Instead of lashing out to get what I want, I whisper, “Please?”
That catches him off guard. His hand stills. His jaw works as he swallows something thick down his throat.
The cloth falls into the tub. The white fabric is flung to the center when it hits the jets. Then it sinks down to the bottom in surrender.
Slowly, Virius stands. He’s dressed only in the makeshift loincloth of his tattered clothing. I watch as he tugs at the knot of the toga. It doesn’t take much force for his cock to spring free. Frankie must’ve been working the lock of his imprisonment from the inside.
Virius cups himself. His hands aren’t big enough to cover the beast he’s un-toga’d. “Remember what I said.”
I nod, though I have no idea what we’re talking about. I’m too hypnotized by the single eye of his cock.
I’d felt Frankie pressed against me earlier. But seeing him again… well, damn. I forgot how truly massive that monster was.
Virius’s cock is easily the width of my forearm, and as long. There truly is no way that anaconda is fitting inside me. So why do my thighs press together at the possibility?
Viri steps into the tub behind me. His body weight displaces the water and it sloshes on the ground. I wonder how much of that displacement comes from what he carries between his thighs.
I turn so that I’m facing him. Digging around in the water, I find the washcloth of surrender. I raise that sudsy white flag and begin scrubbing him.
He watches me warily, and then with growing curiosity, as though no one has ever bathed him before. Then I remember what he said about his mother.
“Have you always wanted to be a mother?” he asks.
I’m shocked by his question. I don’t go with my normal answer of, it’s my destiny. Because in the past forty-eight hours, he’s made me feel like I have a choice—though I know that I don’t.
“Doesn’t every woman?” I reply.
I curse under my breath at the insensitivity of my words. By his account, his mother did not want him. Had, in fact, sold him into slavery.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
“For what?” Virius leans into my touch, much like a big cat would. “Oh, you mean my mother?”
He inhales deeply, his nose an inch away from my hair. He holds that breath for a long time. His exhale sounds reluctant. When he opens his eyes, he takes the cloth from me and pulls me into his arms. He turns my body so that my back is to his front. As he fits me into the cradle of his form, I feel him adjust Frankie. But there’s not much adjusting he can do. I feel the impression of his cock against my spine. My temperature rises against the warm cocoon of his chest.
“She could’ve left me on the street when I was pulled from her womb, but she didn’t.”
My hackles rise at the mention of another woman on Virius’s lips. Then I remember what I’d asked him only a moment ago. He’s talking about his mother.
“She brought me inside. She left food for me… sometimes. It was always clear that I would need to fend for myself. I just…”
He stays silent for a long time. Part of my brain isn’t interested in his words, it’s too focused on the warmth radiating from his body. He is hotter than the stream of the water from the jets. I want to know more about this man. I want both the light and the dark pieces of him.
“You just what?”
“If my mother had asked me to, I would’ve chosen to go with Domitia, to help her to become free.”
“Domitia is the one who enslaved you?”
Behind me, Virius’s muscles tense. Frankie stops his incessant pulsing and actually slackens against my back. “I don’t like her name on your lips.”
“I don’t like that she tried to break you.”
“She didn’t try. She did break me. I’m not a whole man; I know that. I wasn’t born with all my faculties. Then becoming the favored pet to a sadist didn’t help matters.”
“There’s nothing wrong with you. You didn’t do anything wrong. There were bad people in your life who were supposed to protect you. They’re the broken ones.”
“I would do it all again if it would lead me to you.”
I turn to face him. His gaze is hooded, but he hides nothing. The look in his eyes is just far away, as though he’s trapped in memories.
I need to pull him back. I want him in the present, with me. This man has been through unimaginable pain. He should be raging against the world. Instead, he holds me gently in his arms.
I want to hold him too. But not in his arms. I reach down into the water and find the thick mass of flesh between us.
Virius hisses as my fingertips graze his cock. His large hand cups mine, readying to push it away.
“Please,” I say. “Please, let me touch you.”
Chapter 15
Virius
It is the please that does it. No one has ever begged me for anything. Except for their life.
Zahara knows I will never harm a hair on her head. I have proven to her that I only seek her happiness, her security, her well-being. Hell, I laid my fortune at her feet within a few hours of meeting her. And still, all she has asked of me is the one thing I am loath to give to her.
Please, let me touch you.
No one has ever asked. All my life, things have only been taken from me. And the thing most taken has been what lies between my thighs. So, I hesitate when Zahara asks permission. Being the warrior that she is, she takes my hesitation for compliance. With the first touch of her fingertip against the beast, he strikes out.
My body is sent careening in two diverging directions. My back arches as though I’ve been
