The Fall of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 2)

by Con Template

  “It’s for stylistic purposes,” a drunken Yoori explained before it occurred to her that Tae Hyun was actually trying to strip her naked!

  Though it was impossible for her to go anywhere, Yoori pushed herself harder against the wall as her defense mechanism. Acting just like a scared child, she brought her hands up and covered her face, only unveiling the brown orbs in her eyes through the spaces between each fingers.

  “Tae Hyun! You’re so drunk!” she cried desperately. “You have to stop playing! I’m really drunk and I’ll rip off your towel if you don’t stop this soon!”

  “You think I’m drunk right now?” Tae Hyun began, gently grabbing her wrists and pulling her hands down from her face. “I’ve never been more sober in my life.”

  “But at the park – you – you were slurring – and you couldn’t even stand by yourself—”

  He sighed at the confusion in her voice. “If you knew that I was sober the entire time, would you have listened to all my confessions?”

  The murky confusion streaming in her mind cleared at his simple question. His confessions…his confessions at the park. The confessions she played off as insincere because he was drunk and the ones she was afraid to take seriously because it meant that she would have to confront certain things that she didn’t want to confront.

  “Would you have listened to everything I had to say, without running away or trying to change the subject?” he asked, his eyes noting that there was fear in her tentative eyes.

  No, Yoori answered in her mind. She scratched her head briefly, trying so hard to reorganize her drunken thoughts away from her sober thoughts.

  Shit.

  It wasn’t working. Everything was mixed together. Damn. How she wished she didn’t drink so much. She apprehensively played with her nails and avoided eye contact with Tae Hyun. He was still standing in front of her, looking as tempting as ever. Just then, another important tidbit filtered into her already stupefied mind. She gasped. The park bench!

  She gazed up at him worriedly. “Were…were you actually asleep while we were sitting on the bench?”

  A coy smile spread across his face. “I was falling asleep,” he drawled out before adding, “But then something woke me up.”

  Heat reddened her already blushing cheeks. “Something...something woke you? So – So you were pretending to dream?”

  She cursed in her mind, somehow already knowing the answer just by analyzing Tae Hyun’s sneaky face. Why did it suddenly feel like someone had just stripped her naked and threw her out into a stadium filled with millions of Tae Hyuns? How mortifying!

  Rather than answering, Tae Hyun simply released his hold on her wrists and laid both of his hands flat against the wall behind her. With his strong arms to either side of her, he leaned in, his enrapturing cologne filling bliss in her nostrils. Temptingly, he maneuvered himself so that his lips were hovering above hers.

  Yoori bit her lips to keep from instinctively puckering them up for him.

  “You stole something from me, Princess,” he stated simply. The scorch of desire enhanced his voice, mesmerizing her. “Give it back.”

  “Give…give it back?” she stuttered, blushing even more.

  She shook her head at the command. How the hell did this tease expect her to kiss him again? She was only brave enough to do it when he was asleep. Now that he was wide-awake, gazing at her with those sex eyes of his, Yoori knew she couldn’t do it. She could already hear his critique in her head: “Your kiss was salty, just like last time.” Yoori shuddered at the thought. Damn it. The first time she did something naughty and stole a kiss from a guy, she got punished. The world sucks.

  “You…you take it back,” she countered. There was no way she could kiss him again – even though she really wanted to. She didn’t have the nerve to do it again. Yoori, as blunt as she may be at times, was very socially awkward when it came to romantic things pertaining to the good-looking opposite sex.

  Amusement enveloped his eyes. He raised a curious brow. He had no problem teasing her further. “You were the one who stole it, Princess. It should be you who returns it.”

  Yoori stubbornly shook her head. The fiery blush on her cheeks resembled that of a red rose. “Take it yourself or leave me alone and go tease someone else.”

  He frowned. “You still think I’m playing around?”

  She nodded, though she knew better. It didn’t help that she was not only afraid of him now, but it also didn’t help that she was becoming awkward and was yearning for him.

