Releasing me, she nodded.
I felt shaken to my very core. I’d never even considered that a possibility. I was a goddess, though; that was only mortal emotion she spoke of. I was above such trials, surely.
Rubbing my arms, I made for home, but rather than rush to him as I had yesterday, I took my time, meandering through Seren until the light had vanished from the waters and they were a heavy navy blue and twinkling from the glow of silver fish.
Hades
* * *
I was in a foul mood. She’d abandoned me to this room for hours. I’d tried at one point to head to the kitchens for some food but found I could not step foot outside the door.
Calypso had enchanted the waters.
She also had no staff. Why did a goddess have no staff?
Gnashing my teeth, I sat on the edge of the bed, ready to confess my sins and go, when the waters swirled with pink.
“Aphrodite,” I sighed the moment she materialized before me.
Smiling broadly, she sat beside me on the bed, crossed her legs, and glanced around.
“Nice digs.”
I shrugged.
“So.” She slapped her hands to her knees, causing her breasts to bounce perkily. “I came to give you the daily update.”
“Yes?” I asked, bored already.
I knew what was coming. It was only a matter of time before they discovered the truth for themselves.
“Cerberus has been found.” She clapped her hands, giving me a broad smile. “I figured you’d like to know your feral monster is now safe and sound and back guarding Tartarus’s gates where he belongs.”
I was pleased to hear my beast was back.
“Thank you.”
Tipping her head, she peered up at me like a barnyard owl. “You don’t sound all that happy, H-man, what gives?”
“Nothing,” I couldn’t quite hide the grumbling tone. “Only that I’m stuck in this hellhole, I couldn’t even take a piss today, and I’ve eaten nothing since this morning.”
Aphrodite chuckled. “Calypso takes being your warden seriously, obviously.”
In truth, I wasn’t even that hungry or needing to use the restroom. But I was bored out of my skull.
“So how’d the bow chicka wow wow go?” Her smile was broad.
“Sensed that, did you?” I snorted.
“You kidding, we all felt the aftershocks of that wave like a freaking earthquake. You kids are so much fun to watch.”
I twirled on her. “You’d better not be spying on us, Dite, or I’ll kick you into the Styx and never let you leave.”
Sticking out her tongue, she tapped her chest. “Give me some credit, here, kay. I don’t need to spy. But like I said, you guys weren’t exactly inconspicuous either. Jeez. By the by,” she airily switched subjects, “Apollo wanted me to tell your girl he’s super pissed, and if she shows her face in the Above sometime before the next two weeks are out, he’ll scorch her ass. His words, not mine.”
I felt my face contort, felt the bone sculpt out further, turning me from flesh to Death in an instant. “He lays a hand on her and he’ll live to regret it.”
Looking taken aback by my obvious vehemence, she held up her hands. “Dude, take it down a notch. I’m just the messenger. And holy crap, you’ve got it bad. Little bit of tail and you’re lost on her. Good grief.”
Running fingers through my hair, I flicked a hand through her image, banishing her with a touch.
“No, I’m not,” I whispered to no one.
A minute later, Calypso appeared.
A woman of water and form, her movements so sensuous, so alluring that I knew my words for the lie they were. I was losing myself to her, and I hated myself for it.
Chapter 8
Calypso
I’d heard him. Heard the conversation he’d had with Dite. And even as I breathed a sigh of relief, a knot formed in my stomach. How dare he not be lost on me!
“You are not lost on me.” I laughed and flattened my palms on my hips, rocking on my heels in a pose I’d once seen a prostitute use in a whorehouse. I had one knee tipped just slightly forward, with my legs spread wide and my body on full view for him.
I smirked when Hades shook his head like a man who’d just been blinded by the sun.
“I’ll make you so lost on me, you foul man. Now get on your knees and beg.” I pointed to the ground.
I wasn’t really sure why some women said that, but I’d heard it often enough to believe it held some merit.
But Hades, as bespelled by me as he was, was no mere mortal. Crossing his impressive arms over his equally impressive chest, he snapped his fingers, and because I’d given him my oath last night to do as he bid, my own enchantments worked against me.
Instead of me being the one commanding him to obedience, I was the one now locked and chained to the bed with my legs spread wide to the world. Although my cuffs were furry and pink.
“Well,” I grumped, shaking my wrists a little, “so this is what it feels like. Now you may release me, male.”
His grin made my heart stutter. He was truly fun to look at. And suddenly all my fears of the past few hours melted away under the excitement of our bed games.
“If you’ll remember, Calypso, you promised me every other night. This is my night, and I will take my due.”
When I’d left him this morning, he’d been casually dressed. But at some point he’d changed, because he was now undoing his tie, and just that small movement made me want to pant as he casually revealed a small sliver of his swarthy flesh one tantalizing and agonizing inch at time.
“I find myself cross with you today, Thalassa.”
I was like a dogfish in heat. I arched against the bonds, but really, I was rather intrigued by what he’d planned for me.
“Oh, I know this game.” Clearing my throat, I whispered meekly, “Yes, Master.”
