ATasteofRome Read online

  “Yeah, yeah,” Kristian said, stabbing his fork irritably into a sausage, as though wishing it were Ryan’s head. “I’m eating, I’m eating. Bossy fucker.”

  After another half an hour or so, the boys were fed and full of coffee, and headed to the nearest Metro station. “Right, we need to get to Piramide on the Metro, then there’s an overground station pretty much next door. One of those lines should take us directly to Ostia.”

  Kristian dug around in his pockets. “Okay. Let’s go and buy some tickets, then. You got your camera?”

  “Yep.” Ryan patted the bag slung over his shoulder. “Though I’m gonna have to charge it at some point later on. I should get a few hours out of it. You got a drink, hat and so on? Sorry to sound like your dad, mate, but even the guidebook says to take sun cream and drinks. It sounds like there’s going to be no shelter when we get there.”

  Kristian nodded. “Yes, Dad. Though if it’s that hot, I’m not sure how long this bottle of water’s gonna last.” They walked in the already warm air toward the nearest station.

  “I reckon there’ll be a café there. It’s quite a way out, so they’ve got a captive audience. They’d be crazy not to cash in.”

  “Let’s hope so.”

  They passed into the darkness of the Metro station and quickly figured out, using the maps on the walls, where they needed to be. It was a fairly uncomplicated journey, so they relaxed a little and went to queue up to purchase tickets. A few minutes later they were on the relevant platform, shuffling uncomfortably in the stuffy air. Just because the sun couldn’t get down here, it didn’t mean the heat didn’t. When the next train arrived, they hopped on, more than ready to be carted to their next destination.

  A little while later, they’d emerged from Piramide station and quickly worked out which overground train they needed to be on and boarded it.

  “Seems a bit weird,” Kristian said, “coming to Rome, then the first thing we do is bugger off out of it to go and see something else.” They sat down, and people filed in around them. One woman immediately pulled a bunch of stuff out of her bag and started doing her makeup. Ryan had to stop himself rolling his eyes.

  “I know,” he replied, “but we can stay here as long as we like and see everything we want to see. There’s no rush to leave, is there? So we can check everything off our to-see lists.”

  “True. I wouldn’t have minded staying longer in Paris, to tell the truth. You don’t realize quite how much there is to do in places until you try to do it all!”

  “There’s nothing stopping us going back, mate. Either on our way home or whatever. Remember the whole point of this trip is to go and do what we want. Other than going home for Christmas and New Year, our schedule is totally fluid.” Their conversation was temporarily halted as the train began to move, pulling out of the station and starting its journey. “Keep an eye out for the station names. If we miss our stop we’ll end up at the coast. Not the end of the world, obviously—we’d just have to jump on the same train in the other direction—but I’d rather not take any detours today. I reckon we’ll be there a good few hours.”

  “Really? How exciting can a bunch of old ruins be?”

  “I haven’t a clue but I guess we’ll find out.”

  “Cool. And yeah, I agree with what you said about our schedule being fluid. I guess I’m just trying to cram too much in all at once.”

  Ryan shrugged. “Stop worrying and just have a good time. That’s what we’re here for.”

  They fell silent, then, watching out of the window as the train trundled out of the city and into the Italian countryside. The journey would only take about half an hour, so staring outside and people-watching would be plenty of entertainment. The journey felt as if it was over in a flash and the boys disembarked the train and headed out of the station. It was immediately obvious where they had to go—a bridge would lead them over the main road, and Ryan suspected the only tourist attraction in the place would be well signposted. He wasn’t wrong. Even before they hit the bridge, they were pointed in the right direction. They climbed the steps, headed over the walkway, then back down the steps on the other side. Then, following a surprisingly quiet road, they soon came across their destination.

  Kristian pointed to a water fountain on the pavement. “At least we’ll be able to fill up on the way back.”

  The other man looked up at the sky, the sun beating down on them. “Yeah, I think we’re going to need it.”

