The Barbarian's Mistress Page 16

  ‘They would have to. Everything hinged on getting to Severus. Vali has no contingency plan. And I have to work one out. But I’m at a loss as to who else to marry her to in a hurry. The leeway we created, so she could get to Severus and complete the marriage, is moot now.’

  They climbed down from the litter and hurried inside. The litter slaves carried lamps to light their way. But it was still shadowed.

  Salvia stepped out from the shadows in the atrium and smiled like a cat who’d swallowed the last of the cream. ‘My dear husband, you return. And where is my dear daughter who was so sick you couldn’t bring her back for the Vulcanus celebration?’

  ‘Salvia. Yes, well Anniana was still unwell, so I left her behind. I had to get back because of the Vesuvius crisis…’

  ‘Left her behind, without a handmaiden? Please Gaius, give me some credit.’

  ‘Very well, Anniana has been sent away to the north where you cannot get your tainted claws into her. You can leave me, if you desire. But you will not get my little lamb. She’s already married.’

  ‘Married? To whom?’

  ‘Do you think I’d tell you that? The marriage is perfectly legal. I arranged it some time ago, and she went to be with her new husband when we went to Reati. It is done, my dear. You are outwitted.’

  Salvia frowned, thinking fast. ‘Then tell me what other precious “goods” you were keeping secret from me? A message came while you were gone. From the south. Your “goods” are badly damaged and S is dead. V required further orders. I gave them to him. I said bring the “goods” back here, damaged or not. I did the right thing, didn’t I, Gaius? You wouldn’t want your badly damaged goods so far away.’

  She was watching his face like a hawk, now. He knew he’d become weak at the very mention of damage. He could feel his heart beating so fast it was painful. He reached for his chest, and then thought better of it. He had to try not to give anything away. But Anniana was badly hurt? How had Vali let that happen?

  Ninia was whimpering at his side, and he threw her a fierce, cautionary look. She dropped her head, and began playing with the pleats on her gown. Her hands shook.

  ‘You seem distressed, Gaius. Were the “goods” so important to you?’

  ‘Our financial viability depended on them, Salvia. If the rugs from Persia are badly damaged, their value will be nought. Our fortune will be gone.’

  ‘Carpets? Hmmm. And this S?’

  ‘The dealer in Pompeii. He must have died during the eruption.’

  ‘I see. But then why would the message have come from Paestum, south of Pompeii? If they were coming by sea…’

  ‘I don’t know Salvia. Maybe the eruption pushed them off course and they sustained the damage when the ship was wrecked to the south. How would I know?’

  ‘But why would the message come in secret, Gaius. It was sent to your friend Lavius, and he sent it on here. If it was just a financial transaction, why the secrecy?’

  Bibulus felt like a bug being drawn deeper and deeper into a sand-spider’s hole. The sides were becoming less and less substantial, the harder he fought to escape.

  ‘I told you our wealth is in jeopardy. I didn’t want my fellow senators to know. Or you. It might have given you cause to leave me sooner, rather than later.’

  This seemed to give her pause. Did she believe him?

  ‘Well, it looks like your greatest fear has come to pass. I am leaving you. I will gather the seven citizens together tomorrow, and announce it. I expect my dowry to be returned to my father immediately.’

  ‘I can’t do that, Salvia. If these goods are damaged, we’re as good as penniless.’

  ‘Then you’ll be sued. And your name will be worthless. Gaius will have nothing. You were always a pathetic failure, husband. But it seems to have only got worse, as time went on.’

  Gaius Annius Bibulus nodded his head in defeat. She had no idea just what a failure he was. If his darling lamb was badly hurt, or died, because he sent her on this harebrained scheme to save her, then he truly was pathetic. His only hope now was that Vali wouldn’t think to bring her back to Rome. He must rely on his wit to sift falsehood from fact, and come up with the right course of action. Whatever that might be.

  Salvia sat in her tablenum sipping wine long after her confrontation with Gaius.

