He licked her again and again, trailed his tongue up to her clit and circled. Gripping her ass with one hand, he brushed the finger of his other hand against her opening and was rewarded with a guttural sound from her throat as he pressed inside and stroked.
“Gryphon…I love that. Oh, gods, you’re going to make me come.”
Exactly what he wanted. All he wanted. He slid his finger out, pressed inside again with two, and closed his lips around her clit to suckle. She lifted her hips, lowered, rocked against his face while he drove her closer to the edge. He stroked deeper with his fingers, circled and swirled with his tongue. And when she tightened around him, when she cried out and he tasted her release on his tongue, his entire body spasmed, as if he were coming too.
He continued to lick her, to gently caress her, as the aftershocks rocked her body. As they echoed through his. He knew he hadn’t ejaculated, but he felt her orgasm as strongly as if it were his own. In his skin. In his veins. In the very bottom of his soul.
She shuddered one last time, dropped forward to brace her hands against the stairs over his head. While she tried to catch her breath, he looked up her body. Noticed—in the morning sunlight spilling over them—faint white lines on the skin of her inner arms.
He’d seen those scars in that shower they’d taken together at the motel. But then he’d been too distracted to wonder about them.
Like he wasn’t distracted now? Skata, he’d worry about them later. Right now he needed her.
He eased out from under her. His balls were so tight, he knew it wasn’t going to take much. But he wasn’t about to let go until he felt her come again. This time when he was deep inside her.
He slid his arms around her waist, lifted her off the steps. She was so light, he turned her easily. She gasped when his mouth found hers again, but then she was kissing him with urgency, wrapping her arms tight around his neck and her legs even tighter around his waist.
Gods, this was what he wanted. All he wanted. All he’d dreamed about since the first moment he saw her at the colony. Couldn’t believe she was here with him now. He palmed her ass, rubbed the length of his shaft up and down her wetness as he carried her the rest of the way up the stairs. Even though it brought him within degrees of boiling, he luxuriated in the vibrations that echoed through his chest when she groaned.
He dropped her on her back on the bed. Eased away just long enough to push down his jeans and kick them off. She reached for him when he came back. Kissed his forehead, his cheek, his jaw, then finally found his lips again. Shivers rushed over his spine as he settled in the vee of her body. As his cock brushed her wetness and the tip barely pressed inside.
“Gryphon…” She dropped her head back against the mattress, tightened around him.
“Sotiria, look at me.” He wanted to see her eyes when he filled her. Wanted to know what she was feeling.
She blinked several times, then finally opened those dark orbs to focus on him. And as he pressed into her, he watched those eyes widen, watched them haze over with pure lust. Watched her give herself to him.
No fear. No pain. Just trust.
Warmth unfurled inside his chest as he eased out, as he pushed into her again. As she trembled beneath him. And for the first time in his life, he felt completely whole. Not empty. Not the shell of the man he’d always yearned to be. Not the broken soul he’d been since the Underworld. With her, here, he felt…complete.
Emotions rolled through him. Ones he couldn’t define and was afraid to try to. So many, the combined power slammed against his ribs. The connection he felt to her now…it was different from before. It wasn’t bathed in darkness. It radiated light. A light that warmed him from the inside out. A light that shoved aside the voice until he couldn’t hear it anymore. Until the buzz he’d lived with the last four months was gone too. Until there was nothing but the two of them, rocking together on this bed, losing themselves in each other over and over and over again.
“Gryphon.” She lifted her head, kissed him, slid her hands down to his ass and pulled him closer.
He knew what she wanted. The same thing he wanted. He braced his hands against the mattress and drove into her deeper, kissed her harder, pushed her to the edge with every thrust. And when her climax rocketed through her, when she broke free of his mouth and groaned long and low, he didn’t let up. He plunged harder, faster, drawing out every last spasm and shudder and ounce of pleasure from her that he could.
Only when he knew she was spent, that he’d given her ecstasy no one else ever had…then he finally let go. And shook from the sheer force of his orgasm as it exploded through every nerve ending in his body.
He was shaking when he finally collapsed against her. She wrapped her arms around his sweaty shoulders, her legs around his damp back. His head fell into the hollow between her shoulder and neck, and her warm breath washed over his temple as she pressed her lips against his forehead. Her heart raced next to his, and he knew he had to be crushing her, but he couldn’t move. His body wasn’t working yet. He thought that orgasm on the boat had been the best of his life? It hadn’t even come close to this.
Aftershocks rippled across his body, sent electrical jolts through his muscles, keeping him immobilized.
Her chest rose against his as she drew in a deep breath. Lowered as she blew it out. “Gryphon?”
“Yeah.” His brain was slowly coming back online, even if his limbs still weren’t responding. “I…I’m hurting you. I’ll move.”
“No, it’s not that.”
He braced his hand against the mattress, started to push off her, but she tightened her pelvic muscles, stopping him.
He grew hard all over again.
She smiled against his temple. “Mm…that’s what I was hoping for.”
