A satisfied smile curled her lips as she took in the thin layer of sweat all over his body and the way he lay completely wrecked beneath her.
She’d done that. She’d made him absolutely limp. He might have taught her a thing or two about seduction on Olympus, but she’d always been able to rock his world right out from under him. Right from the first night they’d spent together.
“Is that what you remember?” She squeezed his thigh and breathed hot against his still engorged cock.
Something else she remembered. He was a god. He didn’t need any down time. Which she’d never been more thankful for than she was right at that moment.
His eyes drifted open and locked on her still kneeling between his legs. Eyes that were glossy from his orgasm but not nearly satisfied. “That’s a good start, agápi.”
Heat flashed in his sinful eyes just before he sat up, grasped her shoulders, and dragged her up his body so he could devour her mouth. She groaned, sucked on his tongue, reached for him. But before she could straddle his hips, he lurched out from under her, slid to her back, and pushed her to her belly.
She grunted as her face pressed against the mattress. In one swift move, he stripped the pajama bottoms from her legs then pushed her to her knees. “Ass up, oraios.” When she tried to push up on her hands, he placed one big palm between her shoulder blades to hold her down. “Only your sweet ass.”
Excitement swirled inside her when he used the ancient word for beautiful. And between her thighs, which he was already pushing apart with his knees, her pussy trembled.
Long, thick, torturous fingers slid along her swollen flesh, and he groaned. “Oh, you naughty nymph. You’re already wet and dripping. Let’s see what I can do about that.”
She didn’t know what he had planned, but when the bed bounced, that excitement inside her flared even hotter. Then she felt the flat of his tongue flicking over her clit and sliding through her heat, and all she could do was press her forehead into the sheet and groan.
Yes, yes, yes... That was exactly what she wanted. She rocked back, loving every moment of his attention. Decadent pleasure teased every nerve ending. He licked her again and again, until she was thrusting against his tongue and desperate to feel him slide inside her aching sheath. With one hand she squeezed her breast. With the other she gripped the blanket above her head and simply held on. The orgasm she’d been so close to feeling since the moment he’d dragged her into this room barreled toward her at light speed, and the instant he drew her clit between his lips and suckled, it consumed her like a fireball engulfing everything in its path.
Her whole body shuddered, and her knees gave out so she landed on her belly on the bed. But even before her powerful climax faded, he was pulling her hips up with his hands, pushing his knees between her legs, and brushing his monster erection right where she needed it most.
“Don’t pass out on me, agápi. Not yet. We’re not finished.”
The head of his cock stretched her pussy so wide it was a mixture of pleasure and pain she’d only ever felt with him. A groan rumbled from her throat, one that was rooted in both ecstasy because of the way he made her feel and relief that with him she never had to have that awkward discussion about safe sex. Otherworldly beings—her included—were immune to human viruses and diseases. And thanks to her long life span, she was only fertile once every couple of years. She knew the signs when her fertility was active—as did he, being a god—and thankfully it was nowhere close now.
She tightened around him, trying to drag him deeper into her slick channel. Felt his fingers digging into her hips, felt the rough scratch of his leg hair brushing the backs of her thighs. And then he was there, shoving in so deep all she could do was gasp and curl the fingers of both hands into the blanket while she hung on for the ride.
“Fuck, Sera...” He drew back, shoved in even harder, and moaned. “So tight. So good.” He slid back out once more, then thrust home all over again. “I forgot how hot and perfect you were.”
Every time he drew almost all the way out, her sex contracted to hold him in, and each time he thrust deep, the head of his cock slammed against her G-spot and sent tiny electrical arcs all through her body. Her eyes slid closed. Her mouth fell open as he fucked into her again and again. She spread her knees and pushed back against every thrust, wanting more, wanting everything, wanting to pull him with her into mind-numbing ecstasy.
He leaned forward so the hard plane of his chest brushed her back, wrapped one arm around her waist, then slid his fingers into her wetness and flicked her clit in time with his thrusts. “Tell me how much you like this, agápi.”
“So much.” She arched her back so he could drive even deeper, so he could hit that perfect spot even harder. “Oh, god, so, so much.”
“I am your god, Sera. Don’t you forget it.” His thrusts picked up speed until he was pistoning into her and the edges of her vision turned black. “Don’t you forget it, baby.”
Another orgasm, this one even bigger than the last, steamrolled straight for her.
“Oh yes, oraios. Squeeze me. Just like that. Don’t let up. I’m going to make you come. I’m going to make you come so hard you’ll never want anyone but me.”
Her mouth dropped open in a silent scream, and just before her climax hit she had one thought.
She didn’t want anyone but him. She hadn’t wanted anyone else since the moment she’d tasted him eighteen months before. And she knew she’d never want anyone after him, even when this night was just a memory.
The orgasm consumed her, making her whole body jerk and quiver. A scream registered in her ears. Her scream. But all she could feel was blinding ecstasy.
Her cries of ecstasy faded and were drowned out by his grunt of satisfaction and a low growl as he said, “That’s it. That’s it right there, agápi. Fuck yes, that’s exactly what I’ve been missing.”
