A Titaness for the Titan (TITANS, #5)

by Lazu, Sotia

  She brushed past Nerites with a snort. “That was a long intro to remind me the universe depends on my losing my virginity.”

  He sighed and followed her inside. “Not on that, no. Mating is a part of the bonding, but more than that, you need to give your heart to him and he to you. Unconditionally. And believe me, that’s the hard part.”

  She believed him, and it made her head spin. No, that was the headache that hammered in her temples like something was trying to burst its way through. If she had to give birth to an Olympian, like Zeus birthed Athena—

  The room shifted, or maybe that was her, and the floor sped up to meet her face, but Nerites was there. He stopped her fall with an arm across her chest, and helped her upright, but her legs wouldn’t hold her.

  Nikoleta zeroed in on the bed. It was only a few meters away. She could make it.

  Her ankle gave way on the second step, and Nerites gathered her in his arms. “It’s okay,” he said as he balanced her so he could flip back the covers. “It’ll be okay.” He laid her down and waited till she straightened her robe, before pulling the sheets over her. “Vythos is safe for now. Get some sleep, and I’ll make sure Coeus comes to you as soon as he returns.”

  “Step away from her.” Coeus’ voice boomed from the doorway.

  “Hey,” Nerites said. “She wasn’t feeling well, and I was helping her—”

  “You were helping yourself, more like. Touch her again, and you’ll regret it.”

  His possessiveness was equal parts annoying and touching, and she’d have something to say about it if her brain would form coherent thoughts, instead of tap dancing in her head.

  Nerites stood back and squared his shoulders. “I’m Prince Nerites, son of King Nereus, whose hospitality you’re enjoying. I would never make advances on an uninterested female, much less an incapacitated one, even when I was single. Which I very much am not.”

  She’d known Nerites was a good guy from the get-go. Plus, he was sort of her family, since he was her sister’s brother? Working out that relationship made her head throb harder. Couldn’t Coeus see the prince meant no harm?

  Coeus looked only marginally less threatening as he prowled toward the bed. In his human-ish size, he towered over Nerites when he stopped toe to toe with him. “Thank you for your chivalry, then, Prince Nerites, but I’ll take care of my soulmate.”

  Nerites looked questioningly at Nikoleta. She braved the pain and nodded. “We’ll be fine. I’m already feeling better.” Which—huge lie. But she just wanted the testosterone match to be over and done with, so she could close her eyes against the light and hope to fall asleep before her head exploded.

  “Very well. I’ll have breakfast sent up to you.” Nerites took a step back, bowed his head at her, and strolled out of the room, not sparing Coeus a glance. “Hope you’re less of a brute once you’re bonded,” he muttered under his breath, but Nikoleta heard. It sounded like something her mom would say, if her mom ever referenced anything to do with sex. She chuckled. Which sent a lance of white-hot paint through her left eye.

  She cried out and gripped her head, eyes squeezed shut. This was it. She’d die here, in this strange bed, and her mom would never know. Devastation, fear, and sorrow fed the pain, until it was blazing anguish, consuming her whole.

  “Nikoleta? What’s wrong?” The bed dipped beside her, and Coeus’ large palm covered her own. The moment his skin touched hers, the agony melted away. It didn’t lessen; it disappeared, leaving behind no trace it had ever been there.

  She lowered her hand, careful not to break contact, and looked into his beautiful, worry-filled eyes. “My head. The migraine was back, but it stopped when you...” She looked at his fingers, that now caressed her knuckles. “You healed me.”

  “Then I’ll never stop touching you.”

  She’d laugh, but his expression was completely serious. Her heart clenched at the love he was offering her. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than— “Kiss me?”

  Chapter Ten

  THE EMOTIONS ROILING in his gut gave him whiplash.

  Within moments he’d gone from witnessing one of his brothers’ mates lose her life—the assurance she’d be all right didn’t erase the memory of the nauseating crack her neck made as it splintered from her head—to walking in on what he believed was another male moving in on his woman, to feeling his soulmate’s suffering through their unstable mental bond, to... this.

