The Tempest

[Sara]

Men always had sex before their women, that seemed the same for both plebs and patricians and she found it uncomfortable. At least he had been gentle with her, and shown her what to do. Her cheeks flamed at the memory and she swallowed down a choke, turning it into a gentle chuckle as he continued to talk. "I have no frame of reference, but I believe that." She said with a small smile to herself. Certainly what she'd experienced last night didn't bare any real resemblance to what her friends had talked about in hushed whispers. 

She let him drape his arm around her shoulders and sank into it, finding the comfort she craved in his arms. It was peculiar that she had so loathed him those first few days, and now clung to him like her very life depended on it. She kept her hand in his spare one and looked out  to sea, letting his words wash over her. She nodded, silently and stayed quiet for some time. "You must say that to all your women." She was teasing him but she felt the same. She had never, ever felt like that before. Ever. She stayed quiet for a little longer before moving her head back from his shoulder and peering up at him. Without the interference of the Gods and the glimmering, sparkling light of yesterday, trying to work out how to kiss him without it being awkward was...more challenging, and so she just stayed staring at him, eyes moving between his own and his lips.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Of course she wouldn't know. But when it was all said and done, Lucius was happy that he could share that moment with her, divine madness or otherwise. If he hadn't, if things had turned out differently, her first experience with making love might have been some patrician man who spent a whole thirty breaths on her for his bloodline. And she deserved way, way better than that.

"You must say that to all your women." 

He chuckled too as she snuggled against him. He had been terrified that she'd push him away, and blame him for all that happened. Being together on the island could have turned to hell so easily... but instead, she looked up, and there was no hate or blame in her eyes. Instead... Lucius blinked, surprised, but immediately felt the same rush of desire he'd felt the night before. No divine intervention needed. He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers in a kiss much more gentle than the night before. 

@Sara

[Sara]

Things had been comfortable. More than comfortable, in her little island paradise. Discomfort gave way to pleasure and happiness in Lucius' arms and lips, although no more than relatively chaste embraces. She was both sure she needed to reestablish some sense of normalcy (and chastity) and she wanted to see if her bloods came. Which they did, with receiving regularity. Now, a week later, she was doing what she always did at this time of the morning - sitting on the sand in front of the shack, watching the horizon, and for boats that never came.

It was a hot day, baking hot and she was in one of the scavenged tunicas (lop-sidedly taken in by her meagre sewing skills) as she sat and attempted to mindlessly scrub out one of the stains the sail had accumulated. She hummed as she worked, a song she had loved since girlhood and then her hums turned into gentle singing as her eyes scanned the horizon and her fingers worked over the fabric, lost in her own little world.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Life on the island had turned into something... quite comfortable. Lucius was still convinced they would be found sooner or later, but in the meantime, he savored every moment he spent with Ovinia. Back home, in the real world, they would never be allowed to be together like this. Even with keeping things chaste, he loved holding her in his arms at night, and kissing her when she allowed it. Days rolled by in peace. She was also not pregnant, which came as a relief to both of them.

Walking back from the spring, bringing fresh water, he heard her voice as she sat on the beach. Lucius paused. Ovinia was... singing? He'd not heard her do so before. Her voice was clear and lovely, and she clearly didn't notice him standing behind her. He waited till the end of the song.

"You have been hiding a talent all this time. Full of surprises" he said with a smile.

@Sara

[Sara]

She jumped out of her skin as he spoke and raised a hand to her breathless chest; "Jupiter help you, a little warning might be nice?" She choked and offered him a staple glare, before turning back to her task and the ocean, although there was a slight smile on her lips. 

"I have many talents, you've just never asked to see them." She chuckled, "And few are applicable to island life. Although if you ever need somebody to host a convivium at short notice, I am your woman." She frowned to herself and glanced up at him, using one of her hands to shield out the sun as she did. "Although I take it plebs live a very sad life with no dinner parties?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"I have many talents, you've just never asked to see them. And few are applicable to island life. Although if you ever need somebody to host a convivium at short notice, I am your woman."

