Bathing him seemed to take forever. My movements were as slow as if I had been wading through an ocean of syrup, so much alike dreams. Besides, my mind kept on wandering even if I shook myself more than once, trying to force it to focus on the immediate problem of sobering Maximus enough to try to persuade him to escape. My stable foreman must have been wondering what was keeping us from meeting him but, after issuing orders to have all the servants away from my rooms for the night, I could not get him a message without leaving Maximus alone. And I could not leave him alone for even if he seemed to be deeply asleep; I was not sure how or when he would come around.

As I sponged the naked body lying on my bed, I darted nervous glances through the window, trying to guess how late it was and how much time I had till dawn. In Zucchabar the day starts very early for long before noon you are forced to retreat to whatever coolness your home can offer you. I wanted Maximus to depart while it was still dark so he could take some advantage of the cooler hours of the early morning to get some distance between himself and his persecutors. Even if the heat would soon force the men Proximo and the local magistrate would send after a runaway slave to stop in their search, I wanted him as far away from Zucchabar as possible.

And as I tried to make frantic calculations, I also tried to shut out the living, warm body I was stroking with the damp sponge... and failed. How could I ignore the flesh that had coupled with mine in such a frenzy of uncontrolled desire? How could I ignore the body that had possessed mine as no other had and given me such an intense pleasure? How could I ignore the unbridled lust he had awakened in me?

Maximus mumbled something in his sleep making me alert. I touched his face and he smiled then mumbled again but no matter how much I strained my ears, I could not hear what he was saying. Was he dreaming about better times? Was he calling for Selene? Did he think it had been her he had taken? And, why was the idea so distressing? After all, Selene had been his wife for... how long? Ten years? They had loved each other. She had been brutally killed. He missed her. Grieved for her. Was ready to die and go to her... Yet the mere thought that he may have been dreaming about her while he was burying himself in me, was upsetting.

With a moan, I dropped the sponge and buried my face in my hands. What I was thinking about? What had I done? I had tried to save Maximus through a clumsy and weak plan that had had him brought to my home yet dosed with a drug to induce his lust and rendered him unable to retain enough control to follow my lead and escape. I cursed Proximo's greed then cursed myself. It had been my mention of a bonus if Maximus satisfied me that had persuaded him to rent me the most precious stallion of his gladiators' stable. It had been my foolishness that had brought Maximus into that situation and both of us into that mess, and the only thing I was able to do was to feel jealous of a dead woman? I should have been happy if Maximus had found some respite from his terrible existence by dreaming she was still in his arms...With a sigh, I went on sponging him, washing the broad, tanned torso, the powerful arms, heavy with muscles from a life of warring and riding. I slid the sponge down his strong thighs and graceful calves carefully avoiding looking at his groin. I did not dry him. It was not necessary. The warm air of the desert took care of the moisture the sponge trailed on his taut skin.

Rolling him on his stomach took all my waning strength but I finally managed to have him flat on his belly and washed his broad back. He sighed contentedly when I used the sponge on his round buttocks and I flushed crimson when I discovered myself caressing them with my bare hands. Yet I could not stop myself and instead slid my palms down his thighs and traced a path down the well-defined muscles. Then, I took my hands from him and simply remained there, admiring him. Admiring the rugged beauty of his male body, my eyes tracing every curve and hollow, every sinew and scar. And scars he had, his war-hardened body showing both the proof of his courage in battle and his warrior skills by getting into action and coming out from it with a trace of his enemies' weapons, yet none of them so close or so deep as to endanger his life.

He had been spared the humiliation of the scars slavery frequently places on human bodies. They had not branded him or whipped him and for these small mercies I was thankful yet I felt my heart tighten at the mere thought of his enslavement. Before I could stop myself, I bowed and lightly kissed his shoulder blade then sobered myself and tried to roll him on his back again. In his sleep Maximus seemed to weigh as much as the huge rocks the soldiers had cut years ago to build the local fortress. In order to move him, I had to kneel on the bed and use all my strength and when I finally managed to do it, I was sweating and panting.

