War God for Hire- Gladiator by David Burke (books under 200 pages .TXT) 📕

But Burke wasn’t having any of this. “No, that isn’t fair. I had to fight that monster, Lash. I would have defeated you or any of these others. I am Burke, son of Drun, chieftain of the Kiegor Clan. We shall rise and so shall I.”

“I’m not really interested in who your dad is, or what you think you could do. Actions speak louder than words, and you aren’t going to lay a hand on Nyda,” Kyle said. He stepped forward and gently put his arm around the elf to pull her away from Burke.

“You already had her in your cell for weeks and didn’t do anything about it. Now it is her turn to be with a real man, not some freak of nature.” Burke spat at Kyle as he spoke.

“Walk away now while you still can,” Kyle said. He moved so that he was between Burke and Nyda. Just as he had been trained, he watched for tension in the muscles that would show the man was about to move. Kyle wasn’t going to strike first, but he surely was gonna strike last.

Then as Burke began to move, the priestess shouted out a word, and suddenly the disgraced gladiator fell to the ground. His body writhing in pain so great that he couldn’t even manage to scream.

Kyle looked at the priestess who simply said, “Such is the bitterness of foiled desire. Enjoy your prize. I shall look forward to seeing more of you in the games.”

Not needing to stay and see what happened to Burke, Kyle started walking towards his cell with Nyda silently following. He descended the ladder before her and when she reached the bottom he said, “I want you to know that you don’t have to do anything. I would never force this upon you.”

She was clearly still scared but replied, “I have offered myself to you already. I owe my life to you. To my people, that means that my life is yours to do with as you wish. We don’t have slaves like the humans do, but we take life debts very seriously. Every moment that I live from this moment on, I owe you.”

“I was only fighting the birds, you don’t have to think about it like that,” Kyle replied.

“No. If you had fought a battle to save many and I was only saved as one of those, I wouldn’t owe you a life debt. But you went into danger on my behalf. You didn’t have to do that. You could easily have escaped without any harm to yourself. So now, my life is yours. I am a slave as are you, so it may be difficult, but in any way that I can, I will be yours. I even understand that you arranged for me to go to House Avarda with you, so you must have some desire for me,” Nyda said. Then she bit her lip nervously.

“I’m full of desire for you, but I also…” Kyle shook his head before continuing, “I guess I also want this to be perfect. I don’t want you because you feel indebted to me. I want you because you have come to like me and are attracted to me. I want more than a fling.”

“I don’t know how that can be. We are both slaves. Our lives are not our own, but know that as much as I can, I will give of my life to you,” Nyda said.

“No, you may not believe me, but I am no slave. I am here because I chose to be, and when I leave, I will take you with me. For now, perhaps we should take things slowly,” Kyle chuckled to himself, never having expected to hear those words come out of his mouth.

“I may not have much experience, but I know that men find me desirable.” Then she slipped the top of her slave gown off her shoulders and bared her breasts before him.

They were so perfect that Kyle ached to touch them, but he had made a decision, and this wasn’t the way that he wanted Nyda. He wanted it to be a true exchange between lovers not one of debt. Still, he pulled her to him and sat upon the narrow bed with her on his lap.

“You are so lovely, and I’ve wanted to do something since I first saw you,” Kyle said as he leaned in and pressed his lips to hers. Her back arched and he could feel both the desire and uncertainty in her. Her full rosy lips tasted sweet to him as he pushed his tongue into her mouth. A fumbling first kiss of passion followed. Her mouth tasted like raspberries. It was uncanny.

Over the next hour they made out like two high schoolers. It was clumsy but full of desire. A rushed urgency threatened to sweep through Kyle, but he pushed it back. He was enjoying this and didn’t want to push it. He gave himself one concession though. He couldn’t help but cup her breasts. He would guess that she was a very full C-cup, but with her petite frame they seemed even more pronounced.

When control threatened to slip away from him, Kyle pulled away and said, “Back when I won the pole contest, I got a bottle of any alcohol that I wanted. I asked Gilthan what elves like, and he told me moon berry wine. It took a while, but Saber finally got me a bottle of it, and I’ve been saving it to share with you.”

As he spoke, Kyle pulled her top back up. “Would you like to just sit and talk with me? I want to know more about you and, truthfully, I need to share more about myself.”

She blushed. “You are too kind to me. My life is still owed to you, but I would like to get to know you too. Tell me about where you come from.”

“I will, but what I tell you tonight must be a