Marc Antony’s Woman
By Misha
Disclaimer- Not mine.
Author’s Notes- Hey everyone! Now that I am recovered from the ACoR finale, I am back at work on Marc Antony’s Woman. I also know that it will be about 17 chapters all together, so I am just over halfway finished. This chapter covers the diamond scene in chapter 19. There were some odd conversational drifts in the dialogue that I tried to make more natural and I added a little bit of dialogue as well, but otherwise stayed pretty faithful to the original.
Pairing- Marc Antony/MC
Summary- Antony and Portia steal a private moment at the springs, will it be their last?
Rating- NSFW
Chapter 10- All I Can Taste is This Moment
Antony carefully led me out of my cell, checking the halls to make sure no one was around, and then down a hidden trail into the cave system below the arena. It was empty, the only sound that of water dropping in a constant but soothing rhythm.
“I suppose it’s too much to ask if you can help me out of this?” I asked quietly, once I was sure we were completely alone. I already knew the answer, but…
Antony shook his head. “You can’t try to kill the most powerful man in the world and fail.” A variety of emotions crossed his face, but again, anger wasn’t one of them. I had tried to kill the man he professed undying loyalty to and yet there was no anger… Only resignation and sorrow.
“If you believe in the gods, I suggest you pray to them,” he said after a moment, his voice curiously devoid of the mocking element that normally came up when he mentioned the gods.
Did I believe in the gods? I believed in my mother and I know she believed, but would that faith be enough to save me and was her faith mine? It was too complicated of a question to answer just then, so I decided on a lighter answer.
“Being here with you is all I need,” I told him sincerely, running my hands over his chest, tracing the familiar buckles of his armor. “I needed a reminder of what I’m fighting for, what I have to lose. I’ll kill a hundred gladiators as long as I know you’ll be here with me after.”
It had been my biggest regret when I’d been captured, besides the knowledge that Caesar still breathed, that my actions had likely ruined things between Antony and I. But they hadn’t, he was here with me, his arms moving around me holding me close to him.
“Let’s hope it’s fewer than a hundred,” he replied, his lips brushing over my temple, “I want you back with me as soon as possible.”
“A dozen then?”
“A dozen is an acceptable metaphor,” he agreed, his lips moving down to cover mine. The kiss was surprisingly sweet. “It is what Caesar intends, anyway.”
“For me to kill a dozen gladiators?” I asked quietly, raising an eyebrow.
“Well, not for you to kill them,” Antony told me, watching me carefully as he released me and stepped back, “but you will be in a multi-fighter bout, you will face a dozen other fighters, last man standing survives.”
I had seen such bouts, from the comfort of Antony’s box, listening to the roar of the crowd, watching the bloodbath below with the knowledge that I was safe from it all, but I wasn’t. Not anymore.
I was sure I would be the only woman in the match. Probably the only untrained fighter. The odds would be stacked against me from the start, which was no doubt Caesar’s intention. He intended me to die.
There was a long silence, the air suddenly heavy and I searched for a way to lighten it again. “Why did you come down here?” I asked after a moment. “Did you use to dream of being a gladiator?”
Antony kicked a loose rock into the pool as he pondered my question. “Back then I was a troublemaker and a nobody. People thought I’d end up in a cell or dead in an alley.”
I thought back to what he had told me of his family history, what I had heard from others, the way the other Senators still spoke of him. I could picture him so clearly, a proud child, left to run wild, with no one to guide him, looking for something he could relate too.
“I saw the gladiators as kindred spirits,” Antony continued, “Some of them overcame great adversity and became famous. To a boy, it seemed like they had real power.”
I thought of all the years my father had spent as a gladiator, a slave, showing the truth of how wrong Antony had been and yet, I understood why the young Antony had felt that way, especially when he had felt powerless in a world where others around him had so much power and cut him off from it. Of course, he would look for another way to find that power.
Hadn’t I done the same?
Still, I wanted to lighten the mood, so I moved closer to him once more, wrapping my arms around his neck, “I like the idea of you fighting shirtless in the arena.”
It was a very appealing thought, actually, the idea of him nearly naked and slick with sweat, showing off his famed battle prowess…
Antony laughed, “Hah! If I’m ever fighting without armor, something has gone very wrong.” He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me against him and smiled down at me, his eyes dark with desire, “though I’m not opposed to putting on a show for you if you ask nicely.”
“I will have to do that,” I promised, “though I think it will need to be a private show because I prefer to keep you to myself, I don’t need every woman in Rome after you.”
Not that they already weren’t. There were very few women in Rome who would refuse him, both because of his power, but also because of his physical appeal and his charm. Yet, I pushed that thought aside. Antony was here with me now, even after I had tried to kill Caesar, he was still here.
