'I'm on a case,' the man said. 'It's confidential.'
'Well,' Ashley replied, 'you tell whichever of my husband's sisters who hired you that if they attempt to invade my privacy again I will take legal action against all of them. Now, I am going to call Ryan and tell him of this incident. I'm certain that shortly after I do you will receive a call to cease and desist your harassment. Got it?'
'Got it,' the man said.
'Shall I escort him out of town, Ashley?' the cop asked.
'If you would, Bill, I would appreciate it. And tell Bobby I said thanks.'
'You got some pull here, lady,' the private detective said.
'My family helped found the town,' Ashley told him. 'Now, that's something you can tell your employer. You won't be going back empty-handed.'
The man gave a short laugh as the cop escorted him from Lacy Nothings.
'What was that all about?' Nina said. 'Why would his sisters set a private detective on you? What did you do?'
'I married their brother. They were expecting to come into his wealth in a few more months, and I've spoiled it for them. They told Ryan they were getting a lawyer. It won't do them any good, but they're unhappy.'
'Geez,' Nina exclaimed. 'What a bunch of bitches. The mother likes you, and so does the sister called Frankie. What's the matter with the rest of them?'
'Ryan and Frankie call the older ones the five harpies,' Ashley said with a chuckle. 'I'd better call him now. Hold down the fort while I go back to my office.' She already had her cell out, and it was programmed to reach his cell.
'This is Ryan,' his voice said. 'Talk fast. I'm on thg parkway.'
'Your sisters set a private investigator on me,' Ashley said. 'I've had the cops escort him out of town. Call them when you get into your office. I'll talk to you later.'
'Shit!' he said as she hung up.
Ashley laughed out loud. What was that old saying about being able to pick your friends, but not your relations? She was glad Ryan's mother and youngest sister liked her. She liked them. But the older five, she suspected, would never be her friends. They would always consider that by marrying Ryan she had cost them his money. It had been an incredible ten days with her new husband, but this incident this morning had been irritating and downright annoying.
She managed to put it out of her mind for the rest of the day, but once she was home again it nagged at her to the point where she couldn't sleep. There was no television in the bedroom she shared with Ryan. Getting up, she went down to her old bedroom and climbed into bed. Taking up the remote, she pressed the button that slid open the panel covering the television screen. She clicked the set on, went to channel sixty-nine, and after a moment or two of silent debate she pressed A and enter. And she was back in her villa in Rome, and the sex slave, Quinn, was kneeling before her, offering her the strap she would shortly use on his bottom. But she didn't want the handsome slave. She wanted her tribune, Maximillian Alerio Patronius. And she wanted him now!
Chapter 7
'Where is your master?' the lady Cordelia asked W Quinn. 'You are not supposed to show yourself if he is in the house.'
'He was called to the palace, mistress,' Quinn replied. 'I have missed you.'
'Bold creature!' she scolded him, looking down at the big hands holding the leather tawse. 'How do you know where he has gone? The tribune cannot bear the sight of you, so why would he inform you of his whereabouts?' She did not take the tawse up.
'One of the other slaves tells me where the master is at all times so I will not offend him even by accident,' Quinn answered her. 'If I have displeased you, mistress, then you must punish me.' He looked up at her hopefully.
'No,' she said. 'I am not in the mood to punish you now. How long has my husband been gone?'
'Less than half an hour, and it takes that long to get through the midday streets to the palace, mistress,' he said slyly. 'He will undoubtedly be kept waiting by Caesar for some time. Perhaps the rest of the day. And then he must make his way home again. You may not see the master until midnight, mistress, or even tomorrow.' Reaching out, he slipped his hand beneath the hem of her tunic and up her leg.
Ashley looked down at him thoughtfully. If what he said was true, then it would be some time until she saw the tribune. Fingers caressed the soft flesh of her inner thigh. They slid through her nether lips, seeking her clit. 'You are a bad slave, Quinn,' she told him as he began to tease at the sensitive little nub. 'Ummm, yes, that is nice.'
'I but live to serve you, mistress,' Quinn answered her.
She pulled her tunic up over her head and off, tossing it aside. 'Lick me, you bad creature,' she ordered him.
He parted the lips of her labia with his two thumbs, holding them wide. Then his tongue began to draw over her flesh, first up one side, and then down, repeating the action on the other side of her nether lips. The tip of his tongue delved about her clit, probing, teasing at it, until it began to swell with her arousal. The sounds coming from her told him he was succeeding in pleasuring her. Leaning as close as he might get to her, her scent filling his nostrils and exciting him, he took her clit into his mouth and sucked hard upon it. She screamed softly, squirming. He sucked harder, two of his long fingers now pushing into her vagina. Two strokes, and she climaxed.
Without asking her permission he pulled her down to the floor with his big hands. Spreading her wide, he mounted the woman beneath him and thrust his engorged penis into the hot swamp of her fevered sex. Her nails raked his long back, and she scolded him for his boldness, all the while exhorting him to fuck her hard and deep. 'I live to serve you, mistress,' he repeated, his long, thick rod flashing back and forth with increasing rapidity while she thrashed beneath him in a frenzy of lust. And then she came. Her juices flowed copiously as he spasmed within her.
'Get off of me, you great beast!' she finally said. 'Now I will whip you for your presumption, Quinn!' She pushed at him.
'If I were still the warrior I was born,' he told her daringly, 'I would fuck you again and again, mistress, until you begged for my mercy.'
'Would you?' she purred at him as he rolled away from her. Then, getting to her feet, she picked up the leather that had earlier rested in his hands. 'Get on your hands and knees now, Quinn!' she ordered him. And when he had obeyed her she laid five strokes upon his broad back, now well marked by her sharp nails. 'Now leave me,' she told him when she had finished. 'You are beginning to bore me, I fear.'
He scrambled to his feet, a puzzled look upon his handsome face, and left her. The lady Cordelia called to her slave women and went to her bath, where she was scraped free of the dirt and sweat upon her body, bathed, rinsed, and then left for a short while in a perfumed bathing pool. When she finally emerged she was thoroughly dried, and then massaged with fragrant creams until she was completely relaxed again.
The sex slave had taken the edge off of her lust, but she wanted her husband, the tribune, between her legs, not Quinn. If Caesar did indeed return him to Gaul she would go with him. And she was going to sell Quinn. General Flavonius's wife had admired him from the first time she had.seen him at a party several of the women held for their amusement while their husbands were away. Indeed, many of the women had coveted Quinn. She would hold an auction and let him go to the highest bidder. She spent the rest of the day napping, eagerly awaiting her husband's arrival home. And when he finally arrived she melted into his arms.
'I have missed you the day long, Max,' she told him.
'I am to be sent back to Gaul,' he said, his lips brushing hers.
'I will go with you,' the lady Cordelia said.
'It is not Rome,' he replied.
'We will make it our own little Rome,' she responded.
'My villa is not large, and it has not the amenities of this one,' he warned her.
'We will enlarge it and add what we need, Max. I don't want to be without you any longer. And I am going to
