Callia stepped back so he could move into the bathroom. Just before he closed the door, Ari said, “Don’t worry about this, yios. We’ll figure everything out.”
Cerek’s hand hovered on the door handle, and that energy grew stronger, urging him to rush out of the room. Unable to form a coherent response, he nodded and closed the door.
Skata. He dropped his forehead against the hard wood when he was alone and breathed deep. What the hell was happening to him? What was this energy pulling at him? And why was it happening now when he’d never felt anything similar in twenty-five years?
He crossed the room, leaned into the open stone shower, and flipped on the water. After wiping his wet hand on his pant legs, he paced the length of the marble and stone bathroom, trying like hell to settle his roaring pulse.
Steam filled the room. His thoughts pinged back and forth between what Elysia’s father had said and the questions the healer in the other room had asked him.
Was he a threat? Was it possible the red-haired female with green eyes he kept remembering was a witch? And if so, had she somehow cursed him?
But if that were the case, then why? What would she get from it? What would Zeus get? And wh—
Across the room, the window above the soaking tub creaked, bringing Cerek’s feet to a stop. He looked up as the window pushed open and a sultry bare leg he’d recognize anywhere slipped through the space.
“Elysia?” He crossed the floor in two strides, pushed the window wider, and helped her climb all the way through. “What are you doing?”
“I needed to see you,” she whispered, stepping on the edge of the tub with bare feet. “I would have come through the front door, but Callia and Ari are still in your room.”
She was still wearing his T-shirt. Grasping her at the waist, he helped her down, then pulled her into his arms. Warmth filled his chest, distracting him from the strange energy.
“Emmoní.” He lifted his hands to her face. “Gods, I missed you.”
He took her mouth, driving his tongue between her lips so he could touch and taste and feel her. She opened to his kiss, stroked her tongue along his, and gripped his arms tightly at the biceps.
“I missed you too,” she murmured against him as he changed the angle of the kiss, as she pressed her sensual body against his from knee to chest.
Need erupted inside him. The need to lose himself in her and forget everything else. He kissed her deeper, pushed her back until her spine hit the wall, groaned when she rose up on her toes and rubbed against his swelling erection.
“I need you.” He kissed the corner of her mouth, her jaw, nibbled at her neck. His hands streaked down her shoulders and sides. Grasping the T-shirt that hit at her thighs, he pulled it up and palmed the soft skin of her ass.
“Ah gods.” She swallowed hard. Trailed her hands down his chest and grasped the button at his waistband. “I need you too. Right now.”
Need turned to a roaring demand he couldn’t ignore. He claimed her mouth as she worked the button free and tugged the zipper down. Grasping her around the waist, he lifted her off the floor and pushed his way between her legs. She groaned against him, wiggled her hands inside his pants, and pushed the fabric down his hips. Cool air washed over his cock as she pulled it free, but heat was all he felt when she wrapped her hand around the steely length and stroked.
Her tongue tangled with his. Pulling him close so her soft, slick center brushed the tip of his aching erection, she whispered, “Now, now, now.” She lined him up and let go to wrap both arms around his neck. “Take me now.”
He was powerless to do anything but. He drove into her body as he licked into her mouth, tasting her deeply while he thrust hard and bottomed out, as he drew back and plunged in again. Breaking their kiss, she dropped her head back against the wall and moaned. He gripped her ass tightly, lifted and lowered her against his cock. Shoved in and out again and again until they were both sweating.
“Oh yes,” she moaned. “Don’t stop.”
Her slick channel constricted around him, and he knew he couldn’t stop even if he wanted to. The need to take her, to fuck her, to own her drove him faster, harder, deeper than ever before. She gasped and lifted her head from the wall. Tightened her arms around his shoulders and held on. Sweat slid down his brow as his cock hammered inside her, as he dropped his forehead to her throat and pleasure raced down his spine, teasing his control.
“Come for me, emmoní.”
