Page 42 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

At some point, Tori looked at me, licking her lips and opening her mouth, but then she ducked away again.

It was clear she wanted to say something but was too shy to say it outright.

After she’d done a run-up for the third time, I took pity on her.

“Come on, I won’t bite your head off. Just say what you want to say, girl. ”

She gave me a wide-eyed look but then squared her shoulders. “It’s, uh… I noticed last night that that big scaly guy was giving you a lot of attention. Aren’t you scared? I mean, I get that you had to share his cell and spend time with him, but now we’re free, right? Why is he still bothering you?”

I stared at her. Wow, poor girl had probably been worrying about this all night.

Did she really think I was scared of Ziame?

That the gentle giant would ever force himself on someone?

I felt a little fired up just thinking about that and was about to angrily jump to his defense when I saw how Tori was biting her lip so hard the poor thing had gone completely white.

Grabbing her hand and feeling oddly motherly when I did so, I started out in the gentlest tone I could muster. “Listen to me, Tori. One”—I held up a finger—“never feel like you can’t speak your mind. If you are worried, you can always ask, and I’ll try to keep an open mind.”

As she nodded, I was relieved to see her letting go of her abused lip and taking a deep breath.

I held up a second finger. “Two, we all voted Ziame Captain, including you. Did you just vote with the rest because you felt you had no choice, or did some part of you trust him to make the right decisions?”

She closed her brown eyes, her face going pale again before she shrugged.

“I didn’t know if anyone else would make a better captain.

They all look so scary to me.” I felt a little impatient then.

Hadn’t these men fought for us? Had any of them laid a hand on her?

No, they had not. The only bad apple had been Geramor, and I’d taken care of that bastard.

But I forced myself to look at it from her perspective: painfully shy Tori with her angelic voice.

She was thrust into this world just like I had been, but she was barely twenty and pregnant to boot.

All these aliens looked terrifying, and while I had been an active participant in this escape, she’d just been along for the ride.

Through Ziame, I had an easy in with the males, I’d exchanged words with all of them. Tori barely even spoke to me.

“Okay, I get that,” I said. “But listen to me. These males were slaves, captives just like we were, and they were held for years —some even decades. They are not the bad guys, and they have done all they could to keep us safe and out of harm’s way.

If any of them make you feel uncomfortable, it might very well be because they didn’t realize they were.

Come to me and tell me about it, okay? I’ll sort it out. ”

She nodded with relief, and together we worked to plate the last of the fake green bacon and get everything situated on the table. When we returned to the kitchen to clean up our mess, she worked up the courage to come back to her original point. “But what about you and the big, scary green guy?”

It was clear from her question that she didn’t even know his name, and that everything about Ziame intimidated her.

And what about him, really? I told him I wanted to try dating when we were both free, and I stood by that decision.

A part of me did struggle with how completely alien he was, even compared to some of the other gladiators.

Then, I shrugged at her. “Any of Ziame’s advances are welcome, and I trust him.

If I say no, he’d back off immediately.” Seeing the doubtful look on her face, I explained, “I woke up from stasis four nights ago and was thrown into his cell for the sole purpose of getting pregnant. The Krektar thought he was just a beast and that he’d fuck me if he had the chance. Guess what he did?”

Tori stared at me with wide, shocked eyes, and I couldn’t help but compare her to a little fawn.

“He made sure he stayed well away from me on the other side of the cell, and when I fell asleep, he sat next to the bed just to keep me warm. He never touched me, and even when they activated his pain collar, he made sure I was safe. We spent a lot of time in that cell talking. Did you know his species is matriarchal? He’s used to deferring to the ladies—Sunder too.

If you firmly tell them something, they’ll probably get right on that. ”

That last bit made her giggle while she clearly tried to picture it, and when she, blushing furiously, said, “So if I tell the big guy I want fancy boots like yours, he’d find me some?” she pointed at my ugly footwear, then eyed her soft ballet flats and giggled adorably again.

Tori was just… so small and cute and delicate, and still far too thin-looking to appear healthy with her big pregnant belly.

On Earth, I might have been jealous of her tiny height; I felt distinctly not feminine a lot of the time when I compared myself to my fellow women.

I’d sadly dated enough jerks to know that Earth men were often intimidated by my height too.

With the way Ziame called me "little female" (and, compared to his eight-foot height, I really was), a lot of those ruffled feathers had been soothed. Now I could see how much this made Tori feel insecure and scared, how these men were giants to her, of frightening proportions. I mean, even I had a foot on her; she barely reached up to the nipples of the smallest male aboard. I was actually happy I wasn’t a little smaller.

When the first male came in, he paused in shock, staring at the spread table.

“Is this for breakfast?” Fierce asked in a hushed tone, staring at the eggs and fake bacon and licking his lips.

Tori and I shared a look, and I finally saw something click in her head.

She nodded at me and then, with a deep blush, approached the table and quietly started explaining to the poor guy what we’d (mostly Tori) made.

***

Ziame

She wore the shoes, and she even came up and thanked me for them.

When she willingly sat at my side during breakfast, I realized it wasn’t just wishful thinking, she meant what she’d said in the cell, and she hadn’t changed her mind.

It had my chest all aglow the rest of the morning while the other gladiators and I trained in the gym.

We hated leaving the females and Luka to deal with more of the cleaning chores without us, but we needed to be in top form when we fought for ourselves on Xio in three days.

We couldn’t afford to miss out on training.

Still, Sunder set us up to work and talked us through our training schedules like usual, but then he joined the females as they worked on cleaning the bridge and some of the hallways.