  A few more minutes’ walk found them at the entrance booth, where they were delighted to note that as under-twenty-sixes they’d get a discount. Armed with their tickets, they headed in to the attraction. They immediately noted that it was colossal.

  “Ah,” Kristian said, “I guess that answers my question about how exciting a bunch of ruins can be. This place is massive. I can’t even see where it ends. I wonder how many acres it covers.”

  “I’m sure we’ll find out soon. It’s bound to tell us on one of the boards.”

  With that, they headed into the vast, ancient port city, eager to see what secrets it held.

  Chapter Three

  Ryan pulled his guidebook from his bag. “Right, I think we need to check this out to make sure we see the highlights.”

  “Fair enough, mate,” Kristian replied. “Otherwise we could wander all day and not be entirely sure what we’re looking at.”

  The other man nodded absently as he flicked through his book, looking for the right page. “Ah, okay. There’s the Decumanus Maximus, the theater, the Casa di Diana and Thermopolium, the museum, the Forum…the list goes on. I’ll just keep checking this as we go along in case we come across one of them.”

  “Sounds good.”

  With that, they walked farther into the ancient city, following the well-worn paths and marveling at how much was left considering the age of the place. The walls varied from around knee height—sometimes less—to way above their heads. They climbed vantage points, took lots of photographs and checked a few highlights off the list in the guidebook.

  Soon they reached an area where the well-defined paths ended. And yet the sprawling ruins continued. Shrugging, Ryan said, “Shall we go and check it out? You never know what we’ll see off the beaten path.”

  “Yeah, go for it.”

  They walked through the long grass and wildflowers, growing closer to the outer reaches of the place.

  “Do you get the feeling we’re not meant to be here?” Ryan said after a few minutes. “There’s nobody else here.”

  “I know what you mean, but surely it’d have been fenced off if it were out of bounds. It doesn’t look as though anything’s going to fall on us. Well, no more than everywhere else.”

  “True.” They continued in silence, broken only when Ryan retrieved his drink from his bag and took several long pulls—the heat was pretty intense.

  A movement in the corner of his eye made him stop suddenly.

  Kristian exclaimed, and Ryan hushed him, pointing to what he’d seen.

  A black and yellow lizard had paused in its journey up a section of the ruined wall, soaking up the sun. The two men remained still, as did the creature. It was like a standoff. Eventually the lizard moved off, scurrying up to the top of what was left of the wall, then out of sight. Ryan and Kristian exchanged a look.

  “Wow, that was cool,” Kristian said. “I bet there’s loads of them of them here, isn’t there? So many places to hide.”

  “Yep. It’s a huge adventure playground for them. Especially since in this bit there are no tourists except us. They must be cursing us for disturbing them!” He continued walking, and his friend fell into step behind him. After a couple of minutes, they came to what looked like a fairly major junction. Or what had been a major junction, anyway. The site still continued in each direction.

  “Wanna split up?” Ryan asked. “We’ll keep over to this side, though, and shout if we find anything outstanding. Then if we don’t meet up at any point, shall we wait for each other back where w
e came off the main path?”

  “Yep, okay. I’ll go left.”

  “And I’ll go right. See you later.” They turned and headed in their respective directions, and Ryan was soon swallowed deeper into the complex. It felt as if no one had trodden these paths since the city had been abandoned over a thousand years ago. Much of what he saw was the same—endless dwellings, streets, corridors, bath houses and meeting places. After a while, though, he saw another vantage point. Scrambling up a dirt incline, he peered, fascinated, at the ramshackle hut at its top. It was out of place, really, set apart from everything else—but perhaps that was the point. Some kind of lookout point, perhaps? The tiny building itself was a little creepy and it was in pretty good condition and a great place to hide. Double-checking there was nothing inside that could jump out and startle him, sending him plummeting over the edge to his certain death, he looked around.

