Nocked Asunder

by Sam Cheever

  I sighed and climbed back into the tousled bed, burrowing my nose in the pillow under my head. Damian’s scent filled my nostrils. My body tightened with instant need.

  I had to figure out what was going on and fast. Before I lost my heart to a man who was playing on the wrong mythical team.

  If it wasn’t already too late.

  *

  Peter was gone when I woke up. It was early. Too early to get out of bed.

  Damian was standing in front of the French doors with his back to me, staring out at the surf I could hear crashing against the shore.

  He had a hand on either side of the door and he was totally and completely the way the gods had made him. His sun-kissed skin was smooth and flawless, with only the soft gold hair covering his arms and legs, glistening in the sun, to mar its smooth perfection.

  I lay there watching him for a moment and he turned. “Good morning, Athena.”

  I plastered a serious look on my face and said, “Good morning, Damian.”

  He smiled and my thighs tightened, cream flowing from my body. The sun surrounded his form like a golden aura, making his dark gold hair almost glow. His long arms dropped to his sides and his hands clenched gently into fists as if he were fighting some internal battle.

  I smiled and patted the bed beside me. “I’m feeling lonely over here.”

  Damian’s smile widened and some of the intensity left his dark blue eyes. He stalked toward me, evidence of his pleasure at my invitation bobbing happily before him.

  I licked my lips.

  He hit the bed and went to his knees, crawling toward me with the look of a starving man. He bent over me like a golden lion. His soft lips found mine and devoured, hungrily pulling a gasp from me as his warm, hard body covered mine, pressing me into the soft mattress beneath us.

  My legs came around his buttocks and he plunged, entering my dripping-wet pussy with a groan and making my heart pick up in an effort to meet the demands for hot blood throbbing at my sensual core.

  He captured my hands and pulled them over my head, holding them there while he feasted on my lips and drove his long, hard cock deeply into my pussy.

  Despite the urgency with which he’d engaged our mating, Damian settled into a slow, leisurely roll of hips that created deep, toe-curling friction against my highly sensitized skin. He thrust deeply, then dragged the dense heaviness of his rigid cock back out, almost to the tip and drove deep again, agonizingly slow and with overwhelming sensual awareness.

  My body tightened toward release within the space of a few, delicious strokes. I pulled my mouth away from Damian’s and cried out as the wave swept over me, then dragged my fingers into his hair and laid my teeth over his shoulder, biting down hard as he arched into his own spine-bending release.

  Damian cried out, his long body stiffening and I felt his hot seed shooting into me. The feel of him pulsing within me sent me into another toe-curling orgasm.

  Damian sagged onto his arms and knees, our bodies still joined and throbbing in gentle aftermath.

  I feathered kisses over his face and licked the reddened spot where my teeth had laid claim to him.

  He chuckled softly. “You bit me, Athena.”

  I grinned at him. “I did. And you liked it!”

  He shook his head and slipped sideways, pulling me tightly against his body as he curled around me. “You can bite me anytime you feel the urge, beautiful goddess.”

  My heart stopped. Goddess?

  He leaned over and pulled a nipple between his lips, sucking gently. His hand smoothed over my stomach and traveled down to rub the hungry nub nestled in the midst of my dark, wet curls. My legs spread and I arched toward his finger, my body sparking into instant need at his touch.

  I reached to cup his balls and leaned toward him, flicking my tongue out to run along the seam of his lips. He opened his mouth and let my tongue inside, instantly tangling it with his own. We lay on our sides, facing and pressing close to each other. Damian lifted my leg and tucked it over his hip, nestling the newly hard length of his cock into my wet curls.

  I rocked forward, bringing the fat tip into contact with my clitoris and sending jolts of pleasure spiraling through my body. Damian nestled his head at the juncture of my throat and shoulders and blew gently on the sensitive spot.

  I stiffened, giggling. My giggle fell away quickly as he plunged his cock into me, driving so deep I gasped with startled pleasure. His teeth clamped gently on the ticklish spot and he growled softly.