He arched a devilish brow. Long, blunt fingers undid the first three buttons of his black silk shirt.
“You will only address me as Master from here on out. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Master,” I gulped, still sort of straining against the furry cuffs. I wet my lips when he finally slid the shirt off, revealing all that yummy ropey muscle.
His skin was so tight, his muscles rigid and powerful looking. Even covered in the scars, I was sure I’d never seen a man half as glorious as he.
“I want to lick you,” I murmured dreamily.
To which he reared his hand back and swatted the side of my ass. Yipping, I half jumped off the bed, dragged down only because of the cuffs.
“You bastard!” I hissed, ready to drive a spear through his gut for the outrage.
Lifting a hand again, he cocked his brow. “Remember your manners, Thalassa. For tonight, I am your master.”
Oh, the game. Bloody hell.
“Yes, Master,” I grumped, and then wiggled my foot. “My thigh burns, you a-hole.”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, he gently ran his callused palm across the place he’d smacked, and I had to admit, it felt dreamy.
Whimpering in the back of my throat, I tried to wiggle into his touch a little deeper, wanting to feel his weight already and flog his dolphin with my blowhole.
Obsidian eyes gleamed as though he knew my thoughts. He probably did; I wasn’t trying to hide my lust for him.
Clearing his throat, he stood back up, and I felt bereft of his touch. I was addicted to the feel of this man.
His hands landed on his pants, but instead of undoing them, he merely rested his fingers and looked at me. I was ready to yell at him to take it off already.
“Do you want to know why I’m cross with you, Thalassa?”
I rolled my eyes. “Not really, Master. And I do wish you’d stop calling me Thalassa. You make me want to retch when you do that. Also, are you going to pound me yet or what?”
Walking over to the vanity, he rested his weight against it and gave me an amused look. “You’re a horrible slave.”
He gulped but quickly shook his head.
“I’m hungry. And I haven’t used the restroom the entire day.”
Oops.
Well, that put a damper on things.
“You’re a god. You don’t have to take a dump, Master.”
“That’s besides the point, Thalassa.”
I mock gagged.
“Stop.”
“You stop.”
He growled. And it was so cute I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I can get out of these cuffs if I really want to.”
“Yes, I’d imagine you could. Revoke your word, and you can do as you please.” He shrugged, seeming entirely too unconcerned for my peace of mind.
I narrowed my eyes. “Do you not wish to bed me anymore, Hades?”
He pursed his lips.
It’d only been one day. Had I done it wrong that he held me chained? At least I’d put him out of his misery quickly.
Pointing at his pants, he muttered, “You can see that I do.”
I grinned, licking my lips. I wondered what he would taste like. Oh, that would go on my list of things to do.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“I’m hungry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Damn it, woman, no I’m not. But you cannot leave me to rot in this cell for the entire day without something to entertain myself with. Do you hear me?”
He genuinely sounded grumpy about it. “Would it make you feel any better if I said I just forgot?”
His deep voice rolled across my skin like sun-warmed honey. “What do you think?”
“I’m guessing not.”
Hades shook his head, causing some of his hair to spill across his forehead. He was generally neat in appearance; immaculate would be the proper word.
Seeing him so casual in such an intimate setting had me thinking crazy, wicked thoughts. Thoughts like never letting him out of this room again for the rest of eternity.
“Master,” I said it softly.
His nostrils flared. The man looked like a devil, and he made my soul dance.
“Speak, slave.”
“I have an ouch right here.” I thrust my hips up.
“Do you?” A wicked glint filled his eyes.
“Yes.”
His fingers stroked the vanity the way I wished they’d start stroking me. He had such beautiful hands, big and veiny. I wanted them all over me right now.
“And what do you think I should do about that, slave?”
“Kiss it better,” I chirped.
I’d expected him to say no, or at the very least to say I was a bad girl who did not deserve her master’s favor. He did neither.
Hades was on me in a flash, covering my body with his own like a living blanket but careful to keep his weight on his arms.
“Say that again, slave,” he demanded, and goddess, I obeyed.
“Kiss me better,” I breathed like a lusty little kitten.
With a hungry groan, he tore at my lips. He was wild, and I loved it. I melted against him.
I wanted to touch him, touch every square inch of him, but I was still bound.
“Release me,” I demanded.
“No,” he snarled, then nipped at my jaw. The bite was hard, brutal, and excited me to my very core.
My blood sang, and I grew dizzy with lust.
Then his tongue was dancing along my flesh where he’d bitten, and all I could do was grunt my pleasure, shoving myself upward as best I could, trying to create some sort of friction against the bulge in his pants.
“Don’t move, or I’ll stop,” he snapped with eyes blazing like cut jewels.
Feeling both strangely lethargic and flat-out lusty as hell, I would have handed him my soul just then if he’d demanded it.
“Yes, Master.”
A rumble exploded from his chest. The man was turning into a beast before my very eyes. The depths of his passions electrified me, spurred on my own.