"You will be the first one I ask" he grinned, settling down next to her, gracefully ignoring the 'your woman' part.

"Although I take it plebs live a very sad life with no dinner parties?" 

"Oh yes. We just sit around chewing stale bread, moping about not being patricians." Lucius rolled his eyes, amused that Ovinia still had those ideas after several months on an island with him."No, we do have dinners. And parties. And games and jokes and music and all that. Probably less elegant than yours. But no less fun" he added with a wink.

@Sara

[Sara]

"Ours aren't always that fun." She wrinkled her nose as she scrubbed at the stain with damp moss, trying to get it out, "Most of them are with people twenty years your senior who are only there because they either want your father or brothers vote in the senate, or they want your hand in marriage." She chuckled.

"What were yours like?" She asked genuinely curious, "I'm not sure I'd fit in, should you ever take me to one." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Ours aren't always that fun. Most of them are with people twenty years your senior who are only there because they either want your father or brothers vote in the senate, or they want your hand in marriage."

"See, everything you tell me about being a patrician just makes me admire them less and less" Lucius grinned. Seriously, did the people with the most money and influence not know how to have at least a little fun?

"What were yours like? I'm not sure I'd fit in, should you ever take me to one." 

"Oh you'd fit in just fine. At my home, anyway... we make lots of food, we talk, we laugh. We play some drinking games." he chuckled, remembering the times spent in the company of his family and friends. "Maybe we walk out into the gardens after dark, or to the sea to swim. Maybe I'd see a girl that has a sweet smile, and I'd try to steal a kiss from her" he added, giving her a mischievous look.

@Sara

[Sara]

Ovinia frowned out to sea, completely missing the look he was giving her, and the teasing nature of his words. She scoffed instead and glared back down at the stain. "How charming to hear of your past conquests." She scrubbed more viciously at the stain and then tried to tease it out with her nails.

"I have kissed men before." She muttered to herself, in an attempt to make her experience comparable. Which it obviously wasn't given the kisses she'd been given had been chaste ones, snatched in moments of youthful folly. "But I'm sure I'd be much more of a prize to your family than some pleb girl with a sweet smile." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"How charming to hear of your past conquests." 

Point. Ovinia. Five to seven miles of distance. Lucius sighed, shaking his head.

"I have kissed men before. But I'm sure I'd be much more of a prize to your family than some pleb girl with a sweet smile." 

"I was talking about you, princess" Lucius smiled, reaching out to tuck some hair behind her ear. "And you sure would be a prize to me." He added, more softly. "But a girl like you would never even look at a man like me, back home, would she."

@Sara

[Sara]

"Oh." She blinked, ducking her head in embarrassment and amusement and then sinking it into his fingers as he tucked waves of dark hair behind her ear. 

No. A girl like her would never look at a man like him, not seriously anyway. "In the same way you would never look at a girl like me seriously...?" She said with a wry smile, "I mean...you can stop and stare and admire, which I likely would have done. There's no harm in looking." She grinned and leaned up to leave a very gentle kiss against his jaw, "But back at home we both have...had our circles. Although here?" She spread her arms out gesturing to the deserted beach, "No circles, no rules. And even if we ever end up back home..." She shrugged, her life would never be the same.

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Lucius chuckled as Ovinia finally caught up to the compliments she had been given.

"In the same way you would never look at a girl like me seriously...? I mean...you can stop and stare and admire, which I likely would have done. There's no harm in looking." 

"Oh, I'd stare" Lucius smirked, humming as she pressed a kiss to his jaw. Every time she did something like that, he felt the same rush of longing. He had to remind himself of the boundaries she'd set.

"But back at home we both have...had our circles. Although here? No circles, no rules. And even if we ever end up back home..."

Lucius, who had been eyeing her lips and the curve of her neck, glanced back up at her last words.

"If we end up back home... we'd go back to that?" he ventured, more quietly.