Arousal and desire and need rushed through him. A need more demanding than before, because now he knew how to sate it.
He eased up on his arm and looked down at her. She tightened her legs around his back and clenched her sex, drawing him back deep inside her, then smiled up at him with a wicked, sinful grin that made his blood run hot.
Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen from his kisses, her eyes filled with the same hunger coursing through him. But there was something else. Something more. Something…
His chest cinched tight as she shifted her weight and rolled him over, as she flexed her hips, as she claimed his mouth all over again.
He slid his hands down to her slim hips and helped her ride. Dark hair fell in a curtain around their faces. He brushed it back. Let her take control. And gave himself over to her the way she’d done to him.
It wasn’t a mystery anymore. He knew what that connection he felt to her was. Could read it so easily, now that his mind was clear and the voice was gone. Would have known the first time he’d tasted her if it weren’t for that damn interference.
She was his soul mate. Everything he’d ever wanted. The only person who could calm him, who could make him feel again. The woman he would eventually lose when she finally got her dream and was accepted into Olympus.
“Touch me, Gryphon,” she whispered against his lips. “Anywhere. Everywhere. I just want you.”
He was wrong. He did have a heart. A heart that had reawakened, all because of her. And after everything he’d been through, after all the torture and agony and bitter misery he’d endured, he knew none of it was going to compare with what would happen to that heart when he finally lost her for good.
Emotions closed his throat. All he could do was wrap his arms around her, drag her as close as possible, and take what little she could give him now.
And give the same back to her tenfold.
***
The wind rustling the thin curtains through the open window brought Maelea’s eyes open.
Darkness pressed in, shards of moonlight illuminating th
e room in ribbons of white. As waves lapped gently at the shore outside, she glanced down at Gryphon, draped over her, his head pillowed on her chest as he slept, his legs tangled with hers beneath the sheet, his arm wrapped around her waist as if he never wanted to let go.
Warmth spread through her chest when she remembered how he’d touched her with those big hands, how he’d pleasured her so completely, how he’d looked at her not with dead eyes, as he had before, but with emotion-filled pools of blue, as if she was the only thing in the world he needed.
She ran her fingers through his blond hair, traced the puckered edge of a scar near his temple that she hadn’t noticed before. In sleep the lines on his face relaxed, the stress and anxiety he carried with him eased. He looked more childlike than warrior, more human than Argonaut. Cocooned here with him in this secluded house, in the quiet of the early summer evening, she wondered how she could ever have been afraid of him.
He was not at all what she’d thought. He wasn’t cold and unfeeling. Wasn’t the monster those females at the half-breed colony had talked about. Wasn’t anything but lost and alone, just like her.
Her chest tightened, and she drew in a breath to ease the ache around her heart. She’d accepted her lot in life long ago. Knew that being alone was part of the hand she’d been dealt. She just hadn’t expected to find someone who shared her feelings, who understood her, now of all times, when she was finally ready to make her move to Olympus.
Carefully, so as not to wake him, she eased out from under his weight. He grunted, shifted to his belly, tucked the pillow under his head, then resumed the steady draw and push of air as he relaxed back into sleep.
He was really gorgeous, asleep in her bed, looking so big and masculine against the feminine furnishings. The sheet lay angled low across his muscular back, the white of the cotton such a stark contrast to his olive skin and thick blond hair. In the moonlight the Argonaut markings on his forearms stood out, reminding her he was more than just a man who’d brought her to four—no, make that five—blistering climaxes in the last few hours. He was a hero, regardless of what had been done to him in the Underworld. One of Zeus’s appointed heroes.
Zeus.
There was a mood buster, if ever she thought of one. Her father. The King of the Gods. The male who’d sired her but had done nothing to help her over the long years of her life. The god who hadn’t once even acknowledged her presence. She knew why—because doing so would break the agreement he’d made with Hades, thereby ensuring Hades wouldn’t retaliate against her mother’s treachery—but it still stung. And now she was trying to get to his realm. Trying to prove herself to someone who obviously didn’t care about her. Was she completely insane or just slightly fucked in the head?
Scowling at her obvious stupidity, she moved into the closet, quietly pulled out her thin robe, belted it around her waist, and headed for the stairs.
It was close to midnight, but she was wide awake. They’d spent all day in bed, pleasuring each other, drifting off to sleep only to reawaken and start all over again. And while her body was exhausted and she knew she should sleep, she couldn’t, because her mind was racing. Night was her time. When she felt most alive. She supposed she had her mother to thank for that too.
She grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch, pushed the screen door open, and wrapped the cotton around her shoulders. Night, even in summer, was cool on Vancouver Island, but not freezing. As she headed down the rickety steps, she stared out at the water glistening like a million diamonds under the light of the moon and drew in a deep breath that immediately calmed her.
She loved the ocean. Loved the water. The gentle lap of waves against shore always relaxed her, especially in times of confusion, of which this definitely was one. She found a spot midway to the water and dropped down in the sand as she tugged the blanket tighter to her chest, the silky granules like heaven beneath her bare feet.
