by Lazu, Sotia
“His name is Palaemon.” It was the second or third time Prometheus referred to him as your daimon friend, and it grated on her nerves along with his dismissive attitude. “And if you’re implying he and I are anything more than friends, you couldn’t be more wrong.”
He closed in on her, like a shark circling its prey. “I didn’t ask. And I couldn’t care less if he bent you over a rock and plowed you, now that I’ve opened the way. But whatever you do with him, make sure to be outside this cave at dawn, or I’ll come looking for you. And if I do, your daimon friend will perish.”
She slapped him. She didn’t realize she was going to, until her palm made hard contact with his cheek. The red mark that blossomed on his skin—bronzed, though the sun hadn’t seen him in forever—almost smudged out her ire. Almost. “How dare you imply that I...” She huffed. “I mean, that you’d think I’d...” Forming a coherent accusation eluded her, so she raised her hand for another blow.
Prometheus snatched her wrist midair and drove her back with his body so hard, the air whooshed out of her lungs as he pressed her against the wall. “Consider this your final warning. Next time you touch me, I won’t stop myself,” he whispered in her ear.
He wanted her, despite himself. He’d said so, and his erection against her belly proved it. His breath, hot against her neck, made her shiver in anticipation. She licked her lips, trying to calm her racing pulse. Part of her wanted to touch him and make him lose control, but should she? What good could come out of it? He’d still resent her—possibly more if they made love again.
Sex. It was sex. Better yet, a quick romp, devoid of emotion.
He lifted his head, to look her in the eye. “That’s what I thought. So you’d better think twice before laying a hand on me ag—”
She slapped him again.
His stunned expression would be funny, if raw desire didn’t singe her senses at the hunger in his gaze. “You—”
“Touched you.”
His grin was beautiful and scary, and she shivered when he ducked to tug her earlobe between his teeth. “Then I suppose now is my turn.”
It was all the warning she got, before the wall stretched out behind and under her, until she lay on it with her legs dangling off the edge and Prometheus between them.
Her dress had ridden high, and her thighs weren’t the only part of her exposed. As a rule, Nereids didn’t wear undergarments. Underwear wasn’t of much use under the sea, when their legs gave way to a tail, and there was seldom reason to bother with them on their short jaunts ashore.
Prometheus trailed his fingers up her inner thigh, barely making contact. She wanted to scoot closer, rush him to where she needed him the most, but his focus on her face was so intense, he might as well be holding her in place.
He reached her mound and traced her slit with a feather-light caress. “Is this what you want me to touch?”
Gods, yes.
Chapter Ten
How could this female, trembling at his slightest touch, have sold him out to Zeus?
The man I used to love, she’d said. Like she didn’t anymore.
But she wanted him?
He was giving this too much thought, when her divine pussy dripped against his fingertips like a ripe peach, begging him to bury his teeth in its flesh. No reason to hold back, when she was obviously a willing participant.
But he could make it more about his pleasure than hers.
“No,” he said and watched her thighs tense.
She whimpered. “No?”
“Drop down to your knees and take me in your mouth first. Make it good, and I’ll reward you.” He could tell himself this was about exerting power, but in truth, he ached to see if her desire matched his.
Pherusa covered herself with her dress. Was she going to turn him down?
A smile played on her lips as she slid down from the parapet he’d forged and lifted the hem of his shirt to skate her palms up his chest.
“I said—”
“You said to make it good.” She placed an open-mouthed kiss over his heart and blew a puff of cool air on it. He’d taught her this, on a starry night, back when there was hope and love in his heart.
No. No... trip down memory lane—yes, that was what they called it. He might not have her heart, but he’d enjoy her body on what few moments like this they had left before he imploded and took this planet with him.
Pherusa kissed down his abs and licked a trail along his hip bone, just above his confining pants, before sinking onto her knees. He wanted to tangle his fingers in her golden locks and push her lower, but every square centimeter of skin her lips touched was on fire, and he enjoyed the exquisite torment.
