She rocked back against his hand so his fingers swirled over her slick clit. “Oh yes... More.”

  He drew his fingers down, to her opening, then thrust up inside with two. “This?”

  “Yeeees...” She dropped her head forward and moaned, then rocked her hips back, fucking his fingers with long, deep strokes. “Gods, that’s good. But I want more. Give me more.”

  Fire roared inside him. Fire and a blazing need he couldn’t ignore, one that shoved aside the darkness until the only thing he knew was this moment.

  He yanked his fingers from her body, and flipped her to her back again. She grunted and reached for him as he reached inside his waistband to free his erection. “You want more? You want this?”

  “Oh, yes...” She hooked her legs around his waist and lifted her hips, her hot, tight channel finding the tip of his cock until she sucked him in a fraction of an inch.

  Every nerve ending in his body flared in that one spot. “Say it,” he growled.

  “I want your cock. I want you. Fuck me. Fuck me, Erebu—”

  He claimed her mouth at the same time he slammed himself inside her. His name erupted on a scream that only shot his blood higher.

  He drew out until she whimpered, then drove deep again, grunting at the way her sheath contracted around him as he kissed her.

  “Is this what you wanted?” He breathed hot over her lips. Bracing one hand on the floor, he used the other to hold her head still while he shoved deep again and again, fucking her with hard, long strokes that made her whole body shudder.

  “Yes, yes...” Her fingertips dug into his shoulders.

  She was leaving bruises, he was sure, but he didn’t care. All he could focus on was thrusting deeper, faster, proving to her that he wasn’t at all what she thought.

  “Don’t stop,” she rasped. “Gods, don’t stop...”

  He couldn’t. He was too far gone.

  Shifting his weight to his knees, he grasped both of her legs and shoved them forward, then drove even deeper. “Say you like fucking me,” he growled.

  Her eyes slid closed. “I do. Gods, I do.”

  A frenzy rose up in his mind. One that told him to prove to her she wasn’t at all what she thought either. “Say you’re a dirty nymph who likes to be fucked by the gods.”

  “No.” She tossed her head from side to side and her channel grew impossibly tight around him. “Just by you. Only you. Ah, gods, Erebus. Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”

  Electricity raced down his spine and gathered in his balls. He plunged into her harder, unable to do anything but what she demanded, hating that she was still manipulating him, even now. “Say it,” he growled, his fingers tightening around her knees where he held her open to him. “Say you’re a manipulative little slut who uses sex to get what she wants.”

  Her eyes shot open, and before he realized what she was doing, she jerked her legs from his hold, pushed her hands against the floor and shot forward so her legs were around his waist, her chest was plastered to his, and her arms were locked tight around his shoulders.

  Her slick and tempting pussy clenched around his length as she lifted and lowered herself on his lap. “I’m not,” she breathed against his lips as his hands settled at her hips. “I didn’t. I only want you. I’ve only ever wanted you.”

  She pressed her mouth to his and kissed him, and as her tongue swept into his mouth and she groaned, he felt her climax claim her, and the feeling was so tight, so right, so seductive, it triggered his.

  Grunting, he pushed her to the carpet and gave himself over to her kiss, to her body, to everything she was and the ecstasy she could give him.

  When he was spent, when all he could do was twitch and groan, he pulled free of her slick core and pushed up on one hand to gaze down at her sexy, sated features covered in a thin layer of sweat.

  His chest grew tight, so tight he knew it was way past time he left.

  He braced his hands on the carpet and started to push up. Her legs hooked around his hips, preventing him from pulling free of her body, and then her hands were at his shoulders, pulling him back down to her.

  “Uh uh.” She tugged him back against all her tantalizing heat and stared up at him with eyes that were a soft, relaxed blue and lacked any of the anger he’d seen there before. “I said I’m not through with you, and I meant it.”

  His own anger had eased now that he’d released some stress, but he didn’t want to do anything to trigger it again. “Sera.” He reached up to pry her arms from his neck. “This has run its course.”