  His body drove hard and fast into me, plundering rather than savoring. I threw my head back and gave myself over to the intensity of his lovemaking, savoring it and meeting it thrust for thrust, as he took me to a place I’d never been before.

  It was a dark place. A delicious place. A place where sensuality gave over to passion and gentle pleasure bowed to raging lust. It was a place where the growling noise I heard coming from my own throat was not only acceptable but was a necessary component of the communication between two starving lovers. Our only thought was to reach that volcano of pleasure waiting to spill over us, counting on the melting heat to burn away years of loneliness and deprivation that scarred us both.

  When that volcano finally spilled, we both screamed and I felt sharp, wondrous pain in the spot where Damian’s teeth pierced the tender flesh of my shoulder. My body convulsed in outrageous need and fell over into heaven. My limbs turned rigid, stars burst before my eyes, my breath stilled in my chest and my pussy throbbed with a pleasure I hadn’t even dreamed existed.

  The last thought as I drifted off to healing sleep again was that I was in deep, deep trouble.

  And it wasn’t coming from a couple of ugly snake-heads, or even from three testy goddesses with anger issues.

  The trouble I faced was planting soft kisses across my throat as I drifted back to sleep. And had already staked a tentative claim on my tender heart.

  *

  The sun warmed my eyelids and the smell of something wonderful cooking tickled my senses.

  I opened my eyes and stretched, feeling loose and relaxed.

  Climbing out of bed, I dug through the closet until I found an old, white terry cloth robe and slid it on.

  I found Damian in the kitchen cooking breakfast.

  He handed me a cup of hot, wonderfully fragrant coffee and kissed me on the nose.

  I could get used to that.

  “Smells wonderful.”

  “Sit down and drink your coffee. It’ll be ready in a minute.”

  He was wearing silk boxers and nothing else. I stared at him over the rim of my coffee cup, feeling my body warm to the idea of dragging him back to bed. But it turned out Damian had other ideas.

  “I thought we’d go shopping today.”

  I blinked. Was he kidding me? “Are you for real?”

  He laughed and settled a fragrant plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. “I’m just being practical. You need clothes and stuff.”

  I blinked again. It had never occurred to me that we would be staying in that house. “I just assumed we’d go back to the city.”

  He dug into his eggs and shook his head. Swallowing, he said, “You can’t go back there until we catch her.”

  “Her?”

  “Megan Megara.”

  I ate some bacon and thought about this. “So you think she’s dangerous?”

  He wiped his lips and sipped his coffee. “I know she is.”

  I frowned. “So you know her?”

  He just looked at me.

  “She seems to know you pretty well.”

  He shook his head and dug into his eggs again. “I might know her, I’m not sure.”

  “You’re not sure?” I just shook my head, perplexed.

  “Eat your eggs. I want to hit the road early, before it gets…hot.”

  We ate in silence for a few minutes. I settled my fork next to my plate and sat back with my coffee. “That was really good. Thanks.”

  He nodded.

  “Where’d
Peter go?”

  He jerked, looking surprised. “He’s at my house.”

  “Guarding your…pet?”

  “Something like that.”

  Suddenly losing my temper, I slammed the coffee mug down on the table. Damian’s only response was to lift his gaze slowly upward. “What the hell’s going on, Damian? Everybody seems to know but me! I’m getting pretty sick of it.”

  “Everybody?”

  I blinked. I couldn’t tell him about the Fates. “You and Peter.”

  He stared at me for a long moment.

  I tried not to squirm in my chair.

  “You never talk about yourself, Athena.”

  I frowned. “You’re changing the subject.”

  He shook his head. “I just realized you know more about me than I know about you.”

  That set me back. I knew next to nothing about him.

  I grabbed our empty plates and carried them to the sink, trying to avoid the subject he was warming up to.

  “What is there to know?” I shrugged, hoping he’d take the hint and drop the subject.

