Deep Water

by Nicola Cameron

  “I can see that.” It was bad enough that mankind was rampaging through the ecosphere like squaddies on leave. Having a powerful goddess put the entire planet in her sights was a magnitude worse. “Is there any way we can get word on what’s happening?”

  “Possibly. I could try contacting Poseidon or one of the boys directly, but if they’re busy I don’t want to distract them. I think it’ll be best if I have the local tritons relay information as they get it.” She closed her eyes, her expression going blank for a long moment.

  Griffin wondered what she was doing, when she opened her eyes again. “Commander Kasos said that there was a sighting of a pod of mutated right whales nearby. The animals are far too large for the tritons to handle on their own, even with weaponry. Poseidon, Ian, and the boys are going after them. Kasos will keep me informed.”

  “How is he going to keep you informed, exactly?”

  Amphitrite tapped the side of her temple. “It’s a kind of telepathy. As a goddess I can speak directly to a mortal’s mind. In return, all a mortal has to do is pray to me and I’ll hear him.”

  “That’s got to be handy—” He broke off as a violet flicker of light shone through the windows, followed seconds later by a low rumble of thunder. “That blew up fast. I didn’t see any clouds earlier.”

  Amphitrite got that abstracted look on her face again. “I believe this is Ian’s doing. They may be trying to direct a storm to keep the whales from attacking coastal areas.”

  As she spoke rain began to lash the cottage windows, crystalline streaks that lit up white with the lightning. “Looks like you’re here for the duration, then,” Griffin said. “Unless you need to go.”

  Amphitrite glanced down at their still joined hands. “I don’t want to go anywhere, unless you want me to go,” she said softly.

  That was the last thing he wanted. “Actually, I was wondering if you would like dinner,” he said. “I could make us something. It won’t be as fancy as Aphros’s cooking, but I make a decent steak and baked potato.”

  This time her smile was brilliant. “I would love that.”

  ****

  Amphitrite used a bit of potato to sop up the last of the rich, meaty juice on her plate, popping it into her mouth and savoring the flavors. “This is delicious, Griffin. Thank you.”

  “Thank you for the company,” Griffin said, forking up a bite of medium rare sirloin. “It’s always a pleasure to cook for a lovely lady.”

  She felt her cheeks warm at the compliment. Few males had ever cooked for her over the years. The most notable was the orisha Olokun, but that was centuries ago. She couldn’t help smiling as she thought about the handsome Yoruba deity.

  “You look like you’re remembering something pleasant,” Griffin said.

  “You made me think of an old friend.”

  “Yeah?” He leaned back in his chair, giving her a cheeky grin. “You look more like you were thinking of an old boyfriend, if goddesses have those.”

  She chuckled. “There may have been something between us at one point, yes. But ultimately his responsibilities took him in a different direction. I still think of him fondly, though.”

  “Do I want to ask if this was before or after Poseidon?”

  “After. But it’s over, and we’re just good friends now.”

  Griffin nodded at that. “I’m still on decent terms with my exes. Although I think they get together for dinner now and then and go over what was wrong with me as a husband.”

  Two ex-wives had come as a surprise, although upon reflection she didn’t know why. Griffin was an intelligent, handsome man who had been healthy and gainfully employed until recently. It would have been far odder if he’d never had a long-term liaison with a woman, or a man for that matter. Amphitrite crushed out the little ember of jealousy in her heart and schooled her thoughts to understanding. “You say that as if your marriages failing was entirely your fault.”

  “Looking back, I’m starting to think it was. It seemed like I was always far more involved in my work than with either of them. I can’t really blame them for leaving me.” His eyes widened. “I don’t know if I should say this, but it just dawned on me. Both of them looked a lot like you.”

  Amphitrite felt a little thrill of pleasure at that. “Perhaps you were more aware of your past life than you knew.”

  “Yeah, I think so. I wonder if I was looking for you, and I found them. And it didn’t work out because…” Griffin trailed off, shrugging. “They weren’t you.”