For the first time in forever she felt torn. She’d finally decided what she wanted, was finally brave enough to go after her goal, and now had found…what? Her soul mate? She frowned. She didn’t believe in soul mates, but she did believe in love.
Was that what she was feeling for Gryphon? So soon? That idea was even more ludicrous than her earlier ones. No, she wasn’t convinced this was love, but she found it damn inconvenient that after all these years of being alone, she’d finally found someone who needed her to fill a void no one else had been able to fill. Not a single person—mortal or immortal—had ever needed her like that. Not even the few men she’d loved and lost along the way.
She wasn’t delusional. She knew Gryphon hadn’t made her any kind of promise. He hadn’t said much of anything, for that matter. He’d been too busy making love to her. But she knew he felt something for her. Could see it in his eyes every time he touched her. This connection they shared was deeper than the darkness that resided inside each of them. The question was, if she had the choice to stay with him or go to Olympus, which would she choose?
“What are you doing out here in the dark?”
She jumped at Gryphon’s voice so close behind her, whipped around to look up at him. He was wearing nothing but those low-slung faded jeans, his hands shoved into the front pockets, his hair mussed, his eyes sleepy. Moonlight glinted off his bare chest, highlighted his strong stomach muscles, the thin red lines of his wound, which was already healing, and the dusting of hair that led from his belly button and disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.
A wicked burst of heat unfurled in her stomach as she stared at him. A heat that told her the question she’d posed to herself was not one she could answer when he was anywhere close. “I couldn’t sleep.”
He stared at her for several seconds as if she might jump out and bite him, then finally nodded her way. “You got room in there for one more?”
She smiled and opened the blanket.
He eased in behind her, angled one leg on each side of her body, pulled her back tight to his chest so she leaned against him, then wrapped the blanket around his back so it cocooned them both. Then he slid his arms around her waist as she closed the blanket again at her front.
His breath ran down her neck, heated her skin. His arms around her were snug and secure, and when the stirrings of an erection pressed against her lower back, she remembered all the erotic, amazing things he’d done to her in that bed.
Her eyes slid closed. She drew in a breath, let it out slowly. Told herself to enjoy this, just being close to him. Everything else…her future, his future, what would happen in a few days…none of it mattered.
“You like the night, don’t you?” His voice was gruff near her ear. And so damn sexy, a shiver of arousal rushed through her when she remembered that voice whispering to her as they’d made love. “I used to watch you from my window. You always went out at night.”
“You watched me?”
“Does that creep you out?”
She looked out over the sparkling water. It used to—when she was at the colony and she’d look up to see him in the window. But now…now it electrified her. “No.”
“I thought you were beautiful.”
Her pulse picked up speed. “You did?”
His thumb brushed the underside of her breast. “I did. I do. Your skin glows under the moonlight. Did you know that? As white as snow. Every hour in that room alone…” His throat worked against her as he swallowed. “It was dark and depressing. Seeing you outside at night…it gave me something bright to look forward to.”
Her heart bumped. She didn’t know what to say. Holding the blanket closed with one hand, she slid the other down to his at her waist and closed her fingers around it.
He nuzzled her neck. “That’s how you found the entrance to the tunnels, isn’t it? When you were out exploring at night?”
She smiled, because watching her was obviously how he’d known where to i
ntercept her. “It is. Orpheus wasn’t going to let me leave any other way.”
“Orpheus worries about you. Now I understand why. He feels guilty for exposing you to Hades so he could rescue me.”
She ran her fingers along the backs of his and remembered her perfect house on Lake Washington. Remembered those hellhounds destroying it. “I know he does. I was upset when he first brought me to the colony, but when I found out he’d come after me to save you…well, not much you can be angry about there anymore, you know?”
“I’d still have been angry. Orpheus has always done shit without thinking of the consequences.”
She chuckled, because that sounded a lot like Orpheus to her. But she also knew what Orpheus had done had been for good, not selfishness. “He loves you, you know.”
Gryphon rested his chin against her shoulder. “I know.”
They sat for several minutes in silence, just looking out over the water, his warm breath heating her body, his fingers against her waist slowly stoking the fire in her blood.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said into her hair.
“What?”
“How did we get from that boat here? I mean, I know you said we drove, but…how the hell did you get me off that boat? I must have passed out, because I don’t remember anything except…”
She smiled. “Except sex?”
His lips curled against her neck. “Yeah. That. Really hot sex.”
Desire slid back through her veins. She shouldn’t be turned on again, not after the numerous times they’d already ravaged each other, but she was. “Well, when your legs buckled and you fell and hit your head then passed out, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get you off that boat before someone found us, so I untied it from the dock and we sailed across to the other side of the lake.”
“So that’s how I got that bump on my head.”
She cringed. “Yeah. Sorry. I tried to stop you from falling, but you’re a little heavier than I am. I couldn’t hold you up.”
He chuckled. “So you stole someone’s boat.”