Receiver of Many

by Rachel Alexander

  Persephone’s arm slid under his waist and held Aidon against her. He leaned down and kissed one breast, then the other, moving back and forth between them. Persephone moaned as he pulled each hardened tip into his mouth before kissing her along her collarbone and up her neck. Carefully, he brought his hand up her thigh and moved inward. Her legs wriggled open at his touch, her body seeking him of its own volition. His hand trailed along white-hot skin, her knees shaking as he drew closer.

  When Aidon’s hand met the apex of her thighs he looked back up at Persephone, watching as desire played across her face. Fingers stroked across the soft hair covering her vulva as his palm came to rest on her mound. She felt that familiar coil tightening in her stomach. Aidon slipped a finger between the folds, sinking into the slick heat pouring out of her. He groaned. She arched against the finger moving down her seam, the flesh pulsing around him. He found her entrance and circled back up, her body shuddering a halted moan as he brushed over the hooded bud at the top.

  Persephone pulled him in for a kiss as his finger circled that spot. Fire shot through her as she turned her entire body toward him, aching for him, needing to feel him closer. She brought a leg over his hips, opening herself to his touch, his finger massaging and stroking the nub.

  Aidon shifted her back down to the bed underneath him and lay astride of her. He balanced himself above her on his elbows and knees, his lips locked with hers as his hand returned to the heat of her crease, gently rolling his fingers through the folds. Her feet rested on the backs of his knees, opening herself to Aidon's careful caress. He rose above her and Persephone looked up into his eyes, feeling the weight and heat of his arousal fall against her stomach. He watched her gaze trail down between their bodies. She saw the tip pointed straight at her, a tiny pearl of fluid glistening on the crown, and trembled.

  “If you’re afraid—”

  “I’m not.” She looked up at him, his hand smoothing hair back from her forehead. “I’m not,” she whispered again. She ached indescribably, needing him closer to her. She sighed under her breath. “I want you, Aidon.”

  Relief washed over him as he moved his body back, and felt her raise her legs to the side of his hips. He kissed her neck and came up to her ear, returning her gentle susurrations. “I’ll go slowly. This isn’t supposed to hurt. I didn’t…” He fought to find words, to ensure her that he would be careful, tender with her. “It was never supposed to hurt. But if you feel any pain, Persephone, any at all, I’ll stop. I promise.”

  She ran her fingers through the curls at the nape of his neck and felt the tip part her folds at her entrance. Tensing, she breathed shallowly through her nose as Aidon moved his hand between them. Persephone bit her lip, her heart beating out of her chest, waiting. He drew back for a moment. Instead of entering her, he traced the tip up and down her crease, rolling it through her wetness as she relaxed and gasped. The feel of him hot, needy, and barely restrained while he touched the folds of her labia from top to bottom was exquisite. Persephone could feel every twitch of his flesh, the blood pooled at his groin reflecting his heartbeat.

  For Aidon this was slowly becoming torture. When he moved the tip up to brush against the center of her desire, she moaned and pressed her fingers harder into his shoulder blades. When he pushed it down to her entrance, he shuddered at the heat pouring out of her, beckoning him forward. He fitted himself over her body. Coated in her wetness, shaking with the primal need to bury himself within her, he kissed her jaw line. “Persephone…”

  “Aidon, please…” she brought her legs up higher and locked them around his waist, opening to him. She watched him rise above her on one arm. He guided himself toward her entrance and Persephone felt him pitch forward as the width of the head opened her.

  He moved slowly, finally taking his hand away when he knew his own motions could carry him forward. He looked into her eyes, searching for what she felt as he entered her.

  Aidon watched her wince as he slowly pushed past where her barrier had once been. When she cried out sharply in discomfort, he stopped and ran a trembling hand along her cheek. “Did I hurt you?”

  “Only for a moment,” she whispered back to him, smiling up at his worried face.

  “Do you want me to stop?” he said, drawing back.

  “No! No. Please…” She closed her legs around his waist, pushing her hips forward to reclaim the fraction of space he’d withdrawn. “I need you.”