  “That’s quite possible. But I’m still sorry that your marriages didn’t work out,” Amphitrite said. “That being said, I’m also happy that you were single when you came here. And I’m very happy that you and Poseidon have gotten along so well.”

  He played with the foot of his wine glass. “About that. If the three of us are agapetos like you say, what exactly does that mean? With regards to bed?”

  She appreciated his bluntness, helped along by the wine. “It means that eventually the three of us will make love together. When we do, we’ll be given marks on our backs by the Fates to show their approval of our union.”

  Dark brown eyes held her gaze. “Is that what you want?”

  “Having two handsome men in my bed?” One corner of her mouth came up. “I would imagine that it would be quite enjoyable.”

  Griffin’s gaze turned wistful as he put his cutlery down on a now-empty plate. “The idea of going to bed with both of you—if anything could get me hard right now, that would definitely do it.”

  A low, sweet heat began to glow between her hips. She knew the male ego, how it could be so easily punctured. What she was about to suggest was a massive gamble. But she had spent millennia separated from the two other parts of her soul. She wasn’t inclined to waste any more time.

  Wiping her mouth with her napkin, she stood and held out her hand. “Take me to bed, Griffin. Please.”

  His breath caught at her request, and a lovely flush crept over his cheeks. “Amphitrite—”

  “I know. There are other things we can do. I simply want to go to bed with you. I ... I need to touch you.” The flame between her hips leapt into a scorching heat. “Please, beloved. It’s been so long.”

  Griffin’s expression cleared. He stood and took her hand. “It would be my pleasure, love.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Griffin wasn’t quite sure how they got to the bedroom. He wouldn’t have been surprised if Amphitrite had simply waved her hand and magicked them there, goddess that she was.

  All that mattered was that they were together in a dark room with a bed, listening to the gentle patter of the rain on the cottage roof.

  A flash of lightning lit her face momentarily, a study in light and shadow. She tilted her head up in silent invitation. He took it, kissing her. The act was both familiar and wonderfully new as he sank into the kiss, relishing the taste and feel of his goddess.

  Her arms slid around him, pulling him closer. He did the same, running his hands over her blouse and feeling soft skin over rises of bone and the sleek play of muscles. The weight of her breasts pressed deliciously against his chest. He smelled salt air and something light and citrusy, thankfully different from her sisters’ perfume.

  When the kiss broke he felt her smile against his mouth. “I do believe that was worth waiting for, beloved,” she whispered.

  Griffin decided right then and there that he was going to do everything in his power to give her an unforgettable night. His cock might be out of the picture, but he still had fingers and a mouth. Let’s see what it’s like to make a goddess beg.

  He kissed her again, reverent, as he slid a hand into her thick hair and stroked her scalp. She made a little needy sound and he ate it up, nibbling her upper lip, then her lower one. He brought his hand down, massaging the nape of her neck. There was a little button at the back of her neckline. He flicked it open.

  “Let me take off your clothes,” he murmured.

  Amphitrite nodded and held her arms
up so that he could strip off the silk shell. Reaching around, he found he still remembered how to unhook a bra one-handed. He knelt, undoing the button and zip on her slacks and tugging them down. The last to go was a lace thong that slid down to join her slacks.

  Griffin sat back on his heels, then, gazing at her. Amphitrite embodied the beauty ideal of a past culture: sloping shoulders, full breasts tipped with dark pink nipples, and a waist that curved in before spreading again into rounded hips. A soft tangle of curls sat at the top of her thighs, a smudged shadow against her creamy skin. He suspected she could change her shape at will, remove hair, do whatever she liked to fit in with the current fashions. The fact that she stood here looking like she had in Medusa’s day, however, was exactly what he wanted.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said. “My beautiful goddess.”

  Amphitrite lifted her chin in acknowledgement, lips curving in a sensual smile. “Would you worship me, then?” she said, her voice sweet and imperious at the same time. “Pay homage to me in your bed?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “Then stand.”