  She wanted him to kiss her? A heartbeat ago, she was blinded with pain, and now she was staring at his mouth and licking her lips...

  No more thinking. Only feeling.

  He closed his lips over hers, reining in his hunger, to keep his exploration of her mouth gentle.

  Apparently she wasn’t up for gentle. She dug her hands in his mane, grabbing fistfuls of it to pull him on top of her.

  It took all his superhuman power to pull back from the kiss. Her gray eyes were wild, pupils dilated with desire.

  “Touch me.” Her plea—command?—reverberated in his skull.

  Gladly. But first he’d drive her as insane with desire as he was in her presence. “If I start, I won’t stop. I will make you scream my name. Is that what you want?” He brushed his thumb across her cheekbone and frowned at the smudge it left behind. He was covered in dust and dirt. It didn’t feel like the right time for a shower, so he called to the oxygen in the room to remove the grime from his skin and hair, as well as from the bed and Nikoleta’s hands.

  Nikoleta raked her fingers through his hair, eyed wide. “How did you do that?” She shook her head. “Never mind. I remember.”

  He ached to make her remember more about their shared past, but had the moment passed?

  She pushed the covers aside, leaving the tantalizing strip of skin between the edges of her robe bare to his gaze.

  Her obvious invitation made his heart skitter with a hope he hadn’t allowed himself to feel till this very moment. This wasn’t about the sex. It wasn’t even about the blasted world. He just knew deep in his bones that when he was buried inside her, the years apart would fade away. They’d be connected once more to that visceral level that made him feel like nothing could ever go wrong.

  Instead of caressing the flesh calling to him, he called the action to mind and projected it to her. Would she shy away?

  He let out a sigh of relief when she didn’t.

  She arched into the mental image, and he whipped up a breeze to part her robe further, revealing her supple breasts. What he now knew were tan lines formed pale triangles that contrasted with the golden hue of her sun-kissed sternum and belly. Self-restraint evaporating, he leaned over her and traced the lines with his tongue, before circling her nipple with its tip.

  Nikoleta used her grip on his hair to keep him pinned in place as he pulled the hardened bud in his mouth and sucked on it. Gaia, he could stay here forever. But there was more of her to get lost in. He undid the sash of her robe with his left hand and glided it along her side to her hip, to cup her mons. The downy hairs along her cleft were wet with her juices. He slipped a finger between her nether lips and groaned. Soaking wet and scorching hot, her pussy made his cock throb with need.

  He ran the pad of his finger across her clit with just enough pressure to make her squirm, as he licked a path to her other breast, to lave it with his lips and tongue. He’d take his time. And then he’d take her. And they’d both be whole.

  She let go of his hair, to skate her palm over his shoulder, then dragged her nails down his forearm. Grasping his wrist, she whispered, “Stop.”

  Not again. He wanted to rage. Yell about how she couldn’t change her mind again. But she could, and she had. And he was shaking. He couldn’t unravel now. Not this close to her.

  Not that distance would make a difference, when his unraveling would rupture the world.

  Taking deep, calming breaths, he withdrew his hand and sat up. Steering his gaze away from her beguiling body, he said, “I am not a toy, for you to turn on and off at will, woma
n. I want you. My need for you screams in my veins and rips at my soul. I am a Titan—a god of gods—and I don’t ask. You are my female. Call for me when you are ready to accept it.” He made to stand, but her hand snaked around his wrist.

  “I’m ready now.” Her words were barely audible over the pulse thudding in his ears.

  He snapped his gaze to hers. “What did you say?”

  “I’m ready. I want this. I want you.”

  He arched an eyebrow, stalling for time while he reached to her through the mental link that seemed to establish itself when they were intimate. There was no hint of doubt or fear in her thoughts. “You’re sure.” He didn’t phrase it as a question.

  Trapping her lip between her teeth, she nodded.

  “What changed?” And why on Chaos’ green earth was he still talking, instead of ravishing her?

