Set in ancient Rome and Judea, the novelette Slave recounts the torments inflicted on a young Jewish slave by his Roman master. Aaron Travis pays homage to the works of Sade, the movie Ben Hur, and the decadent fiction of Huysmans.
There's nothing of softness or tenderness about this story - it's just a relentlessly brutal torture-fic. Each punishment Jonas undergoes is worse than the last. But the execution of the story is quite well done, so if this is your thing, and you like your torture without the romance, you might like this.
btw, I recommend reading this without the forward. ymmv, but this writer's forwards always kinda annoy me, being rather a recounting of all the praise he's ever received for the story.