Horatia cast a quick glance around the room and dropped her voice to a whisper. “Use your mouth on him.”
“My…my mouth?” The idea was indecent, shocking—and intriguing.
Horatia nodded.
“How exactly does that work?”
Horatia grinned and made a few illustrative gestures with her hand and mouth.
Crispina flushed even hotter. “And Decius allows this?” She had trouble imagining Horatia’s staid, soft-spoken husband permitting something so lewd.
“He loves it, and I’m sure your husband will as well,” Horatia said with a knowing grin. She giggled. “Your cheeks are so red, my dear!”
“It’s the steam,” Crispina muttered, and changed the subject.
Reclining in bed, Aelius stole a surreptitious glance at Crispina as she combed out her hair in the evening. Memories of last night had tormented him all day: the taste of her skin, the grip of her hand on his cock, the way her voice became high and desperate as her pleasure increased…
But this morning she had set a boundary. He didn’t fully understand her reasoning, but he knew better than to pry. Instead, he would leave it up to her to guide any further intimacy between them.
If there was to be any.
Crispina rose from her dressing table. Out of habit, he turned his head away, knowing she was about to remove her dress.
“Don’t.” Her voice made his gaze snap back to her.
With deliberate movements, she tucked her fingers beneath the shoulders of her dress and slipped it off her arms. The fabric pooled at her feet.
Aelius sat up, swinging his legs to the edge of the bed. His gaze ran over her curves. His mouth went dry at the sight of her, his pulse spiking. She walked toward him, an alluring sway to her hips that made his cock stir.
He stood to meet her as she approached the bed.
“Take that off,” she murmured.
He yanked his tunic over his head faster than ever before, fumbling in his urgency, and dropped it to the floor. Her gaze ran over him. A small smile curved her lips. Finally, she was smiling for him.
Apparently his naked body was the key to her smiles, which he tried not to feel too smug about.
He lifted a hand to caress her lips. “You’re smiling.”
“So I am.” Her tongue flicked out to taste the tips of his fingers. A stab of heat pulsed in his groin, and he pulled her to him. Their lips met in a slow, tantalizing kiss. His arms dropped lower, hands circling around her body to grasp her plush bottom. She let out a little gasp that made his cock throb.
He drew her toward the bed. With gentle pressure on his shoulders, she pushed him down to sit on the edge of the bed. Then, as he stared in disbelief, she dropped to her knees between his legs, took hold of his cock, and lowered her mouth onto it.
A shudder racked his body at the feel of her hot, wet mouth. The mouth that had, moments ago, smiled for him for the first time. “Wh-what in the underworld are you doing?”
She pulled her lips off him, which made another shiver run through him, and glanced up at him with dark eyes. “Horatia told me about it. I thought it sounded like fun.” She took him into her mouth once more.
“F-fun,” he gasped. Her tongue slid up and down, teasing and exploring. He reached out and gently twined a hand in her hair, feeling the silken waves sliding through his fingers. She took him deeper, tugging a groan from his lips. His grip on her hair tightened for a moment before he forced himself to release her, afraid of causing pain. He clenched his hands into fists at his side as her mouth worked him. Her movements became more confident, the rhythm steadier.
He didn’t want this to end, but with the way she was using her tongue… “Crispina,” he grunted. “I’m going to—”
“Do it,” she ordered, her voice sultry and commanding at the same time. “I want to feel you spill in my mouth.”
There was no possible way to withstand hearing those words from her lips, lips which were currently pleasuring him to within an inch of his life. The erotic rapture mounted in a hot, rolling wave, and Aelius abandoned himself to it.
Chapter 17
Crispina crouched in the dirt, gathering wax tablets and stacking them into her basket. The tablets were filled with clumsy letters etched by her students, and each one made her smile. She moved fast, anticipation filling her at the prospect of returning home to a companionable afternoon with Gaia and an evening of pleasure with Aelius.
