10. Kren

Iwashed her in the shower one inch at a time and kissed her body from head to toe as I dried her off.

We didn't speak much. We didn't need to.

Every few seconds, I looked at her, and she looked at me and we shared a smile.

The worst of the effects of being confronted by Dreth had worn off. She was her usual smiley self. An experience like that could do untold damage to someone's psyche. I was pleased she wasn't too adversely affected by it.

I dressed her in some of my old clothes the way she liked and led her to the bed. I got the occasional twinge from when I'd been struck by the guards' shock rifles. My wrist was almost as good as new already. Most of all, I felt a hundred times better just having her with me.

"What happened to you after they took me away?" Ivy said.

"They brought me back to my room. Someone must have explained the situation. They kept a couple of guards outside the door and after I recovered from my shock therapy, I came out and asked to see you."

"The shocks looked really painful. Are you okay?"

"Better than ever," I said, nuzzling her neck. "How are you?"

"Good. Dreth didn't do anything. He almost did but he didn't… do anything bad."

She shivered at the idea of having something like his robot half-cock inside her. It didn't exactly fill me with fond memories either.

Anger rose in my chest like a wave. I thought about what I would do to him the next time I met him in the pit.

Ivy laid a hand on my arm.

"I'm really glad you came to rescue me."

"Of course I did. What did you think I was going to do?"

"That's what most of the fighters would have done."

"I'm not most fighters."

I leaned forward and pressed my forehead against hers.

"Are you hungry?"

"I ate earlier."

I lifted the blanket and drew it over her.

"Get some sleep. You'll feel better after some real rest."

"You know, it's going to happen again one day. I'm a Prize. What are you going to do? Fight everybody?"

"If I have to. They'll see what I did to Dreth. No one will be in a hurry to repeat what he did in a hurry. And I'll stop taking it easy on them in the pit."

Ivy chuckled and it was music to my ears.

"I've seen you fight. That was you taking it easy on them?"

"It is compared to what I could do. The most important thing is you're safe. And you're safe with me."

"But… I'm not going to be safe forever."

"What do you mean?"

She sat up and hugged her knees.

"You're not always going to be the champion. Eventually, someone is going to take over and you won't be able to stop them."

"I can keep going for a while yet."

I searched her eyes. She wasn't talking about the fighting pit.

"You don't want to be a Prize anymore," I said.

"I never wanted to be anyone's ‘Prize.' I'm okay with belonging to someone. Because then you belong to me too."

She ran her fingers through mine.

"Is there a way we can be together without having to be here? A way for us to escape?"

"There's no way out of here. Many prisoners have tried. Some even succeeded and got outside the walls but they're always found dead a few days later. No one can survive outside."

She leaned forward and kissed me on the lips. It wasn't just a regular kiss. It was full of heart and passion and I succumbed to it quickly.

She drew me down on top of her. She smelled so good—even when we used the same soap and water. She felt good too. So soft and warm beneath me.

"‘Are you sure you can do this?" I said.

"Are you kidding? I need this."

She pulled my T-shirt off over my head and smiled as she took me in. She ran her hands over my muscles.

"Better than a fat tub of lard?" I said

"Much."

I pressed down on her and kissed her cheeks, her neck, and worked my way down to her breasts. I could never get enough of those things. I nibbled at them between my teeth and flicked them with my tongue. They turned hard almost immediately.

I kissed down her feminine body to her delicate folds and strummed it with my tongue.

She groaned. After our previous few times practicing, I knew exactly what she liked. Within five minutes, she had her first orgasm. She bucked her hips the way she always did when she came, and rode my fingers as I rubbed her back and forth.

Her clit was always very sensitive after the first orgasm, so I slipped my finger inside and worked her g-spot instead. A good thing the Lord saw fit to build her with two buttons for me to push. I could work one and then the other, back and forth for as long as either of us could stand.

