Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2010 03:35:06 -0700
From: J M <ecclectic_soul@hotmail.com>
Subject: Gladiator: Chapter 4, Dead Leaves on the Wind

Hey everyone! Here is the next installment in my story, and I hope you
enjoy it! There's also a lot more in store, so stay tuned! Anyway, you guys
know the drill: all similarities to real people or places are coincidental,
and there is explicit sexual content, so minors beware! Grab your coffee or
lube and happy reading!

Gladiator: Chapter 4, Dead Leaves on the Wind

The Phoenix suddenly turned his head and looked at me. It was the first
time I had seen his eyes lay upon me since we had entered the chamber. I
could not place the emotions that rippled across his normally implacable
face, but the nerves of my skin danced and sent shivers all through my
body. His gaze was so intense that my Domina turned, perhaps worrying that
she would find me dead upon the ground when she did. Her confusion was only
exceeded by my surprise as his muscled arm lifted and the index finger of
his left hand pointed directly at me. The roughness of his voice, deep and
resonant in its continual hold upon me, formed only a single word as to
what he wanted.

"Him."

	It took a moment for my mind to comprehend the significance of what
he said...of what he desired. The gleam in his eyes, the strong and direct
point of his finger, the soft smile upon his full lips -- of all the
possible things he could ask for, he wanted me. I struggled to breathe, and
finding my place again, I glanced down immediately to avoid the sharp
dagger of my Domina's gaze.

	Aella did not speak for a long while, her expression unreadable as
she stared at me. Her silence carried more force than the mighty gauntlet
of Ares, nearly crushing me as I awaited her response. When her voice
finally surfaced, it was strangely soft and wrapped in subtlety.

	"Calix? There are slaves roaming the streets of our empire in
droves. What could you possibly hope to gain by taking mine?"

	The Phoenix's rough, deep voice brushed like calloused fingers up
my spine as he uttered but one word. "Peace."

	My Domina turned quickly, a mix of curiosity and shock flashing
across her face as she suddenly caught the true meaning of his request. I
was sure she would flatly refuse, as I was her favored servant and such
help was often difficult to find. Strangely though, she relaxed almost
immediately afterward, an odd grouping of words passing softly from her
lips.

"`And from your hands shall the wings of the sun find peace. It is the will
of...'" She looked over at me and a mysterious smile teased the edge of her
mouth. "Very well. He is yours. Watch over him, gladiator, for our young
Calix is far more than meets the eye."

Before either of us could raise questions as to what she meant, Aella
darted forward with a heavy key in her hand, swiftly unlocking the
Phoenix's cell with a loud, rusty click. Pushing the cell door open, she
turned to lead us out but gasped before going further.

The prisoner who had so expertly drilled his fingers into the tight, supple
ass of a young slave now stood between us and the exit, a ring of keys
spinning on the spit-greased fingers of his right hand while the
broken-necked boy he had pleasured lay dead within his open cell. He stood
at least two heads taller than the Phoenix and could be described as none
other than a long-haired mountain of muscle. Eyes dark as shadow glared at
us from the other side of the room. The man's left hand rested on the hilt
of a long, curved scimitar hanging from the belt at his waist.

His eyebrow rose and as he smiled, yellow broken teeth gleamed sickly in
the torchlight. "You did not seriously think you would walk out of here
that easily, did you? The wife of a favored senator should know better."

I had never seen Aella so distressed in all the long years of my
service. She was stricken pale with a shade of panic visible even in the
low light of the cell block. Her voice rode shakily on gasping breaths as
she spoke.

"How did you know..."

"...that you would be here? We see much that goes unseen. You knew the risk
in keeping this from us."

Aella then closed her eyes for a moment, breathing deeply before opening
them again. She directed the full force of her haughty stare upon the
prisoner who was not a prisoner, a look that had bent nearly all powerful
men to her will. "Yes, I did. And I will risk much more to ensure that it
remains out of your grasp. Now get out my way before I have the one you
fear most break you in half."

The mysterious mountain of a man, anger creasing his entire face, grasped
the handle of his sword and began to draw it. But before he could fully
withdraw it, my vision went black.

* * * *

Gasping for air, I came to in the back of a covered cart. A darkly tanned,
muscular arm held me down against the blankets beneath me as I struggled
wildly in panic. Then, before I could cry out for help, warm lips crashed
into my own, locking sound and breath in a firm embrace of mouths. The
lightly scarred face drew back, green eyes holding my own to see if I
recognized his touch. How could I forget those same lips sucking feverishly
at my own as my heart nearly lapsed in the heat of our passion? A smile
teased the corners of my mouth as I glanced around. We were nearly buried
within a mound of rugs, blankets, and cloth, his large frame pinning me
down. The creaking rumble of our passage was strangely soothing underneath
the lambskin tarp hiding us from view. My look of confusion elicited a
rough chuckle from the Phoenix.

	"We are goods bound for ships' harbor." His voice and the stubble
of his cheek rubbed lightly upon my soft face made me shiver anxiously.