  “You really believe that, Yoori?” he asked, his cunning voice now a soothing whisper. He leaned in and nipped his nose with hers, causing her to hold her breath as she bit her lips harder to keep from being magnetized to his lips.

  “I….I….I…”

  It was official.

  She was now a babbling buffoon.

  Even in her wildest fantasies, Tae Hyun didn’t get this sexy and irresistible. Was it because he was actually this sexy or was it because she was drunk? She wanted to think the latter but deep in her desirous heart, she knew better. Tae Hyun always had the charms. Apparently the tease never showed up until this fateful night.

  “You really can’t see how much I want you right now?” he continued. “How much I want to rip those clothes off of you? How much I want to throw you on that bed? I want you so badly, I swear I’ll die from the need unless I can have you.”

  “Oh Jesus Christ, Tae Hyun please stop this,” Yoori cried, nearly falling to her knees when the implication of his words seared through her. “I’m so socially awkward right now it’s not even funny!”

  It was getting harder; it was getting so much harder to resist Tae Hyun. God help her, she was so caught off guard with everything that she felt like wax. She was melting under the fire that exuded out of him and she resented that she liked the feeling. It was at times like this that she hated her own body for reacting the way a woman should when an attractive guy hits on them.

  With her back still pressed against the wall, she unknowingly wrapped each of her hands around his arms, her nails digging into his biceps. The purpose was to hold onto him to keep her from crashing to the ground. Surely it would be a horrible idea to fall to her knees while Tae Hyun was only wearing a diminutive towel over that sinfully enticing body of his. But good heavens, the feel of his warm muscles under her hold was only doing worse things to her body.

  “Please stop,” she breathed out weakly. The air around her was not sufficient enough to keep her sane. “This is crazy, Tae Hyun! We…we can’t do this.”

  “You’re not curious, Yoori?” he crooned, nipping his nose with hers and pretending that he didn’t hear her plea.

  Yoori felt her lips part in eagerness when his nose tempted hers. Who knew nose nipping could be so tantalizing?

  Tae Hyun went on, further driving her crazy. “I just told you that my entire body is yours and you’re not curious?”

  He pulled away from her, allowing air to fill the space between them. He lifted his hands off the wall and grabbed hold of both her hands. He pulled them off his biceps and instead brought them to his stomach. Laying her hands flat on the hard plane of his abdomen, he moved her hands downward, slowly allowing her to revel in the feel of the muscles beneath her hand. His stomach muscles contorted and rippled under her touch. It seemed to Yoori that Tae Hyun knew well that her weakness was his abs and he was damn well ready to use it against her. Being the perfect tease that he was, Tae Hyun stopped the trail once her hands touched the small knot that held his towel up.

  “You’re not curious about what else belongs to you?”

  By now, Yoori didn’t even know how it was possible that she was still breathing. She was losing her breath and was very close to losing her mind.

  “Sweet merciful Lord, why are you so hot?” The words came out before she had any chance to filter it. It came out and it couldn’t have been more loyal to how she truly felt.

  Pleased with what he heard, Tae Hyun grinned bashful
ly. This acknowledgement was all that he needed to know that she was melting in the palm of his hands. He persisted with his teasing prompts, evoking more whispers of possibilities to swim through her foggy mind.

  “Can you imagine it, baby?” he asked, pulling her to the side so they could have the perfect view of their beckoning bed.

  Baby. She never thought she’d be one of those girls who appreciated it when their lovers called them by that name so affectionately.

  “Can you imagine me and you on that bed?” Before giving her even a semblance of a chance to try and regain her sanity, his lips found her ear. He nibbled on it with care and continued to speak, his hot breath intoxicating her senses. “My lips on your naked body…your hands running over mine…our inhibitions shot to hell while I worship every inch of that beautiful body of yours? Can you see your nails clawing at my skin? That pretty little voice of yours screaming out my name as you beg for more? It’ll be amazing. It’ll be magic, baby. Timeless magic.”