  She tightened her hold. “Not even close.”

  Frustrated, desperate now to leave, he frowned down at her. “I’m not going to stay here when—”

  “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I was just...” She bit her lip, looking sexy and nervous and innocent all at the same time. “I was scared, okay? I fell for you a year and a half ago during my training sessions. I fell hard, and when our sessions were over, you moved on to a new trainee as if I hadn’t even existed. That hurt me.”

  A little of his frustration waned. He braced a hand on the floor near her head. “I didn’t have a choice in that.”

  “I know, I just... It still hurt. And when I heard you in there with the Argonauts, I thought... Well, I thought you were getting ready to move on again. I lashed out because I’m weak.”

  He frowned. “You’re spirited and frustrating and sexy as hell, but you’re not weak.”

  One corner of her mouth curled.

  He sighed, liking the way she fit against him way too much. Knowing it was going to be a major problem for him when he left here. “I wasn’t saying no to them because I wanted to leave you. I said no because I have no interest in returning to the Underworld, even for just a visit. I spent thousands of years there doing shit work for Hades. As soon as I step in that realm he’ll try to find a way to keep me, prophecy or no prophecy, whether I use my cloak of darkness or not. Life on Olympus serving Zeus wasn’t a helluva lot better than it was serving Hades, but at least on Olympus I was away from all that misery and death. I can’t go back there.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. I should have realized that. I wasn’t thinking. Please forgive me.”

  He wanted to believe her, but he was still unsure what was truth. He only knew one truth he should have told her before. “For what it’s worth, I had to put you behind me at the Siren training compound. I couldn’t get emotionally involved with you then. It would have meant the end for both of us. But I didn’t forget about you. I never forgot about you.”

  “You didn’t even know who I was when you tackled me in the forest.”

  “I knew who you were as soon as I saw you. As soon as I touched you. How could I forget the one person in the world who ever made me feel alive?”

  Her eyes went all soft and dreamy, and before he realized it he grew hard inside her once more.

  “And what about now?” she asked, her words distracting him from how tight and wet she was around him. “We’re not in danger anymore and you’re free to make your own choices here in Argolea. Do you still want me? Because I want you. I wasn’t lying when I said I’m yours. I want only to be yours, Erebus. Now and always.”

  His heart skipped a beat. But he was still worried. Especially if she would only ever see him as a servant to the gods. “That depends on your friends in the other room. The only thing they want me for is to sacrifice myself for some prophecy I know nothing about. They won’t let me stay in this realm now that I’ve said no.”

  “Then we’ll go somewhere else.”

  When he looked away, she tugged him down to her, so his chest was pressed up against her gorgeous breasts and her mouth was a breath away from his lips. And around his cock, she clenched her muscles until it was all he could do to keep giving in to the pleasure and thrusting hard and deep all over again.

  “I don’t care what they want, Erebus. I mean, yes, I want them to be safe. I don’t want any other realm to suffer what Atlan
tis did, and I was willing to help them if I could, but not if it means losing you. They have the key. We brought it to them. Whatever they do with it now is up to them, not us. All I want is you. I want the future we couldn’t have before.” She clenched even tighter, drawing a groan from his throat. “I love you, Erebus.”

  His lungs felt as if they’d completely closed off. And for a moment, he didn’t breathe. Just stared down into her soft blue eyes, trying to see the lie, the manipulation, the contrary truth she was keeping hidden. But he didn’t see any of those things. He saw her. Her innocence when they’d first met on Olympus. He saw the fire inside her when she’d run from him at that half-breed colony. And he saw love. The kind of love he’d always hoped for but never thought was possible.

  His mouth was dry as cotton when his lips parted, and the words stuck in his throat. “I...”

  She pressed her lips against his. “Say you want the same. Say it, you dirty, dark, sexy god. Say you love me just as much. I know you do. I knew it the moment you pushed me up against the wall and I saw how much I’d hurt you.” She kissed him softly again, lifted her hips and flexed around his aching cock. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for that. Stay with me. Stay and let me make it up to you. I need you. Not for your powers or what you can do. I need you simply because I love you and want you in my life.”