I was already hard as a rock when I pulled my pants off and lay on top of her. I looked down at her spread beneath me.

So soft and ready… and waiting.

I could already feel her wetness on my thigh.

I took my cock and placed it at her opening.

"Kren," she said, winding her fingers through my hair.

"Mm?"

"I want you to finish inside me."

"What?"

"I don't want you to come in your hand this time. I want to feel you inside me."

I looked away from her.

"It doesn't matter where I do it."

"It does to me."

What she was asking me to do… I shook my head.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because… a child shouldn't have to grow up in a place like this."

She ran a hand over the hairs on my arm, sending goosebumps strumming the surface of my skin head to toe.

"This place isn't so bad," Ivy said.

I gave her a look. How could she say that when she'd almost been raped a few hours ago?

"Okay," she said. "So, it's not the best place in the world."

"That's an understatement."

"But it's warm. It's dry. There are worse places to grow up."

"Not many."

"The kid could grow up somewhere else then. Not here. Somewhere far away."

What was she talking about? If she had a child, it would grow up here for sure. The same way I had.

"You grew up here," she said. "You didn't turn out so bad."

"I had some memories to keep me going."

"What memories?"

"A handful. Most of them are a little fuzzy and hard to recall. A waterfall with hot water that rained down on my head. A big open green field somewhere. Nature. And the sun was warm."

"Beautiful memories."

"I've never told anyone about them."

"You know, the girls take medicine," Ivy said. "To prevent pregnancy."

She looked like she'd swallowed sour medicine when she said it.

Why? Because the medicine she took didn't taste good?

"I won't get pregnant," she said.

I shook my head. I still didn't like the idea of it.

"You don't know that. Medicine doesn't always work. Sometimes it fails."

"Most of the time it works. None of the girls are pregnant right now, are they?"

"I guess not. It just seems like a risk we don't need to take."

Ivy looked disappointed.

"Okay. I can't make you. I just thought… I don't know. That it always feels incomplete somehow."

Incomplete? She really thought that?

"It's okay. It was just an idea."

She kissed me on the chest, and then again, on my six pack, and then further down…

She took me in her mouth and slurped on me noisily. She took a ball in her mouth and jacked me off with her other hand the way I liked. Then she climbed on top and slid me inside her.

She rode me, slowly at first, then faster, taking every inch with each bounce.

I really loved watching her on top of me. I loved how her tits bounced and the way she groaned and touched herself. She shifted position to ensure her g-spot got hit with each thrust.

I sat up and wrapped my arms around her, thrusting her harder and deeper onto my cock. We worked together, developing the same rhythm. She looked at me, her arms wrapped around my head and resting on my shoulders, her breasts in my face. I couldn't have wished for a better view.

She pressed her lips to mine and groaned around my lips. She frowned and lines formed on her forehead. I felt her getting close, tightening around my cock.

"Mm," she gasped. "More."

I rolled her onto her back and lifted a leg to perch on my elbow. Then I set to spearing her relentlessly.

She bit my arm as I drilled her. She threw back her head and laughed maniacally as she came around my cock.

And I could feel myself on the edge.

I paused for a fraction of an instant. This was when I was meant to pull out, when I was meant to come into my hand the way I always did when I was with her.

Only now, I hesitated.

What was better than arriving at that same delicious moment of ecstasy together with the woman I loved?

Love?

Did I love her?

There was no question.

She touched me in ways no one ever had before. She existed on the same plane I did, and she asked me to climax in unison with her.

What was so wrong with that? Why couldn't I do it?

So, I did.

I thrust into her over and over, my hips tightening and my balls constricting, until I felt that sweet moment of release as I fucked her harder and deeper than before, exploding inside her.

I lowered her leg to the bed and bent over her. We were covered with a thin layer of sweat and our breath hitched in our throats. We shared a smile and kissed again.

No words were spoken. The moment didn't need it.

We were joined. And there was no going back.