  He closed his eyes as they rolled back in pleasure at her words and movements, feeling her inch herself forward, enveloping him. It was too much. Aidon grasped her thigh to steady her and moved forward again, hearing her gasp as he slowly filled her.

  Her world started tipping back and falling inward, heat sinking into her. The center of their universe became where he was carefully joined her, and Persephone felt her head spinning in pleasure. The only sound she could hear was her heart beating out of her chest and his ragged breathing. Persephone let out a short cry and felt Aidon stop again before he realized that it was from pleasure, not pain. He kissed her open mouth on each of her lips before capturing them fully and tasting her. They moaned in unison as he sunk in the rest of the way and held there.

  Velvet heat closed in and rippled around him as he waited for Persephone to open her eyes. When she trailed a foot along the curve of his spine, when she dragged her fingernails across his shoulders, when she simply breathed, she felt him within her body. When she opened her eyes to him, Persephone felt Aidon within her soul.

  She gazed up at him, her eyes dilated with need, and the instinct to move overwhelmed him. He withdrew slowly as she whimpered, his absence aching within her. When he pushed forward again, she tightened her grip on his body, welcoming him back into her with a cry of pleasure. He pulled away again, this time nearly every inch and looked down the delicately curved length of her shuddering body to where they were joined.

  He cradled her head forward, his hand tangling in her hair, wanting her to see their flesh together as one.

  Persephone’s eyes dizzily trailed down the clenched muscles of his stomach to the nest of curls between his legs and the thick shaft penetrating her, slick with her essence. They watched and felt as he pushed slightly forward and drew back, each short thrust drawing a moan from both of them. She looked up at his straining face as he slowly drove back into her, the space between their bodies disappearing as his hips met her soft thighs.

  Aidon shook and smiled down as she stared back up, pleasure written across her face, the pain now only a memory. He smoothed his hand over her forehead and carefully withdrew and thrust into her again.

  She looked up to see his eyes darkened with pleasure, the curls of his long black hair falling to one side. He moved up on his elbows once again and held her back and neck, embracing her as they moved in a slow rhythm. She gasped at how incredible he felt within her. His lips covered hers in a kiss.

  Arching underneath him, she felt him rock her back with each thrust. Her stomach and thighs, the palms of her hands, the tips of her breasts and the soles of her feet began to spasm, edging her ever closer to that glorious crest. She reached down to his waist and pressed her hands into the hard curves of his hips, angling him deeper with each push.

  The waves that rolled through her started to echo within him. Aidon could feel every nerve of her channel starting to pulse around him as he quickened his thrusts. Her arms and legs shook as she brought her hands up to his shoulders again, the pressure of her sheath tightening around him. He wanted to arrive there with her. “Persephone,” he whispered into her ear. “My sweet wife… just let go… Let go…”

  She rested her forehead on his shoulder, her body curling forward to his as the paroxysms started, their waves as uncontrollable as her voice. She cried out, hearing her voice only distantly shouting his name and wordlessly pleading with him for more as he started to quake. Her back arched and her eyes squeezed shut, Persephone held fast to him as he rose above her and made one final deep thrust. Aidon answered h
er cries with a shout that echoed off the marble walls.

  The swell rising through his body held him arched there as he came forcefully inside her before collapsing into her arms. Their breathing was erratic, their limbs tangled and their bodies covered in a sheen of sweat. Persephone felt him breathing hot on her neck as a last moan shuddered through him.

  Her chest rose toward his, their breathing paced and slowing in unison. Their bodies remained otherwise motionless. Any movement was too much. Persephone opened her eyes. Her fingers were still twined and tangled in the curls of his hair as he lay still inside her.

  She felt him shift and met his gaze. Aidon. Her husband. Her lover. His eyes scanned her face as he brushed a lock of her hair from her neck that had been trapped there by friction and the heat of their bodies. Hades. God of the Underworld and Lord of the Dead, who she had just given herself to willingly, who had just filled her with his seed. Her abductor, who would keep her here forever from the sunlit world, from ever seeing her mother again. Persephone had just proven herself his willing captive.