  Things were not as they seemed. Her fool of a husband had out-maneuvered her with Annia Minor. And her wealth was in jeopardy. The look on his face when he told her the last, made her believe him, at least on that matter.

  But the ‘goods’-- that didn’t ring true. Something wasn’t right there. She would need to check it out. What was the name in Paestum? Daria something? She would ask that fool Silus, and send men to investigate.

  She would need to send spies out to track down Annia Minor, too. Starting from Reati? Well, why not? But surely she would have taken her beloved handmaiden with her, if she married? Why had she returned to Rome without her mistress? Maybe she would need a little one-on-one time with that little piece. It was amazing what she could find out with a strategically placed pin.

  One way or another she was going to get her daughter back. If she was married, then she would convince Titus to arrange the divorce, if he wanted to marry Annia. Or even bed her. And Titus was interested, very interested. She wouldn’t accept the loss her most valuable pawn so easily.

  30 August 79 CE, Paestum LUCANIA

  The days had passed one perfect one after another. They played, they explored, and they slept. And each night Lara eased Vali’s discomfort in the way she’d been taught. And enjoyed doing it.

  Sometimes she would wake to find him still restless, his mind unable to escape the image of her core spread open before him as she worked him with such dedication. He felt like a bastard, having her servicing him this way, but it didn’t stop him wanting it, wanting more. On those nights, one release was not enough to help him sleep. And she would quickly put her talented hands to work again.

  For Vali it was its own form of torture. Having her bringing him to release time and again, each time more shattering than the next, made him crave more. She was like the mushrooms he had heard people speak of that became addictive, so that those who ate them were left as shadows of their former selves.

  Not that he was a shadow. He was more alive than he had ever been. And happier. But it was a desperate happiness that he knew would come to an end as soon as the message from Bibulus arrived. And that should be any day now.

  After yet another glorious day, they bid their hostess goodnight and went to bed. Lara seemed more anxious than usual to be abed. She had been restless all day, and preoccupied. When he’d asked her what was wrong she had simply smiled and shrugged. He was fast learning that if his little mistress didn’t want him to know what was on her mind, then he wouldn’t. She was stubborn, in her sweet natured way.

  After they were abed, the candle still lit because the moon had not yet risen, she moved over him and tried to take him in her hands. He drew them away.

  ‘What is troubling you? You’re so… nervy and irritable. If you don’t want to do this I can see to myself. You shouldn’t have to do it. It’s not your problem.’

  She scowled at him, and blew a strand of loose fair hair back from her face. The rest of her glorious tresses fell in wild abandon down her bare back. He ached for her. Not just for her hands, but for her. But this was all he could have. More than he should have. What would her father think about her sitting naked across his thighs as she worked him to orgasm? Not the activity of innocent virgins.

  Instead of replying, she began to stroke him, knowing now exactly how much pressure to apply. What gave him the most pleasure, and when. Fighting his desire, he stilled her hands.

  ‘Anniana…’

  ‘Lara!’ she came back immediately, letting go of him and putting her hands on her curvy, little hips.

  ‘Lara then. I don’t want this. Not when you obviously don’t want to do it.’

  ‘I do. But… ‘

&
nbsp; ‘But?’

  She made to climb off him, but he hastily held her in place, bringing her face up so she was forced to meet his eyes.

  ‘Talk to me, sweetling. I can’t know what’s going on for you unless you tell me,’ he said in gentle exasperation.

  She struggled to avert her face, which was burning with a deep blush. Her cheeks on fire this way made her even more attractive. He ran his rough fingertips down the smooth contours of her cheeks, but held her firm. This battle of wills had gone on long enough. They would find out who was the more stubborn.

  ‘I ache, Vali. Down there.’ She indicated with her eyes where she meant, shifting her hips in innocent provocation to further highlight what ‘there’ was. ‘Every time I do this to you… it gets worse. I feel confined by my own skin. I feel so restless, I want to scream. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.’

  He grinned impishly at her. ‘I can tell you, if you’d bothered to ask.’

  Her gaze flew to his face, eyes wide with expectation. ‘Tell me, please. I think I’ll go mad with it.’

