Beneath the Thief’s Mane, the Patrician Saw His Lover
Aurelio reclined on his couch with a gesture that was half proud, half weary. His servants had woken him in the middle of the night to tell him that a man had broken into his domus. It took quite a pair of balls to do something like that. They had caught him in the pantry, his head buried in a jar of fruit preserved in syrup. He wasn’t after gold or silver, only food. He had tried to flee through the same opening he had come in by, but his escape had been cut short and they had brought him down with blows.
According to his most faithful slave, capturing him had been quite the challenge. He was a strong, violent man who resisted every step of the way with tooth and nail. What had been a problem for the household now presented itself to Aurelio as an opportunity. He thought that, if they could tame him, that vigor might serve him as labor on his estate in Apulia. The villa cried out for urgent repairs, and a sturdy body was worth more than two skinny arms.
First of all, he needed to see whether the unlucky thief was fit for the task. He settled himself on his sumptuous triclinium and ordered that he be brought before him. A few minutes later, two of his broadest men were dragging him in by the arms. The prisoner resisted every inch of the way. His unequal struggle proved useless. They drove a punch into his stomach that knocked the fight out of him at once and ended by throwing him at his master’s feet.
They yanked his head back to force him to kneel. Aurelio looked him over with a grimace of disgust. His hair was a leonine mane, wild and matted, unwashed for weeks. The same could be said of his beard, which hid much of his face and made him look like some backward beast. His tunic had become a rag of gray cloth, shredded in the attempt to escape.
Even so, he had good arms and a powerful chest, with a few scars and skin stretched tight over hunger. He might have been a soldier or a gladiator fallen from grace. It mattered little. He would pay for his crime with a life of slavery.
—So you’re the man who had the audacity to break into my home in the middle of the night —said the patrician.
He received no answer, not even a gesture. The thief’s head hung limp, as though he were on the verge of fainting. Aurelio felt insulted.
—Look at me when I’m speaking to you, wretch!
The slaves tugged at his hair to force him to lift his gaze. Then Aurelio drew a sharp breath. Beneath all that mass of hair, his face was almost unrecognizable, but his eyes... Dark, deep, piercing. A flash of recognition struck him like a slap. He knew those eyes. It couldn’t be. He refused to believe it. And yet something deep inside him screamed otherwise.
—Do you have anything to say in your defense? —he asked, trying to regain his composure.
He prayed quietly to all the gods that his servants would not notice his hesitation. The thief didn’t open his mouth. He merely let out a guttural growl, more wolf than man.
—Nothing at all? In that case, we’ll see whether slavery restores your reason. Bind him in the cellar so he can think about it tonight —he ordered.
As soon as they took him away, Aurelio withdrew to his chambers, careful to hide his bewilderment. His wife was still asleep and noticed nothing. Never in his life had he wanted so badly to be wrong as he did that night. Those eyes. If he was right, that abrupt thief was none other than Casio.
***
Casio was a commoner whose family served in his father’s villa, the same one Aurelio had inherited in Apulia and that now stood on the brink of ruin. They were about the same age and, when he still lived there, they had shared a close relationship. Not only emotional, but carnal as well. Aurelio became infatuated with him and took him as his lover. Back then they joined their naked bodies many times, hidden among the bushes of the vast estate.
Having a relationship between men with a commoner was not frowned upon, but both kept it secret for a simple reason: Aurelio was the receptive one. No one could approve of a patrician lowering himself to the submissive role. He couldn’t help it. Casio was a born lover, and the gods had blessed him with a virile potency few men could match.
That bond lasted until Aurelio was forced to begin his military service. Later he settled in Rome, with sporadic visits to the villa he inherited upon his father’s death. He looked for him on his first return, eager to resume their meetings. All he managed to learn was that, because of the estate’s gradual neglect, Casio had left with his family and nobody knew where. The news left him devastated. He went on with his life and eventually buried the memory of Casio... until that night when the past decided to return.
***
Night gave way to day. Morning arrived with a great uncertainty: what to do with the thief. It might not be Casio. It could be an unknown brother, a cousin, some distant relative. Or a complete stranger whose eyes just resembled his too much. And the weight of expectations was real: he himself had announced his intention to reduce him to slavery in front of everyone.
—Bathe him and cut away those tangles he calls “hair” —he decided when his trusted servant asked him—. If he’s going to serve in my house, I want a decent man, not a filthy beast.