  He watched her face fade from bliss and tenderness to fear and shame as she turned away from him, her eyes watering. Aidon pulled away from Persephone with a shiver. He watched her roll onto her side, away from him, her legs curling into fetal position. She shook, tears streaming under her eyes and over the bridge of her nose to land on the pillow. He turned away and sat on the opposite side of the bed staring despondently at the small heaps of their scattered clothes.

  She is not to marry. And certainly not to someone as hard hearted as you.

  Demeter’s words from long ago rang through him. Why else would she shrink away from him in revulsion? He looked back at her shaking body and pulled the bedclothes over her, feeling her tremble as his hand smoothed the covers down over her shoulder.

  Persephone listened to the swish of fabric as he wound his himation around his waist and over his left arm. Aidon gathered his tunic and scattered effects. Please stay. The words caught in her throat and she choked back tears. Hades had taken her. Kore, the maiden of the flowers. Persephone, maiden no more. Cypress, his clean and spicy scent, still clung to her and she could feel their warmth radiating from the sheets. This was how he had wanted to make love to her before circumstances forced him in Erebus. Aidon had held her, making every moment careful and intimate, focusing on her pleasure as he relished in her and guided her. My sweet wife…

  “Aidon?”

  He stopped at the door. “Yes?”

  “I’m sorry,” her voice cracked.

  “You don’t need to apologize, Persephone.”

  “It's just— I know what you said you felt for me, and I—” The lump grew impossibly large in her throat.

  “I didn’t expect to win you over in one night, sweet one.” But Aidon had, hope against hope. He had seen the look in her eyes as they stood on the balcony, had felt her absolute trust in him as he slowly revealed her to his gaze, had felt her body keening for him, her voice crying out for him when he was within her.

  “I— I need time, Aidon.”

  “I know.” Faint hope flickered in his eyes. “But tonight, just rest. I’ve put you through enough as it is.”

  The door creaked again. “Aidon?”

  He turned back to her.

  “Can you hold me?”

  His eyes widened in shock at her request. He gently shut the door. Moving cautiously toward the bed, he unwound the fabric from around his shoulders and let it pool at his feet, naked before her once again. Aidon gestured to the walls with a flex of his fingers, the last light of the oil lamps around them extinguishing. Persephone moved over in bed as she felt his weight press into the mattress in the dark. He lifted the sheets and slid back under them with her, the bed already warm.

  Her skin was soft against him, and her thighs shifted as he settled in behind her. Aidoneus curved around her body and stretched an arm out underneath her pillow to support her head. He ran his hand down her outstretched arm then twined his fingers over hers. With that, Hades and Persephone fell into fitful sleep.

  The shoots hardened to the air. Their new skin would protect them— strengthen them. Hard branches drooped under the weight of larger leaves, testing and hurting them as they rose free of the cold earth. Rising at last over the gray flowers, they could now see each other for what they were.

  9.

  “You’re wrong!” the flaxen-haired girl said. “I know all about the act of love.”

  She was met with a sardonic laugh, tenor and melodic, coming from behind her as a hand brushed over her exposed breast. Its owner circled her and spun around, a chlamys draped across one shoulder, his only garment. “Oh, Elektra…”

  “Voleta,” she pouted.

  “Voleta. My apologies,” he said, pulling the fibula pin from a brooch with a stylized theta etched on its surface. It clanged on the floor like a bell. The black fabric followed it, slinking off his shoulders to revealing his pale, smooth frame. His black hair was cropped short on his head and between his legs. Piercing silver eyes stared out of a flawless, angelic face. “You know nothing about the act, other than which parts fit together. It’s why you came to me so readily. You’re curious.”

  “But, the Great Lady—”

  “Yes, yes… Hecate sent you to some village or another for the great rite of hieros gamos,” he finished for her. “And then some noble youth climbed up your body and squirted inside you to bless the planting of the fields, or founding of a city, or what have you…”

  Voleta gaped up at him, shocked at his flippancy. He ignored her and continued.