	"I...I don't know how we got here." I searched his face for
answers, but found only a glimmer of something vague. His eyes glazed over
in the flash of an emotion I knew well but before I could ask further, he
shook it away and smiled down at me.

	"It doesn't matter now. All that you need know is that we are
safe...and that I had not met true agony until the night I left your
lips. Like sugared silk..." His fingers caressed my bottom lip before
catching it with his mouth, sucking on it before moving his hot mouth to
the drumbeat within my neck. I moaned softly, pressing my hands into the
rippled muscles of his upper back. His calloused fingers drew trails of
prickling fire down my lower back, slipping beneath my drawstring pants and
tightly grasping my soft yet firm buttocks. He kneaded my ass in his hands
as his hips pushed into me, and his mouth massaged my own with an urgency
matched only by my own. The desire to be lost in the ecstasy of his touch
overwhelmed every sense...the bittersweet smell of his sweat, the tangy
taste of his tongue like overripe strawberries in mid-summer. All coupled
with warmth that consumed me as he grinded his beautifully muscled body
against my own.

	I managed a small whisper upon his ear in between broken
breaths. "I...I want all of you." I moaned as he lightly bit my jaw before
licking it softly.

	He smiled against my gasping lips, nibbling on them before pulling
back to remove his loincloth. "All that I am is yours."

	The Phoenix's pulsing member was as glorious as I remember it, the
same dewdrops glistening upon its opening. Veins like the rivers of a map
coursed along the underside of its massive girth, and my eyes followed them
again down its considerable length into the large, wrinkled sack hanging
below. The balls within his sack were large and oval, each one nearly half
the size of my palm. Was the white creamy fluid in those? I licked my lips,
and looked up at him with a large grin.

	The Phoenix smiled back with laughter in his deep green eyes before
lying back against the inside edge of the cart and grabbing his cock. He
slapped it upon the tan waves of his abdomen, and then pushed it forward
toward me. I slipped out of my pants and moved over to him, grabbing the
thick shaft of his cock in both hands. My lips hungrily closed upon the
engorged head, sucking lightly as my hot tongue massaged the tiny slit at
the tip. I let my hot, wet mouth slide down the shaft of it, then pulled my
slick lips back up towards the top and puckered them where the head met the
shaft. The taste of him in my mouth was salty and warm, his enormous cock
filling my tight mouth as I bobbed up and down on it. My spit was dripping
down his balls, and I pulled my mouth off his cock to use my tongue to
massage the spit all around his sack. I took one of the balls into my mouth
and sucked on it lightly, causing him to gasp in pleasure.

	Before I could continue, the Phoenix grabbed me and flipped me onto
my back. My head was still near his crotch as he leaned over my stomach and
grabbed my smooth legs in his hands. He locked his arms around my thighs
and pulled my buttocks toward his face so my head and neck were on the
ground near his cock while my ass was in the air, my knees held up and
trapped beneath his armpits. Then I felt it. A warm, wet tongue suddenly
burrowed into the tight hole of my ass, coating it in spit. I nearly came
as he kissed my hole the way he kissed my mouth, digging his tongue inside
and massaging his lips all over its puckered, pungent sweetness.

I managed to stuff his engorged cock into my mouth, gripping his tight,
hard ass with one hand while I lightly stroked his spit-slick cock with the
other. It was difficult to suck it as I was nearly upside down, but it was
all I could do to keep my cock from exploding. Finally, the Phoenix began
to groan into my ass, and before he emptied his creamy fluid into my mouth,
he grabbed my ass with both hands and with his warm, wet tongue stretched
out, he pushed my tight hole back and forth against his mouth, his tongue
slipping in and out of my hole faster. I couldn't hold it any longer and I
moaned and shivered, white fluid ejecting from my cock in ropes all over my
face just as the Phoenix shoved his cock in and out of the wet hole of my
tight hand before doing the same. Salty, white cream filled my open,
moaning mouth and covered my face as sparks of pleasure exploded across my
vision.

	Panting from exhaustion and pure ecstasy, we collapsed together on
the soft shipment bound for harbor. In that post-coital moment, entwined
together in a sweaty daze, I felt myself believe for the first time that
freedom was possible. Like a radiant sunrise reaching from behind towering
mountains, the idea was finally beginning to pierce through the doubt I had
carried all my life. The thought warmed me as I fell asleep in the crook of
the Phoenix's arm.

Yet there were things that had poisoned the spirit of that moment...images
that would not shake from my mind's eye. The mystery of my lost memory
could have been but the whisper of dead leaves on the wind if it were not
for two things: first, the look on my lover's face when I had confronted
him about it. It was a look I had never thought to see upon his features
yet one I knew instantly when seen...it was a look of fear. The second, the
thing that caused my heart to stir in sudden and violent unease, was the
cloak upon which we now lay. It was my cloak as I remembered it, the one I
had worn into the gladiatorial dungeons...and as I looked upon it now, I
realized it was soaked in blood.