by J. S. Scott
She moaned into the kiss as she tasted herself on his lips. She savored the moment, their essence melding and merging as he claimed her mouth over and over again.
Breathless by the time Hunter surfaced, Athena moved restlessly beneath him. “Fuck me, Hunter. I need to feel you inside me.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, coaxing him to take her.
“Athena, stop,” Hunter growled.
She recognized that he tilted a little more to one side on the narrow wire he was mentally balanced on. “I can’t. I want you to fuck me. I want to feel you so deep inside me that we don’t know where one of us stops and the other begins.”
Hunter speared her with a ravenous, amber stare that made her breath hitch. He looked wild, feral, and completely raw. She stared back at him, letting him see her responding craving, a need that was just as deep as his.
“Christ! I can’t go slowly,” Hunter cursed, his fingers caressing her cheek as their gazes stayed locked together.
Lifting her arm, she grasped the hand that was gently stroking her face. Entwining their fingers, she whispered, “Then don’t. Feel me, Hunter.” Athena wanted him to realize that not all of the insanity he was feeling belonged to him. She wanted it just as intensely, just as deeply. Feeling the ferocity of his passion was intoxicating. The pain of him deflowering her would be nothing compared to the aching need she had for him right now.
Without breaking the powerful contact of their gazes, Hunter reached between them and placed himself at the opening of her sheath. “It’s going to hurt. You’re so tight, and I’m big.” He wasn’t bragging. In fact, he sounded grave.
Athena fell into his amber gaze, hypnotized as he grabbed her other hand and entwined his fingers through hers, letting their joined hands rest on both sides of her head.
“It will feel amazing,” she told him softly, lifting her hips slightly.
“I’m glad you think so, Princess. You might change your mind after this.” Without warning, Hunter gave a powerful thrust of hips, seating himself deeply inside her.
Athena felt the tiny membrane of her virginity give way to Hunter’s strength, and she flinched briefly as the pinching sensation surprised her, and the penetration stretched the walls of her channel.
Her eyes began to flutter closed, but Hunter demanded, “Look at me, Athena. Don’t stop looking at me. Are you okay?” His voice was strained from holding back.
She opened her eyes, meeting Hunter’s concerned stare with a sultry smile. “Fuck me,” she dared. “I’m more than okay. I knew you’d feel incredible.” The relief on his face was worth way more than the nominal pain of losing her virginity. Now that he was buried inside her, all she could feel was him.
“I don’t know what to do now,” she admitted, her body clamoring for more of Hunter.
“Hold on,” he instructed, pulling his cock almost all the way out of her body and surging inside her again. “I. Can’t. Stop. Now,” he rasped, his hips moving, his cock entering and retreating in a relentless rhythm.
Athena’s grip on Hunter’s hands tightened as she continued to meet his furious pace, lifting her hips to greet every entry of his sizable cock. All that was left of her lost virginity was a stretching sensation that felt more erotic than painful.
Finally, Hunter belonged to her. Maybe it was only temporary, but it felt divine. She watched his face, the carnality of his expression one of the most beautiful things she’d ever seen.
His amber stare stayed locked on her face as he hammered into her. “Jesus, you’re so tight, Princess. You feel so damn good.” He changed his angle slightly so his cock rubbed against her clit with every pump of his hips. “This...” Thrust. “Is...” Thrust. “Mine!” Thrust.
His claim was elemental, each word growled with every pounding entry of his shaft. “Yes, yes, yes!” she chanted, delirious with the pleasure of having Hunter so earthy and possessive. She wanted him like this, and the sex was wanton and pure, unadulterated…Hunter.
“Come, Hunter,” she insisted, wrapping her legs tighter around his back. She wanted to watch his face as he spent himself inside her. He looked tortured, anguished. Was that what pleasure looked like for him?
“Baby, I’m in fucking ecstasy,” he answered on a heavy exhale, having caught her thoughts. “And I’m not coming without you.”
