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

More than that, her actions were devoid of killing intent. She was aglow with emotion, but it was all positive.

Since he didn’t stop her, she flung herself against him. Her diaphanous skirt and sheer top fluttered as she moved. He could see the ripple of the muscles that directed her wings, her taut tummy, and trembling arms. In an instant, those arms were wrapped around his neck and she was smothering him with kisses. First across his forehead, then her lips worked down his cheeks, pausing on his nose before he finally felt her impossibly warm lips settle on his.

He was so taken back, by her reaction, by feeling her, seeing her, but also by this entire place down to the armor he was wearing, and the way his body had changed, that he didn’t do anything. Hilde looked deeply into his eyes and then an expression of fear crossed her face as she jumped back from him. She prostrated herself on the throne room floor in front of him with her wings spread out widely and pressed low.

Her forehead was pressed to the carpet at the foot of the dais, and she began to speak rapidly in a low but fearful voice. “I’m sorry, m’lord. I forgot myself. I have been here so long, alone. Please forgive me, I beg of you. I won’t let it happen again.”

Kyle felt something odd towards her in the back of his mind. Something between anger and dismissiveness, but he quickly pushed that aside. “I certainly hope you are going to allow it to happen again, Hilde. I rather liked it. I swear, somehow, even with this armor on, I was able to feel your body through it. And I thought we had agreed you would call me Kyle.”

Hesitantly, Hilde looked up at him. She slowly rose to one knee and stared at him. She looked at him from head to toe, but Kyle could tell that she was looking with more than her eyes. Whatever heightened spiritual senses a celestial had were scanning him.

“Oh, by Dod’s broken scythe, it is you. There is so much more of Krig in you, but now I get it,” Hilde exclaimed.

It was delightful to hear her voice, not inside his head but bouncing around melodiously in his ears. It was all that he had imagined and more. And she was simply breathtaking. If he had thought that the elves of Verden were attractive, he hadn’t understood the word until he saw a celestial. She was perfection to his eyes, a perfect balance of deadly power and sultry beauty.

“It is me,” Kyle said, and then he made a pointed display of checking her out. “And that’s you.” It wasn’t difficult at all for Kyle to look very appreciative of what he saw kneeling before him.

Hilde stood up and shuffled back one step. “This is so weird for me. With that armor and with the power I can feel in you here, it is impossible for me to forget that you are the war god, not just some guy I’ve been flirting with. I apologize for taking liberties with you.”

“Stop it. We aren’t gonna do this. I don’t know what your relationship with Krig was like, but to me we are friends. You are an advisor, a coach, so to speak. I would be lost without you. And well to be blunt, I like you.

“Maybe it is just hearing your voice in my head, but you’ve had me keyed up for weeks to meet you. You are smart, funny, and oh so damn sexy. Krig or any other guy would have to be crazy to try to keep you at arm’s length,” Kyle declared.

Then a thought crossed his mind. He wasn’t really used to being uncertain when it came to women, but that was mostly because he didn’t ever feel too invested in any of them. Actually caring made him feel vulnerable. It wasn’t a feeling that he liked, but he also knew that his previous life path had left him lonely. If he had to push through this, he would.

“That is, unless it was just flirting for you. I get it. Don’t worry, I will help free you from here. Especially after coming here myself, I can see how desperate you might be to escape. You don’t have to trade your body in exchange, that isn’t the kind of guy I am,” Kyle said.

Hilde’s face went blank for a minute as though she were stunned. Then she smiled and let out a short laugh that smoldered like hot coals. “Oh, you are priceless. Being picked to serve Krig by my people was not a punishment, but it was one of those kinds of honors that no one actually wanted. For ninety-four years, I followed around as a glorified messenger.

“Now, not only do I get the first chance in history to help a god go through reincarnation, but I also find out that this god is changed in all the best ways. You are strong and determined; all the things that made Krig attractive. But you are also kind and the way you look at me, I feel like you are a drowning man, and I’m the world’s last glass of water. Trust me, every woman wants to be looked at like that by a man she desires, mortal, celestial, and I’d bet even goddess. Some things are a universal constant.”

Kyle got that cocky grin on his face that so many girlfriends had found both adorable and infuriating. “So, you’re saying that you want me.”

“Gods yes,” Hilde said in a low throaty voice.

Kyle would like to say that he had great finesse, but fumbling to strip off his armor would go down in his memory as the most awkward set up to intimacy ever. The only saving grace was that Hilde didn’t seem to mind. If anything, his obvious impatience was making her hotter, literally.

He could feel the air around them heating up as she stared at him