  Ruins stretched as far as the eye could see in two directions, but in the other two directions he could now see the edges of the vast area. The view, however, stunning as it was, couldn’t keep his interest. For he’d spotted something even more fascinating. Below him, in what had been a large room, was a mosaic floor. That wasn’t unusual, of course—there were mosaics on floors and walls throughout the complex. What was so wonderful about this particular piece was the condition it was in. Far from the cracked, worn, dirt-covered mosaics he’d seen elsewhere in Ostia Antica, this one was pretty much complete, and very visible. He was just about to open his mouth to shout for Kristian to come and see his discovery when he spotted something else.

  Just off to one side, in the darkest corner of the room, there was movement. He stepped forward to get a better view, expecting to see another lizard. In fact what he saw was much larger. And there were two of them.

  The young couple had clearly been there for a little while, as Ryan had caught them right in the middle of getting hot and heavy. Their skin tone told him they were probably Italian—perhaps employees of the tourist attraction on their lunch break. The girl, who was slim with small breasts, was pushed up against the highest wall in the area, and her back was probably being scratched raw by the rough brick. She didn’t seem to care, though. Her eyes were closed and her mouth hung slack. She was in the throes of bliss.

  Her partner was ramming into her with ferocity, yet Ryan could see that he only held her up with one hand—the other was busily stroking her clit. He was tall and well-built, dwarfing the girl, and by the way she was moaning and groaning, he was obviously very skilled at lovemaking too.

  Ryan couldn’t take his eyes off the scene before him. He was a good few feet away and much higher up than they were, so he couldn’t see any detail. But it didn’t seem to matter to his cock—it had started filling with blood as soon as his brain had registered what was going on, and now pressed against the inside of his boxers and jeans.

  Suddenly the combination of what he was seeing before him, the risk factor and the sun beating down on him made him uncontrollably horny. Instead of ignoring his erection and willing it to go away and leaving the lovers to their illicit tryst, he carried on watching them and released his cock from his clothes and into the fresh air. He fisted himself, then began stroking up and down, keeping his gaze firmly on the steamy alfresco sex in front of him. They obviously weren’t expecting to be seen, because rather than having pulled their clothes up, down or to one side, they were butt-naked, flashing everything they had to the sky and sun. Which meant that Ryan had an unimpeded view of the Italian chick’s tits. They weren’t large but they were perfectly in proportion with the rest of her, with dark brown nipples that he would happily have wrapped his tongue around.

  He focused on the female being fucked, the sounds emanating from her throat. The couple wasn’t being massively loud—they wouldn’t be able to hear them back on the main path, for example—but they weren’t being quiet either. The noises filled Ryan’s ears and he wanked his cock faster as their passion overtook them and they bumped and ground against each other, striving for blissful release.

  The girl was a real firecracker. She was giving as good as she was getting, clearly very focused on pleasure and not particularly gentle about it. She had her arms curled up under her man’s and was clinging on to his back. It probably wasn’t necessary, but she was using her nails to grip him, leaving a series of reddened marks on his shoulders. He’d look in the mirror later and grin as he remembered how they got there. They would be like a badge of honor.

  Ryan felt his climax approaching and realized he’d sped up his ministrations considerably. Perhaps he was subconsciously trying to catch up with the young lovers, so he could time his orgasm with theirs. Providing they came together. It didn’t matter either way, as long as they didn’t discover him.

  He had to guess how close they were, of course, which meant he sped up and slowed down a few times as there were a few false alarms. Eventually, though, their cries were so abandoned, their bodies thrashed together so violently that there was no going back, no holding off. The girl clawed wildly at her man’s back—he’d look as if he’d gone ten rounds with a tiger by the time she was finished. He’d be lucky if she hadn’t drawn blood.

  Impossibly, their movements grew even more frantic. They bucked and writhed together until the guy suddenly gave a huge jerk of his hips, pinning his girl against the wall, then tilted his head back and roared his release to the sky. He managed to keep stimulating the girl’s clit and her orgasm followed not long after. Her entire body bowed and her mouth went wide, slack, as her body was taken over by pleasure. Then she shuddered and let out a series of sounds that weren’t unlike those a banshee would make.