I bit my lower lip as my eyes strayed towards his groin and I felt myself blush again at the mere thought of washing him intimately. Yet there was no sense in bathing him if I did not so I soaked the sponge again and grudgingly applied it to his lower body. I worked as softly and as quickly as I could but not enough to prevent his manhood from hardening under my touch. I took off the sponge and watched in fascination as his flesh swelled and rose in eagerness and need.

When I finally forced my eyes to rise from Maximus' hard member, it was only to find myself looking into his eyes. They burned hot and wild, a blue-green fire that seemed intense enough to reduce me to ashes. It was under his smouldering gaze that I noticed that I was kneeling on the bed by his side as naked as he was. Why had not I put on my robe after washing myself? Why had I remained undressed while sponging him? Why had not I shielded my vulnerability behind a piece of clothing? Whatever the reason, it was already too late to cover myself. Maximus rose on an elbow and with a swift movement slid a strong, muscled arm around my waist and dragged me towards him.

"Maximus..." I started but the word turned into a moan as he buried his face between my breasts and rubbed his bearded chin against my skin, hurting me a little, yet re-awakening my flesh with alarming intensity. Then, he turned his face and captured one of my already distended nipples between his lips, swirled his tongue around it and I grabbed his shoulders with both my hands to avoid collapsing in his arms. He tongued the stiffened peak for a long time then started sucking it while I gasped and felt myself get hot and liquid. My nipples are extremely sensitive. So sensitive that it's easy to drive me wild just working them thoroughly. But I had never been sucked as Maximus did, his mouth hot and demanding, engulfing first just the nipple, then as much of the breast as he could take.

I cradled his head with one of my hands, keeping him at the place where I wanted him to be, urging him to go on sucking, licking and nibbling me for it was good, so good as it had never felt having a man at my breast. With a groan, Maximus sat up kneeling on the bed, and turned to the other nipple and repeated the sweet torture giving it the same burning pleasure till I was moaning and arching against him, always cradling his head, always urging him for more. Caught by the pleasure his mouth was giving me, I had had noticed his other hand fondling my buttock, then descending along my thigh where it rested for a moment. When I felt the heavy, warm weight of it against me, I unconsciously spread my thighs silently begging him for more. He did not need any urging. His hand found the way between them and cupped my aching, swollen flesh. He did not move it. He did not use his fingers. Instead, he left it there, tenderly cradling the centre of my femininity as I did with his head while his relentless mouth went on with its maddening rhythm.

With a moan I arched against his hand, offering him even better access to my breast while I slid my hand down his body and took him. It was his turn to moan as I stroked his swollen manhood and felt it become impossibly big, hard and hot in my hand. I moved against his hand seeking the stimulation that would take me over the top while I slid my hand even lower and cupped his already heavy and tight testicles. He returned my attention by spreading himself to give me better access to the secrets of his body and using his teeth on my breast. I cried at the sharp pain and moved harder against his still immobile hand, gasping and whimpering as the frenzy of unsatisfied lust caught me. Freeing my nipple, Maximus trailed a path of fire with his tongue up my shoulder before sinking his teeth into my flesh once more, then grabbed my waist and moved me to straddle him. I needed no more encouragement and spread myself on top of his thighs while I guided his stiff manhood into my slit. I stopped for a moment to tease myself, rubbing the swollen head against my entrance and allowing my juices to bathe his member while we gasped and panted, then positioned it and, before he could move, I impaled myself with a scream. I was terribly tender from our previous coupling, and the penetration burned all the way in despite the almond oil and my dampness... yet it felt good. It felt so good to have him so thick and big inside me that the world seemed to have ceased to exist and that there was nothing at all in it but Maximus between my legs.

When we started moving, it was in unison, him thrusting and I rocking, our bodies damp with mingled sweat sliding against each other. Our tense, burning bellies rubbing against each other and increasing the acute ache of need. His sparse, sun bleached chest hair teased my reddened, aching nipples with each movement. Soon I was digging my fingers in his shoulders in a way that had to be painful. Soon, he was digging his own in my buttocks in a way that would leave them bruised and sore as he urged me to ride him harder. I obliged. I became wilder than I had ever expected I could be, my hair floating around us like a horse's mane, my breathing coming out in uneven gasps mingled with words I could not understand and which seemed to be born from my guts for they never touched my mind. I moved with increasing urgency, undulating against his belly, sliding up and down his stiff manhood, frantically riding towards my release and driving him towards his...