She wasn’t sure when he came. When she finally tore her eyes open, all she knew was that she was flat against the mattress on her belly and that Erebus lay across her back, his rapid heartbeat pounding into her spine.
Every single muscle in her body was limp, her skin slicked with sweat, her brain completely wrecked. His heavy weight pressing into her made it painful to draw air, but she loved it. Loved the feel of him against her, around her, inside her. And even though it made her weak, even though she knew fucking him into exhaustion wasn’t physically or emotionally smart, she didn’t care. He was right. She’d missed this. And holy hell, as soon as she regained even a fraction of her strength, she wanted to do it all over again.
He slid off her back so she could breathe but didn’t roll away from her. Though his heavenly erection was no longer inside her, she felt it lying semi-hard against the back of her thigh as he draped his leg over hers. Just the thought of rousing that magnificent beast back to attention made her pussy twitch with need all over again.
He pushed her hair to one side and trailed his fingers down her sweaty spine. “Are you still alive, gorgeous?”
Groaning, she turned her face toward his and found his mouth temptingly close. So close she could feel the heat of his breath across her swollen lips. “Barely.”
A smile cut across his dark face, making him look absolutely beautiful in the low firelight. “That’s the way I like you. Completely ruined from my touch.”
“It’s not just from your touch.” She pulled her arm from beneath her, shifted it to her back so her fingertips grazed his hip, then closed her hand around his length, wet and slick from her body where it lay across her. “It’s from what you can do with this magical monster.”
His eyes darkened as she used her moisture to stroke him base to tip until he was hard and hot and ready all over again.
He groaned low in his throat, then the hand on her spine grasped the back of her head and dragged her mouth to his. And as he kissed her, he rolled her to her back and climbed over her.
Oh yes. That was exactly what she wanted. For however long she could have it.
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She opened to his kiss, to his touch, to his every want and desire. Knew she couldn’t hold back. Knew she’d never been able to. His big hands cradled her head. His body pressed her back into the mattress. His glorious cock settled between her legs and teased her aching sex.
She wound her arms around his shoulders and held on, but instead of thrusting deep like she expected, he drew back from her mouth and stilled his taunting movements between her legs.
His eyes held hers, hot and insistent and filled with so much emotion her chest tightened. “I’m not letting you go, Sera.”
She inhaled slowly, fighting the feelings coursing through her chest. They were the words she’d longed to hear for ages, but they’d come too late to make a difference in her life. Focusing on his lips so he couldn’t see what was going on inside her, she said, “I’m not yours to keep.”
“Yes, you are,” he whispered. “You always were. And this time I’m going to prove it to you.”
He lowered and took her mouth just as his cock took possession of her body, and she gave him both without question. Gave him everything even as tears burned her eyes because he was right.
She was his. She’d been his from their first touch on Olympus. She’d always be his and forever curse the fact she’d finally gotten exactly what she’d always wanted but that fate still wasn’t on her side.
Because the truth would come out, and the moment Erebus discovered what she’d stolen from the King of the Gods, he’d have no choice but to haul her back to Olympus.
He thought he had free will, but he didn’t. He was a servant to the ruling gods. No matter how much she loved him, she would never again be a pawn in any of their games.
Chapter Seven
Erebus was warm and content and more relaxed than he’d ever been.
The fire crackled in the fireplace as he dozed with Sera beside him in the big bed. She’d fallen right to sleep after he’d brought her to a fourth blistering climax—or maybe he’d been the one to drift to sleep; he wasn’t sure. Regardless, now, as he drifted in that space between sleep and consciousness with her heat warming the coldest places inside him, thoughts echoed in his mind. Thoughts he hadn’t considered until this very moment.
His draw to Sera—not just here but eighteen months ago on Olympus—made so much sense now. She was from Atlantis, the enlightened race, the golden utopian realm, and he was from darkness. She was everything he wasn’t—light instead of dark, selfless instead of selfish, resourceful instead of resigned. She balanced him in ways no one he’d encountered before her ever could. And he knew with her, he could lift himself to a place he’d never been able to reach on his own.
He wasn’t giving her up. He didn’t care what the Sirens said. He didn’t care what Zeus wanted. He needed her, and he’d do whatever it took to keep her with him.
He rolled toward her, reached across the space between them to draw her back against his body, and faltered when his hand met nothing but cold sheets and blankets. Tearing his eyes open, he lifted his head and looked across the bed, surprised to see her side empty.
He pushed up to sitting and glanced across the room illuminated only by the dying fire toward the darkened bathroom. His pulse picked up speed, and he quickly climbed out of bed, telling himself the whole time she was in there, only the room was empty when he reached it.
Panic shot through his chest, chilling all those places that had warmed because of her. One look at the closed window told him she hadn’t gone out that way. Turning back into the room, he spotted the open bedroom door, and reality hit him hard in the chest.
She hadn’t run. She’d walked right out of this room. And he’d been too blinded by pleasure to stop her.
His fingers shook as he dressed. He didn’t know how long she’d been gone, but he had to find her. Why the fuck would she run? They’d reconnected tonight. He’d seen it in her eyes, felt it in that space that hurt like a motherfucker in his chest right this moment. She was his. She knew she was his. What had spooked her into running when he knew she’d felt everything he had?
