He liked it so much it hadn’t taken long for it to become their drawing room and he often passed hours there with her, tending to his business while she read or helped him with his work.
All in all, they had fallen into an easy rhythm and shared the kind of life he had never dreamed of having, one that often filled his heart to bursting.
That heart filled to bursting all over again as he gazed at his love, watching her as she tended to her garden, quietly singing to herself. She gently lifted her left hand, brushing a rogue wave of spun gold behind her ear only for it to slip forwards again and brush her cheek as she bent over something. Her cerulean corset and trousers accentuated her curves, had his mind racing forwards and blood rushing as he flexed his fingers, able to feel the buttery softness of the leather against them already.
No more pretty dresses for his goddess.
He had tried to buy her one and instead she had requested the clothes she wore now.
Something she could move in, as she had put it.
And gods, the way she moved.
He had been hard as stone the moment he had seen her in the tight clothing, aching for her then as he was aching for her now. He sighed. One thing hadn’t changed between them yet though. He still found things difficult from time to time, had yet to shatter the hold his past had on him enough to find release within her, but every time he failed, his little goddess was gentle with him, soothed him before rage took him, coaxed him back to her, and he was sure it was only a matter of time now.
Calindria was quite insistent that it was.
He hadn’t believed her at first, but now he did.
Every day he spent with her he was healing, putting his past behind him in the quest for a brighter future.
Calindria noticed him the moment he had passed the black fluted columns that lined one end of the pool, stood and turned towards him in one motion. Her face lit up and his heart lit up with it as she ran to him, as she leaped into his arms and curled hers around his neck.
Thanatos wrapped his arms around her and held her to him, captured her lips and savoured the desperate way she kissed him—a way that confirmed she had missed him as much as he had missed her.
Gods, how he had missed her.
Not long ago he would have been eager to return to his castle so he could be alone, and now he was eager to return to it so he could be with her.
He pulled her closer to him, cursing the black metal plates of the armour that protected his legs and hips as they hindered him, stopping him from being able to feel her body pressing to his.
She pulled back, stealing the pleasure of her lips from him, and her blonde eyebrows met in a frown that darkened her blue eyes. They turned troubled as she gazed into his.
“It didn’t go well?” Her soft voice undid him.
He had been aching to hear it as fiercely as he had been aching to feel her pressed against him. When he shook his head, she sighed, the sound melodic, and shifted her left hand. She twined the hair at the back of his head around her fingers, maddening him, stoking that fire she always ignited in him.
“We will find her one day, Thanatos. Perhaps next time I could come with you and my brothers? I could use my connection to the earth to root her out.”
The urge to tell her she would be remaining at the castle, far from any danger, barely rose within him before it was vanquished by a stronger need to keep her by his side, close to him where she would be safe. Not only that, but he could see how much she wanted to help, had listened to her speak at great lengths of how she needed to help her family. Her brothers wouldn’t be pleased about it, and he doubted Hades would allow it, but Thanatos was close to agreeing to his persistent little goddess’s demands that he take her with him. He knew in his heart that she could be a great help to them on this hunt, and he knew in his soul that she could handle herself, and also how desperately she wanted to spend time with her brothers.
But not in the way she had before her captivity, tailing them around the palace grounds and waiting for them there, tucked safely away and protected.
She wanted to show them that just as they had grown into strong, capable warriors, she had too.
“Hypnos came by to visit,” she said.
“I know,” he grumbled and his expression must have blackened because a little crease formed between her fair eyebrows. “Mother mentioned he has been visiting you.”
“Visiting me?” She frowned properly now and then something lit her eyes and she sighed. “Your mother is trouble. She teases you too much, putting thoughts into your head that are harmful. Hypnos came to see you and left as soon as he realised you had not returned yet. We barely exchanged pleasantries… and besides… why would I want him when I have you? I mean no offence to your twin, but you, my handsome god of death, are the only one for me.”
“What if something happened to me?” He flinched as he let that slip out.
Her look darkened, a flicker of red chasing around her pupils. “Then I would go into the veil and bring you back. I want no other. You are not Hypnos, and Hypnos is not you… and you are the only one for me.”
She put more force behind those words this time, driving them home, making him believe them.
He dipped his head and captured her lips again, kissing her softly this time, relishing every light brush of her mouth over his and how she sank against him, melting in his embrace. A shiver rolled down his spine as she feathered her fingers across his nape, heat blooming in its wake, and he tightened one arm around her back and dropped his other hand to her bottom. She gasped into his mouth as he clutched it, kissed him harder and gripped his nape, holding him to her.