  Griffin did, wincing a bit as his knees popped. It was her turn to take off his shirt and shorts, letting them fall silently to the floor. He braced himself, wondering what she would think of his diminished body.

  Amphitrite ran her fingertips along the line of his collarbones, tracing the shape of his sternum, the lines and hollows of his abdomen, the jut of his hipbones. One hand reached down and gently cupped his balls, as if cradling something infinitely precious. He groaned softly at the heat of her hand.

  She slid her fingers up, running the backs of them along his cock in a feather-light touch, a promise more than an actual caress, before toying with his crisp pubic hair. “Believe me, beloved, I find no fault in you,” she said. “I see what you once were, and what you will be again. You are a strong, vital man, and you please me deeply.”

  Another knot in his gut unraveled. “Thank you, love. I’m sorry for being so ridiculous about it, but—”

  She put fingers across his lips. “How we are seen by others matters to us. How we are seen by the people who love us matters even more. I see you, beloved, and you are beautiful to me.”

  He kissed her fingertips.

  With a soft chuckle Amphitrite stepped backwards and turned to the bed, climbing onto it. Griffin groaned at the sight. The ivory curves of her ass were everything he’d dreamed of, deserving artwork to make them immortal.

  She stopped as if hearing his thought, smiling back at him over her shoulder. Even in the dimness of the room her eyes were lit with blue flame. “Come to me, beloved.”

  “God, yes.” He followed her onto the bed, skin sliding over hers as she turned over and stretched out with a soft sound that was almost but not quite a purr. Underneath them, the plain cotton coverlet felt like the finest velvet.

  Griffin began to kiss her again. Her mouth, dipping inside to taste wine and goddess and magic. Her cheekbones, feeling the smooth curve of bone underneath the petal soft flesh. Her eyelids, the tip of her nose, her chin. He took his time nuzzling along her jawline, taking note of the audible and silent cues that indicated when he’d found a sensitive spot. He memorized those as he went, gently sucking her earlobes and running the tip of his tongue around the whorled shell of her ear.

  He bent down to whisper, “I’m going to kiss every inch of you tonight. I’m going to worship you the way you deserve to be worshipped, and I won’t stop until you give me permission to do so.”

  He felt the muscles of her cheek rise, indicating her smile. “I approve of this plan, beloved.”

  “Good.” Licking and kissing his way down the long tendon of her neck, Griffin pressed his lips into the hollow where neck met shoulder. Pausing there, he considered his options.

  He could continue down and pay attention to those marvelous breasts. The palms of his hands itched to hold their weight, and at that moment he would have cheerfully killed or died to take one perfect, erect nipple into his mouth. But he said he intended to kiss every inch of her. And he was a man of his word.

  He shifted sideways instead, paying homage to her sleekly rounded arms. Laying kisses in the crease of her elbow and wrist, he laved the skin with his tongue before biting the plump mound at the base of her thumb. She shivered at that, and he kissed between her fingers, sucking each one into his mouth and relishing their weight on his tongue.

  He gave her other arm the same worshipful treatment before shifting his attention to her chest. Each breast was firm, but held a soft malleability that felt lush in his hands. He took advantage of this by pressing her breasts close together, deepening the cleavage between them. He kissed and nibbled a wandering figure eight between the two. Finally, he allowed himself to take a nipple in his mouth, nibbling it. Her back arched as she sucked in a quick breath, pushing soft flesh against his mouth.

  “You’re very good at this,” she said, breathless.

  Griffin lifted up to lick a circle around the areola. “I like making my partners happy. I fully plan on making you ecstatic.”

  “I know.” Her hand threaded through his short hair, rubbing it. “You could perhaps step up the pace just a bit, though.”

  He growled against her skin. “I said I was going to kiss every inch of you, woman, and I meant it.”

  She sighed. “I know, beloved. But it’s been a very long time since I’ve gone to bed with someone. And your goddess would very much like to have your hand between her legs right now before her head explodes from sexual frustration.”

