Okay, chapter 5, finally. My apologies for its tardiness, as I said on my profile page I've had a lot going on in my life the last month and a half. As always, comments, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy!
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The early morning sun was filtering softly through the wide, open window of my bedroom, giving the silken sheets of my bed a pleasant warmth. I stretched languidly, enjoying the slight burn as my sore muscles were moved from sleep. I rolled over slowly, yawning a grin as I stroked the bare back of the sleeping man beside me.
Gaius shivered slightly, but did not wake at my touch. I continued to smile fondly at him as my fingertips traced the lines of his muscles and spine, noting in girlish amusement that there were light welts from where my nails had scratched him the night before. Surely someone, most likely his best friend Aurus, would have something to say to him about it later.
After I had acquiesced to him, Gaius and I had spent every night together. Our sleeping hours were filled with raw passion and tender love, and for the first time in my life, I found myself completely immersed in another person. I pined for him when he left during the day, my mind burning with memories of him, and when he returned to me in the evenings, I devoured his attention like a starving animal.
Gaius also enjoyed the intensity of this new found interaction, and I began to see a side of him that was previously veiled by my disgust with him. He became almost wild in the face of my affections, abandoning the decorum that he clung to so tightly in favor of desire and playful lust. The two of us engaged in play and love-making like two love sick adolescents, oblivious to the world outside each other's eyes.
I would often think that if our raucous, marathon sex could be considered prayer, the goddess Hastra would be glowing with pride.
My world had slowly begun to change as well. Gaius had hired me several tutors after I had expressed an interest in finally learning the things the maiden's home had tried to teach me for so many years, and my mornings and afternoons were filled with study and practice. I was learning to act and to speak as the wife of a powerful man should, all the while reading with calculated precision the true intentions of those around me. It was certainly an art, but I was determined that I would survive in this world.
I was also learning how to carry myself as a woman of power. Mistress Bestille, an aged woman with gray hair and a thin, severe frame, was my mentor in all things tradition and courtly. She drilled me incessantly, forever correcting my posture and expression, arranging my hands or my feet or directing me how to stand. Her constant meddling and sharp criticism often prompted rebellion from me, and I sullenly muttered under my breath that I could be the goddess Alphanis herself and the woman would still find something to complain about.
Gaius seemed to think I was making progress, however, for he would often comment on my poise or suddenly quiz me with questions regarding Parnatha's political and social history, questions I was more than prepared to answer. He even remarked, with pride, that I was likely one of the most learned women he had met in recent memory.
"I'm also the most stubborn and easily angered," I had shot back slyly. "Isn't a stubborn, angry, intelligent woman usually considered extremely dangerous?"
Laughing, Gaius kissed my neck and remarked, "Then I had better beware of falling into your disfavor, my lady."
I smiled at the memory, my fingers still tracing the contours of my sleeping lover's back. His skin was marked by faint scars that ran the length of his shoulders and down the middle of his back, remnants of battles past. I had asked Gaius about his time in war once, a query that had made him suddenly closed to me. He had quickly stammered a response about old ghosts left buried, and then changed the subject, but I already knew that he was haunted by those ghosts. I had been woken at night on a few occasions by him, tossing and turning and muttering threats to the nightmares that laid siege to his subconscious. I had kissed him gently, waking him and asking him if he needed anything. His response had been that he needed me, and we had engaged in sleepy love-making.
I lowered my lips to his back, laying a line of kisses up his spine to the nape of his neck, and I felt him stir beneath me. Gaius rolled lazily to his side, smiling through half-lidded eyes.
"You're going to spoil me rotten with good mornings like these," he murmured, sliding one of his arms around my waist and pulling me close to him.
"I'll stop if it's too much for you," I quipped in return. "I wouldn't want to overwhelm you."
"Oh, I believe it's too late for that," Gaius said with a chuckle, and I felt his other hand begin to travel up my stomach to one of my breasts. "I've already been conquered."
"So then I suppose there's nothing to be done."
"I suppose not."
"If you're conquered, that makes you my captive, doesn't it?"
Gaius considered my question while rubbing my nipple with his fingers. "Yes, I believe it does."
I grinned and pressed myself against him. Gods, he was already hard.
"You won't try and escape from me, will you?" I whispered as seductively as I could manage.
"I would never dream of it, my lady," Gaius grinned in return.
"Good. But just to make doubly sure..."