Athena could already feel her impending orgasm. The feel of their wet skin sliding together, Hunter’s hard cock penetrating her again and again, stimulating her clit with every thrust, was about to send her over the edge. “I’ll die if I come like that again,” she answered honestly, not certain if she’d come apart and fly away in tiny little pieces.
“Then I’ll save you, because it’s already happening,” Hunter grunted, lowering his mouth to hers, finally breaking their captivating eye contact.
Athena trembled violently as Hunter kissed her, feeling her powerful orgasm grip her in an almost savage hold. As he released her mouth, she cried out mindlessly, not even certain what she’d said.
Hunter groaned and threw his head back as her sheath milked him of his hot release. “Athena,” he muttered on a masculine sigh, laying his forehead against hers as his body continued to shudder before he was finally stilled.
Neither one of them said a word. Their fingers were still entwined and Hunter’s breath began to slow down as he gently untwined one of their hands and moved to her side. He was slow to release her other hand, but he did let go and slid out of bed. After rummaging around in the attached bath for a moment, he came back with a fluffy white cloth.
“What’s that?” she asked curiously, her body now almost limp with satiation as she raised her head from the pillow.
He nudged her thighs apart without saying a word, and wiped gently at the smears of blood on her skin before pressing the warm compress directly between her legs.
Hunter looked so sweet, so gentle as he frowned at the washrag like it wasn’t doing a good enough job. Athena felt her eyes grow moist as she watched his disgruntled expression, the tender acts of a man who considered himself only a killer of Evils. He was more, so much more than he gave himself credit for. “It doesn’t really hurt,” she told him solemnly.
“You were bleeding,” Hunter argued.
“Only a little, and it really wasn’t painful, Hunter. You just surprised me.”
“I thought it was better to just get it over with,” he grumbled.
“It was.” Athena wasn’t the type to draw out unpleasant things. Hunter did exactly what she wanted. “And then it was extraordinary.”
Hunter shook his head, but he didn’t look at her. “Do you want a warm bath? It might help.”
“Tonight, all I want is you.” She reached for him and pulled him back onto the bed beside her. If this was the only night they had to be together, she wanted to experience every second of their time together with Hunter beside her. “I could have just manifested the cloth,” she reminded him gently, although it touched her that he’d gone after it just for her.
Hunter shrugged. “I could have done that, too, but we’ve spent a long time trying to do things the human way to blend in. I guess it’s a habit. I’m deviant when it comes to killing Evils, so I try to mind some of the other Sentinel rules.”
He wasn’t noncompliant because he wanted to be; he didn’t have a choice. As a stabilizer, his compulsion to equal the balance had always overridden any other instincts or behavior. A tear flowed down her cheek as she briefly relived some of his memories, the endless punishment for breaking Sentinel rules.
Wrapping his arms around her, Hunter positioned himself at her back, gently rolling her on her side. She sighed as he warmed her bare skin and held her possessively with an iron grip around her waist. He wiped away the tear with the hand near her head. “Don’t cry for me. I’d do the same damn thing if it meant saving you, Princess,” he said gruffly.
He meant it. Athena
could hear the same thoughts echoing inside his head. “I’m so sorry,” she answered softly, tears starting to flow in earnest. “My Sentinels were my creation, pawns in my battle to fight the Evils. I only knew Kristoff. I didn’t ever really look at any of you as real people.” She knew the way she thought about the Sentinels changed the day she met Hunter. They were never meant to be this human. Her Sentinels were a product of evolution, changing into real people after so many years of existence. They may have started out as human-turned-demon, but somewhere along the way her Sentinels had become individuals she could admire. “Are the rest of the Sentinels as human as you?”
Hunter snorted. “According to most of the Sentinels, I’m an animal, more demon than man.” He paused for a moment before adding, “But yeah, most all of the Sentinels are good people. They do their duty, but we don’t think of one another as demons. We were all human at one time.”
