End Of Reckoning
By Kelly

"Truth is truth to the to the end of reckoning."
--"Measure for Measure," Shakespeare

"And in your fair mind, let this acceptance take."
--Chorus, "Henry V," Shakespeare

Iphicles shivered softly in the cool breeze.  He crossed his arms over his bare chest as he stood at the open window.  "Cold?" asked his lover.  "Come back to bed, let me warm you."

Iphicles looked back at the naked man lounging on the bed.  The blanket rode low on his hips, the think linen clinging to his body.  His cock was outlined, every contour showing.  Iphicles turned back to the window.

"Iphicles, what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?  I'm sick of simply being used to slake your lust!  If I see you outside of the bedroom, you don't even acknowledge my existence.  I am more than a body to be used when your cock gets hard!"  Iphicles let himself rant.  "You treat me like I am nothing!  I am the King of Corinth!  I DESERVE the respect, due to my station if not the man!"

"So I am to compromise MY status for yours?"

"What makes you better than me?  That damned laurel wreath?  The support of your so-called Senate?  You are a man, Caesar, just as I am!  Slave to the same whimsies of fate as I am!  You and I, we are NOT that different, not at all!

Caesar reared up in bed.  "You suffer the whimsy of fate--I make my own destiny and NOTHING dictates to me.  I am the Emperor of Rome, ruler of the greatest land in the known world!  And we are different; I am the ruler of my people--you are the slave to yours."  At those words, Caesar pounced.  His body hit Iphicles', sending them both sprawling.  Caesar landed on top, and grinned down at him.  "Slave to Corinth; now slave to Rome.  MY slave, for I AM Rome.  Caesar rolled off Iphicles, and moved to sit on the edge of the bed.  "Kneel, Iphicles."

Iphicles rose to his feet, refusing to give into Caesar.

With a smile, Caesar's foot lashed out and kicked.  Iphicles landed on his ass as his feet were knocked out from under him.  Caesar's foot planted itself in the middle of the king's chest, holding him down.  "Kiss the foot of your Master, Iphicles."

Iphicles pursed his lips, spitting on Caesar's foot.  The resulting blow rocked Iphicles' head back.  The emperor kept his foot planted firmly in the other man's chest.  "Kiss my foot, Iphicles.  Acknowledge Me as your Master."

"I will not," Iphicles said flatly.

"You will," Caesar said confidently.  He held his foot out still, inching it closer to Iphicles' mouth.  "Do you love me, Iphicles?"

"I hate you!"

"Then why do your lips tremble and strain?  Why does your neck arch to bring your lips closer?"

"I hate what you do to me, how you make me feel," whispered Iphicles.  "Always it's the same; I question you, and you retaliate by mastering me, making me your slave."  Iphicles let his lips briefly caress Caesar's foot, and Caesar leaned down to pet Iphicles' cheek.

"One would have thought you would have learned to stop questioning," chided Caesar gently.  "Position," came the next quiet order.

"Why do you do this to me?"

Caesar had moved to cross the room; he now turned to Iphicles, who knelt in the middle of the floor, his thighs spread, arms clasped behind his back.  "You ask me that as you already prepare yourself for me.  You open yourself to me, give me parts of yourself that no one else ever touched.  All these things you trust me with, yet protest I am hurting you."  As he'd spoken, he'd crossed the room and opened the front panel of Iphicles' trunk.  "You brought them, I see," he said, removing the first tray of items.  He turned back to Iphicles, who had not moved a muscle.  "You can choose, Iphicles.  Walk out of here now and we will never see each other again and never mention what has gone on between us.  Or stay."

Iphicles blinked at Caesar.  "Do you love me at all?"

In answer, Caesar moved across the room again and raised Iphicles to his feet.  He silently led the king to his soft bed, and pushed him down on it.  And then he kissed the king, softly; gently; tenderly.  "I love you enough to let you choose," Caesar replied.

Iphicles opened his eyes, and got to his feet.  He walked to the door, and put his hand on the gold handle.  Caesar closed his eyes, but snapped them open when he heard the soft 'click' of lock tumblers.

Iphicles knelt before the door, his thighs spread wide to display his swollen cock and sac, and his hands were clasped tightly behind his back, thrusting his chest out to display hard nipples.

Caesar snapped his fingers, and Iphicles crawled across the floor to kneel beside Caesar.  He rested his chin on his Master's knee, and when Caesar's hand touched his face, Iphicles kissed the palm.

"Bring the clamps," Caesar ordered, and Iphicles complied.  He slipped his tongue under the chain, and lifted the clamps into his mouth.  He deposited the clamps into Caesar's outstretched hand.

Caesar reached out and ran his fingers through Iphicles' hair, tugging lightly.  Then he dragged his nails over Iphicles' nipples, hardening them before he slipped the clamps on them.  With one hand, he pinched up Iphicles' left nipple, and with the other one, he closed the clamp on it.  Iphicles gasped, and Caesar petted him, quieting him as he would a restless animal.  He pinched up Iphicles' right nipple, and clamped it tightly as well.  Iphicles moaned, the filigree chain connecting the clamps bouncing against
his chest with every movement.

Caesar reached into the box again, and withdrew a gilded leather ring and strap.  "Push your hips out," Caesar instructed, and Iphicles thrust forward. His hardening cock saluted Caesar, and slowly the Emperor slipped the ring on, constricting the flow of blood and forcing it all to collect in Iphicles' cock, hardening it to complete stiffness.  The strap slid around his balls, binding them up against his cock.  Iphicles moaned again, and his cock jerked.

