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CHAPTER II
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Valeria had been excited for her first official lesson in Latin, and it had gone well, Octavius was a wonderful teacher, but he had also been an incredibly good-looking young man, not much older than she had been, and whenever he had been close—whether she had been working or not—she would feel her cheeks burn up in his presence.
Gaius was not a blind man, he had noticed the effect he had on her, but in return she had not notice her own power on him, how he wished for her lips to be on his, or how he would imagine was the softness of her skin would feel like under his fingertips. He sometimes tried to caress her arm whenever she walked past him, but he always refrained himself.
Today had been another lesson, in the dark of his study she sat across from him, with a book in her lap as she read out loud, and whenever she didn't know a word, she would appear by his side as he read it to her. He would correct her whenever she didn't pronounce it like it was meant to, and he had smiled and complimented her whenever she did, but he started to notice the text she had chosen to read was that of a romance novel written for the pleasures of lowborn women to entertain themselves.
Valeria had noticed her words as well, shutting the book when she read out loud how the man in the story would have the woman's legs shaking.
Gaius smiled when he saw her blush, not knowing she had been imagining his face when she read it.
"Has any man made your legs quiver like that?" he asked, a dagger in hand, twirling it as he looked at her. The book laid closed on her lap as he watched her squirm under his sight. He raised his head slightly, as if to ask her to speak. "No, Dominus" she said, referring back to his proper title.
"I told you, sweet Valeria, you may call me Octavius" he said as he placed the dagger on his desk. "Come" he said.
Valeria stood up, carefully and slowly, before walking over to him, her legs had started to shake slightly from nerves, was she being punished? Did she want him to punish him? She had felt so confused she didn't know what she wanted from the future Emperor.
"You, my darling, have plagued my mind ever since you found service in my household" he confessed to her, looking at her as she blushed not expecting such words to come from him. "I will not push you to do anything, and if you wish to leave then I shall gift you money for you to make a life for yourself" he said as he looked at her. He slowly raised his hand, stroking her soft cheek as she closed her eyes to his touch.
"Could you promise me something?" she asked, opening her eyes once more before she looked at him. "Anything" he said, and he spoke the truth, he would do anything for her. "Don't use me" she said, looking at his eyes as she moved a stray piece of hair out of his way. She had been a maiden, and she had heard enough stories about men in power who would abuse that. "I swear to it by the Gods, I care for you" he said.
