head with her. She is mouthy, insolent and
speaks out against the Romans. She will betray him."
"Enough, Julia. Your opinion is not
sought. Lay a cross hand upon her again and I shall inform the
general."
The other young female slaves had
clustered around Amanda, whispering to each other, but now the
woman, Julia, clicked her fingers and they followed her out with
their heads bowed.
"Thank you," she said to the old man,
as she rubbed her cheek.
He looked at her with misty eyes and
sniffed. "Do not thank me, slave. Thank the general who decreed you
were not to be hurt or marked." He gestured for her to follow him
into another chamber and she went slowly.
"I am not a spy for any tribe," she
assured him. "I don't even know how I got here. Clearly that woman
took an instant dislike to me and was just trying to get me into
hot water already."
The old slave-master gave a wry smirk.
"The jealousy of women is a weapon far more lethal than the
gladius."
"Jealousy?"
He sighed. "The general keeps a great
many women here. A great many. And since he has taken to sleeping
alone, it seems he thinks I need the extra work of keeping peace
betwixt the restless masses."
"But how could she be jealous of
me?"
He answered flatly, "Because you are
beautiful."
"Me?" She snorted.
"Lie here, slave." He had taken her to
a cushioned table and now with a clap of his wizened hands he
summoned two handsome, young male slaves who began to massage her
body thoroughly with almond oil.
Much to Amanda's reluctance, she quite
enjoyed it. Their hands were smooth and lithe, running up and down
her legs, lightly squeezing her bottom as she lay on her front with
her head on her arms. Even when she felt their fingers slip between
her legs and touch her sex, she only jumped a little. She hadn't
realized how much her legs ached from running through the forest,
but now she was weary and grateful for the chance to lie down. The
comfortable heat of the room and the sweet spice of the burning
incense, combined with gentle music played nearby on a lyre, made
her drowsy.
There were so many questions she had
to ask, but they faded from her thoughts. It was as if she'd been
hooked up to an IV of morphine. Everything was good now, some of it
even amusing. Whatever had happened to her, she was being treated
like a precious museum exhibit at that moment. Later, when she saw
that big-headed general again, she'd make another effort to get him
to understand. Unfortunately, when he ripped her costume off in the
forest, he left it behind with her phone, the one item that linked
her to real time. Getting him to believe where she'd come from was
going to be bloody—
Ooh, those hands were
masterful.
Amanda's muscles relaxed and her mind
followed suit. Her stomachache was gone, so perhaps it wasn't the
herald of her period after all. It may just have been nerves,
tension. She didn't like ...what? She couldn't remember anymore
what it was that she'd been anxious about in that other
world.
She had a whole other set of problems
now. Not that they felt like problems at the moment.
No one had ever called her "beautiful"
before and the old man had said it so matter-of-factly. As if she
should have known.
When she felt something soft and wet
touching her pussy, she sighed with sleepy delight. Strong hands
pressed her legs wider apart and gripped her ankles, then that
small, moist object moved over her pussy lips with faster, firmer
strokes until she felt those naughty waves gathering again deep
inside. She lifted her bottom slightly, but hands still held her
ankles down on the table, so she could not go far.
Amanda twisted to look over her
shoulder and saw one of the male slaves kneeling on the table
between her legs. It was his skilled mouth and tongue that
administered this caress.
Shocked to find a stranger licking her
pussy, she cried out in drowsy protest, but no one stopped him, or
came to her aid. The male slave closed his eyes, slipping his
tongue a little way inside
C. J. Fallowfield, Book Cover By Design, Karen J
Michael Bracken, Elizabeth Coldwell, Sommer Marsden