  Instead of telling her, he threw her off him onto her back. Then he placed his cupped hand over the curls between her legs. She moaned and writhed.

  ‘Don’t Vali. That only makes it worse.’

  ‘Worse but better. Let me give you release.’

  ‘By kissing me there? I don’t know. I… I’m not sure. It seems wrong…’

  ‘Believe me, I know what wrong is, and what I have in mind is the farthest thing from wrong.’

  ‘All right.’ She nodded her head in defeat. ‘If you don’t mind.’

  Vali let his calloused fingers slide down her hips to her thighs, gently urging them to part. He’d dreamed of doing this for so many nights it seemed an already familiar practise. And yet the excitement of the new was almost overwhelming. How was he going to keep himself under control so close to where he needed to be?

  For a moment she fought him, but then seemed to realise that she had agreed to do this, and that fighting him was useless. She let him part her thighs, and then tensed as he settled himself between them, nuzzling the soft skin of her inner thighs with his lips, his hair tickling her sensitive flesh.

  When his tongue slid out and licked her inner thigh, she jumped. When he blew on the wet skin, she moaned. Then he was kissing her core, rubbing his face against her, and moaning his pleasure.

  ‘You smell so good,’ he mumbled, just before he let his tongue snake out and push between the folds of her sex. ‘Taste so good. I knew you would. I’ve imagined this so many times…’

  And then he stopped talking, and started to lick and suck her. Lara forgot her modesty, forgot her inhibitions, forgot that what he was doing seemed unnatural and wrong, and she just let herself feel.

  Vali was going mad. It felt so… delightful, so pleasurable. It excited him more than he’d thought possible, to be arousing her this way. Moaning, she gripped his head between her hands urging him on.

  When his tongue slid inside her, she cried out and arched up, bucking. It surprised her, but not him. Of course she was a quick study. How could he have expected anything else?

  ‘Gods, I want in there,’ he said with an agonised groan, as he slid a finger into her body. ‘Tell me if it’s too rough. I just want to feel what it would be like. I …’ he swore again as he began to devour her in a desperate frenzy, sending his finger in and out, never too far, always mindful of causing her pain, breaching her maidenhead.

  There came a moment when what he did had her bucking her hips, and writhed beneath him so much, he could barely keep his place. He was so close to coming, just watching her. Then something happened, and she became very still. This was it, she would either let herself go, or she’d draw back from the pinnacle. He paused, breathless. She screamed, and he had to hastily cover her mouth with his hand to quiet her. Her beautiful body was rigid, her face transformed by ecstasy.

  But even then, he didn’t stop for more than a second or two. While she was floating down from her first release, his tongue worked on her again, looking for the next that would follow so closely on the first. Her body froze again, and she moaned. He left off so that he could rest his cheek against her inner thigh, breathing her arousal deep.

  ‘Gods, you’re killing me,’ he said as he stroked his cheek against her skin, his nose separating her folds.

  ‘More…’ she said, desperate for that intimate touch again.

  ‘Greedy girl,’ he said with approval, as he brought his tongue to her again and slipped his finger inside her.

  She climaxed again and again, until she could take no more. Then he moved up her body, sliding his skin and his rod along her damp flesh until he nestled his arousal at her entrance.

  ‘I want this so much,’ he said huskily, flexing his hips so she could feel his need.

  Lara wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as he had kissed her, deeply, fully, letting her tongue invade his mouth in a frenzy of desire, squirming to get him closer, inside her.

  He kissed her back with rough ardour, riding his own self-control so hard it seemed to be closer to agony than pleasure. Then he threw himself off the bed and sat on the floor, panting in sobbing gasps.

  ‘No,’ she moaned, leaning over the side of the bed to get to him, trying to find his mouth. Past the point of sanity, she pressed her thumb into his mouth. He sucked on her thumb, stroking it with his tongue as she edged further off the bed so that she could reach his lips with her own. When she was close enough, she took her finger from him and replaced it with her tongue, nipping at his bottom lip until she tasted blood. The pain was exquisite.