That would buy him time and allow him to make sure, once and for all, whether it was Casio. He went off to tend to his business. When he returned at midday, they informed him that the prisoner was ready and he demanded to see him at once.
After a close shave, a haircut, a bath, and clean clothing, he looked like another person. And there was no doubt left: it was Casio. Aurelio looked into his eyes with a desire he had restrained for years, but all he found looking back from those eyes he had once loved was pure hostility.
—Leave me alone with him —he said in a sharp tone.
—But, sir...
—You’ve bound him tightly, haven’t you? Then go. That’s an order.
There was a moment of hesitation before the servant bowed humbly and withdrew with the others. As soon as Aurelio made sure the door was shut tight, he threw himself into the reunion he had dreamed of so many times.
—Oh, Casio!
He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and tried to bring his lips to his, but the other shook off his embrace.
—What’s going on? —he asked, bewildered.
—What’s going on?! You’re trying to enslave me! That’s what’s going on!
—Oh, Casio, forgive me! I didn’t know it was you. I suspected it, but I wasn’t sure.
There was no answer. Casio avoided his gaze and turned his face aside. Even so, Aurelio recognized the grief that had overtaken him.
—What happened to you? How did you end up like this?
—It’s a long story... —he murmured.
—I want to hear it.
Casio sighed. In a deep, halting voice he told him about his life over all those years of separation.
***
After Aurelio left to complete his military career, Casio felt alone. He kept working in Apulia until he found a wife. By then he had already lost all hope of seeing Aurelio again, and the future looked no better. He decided to move to Rome. He wanted to give his wife the best life possible and, for quite some time, he succeeded, despite the dark times they had to endure.
His marriage had only one flaw: she seemed unable to conceive. There were many attempts and many failures until, at last, she became pregnant. The day of the birth came and, with it, the complications. During three harrowing days, Casio spent the little money he had searching for someone, anyone, who would at least save his wife’s life. The child was born dead, and she finally succumbed to exhaustion.
Casio was left alone, ruined, and with nowhere to go. That had been only a few months ago. Since then he was nothing more than a vagrant, with no money and no possessions beyond the clothes on his back and the blood in his veins. No one would give him work because they considered him cursed. He resorted to theft to find food and survive. He had no idea that the house had belonged to Aurelio.
As he spoke, tears rose on Casio’s face. Aurelio, moved by the story, could only say softly:
—I’m so sorry... If I had known...
A heavy silence settled between them. Aurelio wanted to help him. He longed for his affection, his warmth, the moments they had shared. But freeing him was not an option. Otherwise, his credibility would be called into question. His servants would see him as a weak man and might dare to rob him or, worse, rebel. There was only one path left: to carry on with what he had planned, even though it repelled him.
—You don’t have to keep wandering the streets. You’ll stay here with me. I’ll give you shelter, food, and work. Only...
—Only what?
He struggled to find the words. No, he told himself. He couldn’t sweeten the truth with a layer of honey, like some confection. He had to be direct.
—You’ll be one more of my slaves. If your behavior is impeccable, you’ll move in my circle of trust. And we can recover what we had before.
Casio looked him straight in the face. In his eyes shone the desolation of a man who could not sink any lower. Aurelio caressed his chest, that chest that had given him so much pleasure in the past. It had changed a great deal. It had hardened and bore the ravages of a life that had taken its toll on him.
—Please —he added—. I don’t want to lose you again.
Casio sighed. He could only surrender to the fate the goddess Fortuna had imposed on him.
—All right...
Aurelio rose with restrained delight. He promised himself he would never make him regret it.
***
When he opened the door, he had returned to his role as an unyielding patrician. He ordered his men to untie him and give him work. He warned them not to mistreat him: he didn’t want a crippled slave who couldn’t perform, he said. Casio kept up the pantomime of the defeated man, though perhaps it was not entirely false. Every time he passed before his master or one of his superiors, he lowered his head as a sign of complete humiliation.
Aurelio let a month go by, out of caution. A month in which he could barely restrain his desire every time he saw Casio crossing the courtyard. His lover’s good behavior caused the watch over him to relax. Just what he needed. Once the time was up, he had him summoned to his chambers. Alone.
Casio appeared with his head bowed. Aurelio stood, closed the door, and drew him around the waist. His passion was still there, hidden from prying eyes, waiting for the moment to emerge. However, the other man’s coldness filled him with hesitation.
—What’s wrong? —he asked.
—It’s been so long since what we had... I don’t know if I’m still the same man...
