Page 33 of Thawed Gladiator: Victor

“I know your secret, yes?”

She looks embarrassed, and for the first time since our kiss began, she stops moving, stilling completely as she barely breathes.

“Maya liked it when her big…” I lift my pelvis and press against the juncture of her thighs until she gasps. “Strong…” Aligning our mouths, I barge my tongue between her lips just long enough to assert my dominance. “Gladiator…” I nip her bottom lip. “Bent his knee to her.”

Guilt flares across her face, laced with sadness. But I don’t want my woman sad. No, I want her dripping with desire and am willing to do whatever it takes to make her desperate for me, as I’ve been desperate for her every waking hour of the day since we met.

“Hmm?”

After rolling her off me onto the middle of the bed, I slip to the floor in the pose I know makes her mouth so dry she needs to swallow and look away. Like a predatory animal, I’ve watched her for weeks. I know her reveals as well as I know that when an opponent digs his toes into the sand, he’s ready to attack.

Kneeling, I bow my shoulders along with my head, breaking eye contact as I murmur, “Domina.”

I don’t move. Barely breathe. I simply wait for her to come out of her trance and say something.

Time ticks by for so long I finally give in and say, “Hmm,Domina? What do you want from your gladiator?”

I’m not sure what I expected. Perhaps an order to fuck her or a command to lick between her legs. What I never expected was a moan so low and deep and feral it’s like a lightning strike to my phallus, causing it to quiver and drool with the desire to mount her.

Still, I wait without moving until finally the bed shifts and I picture her walking on her knees to the edge near me. Even when her soft palm cups my cheek, I do not lift my head, do not look at her, do not stop playing the role of slave to her role asDomina.

When she lifts my chin to look at her, gone is the embarrassed woman of moments ago. The daughter who twists herself in knots to please her father is nowhere to be found. The gymnasium owner who keeps her fighters in line with soft directions and suggestions is no longer here.

No. This is the woman I knew lived beneath Maya’s soft skin and coltish ways. This? This is the gladiatrix she’s hidden—even from herself—most of her life.

“What do I want from you, gladiator? I want you to kiss my ankle bone.”

She sits on the edge of the bed and lifts her delicate foot into my line of sight.

“I want you to kiss and lick your way up my leg until I’m blind from lust.”

Her words stir my desire. This is a woman in her full sexual power. The way she seemed to run from her own cravings, even her own well-being, made me wonder if she would ever find this part of herself.

“I don’t want to see that handsome head bent again unless I command it.”

Immediately, I comply, lifting my head and stabbing her with a meaningful stare so she knows I’m following her orders.

“Unless…” she wiggles her foot in front of me, wordlessly reminding me to get to work, “that head is bent, and your chestnut curls are bobbing as you tongue between my legs until I scream your name.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Maya

Who am I? Who is this woman who was born fully formed like Athena, who sprang from Zeus’s head? I’ve never met her before… but I like her.

“Yes,Domina. As you wish.”

Oh, my god. Those words pierce straight to the heart of me. My clit feels as though he plucked it, although we’re not touching.

He grips my foot as though it’s made of the most fragile glass and huffs hot air on the bone I pointed out. The one I’ve always wondered what purpose it served.

I know now. It’s a secret erogenous zone. At least, it is when Damian touches it. No. He’s not touching it yet. Just cupping my heel with one hand and the ball of my foot with the other and breathing on me until I wiggle in anticipation.

His tongue strikes first, like an adder’s quick attack. A lick, light as a sigh, just enough to tease. Then swift flicks that shouldn’t feel as good as they do. Is it because I can imagine what those same movements would feel like on more sensitive parts of my body?”

I fall back onto the mattress, giving myself over to the too-intense feelings swirling through me. My thoughts are in a haze as he nibbles and licks up the outside of my calf and thigh. Words don’t twine through my brain, instead, I function on impulse and thought-pictures.

Pictures of him on one knee, head bowed. Pictures of his muscles quivering as he lifts an impossible amount of weight. Pictures of him looking at me when he thinks I’m busy with one of the men in the gym. Desire and possession cloud his face in those unguarded moments.

---