by Setta Jay
“You said we would have a mental connection. Why can I not hear your thoughts?” she demanded, raising her chin.
He hardened his jaw before speaking. “I have a shield for my thoughts.”
She was furious and trying not to lose complete control of her temper. “When did you start hearing my personal thoughts, and why did you not tell me?” She held a hand up as he moved closer. It didn’t matter that he had every reason not to trust her, he should have said something. The winds howled through the trees as she demanded the more important answer, “How do I build one of these shields? Explain. Now.”
She wasn’t sure if she were more furious, humiliated, or just hurt at having trusted him. He’d been blatantly listening to her lust over him among everything else… Her cats yowled in her head and attempted to calm her emotion, but it wasn’t working, and she was still furious with them as well.
“I will do it for you,” he said gently.
He moved closer and she snapped, “Do you need to touch me to do this?”
He growled, “No, I need to be in your mind.”
“You were already there,” she bit out. “So show me this shield.”
“I didn’t lie.”
“Omission. I am aware of the difference.”
She felt him slide into her mind and nearly moaned, which only embarrassed her more.
Her power was wild and spinning out of control, and she wanted to lash out, do damage. She understood him needing answers from her. She would have done the same thing in his position, so she wasn’t sure exactly why she felt hurt that he’d shielded his own thoughts, protected his privacy. Perhaps because she was the one left wide open and vulnerable while he was left with his secrets.
She closed her eyes, trying to calm the wild emotion that didn’t make sense. She only knew that lust was riding under it all, amplifying everything.
She’d allowed him inside her body. Not only that, she’d slept beside him, and her cats had encouraged her to trust him.
Lightning lit the dark skies and thunder crashed as she turned and stepped into the raging water of the mineral pool. She wanted his scent off her skin, the stickiness from between her thighs.
She needed space. She moaned when she felt something… a wall building in her mind. Water slid over her thighs, her breasts as she slipped through the warm liquid.
Even his mental touch was intoxicating, and she hated that he could spin her this far out of control without even touching her skin.
A shiver ran over her shoulders down to her breasts, and she knew it wasn’t right.
The waters shifted and she knew he’d followed her in. The pleasure of his voice in her mind was nearly too much. I’m sorry. Hurting you was the last thing I wanted to do. But I needed to know I could trust you. That you wouldn’t set my family up to be harmed.
She felt him coming closer as ripples lapped lovingly at her sensitive flesh. It was a kind of protection that should have soothed her tense muscles as she listened to him speak in her mind. My mother adamantly instructed my father to never allow a God of Thule near me. She told him that you’d all want me dead, so he never even told me her real identity until a week ago. He didn’t want me anywhere near that lake because he was worried. Now I worry about him. We may be fated, thea mou, but we’ve only known each other for hours. I’m here in your world, where your priestesses can pop in at any moment and put a blade through my neck. At the same time my family could be walking into danger with your brother.”
She turned to him and watched as he slowly stalked through the water toward her. His wings had gone away again, but he was just as magnificent and beautiful. His intent eyes were focused completely on hers as he moved with a grace that any animal could only hope to achieve. She’d already known his reasons had been valid, but she still felt hurt. It had to be all the lust driving her other emotions wild.
His gravelly tone filtered to her ears. “I hate that I hurt you. You’re the one female I’m bound to protect and care for through all eternity, but would you ever want a male who didn’t protect those he loved?”
“I would not,” she admitted before frowning. “Can you still hear my thoughts?” She swore she felt a wall inside her mind, but hadn’t he just answered her mental question.
The intent look in his eyes was affecting her deeply. “Your thoughts are safe, but I can still feel the hurt.”
“You can feel my emotions?” That was more like the bond with her cats.
He nodded. “You’ll feel my emotions too.”
That eased her. At least that felt fair.
Standing in front of her, he added, “From now on, think to me directly as if you’re speaking aloud.”
She sucked in a breath. “Now what must we do?”
“I need to tell my father and Drake that it’s likely safe to trade the Goddess and her warriors for Apollo. You’ll hear me because you share my telepathic links now.”
She did hear him contacting them and felt how he was doing it. While he relayed the information, she slid her mind over the mental thread that led to him. She saw the web of those threads coming from her male while only seeing his brilliant white thread and two gold threads that must lead to the bonds with her beasts.
When she felt his wet hands slide up her arms and over her shoulders, her knees nearly buckled.
“How do I know you cannot hear my thoughts now?” she asked to be prudent, when she’d been feeling anything but. Not when such a simple touch from him made her crazy with lust. “And what are all those threads?”
“I’m not sure how to test it… Come into my mind, and then you can see the shield and what happens when I lower it.” He said the words as he did exactly that, and her entire body lit up as she felt his thoughts.
She gasped at the carnal words that filled her head. The things he wanted to do to her. She moaned in near agony as he pulled her into his arms. Soon his thoughts moved to safer things. His father and Drake. His cousin was more like a brother to him. He gave her an image of them both. “Do you see the shield?” he growled.