[Sara]

"No." She replied softly, moving her fingers from her task to stroke the side of his face. "No we wouldn't go back to that. I wouldn't go back to that." At best she would be married off quickly to somebody far below her worth, at worst she'd be exiled but there was something in the back of her mind that suggested a third way. A way to be happy, or happy enough. She shifted on the sands so she was facing him. 

"My father is a proud man, a very proud man. He won't stand the thought of me being...with somebody like you, in the public eye or in people's thoughts or whispers...it would be easier to let me go." She gave him a thin smile, "Give me a villa, give me some money, give me a new name and a story and let me be free. His daughter died in a shipwreck. Sympathy in the senate and its neater." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Lucius was not a parent himself, but he could not even imagine a long-lost child returning, just to be sent away again to live in exile for something she did not even do. That was... did those parents not have a heart for the daughter they raised?... Ovinia might have been wrong. Maybe the loss would make them have a change of heart. Maybe.

"Oh?" he smiled a little, leaning into her touch. "And... would I be welcome at that villa?"

[Sara]

"Well I wouldn't be able to run it all by myself." She grinned and moved her fingers to the back of his neck, running through his hair. "But it would have to be suitably far away enough that nobody would recognise me." 

She narrowed her eyes, the soft grin still on her face as her fingers worked across  his shoulders and down to his chest before her palm came to rest flat over his heart. "Where do your family live?" It would be giving up everything to move to some far off land with somebody that she barely knew. But the alternatives were worse; exile or marriage. And Lucius was...Lucius. She leaned in to kiss his lips this time. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Well I wouldn't be able to run it all by myself. But it would have to be suitably far away enough that nobody would recognise me." 

Lucius was greatly distracted by her touch, but still paying some attention to her words. In this fantasy of hers, they would be far away from Rome... living together. He liked the idea.

"Where do your family live?"

"Not far... from Tarentum" he answered, but then she was kissing him, and he was more than happy to shut up. His hands came up to frame her face, then traveled down her sides, pulling her closer. He would never get bored of kissing her. "You know..." he murmured, kissing his way along her jaw and neck "... I wouldn't mind... having a villa for ourselves... doing whatever we want to do..."

@Sara

[Sara]

"Tarentum." She repeated as she wrinkled her nose before swooping in for a kiss. It was more passionate than preceding ones and she moaned slightly against his lips as he pulled her closer until she was sat in front o him. 

She chuckled as he murmured against her skin and tried to steady her breathing and keep the feelings of lust and desire creeping up on her at bay. She was fighting a losing battle. "I bet you would...and Tarentum is unfashionable...unfashionable enough that nobody would visit and know me...but," She pulled back and put hands on either side of his face to keep him steady (and cool them down...) as she grinned; "You'll have to pick a new name for me." 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Lucius was only half hearing her words now, occupied with tasting her skin and running his hands along her body. Something about Tarentum being unfashionable. He was not going to argue with that.

She pulled back, framing his face, grinning a little dazed.

"You'll have to pick a new name for me." 

He grinned back at her. A name, for her, from him. He liked that idea.

"Oh, I will" he agreed. She was beautiful, even now, sitting on the beach with her hair tangled. Lucius leaned in, breath brushing the skin on her neck. He knew this was more intimate than they had been since that one night, but he could't really help it. "First, I want to hear you call mine..."

@Sara

[Sara]

She shuddered at his breath on her neck, and couldn't help it - her body seemed to innately know what to do as she wound an arm around his shoulders. She should have blushed at his comment but she didn't. She was too lost in the moment and the feelings pulling her closer to him. Gods she wanted him. 

No! Ovinia you know...shut up! A war was raging in her mind as she sat in front of him, and then she lost the war in one decisive battle; nobody is here, you've already done it, why not? 

She pulled him in for a languorous, passionate kiss and then pulled him down over her as she led in the sand. She didn't care it was already scratching her back. "You know," She said breathlessly as she pulled back for air, hair a tangle of sand and salt, "We have a bed we've never used. How much do you rate your c-carpentery skills, Lucius?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

The way she was kissing him, Lucius was beginning to think that divine madness had not been an unnatural occurrence after all. Maybe they just... really wanted each other. He sure did now. She pulled him down and he crawled on top of her. He kissed her deeply and then pulled back, admiring the look on her face and her hair spread in the sand.

