Friendly Massage

"Oh, this is wonderful," Antonia breathed beside her, electric green eyes sweeping the chamber with undisguised appreciation. "Mother's bathhouse at home has marble imported from the eastern provinces, but even that doesn't compare to this.”

Antonia unlaced her tunic with the casual efficiency of someone who had undressed in front of others a hundred times before. Her honey-colored shoulders emerged first, then the gentle swell of her breasts, the dancer's curve of her waist and rear. She pulled the garment over her head and tossed it aside without a trace of self-consciousness.

Cassia's mouth went dry. Ever since her primacy day Antonia had become so... beautiful.

"Coming in?" Antonia asked, “The water's not getting any hotter."

“Just give me a moment.” Cassia turned her back, counted to ten, and then began to undress. Her fingers suddenly felt clumsy as she unlaced her tunic.

"You're taking forever," Antonia called. There was a splash. "Oh, fuck. That's good."

Cassia took a breath and turned, exposing her omega body in all its glory. She could feel the blood already beginning to circulate to her cock, biology, not arousal, she told herself firmly. Just the heat of the room, the steam. Nothing more.

She walked quickly to the pool's edge and slipped into the water before Antonia could get a good look at her. The heat was shocking at first, then soothing, ri her thighs to her stomach to her chest. She sank down until the water obscured everything below.

Antonia was watching her from across the pool, dark curls plastered to her temples, water beading on her bare shoulders. She had no such compunctions about concealing herself. Her breasts floated freely at the water line. Between them, just visible beneath the rippling surface, the shadow of her cock rested against her thigh.

Cassia looked away quickly.

"You're so shy," Antonia observed, paddling closer. "We've known each other since we were children."

"We weren't naked then."

"No, we weren't." Antonia's grin was unrepentant. "We're not children anymore, are we? Primacy changes things."

Cassia said nothing. The heat was turning her skin pink, loosening muscles she hadn't realized were tight. She rolled her shoulder experimentally, trying to work out the stiffness from sleeping on it poorly, and winced.

Antonia noticed immediately. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just slept wrong." Cassia rolled it again, wincing deeper. "It's fine."

"It's not fine. You're wincing." Antonia moved through the water with easy strokes until she was beside Cassia, close enough that their shoulders almost touched. "Here. Turn around."

"What?"

"Turn around. I'm going to massage it."

Cassia felt her face heat. "That's really not necessary-"

"Cassia." Antonia's voice carried that particular tone she used when she had decided something and would not be moved. "Turn around."

For a moment, Cassia considered refusing. She was proud. She was determined. She did not need to be coddled like some soft politico’s daughter who had never known a day of hardship in her life.

But her shoulder hurt, and Antonia's hand was already warm on her arm, turning her, and somehow her body was obeying before her mind had finished arguing.

She faced the edge of the pool, gripping the cool stone tiles with both hands. Antonia positioned herself behind her, and Cassia felt the heat of her friend's body through the water, close but not quite touching.

"Tell me if it's too much," Antonia said.

Then her hands settled on Cassia's shoulders.

The first press of her fingers drew a sharp gasp from Cassia's throat. Antonia's hands were firm, stronger than Cassia had expected. She worked the knotted muscle with methodical care, thumbs digging deep circles into the curve where neck met shoulder.

"Breathe," Antonia murmured. "You're holding tension everywhere."

Cassia tried to relax. She really did. But Antonia's hands were everywhere, sliding across her shoulder blades, kneading the tight cords of her neck, working lower down her spine. The heat of the water combined with the heat of those hands, and Cassia felt something in her chest begin to loosen, then something lower.

No. No, no, no.

But her body was not listening to her mind. Her body was melting under Antonia's firm touch, every knot unspooling, every muscle going soft and pliant. Antonia found a particularly tender spot just beneath Cassia's shoulder blade, and Cassia let out a sound she had not intended to make, a low, breathy moan that seemed to hang in the steam-heavy air between them.

Antonia's hands paused for just a fraction of a second. Then they continued, though Cassia could have sworn the pressure had changed, become more deliberate, more knowing.

The silence stretched. Undeniable, unspoken tension coiled between them.

"Okay," Cassia said quickly, jerking out of reach of Antonia’s amazing hands. " That's enough. I’m feeling much better now, thank you."

She paddled deeper into the pool. Beneath the surface, her cock was raging, six inches of rigid, aching need, pressing against her stomach in a way that would have been obvious to anyone who looked.

But her body did not feel like it belonged to her right now. It felt like it belonged to those hands, to that moan she had let slip, to the tension that still crackled between them like lightning before a storm.

Antonia, mercifully, did not follow. She remained where she was, lounging against the edge of the pool with her arms spread wide along the tiles, utterly at ease with her own nakedness.

"So, my alchemy professor is proving difficult," Antonia said, as if nothing had just happened between them. "Mother warned me about her. Apparently, she fails half the class every year just to prove a point."

Cassia grasped the conversational lifeline with both hands. "What point?"

"That she can, I suppose." Antonia shrugged, water sloshing gently against her waist. "I'm not too worried. Mother says egocentrics are easy to manipulate."

Cassia listened. She let Antonia's voice wash over her, bubbly and energetic, full of plans and schemes and observations about their instructors and fellow students. She talked about the farmer’s daughter with the unusually large cock and the senator's niece who apparently let anyone have a turn with her. She talked about which instructors to impress and which should be avoided.

Cassia focused on the sound of Antonia's voice, the rhythm of her speech, the way her hands moved when she talked. She did not think about those same hands on her shoulders. She did not think about the moan she had let slip. Or, about her cock, which was slowly beginning to soften as the minutes ed and Antonia continued to talk about anything and everything.

Eventually, Cassia's cock had subsided enough that she felt comfortable standing, though she kept her back to Antonia as she climbed the steps and reached for a towel.

"Same time tomorrow?" Antonia asked, emerging from the water behind her. Water cascaded down her form, tracing the curve of her breasts, the narrowing of her waist, the swell of her hips, the small thatch of curls above her dangling Unus cock.

Cassia wrapped the towel firmly around her waist. "Perhaps."

"Perhaps," Antonia repeated, grinning. "That's not a no."

"No," Cassia agreed, and allowed herself the smallest of smiles. "It's not."