Zeus.
Fear stabbed like a knife straight through his heart, stilling his feet on the stairs.
Zeus could scare the fuck out of her and make her run. If the King of the Gods had been privy to what they’d done, if Zeus had any idea what Erebus was planning, he could have shown up here. He could have threatened Sera. He could have taken her.
He pushed his legs into a sprint and shot down to the tunnels. His enhanced sense of sight scanned the main corridors for any sign of her but he already knew she wasn’t in any of them. She was gone. She was outside the ruins. All he could do was hope and pray he got to her before Zeus took her back to Olympus.
The forest was dark and damp when he raced out of the tunnels and stilled in the silence to search for her. He couldn’t see her through the thick trees, but faintly he picked up the crashing of brush. Picked up racing heartbeats. Recognized heavy breaths and pounding footfalls.
Most were animals. He sensed elk not far away. A raccoon was in a tree a quarter mile to his left. And a cougar roamed the hillside to his right. But there was no sign of Sera.
He closed his eyes and focused on her, able to find her now because of his connection to her. Tuning in to his hearing, he searched the area for the familiar sounds of her breathing, the memorable scent of her skin. And located her a mile up the mountain to his right, not far from that cougar.
Using his god senses to zero in on her position, he flashed to that spot, muscles tight and ready to step between her and the King of the Gods. Except when he appeared at her back there was no sign of Zeus. No sign of anyone else but her. And she wasn’t running away as he’d expected. She was crouched on the ground with her hand inside an old, decaying log.
“Come on,” she muttered with no clue he was behind her. “I know you’re in here.”
Erebus had no idea what she was doing, but something about the scene, about her hair shining almost silver in the moonlight set the hairs on his nape straight to attention.
“There you are.” She exhaled what he recognized as a relieved breath and pulled something out of the log. He tilted his head to see over her shoulder and watched as she brushed dirt from a palm-sized silver coin.
“What are you doing, Sera?”
She jerked to her feet and whipped around to face him. Wide-eyed, she closed her fist tightly around the coin, hiding it from view. “Erebus. I—you scared me.”
“I see that.” He didn’t like the guilty look on her face or where his thoughts were going at the moment. “Tell me you have a good reason for running this time. Right out of my bed when I thought you’d enjoyed that as much as I had.”
“I...”
Warning signals fired off in his head when she couldn’t even formulate a simple answer, and that darkness inside surged right to the forefront. Warning signals that screamed she hadn’t felt any of the shit he had in that room tonight. “Start talking, Sera, before I come up with scenarios you don’t like.”
She swallowed hard and pulled whatever was in her hand against her chest. Her feet shuffled backward, and fear replaced the guilt in her eyes. The only thing that stopped her from bolting was the log at her heels that slowed her movement.
Before she could step back and over it, he grasped her wrist, pulled it away from her chest, and pried her fingers open. She yelped and tried to push his hand away, but he blocked her and stared down at the silver coin that was no bigger than her palm and stamped with an image of Heracles surrounded by the traditional Greek key design.
“I’ve seen this before,” he said in a slow voice, lifting it so he could turn it in the moonlight.
“Erebus... Don’t.”
“This is the Medallion of Heracles. The key that opens the doors of Argolea, the realm of the ancient heroes, to any being who possesses it.” His brow lowered in disbelief as he glanced back at her. “Where did you get this?”
She swallowed hard, and her gaze shot to the med
allion still in his hand. “Just...give it back. Please.”
Something didn’t make sense. What the hell was she doing with the key to Argolea? He’d heard of its existence when he’d been with Hades, but it had been lost for years.
His jaw tightened. “Start fucking talking, Sera, because I can’t think of a single reason why you, the last surviving Atlantean, would have this key. Unless you stole it from someone and plan to sell it to the highest bidder.”
“Okay, just listen. And don’t do anything rash until I tell you everything, okay?” She lifted her hands in what he knew was a pleading move, but it did little to settle the darkness inside him. “I did steal it. From Zeus. That’s why he sent you after me. Not because I failed any of the Siren tests, but because I took the key so he couldn’t use it.”
His eyes flew wide. Not just because of what she’d done but because he hadn’t known the King of the Gods had come into possession of the key. Zeus despised the Argoleans and could do serious damage with this key. He bet Zeus also wouldn’t think twice about doing serious damage to the person who stole it from him.
“You know the story about the creation of Argolea, right?” she said quickly. “How Zeus created the realm of Argolea for his son Heracles to keep Heracles and his descendants safe from Hera’s wrath? When Zeus created Argolea, he created a border that was impenetrable to the Olympians. He thought that would protect Heracles and all the others. And it did, but it also prevented Zeus from crossing into Argolea whenever he wanted. To get around that, Zeus had Hephaestus forge a special key, that medallion in your hand. It grants the bearer of the medallion the ability to cross into Argolea, regardless of race. For hundreds, thousands of years, Zeus had no reason to use the key so he kept it hidden. And the place he chose to hide it was in the one realm he knew Hera had no interest in visiting: Atlantis.”