Free The Rings Fighter by JC Andrijeski Page A

used that length to hurt her a few times, favoring anal sex with her when he realized she liked it less. With a few of his Nirreth friends however, sex had been, well... pleasant. More than pleasant in a few cases, particularly with one of Agnon’s guards, a good-natured Nirreth named Jolan.
    Chloe had heard that the shape of Nirreth physicality was an acquired taste for many human women... but really, it was all she had ever known. Whatever her issues with Agnon himself, she’d never had a problem with Nirreth anatomy.
    For the same reason, when Trazen finally entered her, she felt nothing but relief.
    He arched into her all at once... filling her all the way to the hilt. The second time, he thrust into her even harder, coiling his arms around her hips and pulling them into his. She let out a drawn out groan, half out of her mind when he did it the third time.
    He was longer than Agnon, thicker maybe too... and she groaned again when he slowed, pulling her further under him. He angled into her skillfully, changing position incrementally as he went so that he hit her in every conceivable way she wanted.
    She felt his mind in hers too, gauging her every reaction.
    When he arched into her deeper, going slower still, she let out a heavier sound, on the verge of coming already. She dug her fingers into his skin, wrapping her arms and legs even more tightly around him, pulling him further inside of her.
    You feel so incredibly good...   she thought at him. Gods... you feel so good, Ringmaster...  
    He groaned, grinding into her before he raised himself up.
    “Chloe...” he began.
    “No. Say her name,” she urged him, her lips by his ear.
    He let out a gasp, caught off guard.
    She clenched her hands tighter in his skin, digging her fingers into muscle as he arched into her harder. Pulling him deeper, she wrapped him in her arms and legs.
    “Say her name...” she murmured, arching up against him when he slammed into her again. “Say it, Trazen. Say her name... fuck her, not me...”
    She felt him losing control, even as he stung her again, maybe to distract her... maybe to distract himself. She felt his mind tilt as much as hers... more, maybe... right before he arched into her again, nearly violently that time.
    “Say her name...” she murmured against his neck, stroking his hard jaw.
    He stung her again. She felt the last of his control slip away entirely.
    Say her name... say it, if only once... just let it go... let it go, lover...
    “Jet,” he groaned, arching into her. He started to come, and the sound building out of his chest deepened, turning into a panting growl. “Jet... fuck... Jet... Jet...”
    Emotion filled him, briefly wiping out her mind.
    She felt it intensify as he let go, heartbreakingly so. As he did, she felt him... really felt him, behind the mask. He hadn’t let himself feel anything in such a long time.
    Not for anyone. Not since before the Rings.
    Not since he’d come here, to an alien world, knowing he might not survive it.
    Somehow, that crack in his veneer brought Chloe a softer feeling of peace. Affection pulsed out of her in a warm cloud... affection for him, gratitude, a kind of heated satisfaction that he’d let that wall go, however briefly... that he’d let her be there to witness it. She found herself stroking his silk-like Nirreth skin as he lay there letting go.
    She was still caressing him when he lay there recovering, marveling at how the liquid-like covering moved over the Ringmaster’s rock-like muscle and bone.
    He was beautiful.
    He wasn’t hers... he never would be. But he was beautiful.
    Somehow, knowing that was enough.
    That love that rose in him, that almost innocent crush of longing, managed to even fill the hole in her own chest, however briefly.

THE NEW DAY

    CHLOE STOOD ON top of a grass-covered hill, shielding her eyes from the Green Zone sun. It still hung only halfway in the sky.
    They’d left Trazen’s compound before dawn.
    She hadn’t been surprised