“Yes, yes…” Her body tensed; her fingernails dug into his shoulders. “I’m so close, don’t stop.”
He wasn’t going to last. The need was too strong. But he wanted her to spiral over the edge with him. Drawing the soft skin at her throat between his lips, he shifted one hand around to her front, between their bodies. And the moment he pinched her clit, he suckled.
“Oh my GO—”
He lifted his head and captured her scream with his mouth. Her slick sex spasmed around him in ecstasy, causing his orgasm to ricochet down his spine, explode in his balls, and pull a grunt from his throat as hot jets of pleasure pulsed deep inside her.
He swallowed her groans as he thrust deep once, twice, three more times, and finally stilled. She broke their kiss and sucked back air. Dropping his forehead against hers, he simply tried to breathe.
“Oh my gods,” she whispered, dragging her fingers through the damp hair at his nape, her chest rising and falling against his. “That was—”
“Loud.” A smile curled his lips when he thought of the way she’d cried out and how knowing she was climaxing had pushed him right into oblivion. He shifted his hand around her back to squeeze one delectable cheek. “I’m pretty sure my father and that healer are still in the other room.”
Her fingers paused in his hair. “Callia? Skata. Do you think they heard us?”
He turned his head and listened. He couldn’t hear any voices over the hum of the shower, but that didn’t mean they were alone. “Hopefully not. She’s related to you, isn’t she?”
Elysia nodded. “She’s my aunt. My mother’s half sister.”
Of course she was. And if she’d heard any of what they’d just done, she was probably already on her way to tell Elysia’s parents.
Reluctantly, he disengaged from Elysia’s sultry body, lowered her to the floor, and tugged up his pants. “You have to leave.”
“What?” Worry rippled over her features as his T-shirt fell back to her thighs, covering that secret, succulent place that belonged only to him. “No. I just got here. I want to stay—”
“Emmoní.” He gripped her shoulders and kissed her, cutting off her words. “I don’t want you to leave either, but I don’t want you to get into any more trouble than you’re already in.”
“I don’t care about my father.”
“I do.”
Her brows drew together. “You do?”
He exhaled, trying to find a way to say what he felt. The energy was still there, but close to her, it was muted, not as insistent, and he knew that was because she did something to him. She calmed him in a way nothing else could. She believed in him in a way no one else ever had. As much as he wanted her with him, he couldn’t be the cause of any more trouble or pain in her life.
“Your parents are worried about you.”
“I’m fine.”
“Yes, but they don’t know that. All they know is that you showed up here with me, someone who’s supposed to be dead.”
Her eyes darkened. “My father’s wrong about you. Don’t you go believing what he said. Because I don’t.”
There she went, loving him again like no one ever had. His heart filled, and for the first time since he’d stepped through that portal, he felt as if he could think clearly. Gripping her hands in his, he lifted them to his mouth and kissed each one. “I don’t. But I don’t want to give your father any more reason to hate me.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” He pulled her into his arms. “I’m not going anywhere. It’ll kill me no
t being with you every minute like I’d planned when we left Olympus, but I think for now it’s best if we keep what’s between us secret.”
She sank into him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that. But I might be able to go along with it if you answer one question.”
“Anything.”
“What is between us?”
He drew back and looked down at her, stunned she didn’t already know. “Love.”
“You love me?”
“Madly.” His heart squeezed tight. “Which is why I want to make sure we do this right with your parents. Because I plan on being part of your life for a very long time.”
Her eyes grew glassy, and she rose up on her toes and kissed him, throwing her arms around his neck and holding on as if she never wanted to let go.
A knock sounded at the door. “Cerek?” a male voice called. “Are you okay in there?”
“Skata.” Elysia drew back from his mouth long before he was ready to let her go. “That’s Ari.”
Right. His father. He still couldn’t get used to the fact he had a father.
“I should go,” she whispered.