His possessive little goddess.
She had shown him more than once that there was a darker, more dominant side to her just as there was to her brothers and her father. A wickedly possessive side. It had come out around her brothers’ females too, whenever any of them dared to gaze upon him or say anything kind about him. His little goddess didn’t like to share.
He didn’t like to share either.
He wrapped his wings around her, concealing her from view even though there wasn’t a soul for miles, keeping her to himself.
When he focused to teleport, to whisk her to their bedroom, she tensed and pushed back.
“Wait.” Her blue eyes were hooded, hazy with desire that said she didn’t want to wait, that she needed him as fiercely as he needed her, but there was a spark in them too, a light that shone like a beacon to him, drawing him towards her.
Making him curious.
She pushed from his arms and he growled and unfurled his wings, tried to grab hold of her but she pirouetted around his hand, evading him. Her smile was teasing, tempting, luring him into following her as she bounded away from him. If she wanted him to chase her, then he would.
And he would win.
He beat his wings and shot after her, swept around her and landed before her and she gasped, her blue eyes widening and a horrified look crossing her face. Not because he had startled her.
Her gaze fell to his feet and relief washed across her delicate features. “Oh, thank the gods. I thought I was going to have to kill you there for a moment.”
Thanatos looked down at the pointed toes of his metal boots.
Blinked.
Calindria crouched and reached her hands forwards, carefully ghosted them over the small bush he had almost crushed in his haste to capture her, and then looked up at him. Her smile was dazzling.
He smiled back at her as he eased to his knees before the thorny black bush and saw why she was so happy.
It bore an onyx rose.
Her first bloom.
She had been trying so hard to make something other than bushes, brambles and vines over the last few weeks, wanting to be able to use her powers over nature to make the things her mother could. Flowers had been at the top of her list, and whenever she had failed, she had grown quiet and withdrawn, and he’d had his work cut out for him. Making her believe she would
He hated seeing her depressed.
Wanted her to always smile like this.
“It is beautiful,” he murmured and she glanced at him, and then her gaze returned to him and lingered. He lifted his hand and brushed his palm across her rosy cheek. “You are beautiful.”
The rose on that cheek darkened and she gently brushed his hand away. “Hush now, Thanatos.”
She didn’t like it when he made her blush, but he loved it. He loved seeing that colour on her cheeks and knowing he put it there, because he seemed to be the only one who could make her blush like that.
“Soon the entire garden will be filled with roses and other blooms.” He looked around them as he stood and offered his hand to her. She slipped hers into it, the gentle slide of her fingers over his palm stoking the fire inside him. He pulled her onto her feet and into his arms, tucked her close to him as he gazed down at her. “You have only been here a short time, but you have already transformed this place… just as you transformed me.”
Her blush deepened. “I did not transform you at all.”
“Perhaps a better word would be freed. You freed me. You restored me.”
Before he could continue, she silenced him with a kiss, one that he knew was designed to keep him quiet and stop him from trying to make her blush even deeper. Thanatos sank into it as he held her to him, as he teleported them to their bedroom. As soon as her feet touched the floor, she pushed out of his arms, the heat and hunger in her gaze scalding him as she looked him over.
“Gods, I missed you.” She positively growled those words, brought a smile to his lips that disappeared in a shocked gasp as thin vines burst from the wooden boards beneath his boots and attacked the plates of his armour, stripping it from him.
He arched an eyebrow at her.
“I ache for you, Thanatos. Do not make me wait.”
Gods, she undid him. She knew exactly what to say to make him wild for her, to tear down his control and pull him under her spell. He growled as he reached for her, as her vines continued to peel his armour away to leave him naked before her. Her blue gaze darkened as she ran it over him, the hunger in it driving him, making him burn for her.
Thanatos gripped her waist and twisted her away from him, tore at the lacing on the back of her corset, cursing how intricate it was and how it slowed him. He needed her now, had been thinking about her non-stop for days. He pressed his aching length against her behind as he tugged the laces loose, as he peeled the soft leather from her curves and cast it aside. She moaned and leaned back into him, her skin brushing his, and he feathered his fingers up her stomach to the valley between her breasts as he kissed her throat.
“Thanatos,” she murmured, breathless already.
Her hands dropped to her leathers and he rubbed against her bottom as he dropped his there too and helped her with them. She tortured him by bending over to push them down her legs, revealing her bare backside to him.
