"My lady..." A servant began as Eliza began to unfasten here garments. "A man - Gladiator is here for you." Eliza sighed and stopped her movements, gesturing for the servant to let him in.
"I hope I'm not interrupting." The gladiator Eliza had come to know all too well said, laughing as he noticed the steaming water and the slight untidiness of Eliza's clothes.
"What is it you've come to seek from me, Gannicus?" Eliza asked quickly, her head tilted slightly to the left. Gannicus watched her walk around the small room as she picked some oils to bathe with. "Rhea, please go wait outside and close the door." Eliza told her servant. "Out with it!" Eliza snapped as Gannicus watched the servant leave the room and close the door.
"I've been craving you." He told her truthfully, his hands folded behind his back. Eliza set the glass bottles of oil beside the water pool and glanced at him. "Really?" She asked slowly. "And what is it you'd thought you'd achieve by coming here?"
"Eliza, you're very distant." Gannicus told her. "Is it because I'm a gladiator? Are you far too high in the world to care for others below you?"
"Never." Eliza replied simply, shaking her head as her hands traced over the soft fabric of her black garments. "No one has ever been nor shall ever be uncared for by me, especially you." Eliza assured, meeting his watchful eyes.
Gannicus sighed and walked to her, Eliza only backing away slightly. "Then what is it?" He asked, gently bring his hands up to her cheeks to cup them with his rough hands. "Tell me. I am strong, what holds you from me?"
"I -... Myself." Eliza spoke barely above a whisper, locking eyes with his. "I cannot be with you - I am afraid that something will threaten us; tear us apart."
"I will see to it that nothing shall tear us from each other." Gannicus told her, watching her slip from his fingers to the edge of the water. Eliza called back in her servant, as the servant, Rhea, closed the doors once more to keep out unruly guards. "The arena will tear you from me." Eliza said as she lifted her dress a bit. "Without you - if you're gone... dead - then I am nothing." Eliza confessed as Rhea began unclasping Eliza's dress once more.
Gannicus watched, envy plaguing his body as he watched the servant do what he wanted to do for so long. "Then pray thee, that I do not fall." Gannicus replied.
"I bid you farewell." Eliza muttered as the black dress slipped from her body. Gannicus, although he did not want to, he forced himself to look away. For one of the first times in his life, he had looked away from a bare woman.
"Do I repulse you?" Eliza asked as he went for the door. "You say you've been craving me yet you turn your eyes away."
"I will respect you're privacy until you say otherwise." Gannicus responded, opening the door as he heard the water dripping.
He could only imagine his rough, tan hands moving across her soft, pale flesh. Gannicus could only picture the two of them bathing together, her back pressed against his chest as their wet bodies hold tight to each other. He could only imagine tracing her breasts with his fingers, he could only imagine pumping his fingers into her. But yet he only imagined the servant stroking the inside of her thighs with a cloth, a servant washing her beautiful, chocolate brown locks. He only imagined her servant getting to trace her fingers across Eliza's chest, and for that he was angry.
The long pause had not gone unnoticed by Eliza as her gentle gladiator stood by the door. Rough hand on door, squeezing it with white knuckles. "Gannicus?" She asked as oil was poured over her breasts. She moaned gently and bit her lip as the servant's small hands worked over the expansion of - now - pale pink flesh. His grip seemed to tighten more as Eliza watched him practically rip the door away from it's posts and shut it almost the same way.
Rhea had continued to wash Eliza until Eliza stood and got dressed, her green dress flowing around her body gracefully. She smiled to herself as she played with the fabric in her hands.
This green dress makes her eyes appear almost doe like, big, round and brown. Soft and slightly glazed over. At least, according to Gannicus... The dress makes her skin look a perfect type of pale, not powder, not porcelain... But that of snow. According to Gannicus. It also makes her hair seem more chocolate like and full, along with her lips. At least according to Gannicus.
Eliza shook her head as she carried on with her duties throughout the day before going to look for Illythia under Gaius' orders.