  “Just—Just—Just do it then,” Yoori voiced breathlessly.

  And clearly, that was when she lost it.

  It was hopeless to deny it anymore and she knew it.

  How could she not want him? How could she not want any of the things he was offering? She was after all merely a mortal girl. How could she deny someone like Tae Hyun, who seemed to have the persuasion and charisma of an epically amazing sex demon?

  “Why are you torturing me?” she begrudgingly whispered when she felt him draw his hovering lips away from her.

  His poignant gaze returned to her unhappy ones. He took stock of the desperation in her eyes. “I have to know if you want it as much as I do,” Tae Hyun said instantly, his eyes swirling with need. He cupped her flushed face, his thumbs moving over her lips. “I want you. I want you so badly that I’m burning right now. But I won’t force anything on you. I won’t do anything to you unless you’re ready – unless you want it as much as I do.”

  If she had energy, she would’ve snorted in his face. “My body is on fire right now and you don’t know if I want you too?”

  He grinned at the frustration in her question. “You’re hot. I know that already.”

  She wanted to roll her eyes at the suggestiveness in his double meaning statement. She resisted the temptation. She instead rested her hands flat against his chest, causing him to catch his breath in surprise.

  What a horrible addiction he had become to her.

  Screw having control over her feelings.

  Tae Hyun wasn’t the only one who could tease and she’d be damned if she allowed him to be the one who dictated how this night would proceed.

  “What do you want me to do, baby?” she asked, leaning closer to him.

  Before she could comprehend what she was doing, Yoori had already circled around him, her body more alive than she had ever known it to be. Alive with needs, wants, and desires of its own. How easily was it for her to just go from a babbling buffoon to a woman tempting the one who was trying to seduce her?

  She rested her flushed cheek against his back, embracing him from behind. She ran her hands up from his abs and stopped only when she reached his chest. His heart thumped wildly against the skin of her hand, telling her that her touch was driving him insane.

  “Do you want me to tell you that you drive me crazy too?” she asked. “That I’ve never in my life felt more like a woman as I’m standing here right now, stroking your body like you actually belong to me?”

  It was the first time where she felt her heart ache when the words finally came out of her mouth. It felt like a ton of brick had just fallen on her. She remembered now why she was so hesitant with going on this road with him. How foolish it was for her to drown in her desires and completely forget the reality of the situation. How foolish it was for her to follow the commands of her body—and quite possibly her heart—instead of the rationale in her mind. Tae Hyun and her…they would never work. Everything was against them ever working out.

  “I do,” he breathed out roughly. His eyes fluttered shut. It was as though he was using all the control within him to restrain himself from whipping around and just wrapping her into his arms. “All yours…only yours.”

  There was such genuine conviction in his voice that she wondered if he knew what he was saying.

  She shook her head.

  “You’re so drunk right now. Just like me, you’re so drunk...” she went on swiftly before Tae Hyun could get a word in. “Not drunk on alcohol but drunk on the belief that we would actually work.”

  She closed her eyes, burying her cheek closer to his skin. God, she loved the feel of him; she loved his warmth. It was like fire tasting rain. She was dying under his touch, but it couldn’t be more euphoric for her.

  “Why do you torture me like this,” she murmured, repositioning herself so that her forehead was now resting on his back.

  She endeavored to diffuse the aching in her heart. Her efforts failed as his skin further tempted and tormented her. This man would be her downfall. He would be her epic downfall.

  “Don’t you know what a mistake all of this is?”

  Despite the pain in her words, the desire on her lips overshadowed the urge to just pull herself away from him. Instead, she raised herself on her tiptoes and kissed his shoulder blade, no longer able to resist at least feeling his skin against her lips. And God, she loved it. She loved it so much that she continued to place kisses all along his spine, stopping only as she slowly returned her heels back to earth.

  “You torture me,” Tae Hyun whispered back, his voice hoarse. He breathed in roughly.

  Now it was finally a courtship between a man and a woman.