She could feel his tense muscles against her. “Yes.”
“And when I close it?” Which he did, and then she heard and saw nothing from him, and it felt wrong to her. It had felt too good being in his mind; she wanted to see more. Needed to learn more about him personally, not just what they had to share to keep the peace between their worlds.
Gefn was panting with need as she went into her own mind and saw the same wall and practiced lowering and raising it before breathing out in relief that she’d accomplished something other than falling willingly into his arms.
When she opened her eyes, she was caught in the wild lust in his sapphire gaze. It set his strong jaw in a tense line as he looked down at her, and she knew that the frenzy was taking them over again.
And she didn’t fight it.
Chapter 11
Fólkvangr, Falls of the Dead – Thule
Desire was ruling them both, and Gefn wanted his hands on her again, his mouth, the hard shaft that bobbed into her stomach.
All of him.
Her gaze trailed over the hard body before her as even the swaying of the water seemed to draw her closer to him, attempting to close the gap between their naked bodies. She sucked in a breath as everything charged around them, the forest, the water. Clouds were moving in again, but she was too caught in his addicting male scent and the sight of his body to notice anything else. She allowed her fingers and palms to slide over the taut muscles of this chest, enjoying the way the warm flesh twitched at her touch.
He growled, and before she knew it, she was lifted up until their naked bodies meshed together through the liquid in the pool. She eagerly welcomed his descending lips, opening hers to his demanding kiss. The tangling of their tongues made her ache for more. She moaned into his lips as her legs wrapped around his waist. She felt the first drops of rain as she clutched his shoulders and dug into his wingless back.
The kiss was wild by the time her
fingers came to his jaw, reveling in the way it moved as he kissed her. She tilted her head, accepting the demands of his mouth and savoring his taste all the while he moved her body against the rigid shaft between them. He teased her with each grinding down sweep until she thought she might find release like that. Her ears were ringing in time to the sloshing water flowing over the stone edge of the pool. Evidence of the sheer power of his body tormenting hers.
It wasn’t enough. More. She wasn’t sure the mind speak would work, but the thought of breaking the kiss was not possible.
He groaned into her mouth as his deep voice filled her mind. How much more, thea mou? Tell me.
All of it, she sent and hoped it made it.
You want my cock inside you? He asked the question while controlling her hips until she was gasping for climax.
Yesss. The stuttered emphasis was enough to get him to move. He lifted her to hover over his hardness before slowly lowering her down.
He growled into her mind and she felt the vibrations all the way to her soul, not a spot inside or out of her body wasn’t shuddering with pleasure.
I’m going to teleport and let you see if we can leave. His voice was harsh and getting raspier as he continued, But, Gefn, wherever we end up, you’ll stay as you are. Full of my cock.
She was barely aware of what he was doing. His voice and those dirty words were too much for her mind. Yes, she’d wanted to find out if she could leave, but now? Before the thought was even fully formed, she was broken up into a million pieces. She couldn’t gasp or do anything but feel; every single part of him was combining with her in the same erotic torment as before.
This power was different than being a part of the winds, but that was the closest comparison she could make. This was much faster and seemed so wild and out of control. She couldn’t breathe. The same wall was there, and she felt it pulse, but she couldn’t push past it no matter how she tried. She would have cried out in frustration and panic if she was able to, but she had no body, no lips.
The second they reformed, she did cry out in pleasure so deep it dissipated the panic, pushed it back to the innermost parts of her mind. The need was so intense that her head fell back as she mewled for more. The dizziness from traveling and the panic seemed to be no match against the blinding need.
He was inside her so deep that she thought she’d die if he didn’t move faster. Water ran over the sides of the pool as she fought for some purchase. She used power and strength to gain leverage to meet his thrusts.
He grunted before biting out, “You feel so damned perfect.”
Over and over he slammed her up and down his shaft as they moved through the water toward the steps. Mindlessly, she noted something moving from the corner of her eye. Instead of carrying her out of the pool, her back was pushed into soft padding. In the recesses of her mind she knew he had to have moved the cushion of the lounge into the pool, but she was more intent on his weight on top of her, his shaft pushing inside her as his hips worked harder. It was as if she were in another place, somewhere with no time, where all that existed was pleasure. Her body fused with his in the most primal of ways, his body inside hers, his breath on her skin, those gorgeous eyes blazing with heat.
She wanted that. Wanted him to lose control like she had.
“What would feel better?” she rasped as she lifted up and kissed the straining tendons of his neck.
He groaned and she felt how much he was holding back. Tell me, she said into his mind. Or she hoped she had.
Wrap your legs around my back. I want to feel you all over me, thea mou, he growled.
And my voice in your head… does it do the same things to you that it does to me?
Fuck. Yes. His response in her mind was making her lose her sanity as she continued to kiss his neck while wrapping her legs around his hips. She felt his entire body shudder as she slid her feet over the backs of his wet thighs. His thrusts grew harder until the sound of wet skin slapping against heated flesh was all she could hear.