  That bite seemed to shock her back into sanity. Touching his lips with her finger tips she patted them. ‘Sorry sorry, I don’t know what I’m… I hurt you…’

  His teeth closed over her fingers and bit down, not as hard as she had him, but hard enough to get the message across that he didn’t care. He was past caring.

  ‘Take me into your mouth,’ he pleaded brokenly. ‘It’s the only way I’ll stop. I need …’

  ‘Show me what to do,’ she said immediately.

  He was standing in front of her in an instant. ‘Open your mouth and let me feel your lips on me,’ he croaked, taking his hard rod in his hands and guiding it toward her mouth. The sheer thrill of watching her lips pout in readiness, nearly undid him. He was so close. All he wanted to do was bury himself in her. But he couldn’t do that. This was all he could have.

  She opened her lips and let them slide down over his soft head. The wet, slick heat of her mouth drove him wild. Desperately, he pulled her closer, only partly conscious that she couldn’t take all of him. That she could choke if he went too deep.

  Her hands seemed to know what they needed to do. She drew the balls down while she sucked him in. His hips thrust so that his rod moved in and out of her mouth. Her innocent ministrations were as perfect as any experienced whore’s.

  He was so close. Desperate to stop before he released, he dragged his arousal from her mouth. Then he threw her down on the bed so he could wedge his climaxing member between their bodies, before he gave in to the overwhelming pressure.

  When he collapsed on top of her, his body cradled by her hips, she felt shocked to the core by what had happened. Her body still hummed, but she felt languid and satiated. Oddly flat, after the intensity of the moments before. She could never have imagined what he’d done to her. What he had asked her to do to him. And yet it had been wonderful. Having him in her mouth was so much better than just holding him in her hands. And the expression on his face was enough to tell her that he had enjoyed every part of what they did together.

  She shuddered, remembering the feel of his tongue inside her. How had she never known that such pleasure existed before? No wonder Vali had wanted her to do that to him night after night. Had she known… she blushed, just thinking about it.

  When he made to roll off her, she held him in place.

  ‘I’m too heavy,’ he mumbled into her
hair.

  ‘No, not yet. I need… not yet.’

  ‘You need me inside you, like I need to be inside you…’ He sounded defeated.

  ‘I don’t know … I feel replete but… empty.’

  He swore again and nuzzled into her neck. ‘This was a bad idea. We’re not going to stop this until... I should have known I didn’t have the decency to control myself once we started.’

  ‘You controlled yourself. You didn’t take me. I was the one out of control.’

  ‘Only because I taught you things you shouldn’t know. What a good virgin shouldn’t know.’

  She drew his head up so she could meet his eyes. ‘I’m not sorry. Don’t spoil this by being sorry.’

  He shifted position so she was once more at his side while he lay on his back. They were both sticky with his fluid. ‘Go to sleep, sweetling. We’ll figure out what’s to be done tomorrow.’

  1 September 79 CE Paestum LUCANIA

  As the sun shone in through their window next morning, Vali lay with his sweetling cradled in his arms. He had given up the fight to keep his distance somewhere in the night. Not the physical distance, because with Lara there could be no physical distance. She curled herself around him like a vine the moment she sensed him near.

  It was the emotional distance he had given up on. After the way she had responded to him the night before, how could he ever consider not loving her? Her spirit and courage awed him; the way she embraced every challenge, the way she trusted him with every decision, especially in the bedroom.

  When she’d asked what he was doing several nights ago he’d thought he’d lost her. He expected her to be disgusted with him and his dirty, self-indulgent habits. Instead, she’d wanted to give him the release he so needed. And then asked to do it again! His little virgin mouse had sat on his thighs completely naked, her core revealed to him, and did what most other good women would think twice about.

  And last night he’d learned that all their sex play had been causing her discomfort. When he’d wanted to ease her she’d gone along with it, even though it was more confronting than anything else he had asked of her. And watching her come was the wildest aphrodisiac he’d ever known. So natural, so uninhibited, once she let herself go. The way she took her pleasure was awe inspiring.