She undid the button on his shorts and pulled down that metallic contraption called a zipper, and cool air caressed his hard cock.
Pherusa took her time, edging her fingers inside his waistband and dragging the garment lower, then scratching her nails down his ass and the backs of his legs.
He pumped his hips, and his shaft tapped her cheek, but she paid it no attention, as she brought her hands around front and scraped them upward, her thumbs digging into the muscles of his thighs.
When she turned her green eyes up at him with undisguised lust, it took all he had not to grab her head and thrust himself between her rosy lips. Still, he raised the ground beneath her shins enough that she was at the perfect height, eye-level with his cock.
Pherusa flicked her tongue over the tip and hummed appreciatively, before stretching her lips around his girth. Gaia. She felt incredible, but it was her expression—eager and satisfied, eyelids fluttering—that made him groan.
Prometheus fisted his hands at his sides and focused on remaining still, while she sucked him in, centimeter by agonizing centimeter. With half of his length ensconced in the scorching heat of her mouth, he couldn’t refrain from rocking against her, but Pherusa wouldn’t be hurried.
Digging the nails of one hand into his ass, she cupped his balls with the other and tugged lightly. So very, very slowly, she glided up his shaft until only the head of his cock was still in her mouth, and then circled it with her tongue, before sucking him in again.
Unable to hold back any longer, Prometheus knotted his hands in her hair and used his grip to guide her up and down his cock faster.
She let him dictate the rhythm, slurping at him when he allowed her tongue room to move, and moaning around him as he bottomed out.
Prometheus throbbed with the need for release, and he wouldn’t deny himself. His Titan constitution meant he could achieve an erection again seconds after he came, so he wasn’t lying when he promised her he’d make it worth her while.
“I’m close.” He loosened his hold, so she could pull away, but Pherusa let go of his sack to pump him with her hand while she sucked him harder.
Didn’t she hear him? She always stopped at this point.
“Pherusa, I’m going to come,” he said through gritted teeth.
She gave him a half-shrug and took him down her throat, as she tugged faster at the base of his shaft.
Prometheus spilled inside her, his skull tingling with the force of his orgasm. His strength sapped out of him with every string of cum that shot out of his cock, and she kept sucking and swallowing. All he was, all he saw, all he felt was bliss.
He shivered and pulled her up by the hair for a fierce kiss.
“Good?” she mumbled against his mouth. She tasted of the sea and the sun and him.
It wasn’t good. It was amazing.
He blinked them across the cave, to their bed. He laid her on her back and knelt between her spread thighs. “Your turn.” Instead of burying his face in her pussy and feasting on her, like he yearned to, he lifted one leg and placed a chaste kiss over her ankle.
She giggled, and for a split second, the years hadn’t gone by. He hadn’t been cursed by Zeus. She hadn’t broken his heart.
He shook away the nostalgia and nuzzled her calf, grazing the soft skin with his stubble, then lick
ed the underside of her knee.
She tensed. “Higher. Please.”
He lifted his head to mock-glower at her. “I am calling the shots, little Siren. You don’t tell me what to do.”
The perplexed look she gave him couldn’t have been faked. “I didn’t speak.”
“Right.” He bit her inner thigh as punishment for lying, and when she eeped, laved the spot with his tongue until she moaned and pushed down against him.
“More... Your fingers.” There was something odd about her voice.
No echo.
Prometheus glanced up. Her head was thrown back, her eyes closed. He rose on his knees and watched her face as he slid his palm up her thigh and stomach, to where her dress was held in place around her waist.
“Touch me. Touch all of me,” she said.
But she didn’t say it. Her lips didn’t move. He’d picked up her thought, like he would if she projected it at him underwater. And yet they were very much on dry land.
Titans could read mortals’ minds, but not the thoughts of gods, and Nereids were gods, if minor ones. How was this possible?