Reluctantly, he nodded and walked her back to the window. When she was perched on the sill, one foot out and one foot in, he whispered, “Wait. Maybe you should hide until he leaves and go out another way.”
She flicked him a bemused look. “Seriously? I’m perfectly safe. I made it here okay, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, but”—he glanced down at her toes—“your feet are still bare. You might slip.”
“Won’t happen,” she said confidently.
“Won’t happen?” He lifted his brow.
“I trained with the Sirens, remember?” She smiled, a mesmerizing warm smile that filled his heart with joy. “Not to mention all that warrior power I stole from Athena, thanks to you.”
The memory of her riding him on the altar in that temple filled his mind, and his cock thickened with the need to have her do it again.
She leaned back into the room and kissed his cheek. “I’ll find you tomorrow when you least expect it. Forbidden secret rendezvous might be fun.”
He chuckled as she climbed out the window and disappeared into the dark, imagining just what she could be planning for him tomorrow.
“Cerek?” Ari called from the other room again.
“Yeah,” he managed over the sound of the running water behind him. “I’m okay. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
His smile faded as he closed the pane. The energy was already growing stronger now that he was alone. The one urging him to do something or go somewhere he didn’t understand. As much as he wanted to believe it was a pull toward Elysia, something in the back of his head warned whatever this was, it had absolutely nothing to do with her.
And he had no idea if that was good or bad.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Kneeling in front of the ottoman near the crackling fire, Zagreus cringed as Atropos lifted her gnarled, wrinkled feet onto the silver satin pillow he’d just plumped.
“What are you waiting for, Ziggy?” The Fate wiggled her twisted toes as she reclined in her overstuffed chair. “These nails aren’t gonna trim themselves.”
Bile rose in Zagreus’s throat as he reached for the clippers and went to work cutting Atropos’s thick yellow nails. For an immortal deity, one would think she’d take better care of herself. Then again, why would she bother? She had “Ziggy” around to do everything for her.
Fucking Hades…
“I think now is definitely the best time,” Clotho said, reaching for her goblet of wine from the coffee table. “If you wait much longer, you’re going to miss your window of opportunity.”
Beside Clotho on the couch, Lachesis sighed. “Perhaps. The queen is planning a welcome-home festivity for Cerek and Elysia tonight. I’ll need to intercede before that. Aristokles can’t accept the healer’s assessment of Cerek. He’s taking Cerek to see his home in the mountains today, hoping the familiarity will trigger his memories. I could wait for a moment to catch him alone there, when his father is preoccupied.”
“That’s the dumbest idea you’ve had yet,” Zagreus muttered as he snipped a nail.
“What’s that, Ziggy?” Atropos lifted her white brows. “You say something’?”
Zagreus knew he should bite his tongue, but he just couldn’t anymore. These old hags took meddling to the nth degree, and more often than not, their efforts produced zero results.
“You’re damn right I said something.” He lowered his hands to the ottoman. “The dude clearly doesn’t understand what it means to be an Argonaut. He’s already wigged out enough. You show up in your diaphanous robes, floating off the ground, pulling that glowing-eye thing, and rambling incoherently, and you’re gonna push him right over the edge into looney-land.”
Lachesis and Clotho exchanged wide-eyed looks.
“Gryphon was more unstable than Cerek,” Clotho said, “and he turned out fine.”
Zagreus snorted. “That’s still up for debate. That dude will forever be fucked in the head from Atalanta’s shit. But regardless, you all didn’t let Lachesis mess with Gryphon until he’d already figured things out for himself. Not to mention,” Zagreus went on even though he knew he shouldn’t, “if your goal is to make sure Zeus doesn’t win now, interceding with Cerek here is only going to guarantee the sonofabitch god does win.”
“How do you figure?” Atropos asked with narrowed eyes.
Gods, he was surrounded by morons. And these were the wisest and most powerful beings in the cosmos? “Because Cerek’s already over the moon for that princess. He’s not going to leave Argolea no matter what you say.”
