"Let me guess," I said, startling him so that his slight jump set the bed joggling again. "You've finished plotting with the pigs and have come to climb on me like one of your young boar hogs?"

Having gotten over his brief jangle of nerves from my speaking when he had so obviously thought me soundly asleep, he snorted softly and replied, "That plan has its merits, although I actually thought you were sleeping just now."

"Are you mad? After the dinner spectacle you treated us all to? It took me until half an hour ago to stop giggling madly every time I recalled how you looked - and smelled - when you slogged into the dining room earlier."

"Impressive, was it?" he wanted to know, obviously seeking praise.

"It was smelly, I'll grant you that - did you actually have to roll in the sty?"

He propped his head on his hand, lying on his side facing me.  "I thought it was best to be as authentic as possible - to make the strongest impression."

"Oh, you made a strong impression, I'll grant you that."  I lay facing him, head propped on my own hand, mirror imaging him.  "I like you better this way, however."

"Naked?" he wondered, giving me a leer I could see plainly in the flickering light from the oil lamp on the night stand.

"Clean," I answered honestly, chuckling when his face fell slightly.  "Perk up, Decimus, I like the naked part as well."

I then proceeded to show him how much I liked it, which took the better part of an hour given his propensity to draw things out, then repeat them to enhance the effect.  And repeat the whole thing all over again after a short rest.  Finally, I lay bonelessly exhausted but smiling, limbs tangled with his and both of us bare as the day of our birth with all the covers in a knot on the floor.  "That was. . ." I began.

"Stupendous?" he finished for me, shamelessly fishing for compliments on his prowess.

"Mmm," I answered, noncomittal.

"Harumph, how about memorable?" he tried, then, "Impressive? Mind-numbing? The earth moved on its axis for you?"  When I merely shrugged at each description, he sighed and suggested, "Adequate?"

I sat up, bent down so my hair fell in a curling mass surrounding his face, both of us inside the curtain of shaded blonde locks, "Definitely adequate, O my lover, and much more than that - it was - definitely - wonderful."

He gazed up into my eyes, that hopeful smile still curving his lips as I bent lower and kissed him.  When I lifted my head, he smiled more widely, "Wonderful? That's pretty good isn't it?"

I nodded.

Maximus' smile turned smug and he dragged me down so my head was pillowed on his shoulder, "That's fine then, I haven't lost my touch."

I snuggled, then shivered, making him sigh and let go of me long enough to drag the bedclothes back up onto the bed and cover both of us decently.  I settled back down against him and patted his muscular chest over his heart.  "Thank you - lover."

"Hmmm," he purred into my ear, then he kissed my temple, took one deep breath, then another and was almost instantly deeply asleep.

Men!  I wanted to chat and he was sleeping like a big lump.  Even the great Maximus Meridius, it seemed, was no better than an ordinary man when it came to that.  I scooted away slightly, turned so my back was against his side, then scooted back so my buttocks rested against his hip.  I knew he would turn onto his side, facing away from me as he always did, and that I would waken later and our backs would be pressed together comfortably, like two old married people.  Except he was nothing like that predictable, no wizened old dodderer for me, no!  I had an endlessly entertaining and passionate other half - or soon would have, if we could ever get the two thorns in our sides to go back home and let us get on with our own lives.

I sighed and wriggled so my backside was more comfortably against his, he having turned already so we were, so to say, buttocks to buttocks.  Bliss!  And once more, during that night, I woke to find him behind me, only spooned up now, his shaft sliding into my open, willing sheath.  "Mmmm," I moaned softly, filled up with him, "Weren't you even going to wake me for it?"

"No need - I knew as soon as I breeched you, you'd waken," he said into my ear, his voice a low rumble that tickled my earlobe and neck.  "Ahhh, that's good!" he muttered, thrusting in and out slowly.

Of course he was right, but I pretended reluctance, which made him work a bit harder to regain my wholehearted participation (which he already had, but I wasn't about to let him know that).  He brought me to a lovely, soft explosion with the movements of his shaft inside me and his fingers teasing my sensitive bundle of nerves outside where his cock worked in and out.  When my shudders and the internal flutters of my body set off his own climax, he grunted harshly and sank deeply into me as his seed spilled into my more than willing channel.  I think he put it right into the mouth of my womb, he was so deep.

Bliss indeed, and then it was back to sleep for both of us.  When I awoke next it was bright daylight outside and his side of the bed was empty.  I sat up, stretched and called for Varinia to see to a bath and a huge breakfast. I was happy and starving, sticky from his loving but not minding it because I felt cherished, sated and loved.

Not a bad thing at all.

Now, to get rid of the two Roman women - what would today's activities be, I wondered.

ON TO BAILEY'S WRAP-UP 29TH CHAPTER OF THE STORY HERE