She licked and then bit his neck, wringing a groan from his lips that affected her just as much. Her touch had done that to him. This big powerful male wanted her hands on him, her lips and tongue. That alone seemed to drive animalistic noises from his lips. His body rocked hers with a force that drove him against her mound, making her moan. Deep inside, he ruthlessly slid over a spot that stole the air from her lungs.
When his big hands moved from her to grip the stone lip of the pool, she knew he was lost. His eyes landed on hers with such intensity that it drew a gasp from her lips. She heard stone cracking as he powered into her, the edge of the pool no match for this male.
She dug her nails into his back as she writhed and fought to feel it all at once. Her eyes closed as her head lolled back and forth on the soft padding. She was spinning out of control into sheer perfect bliss.
“Look at me when you come,” he commanded with a force that rumbled the ground beneath them. Her eyes slit open just as her body started to spasm in pure pleasure. She fought for purchase on his back, digging her fingers in as she crushed her breasts tighter against his chest. Every muscle tensed as she cried out her release while clutching his shaft with a force that made him roar with pleasure.
His head fell back and the elements bellowed for him, rocking and swirling around them in wild abandon. The winds lifted the furniture as the water rose from the pool. She could hear and smell the forest blooming and growing, but nothing was as magical as the way he felt. The way his staff throbbed inside her clenching body, demanding more of the warm seed already filling her up. It seemed to go on forever as he looked back down at her, chest rising and falling with harsh breaths that matched her own. He was incredible.
From the corner of her sight she could see the furniture settle back to the ground, the water from the pool that had lifted to shroud them washed back down.
He set his forehead to hers and she understood. There were no words for what had happened between them. She couldn’t stop touching him; her arms wound around his neck, holding him close as their breathing evened out.
He lifted up a hair to gaze down at her before lowering to kiss her, a soft tasting that eased her jagged nerves.
How do you feel? His voice in her mind was soothing, and she wanted to relax in his arms and let sleep take her again, but there was too much they needed to discuss.
Her thighs moved over his hips in a caress she couldn’t seem to stop. I feel relaxed. His flesh felt too good against hers.
Not sore or hurt? He looked at her then, his eyes assessing her.
She smiled. “I am perfect. I feel strong and warm.” She felt safe and secure as well. So much so that she never wanted him to move. It wasn’t logical, for the time that they’d known one another, but somehow she felt closer to him than she’d ever been to another.
He leaned in to take her lips in a fleeting kiss before agreeing. “You are perfect.”
She ignored the tingles that slid over her skin at his words and instead asked, “Does this mean we have finished the bond you spoke of?”
There was so much power flowing around them, through them.
He didn’t leave the cradle of her body. Instead he stayed there, hovering above her as he spoke. “No. Our souls aren’t connected yet.”
He seemed hesitant, so she asked, “You are certain of this?”
“Yes, thea mou.”
She loved how those words sounded on his lips. She was his Goddess.
*****
Pothos couldn’t force himself to leave her body. He wasn’t even sure she was aware that her hands and thighs kept drifting over his skin, but it felt too damned good to end. He’d been scared for a minute that he’d hurt her. She was so damned tight and he’d lost control, destroying part of the pool in his grip.
Now she was gentling him. He’d never experienced anything like her touch; it lit up every nerve in his body and sent power flooding the forest beyond them.
Her next words pulled him from his th
oughts. “When will it happen?” There was concern in her voice, and he wanted to wipe away her worry. She felt trapped, and guilt ate at him. He’d taken her to this place. He hadn’t done it on purpose, and she didn’t seem to blame him, but he blamed himself.
That didn’t mean he looked forward to completing their bond there, where he would be very vulnerable to threats. They both would be, and that wasn’t acceptable to his protective instincts. He rested his forehead on hers. She had a right to know the damned process. “There are several steps we have to go through before the connection is completed.”
Her next words were breathy. “What steps?”
He lifted his head and slipped from her body out of self-preservation. His cock had already started to twitch inside all that warmth, making him groan.
The soft intake of her breath and the way her eyes flashed with disappointment didn’t help. “I can’t talk when I’m inside you. I already want more.”
“You said that was how this would be.” A small frown creased her brow. “You said the lust would only get more intense. Painful until the bond was complete.”
“I did,” he agreed as he stood in front of her, washing the stone from his fingers. The pool now held a permanent mark of his loss of control. Sunlight filtered down from the canopy, flickering over her wet flesh flushed and spread from his possession. Her nipples were still tight little peaks and they begged for his lips. He forced his eyes away; the damned frenzy was killing him. He looked into the forest, to the thousands of flowers dotting the brilliant green around them. He wasn’t sure if it was the combined power they unleashed when they had sex that had caused them, because he’d been too completely lost in her to notice anything else.
The frenzy was out of control. Too damned relentless. It hadn’t been this way for his brothers. They’d had hours between bouts of sex. Why did he want to bury his cock back in her wet little pussy all over again? Fucking hell, he hadn’t wanted to leave her hot cunt in the first place. This couldn’t be normal.
