Given to the Gladiator Read online

  I’m shaking my head and cursing under my breath as he shoves one girl after another into my cell. They’re all standing there, cowering before me and trying not to look at the monster in front of them.

  I know what I must look like to them. I’m the opposite of the pretty-faced boys they chased around their villages before the slavers came and slaughtered their families and stole them away.

  I’m rough-looking. Scarred all over my coarse skin. More horrid than handsome.

  I wrap my big powerful hands around a carrot and snap it in two as I avoid the girls’ terrified eyes. I hate seeing the way they look at me. Like I’m some wild nasty beast that’s going to devour them whole.

  Why does Septimus do this to me? I know what each one is thinking. They’re all praying to their gods to spare them.

  “I’ll leave you to enjoy your spoils of victory,” Septimus says as he heads for the door.

  One of the girls lets out a pathetic whimper and I snap my eyes onto her. She has a pretty face, but is fighting back tears. Two more are crying, a third just about to.

  They look as terrified as the men who face me in the arena. I know that look well. Fear. Terror. Panic. I was cursed by the gods with this face. With this grotesque body. Everyone I see is afraid of me. Everyone I look at drops their eyes, praying to their gods that I’ll spare them.

  I hate it.

  Why does Septimus torture me like this? I’ll kill whoever he puts in front of me and in exchange, all I ask for is to be left alone. He can’t even give me that.

  “Take them with you,” I grunt as I drop my eyes back to the food. I crack open some walnuts with my bare hands and shove them into my mouth as the girls take a breath of relief.

  “They’re all virgins,” he says with a grin. “Purchased specifically for you to deflower.”

  My eyes bore into him. He takes an involuntary step back and strokes the sword at his side. He knows that his sword will do nothing if I choose to strike, just like the men who cage tigers know who’s really in charge.

  Septimus was born the son of a rich merchant here in Rome. He dresses flashy in golden robes and precious gems that come from the far reaches of the world. His riches are paid from the misery of others. A slaver by trade, he is the only person who has ever treated me nicely, which is saying a lot since he keeps me locked up in this cage.

  “I’m not going to ask you again,” I warn. “Take them out.”

  If I see one more young innocent pair of eyes filled with terror, then I’m going to run a sword through my own heart. I can’t take it anymore.

  “Out! Out!” Septimus snaps as he starts grabbing the girls and tossing them back into the hall.

  My eyes wander to the girl on the end and my heart seizes in my chest when I see the innocence radiating off her.

  Hunger like I’ve never felt before penetrates every cell in my body. I’ve never desired anything more in my life.

  No, not desired. Needed. If I don’t have this girl, I’m going to light the empire on fire. I’ll thrust my sword into every last living thing. I’ll kill anything that tries to keep me away from her.

  My body stands on its own, everything about her pulling me closer, drawing me in.

  She doesn’t cower like the other girls. This one is staring right back at me, watching me with a curious gaze. Her blonde hair is a mess. Her fancy dress all dirty and shredded at the bottom. She has dark circles under her green eyes, but there’s a fire in them, a fire that even slavery can’t extinguish.

  “I said out!” Septimus snaps as he grabs her arm.

  She whimpers as he pulls her away from me.

  “Let her go,” I growl in a voice that’s so primal I don’t even recognize it.

  Septimus releases her at once and rushes out of the cell when he sees the fierce look in my eyes. He slams the door closed and locks it before I can make him pay for touching my girl.

  “I’m glad we finally found one that you like, Kaeso,” he says with a nervous smile. “Enjoy her innocence.”

  He quickly leaves. The desire to knock down this iron cage and crush his throat for talking about her in that lewd way is strong, but not as strong as the pull to stay near her.

  I feel it invading every part of me, transforming me, molding me into something new. Into a man whose obsession with this girl stands above all else.

  “Don’t be scared,” I whisper as I slowly walk up to her. She barely comes to my chest. She’s so tiny. She’s so perfect.

  “I’m not scared,” she says as she gazes up into my eyes, tilting her head back to see me.