In the gym, Jakar raised another problem. “What about our transcoder and call sign? Drameil knows the details of this ship. When we put in on Xio, that’s alright, but as soon as we arrive in another port, it’ll be an issue. By then, he’ll be looking for us, and he’ll be furious.”

We tossed out ideas while we sparred and worked out.

In the end, we knew we’d have to get our hands (illegally) on a different call sign and transponder.

This meant finding a wreck of a similar-class ship, but in a pinch, we could probably do with any, as long as we weren’t in visual range.

That would at least work while in space itself.

“A problem to work on the moment we leave Xio?” asked Thorin. “We need to focus on getting the credits for the fights, or the gold, or whatever bartered goods Drameil arranged. Right?”

That was definitely a hurdle we’d first need to overcome. I was not very familiar with the financial side of gladiator fights, but I knew someone who was. “I guess we need to have a chat with Thonklad,” I said.

Later that day, I found Abigail in one of the hallways of the upper deck.

The four of them had made good progress with the clean-up, and I felt guilty that I hadn’t been helping out.

Abigail immediately shot down that notion.

“No, you guys are training so you can risk your damn lives to earn us money. That’s far more important than cleaning some hallways and rooms. It’s not as if I have much skill to bring to the table otherwise.

” She’d added the last with a rueful smile, and I’d bristled, though I didn’t know how to make her feel better.

In the end, I’d discussed the financial worries with her too, and she’d brightened.

“If I knew how to read this damn alien script, I could take care of that. I’m great with numbers.

” Impressed, I’d set about solving at least that issue, well aware that most ships could display any language in the database.

When I showed it to her after the evening meal, she teared up.

Clutching her hand over her mouth, she trembled, and just when I was about to start panicking that I’d really fucked this up, she leaped at me.

I caught her, and we tumbled into the captain’s chair with her straddling my lap.

“Thank you, Ziame,” she murmured, and then she pressed her face into my throat and nuzzled, just like a real Lacerten kiss.

Her breath on my scales made me groan, and I tried hard to rein that shit in.

This wasn’t about sex. She was just grateful I’d made something easier for her—that I’d made it possible for her to work on our finances from her end—because that was her skill.

Except my body didn’t get the memo, readying for her at just that sweet touch like I was a damn youngling who couldn’t control his first erection.

She brushed against me, and this time, a low moan did leave my throat, and she looked up, startled from her perch in my lap.

“Oh...” she said, dark eyes wide in that face so dark and soft-looking, with those long black lashes and that cloud of beautiful, wild curls.

I couldn’t read the expression on her face—maybe it was too alien to me for that—but she didn’t move away, and I sure could read the scent in the air.

When I flicked out my tongue and tasted the pheromones dancing between us, I groaned again; she wanted me.

This wasn’t wishful thinking on my part.

“Abigail,” I mumbled at her, sliding my palms over the delicate arch of her spine—one up and one down—until I held the back of her neck in one hand and the sweet, so sweet, curve of her tailless behind in the other.

Her eyes turned wicked in that temptress’s face, and then she pressed herself against me, riding the straining evidence of my arousal with the V between her legs. My eyes rolled into the back of my head at the sensation, and then instinct took over.

***

Abigail

Whew, I knew he was packing a lot, but I hadn’t remembered just how big it was. Shamelessly, I pressed against him, and then I had to giggle internally—I was an idiot for not remembering just how big he was.

Maybe it was rash, maybe it was crazy, but I really liked this guy, and I wasn’t going to hold back. Not right now, when I was free to make my own choices after days of angst, not when, in another few days, Ziame was going to risk his life on the arena sands just to make money for all of us.

So, when he suddenly picked me up and spun me around, pressing me down into the chair, I didn’t protest. When he proceeded to nuzzle my face and nibble at my ear, I moaned out loud.

The next thing I felt was his hand pressing between my legs and another cupping my breast, and…

No, hang on, that was his tail between my legs because he was holding both my boobs. I groaned at the stimulation.

“Abigail,” he murmured, nuzzling his face into the valley between my breasts, the gold of the ring through his nose warm to the touch. “Let me see you,” he said, his voice so growly I almost couldn’t understand. “Please?”

When I nodded, he carefully picked his way through the tiny buttons that held my blouse closed, and with each inch of skin exposed, he leaned forward to nuzzle and flick his tongue.

I felt so sensitive, so hot that I couldn’t breathe, nothing had ever been this sexy.

All I could do was hold on to those horns of his and mutter encouragement.

My shirt and jacket were pressed open soon enough, and then he was licking along the edges of my pink bra, making appreciative noises. The tip of his tail was still pressed against my core, rubbing softly with maddening pressure. This guy was far too handy with that thing.

Then he flicked one of the cups of my bra down, tucking it under my breast, and focused that tongue on the straining peak. I groaned. Oh, split tongue, I had totally forgotten, but hallelujah, that was good! I almost came then and there when he tugged on the stiff peak with the damn thing.

“Ziame, please!” I didn’t even know what I was begging for at this point. More? Less? Did I want to have sex with him in the damn captain’s chair? It would sure as hell be one way to christen the ship as ours, but for our first time?

He took any coherent thoughts right out of my head, though, when his tail finally picked up the pace, rubbing against me just right while his tongue and fingers played with my breasts. I exploded, moaning his name, my spine arching. “Shit, that was good...”

When he lifted his head, it was to grin at me smugly.

“Liked that, did you, my sweet Abigail?” I could only nod at him, far too sated for the moment to care about the male arrogance he was displaying when he smirked like that.

Then he melted my heart when he leaned in and nuzzled his face against my belly.

“You have the prettiest skin. Such a beautiful dark shade, so deep and soft and tasty-looking. I want to lick you all over.”

And then he set my panties on fire—no, wait—I wasn’t wearing any.