Read The Rings Fighter for Free Online Page A

He continued to hold her as he pressed the end of his tail to the bare skin of her side where it showed through the pale blue dress.
    Before she could wrap her mind around that, he stung her.
    She let out a pained gasp, caught off guard.
    Immediately, the venom flooded her skin with heat.
    She was gripping his corded arms by the end of it, avoiding his gaze, feeling her mind tilt as his presence flooded into her, as her breath quickened...
    When he stung her again.
    That time, she let out a low sound, and felt him flinch.
    When he withdrew his tail, releasing her arms, the lack of contact caused an immediate reaction in her, one that was almost animalistic.
    She found herself sliding into his lap, winding her arms around his neck. He seemed about to protest then didn’t, wrapping his arms around her waist before he stung her a third time. That time, his chest tightened where she pressed hers against him, but she still felt nothing but that calmness on him as his mind grew into a steady heartbeat inside hers.
    She could feel him all around her now, like a living force.
    By the time he’d finished that third sting, she was stroking his neck and chest, sitting deeper in his lap, sliding her hand under his clothes to reach bare skin.
    She felt him reacting to the contact, but mostly, he felt calm.
    Utterly peaceful.
    “That drug,” she managed, watching his face. “It makes you not want me?”
    Her voice seemed to come from far away.
    Looking up at her, he chuckled, his voice holding a barely perceptible strain.
    “I’m not dead, Chloe,” he said, avoiding her eyes as he smiled. “And you’re hardly making it easy right now... but yes, it allows me to control myself.”
    She nodded, but didn’t let go of him, or stop stroking his skin. She shifted deeper into his lap, aware of his hand stroking her thigh through the slit of the dress.
    “Do you want me?” she said.
    He averted his gaze a second time, but she saw his long throat move in a swallow.
    “Yes,” he said. “But you don’t owe me anything, Chloe...”
    “Yes, I do.”
    He gave her a harder look. The gold flecks seemed to spark at her from inside those obsidian irises.
    “No,” he said, his voice bordering on cold. “You don’t.”
    She nodded, but continued to stroke his skin.
    After a few more seconds of that, he closed his eyes, shifting his weight under her.
    “We should go inside,” he said, gruff.
    He didn’t attempt to move out from under her though. She rearranged her weight on his lap, watching him wince before he turned away. He was hard. She could feel that now, too, and couldn’t stop herself from pressing against him when she felt him against her. His fingers gripped her arm when she did it a second time and she heard his breath catch.
    “Chloe... for the grace of the gods...”
    “You like her,” she said. “This Rings fighter today. You really like her, don’t you?”
    He glanced up, his eyes showing a faint surprise. “What? What do you mean?”
    She smiled, but didn’t answer him.
    Touching him like she was, she could feel faint currents through his mind as he thought about her question, even as he reacted in a more visceral way to her stroking and exploring hands, the weight of her body in his lap. She felt whispers of emotion there, too... even now, when his mind was relatively quiet from the drug.
    The longer she touched him, the more she suspected that his mental quiet wasn’t all from the drug. She could feel an interesting kind of control within him, like a veneer over the surface, something that felt practiced. It was as if he’d learned to hide the bulk of his more private thoughts behind a denser shield, even through the venom.
    “I have,” he said, giving her another bare glance. “I’ve been trained in it, Chloe.”
    She nodded again, still stroking his neck and chest.
    “What for?” she said. “Is that part of the Rings, too?”
    “Yes,” he said.
    He said it too quickly though, and it crossed her