  “Everyday since we’ve met, you torture me. I’ve never in my life held this much control and I’ve never in my life wanted someone more than I’ve wanted you. Now I’m bearing my soul to you and you tell me this is all a mistake?”

  He whipped around, facing her agonized eyes.

  “What do you want to happen, baby?” he asked delicately, his hands finding the hem of her tank top. Slowly, he began to lift it up, the palm of his hands whispering up her bare hips along the way.

  Her breath lodged itself in her lungs. Her body heated up in anticipation. If this continued on, she would die from lack of air before the night was over.

  While he lifted her tank top like he was lifting up curtains, Tae Hyun lowered himself to his knees. His eyes reveled in the temptation of her soft skin as it became revealed. He didn’t allow the fabric of her top to ride higher than he needed it to rise though, despite the fact that Yoori knew, from the shaking of his fingers, that it was only because he was restraining himself from completely ripping the shirt off of her. He stopped, only allowing the fabric to raise and stay just above her navel.

  “Do you want all of this to merely be a dream?” His poignant eyes stared up at her as his hands caressed the flat plane of her stomach. “Do you want me to just get dressed?” He lowered his eyes from hers and leaned in. He kissed the area around her navel. “Do you want to just ignore what’s happening right now?” His hands explored the exposed area of her stomach and settled onto the small of her back. “Should we just get into bed, sleep on our separate sides, and act like nothing happened?”

  “Yes,” Yoori answered without delay. The answer speared itself like knives into her soul. She was stuck. Stuck between heaven and hell. She wanted him, yet she didn’t want to want him.

  Though lost in limbo, Yoori allowed her mind to override her body’s needs. Using all that she had, she pushed herself away from Tae Hyun’s hold. It was instant. The coldness of winter instantly enveloped her once she left his warmth.

  “Let’s forget any of this happened,” she said sternly, pulling the hem of her top back down. While doing so, she wondered to herself how she managed to garner such a harsh tone when all she wanted was to throw herself at him.

  All of this temptation would’ve been easier if he took the decision away from her – if he just grabbed her an
d pressed his lips against her mouth. It would be easier to melt that way. She would never be able to blame herself for anything and she would get to have him.

  Tae Hyun rose to his full height. Although there was need in his gaze, there was also annoyance. He didn’t like that she drew away from him.

  Despite the difficulty of everything, she continued on like she was angry and annoyed. “If you won’t take me yourself, then you can just go to sleep dreaming about it. I won’t be the one to start this mistake. I won’t.” Even though she really wanted to. She desperately wanted to pull the towel off and worship his body like it was meant to be worshipped.

  “You’re being a fucking brat-ass prude right now,” Tae Hyun bit out, showing very openly how unhappy he was that she had the nerve to pull away from him.

  A forest fire lit inside her.

  Even under the veil of thick sexual tension, Yoori and Tae Hyun still managed to argue about the most ridiculous of things.

  “And you’re being a disillusioned, horny snob,” Yoori retorted, her argumentative side surging out of her. It was mixing with the desire she had for Tae Hyun. Fire mixing with fire. It was something that would be her undoing. “Did you really think it was going to work? Seducing me while you’re only in your towel?”

  “Seduce?” He shook his head in hilarity. His laughter stroked over the coldness of the room. “No baby, the towel was to tease you. The merchandise beneath it was the good that would’ve ‘seduced’ the living hell out of you.”

  “You’re such a slut,” Yoori insulted, growing hotter for him.

  Clearly offended, Tae Hyun gaped disbelievingly at Yoori’s labeling of him. He scoffed, muttering a curse to the ceiling.

  “Yes,” he agreed with scorn. “I’m a slut. I’m a slut for not sleeping with other women since I’ve met you. I’m a slut for being solely devoted to you and I’m a slut for trying to squash the unbearable sexual tension that has been floating around us since we’ve met.” He cursed to himself again at the ridiculousness of her definition of “slut.” “I can’t believe the state that I’m finding myself in right now.”