That got more laughs, even from me. It was an orgy, but one with a twist.
I was so ready for it.
“I shall do the honors and choose the first prick—I mean, stick,” Darius said with a wink.
People laughed, he reached into the box, making a show of not looking at whose name he was pulling out, then took out a stick with a flourish.
“Castor!” he called out, holding up the stick.
One of the advanced students shouted as though he’d won a victory and waded through the pool to where Leander held the box. He reached in, took out a stick, then pointed it at Virgil. “You, my sweet little thing,” he said, making a filthy gesture at the startled new student.
I laughed when everyone else did, especially since Virgil went bright pink as he dutifully climbed out of the pool and followed Castor to the closet where extra soaps were stored.
Darius reached into the box again and pulled out another stick. “Appius,” he said in a teasing voice, crooking his finger at the young man. “Come up here and choose someone to lose your virginity to, you pretty young thing.”
Appius squeaked and blushed bright pink, then floated to the far end of the pool, keeping his waist below the water. I figured he really was a virgin too, just going on how sheepish he looked as he snuck his hand into the box and pulled out the first stick that came to his hand.
He looked right at me, blushing even harder, before saying in a voice almost too quiet to hear, “Conrad.”
I sat straighter and burst into a smile. “Lucky me,” I said, wading to the edge of the pool so I could climb out. “I’m all yours, darling,” I said, hearing Magnus’s voice in my head, for some reason, as I said it.
Appius looked like he might dissolve into the tiles around the pool as he climbed out, then followed me to the closet at the far end of the room, where towels were stored. It was clear from his blushes and hunched posture, and the way he subtly tried to hide his cock and balls, that he was nervous. Beyond nervous. He shivered when I opened the door, then placed my hand on his back to shoo him into the tiny space.
There was a thin strip at the top of the wall leading to the laundry room next door that allowed the smallest bit of light to seep into the closet, so it wasn’t completely black. I considered us lucky to have gotten a closet full of towels, because there would be something to sit or kneel on.
“I really am all yours,” I told Appius, seeing only the bare outline of his body and the faint, quivering movement of his head as he trembled. “Anything you want to do, or not do, for the next fifteen minutes, I’m game for it.”
I was so much more than game. We were surrounded by horror and tyranny. I’d just spent days up to my elbows in blood. We might all end up slaughtered tomorrow, if the king’s soldiers didn’t like what they found when they did their inspection.
But for now, I was naked and alone in close proximity with a nice young man who I liked, who could probably use a little calming down via orgasm himself.
And then he blurted, “I don’t like men.”
I sighed, my shoulders dropping in disappointment. “Then why did you come to the bathhouse with everyone else tonight?” I asked. “You knew we were all just going to fuck around to release the tension, right?”
My eyes were starting to adjust to the darkness, so I saw him shake his head. “I didn’t really know what was going on, I just didn’t want to be alone.”
I wasn’t sure I entirely believed him, but there was more honesty in the second half of his simple statement than almost anything I’d heard in weeks. It just made me like Appius more.
“We don’t have to do anything,” I said. “We could just sit on some towels for fifteen minutes and talk.”
“What’s it like?” Appius asked, as if I hadn’t said anything.
“What’s what like?” I asked.
“Being with a man.” I could hear him hold his breath after the statement.
So. Maybe not quite so strait-laced after all.
“Well,” I began, feeling behind me for the shelves so I could lean against them without spilling over, “have you been with a woman?”
I saw vague movement and realized he was shaking his head. After the fact, he said, “No.”
So many potential replies came to mind, from teasing him about actually being a virgin to demanding how he knew he didn’t like men if he’d never been with one. All of those replies were dismissive at best and cruel if he took them the wrong way.
“Sex is meant to feel good, no matter who you’re with,” I said, sorely tempted to reach out and stroke his wet skin as I spoke. “As it happens, I’ve been with men and women.”
“You…you have?” His question sounded so young and sweet.