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  In that moment, I thought that was exactly what he would do. I couldn’t help seeing him as he’d been in that alley, soaked in his enemies’ blood, glorying in it.

  “I’m going to the military port authority! Don’t go to the baths!” Orion ordered, pushing his way past the muscled bodies until he reached the door.

  I wanted to apologise. I wanted to call him back. But I kept seeing the expression on his blood-spattered face. No one should enjoy killing like that, no matter how justified it had been.

  Chapter Three

  ACCALIA

  I slumped to the floor on the nearest pallet against the wall. Drawing my knees up, I wrapped my arms around them, hugging them tight as I rested my cheek on their top.

  “You shouldn’t blame him,” Asterius said, taking the pallet across the room from me and mirroring my body language. Except he didn’t hug his knees as much as rest his elbows on them.

  “There is that word again. Should. I know I should not. But I cannot get the picture of it out of my head. I love him more than anything, but I am also scared of him. All of you, if I am honest.” I paused after admitting that truth, hating to hurt them with it. “I have watched you fight hundreds of times. I saw you shed blood in the arena. Lots of blood. But that was from a distance and no one died. It has become entangled in my head with the Parthian’s attack on our cisium. When Pater nearly died. When our men did die right in front of me. And I was terrified. Sometimes it feels like... like the whole world is filled with nothing but violence and death.”

  Typhon, who had seated himself on the other end of my pallet, edged closer. With tentative fingers, he stroked my hair back from my face.

  “It is all right to feel overwhelmed and frightened. Do you think we don’t feel like that sometimes? You are right. The world is filled with violence and death. And you have seen more than your share of it. Give yourself time. It will get easier.”

  I looked up to meet his compassionate gaze. Gone was the angry, volatile man who had told me what I should not do. Now he was my caring friend again, more sensitive than was good for someone who followed his profession.

  “You feel afraid?” I asked in disbelief.

  “Sometimes. Like with Lucullus all those years ago. And the night before I fought in the arena for the first time. Then it felt like I’d been pushed into something I’d never chosen. I was never meant for. The others were bred for the arena. But I was born of a violent act, and that monster’s blood in my veins had brought me to the arena. Or that was how it felt in those dark hours. But then I fought and won, and suddenly I was in control again.”

  He paused for a moment, thinking. His blue-black hair fell over his creased forehead. I had the strongest urge to brush it back. I fought the desire, not wanting to distract him. Whatever he was about to say next was important.

  “It’s feeling that your life is out of your control that frightens you most. I killed Lucullus and regained control of my life. I fought and won in the arena and realised I was just where I was meant to be. And then I was given a choice to follow another path. I was offered my freedom. And I chose to stay on the path fate had given me. Do you understand?”

  “Orion and I talked a lot about fate. It feels fated that we are all together. That we were always meant to be. But you are right. It is only in moments when I feel like my life is out of control that I am truly afraid.”

  “You do not have to ever be afraid of us,” Talos said, edging over from the other pallet so he was sitting next to me on the wooden floor. “We would rather cut off our cocks than hurt you. And though we are desperate to have you, and that need is... barely under control, we will never take control from you.” He took my hand in his, turning it palm upward. “Such a small, fragile hand, and yet it can save lives. And it can control four men bred for violence and blood. Do you understand? This small hand holds us all in its grip.”

  “I do not want to force you to do anything... I do not think of you as my slaves,” I said hastily, suddenly afraid for a different reason. I never wanted them to feel like chattel, like possessions. Since the Parthians, I knew too well how that felt.

  Talos laughed and kissed my palm. “Typhon said it before. We were offered our freedom and we chose to take the kind of freedom we wanted. To be your slave. Not your father’s. Yours. That is all the freedom we want: to be able to be with you and keep you safe from a dangerous world.”

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  Talos smiled, his white teeth starkly contrasted against his dark skin.

