Only a small fraction of it was empty words. It wasn't like Nyxia had a death wish, that was for sure, but she hated feeling like a victim of someone who was supposed to be protecting her. What would the king think if he found out how Gladio had been treating her?

Maybe she had pushed him too far? Was she about to get what was coming to her? She wished she had eaten those words as his large hand seized her by the neck. What was done was done. She had to stand her ground, even if he did pummel her to oblivion. She wouldn't put it past him to hit a woman.

Breathing became difficult, but then, something happened that made it damn near impossible. His lips suddenly crashed into hers, to the point that it might have even bruised her. It wasn't brief, and even though it was vigorous and almost painful, a part of her found herself enjoying it. How long had it been since she got to partake in the pleasures of the flesh?

This journey had elapsed for four weeks now. Before then, her time consisted of nothing but three years of training for her task. To put it simply, it had been a few years.

They were still in the hallway, and she was still pressed back into the door to her room. As if he was thinking the same thing she was, his free hand grabbed the doorknob and twisted it. Behind her, the door swung away from her back, and she all but stumbled inside. The fervent kiss hadn't separated, nor had his grip from her throat.

The door slammed shut, but just as soon as it did, the brute force of his body shoved her up against the wall beside it. There was no tenderness in any of it. The same ferocity he used in battle, he used now. Nyxia didn't know what it really meant, but she wasn't looking for tenderness.

She just wanted to feel good. It didn't matter that it was with him.

Without even permitting them to, her feet left the ground, legs pinned about his waist. He held her up against the hard plaster as if she was the weight of a small, picture frame ready to be mounted on the wall. For the sake of having somewhere for her hands to go, they ran beneath his vest to settle on his broad shoulders.

The silk robe she wore was shredded open like a curtain, leaving little to the imagination from there. She sported sexy underwear in solitude just because, and besides Rubia wasn't around, so, why not?

Obviously, because it made it easier to tempt hate-fucking with Gladio. That had not been her intention.

Finally, Nyxia needed a wisp of air. She reared back her head only to moan (though a bit too loudly) as he ground himself against her. Her fingers tightened into a squeeze; nails dragged, eliciting a low groan from him. Then, she was thrown into bed. It was the first time he had managed to take his hands off of her within these past, few minutes.

She bounced twice on the mattress, and he came up beside her, his hand snatching her by the roots of her obsidian hair this time. Nyxia gasped, forced to rise up as he pulled at her. Despite the pain, her arousal was nearly at its peak. All the while, however, she almost knew that Gladio was not doing any of this for her pleasure - merely his own.

She was sitting up on her knees on the bed, and she could spot the sultry gaze in his eyes as he looked upon her. It made her feel a bit powerless - it made her want to feel powerless, and that was a sensation she never imagined she would feel before.

He yanked the robe off altogether, and it fell as a pool of silk on the bed sheets only to be pinned beneath her as he pushed her down. Only two seconds were dedicated to removing the rest of her underclothes, and in return, she was tearing off the sleeveless jacket that he wore. It was tossed somewhere behind him, but he seemed too busy opening his fly to care where it landed.

It was probably the second to last hour of the day when he showed up at her door. By the time they were done, the sky was beginning to color itself orange. Gladio was always known for his remarkable stamina in any situation, so Nyxia was amazed that she could keep up with him for this long.

They were both practically showered in sweat, sprawled across the large bed as he rolled off of her for... She had no idea how many times they had picked back up. She laid on her back, heavy breaths escaping both of them as they stared up at the ceiling. She was sore again, but this was a completely different pain from being smashed by the ruins of a crumbling tower. This was a strangely satisfying pain. She knew her ass had to be red from abuse, and at one point, she was sure he had nearly choked her back into a coma.

Then, once the adrenaline rush had finally subsided, Gladio was climbing off of the bed and gathering his clothes. Nothing was said, even during the violent exchange, until he pulled his vest back over his inked torso.

"This never happened," he said dryly.

"What?" Nyxia sat up and stared at him in disbelief. That was it? He was just here to use and abuse her, then pretend nothing happened!? "Is it that easy for you? You're just going to hit and run?"

"That's exactly what I'm going to do. We have a job to finish, that's all."

"Scumbag." Her eyes glared through him like daggers. Rage filled her like a boiling pot of oil, and it was ready to set itself alight. "I would have been better off if I let those necromancers finish you off."

Gladio looked over his shoulder at her and smiled emotionlessly. "I can live with that." Without another word, he left the room. She couldn't say she exactly liked him, but she had started reaching that point where she didn't dislike him...right up until now. She laid herself back down, stark naked and conflicted as she tried to process this.

Fuck it. She'd get over it.

Jerk.