Read Gore Vidal’s Caligula for Free Online

but harshly. Her own son, their uncle Claudius, lived in mortal terror of her. Only Germanicus hadn’t been afraid of her, but he’d been her favorite son, and besides, he had been away on campaigns for most of his life. Even Livia Augusta, honored with the title Mother of Her Country, wife to the first Emperor of Rome, paid Antonia respect. Caligula shuddered at the thought of being caught in any kind of mischief by his grandmother.
    Caligula and Drusilla exchanged solemn vows never, never to do “it” again—whatever “it” was, that had brought them so much joy.
    During the next two nights, the Dream left the child Caligula alone. He dreamed instead of Drusilla, and in his dreams he could smell the musky fragrance of her body and hear her tiny cries of pleasure. He awoke in the mornings languid and relaxed, refreshed. But the sheets of his bed were sticky, as were his thighs, and he bribed a slave with a few coppers to take the sheets away and replace them with clean ones. There was much goodnatured laughter about this in the quarters of the household slaves—Little Boots was becoming a man.
    On the third night, just as he was sinking into the sweetest of sleeps, his hand wrapped firmly around his penis, he heard a noise in the doorway and looked up, shamefaced, to see Drusilla.
    “I . . . I thought I heard you cry out,” she stammered. “Was it the Dream, Gaius?”
    “Yes,” he lied, knowing that she was lying too. “Oh, Drusilla, yes. I am so frightened! Hold me, sister, hold me!”
    Drusilla threw back the sheet and slipped into the narrow bed beside him, keeping her eyes carefully averted from the erection that stood stiffly from her brother’s childish body. A boy’s body, but a man’s cock, she thought, blushing even to know the word.
    Within five minutes they were moaning, their tongues deep into each other’s mouths. Now all of Caligula’s instincts told him not to leave one inch of Drusilla’s luscious skin unkissed or unlicked, and when he thrust his tongue into her ear and felt her stiffen against him, he knew his instincts were right. He made her lie very still as his tongue laved her navel; he wanted the taste of his sister in his mouth. As he began to graze below, licking and sucking in the tangle of golden hair, Drusilla cried out. She would have stopped him, but he held her down with amazing strength and plunged his nose and tongue deeply into her for the first time.
    This was paradise, he thought. Even the nectar of the gods had not so delicious a savor as his sister Drusilla. Eagerly, he licked her juices, and felt her hips begin to move rhythmically under him, felt her belly bucking upward toward his mouth. Her rapid, gasping breath told him that she was reaching ecstasy, and he redoubled his efforts, using his teeth gently on her tiny button of sensitive flesh. Her gasps became stifled screams, and suddenly, after a furious arching of her body, she fell back limply. “No more, Gaius,” she whispered. “No more. Please.”
    But Caligula had only begun. The hardness between his legs sent shooting fires through his groin and belly. There was only one place to quench those fires, one oasis of moisture. Ignoring Drusilla’s protests, he parted her thighs and slowly inserted his cock. At once, the burning stopped and an indescribable pleasure took its place. But he couldn’t get all of it in; something was blocking the way.
    “No, Gaius, no!” Drusilla was trying to push him away, her face contorted in pain.
    Watching her intently, Caligula drew his penis almost all the way out, then slipped it back in, just grazing the obstruction. Out again, then in. Out, in. The pain vanished from Drusilla’s face, and her eyes rolled back in pleasure.
    Caligula leaned forward on his elbows. Taking her nipple between his teeth, he sucked on it hard. Suddenly, Drusilla’s knees parted fully, and she wrapped her long legs around him.
    “Yes! YES!” she breathed, and he felt her hands on his