  I turned to Typhon and leaned in to kiss his lips for the first time since we were children. The kiss was every bit as sweet as the sticky-jam one we shared so long ago.

  When our lips parted, I smiled. “I love you too, Typhon.”

  Typhon smiled tenderly at me. “My heart has always been yours, little she-wolf. Always.”

  I stood up and walked over to where Asterius sat, seemingly disinterested in what we had been saying. I kneeled in front of him. “I love you.”

  He looked up and met my searching gaze. He was not disinterested. Anything but. “I know. I have your whole heart. As you have mine.”

  I grinned then, remembering our conversation on the ship bound for Sardinia. I had told him that they each had my heart, all of my heart, which meant I had to have more than one heart in my chest.

  “Do you miss sex?” I asked, probing a little more. The thought that he had not wanted anyone since we were together both pleased and appalled me. I had not wanted him to be denied what I could not give him.

  Then.

  Not now.

  Now I could make it up to him for all those long, lonely nights.

  He must have seen it in my eyes because he grinned his sultry smile. “I miss you. Only you.”

  When he leaned in to kiss me, I backed away. “Oh no, not until I am clean. And you are all clean.”

  Asterius made much of sniffing under his armpit and then pulling a face. “Maybe you are right. But Orion ordered us to stay here and not go to the baths.”

  I shot him a teasing look. “How much water is there in that jug?”

  His sexy smug look had my toes curling. “We are all having a sponge bath here then?”

  “I’ll go fill a bucket,” Talos offered quickly. “Don’t start without me.”

  “No promises, brother. We’ll start with what we have here.”

  Asterius rose gracefully to his feet and offered me his hand. All my fears and doubts were gone. My desire was burning me up from the inside out, even though we had done nothing but exchange affirmations of love.

  Talos had gone, and I heard his running footsteps. He would be back quickly. But not quickly enough for me.

  I turned to Typhon, who was still sitting where I had left him. For a moment I felt all the old shyness returning. I had come to know the bodies of my other pack-mates as well as I knew my own, but not Typhon’s. And he did not know mine. What if, after all this time, he was disappointed with me?

  Something of what I was feeling must have shown on my face because he easily rose to his feet and came to stand in front of me. “If we’re going to give you a sponge bath we need to get you naked.”

  As good as his word, Typhon began undoing the belt around my waist. Once it was gone, he took the bottom of my short tunic and lifted it over my head.

  Asterius glanced my way hungrily as he filled the bowl with water.

  I stood with bound breasts and loincloth in front of Typhon. Desire danced in his eyes, and I knew I had not disappointed him so far. Very slowly, he began to unwind the bindings until my small breasts were free. His soft exhale at the sight of them filled me with confidence. I was small, but none of the others had seemed to mind.

  Typhon dropped to his knees in front of me and brought his mouth to my left breast. He kissed the tip tenderly, and I caught my breath. In the next instant, he was taking the nipple deep into his hot mouth and suckling. My moan seemed too loud, too needy. And my legs would have given way
under me had Asterius not come up behind me and held me upright.

  While Typhon suckled first one and then the other breast, Asterius undid my loincloth and removed it. Then he dropped to his knees and unlaced my sandals from my feet. I felt his soft hair brush against my back and naked cheeks and his hot flesh press against the back of my legs as he worked. Gods, I had dreamed of this, imagined how it would work. Now I was getting to find out. So far it was better than I could have hoped for.

  When I was totally naked, the door to our room opened and Talos rushed in, sloshing water from the big bucket he held as he did so. The expression on his face when he saw me there, naked with his brothers, was priceless. His cock was already evident under his tunic, and I grinned.

  “You started without me,” he croaked, but didn’t seem to mind.

  “We need some washcloths,” Asterius said, his voice a little strangled. He stripped off his tunic and began ripping it into pieces.

