Page 30 of Rise of a Fallen Man

Everything inside me reached out to her. My arms ached to hold her. Setting the empty bottles down by the wall, I walked toward her. But she wasn’t mine to hold. The only right thing to do would be to turn around and leave.

Turned with her back to me, she stood on her knees on the window seat cushion, her forehead pressed to the glass. Dressed in a formal gown with a voluminous skirt and a high collar, the tall crown gracing her swept up hair, Ari looked every bit the princess. Only I’d long learned to look beyond wealth and status.

I saw her shoulders rising and falling with her rapid, shallow breathing. I noticed her hands splayed on the window. Her fingers shifted subtly on the glass, as if searching for purchase to anchor her while she was being swept into her sorrow.

I knew her well enough to see that she was hurting, and I couldn’t stand watching her in pain, especially since I knew exactly how to comfort her.

I walked closer until there was almost no distance left between us, until I could smell her perfume and feel the warmth of her body. The unconquerable need to touch her blinded all my senses, including common sense. I splayed a hand on the side of her waist.

“Ari...” Her name left my lips like a sigh of longing.

Sparks of thrill rushed up my arm from the place where my hand lay on her body. I might’ve given Ari her first time, but she had given me so many firsts too.

Before her, women had been my work, my torment, or my survival. None of them had ever been the source of the elation I felt with her. She made my heart soar.

She could pull away, tell me off, or even slap me. With our arrangement now complete, I lost every right to touch her. But with a shuddering breath, she leaned into my chest, and I let go of common sense completely. With both arms wrapped around her waist, I hugged her to me from behind.

She relaxed against me with a deep sigh of relief, as if she’d just been waiting for my hug to release her from whatever had been bothering her.

Leaning to her neck, I breathed her in, searching for the scent of her skin beneath her expensive perfume. She moaned softly, gripping my hands. It felt so right to hold her, as if she belonged right here, in my arms.

All thoughts deserted me as I let my feelings guide me. I kissed her skin, tasting it on my tongue, but the more she let me have of her, the more I needed.

Trailing my kisses along her shoulder, I tagged down the starched lace of her collar to free more of her skin for me to kiss. She tilted her head, granting me better access. It thrilled me how pliable she was in my hands, how her body seemed to melt into my touch. Blood rushed both to my head and my groin.

I yanked at the lacing on the back of her gown, loosening it in a desperate need to feel her body.

“Salas...” She turned around to face me, and my heart all but broke.

Unshed tears glistened in her hazel-green eyes.

I took her face between my hands. “Ari, sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“Are you happy here?” she asked, touching the gladiator’s ring on my finger. “Did you ever want to be a gladiator?” Sheexhaled a bitter laugh. “I’m sorry. I know I should’ve asked this question much earlier.”

I kept my hands on her. There wasn’t a power in the world that would pry me away from her now. But I forced my mind to think about her question.

Happiness was a fairy tale, a myth that people chased just to have some purpose in life. But I didn’t hate the arena. Most of my life, I’d seen hatred and scorn from people. Hearing cheers instead of taunts proved uplifting and invigorating, almost intoxicating at times.

“I’m glad to be here,” I admitted.

“But, you got hurt...” With a shuddered breath, she touched my left arm just below the bandage. “I messed up. Again. I meddled in your life, and now—”

“Shh. Hush, Princess.” I stroked her cheeks with my thumbs, stopping her self-loathing. “You simply gave me more options than I’d ever had before. Ultimately, the choice was mine.”

Unlike with many others, with Ari, I always had a choice. She might’ve opened the door to the arena for me, but I’d entered through it on my own.

I smiled. “I always knew it was you, my true benefactor.”

“And look where it got you.” She shook her head, inconsolable. “Are you in pain? How bad is it?” She hovered her fingers over the bandage on my arm.

I shrugged. “It’s just a scratch.”

Three scratches, to be exact. The one in the middle was so deep, the bear’s claw scraped against the bone in my arm. There was also another bandage on my back where the lion had clawed through the bearskin and tore my flesh. The third bandage covered my hip under the rugs of the loincloth that Naeco had put on me.

Of course, Ari didn’t need to know about them all. The gladiators’ healing witch proved to be a true master of her craft.The numbing potions and the healing ointments she’d used made the wounds feel like mere scratches now.

The concern on Ari’s face didn’t ease, however.

---