Disengaging myself from his grasp, I pushed Gaius onto his back with one hand while sliding down the side of his body, the fingers of my other hand teasing his erection. Settling myself between his legs, I smirked up at him before taking him in my hands and licking him from hilt to tip. Gaius sighed as he watched me, relishing in the attention I was paying him. I continued to lick him, swirling my tongue all around his shaft and flicking the underside of his cock just below its head, one of my hands stroking his thighs and testicles. When little groans began to escape him, I licked my lips and plunged his cock into my mouth, sliding it slowly in and out while pumping the base with one hand.
Gaius began to rock his hips in time to my rhythm. I glanced up at him as I continued to lick and suck him, noting that his expression had grown heady with lust. His chest and stomach were taught, and his hands were gripping the sheets. Amused, I giggled as I bobbed down onto him.
"Gods!" Gaius swore, grabbing my head and wrapping his fingers in my hair. Curious, I stopped what I was doing and looked up at him in confusion.
"Did I hurt you?"
"No... Gods, no, you didn't. Do that again."
"Do what?"
"The... that... when you laughed with me in your mouth..."
Smirking slyly, I slowly wrapped my lips around his cock again, sliding him into my mouth. "Li' 'is?" I said when he was near the back of my throat, and I was rewarded with a deep moan and a bucking of hips. I giggled again, which initiated another round of moaning and thrusting, and I continued to hum and moan and make other small sounds as I sucked on his cock.
Gaius finally decided he'd had enough. He sat up and took hold of my shoulders, pulling my face up to his. Kissing me deeply, his fingers found my clit, and he rubbed it teasingly while he positioned me over his lap.
"You'll be a good captive and not try to escape, won't you?" I asked coquettishly.
"I'm as willing a captive as there ever was, my lady," Gaius murmured, his voice gravelly and deep.
I knew how badly he wanted me at that moment, but I wasn't ready to acquiesce yet. Smirking, I snaked away from him and scooted to the other side of the bed, where I sat with my legs partially open to him. I felt powerful before him like that.
"I want you to please me, captive," I said with a grin. "Do this, and I will reward you."
I was hardly prepared for Gaius' reaction. He surged across the bed and grabbed my hips, pulling me roughly toward him. Hovering over me, Gaius captured my mouth with his, his tongue plunging deep between my lips.
"As you desire, my lady," he said with a grin, before lowering his face between my legs. His hot mouth fell on my clit and pussy with ravenous abandon, and I arched my back as a long moan erupted from my throat. His tongue flicked and rolled my clit, sending shock waves of ecstasy throughout my body. My cries for mercy went unheeded, and I was soon bucking my hips, my fingers twined tightly in his hair.
Gaius lifted his face from me as I was about to climax, and I whined and writhed as he grinned at me.
"Are you pleased my lady?"
My teeth sunk into my lower lip, and I nodded fervently.
"And my reward?"
I pulled the man toward me, taking hold of his hard shaft and guiding it toward my waiting sex. Gaius' face flushed with lust, and I could feel his muscles tense in apprehension as he slid slowly home. Moans issued from both our mouths, and I was pressed into the bed as he drove himself into me. The sound of our pleasure and our bodies sliding together filled the room, and I was beside myself as my body began to twitch and throbb; my climax was near.
Gaius lifted his head to watch me as I came, his eyes taking in every detail of my release. He pumped his hips harder, causing me to yelp in short, staccato sounds, and finally found his own release in a series of deep grunts and bellows. Collapsing onto the bed, the two of us fought for breath.
Our skin was covered in a fine sheen of glinting sweat, which was cooling slightly in the morning light. I ran my fingers over the musculature of Gaius' back, and I felt his skin dimple at the touch. He shivered slightly and then buried his face in the crook of my neck.
"I love you, Lithana," he whispered, almost imperceptibly.
All the breath left my lungs at those words, and I was suddenly suspended with shock. He loved me? This man actually loved me? I hesitated, unsure of how to respond. What did one say in a situation like this?
"I know," I responded softly, feeling like a fool. If Gaius had noticed my brief internal battle, he gave no indication of it. He offered a smile and kissed my forehead before clambering off of me, reminding me that he was expected at the forum today. I watched him sponge himself off from where I lay on the bed, my head still swimming from what he said. I did question his sincerity for a moment, but a much larger question was looming in my mind. If he did indeed love me, what did that mean for me? And, more importantly, did I love him in return?
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