He sighed and relaxed farther in the water, and as she studied his profile tipped upward in the moonlight, something about him struck her again as…familiar.
“I wonder what kind of warrior you were,” she said.
He lifted his head, his brows drawn in confusion. “What?”
“Before you came to Olympus. On Pandora, you said the gods told you that you’d once been a warrior. It’s pretty obvious from the way you wield a sword. I wonder if you were a knight or a gladiator or maybe a pirate.”
He huffed a sound that was part laugh, part annoyance, and leaned his head back once more. “Yeah, right. I was a pirate. Aye, matey.”
She smiled because this was what she’d missed the last month. This easy connection they’d shared on Pandora.
“If you were from my realm, you’d have been an Argonaut.”
His eyes slowly opened, but when they focused on hers, all humor was gone. “From your realm?”
She nodded. “Argolea.”
He pushed upright. “You remember where you’re from?”
“Sort of. Certain things have come back. My mother is the queen of Argolea, and my father is an Argonaut. One of the seven descendants of—”
“The seven greatest heroes in all of Ancient Greece. Yeah, I’ve heard of the Argonauts. I’m not stupid. Zeus and Athena don’t think too highly of them.”
Elysia shrugged and fanned her hands through the water once more. “Which explains why they took me as soon as I turned twenty-five. You probably don’t know how old you are, am I right?”
“No.” His gaze followed the sweep of her fingers along the surface, and a sadness she hadn’t expected to see crept into his eyes. “I don’t.”
Inwardly, Elysia cringed. She’d just screwed things up again when they were finally heading in the right direction. Reminding him that he would probably never know where he’d come from or what had happened to his own parents was not the way to get back to where they’d been before.
She pushed away from the rocks and tiptoed across the rocky bottom of the hot springs toward him. “So Sera told me an interesting story.”
He tensed as she drew close. “About Erebus?”
“No.” She stopped mere inches away, but forced herself not to touch him. “About you.”
Unease flickered in his eyes. “What about me?”
“About you and Athena and the pit.”
The muscles in his shoulders tightened.
“Why didn’t you tell me where you’d been for the last month?”
His gaze skipped over her features. Unsure. Hesitant. Confused. “Because it wouldn’t have mattered. You’d already made up your mind about me.”
“I had.” Her heart skipped a beat because he wasn’t moving away. “And I was wrong.”
Long seconds passed. He didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Just looked at her. Really looked at her, as he’d done on Pandora.
She eased closer, until her thighs skimmed his in the water and her fingers found the strong, solid muscles in his arms. “You chose that pit over Aphrodite and her palace. You chose it for me.”
His pulse pounded beneath his skin, a rapid thump, thump, thump that fueled the fire inside her. “Elysia—”
“Don’t say it doesn’t matter.” She brushed her body against his beneath the water—his ripped, strong, very aroused body. “Because it does. It’s the only thing that matters. And I’m about to show you just how much it matters to me.”
When he didn’t push her away, she slid her hands up his chest and around his nape, drawing them even closer together. The hard, rigid length of his cock pressed against her belly. But it was his whispered “Emmoní,” that made her heart lurch and her mouth find his in the moonlight.
Damon couldn’t move, could barely breathe. But when Elysia’s tongue slid along his lips, coaxing him to open, all rational thought slipped right out of his grasp, and biological instinct took over.
He wrapped his arms around her waist beneath the water and pulled her up against him. Then devoured her the way he’d wanted to devour her since she’d left him on Pandora.
Her mouth turned greedy. Her fingers slid up and into his hair as he kissed her deeper. She stroked her tongue over his in long, languid strokes and rocked her hips against his until he groaned. Closing her arms around his neck, she hoisted herself up in the water and wrapped her legs around his waist so she could press all her slick, sultry heat against the hard length of his cock.
She pulled back from his mouth, her lips swollen and pink in the moonlight, and looked down between them. “You’re still wearing your boxers.”