  Something in his chest warmed and swelled until it felt like he might crack open wide. Lifting his hands to her face, he drew back from her mouth and brushed the soft locks from her intoxicating eyes. “Oh, Sera. You’re the only one who’s ever said that to me.”

  “I’m the only one who’s ever going to love you like this.” She did that wicked rocking again that made him nearly see stars. “Promise you won’t leave me.”

  He couldn’t. Not anymore.

  He captured her mouth with a searing kiss he felt everywhere, and when she groaned and kissed him back, the last of his doubt faded into the darkness.

  He rolled to his back, tugging her on top of him. Brushing the hair back from her face, he drew his mouth back a fraction of an inch and said, “Since you asked so nicely, I’ll stay. But only on one condition.”

  She grinned down at him. “Anything.”

  “Show me how much you love me, agápi. Make me believe it.”

  “I can do that.” Her lips curled in a wicked smile, and she braced her hands on his chest and began to move. “I can happily spend the rest of my days doing that.”

  Oh, fuck yes...

  She lowered and took his mouth, and as he kissed her back, he knew this time what she said was true. He also knew that he would easily be as happy letting her prove it to him for however long they were together.

  He just hoped it was more than a few days. Because now that he’d betrayed Zeus and said no to the Argoleans, they’d soon have to leave this protected realm. And there weren’t many places left in the world where he could hide from the Olympians and keep her safe.

  Chapter Ten

  Sera stretched and opened her eyes. The room was still dark, which meant morning hadn’t hit yet. Snuggling back into her pillow, she closed her eyes and reached her foot back, searching for Erebus’s heat behind her.

  Her muscles were sore and exhausted from hours of pleasuring him, and she knew she needed a little longer to rest and recharge her batteries, but she was already thinking up ways to pleasure him all over again. And as soon as he curled up against her back again—the same way he had when he’d wrung the last orgasm from her body and finally let her drift to sleep—she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop herself from doing just that.

  Her foot passed over the cold sheet, and she moved it farther back, still searching for him. Rolling to her other side, she reached out her hand, but found nothing but cold sheets and an empty bed.

  She lifted her head and peered around the dark and silent room. “Erebus?”

  No answering voice called out to her. Nothing but silence met her ears.

  A knock sounded at the suite’s outer door, and she jumped. Pushing up to sitting, she captured the sheet at her breasts and held her breath as she listened, afraid she might have imagined the sound. Another knock echoed through the suite.

  She exhaled and threw back the covers. It had to be him. He must have been hungry and gotten up to find something in the kitchen. They’d skipped dinner. Neither had wanted to venture out of their room. She wasn’t sure if the outer door automatically locked when it closed, but she guessed it had and that he’d forgotten to take a key.

  The knock sounded again.

  “Hold on,” she called, searching the floor for Erebus’s T-shirt. She couldn’t find it. Frowning, she grabbed her pajama bottoms and a cotton tank from the bottom dresser drawer and tugged both on as she moved into the living room.

  Her stomach rumbled as she moved into the dark entryway. She hoped he was bringing back a feast because she was suddenly ravenous.

  “I hope you brought enough to share,” she said as she yanked the door open, “because I’m starv—”

  Her words died as she looked into Elysia’s brown eyes. “Lys, what are you doing here this late? Is everything okay?”

  “No, everything’s not okay.” Dressed in her own pink cotton PJs, her hair pulled back in a messy tail, Elysia glanced past Sera and into the suite. “Is Erebus with you?”

  Alarm bells sounded in Sera’s mind. “No. I think he went down to the kitchen to get something to eat. Why? What’s wrong?”

  Elysia’s jaw hardened. “What time did he leave?”

  Those bells shrilled louder. “I don’t know. I was asleep. Why? What’s happened?”

  Elysia reached for her hand. “A lot. You’d better come with me.”