Maximus' eyes were shut, his handsome, bearded face a tense mask of wild need and unleashed desire. I caressed his damp features, my fingers trailing his high forehead, bearded cheeks, sweet mouth and dimpled chin. Bathed with sweat and the golden light of the oil lamps, he looked like some ancient, wild god in the throes of dark ecstasy. Release crashed on me with the sudden, devastating intensity of a lightning bolt. I screamed in the silence of the night, raking his golden skin with my nails as my flesh convulsed around his with such intensity that I felt a dull ache in my lower back, an ache I had not experienced since I had gone into labour and given birth to Valeria. His own completion overcame him immediately and he erupted, bathing my insides with renewed fire as he roared in his release. I went limp against his body, barely managing to slide my arms around his neck to avoid collapsing on the mattress. We remained like this for some time, panting, overpowered by the fatigue and the smell of satiation, my head reeling despite my closed eyes and Maximus still hard between my legs.

Suddenly, he moved with the swiftness that made him lethal both at the battlefield and the arena and before I could protest, he rolled me on my back. When I opened my eyes, it was to see him darkly towering between my spread thighs, smouldering eyes fixed on my face. I briefly wondered if he was lucid. If he knew the woman who lay naked and at his mercy was me, Claudia, his childhood playmate. If he knew the woman he was buried in was the long lost friend who had so foolishly brought him into this mess while trying to help him. If he knew I was not only responsible for him being drugged but also of shamelessly obtaining my own pleasure from his body. I wondered if he knew and if he was taking his vengeance by making me pant out of desire, beg in need and weep out of ecstasy. Then, he grabbed my knees and raised them high against my chest and, as he slid even deeper in my body and started moving again, I simply ceased to wonder and gave myself to pleasure. It went on and on till one coupling mixed with the following and my body seemed to have been reduced to just my aching nipples and my swollen core. Till our combined moans, groans and cries replaced all other possible sounds in the world. Till our bodies ached yet demanded that the mating continue.

I dozed at some point only to wake up to a tingling sensation. I was lying on my stomach on the damp sheets, our combined essence filling the room with its pungent, characteristic smell. I was exhausted, drained, too confused to identify what had awoken me. I had never been taken so repeatedly. So deeply. So thoroughly. I had never come so many times. So hard. So completely. A vague glance at the windows showed me it was still dark …It was as if that night was as endless as the pleasure we had given to each other..Maximus... Was there any chance I could still help him to escape slavery?

The question died in my mind as I suddenly identified the source of the tingling sensation. Maximus' hand was moving on one of my buttocks. Fondling it. Dangerously sliding down its curve, his fingers becoming more and more inquisitive ... No. It could not happen again. There was no way I could take him again. I had to talk to him... I had to talk some reason into the fog of the drug... I gathered all my strength and tried to rise but it was to no avail... My aborted movement left me open and exposed to his fingers... they found their way into the secrets of my body with the determination and knowledge of a leading male animal bringing his mate into submission. I started crawling on the bed, desperately trying to reach safety, dislodging his fingers and feeling them trail along the inside of my leg... I moved with desperate slowness and the awkward, dislodged movements of a landed fish...

Maximus' hand closed around my ankle with the finality of a slave cuff. I stopped moving and held my breath while waiting for him to act and wondering if his fogged mind would finally be able to grasp the situation and react... It did not. Instead, he acted. He dragged me towards him, sliding me across the bed while still lying on my stomach and when he had me close enough, he brought an arm around my waist and raised me onto my knees.

