Free One With the Darkness by Susan Squires Page B

him. It would be worse if he landed back in the slave market, fair game for filth like Graccus or those foul imperial sisters. He didn’t like to risk that. But letting her enemies have their way with her would certainly be satisfying.
    Would it?
    She’d cared for his wounds, fed him, given him a weapon. Her touch had been gentle even when her words were not. His thoughts were growing muddled. She was a puzzle. But she’d dared to own him, curse her. The only service she’d earned was the service of his cock. Once she’d tasted his skill, she’d beg for more. Then who would be master? He smiled in satisfaction at the thought as the warmth of sleep took him.
A feeling of pressure built inside her. She was too full, as though she were a ripe pomegranate ready to burst in the sun and spill red juices that soaked into the earth. And there was something she should do. About the slave. Where was he? She looked around and saw only writhing bodies lusting after one another. In the center of the room, a fountain spurted water from an artful series of nymphs and randy cupids. Where was she? She didn’t recognize the house, but she recognized the feeling of danger. It lurked here somewhere.
She began stepping over kissing couples, groping for each other’s genitals. Men and women, women and women, men and men. Her search grew more frantic. She couldn’t have lost him, could she? But there! He stood in a niche behind a statue of Venus, and Julia Lavilla was running her hands over his body. That was bad. She had to get him away from Gaius’s sister. Or Gaius’s mistress, whichever you chose to believe. Jergan was holding himself in check. Like a wild beast, every muscle was tight, coiled for the spring. He mustn’t offer the sisters an insult or he’d end on the cross. Now Agrippina ran her hand up under his tunic. Keep your head, Jergan, Livia pleaded silently as she saw a sneer cross his face.
She must get to them before his restraint burst, before Agrippina went too far, but Livia couldn’t find a path through the writhing couples on the floor….
    Livia sat bolt upright in her bed, gasping. Beside her, Jergan rose to a crouch with a snarl, sword drawn. She couldn’t get her breath.
    They both looked around the dim room, the doors and windows outlined in lines of sunlight from the day outside. Nothing.
    “It … it was a dream,” Livia choked. But was it? It felt more real than any dream.
    Jergan looked disgusted.
    She swallowed. “Put up your weapon and go back to sleep.”
    “It is daylight out,” he observed, sheathing his sword. “Do you not rise?”
    “I am sensitive to sunlight. I sleep during the day and rise at night. Therefore, so will you.”
    His eyes narrowed as he examined her. Finally, he grunted and lay back down.
    Livia lay back, too. But she couldn’t shake that silly dream. It wasn’t really frightening in the same way the horrors she’d lived through frightened her—the wars, the earthquakes, the torture of innocents. It was just so … real —almost like a memory. She saw every splash of the fountain, the sweat on the lovers’ bodies. She smelled their perfume, and underneath, the scent of musky desire in the air. The sense of impending disaster had been overwhelming. She’d been afraid for her slave, as though he were the most precious thing in the world.
    Jupiter and Juno, but she was getting to be an old woman about dreams. She lay back down. But sleep was long in coming. Finally she heard the soft buzz of her slave, returned to slumber. He must be exhausted. The sound was vaguely comforting, as though she had heard that gentle snore for decades, not just for a few hours. She closed her eyes, sighing, and let his rhythmic breathing carry her to sleep.

5
    L IVIA LAY THERE , half-asleep, feeling full, her thoughts lazily coming round to consciousness. Something was happening today. Something exciting. Was today the day she and her friends could finally act against Caesar? No, it