Damon sucked in a painful breath. Every bit of energy in his body was gathered where the heat of her sex caressed his aching cock. “Yes,” he rasped.
Her gaze lifted to his face. Wispy tendrils had pulled free from her updo and glistened from the steam rising off the pool. Tiny droplets of water caressed her cheek and slid down her jaw and over her neck. And her eyes sparkled with both passion and lust. A lust that only made him harder. “Do I need to teach you the art of seduction, instructor?”
In the midst of probably the most painful moment of his life, Damon laughed. “No.”
“Well, you clearly need a refresher. You’re supposed to be naked right now. And in me.”
His pulse stuttered, because that was all he wanted too. But when she smiled and moved in to kiss him again, all the doubts he’d had this whole last week rushed in, preventing him from making that dream a reality.
Gently, he moved his hands to her hips—her slim, naked, gorgeous hips—and unwound her legs from his body. “Emmoní, stop.”
Her hands slipped free of his shoulders, and as her feet found the sandy bottom of the pool, she looked up with worried eyes. “What’s wrong?”
“You were right about me. I’m all those things you said the other night. I’m Aphrodite’s property.” His throat felt so thick, he wasn’t sure he could speak, but he forced the words past his lips, because he was done keeping secrets. “I’ve fucked hundreds of females for her, with her. I’ve taught so many Siren recruits the art of seduction, I can’t even rememb—”
Her damp fingertips landed against his lips. “I know, and I don’t care.”
He gently pulled her hand away and frowned. “You should. I’m not a person. I’m a thing. I don’t have a soul. I’m nothing but a pleasure sla—”
“You’re more than that.” She moved close again, brushing her body along his and sliding her fingers across his jaw in a way that made every inch of his skin tingle. “So much more. You stayed with me on Pandora when you didn’t have to. You helped me get through one of the toughest parts of the tests. And then you chose the pit over returning to Aphrodite’s temple. A soulless person doesn’t do that. A soulless person wouldn’t have cared. And then, even after I said all those ugly things, you still didn’t turn away. You stayed and you tutored me in combat and marksmanship and archery, all because you didn’t want to see me fail.”
“You don’t know what Zeus does to the recruits who don’t make the cut.”
“A soulless pleasure slave would not care.”
Her eyes went so soft and dreamy, something inside him cracked. “I didn’t care. Not about any of the others. Just you. I don’t think I could bear it if something happened to you.”
When a hint of a smile toyed with her lips, he knew what she was thinking. That he was a total nutcase.
Stepping back, he brushed damp hands over his face and tried to sound semi-sane when he knew he wasn’t. “I know it’s crazy. I know it doesn’t make sense. I’ve told myself that a hundred times. But something about you…I don’t know. It makes me feel alive. In a way I’ve never been before.” He dropped his hands and looked at her in the moonlight. “I like that feeling. I like it a lot. I like you. And I’d rather suffer endless days in that pit if it helped you, than spend an emotionless existence in Aphrodite’s debauched palace.”
She stepped into him again, wound her arms around
his neck once more, and pressed that perfect body of hers against his from chest to knee. “I like that you like that feeling. I like that you like me. And I’m sorry that I said those ugly words. I’m sorry I rushed to judge you. I just…” She sighed and looked down at his mouth. “I just felt such a connection to you on Pandora that it overwhelmed me. And when I got to Olympus and you weren’t here, and when that Siren told me who you were—”
“I know.” His hands found her waist, and his fingers brushed the soft skin of her lower back. “I don’t blame you, emmoní.”
“You should.” Her eyes held his. Sparkling dark pools that seemed to see all the way into that soul he still wasn’t sure he possessed. “Damon, you have every reason to hate me. But if you let me, I’ll do whatever it takes to make it up to you.”
His heart pinched, and even though he still didn’t understand the intense feelings he felt for her so quickly, he knew there was no way he could ever say no to her. “I think you just did.”