  Those eyes… they stare past my harsh rugged exterior and seem to be seeing into my soul. Gripping it, seizing it, claiming it as her own.

  It’s already hers. I’m already hers.

  I can’t stop looking at her. She’s the finest thing I’ve ever seen.

  Flawless skin that looks as soft as the most delicate silk, lips as sweet as a ripe juicy peach, hair that brings goosebumps on the skin of any man lucky enough to touch it.

  My hands are shaking at my sides as I look down at her. She doesn’t belong here in this cell. She belongs in Olympus with the goddesses. By the side of Venus.

  And that’s when it hits me…

  It must be her.

  “Venus?” I ask in a deep shaky voice.

  Those green eyes scrunch up in confusion. “No.” Her tiny voice makes my heart thump like the hooves of a legion of horses charging into war.

  “You’re a goddess?” I ask. I reach for her and then drop my trembling hands. She’s too perfect to be touched by a wretched beast like me.

  “I’m not. I’m a slave. Like you.”

  The awe that’s taken over my body is quickly being replaced by a vicious fury that I don’t know if I can control. A slave? The thought of other men with their filthy hands on her pure skin is making me enraged. Heat sears through me as I grit my teeth, wanting to hunt them all down and make them pay in the most violent way possible. This girl is mine alone to touch. Mine alone to defile.

  “You’re not a slave anymore,” I say, vowing it to her, to myself, to the gods in Olympus. “You belong to me.”

  “I’m your slave now?” She doesn’t cower like the other women who have been thrown at my feet. Her chin stands proudly, her bright green eyes defiant as she stares up at me.

  “No,” I say as I gently reach for her hair. Her eyes never leave mine as I let the silky blonde strands fall through my fingers. “But you belong to me. No other man will touch you or look upon your virginal body in a lecherous way again, or I swear that I, Kaeso Vinicius, will pluck their eyes from their skulls and snatch the soul from their bodies. I will burn Rome to the ground before I let another man touch what’s mine.”

  The wet damp air charges with a dry heat as her eyes roam down my giant arms. They’re covered in scars from long ago forgotten battles and gashes from long-dead opponents stupid enough to stand against me. I’ve always stood several heads over my fellow men. Even as a child.

  The slavers always got good use of my strength. I pulled the carts in the fields for hours, outlasting even the oxen. I crushed rock in the depths of the dark mines where the air was so thick it was unbreathable and the heat was so scorching it made men weep. And I’ve slain countless warriors and unworldly beasts, staining the sand of the Colosseum red. I’ve done all this for my masters, but what I will not do, what I refuse to do, is give this goddess back. They’ll have to send an entire legion of Spartan soldiers to try and get her back from my possessive hands.

  “I do not doubt that you can burn the entire world to the ground if you so wish,” she says as she takes my big hand in hers. “With hands like this, Jupiter himself would tremble at your feet.”

  My heart is pounding like the drums of war as she runs her fingertips over my monstrous knuckles. Her tiny slender hand looks like a child’s next to mine.

  “Are you a gladiator?”

  “I am.” My voice is so deep and rough compared to hers.
Mine is like the grunting of a savage giant, hers like the sweet song of Calliope or one of the other nine muses. It brings a shiver to my thick skin and a tremble to my body as I watch the words form on her entrancing pink lips.

  “I’ve heard about the famous gladiators of Rome. Where the most ruthless warriors in the world battle for dominance and fame.”

  “You’re looking at the most dominant gladiator of all time.”

  She swallows hard as she studies my brute face, scars and all.

  “You’ve killed people?”

  “Yes. Many.”

  “But you won’t kill me?”

  My jaw clenches as I look at the purity flowing off her in waves. How could anyone want to steal this beauty from the world?

  I want her eyes to be alight at everything she sees, her smile wide and parted, revealing those brilliant white teeth. The thought of her eyes closed, her skin cold, makes me shiver with a horror that I never knew existed.

