A Warrior's Redemption
*****
I managed to keep ducking most of the objects being thrown at me as I tried to work my way through the litter of fallen projectiles to Krista. A knife whizzed past my nose by mere inches. That was it! I lunged for her.
A potted plant smashed off my shoulder en route. In my angered rush I didn’t even consider the pain of its impact. I ducked around a roundhouse punch aimed at my head and stepped behind her wrapping an arm around to restrain her arms. She struggled violently in my hold and sank her teeth into my forearm. I jerked my arm away and in the process spun her around. I quickly grabbed and yanked both her arms behind her back and held them in one hand, tightly secure.
She seemed even more incensed at her new found captivity and lunged for my throat with her bared pearly white teeth. My right hand shot out and buried itself in the fiery tangle of the curls of her hair. I stopped her head’s advance towards my throat as my grip on her hair tightened. She gave a frustrated grunt when her head was brought up short from its intended target.
I found myself mesmerized by the ferocity of her defiance, which is why I didn’t see the knee headed for my groin. Thankfully, her knee was slightly off target, but it was still painful none the less. I grunted painfully and almost lost control of her hands, which would have probably been fatal for me. I gritted my teeth and pulled her close with my left arm until her stomach was pressed tight to me and she had no room to squirm, much less, knee me in the groin again.
I held her head back with my right hand in her hair. The heel of her foot came smashing down on my foot and I tightened my grip on her hair and arms, which caused her to gasp painfully and stop most of her struggling.
“That is enough! I don’t want to hurt you, but so help me, if you bite or hit me again, I will put you over my knee and spank the living daylights out of you!
The threat worked because she abruptly stopped struggling. I hadn’t really been going to do that, but she didn’t need to know that. We were both breathing hard from the struggle and I grappled with what to do. Did I release her? I might not have a face left or have the ability to father children if I did!
Curls of her hair had broken free from their elaborate containment on top of her head and draped over the sides of her face getting in her eyes. One of the stray curls lay down alongside her nose, and she tossed her head as much as she could in order to move it away. She was so breathtakingly beautiful!
I released my tight grip of her hair and combed the offending strays over to the side of her face. I lost myself in the stormy depths of her sea blue eyes. The radiating lines of her facial scars stood out in sharp white relief against the flushed red of her face, as she stared back at me.
Her lips were full from the passion and struggle of the moment and my head was descending towards them without any conscious thought of my own. Her expressive eyes flashed concern but she didn’t move away.
I had always wondered why people kissed and now I knew why. I wanted to do it again and again. The feel of her soft lips against mine was amazingly intoxicating. The feel of her soft body pressed up against mine was even more intoxicating. I could do this forever.
That thought died though when I opened my eyes. Tears were leaking out the sides of her eyes and down her cheeks. I took my face away from hers and she quickly looked down at my chest. She had the look of one who had suffered a bitter defeat and was now helpless against what came next, which wasn’t what I wanted to see from her at all!
I remembered the feeling I saw expressed in her body language well enough. The feeling of having no control over one’s own fate was the lot of a slave. Bile rose in my throat as I writhed inwardly in self disgust.
One of the reasons I had fought so hard in the arena was so that I might never have the look that she now had. This beautiful woman must think I was no better than the men who frequented the whore houses that I had by my own actions saved her from as a girl.
I let go of her wrists and stepped back abruptly. She looked up at me, surprised and wary of my next move all at the same time. I let my hands fall to my sides and I moved further back.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to lose control like that! I’m sorry if I hurt you!”
Shocked, she stared at me while rubbing her wrists. I gestured towards a sofa, “Will you have a seat please?”
Krista looked at the sofa and then at me, not sure what to think of the change in my demeanor towards her. She moved over to the sofa, never turning her back on me, and sat in a corner of it, drawing her knees up under her protectively. I pulled a chair out across from her and sat down. Sweat was beaded all over my face and I searched for something to say in the awkward silence of the room as she watched me closely.
“Do you need anything? Are you hungry?”
Somewhat hoarsely she said softly, “I am a little hungry. I don’t eat much during the day leading up to these events. The clothes are tight enough without having a full belly too.”
My eyes drifted down and I saw what she meant. Huskily I asked, my eyes still clinging to the well defined womanly curves, “Why does Sebastian have you dress so provocatively? He doesn’t strike me as the kind of man to show off something he values to others? I know he values you very highly.”
She paused hesitantly and then looked up at me somewhat shyly, “Sebastian and I…..we don’t…..we aren’t intimate together. I’m for show, to make others think of Sebastian as a vigorous man for lack of a better way of putting it.”
She looked embarrassed before she continued, “I help Sebastian in his work. Men will often let information slip that they wouldn’t otherwise around a……around a.”
“Beautiful woman,” I finished for her.
She blushed a little and nodded her head. She didn’t know how much it meant to me to have her tell me what the extent of her relationship with Sebastian was. I had felt a big sigh of relief inside of me at the divulging of that information.
“Don’t tell anyone please. I only told you because I know that you’re of Sebastian’s family and that you know of the work that he does.”
“Your secret is safe with me.”
I heard her sigh of relief. “Krista, nothing is going to happen tonight that you don’t want to happen. If you would like to, you could change out of those clothes into something more comfortable while I get us some food.”
I could tell that the idea of taking her clothes off wasn’t something she wanted to do with me around. “It’s okay, you can trust me. If you changed it might relax the atmosphere in here some. I’m admittedly male and, well, everything about that outfit screams that you’re female with a message of come and get me.”
“Ohh!” She got up quickly and I got up too.
“I’ll change while you’re gone,” she said quickly.
Nodding awkwardly in response I headed for the door but her voice stopped me.
“Could you help me with something before you go?”
I turned back to find Krista’s back turned to me and her hair pulled out of the way, exposing a row of tiny buttons in the middle of her back. “Could you undo these please?” she asked softly.
I swallowed hard and walked up behind her looking at the tiny buttons. My big fingers fumbled trying to unhook the impossibly tiny buttons and eventually they all came undone and the fabric pulled apart revealing the skin of her back, along with the faint white scars she bore, as evidence of time spent in the firan cane fields. Her back may be scarred, but it looked soft too.
“There you go,” I said thickly. I stepped back towards the door, trying to blindly find the handle with my hands, as I continued to gaze at the soft skin I had exposed.
She looked over one shoulder at me and softly said, “Thank you.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to frame words.
My hands found the handle and I quickly stepped outside the room and closed the door, resting my head against it for a moment to collect my rampaging thoughts before I headed for the kitchen to steal
some food for us.