  “How old are you?”

  Two hundred and fifty. “You’re not supposed to ask a woman her age. It’s impolite.”

  He chuckled. “Okay, then where do your parents live?”

  Mount Olympus. I slammed a plate into the dishwasher. “My family’s not from around here.”

  Silence behind me as I rinsed the second plate and settled it more carefully into the dishwasher.

  “What’s your favorite color?”

  The tension flooded from my body and I laughed, turning around. “Blue.”

  He grinned and my knees melted.

  Standing up, he held his hand out to me. “Let’s go get dressed. I know the perfect place to shop. There’s a little restaurant down the street that serves succulent crab cakes for lunch.”

  I allowed him to tuck me under his arm and guide me toward the bedroom. It occurred to me that I should grill him about his own life, as he’d done me. But then he turned me so that his lips could cover mine.

  And I forgot all about grilling.

  *

  Four hours later our hands were full of bags and we were heading up the street to the restaurant. I was enjoying the day immensely, reveling in the atmosphere of warm sun and salty sea air that was suffusing my senses.

  It was a beautiful coastal town. The buildings clustered along a stretch of road about a mile in length, with the ocean nestled up against its moorings on one side. The stucco structures of the clothing stores, jewelry shops and more mundane offerings such as a hardware store and a bank were a variety of pretty pastels that made me think of an ice-cream display.

  My stomach rumbled and I realized we’d worn breakfast off with a vigorous workout in the shower and then a few hours of shopping.

  Damian took my hand as we walked down the busy street, making our way through hundreds of aimlessly strolling tourists and a few obvious locals who had looks of resigned patience on their faces.

  My head swiveled as I tried to take in everything around me at once. The brightly colored clothing, shiny gold jewelry and softly draping, gauzy fabrics were like a beacon to me, pulling me into their tempting sphere like sirens on a rocky shore.

  I sighed, tempted to think I might be in heaven.

  Then a flash of red-gold danced across my peripheral vision. I jerked my head around, sucking in a breath.

  “What is it, Athena?”

  I searched the crowd but didn’t see her.

  “Athena?”

  I turned back to him, shaking my head. “Nothing. I just thought I saw someone I know.”

  We entered the cool darkness of the restaurant and asked for a seat on the deck outside, looking over the ocean.

  The heat hit me again as we reemerged into the sun and took seats under a big umbrella at a table with shells embedded into its top. Stuffing all our bags under the table, we ordered drinks and settled back in our chairs.

  A soft breeze brought the scent of salt and sea into our sphere and the sound of water lapping against the startlingly white sand was soothing. “I love this place,” I told Damian.

  He nodded. “I find the ocean soothing.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You don’t strike me as someone who seeks soothing.”

  He smiled. “Trust me, I need it more than most.”

  “You have a stressful job?” I was grinning, teasing him.

  But he nodded as if I’d asked a serious question. “It certainly can be.”

  Then I remembered he wasn’t just a sculptor. “What exactly do you do, Damian?”

  He shrugged. “I’m kind of a bodyguard…in reverse.” He grinned.

  I laughed. “Interesting. So you make sure the person you’re guarding is harmed?”

  Chuckling, he shook his head. “Not quite. I protect others from the body I’m guarding.”

  “So, you’re more like a jailer.”

  He frowned. “Jailer has such negative connotations.”

  I laughed out loud.

  The pretty, young waitress brought our iced teas and took our orders and then left.

  I sipped my tea and looked out over the ocean. The sky appeared to be darkening farther out.

  Fat, dark clouds, shot through with the occasional flash of heat lightning, made an interesting horizon. “Looks like a storm’s coming.”

  Damian didn’t look out over the ocean, he kept his gaze on my face. “Yes. There is a storm coming.”

  I looked at him. Our eyes locked for a long moment and then my gaze swung away, suddenly uncomfortable with the intensity of his stare.