  Ryan’s climax made three. He bit his lip to keep himself quiet and worked his hand over his shaft until his balls tightened and lifted closer to his body then shot spurt after spurt of spunk out of his slit and onto the dry, cracked ground at his feet. Thanks to Taryn’s antics during the night there wasn’t too much cum in him, so he was able to pull himself back together and tuck his cock away within just a few seconds. Then he shifted along the hill he stood on, so he was out of the sight of the people at the edge of the room with the awesome mosaic, and tried to get his breath back. He was a little surprised at himself, if he were completely honest. He’d never had himself down as a pervy Peeping Tom before. Yes, he’d watched and wanked over the girl in the peep show in Paris, but that was different. She had been knowingly putting on a show, fully aware that men were behind the windows, tugging their cocks over her.

  But the couple who’d just fucked in Ostia Antica hadn’t got a clue. They’d sneaked off for some privacy—or as much privacy as you’d get in a tourist attraction, anyway—and he’d been unable to stop himself watching.

  Shaking his head, Ryan decided not to beat himself up over it. If you’re going to fuck outside, you’ve got to accept there’s going to be a chance you’ll get caught. They couldn’t have been that bothered or they wouldn’t have done it there in the first place. Plus they hadn’t seen him, anyway—they were none the wiser and no one had gotten hurt. It had just been a little unexpected smutty fun.

  He stayed where he was for a few moments longer, giving the young couple a chance to get dressed and leave the area before he made his way down from his perch and attempted to find Kristian. The last thing he needed was to bump into them as they made their way back to civilization—they’d know just by the look on his face that he’d witnessed their lovemaking.

  After a few minutes had passed, he walked back down to ground level and toward the main path he and Kristian had originally deviated from.

  “Hey, mate,” he said, seeing his friend coming from the other direction. “Come and look at what I found. It’s awesome.”

  Chapter Four

  Ryan and Kristian emerged from the train station, quiet and reflective after their day spent at Ostia Antica. It seemed they’d both been awed by the sheer amount of history in the place and the scale of it all. Ryan, of course, had been extra-awed by th
e copulating couple he’d watched and masturbated over. He hadn’t mentioned the incident to his friend, instead just showing him the amazing mosaic he’d found before they went on their way, continuing to explore the ancient city. He probably wouldn’t have believed him anyway.

  “Okay,” Kristian said, stepping to one side and leaning on the nearest wall to let the crowds pass him by, “I’m famished. Shall we go and find something to eat?”

  Ryan nodded and they headed into the chaos together and found a cheap café where they ordered a beer each and perused the menu.

  “What’s the plan for later, mate? And tomorrow?” Kristian asked.

  Ryan glanced up from the sticky, laminated page. “Uh, dunno about later, really.” He glanced at his watch. “Well I guess this is dinner taken care of. What do you want to do?”

  “Please don’t kill me, but I’m pretty knackered. I was thinking of a few drinks somewhere near to the hostel so we can just toddle to bed when we feel like it.”

  “Nah, I won’t kill you. I’m feeling pretty much the same way. As for tomorrow, I was going to be a bit obvious and head to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. You?” He took a sip of his beer and waited for his friend’s reply.

  “I’ll see how I feel in the morning. I’m tempted to have a day off, to be honest. Just chill out somewhere, sit and watch the world go by. I know I probably sound really boring, but if I do too much and I’m too tired, I won’t appreciate it. And I reckon soaking up Rome’s atmosphere will be pretty entertaining in itself, anyway.”

  “You are a bit boring, mate. But I’ll let you off ’cause you’re right. There’s no sense in rushing around like a headless chicken and not really enjoying or remembering what you’re doing. I might have one of those chilled-out days myself toward the end of the week.”