Gladiator by Kate Lynd Read Free Book Online

understood?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    He said nothing else and carried Alex inside. Her clothes were soaked in a cold sweat and she was barely breathing. He carried her upstairs in search of a shower. He knew exposure to unfiltered water was a major risk; nuclear waste was everywhere. Tainted water could make Alexandra miscarry their child. He pushed the thought from his mind. There was no shower—but there was a whirlpool bath. He undressed, and stripped Alexandra, and stepped cautiously into the water, cradling her in his arms. Tenderly, he cleansed the sweat from her body.
    “Come back to me Alexandra. I need you. Our child needs you.” He could feel his toughness, his hardness, his resolve dissolving there as he embraced her limp form. If she died there was no hope for him—perhaps not for anyone. He needed her like he had never needed any other.
    Her breath was labored and ragged. She leaned her head back and wearily took his hand and placed it on her breast. Her voice whispered, “ heal me” so softly he thought he might have imagined it.
    “I can’t. I’m not the Healer.”
    She shuddered, and went into spasm. Her eyes began to roll, and instinctively he did the only thing he felt he ought to do. He brought his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply, possessively, passionately, as if trying to quench his thirst and breathe life into her. She broke the kiss off and inhaled a full breath. She looked at him as if she wanted more, needed more, and he wrapped his legs around her waist, pushing selfishly inside of her without foreplay. She cried out and fastened her mouth to his as if her life depended on it. He pushed her up against the wall of the whirlpool and drove into her again. He plunged his tongue inside her mouth, tasting her as she tasted him.
    She grabbed his lower lip with her teeth and bit it. She arched her back and shouted, “Harder!”
    The muscles in his back tensed as he worked her body, burying his face in her breasts, licking them, suckling at them, fondling them as he pounded into her.
    She dug her fingernails into his skin and dragged them down his back, drawing blood. Her touch was orgasmic and intoxicating and he feared he might come too fast.
    “Ride me, Tristan, ruin me. Ravish me. Fuck me.” Her words were hard and erotic as she breathed them into his ear and she twined her fingers through his blond locks.
    He sank his teeth into her neck and she wrapped her legs around him and cried out his name. She gyrated and bucked against him wildly and with abandon. When he looked at her, her eyes were glowing embers of want and desire.
    He slowed his strokes and kissed her ravenously—a harsh and punishing kiss. She kissed back, and when he touched her breast her nipples hardened immediately. He moved his mouth down her neck. And she started chanting—only this time, he could understand the archaic language perfectly. It became the language that lovers spoke—and these words were only for him. She was offering her soul to him and the only way to accept it was to always protect her heart, and worship her body, and her body alone.
    And when she came this time, he thrust harder than he ever had, and when he came he knew that if they survived there would be more than one child because he would find it impossible to keep his hands off her.
    Their bodies slowed until they came to rest, his gaze on hers. “Don’t ever scare me like that again.”
    “There will come a day when I die.”
    “Enough!”
    “No, you have to hear me out. And if it is sooner rather than later, it will be up to you to care for the children.”
    “And if I die first?”
    “I’m afraid my fate is directly connected to yours. If you die first, I fear for the planet’s future.”
    He held her close and her abdomen lit up. He could see that two eggs were dividing now. She looked up and smiled.
    “A son and a daughter.”
    He touched her face. For a brief moment, he allowed himself to be happy. “I will protect you all.”
    She