“I wish I had known just how much the race has developed over time. I didn’t make the rules. Soon after I turned Kristoff into a Sentinel to build an army, I was captured. The other gods and goddesses made the rules and demon prophecies. I still existed in my prison, but I had no control. It took Kristoff years to find me. By the time he was able to come to my dimension, the reign of the gods was over, and he’d amassed quite a Sentinel fighting force.”
“You’re very strong and very brave, Princess. I assume the rest of the gods just ignored the Evils. Why didn’t you?”
“Because I knew it wasn’t right. I knew that someday the Evils would get out of control.” Even thousands of years ago, it hadn’t taken a rocket scientist to predict what would happen with the Evils if they went unchecked. But the rest of the gods had been too busy fighting their perpetual wars and pursuing their pleasures to care about what would happen in the future.
They laid for a moment in silence, Athena relishing the feel of Hunter’s powerful body holding her with a gentleness that even he probably didn’t realize he was capable of.
“I look forward to meeting your brothers,” Athena finally acknowledged aloud.
“They suck,” Hunter grumbled. “Zach’s impulsive, and Drew’s a control freak. The only good thing about either of them is their mates. I haven’t quite figured out yet what possessed Kat and Talia to mate with either one of those blockheads.”
Athena smiled into the dark, knowing he loved his adopted brothers and Kristoff more than anything or anyone else on earth, no matter how much crap he talked about them. “I’ll try to keep an open mind,” she replied, deadpan.
She pulled the now-cold rag from between her thighs and got rid of it with her magic. Then she turned in his arms so she could see his face. His eyes were back to their normal dark brown, but he was still looking at her the same way: hungry, hot, and possessive.
“Stop squirming and go to sleep,” Hunter demanded.
“Sleep? I don’t think so. Don’t I still have a lot to learn?” She gave him an innocent look that she knew he wasn’t buying.
“No. You’ll be sore,” Hunter said adamantly.
Athena ran a hand down his shoulder, and then down his six-pack abs until she got to his already burgeoning erection. Thinking about the way he’d satisfied her with his mouth, she wondered if men got the same pleasure out of the act.
“Yes…we do. And if you don’t stop visualizing trying it on me, you’re going to find yourself flat on your back again,” Hunter warned her, his hot breath right next to her ear.
She gripped his cock, running a hand along his hard length. “I’d like to taste you like you did to me. That won’t make me sore,” she responded candidly. “You’d have to help me. I’ve never done it before.”
Hunter conceded with a strangled groan. “You’re going to kill me, Princess.”
Athena laughed softly as she tightened her grip on his cock. “Only with pleasure,” she murmured, placing a soft kiss to the mating mark on his shoulder.
If they only had this night, she was determined to live in the moment.
She did just that for the rest of the night, savoring every moment she had with Hunter.
Athena had never known real friendship. On a good day, the gods conferred with one another or worked together to beat a common foe. More often than not, they ignored one another unless they were angry and sought their pleasure alone or with an intimate consort. She’d been a virgin goddess, completely off-limits even to the boldest of deities. Her father, Zeus, had been busy and Athena had rarely had a conversation with him that didn’t involve the politics of the gods. She’d been born an adult, having sprung from her father’s body after he’d swallowed her mother whole when she was pregnant to avoid a prophecy that his reign would be overthrown by a second male child. It had never been necessary for him to treat her or teach her as a child. She’d been born fully grown. Unfortunately, her father had never comprehended that she had no life experience, and she’d learned some hard lessons on her own.
Athena found attention and conversation with Kat and Talia overwhelming at first. That wasn’t a bad thing, but it was confusing. She wasn’t accustomed to talking to humans. At the height of the gods’ reign, humans had worshipped at her altars, but she didn’t actually speak to them.
Never drop in early in the morning on a Sentinel and his radiant unless you call first!
Athena had made note of that particular rule when Hunter had teleported both of them to Drew’s residence this morning, catching the couple completely off-guard. Talia had answered Hunter’s bellowing call disheveled and embarrassed, stumbling downstairs to see what was going on, with an angry Drew right behind her.
