her head. He continued. "You had no right to take away your lovely body, and all the enjoyment I'll take from it. You belong to me. I own every inch of you." Julian wanted to run his hands possessively, all over her slim, tight body. He started with her knees, touching her with the slightest of touches. He moved gradually up her lily white thighs, his calloused fingers caressing her. Laelia couldn't help but groan in pleasure. After an eternity, he gently rubbed her outer lips, never touching her directly. He was mesmerized by her soft pink insides, which looked sopping wet after his attention. Julian could feel himself getting harder, just from their play. She squirmed in her bonds and he could see her panting with desire. Kneeling between her tied open legs, he kissed the insides of her thighs for a few minutes. He started to bite, which elicited a pretty moan. He could smell her sweet, young pussy in the air. He rubbed a very cautious finger down her slit. Laelia watched as he smelled and tasted it. Something was strange, watching him taste her. She felt woozy, like she was about to pass out. Her cunni was throbbing.

Julian gave her a feline smile. "I can't decide if I want to keep tormenting you. It's quite fun. I've never had a slut who was this... responsive." She wriggled unconsciously in the ropes, giving him an explicit view. He gently nipped her outer lips, and then brought his tongue in, and she moaned loud. "I do adore torturing you like this." He licked her warm pink insides slowly. "You taste delicious." She was pulsing around his tongue. Laelia had always been overly sensitive, her nerve endings felt like they were on fire. It felt too good, and she was terrified of losing control of herself. She didn't want to give him the sense of satisfaction, when she creamed inside of his mouth. She knew that he'd feel he had conquered her fully. "Stop, please, Master. It feels too much. I can't." She wanted to thrash her tied legs, but she could only move her torso. She almost smacked him in the face, trying to move her center away from him. But he didn't say a word; he just glared at her and held her moving core down firmly. He started to feast on her like an animal. Laelia felt like she was going to lose her mind.

All he could imagine was making her lose her rigid self-control, her carefully guarded innocence. He didn't just want to be an owner of her body, lovely as it was. He wanted to own her mind as well, her desire. And so he focused his energy on sucking her poor, over sensitized clit until she violently shuddered in his mouth, screaming herself raw in the process. He forced her to reach completion twice this way, in quick succession. It amused him, but he also felt himself responding in a way he doubted he could control.

Laelia stopped begging. She would have kept it up, but her voice had gone almost completely mute. She silently moaned and bucked into his face, as he flicked her clit with his tongue. If she could have looked down, she would have seen how angry and hard his cock looked. He had not only tormented her, he had tormented himself with their play. Julian kissed her on the mouth, thrusting his tongue in, and she felt him groan softly. "See how nice you taste, girl?" He kissed around her neck, sucking on the bottom of her earlobe briefly. She could feel his hands around her ankles, untying her. She was praying to all the gods that it was the end of the night for her.

Then Julian flipped her over and tied her delicate wrists together again, her ankles apart again, but facing away. Her bottom was creamy and soft, just as he remembered from when he had fucked it against his desk. He spanked her a few times, and Laelia cried out in pain. He could see that the hairbrush welts had healed fully, but every time he brought his hands down on her bottom, he left a new red mark.

"I have some ideas for you when I'm back in Rome. " He had jerked off last night, imagining he was spanking her while he took her tight ass. This would be even better. "I still need to punish you for running away. But right now, I'm going to pluck your little flower." He kissed the back of her cream white neck, and pushed his painfully hard cock against her shorn cunt lips. Julian stared at the sight of his thick, veiny cock, rubbing against her this way. He pushed the tip of his cock inside of her, slowly.

Her sheath started to swallow him whole, against her desires. So tight and warm, he couldn't stop himself now, if he had wanted to. He fed her more of his thick cock, until he reached her maidenhead. Then he forced himself inside, with a sudden cry of pain from her, and a shudder. He grabbed a fistful of her hair and didn't stifle her cry of shock.

Ignoring her pain, he almost growled as he tried to get deep inside of her. He released her hair and grabbed her hips so that he could fill her as much and as fast as possible. He had always imagined that, when he finally used the girl's cunni, she would squeeze him tight. But due to her tiny stature, contrasted to his, she felt tighter than any woman he had been with. He couldn't imagine it didn't hurt her, at least a little bit. And indeed, she was crying softly. He was thick and stretching her insides out. She whimpered, "Master, it hurts inside."

He mumbled, "Shhh. It will pass." But he slowed down his frantic pace, and focused on playing with her clit. The pleasure from her clit made the pain of her deflowering easier to bear. He pulled his cock out, just to watch it slide back between her ass cheeks and then into her flushed wet mound. He couldn't help but grab her hair and then smack her ass a few more times, with his free hand. She let out a soft moan and unconsciously impaled herself harder onto his cock. Julian knew that even if she hadn't enjoyed it, he would have had to keep raping her on a regular basis. He needed something young and incredibly tight to satisfy him. And the way she writhed and was fucking him back, without prompting, was very encouraging. He started to feed his cock back to her a little harder and faster, and ground his hand against her clit until she cried out.

The pressure he was putting on her clit was too much to take. She felt like she was going to implode. Julian watched the girl buck against him in a frenzy, trying to get him inside of her faster. "My greedy, tight little slave. Ye gods, you are perfect."

He could feel himself throbbing and knew he couldn't hold out much longer. He grabbed her ass and used it to steer himself in hard. At his increase in force, Laelia cried out and her over excited pussy came around him, milking him perfectly. He had planned to spill on her back, but he found himself, suddenly unable to think about anything but filling her up with his seed. He groaned as he released inside of her. She felt it drip out as he removed his cock. He untied her feet and hands, and she turned around, and looked down at the floor in shame. Julian walked out of the room. At first, she was relieved that he had left her alone. But he spoke to someone in hushed tones outside, and came back with some metal shackles that he set on the floor. They looked cumbersome.

Laelia had been thinking about it for a while, but she was frightened to ask him. And her voice was barely audible from her screaming. "Master, I could get pregnant that way." She looked like she was going to cry, the way her lip was shaking. It was adorable.

He chuckled. "The more slaves, the more coin I have, dear. Besides, you know a slave woman with three children has special rights, as she's paid off her debts."