He undid her sash and used both palms to uncover her perfect breasts. Her creamy flesh made the perfect contrast against his bronzed skin. He squeezed one breast and watched transfixed, as red marks appeared under the pressure of his fingers, only to fade in a heartbeat. He did it again, and then pinched and twisted her nipple, which rose and hardened under his attentions.
“Gods, yes. I love this.”
So he did it again, this time closing his mouth around the other nipple and swirling his tongue over it.
Pherusa arched her back, and Prometheus’ cock, erect again, demanded to be inside her. But Titan Junior would have to wait.
Prometheus licked his way down the valley between her breasts and grazed his teeth down her stomach, before dipping his tongue into her belly button.
“Hey. That tickles.” Her words carried the echo of having been spoken aloud, but the next ones didn’t. “Need you. Lower.”
He sat back and drove two fingers inside her. “What was that?”
She opened her eyes and bit her lip. “Nothing.” But inside his head, she cried, “Yes. More.”
Incredible. He tried projecting a thought to her. “Lift your knees to your chest.”
Pherusa furrowed her brow, flicking her gaze between his eyes and his lips. “How...?”
This wasn’t the time for questions. “Do it,” he said.
She complied, and he grasped a buttock in each hand to push her further up before ordering the earth beneath her to raise her so her gorgeous pussy was offered to him as if on a platter. Her juices glistened on the soft curls covering her mound. He sleeked his thumbs along her slit and spread her open, so he could push his tongue inside her. She’d only agreed to this once before, but he never forgot her flavor on his taste buds. She tasted of life.
He trailed his tongue higher, to find the pearl between her folds, and circled it while he slowly edged three fingers inside her. She bucked her hips under his intrusion, and he nibbled on her clitoris, pushing his fingers deeper.
“Not enough. Need...”
He should take his time with her, but her next thought slammed into him with more force than Zeus’ lightning bolt.
“Need you. Now.”
Prometheus begrudgingly abandoned her clitoris with one last long swipe of his tongue, and stood. He tore his shirt in two, too impatient to take the time to peel it off. His body overrode his mind, demanding he enter her now. He closed his fingers around her slender ankles and placed her feet flat on his chest. Then he lifted her hips and slid his cock along her cleft, wetting it in her juices, before thrusting inside her to the hilt.
Pherusa’s groans filled the cave as he slammed inside her again and again. “More. Faster,” she screamed in his head, incoherent sounds spilling from her lips when he upped the tempo.
He hammered into her until her thoughts reached him fragmented and her legs flopped over his arms and her face was contorted in ecstasy.
When he finally allowed himself to follow her over the edge, he spilled inside her. Not worrying about an unwanted pregnancy was among the perks of bedding a Titan. His seed would only be potent when he willed it to, and this was not the right time to father a child.
Pherusa was putty in his hands, as he cradled her to him, lowered the ground beneath them, and filled it with daisies, so she didn’t have to smell the dank earth in her sleep tonight. Then he laid her back down and curled around her outstretched form.
“I still feel you inside me,” Pherusa said sleepily. “I like it.”
He had to kiss the smile on her lips. “Give me a few, and I can make sure you feel me for a week.” His heart clenched. Did they have a week?
She turned in his arms and draped a leg over his. “I’ll need more than a few.” She yawned and hid her face in the crook of his neck. “I could stay like this forever.”
Did she say that or think it?
Chapter Eleven
Waking up with her bare body pressed against Prometheus’ wasn’t disorienting this morning. She had an arm flung over his chest and a leg across his hips, and his arm was folded around her waist, his palm cupping her bottom. He was hard again. Or still.
Should she climb on top of him and ride him? Better not while she was sore from last night’s romps—plural. Prometheus had woken her up in the middle of the night and made slow, sweet love to her until she couldn’t move a muscle.
She withdrew from his embrace, careful not to wake him, and propped herself up on her elbow, to study his face. His expression wasn’t tense today, his mouth relaxed in slumber, and no lines creasing his forehead.