Athena had been mortified; Hunter had been unabashedly amused.
Now, the three females were sitting at Drew’s kitchen table with the demon prophecies in front of Talia. Athena didn’t need to see the written words. She knew them all by heart.
“I can’t believe we were right,” Talia remarked excitedly. “Hunter really did go after their goddess creator and you’re mated.”
Everyone had been filled in on the details of what had happened with Hunter. Apparently, Talia and Kat had a theory about what would occur even before they knew the truth from reading and trying to decipher the prophecies. “Temporarily mated,” Athena reminded the women as she reached for another double chocolate brownie.
“Those are orgasmic,” Kat said with a sigh, eyeing the plate of deep chocolate decadence that Athena had manifested. “But they have to have a gazillion calories each.”
“They don’t have any calories,” Athena told the voluptuous redhead, taking a big bite of the sugary treat.
“Uh-huh. Right.” Kat shot her a dubious look.
“They don’t. I made them and they’re magical. None of the food I produced for us has any calories.” Athena knew she’d be the size of a Mack truck the way she drowned her loneliness with food if the goodies she manifested actually had calories and she was human. Athena was naturally plump by nature and had never given her weight a second thought. But she knew Kat—and humans in general—obsessed about her weight, even though Athena thought Zach’s mate was beautiful. Even though she wasn’t human, Athena wasn’t taking any chances. Things could be different now that she was a radiant and residing in the earthly realm. The feast she’d created on the table was all free of calories, compliments of her magic.
“Seriously?” Talia asked hesitantly. “It irks Drew no end that he can’t manifest food. This stuff is amazing.”
Athena shrugged. “I’m a goddess. There are very few things I can’t provide and make as I wish.”
“That’s a chubby woman’s dream.” Kat looked at Athena with awe as she quickly grabbed another brownie. “Guilt-free chocolate.”
Talia took two of the sweet treats and devoured them, surfacing only once from her food orgy for a sip of her coffee.
Athena watched the two women gorge on food that wouldn’t make them gain w
eight and considered how lucky they were. Their Sentinels obviously thought they were perfect, and the women were adored by their mates. It was evident whenever Zach and Drew looked at their radiants. She’d had the opportunity to watch them interact before Zach, Drew, and Hunter had gone out to hunt Evils in the human realm. Chaos was beginning to reign on Earth, and the Sentinels were desperately trying to fight a war that seemed unwinnable.
Athena smiled as she took a sip of her coffee. She could feel the presence of a massive amount of guardian Sentinels surrounding Drew’s residence. Kat and Talia’s mates weren’t leaving anything to chance.
Talia polished off her two brownies in record time, wiping her fingers on a napkin as she stared down at the demon prophecies. “So you’re the firepower Kat and I thought we needed,” she muttered thoughtfully. “You can convert the Evils back to their original state so it levels the playing field. We didn’t actually need more strength; we need the absence of the power the Evils have gained by draining radiants for so long.”
Athena sighed. “There are very few things on this Earth that I can’t demolish, but the Evils are one of those few things. They were created in a joint effort by several gods. I can’t kill what other gods created. I can only return them to their original form if they’re altered.”
“So even if you lopped off their heads, it would pop back on again?” Kat asked curiously.
Athena giggled, imagining that scenario in her mind. “Not exactly. I wouldn’t be able to remove their head, and I’d suffer extreme pain for even trying.”
“It’s enough that you can take away their power,” Talia answered, sounding relieved. “But I don’t understand why Kristoff can kill Evils when he’s a demigod. The same rules don’t apply to demigods?”
“He’s also part human,” Athena reminded the women. “When I made him the first Sentinel, much of his godly essence left his body. Only his powers remain. He is technically a Sentinel demon. A very powerful one.” She wasn’t comfortable talking about Kristoff. Some of his history and secrets was his information to share if he chose to reveal them. He’d kept her presence and existence to himself for all of these years. She wanted to do the same for him. Kristoff had been the closest thing she’d had to an actual friend for thousands of years.