  She squeezed her eyes shut, and for a moment, it was like she wasn’t even breathing. When she looked at him again, determination was etched on her expression. “Everything. I saw you fighting the Hecatoncheiras. Saw you facing Kronos. You could have died. The thought of losing you... It sliced through me. My body reacts to you like we were never parted, and rebels when you’re not beside me.” With her free hand, she toyed with the sheet, rolling its corner into a pointed tip before straightening it again. “I don’t know if I love you... Yet? Still? My mind can’t accept the concept of being bonded forever to a man I just met, but when you look at me like that... I need to be yours, even for a few minutes.”

  Her words sunk inside him, wrapping around his heart like soothing caresses. She felt their connection. She was allowing herself to be with him. Opening up to the possibility of loving him. Happiness, wild and fierce and absent for too long, blossomed in his chest.

  Nikoleta held her arms out to him, and he draped his body over hers, careful not to smother her much smaller form.

  Holding her gaze, he thought at her, “This won’t be for a few minutes. It will be for eternity. We will have the future that was stolen from us.”

  She trembled—or was that him?—as she raised her legs to wrap them over his hips. “I want you,” she said.

  Her desire seeped through his skin, sparkling at his nerve endings, as his cock slid along her slit. Straining to hold back from thrusting into her to the hilt, he fisted his shaft and positioned himself at her entrance. He still remembered the first time they’d lain like this—the wonder he felt at their imminent union. Her love for him shone in her eyes then. Now they were glazed with lust. It would have to be enough. After he loved her, she’d love him.

  He rocked his hips, to ease the tip of his cock inside her, and she squeezed her eyes shut. This wouldn’t do.

  “Look at me,” he ordered in her head, and waited until she cracked her eyelids open.

  “I’m ready,” she said. “I can take it.”

  She sounded resigned. He didn’t want resigned. He wanted excited. Gleeful, maybe. Hearing her speak like this was a chore sent cold water rushing down his spine. Had he somehow coerced her into this?

  Her mind was open to him, allowing him to see she was just fearful. Didn’t know what would come next. Couldn’t remember their first time together.

  He blew a tuft of hair away from her face. “I don’t want you to take it. I want you to love every minute of it, and I’ll make sure of it.”

  She rolled her eyes, pressing her heels into his ass. “I mean the pain. I know it hurts.”

  Not what he wanted her focusing on. Luckily, he could fix that. He slanted his mouth over hers, and claimed her lips.

  Chapter Eleven

  COEUS’ KISS WAS THE stuff of legend, making her heart skip in her chest and sending bolts of desire to her belly. Every stroke of his tongue whispered across her nipples and flattened on her clit. His mouth was everywhere. And it wasn’t enough. She bowed her back, pressing into him. She wanted to get the painful part out of the way, so she could lose herself into the pleasure she knew he’d offer her.

  “I won’t hurt you.” His words caressed her mind like a breeze. No, it was a breeze, and it smelled of the river. Their river. The sheets beneath her body gave way to blades of grass that lent their fresh scent to the air around her. Birds chirped over her head, here to witness their mating.

  Coeus had taken her to their very first time. They’d been sitting by the river, her trying to weave flowers in his hair, when he’d laughingly tackled her to the ground. She loved it when he was playful and let her be silly with him. This time, their play had turned into something more, though. Something primal.

  She clutched at him, needing to feel that same connection. Needing to feel whole.

  He sucked on her bottom lip, digging his teeth in the soft flesh as he angled his hips. Nikoleta clenched instinctively against the pain she expected to tear her up inside as he drove into her in one long, hard thrust, but it only lasted an instant and was nowhere near as bad as she’d expected.

  “Stop thinking,” Coeus murmured against her lips. “Feel. Feel me making you mine.”

  He grasped her hips, but his fingers were also gliding over her breasts, caressing down her stomach, circling her clit...

  She fisted his hair and attacked his mouth again, as her body yielded to the onslaught of sensation. Her sensory memory kicked in, her flesh recalling its reaction to his every touch, from the most casual brush of his fingertips over her knuckles, to the intimate feel of his fingers inside her pussy and... elsewhere.

