Breaking the Gladiator by Nicola Rose

Author:Nicola Rose [Rose, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-19T16:00:00+00:00

26

Livia

I don’t know how long we lay there, staring upwards. After a while, or an age, I turn and burrow into his chest. His arm wraps protectively around my body, tucking me in tighter.

Letting out a sigh, I open my mouth to speak.

“Please don’t,” he whispers. “Don’t spoil it yet.”

So I stroke his stomach lazily and wait… as long as I can bear before my head starts going crazy with the insistence that we can’t lay there any longer.

“Aelia will tell Felix what really happened that night, in your cell,” I say.

He huffs a noisy breath and removes himself from my clutches, grabbing his leathers.

“The threat is too great. We need her gone—”

“Gone?!” he shouts. “Dead?”

“We’ll be the dead ones if we don’t deal with her.”

“You treat us with such contempt,” he slams his fist into the table. “She’s disposable to you, too? You can just have me fuck her and kill her, that simple?”

“There’s no other way. Not now, with Marcus sniffing around, too. Everything is slipping…”

“Are you really this cold?” he shakes his head incredulously.

“Aren’t you? You’ve killed a hundred people without remorse. What is the difference if I wish to kill one? You kill for survival, and perhaps, so shall I.”

“You know nothing of my remorse. And you know nothing of killing.”

“So teach me.”

That did it. His fist coiled near my face as he considered striking.

“Am I really nothing more than a plaything to you? I understand that I’m your toy in the arena, I’m trained to perform for you there. But this? I don’t understand this. Is it all a game?”

“You may devour my body, but you will not devour my heart,” I say quietly.

“And yet, here I am, Domina, offering you mine on a silver platter.”

“Is that what that was? Your heart?

He flinches as if I’ve struck him and I reach out to stroke his face, but he slaps my hand away.

“Every slave in this house knows what we do,” his voice drops. “Your secret is never safe. Disposing of one girl does not fix that. Will you kill them all?”

My mouth opens and closes, but no words come out.

“You don’t need to,” he sighs, shaking his head. “The fact is, they will not betray you, because they will not betray me. I’m their family. We stick together. But if you wish to be certain of the secret remaining then it’s a simple matter of treating them with respect. They live simple lives; all they ask for is a little kindness.”

I try to speak again, but he cuts me off. “Call him. Now.”

I don’t know how the roles have reversed so dramatically, but I want to beg him to stay. Until I see the coldness in his eyes and find myself recoiling from it.

“Guard,” I croak.

The guard enters and Cassian drops his gaze, back to my feet. Submissive and broken. I watch a little piece of my heart escape as he is led from my room.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.