Aurelio held his face between his hands. He lifted his gaze to look once more into those eyes he had longed for so long.
—You aren’t. Neither am I. But that doesn’t mean my feelings have changed.
He brought his lips to his. A timid kiss, a light brush charged with nostalgia. The brief contact was the spark that ignited the long-extinguished flame, a flame that quickly grew in intensity.
—I’ve missed you so much... —murmured Aurelio in the small spaces between their lips.
They tangled in a lustful dance without music. Casio’s hands traced his belly and hips with the same skill as before. This was the Casio he remembered, the male who was not afraid to exercise his dominance over a man far above him in the social scale. Familiar tingles ran through his body and anticipated the next move. A tug at the fabric lifted it up and left him naked. That was how they always did it: they undressed each other.
Then it was his turn. The cloth Casio wore was rough and poor, as befitted a man who, to the world, was nothing more than a tool with a mind. A sad and necessary deception. What lay beneath was worth a thousand times more.
Aurelio hoped his lover still found him beautiful. Time had not been generous with him. The years and a life of comfort had deformed his body with wrinkles and a band of fat that swelled his belly. Casio, by contrast, had become a thoroughly masculine man, covered in hair. Work had shaped his body and the guaranteed food of that last month had restored his vigor. And, most important, his virile strength remained intact. Aurelio took it in one hand and looked at it with desire and longing.
—I don’t know if I’ll be able to... No man has shared my bed since the last time we saw each other...
—You are my master —Casio answered—. I only obey your orders.
The hierarchy of master and slave saddened him somewhat. But it was the only way to keep him by his side and never let him leave.
—Just be careful.
A strange sensation, like traveling through time, took hold of him. Casio had said the very same thing the first time they lay together.
***
Aurelio lay face down on his bed. Casio settled over him, in the hollow between his parted legs. The patrician writhed at the first thrust. So much time had passed... Entry was not forced, but slow, allowing the body to return to its old habit and open at its own pace. He clenched his teeth so that no sound would escape his throat and betray their intimacy. A couple of minutes later, Casio was inside him, his hips pressed against his buttocks as when they were young.
A pleasant sense of recovery flooded them both, as though this were the missing piece needed to put their lives back together. Casio moved slowly inside him, in and out, without pause and without haste. His skilled hands filled him with delight, stroking every exact spot that made him tremble. At the same time, he left light kisses on his cheek.
—How do you feel? —he whispered in his ear.
—As if Venus herself had granted my most precious wish: Jupiter sharing my bed.
—So be it.
Aurelio didn’t understand. Casio lifted him by the shoulders and made him sit up. With slow movements he had knelt and seated him on his legs and, above all, on his cock. He was a slave, his master’s tool; on this occasion, also his throne. Aurelio let out a muffled cry. So much flesh pushing from below was overwhelming and, at the same time, glorious. Casio’s strong, hairy chest pressed against his back, held in a firm embrace that refused to let him go. The hair scratched his skin.
Mischievous rays of sunlight slipped through the window and fell on their shared nakedness. They barely warmed them, for the heat of their bodies far surpassed the power of the sun. Aurelio felt every movement of that fused union. He twisted his head so their lips could join again and form a complete bond, a chain whose links were welded together so that no force could separate them. The thrusts came from below, like sea waves bathing that iron bond without the power to destroy it.
The pleasurable pressure on his belly became too much for Aurelio, whose practice and resistance had been lost after so many years. One exact touch and his seed shot out like a geyser. He pressed his lips against Casio’s so his groan would not ring out or reach unwelcome ears. Only when he had emptied himself did he dare look at the trail he had stained on the bed linens.
—This is new... —he murmured.
Before, he spilled it in the dust, never while Casio was still inside him. The sight brought to mind the idea that they might be discovered. They were no longer boys, nor were they in some remote corner where no one could find them. He pulled away from Casio only to feel empty at once. He knelt beside him on the bed, took his cock, and stroked him until his own essence shot out as well. Part of it clung to his hand, warm and sticky, and returned happy memories to him.
—I’m so glad I found you again —Aurelio whispered in his ear—. I never thought we would lie together again. I had lost all hope...
—I’m here now. And if you don’t want it, I won’t ever leave your side again.
The patrician rested his head on his shoulder. This would carry him down a dangerous road. If anyone found out, if it reached the ears of his political rivals... Or his wife...
He was willing to take the risk. He wanted Casio at his side, and this time he had no intention of letting him slip away.