  He withdrew and sank into her again and again, his every stroke bumping the sensitive bundle of nerves inside her and sending white-hot fire spilling through her veins.

  “More,” she thought at him. Could he hear her?

  “All I have is yours.” He unlocked her ankles from around his hips and pulled out of her.

  What was he doing? “Hey.” Her eyelids were heavy, as she blinked against the overlapping images of the room her brain knew they were in and the meadow her body felt it was sprawled on. “Where are you going?”

  The grin that spread his full lips was feral, as he tapped her splayed pussy, making her need ratchet up another notch. “Right back here.” He clasped one of her legs and brought it to his shoulder, then planted his free palm on the apex of her other thigh, using his thumb to spread her labia. “You asked for more. I’m giving it to you.”

  Her hamstrings burned with strain as he lunged inside her again, stretching her body like he did her pussy. His thrusts were harder, his grip on her bruising, as he pistoned into her. The bed creaked, threatening to drive away the fantasy of reliving their first time together, but she didn’t care. She no longer needed the fantasy. She only needed this man, this Titan, who made her feel so alive, she wanted to laugh and cry and love him forever. Now, in this moment, she was Phoebe.

  He pressed his thumb to her clit and changed the angle of his strokes, driving inside her slowly, languidly, until she begged him to let her come. And still, he took his time, building up the fire consuming her senses, until pleasure drowned out all thought. Her skin tingled, her nails digging into his shoulders as her pussy fluttered around him. Her head felt light with hypoxia, as her climax spiked into a crescendo that left her panting for breath.

  She flopped back on the mattress, watching his muscles flexing and rippling as he chased his own release. The tendons in his neck corded, as he turned his face to the ceiling—or the blue sky above—and roared his release, spilling inside her.

  Sticky and tender and so very sated, she let him move her so he could lie beside her, and eagerly offered her lips to his kiss. “Did it take?” she whispered. “The bond?”

  Coeus lazily trailed his fingers through her locks. When he looked into her eyes, his gaze held a trace of sadness. “You must offer me your heart while I’m inside you, for it to work.”

  Her post-orgasmic bliss fizzled out, leaving her feeling cold and exposed. She shifted, so she could pull the covers over her. “Oh. Right.” They each had to pledge the other their love. Did that mean he had? He
loved her—Nikoleta, not Phoebe? How was this possible? How did he not feel cheated by the universe and that asshole, Zeus?

  She felt cheated. Wronged. Both as Phoebe and as Nikoleta. Her first incarnation had her chance for a happily ever after stolen from her, and this one... Well she didn’t get the chance to fall in love the right way. To meet someone nice and go on a date or two or ten. To get to know him and meet his family and introduce him to her mom and her cats.

  They wouldn’t move in together before things were official, but maybe she could stay at his place a couple times a week. Have a drawer there. And then they’d realize they were so good together, they had to get married. He’d ask, she’d say yes, they’d have a couple kids, and they’d be... done. The perfect little family. And she’d go into it all with her eyes open and making every decision for herself.

  Instead, she was thrown into an impossible situation, with only one way out—love Coeus. Say that she did. Say that she was head over heels for him this very moment. That she’d die if he never touched her again. That she wanted to melt into him, meld with him. Belong to him till the earth stopped spinning. How could she trust her heart? How did she know this feeling of rightness wasn’t planted there by Eros?

  Did she have free will? Had she ever?

  She caressed Coeus’ brow. It was relaxed now, his eyes shut. Maybe he’d drifted off. “I can’t do that yet,” she whispered. Not until she reconciled the two lives inside her.

  Chapter Twelve

  COEUS KEPT HIS EYES shut until Nikoleta’s breathing evened out and she felt lax against him. Her delicious curves, warm and inviting, made it hard to disentangle himself, but he rolled her on her back and climbed out of bed, keeping a tight lid on his feelings. It wouldn’t do to spin out of control here and now because she gave him her body but not her heart.