AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Calix didn’t wait for his response, prowling forward through the stomach-high water, closing the gap between them. Aurelius stepped back, until he was pressed against the corner of the pool.
The man was right over him. He lay one giant hand on the edge tiles to his right, then another to his left, locking him into a triangular cage.
Calix was so close now that all Aurelius could see was his body. All he could smell was the remnant sweat in his thick chest hair.
Manly.
Enticing.
Terrifying.
Calix stared right into his eyes, two pools of golden fire. “Have you known battle, Your Excellency?”
“N-no,” he whispered, lost for words for the first time he could remember.
Calix leaned in until their noses were just a few inches apart. “Do you wish to?”
A hot shard stabbed at his groin. It was like nothing he had ever felt, stronger even than back in the Pentheon. His heart stampeded, knocking the wind from his lungs.
Then came these images: sweaty, savage, but so vivid they felt like they were happening in real-time. There were blurred moments of the prince slamming him against a wall, grinding his huge, naked body into his. Of muscles like an ox wrapping around his chest and neck, pulling him close, blending the boundaries between their beings. Of his own nails, digging into a thrusting back as he screamed for more.
Aurelius could feel it. The pleasure, the absolute, unimaginable rapture. And he wanted it more than anything he’d ever wanted before!
Now!
Forever!
“No!” roared the voice by his ear. “Control yourself!”
The tremendous grip on his mind vanished, leaving Aurelius reeling.
He grabbed the tiles, dizzy and disoriented with lust. The room was spinning. He couldn’t tell what was left or right, up or down. All he could see was a swirling figure, writhing and screaming to himself.
Aurelius barely noticed. His whole body swam now in the air of the bathhouse. The steam ran over his nipples like a hundred sensuous hands. The water lapped at his groin like a harem of hungry tongues.
He grabbed his cock on instinct and it was only a matter of seconds before his orgasm ripped through him, waves of pleasure shaking him so hard he thought he might break in half.
When he finally came to his senses, feeling like a wet cloth with every drop of moisture wrung from it, he looked around to see what had happened.
Calix was gone.
29
TEIGRA
Teigra shuffled under Ms. Securia’s gaze. Though she avoided looking directly at the high envoy, she could feel the glare on top of her head.
The high envoy’s office was even colder and more intimidating on the inside. The ceiling-high shelves of codices closed in mockingly—whispering that the occupant had forgotten more than Teigra would even know. The statue of Mesti by the window glinted in the late afternoon light, beaming with judgment—whispering that the occupant had law and reason and the goddess on her side.
And all Teigra had was the same gnawing feeling that had plagued her all afternoon: that she had failed every person who had ever trusted her.
Yes, Aurelius had miraculously gotten out of the wrestling school unharmed.
But it was no thanks to me.
The desk creaked as Ms. Securia leaned forward, elbows perched. “Among the senatorial families of Mestibes, your mother has developed quite a reputation, Ms. Cosmin. The youngest sibling of the archon. A member of an excellent family—speaking in terms of their power, if not their character—who was nevertheless destined to a life of quiet service. She was to be comfortable, but unremarkable. It was of course unfathomable that she should enter the senate, though not unfathomable that she would marry a patrician senator. And with that duty complete, she would settle into a life of growing obscurity, drifting further from power with each blessed nephew and niece. That would have been the proper path. However, this was not the path she chose, was it?”
“No, Ms. Securia,” whispered Teigra.