  “And because of this, you think you know anything about the act of love,” his smiling face came within inches of hers. He slid a finger under her chin and pushed up. “The first thing I’m going to teach you is to never open your mouth like that unless you intend to use it.”

  “I came to you because I saw you and wanted you,” she said indignantly. “Our Lady said that after the rites we could have as many men as we like as long as we are mutually fulfilled.”

  He laughed again. “And do you have the faintest idea what she was talking about?”

  Voleta bit her lip.

  “Well despite your ignorance, your Lady is at least right about that,” he said, pushing Voleta back against the sheets with a finger, “and I intend to make good on it. Allow me to educate you.”

  “And what is it about you that makes you such an expert on something meant to create life, anyway? You’re—”

  Voleta’s breath hitched as the beat of large, black-plumed wings guttered the flames of the oil lamps and fanned her hot skin. She saw them in full for the first time as he stretched them, their span spreading into the darkness of his room, eclipsing the lamps. Voleta suddenly felt very small.

  She wavered again. “Y-you’re…”

  “Death,” Thanatos finished for her. “Very clever. But consider this…”

  He folded his wings back and knelt in front of her. Thanatos kissed her on her right foot, then her left.

  “There isn’t anyone I cannot have, the old, the young, maiden or youth…”

  He placed a kiss on her right knee, then her left.

  “…because in the end, I take them all.”

  He planted a kiss on her womb and slowly, deliberately slipped a finger inside her, curling it upward, beckoning her in pleasure. Voleta wriggled on the bed, her breath catching.

  “The occasional young man is quite fine, but I prefer the maiden when I come for her.”

  He placed a kiss on her right breast and on the slow withdrawal of his lips, teased the nipple to a point. Thanatos added another finger inside her and curled them in a fast cycle, brushing a spot she didn’t even know she had. Voleta gasped as he smiled up at her.

  “Sometimes, she pleads to go. Other times, she pleads to stay. But out of the scores I send every day to the shores of the River …”

  He kissed Voleta’s left breast, sucking the nipple upward with a nip of his teeth as his mouth ca
me away. He stroked his fingers inside of her, then added his thumb over her nub to rock back and forth across its swollen surface. He watched intently until her breath became ragged and her eyes glazed over.

  “…there is at least one…”

  He pecked a kiss on her lips.

  “…who pleads for me.”

  Thanatos pushed the pads of his fingers up into the secret spot and Voleta screamed out loud, her back arching and falling as she came, fingers gripping the sheets. Liquid coated his hand. The smirk never left his face.

  When her shuddering had ceased and her breathing had settled, Thanatos slowly withdrew his fingers. Voleta opened her violet eyes wide and stared up at him. “What was… How did you—”

  “Make you come? That’s my trade secret. Tell me— that sniveling mortal boy who took you maidenhead— did he do that for you?”

  “No,” she panted. “Wait— was that the Sacred Kiss?!”

  He smiled at her, showing all his teeth. “You are a clever girl. And yes, it was. I figured I'd start with something you were familiar with before moving on.”

  “You profaned it!”

  “I enhanced it,” he shrugged. “Which brings us to our next exercise…”

  Thanatos knelt down between her legs and ran his tongue through the wet lips of her vulva. He firmly pinned her thighs to the bed beneath his sinewy arms, and pressed down on her mound with both hands.

  “Thanatos… what are you— oh!”

  With his hand gripping her mons, Voleta couldn’t squirm out of reach of his mouth. The universe tilted over again for her. Words disappeared, lost in her cries as he extended her pleasure, chasing her long climax from peak to peak. Thanatos kept drilling the sensitive bud with the tip of his tongue. Voleta spasmed and cried out as every touch became a little death. He paused for a moment, giving her a small reprieve from his torment, then dove in once more, drinking her, and sucked the hooded nub hard into his mouth. He quickly pushed three fingers into her and curled them around to just the right place. She bolted upright and screamed, eyes rolling back in her head, finally forcing Thanatos to lose his grip on her.