  Elysia wouldn’t say more than that the queen wanted to see Sera, and Sera’s anxiety inched up the closer they drew to the queen’s office.

  What was going on? Were they kicking her and Erebus out of the realm right now? In the middle of the night? That didn’t make sense, but neither did Elysia coming to her room at two a.m. acting cryptic and weird.

  The queen’s office was filled with more testosterone than Sera could handle. All the Argonauts turned to look at her as she entered, each one decked out not in pajamas like her and Elysia, but in thick leather pants, long-sleeved shirts, boots, and straps and gear she immediately recognized as warrior attire.

  “There she is.” The leader of the Argonauts stalked up to her and pinned her with a hard glare. “When was the last time you saw your god?”

  “Erebus? I-I don’t know.” She looked from face to face, wondering what was going on. “A few hours ago, I guess. I was asleep when he left.”

  “So he was with you tonight?” the blond Argonaut to the leader’s right asked, his silver eyes focused and expectant. “What time did you fall asleep?”

  Why were they asking her these questions? She looked to Elysia at her side for help, suddenly feeling like a prisoner being interrogated.

  Elysia patted her shoulder. “It’s all right. Just answer them truthfully.”

  Truthfully...

  She glanced back at the blond guardian, the one she was pretty sure was named Zander. “Eleven thirty, I guess. I don’t know for sure though. Why? What’s happened?”

  “I’ll tell you what’s happened.” The queen stepped out from behind the tall Argonaut—Demetrius—and wove through the sea of massive bodies before stopping in front of Sera. “Erebus is gone, and so is the key.”

  No.

  Disbelief churned inside Sera. That couldn’t be true. She wouldn’t believe it. “He went to the kitchen to get food fo—”

  “He’s not in the kitchen,” the queen said, interrupting her. “He’s not anywhere in the castle. Maelea, Gryphon’s mate, has the ability to sense energy shifts. We had her use her gift to scan outward from the castle, to see if he’s hiding somewhere within the realm. Cerek said he was asking about Kyrenia and any settlements in the Aegis Mountains. But Maelea found no sign of him. He left Argolea, Sera. And it’s no coin
cidence the key is missing now too. There’s only one place we can figure he would go. To Olympus. To give the key you stole back to his master Zeus.”

  Pain slashed through Sera’s chest, and her mouth fell open. She couldn’t believe it. She didn’t want to believe it. But even she couldn’t deny it looked bad. He’d stormed out of this office only hours ago, seething with anger because the Argoleans were talking about destroying the key. She knew he didn’t want to go back to the Underworld. She remembered the rage in his eyes when those Sirens had spotted him in this realm. If he was scared Zeus already knew he was here, if he thought his only chance for survival was to return the key to Zeus, would he do it?

  Doubts, questions, fear vibrated in her chest and made her pulse race like wildfire. He’d told her he hated serving the gods. She knew that was true. But he’d also told her about his family, how the Titans had stripped the primordial deities of their human forms and cast them into nothingness, and she knew he’d do anything to prevent that from happening to him.

  Voices echoed around her but she couldn’t make herself listen to the words. Her head spun with memories of Erebus on Olympus, here in their suite, in that half-breed settlement just before they’d made love.

  “If I had known about your past, things would have been different. I never would have let you be hunted. After all you’ve been through, agápi, you deserve to be cherished and protected. Because you’re special. Precious. You are the epitome of rare and irreplaceable and unique, and I won’t ever let anyone hurt you again. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep you safe. I vow this to you here and now.”

  Her stomach tightened as the words circled in her head. He hadn’t said he loved her tonight, but she’d felt it. She’d felt every ounce of his love, and remembering his words from the half-breed colony, she knew they were true. He’d do anything to keep her safe. Even the very thing he’d told her he wouldn’t do.

  She glanced over the faces in front of her, over the Argonauts arguing about what they needed to do next. And in the center of her chest, her heart beat hard and fast, not from fear or heartache, but with love.