“I think cake hates me.” His voice was a rumble of sound, hard and violent. But his words were self-effacing and humorous, and I laughed, because there was gentle kindness in him I’d not expected. The man forged steel and worked in the hell flame of Olympus. I’d always just assumed Hephaestus would be unapproachable and aloof.
“You speak as though you’ve rocks in your throat,” I said with a grin, not failing to note the gritty texture of his voice.
He clamped his mouth shut, and I wanted to kick myself because I suddenly realized how offensive that must have sounded. A wall went up between us, hard and impenetrable, and I was so very sorry. I wanted to apologize, but I wasn’t sure he’d believe me as sincere.
I shook my head. “Beast, I did not mean to imply that I disliked it.” I smiled again, but he would not return my smile.
He only looked at me sadly.
And I read in his eyes that same sadness with which he always viewed the world. He knew what he was, and I’d not said anything to him other than what he’d always known.
I bit my bottom lip. Ares loved his brother. This, I knew. And though maybe I’d come over here initially to impress him, I now found that I didn’t want to leave Hephaestus like this. And not because of Ares at all. But because there was kindness in him, sincerity that I didn’t feel often amongst my peers. The beast was a gentle giant.
“Which cake gave you most offense?” I asked lightly, airily.
Still looking confused, he didn’t answer. His face was hard. Looking like he’d been chiseled from granite or even steel. The lines of his body were bold. Powerful. His nose slightly crooked. His features not quite perfectly symmetrical.
But there was beauty in it too. His eyes were as fathomless as the deepest trenches of the ocean, and they flared with lightning. His grin, when he deigned to give one, was just the tiniest bit crooked. He’d never properly healed from the fall Hera had given him. But I could see the striking resemblance he bore to her.
Hera was often touted as one of the most beautiful in all of Olympus. She could not boast of being the most beautiful, for that title belonged to me alone. But Hephaestus was by no means ugly.
His hair, for instance, was a thing of beauty, to be sure. Glistening and dark brown, nearly black. Thick and wavy, the kind of hair a lover would run their fingers through and sigh longingly at its silky texture after the mind-blowing sex a bear of a man like this could surely give another.
My breasts began to tingle as I studied him further, letting my gaze roam down his thick neck, toward his barrel chest that I could clearly see was just as finely honed as the rest of him. He had such strong arms, no doubt capable of bringing intense pleasure to a lover. I bet he could carry me to bed without even breaking a sweat. I bit my bottom lip, heart fluttering most strangely in my chest.
No, in truth, I’d call Hephaestus quite handsome. Though not in the traditional sense of the word. His body was massive, his musculature nearly overwhelming to the senses. There wasn’t a part of this man that could be called petite or soft. Where Ares was conventionally handsome, very nearly Apollo’s equal, Hephaestus was like an unpolished gem. All he needed was a bit of care, a little trim of his hair just to get rid of some of the wildness of it, some better clothes. But truly, he was beautiful.
And that thought so astonished me that I leaned back on my foot just a little and frowned. How had I never noticed him before?
He blinked, the tension between us was palpable. Thick and drugging. He took a small step back, and I quickly realized he thought I’d moved away because I didn’t want his nearness.
Feeling jittery and quite confused, I turned toward the table laden down with the most succulent of fruits and cakes and reached for the first thing I saw. A petit four covered in dark chocolate ganache and coated in pomegranate dust.
Then I turned back to him and held the cake up before me, sure that the spark I’d felt just moments ago stemmed more from the fact that I’d not had sex in a fortnight than anything else. At ease again that I couldn’t possibly be thinking of the giant man as a potential lover, I smiled. “An olive branch, beast, for my inadvertently cruel words. Do you accept?”
The confusion still hadn’t left his face as he reached for the cake, but I smacked his hand away and smirked prettily. “This be a wild beastie, best if I feed it to you. Just to be on the safe side.”
He blinked. His entire body had gone still. But I saw the beating throb of the vein at his neck. His heart was racing, and that thought in turn caused my own heart to race as well.
I could not understand myself. All I knew was this was more fun than I’d had in a very long time.
“Open your mouth, beast,” I instructed.
And he did so, without question. Leaning up on tiptoe, because he was so damned tall, I placed the square directly upon his tongue. And then, overcome by a sense of flirtation that wasn’t uncommon to me, I placed my own mouth over his and breathed my power into him before lightly dragging my tongue along his full bottom lip.
“There. Chocolate with love. No better combination, I’ve heard.” My voice sounded breathy and strange to my own ears.
I did not expect the touch of his mouth to mine to make me feel so discombobulated. Or frazzled. Every part of my body trembled. Ached.
It was just the lust I was exuding, I was sure. But my mouth tingled as though I’d just kissed lightning, and holy hell, but I wanted to do it again.
When I stepped away from him, I stared at him. Hephaestus still hadn’t blinked. He was looking at me now, though, with a look I could not understand or decipher.
“You… you touched me,” he whispered, the sound harsh and broken.
And that was when I finally understood. No one had ever touched Hephaestus before.
I beamed up at him, feeling strangely proud of myself that I’d given him such a gift. Not to be boastful, but if his first touch should have come from the hands of any of us, it should have been Love. It should have been mine. “Did… did you like it?” I asked, unsure.
My body ached so fiercely as I imagined him taking me in his strong arms and holding me, owning me. I had to bite down on a moan of reckless desire that thought had suddenly elicited in me.
My legs shook, and my core grew damp with the musk of my desire. Hephaestus? Hephaestus had turned me on like a blaze, and he’d not even participated.