"Maximus... Maximus, please!" I tried to offer resistance but my strength had been burned in the course the night and the delirium we had gone through. My struggle did not achieve anything but was rewarded with a hard slap on my already bruised buttock. I cried as much in surprise as in pain for his hand was heavy and hard as only a soldier's can be. I remained quiet for a moment, as Maximus rubbed his face against my dishevelled hair and caressed the skin he had slapped. My buttock burned and little by little the odd heat spread along my body and seemed to bring it back to life. I sighed and let my head fall as Maximus went on caressing my bottom. When his hand slid down between my buttocks, I stiffened for a moment, afraid he would try to take me as if I was a boy. I had never done it. I had never taken a man there. But I had taken Maximus time and again in my female sheath and I knew how big and hard he was and that he was not in the right mood for experiments that may require control and patience. He touched me lightly there, where no man had ever touched me, then his fingers moved lower, making me shiver as they reached the hidden button between the swollen folds from behind, eliciting an extra dose of arousal.

I am ready to swear he was smiling against my hair as his efforts were rewarded with the renewed flow of my female essence. And when he guided his manhood inside me one more time, I did not offer resistance. Instead, I swallowed a little whimper as the renewed friction slightly burned while my sheath accommodated him once more then I sighed as his belly pressed against my buttocks. It felt so natural and so good! The world was collapsing around me and my life would never be the same for I had not only failed to help Maximus but I had also lied to myself and betrayed him even if unknowingly and unwillingly... yet when he was buried inside me, nothing seemed to matter. Nothing but him deep and hard between my eagerly spread legs. Nothing but him where he was supposed to be...

Feeling that he would not encounter any resistance, his arm released my waist and his hands moved freely over my body, caressing my thighs, my belly and then raising to my breasts. I arched against him and he pressed harder inside me while his hands cupped my breasts.He trapped my nipples between his thumbs and forefingers and rolled them, rubbed them, then pinched them making me moan as the tingling sensation darted from the reddened, swollen buds towards my belly.

We stayed like this for a moment, barely moving, our bodies sensitized to such a point that the mere hint of movement was able to drive us crazy. Then, bowing at the waist, I slid my right hand down. I slid it down my belly, past my pulsing centre, past the point where our bodies joined and gently caressed first his inner thigh then his swollen, tight testicles.

Maximus gasped then moaned as my fingers went on touching, seeking, teasing. He tightened his hold of my breasts and flexing his hips he started moving. Slowly, languidly, my hand moved in perfect rhythm with his thrusts, while he went on kneading my breasts, rolling my nipples and rubbing his face against my neck, nibbling my tender flesh, first softly then with increasing force and intensity. I increased my own rhythm and intensity, using my middle finger to rub the crevice between his testicles all the way up to the root of his manhood, where a big vein pulsed with his heated blood and the intensity of his life.

Languor changed into fierce need, the subtle hint of tenderness turning into hunger and bold demand. We drove each other into a savage yet perfectly combined frenzy, pleasuring each other yet seeking more, demanding more both from the other and ourselves. Undulating, rocking, thrusting, caressing we moved inexorably to the point of no return. On and on we went till we were both hoarse with moaning and crying. Till my belly tightened and I placed my other hand below my navel to be able to feel him inside me, so firmly delineated against my muscles as they got tense as a spring and prepared to clutch his manhood... Some hint of lucidity seemed to have penetrated Maximus' drugged mind. Or perhaps he was unexpectedly discovering an unknown dimension of pleasure as I was discovering myself. For he moved one of his hands down and placed it beside mine, as if he had been seeking to discover himself inside my body. I made room for him while I went on stroking him, inexorably driving us towards completion.

When climax crashed on us, when my inner walls tightened so impossibly hard around his manhood, when my flesh convulsed so much that it elicited a cry of ecstatic pain from both our throats, Maximus not only came with me but pressed his hand against my pelvis, cradling my core as he screamed in his violent release. And even if I was on the brink of fainting, I gathered enough strength to bring my hand to press his testicles against me, cradling the precious, burning treasure and marvelling at the wonder of touching them while they became utterly hard, then relaxed with the violent release of his seed.

I vaguely remember the sound of my own, exhausted sobbing in the following silence and Maximus unconsciously comforting my shattered self by erratically caressing my bent back. I recall my own whimper at the feeling of emptiness than overcame me when he disengaged and slipped away. And I vaguely remember Maximus taking me in his arms as we collapsed on the bed and absurdly thinking that there was no way he could have experienced anything as intense as what we had just experienced no matter who had been on the receiving end. I think I was smiling.

I don't remember anything else.

I fainted.

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