  “I’m your guardian now,” I say, dropping to my thick knee. Even this low, my head still towers over hers. “I swear it, my Venus. I will protect you.”

  She swallows hard as she reaches up and drags the back of her hand along my stubbled cheek. Her eyes are locked on mine and I can tell she’s studying me, trying to see if this is all a trick before I ravage her.

  “But why?” she asks with confusion in her green eyes. “I’m no Venus. I’m but a slave. A wretched ungrateful child, I’ve been told.”

  “Who told you that?” I hiss through gritted teeth. I’d like to get my hands on anyone who would call my beauty such a thing.

  “People from my past,” she says. “People who will stay there. I am no Venus.”

  “But you are,” I say, desperate to make her see. “The goddess would kill herself on the spot if she saw your decadent beauty. You are my Venus. My goddess to worship now. What is your name?”

  “Elovissa,” she says. My cock begins to harden when I see the flicker of her wet pink tongue behind those sparkling white teeth.

  “Come, Elovissa,” I say as I stand back up. “You look tired. I know that being a slave isn’t easy, but I promise you, those days are over.”

  She looks skeptical as her eyes dart around my unimpressive cell. The buckets of water in the corner, the bed made of straw, the iron cage locking us in.

  “I am exhausted,” she whispers as she looks up at me. It’s then that I see the tiredness in her eyes, the weariness in her bones. I wonder when the last time she got a good night’s sleep was.

  “Then sleep,” I say as I take her hand and guide her to my bed. “Sleep like you’re safe, because you finally are.”

  She sighs as she lies down on the thin blankets that aren’t good enough for her. I vow to surround her with the finest silks and materials in Rome. One day, I will provide her with all the luxury she deserves.

  The protective beast in me watches as she curls up into a ball, pulling her knees into her chest. A deep moan rumbles out of my throat when I see the curve of her bottom under her dirty dress. What temptations lie under there…

  I steel myself and try to ignore the throbbing of my hard cock—an impossible task. My Venus needs sleep. I want to give her whatever she desires, whatever her body needs, but right now, she needs the type of release that only a worry-less rest can bring.

  I plan to stand here all night, watching every second of her slumber, but she turns to me with half-closed eyes.

  “Can you lie with me?” she whispers.

  “I will do whatever pleases, my Venus,” I say as I climb onto the mattress, shifting it and raising her up with the tremendous weight of my body.

  “I just need someone to hold me,” she says as she turns back toward the wall. “Can you hold me?”

  “I’m already holding you in my heart,” I whisper as I wrap a big arm around her. “I can hold your body too.”

  She grips my wrist with her tiny hands and pulls my arm against her like she’s never going to let me go. I pray to the gods that she doesn’t.

  It’s not long before her body relaxes and her breathing deepens. She’s fallen fast asleep, safe in my arms where she belongs.

  I spend the next wondrous hours breathing in the intoxicating smell of her hair, feeling the fleshy abundance of her breasts against my arm, and wondering what I have done to please the gods such that they would provide me with this virginal sacrifice.

  My cock rages, but I keep it at bay, not wanting to defile this virginal beauty just yet. There will be plenty of time for that. But right now, I just want to hold her like she asked of me.

  When she turns on her back hours later and I’m treated to the calm beauty of her ethereal face, I know I’m in love. I watch the delicate curve of her cheeks, the supernal hue of her lips, the serenity of her closed eyes until the morning sun creeps in through the one window down the hall.

  And for the first time in my life, I have something to lose.

  Chapter Three

  Elovissa

  “How long have you been watching me?” I ask when I open my eyes in the morning and see Kaeso’s warm protective gaze washing down on me.

  “Not long,” he whispers.

  “All night?” I’m kidding, but the stiffness in his jaw gives him away. He’s looking at me like I’ve always dreamed a man would look at me. With love. With adoration. Not with a creepiness that sneaks under my skin like the stare of Manius.

  “I could watch you until the end of time,” he whispers as he gently pulls back a hair from my face with his thick fingers.