She smiled again, a warm, rich, genuine smile that lit up her eyes. And as his gaze dropped to her damp lips, that biological instinct came roaring back. Urging him to touch her. To taste her. To make her his so she’d never leave him again.
He kissed her, drawing her into his mouth and heart. Her arms tightened around his neck, and she opened, stroking her tongue along his until the blood pounded in his groin. Changing the angle of the kiss, he slid one hand down her lower spine to clasp her ass and pull her hips tight against him. She gasped into his mouth, then groaned as she wrapped her legs around his hips once more and kissed him harder.
Pleasure arced through his groin, making his cock twitch and pulse. She rocked her steamy sex against him. Kissed him again and again. Sliding his other hand around to her front, he cupped one succulent breast and squeezed, then found her nipple with his thumb and forefinger and pinched.
A tremble rushed through her body, and she pulled her mouth away, dropped her head back, and moaned.
His face fell against her damp chest. He breathed deep as she rocked her sex harder against his painful erection. Desire coursed through every inch of his body, and he knew it would be so easy to free himself from his boxers and slide inside her, but he didn’t want that. He wanted her to enjoy. Wanted to feel her passion rise. Wanted to watch as he took her over the edge and into mindless oblivion.
Releasing her breast, he wrapped his other arm around her waist and cupped the other cheek, lifting and lowering her in the water with both hands to increase the friction on her clit. “That’s it, emmoní.” He pressed his lips against the succulent line of her throat. “Ride me. Use me.”
Her moans grew longer. Deeper. Her fingers dug into the flesh at his shoulders. Pain skipped down his spine, melding with the sparks of electricity radiating outward from his groin. He bit down gently on her neck, licked the spot, and suckled.
“Oh gods, Damon.”
“Yes, emmoní.” He pulled her in tighter, lifted to press against her clit harder. “Let go. Come all over me. I want to feel your release. I want to feel everything. Don’t hold back.”
Every muscle in her body tensed. She rubbed faster and gasped. And when she cried out, cresting the wave of release, he held her tightly and watched her go over. And nearly came himself.
She collapsed against him, a sweaty mess of damp skin, limp bones, and wet hair. Her face fell against his neck, and he held her close, running his hands up and down her delicate spine as the last waves of the pleasure rippled through her.
“Oh my gods,” she breathed. “That was amazing.”
He smiled, because if she thought that was amazing, he couldn’t wait to show her more. “I’m glad. It was pretty amazing for me as well.”
She pushed back and looked down at the water, then up at his face. “You’re still hard. You didn’t—”
He pressed a kiss against her lips. “I can wait.”
“But I don’t want you to wait. I want to feel you—”
Chuckling, he pulled her hand away before she could grasp his erection and send him over that edge with just one squeeze. “You will. Trust me. Just not tonight.”
“Why not tonight?”
He brushed a damp lock of hair away from her forehead. “Because I’m your seduction trainer, and because I want to do at least one part of this right.”
Her eyes softened, and she slid her arms back around his neck. “I think you already seduced me, ómorfos.”
He grinned at her use of the word handsome. “I did. But there’s still much more to teach you. And we don’t have enough time tonight for what I want to do to you next.”
A blush rose in her cheeks, and her teeth sank into her bottom lip in such a sexy, innocent way, his cock throbbed all over again. Ah hell. If she kept looking at him like that, he wouldn’t be able to resist much longer.
“Um, Damon?”
His gaze lingered on her bottom lip, plump from her teeth. Gods, he wanted to bite that lip. Suck on it. Devour it.
“There’s something I need to tell you.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m not a virgin.”
That got his attention. His gaze lifted to her eyes. “What?”
“I’m sure most of the recruits don’t remember whether they are or not, but you need to know…I’m not.”
Jealousy raced through him. An irrational jealousy, considering his sexual history. “Who was he?” His brow dropped when he thought about that history. “Or was he a he?” It could have been a her. Or an it.