“As if they could compete,” Antony told me warmly, before kissing me again.
When the kiss ended, he released me and dipped his toe in the water. Then, to my surprise, he began to unbuckle his armor.
“I’m going to take a dip in the spring,” he announced as he tossed his armor aside, “why don’t you join me? The fighters say it cleanses the spirit and improves your chance of survival in the ring.”
I looked at him in surprise, “I thought you didn’t put stock in rituals and superstition.”
“If it means you might live, I’ll give it a chance.” He told me with uncharacteristic seriousness.
I bit my lip, trying to contain the sudden rush of emotion, not because of what he was saying but because of what it really meant. This was how much he cared, he was willing to even turn to rituals he normally mocked.
He loved me.
He didn’t say it, I doubted he ever would, but suddenly I knew it. It explained everything. The lack of anger, the fear for my safety, the need to understand my motives… Antony loved me.
“Besides,” Antony continued, his voice suddenly lightening as if he knew he had said too much and wanted to control the conversation once more, “I’ll take any excuse to get you out of those clothes.”
Given how dirty my clothes were, I didn’t blame him. Besides, wasn’t that why I had accepted his invitation to see the springs in the first place? To be with him again, anyway I could?
With that thought in mind, I slipped my dress off, noting the way Antony’s eyes followed my every movement, lingering over the newly revealed flesh.
I stepped into the water, which was surprisingly warm, moving deeper until the water covered up to my breasts. Antony followed me into the water. I opened my arms to him and he walked right into my embrace, drawing me close. His hands were firm as they rested on my hips and his lips were hot against mine.
“We don’t have much time,” he said regretfully.
“Then make the most of it,” I invited, pressing my naked body against his invitingly.
“I missed everything about you,” Antony whispered in my ear, his breath tickling me, “your smell, your taste, how you feel in my arms…”
His lips moved down my neck and jaw before finding mine, his kiss hungrier than before. I ran my hand over the hard muscles of my back as I opened my mouth for him. Antony let out a moan.
“The softness of your mouth, your body… All of it. It haunts me… I will never get enough.”
His hands ran across my chest, his calloused fingers teasing my nipples into hard points, causing me to let out a moan of my own. I moved closer to him, feeling his hardness pressing against me, proof of his desire for me.
“Antony, take me now,” I begged, needing to feel him, to be one with him.
He didn’t need any further invitation. He pressed me back against the wall of the cave, lifting me up to give himself better access before easing me down on top of him. I sighed at the contact, a sigh that deepened as he pressed his hips into mine, his lips finding my neck.
“Ooooh!”
My hands moved from his back to his hips, pulling him closer to me as he thrust, wanting him to be as close as possible The water splashed around us as we moved, the waves creating a parallel rhythm.
“Portia!” Antony groaned as he got closer, his hands digging in harder, his movements becoming more erratic. With every thrust the waves around us grew, but so did the pleasure inside of me.
“Antony!” I screamed as pleasure overwhelmed me, my cries echoing throughout the cavern.
His lips covered mine in a desperate kiss as he gave one last powerful thrust before he too gave into the pleasure.
After a moment, he lifted me out of the water, taking a seat on a nearby rock and drawing me into his lap, our bodies glistening with water, his hands caressing me, his lips pressing kisses along my shoulders.
Neither of us spoke, we just sat like that, curled together, enjoying the moment. But too soon, it passed. “I should get you back,” Antony said reluctantly, “the shifts will be changing soon and the guard I bribed will be off duty.”
I nodded, standing and reaching for my dress. I didn’t want to put it back on, not after I felt so clean and refreshed from the spring, but I had no choice. “I would rather stay here forever.”
“Yet another thing we have in common,” Antony told me with a small smile as he buckled his armor. “Come, we’ll slip you back in as if you were never gone.”
He held out his arm and I took it, letting him draw me close once more, savoring these last few minutes of contact. HIs mouth traced soft kisses up my neck to my mouth. “If I don’t see you again before the fight, treat this as an official command that you are not allowed to die.”
His eyes met mine, once again serious, and I saw in them all the things I knew he would never put into words.
“Of course domine,” I said softly, my hand caressing his face, “and when I survive, I will come back to you and I will be yours alone.” There was no way Caesar would want me back in his bed after this, if I somehow managed to survive, meaning that my arrangement as Antony’s spy had come to an end. If he was upset over that, it didn’t show.
“Then I definitely expect you to survive,” he told me, kissing me fiercely one last time before leading me out of the caverns and back to my cell, our break from the real world having ended far too soon.
**
