Michelle Styles - The Gladiator's Honor

Julia's eyes drank in Valens's features. The concern on his brow. She looked at his huge arm muscles and thought of how they wielded a sword and yet had gently held her last night. She released a long breath and gave into her desire to rest her head. His arms came around and held her tight. The wool of his tunic felt rough against her cheek. The thump of his heart echoed hers. She allowed her hurt and anger to drain away. Nothing much mattered except Valens had taken her in his arms. He wanted to help her.

'It is such a new thing to have anyone care enough about me to want to help,' she said, trying to explain the turmoil inside her. She looked into his eyes, trying to assess his mood, trying to discover why he was there. 'Thank you.'

She lifted her hand to his cheek. He turned his head slightly and his lips brushed her palm.

'I want to make sure you are safe, that no harm comes to you.' The rich timbre of his voice held her and caressed her senses. 'I am a guest in your house.'

Her heart dropped a bit. Was it only because his obligations as a guest? She'd worry about it later. Right now, all she knew was that she wanted the feel of his lips against hers. She needed to feel that what they had shared last night had not been destroyed by Lucius. She had worried that the disgust she had seen earlier in Valens's eyes was for her.

'I can look after myself,' she whispered and her hand touched his hair. She ran her fingers through the silky strands, burying them deep, and pulled his face nearer to hers. 'I survived three and a half years of marriage to Lucius.'

'You are married no longer.' His voice rasped in her ear. 'Sometimes you need help.'

He pushed the material off her shoulder and traced the faint scars of Lucius's beatings with a finger. Where they had once ached with pain, they now ached with another sensation, a burning that made her body press closer towards him.

As her body arched, she encountered the hard unyieldingness of his chest. A tremor ran from the pit of her stomach to the ends of her fingers as her body remembered the passion they had shared yesterday. As if he could read her mind, he bent his head and softly touched her mouth with his—a butterfly kiss. She opened her mouth and allowed him to explore, his tongue entering to tease and torment.

She felt her nipples harden as they strained against their bindings. Hot and swollen. His lips started to trail down her neck. She tried to drag her mind away from the vortex of sensation that promised to engulf her. She brought her hands up to his chest to hold him off. She had to be sensible. She had to think of more than the immediate warmth in her belly. 'My father will be expecting me.'

Valens's lips curved upwards. 'Gone out. He and Sabina have a dinner engagement. We decided it might be a bit much for you. He will speak to you in the morning. The servants will be in the kitchen should you call for your tray.'

Julia nodded, hated the thought of another deciding how her life should be ordered, but she refused to quarrel with the result. 'You decided?'

In answer, his hands cupped her breasts while his thumbs made small circles over her nipples until they tightened to small points of exquisite sensation. Her spine arched and he eased her backwards until her head encountered the soft yielding of the bed.

'I rather thought this would be easier for you.' His eyes were dark with passion. 'Julia, I want to be with you. I want to chisel away all traces of that man in your mind.'

He undid the discs holding her gown and pushed the material down to her waist. His fingers moved aside the strips of cloths to release her breasts. As each nipple was freed, his lips captured its peak, suckling. His tongue drew small circles, teasing the nipple to a tighter and tighter point, sending wave after wave of sensation through her body, making her writhe and wriggle as each new wave hit. 'Valens…'

Valens raised himself on his elbows. His darkened eyes met hers. Her body shivered in response to the depths of promise she saw there. He smoothed a tendril of hair away from her forehead. 'I'm seducing you, showing you what it should be like between a man and a woman, so you know and understand what pleasure truly is.'

This time the word pleasure evoked anticipation rather than fear. Her body trembled as she remembered the sensations of the evening before. 'I believe that could be arranged. There is a soft bed here, and, as you say…no one will disturb us.'

'We are of one mind,' Valens said as relief swept through him. Until he heard the invitation in her voice, he had been unaware how much it meant to him that her passion equal his. He wanted to lock away her memories of Lucius as surely as he had locked his own memories away. He wanted her to realise it was the present that mattered, not the chains of the past.

He ran a hand down her bare arm, drawing lines on her flesh, lines that his tongue followed. Her hands captured his face and brought his lips back to hers.

A surge of excitement ran through him as her tongue boldly entered his mouth. She wanted his touch.

Valens kept his own passion in check. Despite his body's urging, he wanted to go slowly and bring her to the heights of ecstasy before he indulged in his fulfillment.

He gave a wholly male laugh before his mouth slid down her body, following the path of his fingers. Her hands gripped his shoulders and plucked at the hem of his tunic.

'Please let me see you,' she whispered. 'I must see you.'

His mouth paused in its search. He lifted his head from her belly.

'As my lady requests…' With one movement, he divested himself of clothes, his body and his desire displayed for her. 'You see what you do to me.'

She ran a trembling hand down his chest and stomach until she reached his soft hardness. He groaned in the back of his throat as the need to possess her threatened to overwhelm him. He'd sworn that he'd hold back, that their coupling would mean as much to her as to him. But she only had to touch him and his seed was threatening to spill.

'Julia, you will unman me,' he rasped as her fingers curled round and the heat of him infused her fingers. 'Shall I show you what you are doing to me?'

'The same as you are doing to me.'

She wanted him. Her body was made new for him. He felt more powerful than he had ever felt in the ring and more vulnerable as well. This woman was doing things to his insides that he had never dreamed possible. Valens stroked both his hands down the length of her body and then up again until they reached the apex of her thighs. His fingers hovered, tantalisingly close, but not touching her curls. Her body bucked upwards. She gasped as they touched, tangled and tormented, sliding between her thighs and out again, softly stroking her until he could see her start to reach the crest of her desire.

Julia's hands plucked at his shoulders, pulling him upwards, but his fingers continued to stroke and circle until her head thrashed about and pleading noises came from her throat. Then and only then did he permit his shaft to bury itself deep within her. Her body stretched, and welcomed his full length.

Valens raised himself up on his elbows and looked at her passion-darkened eyes. Then she started to move her hips and he allowed his passion full rein.

In the aftermath, Julia lay with one leg over his hip, with Valens still buried deep within her. Each breath she took matched his. His tenderness and consideration filled her with a warm glow. It was hard to believe that the man lying next to her was a hardened gladiator who fought for his life in the arena. He had never pushed her or hurt her. As he had promised, there had been only pleasure.

The coming together had been no less passionate than before. Yesterday had been fast and furious, but today they had taken their time. She felt cherished in his arms.