He cringed. Please don’t say it was an it.
She laughed and skimmed her fingertips over his shoulder. “Yes, it was a he. What do you think I’m into, satyrs or something?”
He shrugged, more relieved than he wanted to admit. “You could be.” And he’d definitely seen kinkier shit in Aphrodite’s temple.
“Well, I’m not. It was just a he. I don’t remember a lot about him. Just his eyes. He was human. Not a lot of details have come back to me, but I know I used to cross over into the human realm when I wasn’t supposed to. Argolea is a very patriarchal society, and as heir to the throne, I had a lot of restrictions placed on me.”
“Got it. So, were you like… Did you love this guy?”
“Love?” Her brow wrinkled as if she were trying to remember back. “No, not in love. I think I used him to see what sex was all about.”
The shocked way she said it, as if she’d just uncovered a horrible secret, made him laugh. “And did you? Like it, I mean?”
A shy smile pulled at her lips as she looked down at his shoulder. “I’m not sure. That part I don’t really remember. I know it was nothing like what we just did here in this water—that I definitely won’t forget. That was good.” Her sultry gaze lifted. “And hot.” She moved closer, rubbing her body against his beneath the water. “And I would very much like to give that and more back to you right now.”
His cock thickened all over again. “Stop, or you’ll make me come with nothing but your words.”
“Can I do that?”
“You have no idea what you do to me.”
“I like that. And I definitely want to see that.”
He grasped her hands before she could reach his waist. “Not tonight.”
Her lips pushed out in a sexy little pout. And as the blood pulsed in his erection, making him painfully hard, he knew the female didn’t need an ounce of seduction training. She was the most arousing thing he’d ever met. The kicker was, she had no clue.
He brought her hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles one by one. “I don’t want a quickie in the water, and we don’t have time for all the things I plan to do to this body. Besides, when I come”—he lifted his head to gaze into her hypnotic eyes—“I want you screaming in pleasure right along with me.”
Her eyes darkened with lust, and when he took her mouth, she sighed against him and sank into his kiss. Their tongues tangled, and her arms closed around his shoulders once more in the water, making Damon’s heart swell. Not
because anything was about to change—he knew his lot in life and that it would never be any different—but because he finally felt alive. And because he had this female to thank for that.
He’d cherish that; cherish her for as long as he could. And when her training with the Sirens was over and she finally left him for good—hopefully years from now—then he’d find a way to deal with the remnants of a life whose only purpose was to serve.
Even if it meant living in his memories.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Elysia left Damon outside the doors of the seduction hall with a kiss that, even now as she crossed the compound in the dark, still vibrated through her toes.
Biting her lip, she remembered the way he’d touched her, the words he’d said, all the things he’d made her feel in such a short amount of time. Her chest grew warm and full as she followed the stone path. She’d taken a big risk tonight, and for a moment, when Damon had only stared at her like she’d grown a third eyeball right in the center of her forehead, she’d thought she’d taken that risk for nothing. But now she knew she’d been right. He wanted her just as much as she wanted him. From this moment forward, everything would be different.
A smile curled her lips as she passed out of the light of a decorative light pole and moved into the shadows. She wondered with whom he was scheduled to work in the field tomorrow. Was already planning ways she could catch him between sessions and pull him into a dark corner for a quick kiss. If he hadn’t convinced her she needed to go back to her room tonight, she would have—
A hand grasped her arm and yanked her off the path and into the brush. Elysia yelped and tumbled sideways. Before she could scream, another hand clamped over her mouth and pulled her back into a hard, male body.
“Shh,” a voice said near her ear. “Don’t draw attention. I’m here to help you.”
The voice quickly registered, as did the familiar scents of leather and pine. She jerked the hand from her mouth and swiveled around. “Max? What the hell are you doing here? How did you get into Olympus?” She looked back toward the pathway. “If anyone sees you—”