Page 30 of Gladiator's Captive
Wetness spread between my legs as fear bit into my flesh. I knew I should beg for forgiveness, should plea and cry to avoid the punishment he was sure to impose on me, but my pride was wounded and like every vicious little beast, it refused to back down, even if backed into a corner.
Then Rager made his move on me.
Chapter Fifteen
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Serena
A lifetime of watching men fight for their lives didn’t prepare me to face an opponent such as Rager. I saw his intention grab me in the way his eyes moved to the side and I darted in the opposite way, but he was fast. Much faster than anyone his size should ever be.
But I was fast, too and I was light as well. My smaller size gave me the advantage in the reduced space for just a moment and I managed to put the small dining table between us. I braced my palms on the wood, glaring at the large Muharib warrior with all my might. He was so much taller than I was, dwarfing me with his size, with his heavy muscles, so used to combat.
I was an ant. Defenseless and weak.
And it made me mad.
“You’ll not spank me like a child!” I shouted, my hands still braced on the small table, the injustice of what was about to happen nearly choking me. “Stay where you are!”
“I will give you the lesson you need,” Rager answered with a calm that chilled me to the bone. “I had warned you of what would happen if you disobeyed me. Now you will accept the consequences of your actions.”
Rager’s handsome face was pulled in tight lines, neither angered nor aroused but full of a control that made my stomach churn and a strange tingling spread between my legs. I knew it was insane, pure madness, but my body’s reactions were uncontrollable. Undeniable.
Only there was no place for these kinds of feelings, not when Rager intended to inflict on me a punishment as unjust as it was painful. The Muharib didn’t move, didn’t shout. The only indication of his heightened senses was the way the striping on his skin took a darker turn, dark brown against copper. His was the face of raw, male wrath, not savage and unbridled, but cold and calculated.
The face of control, of absolute dominion over me. But I was done being controlled. And I was not accepting Rager’s punishment, especially since it was so unfair. Yes, I had disobeyed him, but it was with the best of intentions. That had to count for something.
“You’re only making your punishment worse by not complying.” Rager’s voice was even, the only clear signs of his emotion the darkness of his stripes and his pupils, fine like thin lines in the middle of his surreal, feline green eyes. “If you stop now, I will count only ten blows. But I swear on the lands of my ancestors, little girl, if you don’t, I will keep punishing you until my arm tires of it. And I can assure you, you will come to regret it way before this night is over.”
Fear grabbed me into its embrace, but it only fanned the flames of my anger. Without thinking, I grabbed the first object I saw close to me, a plate still full of food from one of the guard’s last meals. The plate flew across the table, straight for Rager’s head. The Muharib ducked just in time, but he wasn’t unmolested by my attack. Jam and bread splattered across his chest and face, dripping along the curved lines of his feline features.
Still, his face bore no anger. Not a trace of emotion, only total and utter control.
“You’ve made your choice then.” Rager bit his words. “Don’t come crying I gave you no option.”
Then the time for talking was over.