He went back to trimming Atropos’s nails with a scowl.
“What would you have us do in this situation?” Lachesis asked.
“I’d stay the fuck out of it. Let things play out. Maybe he’ll wise up on his own.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
Zagreus shrugged and moved to Atropos’s other foot. “Then I’d just deal with it. Your meddling hasn’t changed anything in, like, thirty years, has it? Yeah, that bitch Atalanta might be dead, but not because of your influence. The gods are all still scrambling for power. The threat of war is still imminent. And have you influenced one soul to shift from the side of darkness to light?” Glowering, he shook his head. “Not a single one. All you’ve done is stick your noses where they don’t belong.”
The room grew quiet but for the crackle of the fire at Zagreus’s back and the snip of the clippers in his hand.
His fingers paused their work, and he looked up. All three Fates were staring at him with perplexed expressions. “What?”
Lachesis looked toward Atropos, and then Clotho, and some kind of secret communication passed between the three Fates. One that sent a warning trickle straight down Zagreus’s spine.
Fuck. Fuuuuuck. They were planning something. Something that had to do with him. He should have kept his big mouth shut. If there was one thing he’d learned over the past twenty-five years serving the Fates, it was that anything the old crones could come up with had nightmare written all over it for him.
Which meant he was about to get royally fucked. And not in any of the depraved ways his wicked mind could imagine.
Soft music from the three-piece orchestra on the far side of the ballroom floated around Elysia as she smiled and shook hands. Outwardly, she was the image of the perfect princess returned home after a terrifying abduction—pale pink ball gown, slippers on her feet, a golden crown of grape leaves in her hair…smaller, of course, than her mother’s. But inside, she wanted to scream. If she had to fake one more smile or pretend she was having a good time, she was seriously going to lose it.
Her gaze drifted toward the stately columns on the edge of the ballroom and locked on Cerek, standing in the shadows next to Phineus. She’d never seen him dressed up, and every time she caught sight of him, her heart did a little flip. He wore the traditional
Argonaut dress attire—dark trousers, white tunic cinched at the waist, leather breastplate decorated with the seal of his forefather, and a cloak made of differing colors based on a guardian’s lineage, which fell over his left arm and was anchored at his shoulder with a bronze leaf. Phineus’s was a bright orange. Cerek’s was a pale yellow that only made his hair and eyes look even darker.
Phineus was clearly talking, but Cerek barely seemed to be listening. His gaze was locked on Elysia, and as her eyes met his, heat pulsed through her veins. She hadn’t been able to meet up with him since last night, since he’d frantically taken her to the brink of passion with his mouth and hands and body. Her parents had kept her busy all day, first making her meet with Callia to ensure she hadn’t actually been harmed on Olympus—or by Cerek—then fitting her for this stuffy gown and insisting she help with the pre-festivity preparations. She was desperate for a few stolen moments alone with him. Desperate to feel his touch and sink into his kiss. And she was starting to think if she didn’t find a way to escape this claustrophobic party and do just that, she wasn’t going to be able to keep their relationship secret much longer.
“Elysia?”
She blinked at the sound of her mother’s voice and looked to her left. “Yes?”
The queen’s gaze skipped past Elysia, and a frown pulled at her lips. Elysia’s stomach tightened as she turned to see what her mother was looking at, and when she realized it was Cerek, her pulse jerked.
“Yes.” The queen’s voice drifted back to Elysia, and without even looking, Elysia knew her mother was smiling that fake smile she used when dealing with Council members. “We’re all very relieved to have Elysia back, Lord Eugenios.”
“As am I,” the lord answered in a deep voice. “And before any permanent damage was done.”
Elysia’s brow lowered as she turned to face the portly politician with receding gray hair. “Before what damage was done?”
Her mother sent her a scolding look.
Lord Eugenios didn’t seem to notice Elysia had even spoken. He looked past her as he lifted his arm and waved. “Ah, there’s my son now. Nereus, we’re over here.”