"We have a bed we've never used. How much do you rate your c-carpentery skills, Lucius?" 

"Don't know" he smirked, leaning in to press kisses along her collarbone. His hand traveled up her thigh. "How about your sewing skills? Because... this tunica is not making it that far..."

[Sara]

She chuckled and arched a brow. Ovinia wouldn't be Ovinia without some sort of desire to win. "You brute." She moved her thigh further into his touch before swatting away his hand and sitting up, pulling the tunica up and over his head in one swift movement and discarding it away on the beach. "I've got to preserve it, we only have a few, don't want me walking around naked here, do you?" She grinned and then leaned up even higher to snatch him back down for a kiss. And it was bliss, even without the divine intervention of their previous encounter. 

---

The weeks moved on languidly, dreamily. Their days were newly blissful and whilst they contained all the mundane chores they always did for both of them - that she woke up in Lucius' arms and went to sleep satisfied, warm, glowing made their situation all the more pleasurable. She did so now, curled into his side, one arm slung over his chest, head buried in the crook of his arm. It was warm already and she'd kicked the sail off in the night to below her hips. She groaned as sunlight streamed in and mumbled against his skin. "Why did we not patch all the holes..." She pouted, even with her eyes screwed shut. 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

Ovinia finally gave in, and let herself be loved. Lucius was more than concent with the new arrangement, holding her at night, and waking her up with kisses. It still felt like a dream that would shatter sooner or later, but he was determined to make the most of it.

He woke up her mumbling about patching the walls. Lucius smiled and stretched, feeling her body against his, lazily stroking her skin as he rolled over. It was hard to leave the bed most mornings, when they were tangled up like this. He pressed a kiss to her forehead before he finally got to his feet. "My turn to get water. You can sleep in" he smiled, pulling on his tunica and walking out of the shack.

And there, in the morning sunlight on the water of the bay, was a ship.

Lucius blinked, then stared, rubbing his eyes. His stomach sank... but it was not the Cilician pirate ship they had seen before. This one was a trading vessel. It already had a boat approaching the shore. Lucius' heart jumped, part excitement, part fear. Something that they had been hoping for for months...

He quietly pulled the shack's door closed behind him, and headed to the beach. 

@Sara

[Sara]

She mumbled sleepily, a dozy smile on her face as he kissed her forehead; "Of course I get to sleep in, Domina of the I-" She was interrupted by a yawn, "Domina of the Island of Peaches can do as she pleases." She reached out though, her hand stroking his arm as he left, before she contentedly curled herself back in the sail and drifted on back to sleep, utterly oblivious to what was happening on the beach. 

Lucius, however, wouldn't be. The small boat approached languidly but its crew - six strong and looking weather worn and dubious were evidently keen by the expressions they wore. When they were in the shallows, one of the men jumped out, followed by others. They all had knives on their hips, but none were drawn. Yet. 

"Salve, friend." The leader waved to Lucius, calling off from a safe distance. "What brings you to this Godforsaken place, might I ask?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi

[Chevi]

"Salve" Lucius eyed the men warily. He didn't think they were pirates... but even sailors who did not engage piracy got swayed sometimes by easy bounty. It was just part of seafaring life. "I was shipwrecked here a while ago. I thought no one would ever come to this place..." He wished this could have felt like relief. It didn't. He sighed and smiled anyway, for show. "And now you are here, thank the gods."

@Sara

[Sara]

The leader of the group grinned as Lucius told his story and then let out a garrulous laugh. "You could sound more bloody grateful!" He grinned and then waded through the shallows and up onto the sand. His men followed suit but their expressions were warier. The leaders was utterly inscrutable. 

"We'd been told to look out for fires on the islands, got paid just to keep our eyes open. A few wrecks have gone down recently." He sniffed and then narrowed his eyes at Lucius. "Which one were you on?" 

 

TAG: @Chevi