  This was not as outrageous as all that. We had taken to buying new clothing at each stop rather than finding a laundry. We kept a spare set of clean clothes with us at all times; replacing them at every marketplace we came to. So Asterius may be disposing of his tunic a little more forcefully than usual, but it would have been left behind after we left here anyway.

  I turned to study his half naked form. It had become more heavily muscled since entering the ludus in Rome. My mouth was suddenly dry as dust as I studied his perfection. We had always jokingly referred to him as our Greek god because of his male beauty and perfection. And in this moment I knew it as the truth.

  He grinned at me and leaned in to kiss my lips briefly, teasingly, knowing he was being appreciated. When he turned away to go to the bowl I was disappointed, until I realised the back view was just as impressive as the front. I wanted to tear off his loincloth so I could see his muscular cheeks.

  Talos placed the bucket beside the small table and began busying himself with one of the scraps of cloth and the sliver of soap we carried with us. It smelled of ash, lavender and wool grease.

  All the while, Typhon continued to suckle, his big hands clamped around my cheeks, keeping me just where he wanted me.

  Talos dropped a soaking rag on Typhon’s shoulder and he jumped away a little.

  “Wash first, pleasure second,” Talos said with a sly smile on his full lips.

  Obediently, Typhon took up the rag and began to wash the part of me that had been his focus so far. I felt another wet rag gently stroke across my shoulders and then down my back. This was Asterius, I discovered.

  Talos as the tallest, stood at my side and dripped water over my head until I spluttered and laughed. Then, still smiling, he began to rub the soap through my salt-encrusted hair. His strong fingers kneaded my scalp until I was moaning in pleasure.

  That pleasure was intensified when a wet rag began to wash between my legs and Talos passed off the soap to Typhon. Slick soapy fingers covered my curls and then found their way between my folds.

  “Hah,” I got out as pleasure coursed through me. Another hand came between my cheeks, just as soapy and slid around my back entrance. Asterius. He had taught me there was pleasure to be had from this unusual place.

  As Typhon slipped one finger inside me, Asterius breached me gently from behind. Moaning, I gave myself over to the pleasure as Talos continued to massage my scalp as other clever fingers found other places to massage.

  I saw triumph in Typhon’s eyes as he pushed me over the edge for the first time. I fell forward, resting my hands on his shoulders, panting with the pleasure of it. The intensity of the sensation was shocking.

  “You all right?” he whispered into my ear as I leaned into him.

  I laughed a little as I panted. “Oh, yes. You?”

  “I want to be where my finger is,” he replied. “But I can wait until I’m clean too. If... If that is what you want.”

  His sudden uncertainty filled me with pleasure. I kissed his mouth, only the third we had shared since we were children. It had no sweetness this time, only need and urgency. I moaned into his mouth as Asterius pushed deeper into me with his finger and stroked me there.

  Talos was rinsing off my hair, and the water was trickling down over my body, soaking my pile of clothes on the floor. The others were suddenly intent on rinsing the other parts of me until I was squeaky clean and shivering from the cold.

  I coaxed Typhon’s tunic over his head while he was still kneeling, before getting him to stand so I could remove his loincloth. My hands shook with excitement more than cold.

  A soapy rag was placed in my hand and I began to wash Typhon’s rampant cock, enjoying his moans as I did so. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Asterius and Talos were now naked and washing the top halves of their bodies. I had a feeling the lower part of their torsos would be left for me.

  When I finished washing Typhon clean, I turned to Talos and began my ministrations on him. With a part of my mind that watched from outside me, I wondered at the ease with which I had taken to the situation. In my mind, when I imagined it in the past, I had always been a little embarrassed and overwhelmed by their size, muscles and strength. But now it was really happening there was no discomfort. Maybe the very fact that we were involved in a necessary activity, getting clean, made it more normal than if it had all been about sexual pleasure.

  My body told me that sexual pleasure was certainly a major part of this activity, though. I was still buzzing pleasantly from my first climax. It would take very little to send me over into my next. But I wanted the next one to happen when Typhon was inside me. I craved to be filled by him.