I didn’t move, but I couldn’t help that the waters swirled, that a tempest raged outside these walls. My powers were out of my control for the moment.
He moved down my body, nipping and laving with his tongue along the way, circling first one nipple and then the other. His hands were squeezing my hips, and I tingled everywhere.
I was nothing but a bundle of excited nerves.
Hades was at my navel, then below it, then right at the line of my pubis. I practically drooled on myself, knowing what came next. I’d never had anyone touch me there save for him. Many times I’d watched mortals exploring each other’s bodies in the dead of night, and always one thing seemed to bring out the animal in them more than anything else: the touching of tongues to the jewels of the body.
Vertigo held me fast, I was ready to be swept up by the tide of his devotion, when suddenly it all stopped.
His weight was gone, and I was cold.
Opening my eyes, it took my dazed mind a second to realize he was standing back where he’d been before and gazing at me with a cocky grin.
“You bastard! Get back here,” I barked, ready to rip his balls off his body if he didn’t return to me at once and pleasure me.
He shrugged. “I’m hungry, Thalassa. I’ve not yet been fed, and I find my energies flagging.”
My nostrils flared. “You want food. Fine.”
With a snap of fingers, I dropped heaping platters of whatever I could think of down onto the vanity. The room dripped with scents of roasted meat, brined olives, sweet pomegranates, and herb-scented rices.
“Thank you.” He grinned. Then, turning his back to me, he sat and began eating.
Surely he was kidding. Trying to get at me. But as the minutes ticked by with no hint of him stopping, I finally lost my head.
“I hate you!”
“No, you don’t.” He winked at me in the mirror.
If I revoked my word, he won. He was practically daring me to do it.
“I do, I hate you all.”
“Let’s not pretend with one another, my dear. It is beneath us both.” Turning, he dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, all calm, cool, and collected as could be.
I’d seen the beast and now I was seeing the gentleman, and they both drove me mad.
Sighing, I calmed the waters and tried to relax. He wanted to wait me out. Well, two could play this game.
“How’s the food?”
“Delicious.” He inclined his head, taking a sip from a golden goblet full of ambrosia.
“I want some.”
“No.” He tilted his brow. “I’ve got other plans for you tonight.”
“And just when do you plan to do me, Dead Boy?”
“When I’m ready.” He crossed his leg.
He wore no shirt, just silk trousers with black loafers. He should look a fool. He did not.
Again he was staring me down, devouring me with his steely eyes. And the room was fraught with tension so thick I could hardly breathe around it.
My ears started buzzing; my body trembled. It was hard to remember to stay in form. I felt exposed, and not just physically. I didn’t care about being naked in front of him. It was my natural state after all. But Hades wasn’t just studying me, he was memorizing me. Every line, every curve. His gaze slowly consumed me.
I’d been annoyed with him, and now I could hardly remember my name.
Standing, he walked slowly back to my side once more. Never once saying a word, he released me from my bonds. I felt suddenly unsure without them.
It was such a strange, vulnerable feeling, not knowing what he meant to do to me.
Planting his hands on my hips, he turned me so that now my legs dangled over the edge of the bed.
Fire danced through his eyes as he stared boldly at my center.
I swallowed
hard when he dropped to his knees and, without saying a word, took me into his mouth.
I bucked, and a groan that sounded almost like pain rumbled from my chest. Instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his shoulders and writhed, dancing on his mouth as his tongue skated across my center.
His touch was like a shock of lightning. I couldn’t believe or understand what was happening to me, the raw tempest of desire obliterating every rational thought in my head. I was a creature of one need.
Desire.
Clawing at the back of his head, I whimpered, pleading in gibberish for him to end this agony.
But Hades was not to be rushed. His timing didn’t alter. His movements were precise and purposeful, drawing me in deeper and deeper, making me feel like I’d been snared within the folds of a spider’s web.
Spots danced before my eyes, and blackness threatened to take me under.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” I vaguely heard myself mutter. I wasn’t even sure why I’d said that. But I couldn’t seem to stop the deluge from pouring out. “Oh, Hades. Oh, my Darkness.”
And then I was there, cresting that pinnacle that literally fractured my body into a million prisms of bliss. I could no longer contain my form. I needed to be free, needed to be all. If I hadn’t left this body, I wouldn’t have survived the taking.
My soul slipped free, and I was me again. I was the Sea, I was all things. I wrapped myself around his body, anchoring myself as best as I could as my waters continued to churn with pleasure so intense it was nearly a knifing pain.
Life exploded from within me. Creatures swam up from the deep. My children came out to greet me, to comfort me, but I couldn’t stop myself from floating away. I couldn’t think clearly.
Hades, I whispered on a current, save me…
And I felt him. Felt him take me in. Hold me fast.
I clung to him, trembling in his arms, but his grip was unyielding, demanding.
“Look into my eyes, Thalassa,” he commanded.
I did. And finally I felt the fury of this taking begin to release me, I was steadied, calmed.
And I was terrified by the power I’d just given him over me.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 8