  This man is the most powerful being I’ve ever seen, yet he is as gentle with me as a mother with her newborn infant. It warms my heart to witness such a rough, brutish man be so tender and delicate. It is so different from what I’ve been witnessing since I was taken from the forest.

  For the first time since I left home, I’ve met a man with a good heart and a tender touch. He doesn’t have to be this way. I’m a slave. He can do whatever he wants to me. He can be as rough and barbaric as he desires. It’s his right.

  But he chooses to love and worship me instead.

  Unfortunately, there aren’t many men like him in this cruel world.

  I shift in the bed and feel a long hard rod pressing against my thigh. At first, I think it must be a weapon he has hanging from his belt, but he groans when I push into it and I realize it’s his towering manhood.

  Of course, a man of his incredible size would have an equally large member, but by the foot of Vesta, that is large. And thick.

  It sends a warmth billowing from my core that travels straight to my womanhood, making it wet with need.

  I don’t even know how a monstrous member like that would fit into a small body like mine, but something deep and dark inside of me wants to discover how it can.

  “Where do you come from, my Venus?” he whispers in a deep gruff voice that’s oozing with adoration. “Did the gods send you here for me?”

  I shake my head and tell him about the wedding, the escape, the abduction. I haven’t talked openly with anyone since it happened but it comes pouring out now. For some reason, I feel safe here in Kaeso’s powerful arms. I haven’t felt this safe and protected since the day my mother told me I was to be betrothed, willing or not, to Marius.

  “We walked for weeks.” A horrible shiver racks my tired bones just from thinking about the hot unrelenting sun, the ruthless blisters, the terrifying crack of the whip and the blinding pain that followed. “About two hundred of us. Men, women, children. I think they were stolen from a village outside the borders of the Empire. Probably Germania from the sound of their tongue. I didn’t understand any of them.”

  His large hand squeezes into a fist as the anger rolls off him like an unstoppable tide. I feel a tremble of fear even though I don’t believe this man would ever hurt me. But there’s still an uneasiness to being around such a primitive fury such as his. “Did they hurt you?”

  I nod as tears come to my eyes. Through all the pain, all the tortur
e, all the terror, I never cried. I held my head high and stared my tormentors in their ruthless eyes, not wanting to give them the satisfaction of seeing me break. But now, safe with Kaeso, I can’t seem to hold the tears back.

  “Did they… touch you?” The rabid growl in his voice would send any sane woman fleeing, but it makes me inch a little closer to him. “Like a husband is supposed to touch his wife?”

  I shake my head as a flush creeps into my cheeks. “No,” I whisper and the tightness in his body releases like I turned a valve and let the pressure out. “A woman checked to make sure…”

  I’m hoping he’s going to put the pieces together so I don’t have to say it, but he just stares at me with those big kind brown eyes.

  “…that my maidenhead was intact.”

  “And was it?”

  The intense curiosity in his eyes makes me snort out a laugh.

  “That’s private,” I say as I run my hand down his arm that feels like stone under his warm skin. I feel bad when that burning curiosity only increases. “Yes. I’ve been a good girl.”

  That rough look lightens as he smiles in relief. I can’t help but smile too as I study every inch of his warm comforting face. It’s covered in scars from long-forgotten battles.

  He closes his eyes and sighs contently as I run my fingers over each scar. “You’ve been through so much,” I whisper as I trace the long scar that starts on his forehead and runs along to the top of his stubbled cheek. “Your tragic story is written on your skin. Did they hurt?”

  “Yes, but I can handle it. I’ve always been able to handle pain.” He sucks in a breath as he cups my cheek and runs his thumb over my lips. “But there is a pain I fear. The pain of being separated from you. Even a beast like me cannot handle such misery as that.”

  I grip his wrist and kiss his thumb when he runs it over my lips again. “Then let’s stay together.”

  “I had decided that the second I saw you,” he says as he shifts closer to me, that huge rod pressing up against me once again. The speed of my breath increases, the intensity of my heart amplifies. I like being in this bed with this man.