  I knew exactly what I was doing when I bent over at the waist to continue my cleaning strokes along Talos’ large member. When I felt a hard cock press against my cheeks, I knew the invitation had been accepted.

  I looked up to see both Asterius and Talos watching with fevered gazes as Typhon pressed inside me. Moaning, I clung to Talos hips and pressed my head into his flat belly. The sensation of being filled was incredible. The knowledge that two other set of eyes watched it happen made it all the more pleasurable.

  “Hades, you’re so tight,” Typhon growled as he moved to stretch me to accommodate himself. “So... good...”

  Talos buried his hands in my short hair and his cock pressed against the side of my face. I knew he was imagining himself inside me.

  Turning my head a little I took in the sight of his impressive, pulsing sex. My mouth closed around the tip of his cock before I realised what I was doing.

  It was the oddest sensation to have two of my men inside my body in different ways. I had imagined it, but the reality was totally different. So much more raw and intense.

  As Typhon slid out and then back inside me, deeper this time, I did the same to Talos’ cock, taking as much of him into my mouth as I could manage.

  “Gods, this is a sight,” Asterius moaned.

  I glanced at him stroking his length as he watched the three of us.

  Though I wanted to keep sucking on Talos, my mouth became sore fairly quickly, and the pleasure at my core was forcing my focus elsewhere. I lifted up and Talos dropped to his knees kissing me hungrily in time with Typhon’s increased momentum. My body shook as my climax neared. Moaning into Talos’ mouth, I knew the moment had come. I tore my lips from his to cry out.

  Asterius roared at the same moment. When I looked, he was surging into one of the wash clothes as his face was transfixed with pleasure.

  Moments later, Typhon withdrew and I felt his hot seed spray over my back. All the while Talos sucked and nibbled on my earlobe, his harsh breaths fuelling my passion.

  A washcloth cleaned my back as Talos collapsed onto the nearest pallet. I followed him so I could get him inside me. Though I had barely come down from my last climax, which had been intense, I still needed more. This was unlike anything I had experienced with my men separately. It was as if my need had tripled.

  Talos looked ready to tell me no, thinking I was doing it out of du
ty. I let my need show in my face as I poised above him and then slowly slid down over his thick length. I had imagined what this might feel like when we were in our little sanctuary beneath the burnt-out building. It had been so dark there. Now I could see everything, and my gaze gobbled his beautiful body up as my core swallowed him whole.

  A body pressed up against me from behind, hands cupping and kneading my tender breasts as I rode Talos in long languid strokes. Asterius breathed into my ear words of love and desire. Words that pushed me even higher.

  “It feels almost as good as being inside you myself, watching you climax around my brothers,” he said as my release reached its peak, and I soared off into the brilliant starbursts behind my eyes.

  With the part of my mind that was still aware of my surroundings, I felt Talos lift me off him as he climaxed loud and triumphant. Asterius bent me over so my hands were on the pallet. It surprised me when I felt his hard length sliding into me. Had he not just come? How could he be rock hard again so soon?

  But I was not able to think further than that. My arousal was rising again, so much faster than the previous times. It was as if I was on stairs that were becoming smaller and smaller each step I climbed. The first had taken effort to scale. These were easy. And I scampered up them and flew from the top in one blissful, all-consuming release that had me crying out so loud a hand came over my mouth to keep me quiet.

  For a little while longer I enjoyed the thrusts that nearly had me collapsing into the pallet. Only Asterius’ hands on my hips and Talos hands on my shoulders kept me in place. My body felt like melted wax. I just wanted to dribble into a pool beside my men, replete.

  In the next moment, Asterius cried out and I felt his seed spilling inside me. This was what I had needed. This completed me. Though I did not understand why, having my men climax so close to my womb made me feel whole. It had been this way with Orion. It felt the same way now. An overwhelming sense of peace settled over me.