Thanatos rubbed a hand down his mouth and uttered a curse, couldn’t stop himself from taking hold of her hips and grinding against her as she removed her leathers.
Calindria glanced over her shoulder at him, crimson shining around her dilated pupils. He knew that possessive look. He thrust against her and her gaze grew hooded, a moan escaping her. She turned in his arms and kissed him, leaped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her soft heat met his hard length and he groaned as he held her to him, as he rubbed against her.
“I’ve been aching to do this since you left.” She kissed his neck, nipped at his earlobe, and tightened her grip on him.
The world went black and he grunted as he landed on his back in the middle of their bed with her on top of him.
A growl burst from his lips as she pressed her hands to his chest, pinning him to the mattress, that possessive crimson light in her eyes growing brighter.
“Gods,” he muttered.
Surrendered to her.
Calindria rose off him and seized his shaft, brought it to her and sank back on it, taking him into her, driving him to the very edge of madness, in danger of pushing him over it. He groaned and gripped her hips as she rode him, each fierce thrust making her breasts bounce and that fire in her eyes blaze hotter. It seared him as he rolled his hips, driving into her, taking her as hard as she was taking him, losing control and becoming a slave to the need that surged through him.
Her sweet moans of pleasure drove him, had him guiding her with one hand and planting the other against her right breast. He thumbed her nipple and palmed her breast, growled as she moved faster, taking him now. Unable to hold back the need to touch her, to feel her climax, he dropped his hand from her hip and brushed his fingers over her sensitive flesh between her legs.
Calindria threw her head back and cried out, her body clenching and unclenching, milking him as her movements faltered.
Thanatos gathered her to him on a low growl, pinned her to his chest and kissed her hard as her legs fell open. He dug the heels of his feet into the mattress and thrust into her, each wild pump of his cock into her slick quivering body shoving him closer to the edge. Panic loomed at the back of his mind and he fought it, opened his eyes and stared into Calindria’s. It was his beautiful goddess with him. His love.
His forever.
Release hit him in a blinding rush that tore a bellow from him and a sweet cry of bliss from Calindria as she joined him, as her body flexed and trembled around his, demanding his seed as it burst from him.
He shook all over from the force of it, from the relief that swept through him on the heels of it as Calindria sank against him and kissed him, gently bringing him down.
Thanatos clung to her, breathing hard, astonished and awed by how good it had felt. He felt as one with her as he held her on him, as he continued to pulse inside her, as her breathless little sighs teased his ears.
He had never felt so connected to anyone as he did to Calindria in that moment.
He eased her back and brushed his hands across her damp cheeks and brow, sweeping the rogue strands of her golden hair out of her face so he could drink his fill of it. Her smile undid him all over again, her sated look only adding to his pleasure as he gazed at her.
“Gods, I love you.”
Her eyes lit up. “I love you too.”
He framed her face with his palms.
His perfect match.
His beautiful goddess of death.
His.
And gods help anyone who tried to take her from him.
A feral and possessive snarl came from deep within him and her smile turned wicked and a little bit amused. Thanatos yanked her down to him, rolled on top of her and kissed her, wiping that smile from her face as he claimed her lips.
Claimed all of her.
Again and again.
And again.
The End
* * *
The Guardians of Hades series will return in Hades
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Thanks for reading!
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About the Author
Felicity Heaton is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author who writes passionate paranormal romance books. In her books, she creates detailed worlds, twisting plots, mind-blowing action, intense emotion and heart-stopping romances with leading men that vary from dark deadly vampires to sexy shape-shifters and wicked werewolves, to sinful angels and hot demons!
If you're a fan of paranormal romance authors Lara Adrian, J R Ward, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Gena Showalter, Larissa Ione, Kresley Cole, Donna Grant and Christine Feehan then you will enjoy her books too.
If you love your angels a little dark and wicked, her best-selling Her Angel romance series is for you. If you like strong, powerful, and dark vampires then try the Vampires Realm romance series or any of her stand alone vampire romance books. If you’re looking for vampire romances that are sinful and passionate, then try her London Vampires romance series. Or if you like hot-blooded alpha heroes who will let nothing stand in the way of them claiming their destined woman then try her Eternal Mates world. It’s packed with sexy heroes in a world populated by elves, vampires, fae, demons, shifters, and more. If sexy Greek gods with incredible powers battling to save our world and their home in the Underworld are more your thing, then be sure to step into the world of Guardians of Hades.
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