  “Well, in that case.” Griffin brushed his hand across the softly rounded plain of her stomach, enjoying the way the muscles jumped under his touch. He ran his palm over her pubic curls, letting one finger slide teasingly through the silk before touching her outer lips. She was warm and wet already, so much so that he could hear the moisture as he played with her.

  It was clear his agapetos required a quick orgasm to take the edge off her need. Griffin began tracing tiny circles over her clitoris, stretching up so that he could mouth her breasts at the same time. When her hips began to pump under his hand he slid a finger into her, keeping his thumb on her clit as he felt for the hollow behind the pubic bone that his second wife had been so kind to reveal to him. He found the spongy pad of flesh and began rubbing it in a slow circular motion.

  When he sucked hard on her nipple, her pelvis bucked and she gasped, clutching at the coverlet as she exploded around his fingers. Feeling delightfully evil, Griffin kept massaging her until she had a second, weaker orgasm. Only then did he slide his fingers free and bring them up to his mouth, licking them clean. She tasted like salt and woman, a rich flavor that flirted with sweetness.

  And underneath that, he tasted the same thing he tasted when he went down on Poseidon. If electricity could have a flavor, he thought, it would taste like this, potent and powerful.

  He laid a kiss between her breasts. “How was that, my lady?”

  She gathered herself enough to give him a blissed-out smile. “You lovely man.”

  That’s what he liked to hear. “Want me to stop?”

  “No.”

  And that was what he really liked to hear. “Good.”

  ****

  I should have taken him at his word. Amphitrite panted at the ceiling, feeling the aftershocks from her third—no, fourth—orgasm ricochet through her body.

  Her third orgasm hadn’t come until after Griffin finished adoring every bit of her legs, growling into the sensitive backs of her knees and making her squeal with laughter. He’d kissed the tops of her feet, nibbling at her toes until she begged him to stop. Then he worked his way back up, easing his shoulders between her thighs and prompting them to fall open.

  And then he still wouldn’t put his mouth between her legs, choosing instead to nuzzle and nip the tender flesh of her inner thighs until she felt sweetly molten inside.

  “Please, Griffin,” she begged.

  “Please what, my lady?”

 
; He wanted to hear the words. She could do that. “Lick my clit. I need your mouth on me.”

  “As you wish.” Then and only then did he gently part her folds, using the tip of his tongue and his lips to toy with her clitoris.

  As it turned out, her agapetos was utterly magnificent at oral pleasure. He savored her, using his fingers and mouth to drive her up and down peaks of sensation, easing her back before she could quite tumble over into orgasm. When he finally did make her come, her entire body locked at the sheer, pure ecstasy cascading through her.

  And he didn’t stop. He kept lapping and licking, fingers working their magic inside her while his mouth played with her clit, her labia, every soft part of her. The orgasm never faded completely, dying down to a trembling hum under his conducting before he brought it back roaring to another crescendo. She screamed joyfully, anointing her agapetos’s talented tongue with more of her fluids.

  When she finally came back to herself his head was resting on her thigh. She could feel the warm gusts of his breath across her wet flesh and shivered at it. “You’re amazing, Ammie,” he murmured.

  She allowed herself a small, exhausted smile as she reached down to stroke his hair. “I’m fairly sure I should be telling you that, beloved.”

  “I mean it. The way you respond, how you feel to me, how you taste. You’re everything I ever wanted.”

  She glanced down at him. “Everything?”

  He grinned. “Well, almost everything.”

  She waited until he pulled himself up to her side, mirroring his curled shape. “I won’t be upset if you say you want Poseidon, as well,” she said. “You’re supposed to. You’re his agapetos as much as mine.”

  “I know. And I do want him. But this is your time. I don’t want anything interfering with that.”

  The pleasure her body had just experienced held a faint candle to the joy that now glowed in her. “Right now, you couldn’t do anything to upset me. I want you to love him.” The truth she’d held locked in her heart for so long slipped through its bonds. “I still love him. I always have, even when I was furious with him. And now that I have you back, perhaps I can finally have him back as well.”