  We sat in silence for a moment, watching the interesting array of people passing by on the beach.

  I looked up as my crab cakes arrived and smiled at the waitress.

  When I looked back to the beach, my fork poised over my plate, there was a woman standing there who hadn’t been there a second earlier.

  She was tall and slim and wore a long gauzy dress that molded to her slender curves as the breeze swirled lovingly around her. Hanging down to pert buttocks, thick red-gold hair rustled softly in that same breeze.

  She stood straight, her back to us, staring out toward the sea.

  My gaze locked onto her. My heart pounded in my chest. I stopped breathing.

  And then she turned and I gasped.

  Her smile was filled with oily malevolence, her body stiff with anger.

  “Oh shit!”

  Chapter Seven

  The Monster’s Lair

  Damian surged to his feet, knocking the table hard with his thighs on the way up. The table dropped back to the stone patio with a crash and my iced tea went over. I gave a little squeal and jumped out of my chair to avoid the quickly spreading tea.

  People turned to look as Damian took off toward the beach, heading right for Megan Megara.

  I jumped up and started after him.

  Somebody grabbed my arm. It was a man wearing a t-shirt that bore the name of the restaurant on it. “You need to pay for your lunch, ma’am.”

  I turned back to the beach but both Damian and Ms. Megara were gone. Looking both ways down the long stretch of white sand, I saw hundreds of people littering the beach but none of them were Damian or the evil woman.

  Sighing, I reached into my purse and gave the man a twenty, then I gathered up our bags and walked down off the patio and onto the hot sand. I settled myself at the water’s edge, just outside the reach of the warm, insistent water and waited.

  The dark clouds on the horizon moved inexorably closer. The wind had picked up from a soft breeze to a fairly sturdy current of air. The water had gone from a soft chop to a wild tangle and the beach was quickly emptying of people.

  I watched the incoming storm with a sense of impending doom, feeling small and alone in the face of it.

  Strangely though, it never occurred to me to leave that beach and flee. Somehow I felt as if I needed to face whatever was out there. If I was going to get to t
he bottom of what was going on, I was gonna have to stare the ugliness I’d been sensing right in the teeth.

  It was with this attitude firmly in place that I saw the first waterspout beginning to form from the midst of the growing storm. I didn’t feel surprise so much as relief. At least I had something to focus my attention on.

  The second waterspout gave me pause.

  I was determined. I wasn’t stupid.

  I stood up and reached into my purse. Pulling my Cupid’s bow and arrow assembly from its depths, I looked around.

  The beach was empty.

  Everyone had fled.

  I held the small assembly out and closed my eyes, pulling on my powers to change it. As I focused, the assembly grew and changed, creating a real bow and arrow from the small one I used for my arrow ceremonies.

  It was much more difficult for me to use my power on Earth than it would have been on Olympus but long years of practice allowed me to pull it forward when I needed it.

  The golden bow I conjured, with the hair of Medusa as its string, would be deadly to the creatures spinning toward me across the ocean.

  The trick was not to look into their eyes as I shot the arrows or I’d be turned to stone.

  A tricky thing at best.

  I nocked an arrow and waited.

  A tiny sound behind me made me spin around, the bow aimed high. At heart level.

  Damian Leandar stood there, his blue gaze intense on my face and his dark gold hair blowing back in the stiff wind coming off the roiling sea. “It appears we both have secrets, Athena.”

  I lowered the bow but kept the arrow nocked. “Where did you go?”

  He jerked his head toward the bow. “You carry that around in your purse?”

  I gave him a slow smile. “Actually, yes. I do.”

  He stared at me a moment longer and then matched my smile, shaking his head. “Apparently we have much to discuss later.” He jerked his head toward the spouts, which were only about three city blocks from the shoreline at that point. “Medusa’s coming and she and Euryale are not happy.”

  He reached one hand behind his back and came up with the longest sword I’d ever seen. From his other hand dangled a long, thick chain that looked as if it were made of heavy silver.