Pherusa traced one of his brows with her fingertips, then ran her fingers through his long, black hair. He was gorgeous, and last night he’d been the same man she fell in love with. He’d let go of his anger. He still loved her. He couldn’t have looked in her eyes with so much tenderness when he was inside her if he didn’t. They could be together for real.
Her happiness was marred by reality splashing across her body like a bucket of ice-cold water.
How could she stay with him, when every day she remained ashore was one day closer to forgetting her past?
Her heart constricted in her chest. Would she choose Prometheus over anything else, even if it meant forever losing her family and the only home she’d ever known? Would she get a choice?
Did it matter?
She trailed one finger down his jaw, then laid her head on his chest, to let his heartbeat soothe her. The love she felt for him hadn’t diminished in his absence, and now that he’d claimed her in the name of something other than vengeance, she couldn’t fathom ever bedding another male. If she had a soulmate in this world, it had to be Prometheus.
The witch would know. She’d given Father a mating prophecy for each of his fifty daughters, and every Nereid had a century to fulfill hers once her turn was up, or the merpeople of Vythos would be barren for three hundred years.
Pherusa doubted Prometheus would permit her to visit Circe’s island and ask if he was Pherusa’s destiny. Besides, it wasn’t her time. Father hadn’t revealed the prophecy that pertained to her, and her next sister to mate was Callianassa—who had a hundred years or so, since Halie’d just bonded with her own mate.
Then again, Circe had given Halie a jagged prophecy that made her seek true love among the mortals, when Delphinos had always been within her grasp. Perhaps she knew something about Pherusa’s destiny that she hadn’t shared.
Pherusa willed her thoughts back to the present. Her fate wouldn’t be decided by the sea witch, of by Pherusa herself. Prometheus held all the power, and if he wanted her, she was his.
She stretched her neck to reach his lips, but a bright light behind her made her roll onto her back and pull her discarded dress over her naked form.
Beside her, Prometheus sat up, not bothering to cover himself. “Eros?” he called out. “You’re not welcome. Try
again later.”
What did Eros want this time?
“There won’t be a later for much longer, unless you took care of business.” Eros’ form was transparent, but his voice was loud and clear.
“What business?” Pherusa asked.
Prometheus wrapped an arm around her and gathered her close. “Nothing. Ignore him, and he’ll go away.”
Eros smirked and leaned against the wall, color filling in his features until the rocks were no longer visible through him. “I wouldn’t count on that.” He sniffed the air, and his lips stretched into a toothy grin. “The two of you mated.”
“No.” Prometheus’s word snapped through the air like a whip.
Pherusa flinched. “What would you call what we did most of the night?” And why was it important to her that he admit it?
“Intercourse. Sex. Fucking. But we didn’t mate.” He caressed her arm, but his warm touch did nothing for the chill creeping up her spine.
“Fucking?” That was what he called the most intimate, soul-baring experience of her life?
“It was one of the words I used. I’m only saying we’re not mated.”
Eros tutted. “The clock is ticking, Titan. Get your shit together, or you know what will happen.”
“Don’t you threaten me, godling, and get the fuck out of here,” Prometheus yelled, and Eros disappeared in yet another ball of light.
Pherusa’s jaw hurt with tension. She relaxed it and pierced Prometheus with her gaze. “So last night you fucked me?” In her head, she screamed, again? How cruel was he, to make her think he’d mellowed toward her—might even start having feelings for her once more—only to destroy her hopes for a second time?
“Don’t get hung up on that. It’s a word that describes sex. I just meant to explain to Eros that we’re not... bonded in some way.”
Pherusa stood and pushed her arms into the sleeves of her dress. It was caked with dirt and dead flower petals, but being bare felt more vulnerable than she cared to be. She wrapped the dress around her and tied the sash so tight, she could barely breathe.