"Only a few more things," Caesar said, still quieting Iphicles.  "Do you know how beautiful you are like this?"

Iphicles whimpered, his cock trembling at Caesar's compliment.  The emperor turned to the box again, and pulled out thin silk ties and a length of black velvet.  He picked up the velvet first, and wound it around Iphicles' eyes, tying it in a knot in the back of his head.  He lifted the man's hair out of the way so it was not confined under the blindfold, and then dropped a butterfly kiss on Iphicles' shoulder before taking the silk ties from the bed.

Then he dropped the ties, and picked out one more thing.  A thin strap of black leather with a silver buckle on it.  Caesar reached around and buckled the collar around Iphicles' throat.  "When this is over and you get dressed to leave in the morning, that collar will be hidden by your shirt and cape.  No one but you and I will know you're wearing it," breathed Caesar into Iphicles' ear.  "You will feel that small strip of leather chafing you all day, and you will know that you are mine."

Iphicles nodded, and shifted his hard cock.  It throbbed painfully, and he thrust it forward silently.  Caesar reached down and spanked it.  "Greedy little cock," he whispered, and moved behind Iphicles.  He took the silk ties, and bound his wrists together, and then bound his wrists to the collar.

Then Caesar stepped back, and looked at Iphicles.  The king still knelt, his spread legs proudly displaying his now-throbbing cock.  His nipples throbbed, jingling the filigree chain that joined the clamps.  He was panting soft moans.  "One more thing then," Caesar whispered.  He reached into the box, and withdrew a hard cylinder with soft leather covering it, and a leather strap to wrap around his head.  He parted Iphicles' mouth, pried his teeth open, and slipped the bit into his slave's mouth.  Iphicles chewed down on the bit as Caesar fastened the strap around the back of his head, again being
careful of his hair.

Then he stepped back again, examining his handiwork.  Iphicles' cock and nipples seemed to throb together, the chain beating against his chest with his heartbeat.  The gag distended Iphicles' full lips, and Caesar could see the king's skilful tongue working it.  The blindfold covered his chocolate eyes, and made the rest of the picture so much more appealing.

He reached down and stroked his own cock, pumping the throbbing erection.  He took the chain and pulled it, leading Iphicles by the clamps to bend over the bed.  He untied his wrists from the collar and bound them to the bedpost, and then reached for the soft-fringed flail. He snapped it against Iphicles' ass, brushing the king's bound balls with the tips as the fringe raised welts on Iphicles' ass.

Iphicles moaned, and his ass pushed back against the lash as he rubbed his cock against the sheets.  His balls bound, there was no chance of orgasm, and he could only rub more and more frenetically as Caesar whipped him harder.  Suddenly, the end of the whip was driven into his anus, and Iphicles cried out around the gag.  Caesar had freed Iphicles' wrists; pulled him to his feet, the whip protruding from his ass as the fringe tickled the tops of his thighs.

The king moaned again as he felt Caesar's mouth on his tortured cock, felt his fingers massaging and rolling his bound balls.  His knees buckled, and he fought to stay on his feet.  The urge to orgasm was overwhelming, and his cock hurt from holding it back.  Caesar reached back and rocked the whip back and forth as he pumped Iphicles' cock in and out of his mouth.  Then Caesar moved again, and as quickly as the whip was shoved in, it was removed, and Caesar's cock probed at the entrance.  Roughly, Caesar shoved Iphicles back down across the bed, and thrust his cock deeply in one stroke.  Iphicles' teeth ground against the gag as the dry entry pained him, but then as
Caesar's strokes immediately became hard and fast, his own hips snapped back and forth, the only pain now the throbbing in his cock for orgasm.

Caesar grabbed the strap that held the gag in Iphicles' mouth, used it to pull his head back and to gain more leverage.  He rode Iphicles like a horse, using the reins of the bit to control him and his movements.  Caesar's thrusts were harder, faster, and deeper, and Iphicles chewed harder on the bit, muffled screams coming out of him.  He reached down with one hand, tugging the chain and pulling Iphicles' tender nipples.  With each tug, the sheath around Caesar's cock tightened, and with a final pull that ripped the nipple clamps off, Caesar came, pumping Iphicles full of hot cum.

Iphicles screamed as the clamps were ripped off and blood flowed into his nipples again.  His ass locked around Caesar's cock, and the emperor grunted Iphicles' name as the king's ass continued to milk him.  Finally, when he was spent and his cock limp, it slipped out of Iphicles' ass, but Caesar remained leant over him, an arm around Iphicles' waist.  The other hand slipped down to remove the cock ring and strap, and with a single pump and a whispered, "I love you," Iphicles shuddered under Caesar and his long-denied orgasm finally burst.  Caesar lovingly milked the jerking cock as it came, stroking and petting it until finally, no more was left to come.

Caesar reached up and untied Iphicles' hands, but instead of removing the other pieces, Iphicles silently turned to Caesar and held onto him as the emperor untied the blindfold and took out the gag, kissing his stretched lips.  Iphicles drew Caesar down onto the bed with him, fingering the black leather collar.  Caesar reached up to remove the collar, but Iphicles stayed his hand.  "Leave it."  Caesar dropped his hand, and Iphicles ran his fingers over and over the buckle and the strap.  His ass ached, his cock was sore, his nipples throbbed.  But when he touched the collar and thought of all he'd
done to receive it, the aches and pains faded to be replaced by a feeling of satisfaction and acceptance.  It wasn't a lack of love on Caesar's part, he realized, but an expression of it.  Of love, and of trust.  Trust in each other.  Iphicles lay his head on Caesar's arm, and smiled as he drifted off to sleep.

The End