He swallowed hard and did not respond to my question. And suddenly I had to get away. I had to go. What was happening to me? He’d made me unsure of myself, and I was never, ever unsure of myself.
Had he hated it, then? But was that even possible? My stomach ached, feeling a little sick at the thought. I had to get away. Away from him, away from this stupid party. Just away.
It was easier to slip into the persona that I’d built for myself through the years, that of the silly, vain little flirt than to stand here another moment looking flummoxed and confused.
So I finger waved at him and laughed as I called forth a travel tunnel. “Ta-ta. Dream of me, beast,” I said tauntingly, though the truth was, I hoped he would. I desperately hoped he would.
And only once I was safely ensconced within the tunnel did I stop laughing, and then my legs could no longer hold me up, and I slid down the side of it, staring straight ahead and covering my mouth with my twitching fingers.
Why had that kiss affected me so?
What had that beast done to me? I rubbed my hand along my collarbone, feeling as though my heart would leap from its cage. Something had happened to me, something that had never happened to me before, and I did not know what that something was, and I was not sure I liked it. That had felt a lot like doom.
I closed my eyes and trembled.
That night, Ares finally came to my bed, refusing to share me with any one of my harem. He didn’t just make love to me. He fucked me. Hard. Screwed me. Almost punishing me with the ferocity of his fierce desire, and that was all right by me, because I’d needed to be fucked. Needed to feel alive and
passionate and me again. By the next morning, I’d forgotten all about that strange and terrifyingly brilliant moment of wonder I’d found on Hephaestus’s mouth.
Months passed. And now Hephy—as I now thought of him—had become one of my most cherished friends.
For some strange reason, I’d not been able divorce myself from him after that day. His lack of interest had been galling, and so I’d had to go see why he could resist me, how it had even been possible.
And then, somewhere along the way, I’d discovered just how much depth there was to him, turning him first into merely a curiosity, to now someone most treasured. I loved my quiet moments with Hephy, when I got to unlock even more of his beautiful mind. He was like a puzzle, and each time I went to him, I saw just a bit more, and I was stunned to discover that the pieces were creating a beautiful whole that left me quite enraptured. Though we were nothing more than friends.
I was with Ares, nearly exclusively. He couldn’t make me stop bedding others. That just wasn’t my way. I was Lust. And I lusted after many, but I felt almost downright domesticated now.
I kicked out my legs, watching Hephaestus work quietly at his forge. He was hammering at a ball of glittering white power, forming it into one of Zeus’s bolts.
I sat upon a magnificent throne Hephy had made for me many weeks earlier. He said I bothered him most incessantly and that since I was going to just appear whenever I damned well pleased, I might as well have a comfortable seat to sit on.
Awww… he was a charmer that one.
“You know, Hephy,” I murmured, “I’ve always wondered, where does the power for Zeus’s bolts come from?”
He snorted, pausing in his swings, and glanced at me over his shoulder. He had his long hair pulled up into a bun, with some strands hanging loose in the front. His handsome face was covered in soot and grime, but when he looked at me with that dancing lightning in his eyes, I swore to the primordial gods, I felt like an untried virgin caught nude in a male’s wash house. I swallowed hard, and he grinned, completely unaware of what he did to me.
“You really don’t want to know, Aphrodite.”
And just because he’d said that, I arched my brow and kicked my legs a little harder. “Oh, now I think I must.”
He shook his head. “I’m sparing your dainty ears, goddess, believe me.”
I rolled my eyes. “That is the most ridiculous excuse I’ve ever heard—”
“It’s Zeus’s semen,” he said, cutting me off.
There were no words. Just none. I blinked for a bit, slowly coming to terms with the fact that the bit of power he held in his hand was basically nothing more than glittering jizz. I tried to not show my disgust. Tried not to show him anything, mainly because I knew he’d mock me. He had tried not to tell me, after all. But finally, when I thought of Zeus spewing that jizz all over some nameless nymph’s tits, I came undone.
“Oh, that’s just vile. Repulsive. Disgusting!” I did a full body shudder.
He tossed his head back, exposing the thick lines of his neck and laughing so powerfully that outside, thunder rolled. I felt like a bird snared in a trap as I watched him laugh and felt positively soft and mushy all over.
I couldn’t help it. I sighed. But he didn’t hear me, because he was still rolling with laughter.
“I told you,” he said breathlessly moments later.
He winked, and I fought not to grin like an idiot.
“Yes, you did. Gods, that’s foul. And I’m pretty sure there’s a phallic joke I could make from this. I just can’t think what right now because all I can think is you’re holding your father’s sperm in your hands. Didn’t know you swung that way, Hephy.”
He scoffed. “Your mind is a strange and terrifying place sometimes, Dite. Anyone ever tell you that?”
“A time or twenty, I suppose.”
“I did warn you,” he said softly.
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, beast, I suppose you did.”
He resumed his work, his hammering loud and rhythmic, enchanting in its own way. I listened for a while, content for a bit, until I wasn’t. I missed his voice. Strange that I should enjoy listening to such a gravelly sound, and yet there it was. I did.
“So you never did tell me what I should wear on my date tonight. Ares is taking me to the human realm. I’ve not been in ages. He says we’ll be going to the future this time, the 1980s. Mind boggling, that, right?” I smiled at his back.
His beautiful, beautiful back. My gods, I mean, Ares had a body that could make a saint weep. But nothing, literally nothing, looked as Hephaestus did. He was all hard planes and lines and ropey, sexy muscle that moved as he worked and made me think wicked, wicked thoughts.
I wiggled on my seat, wishing I could touch myself, but rather thinking my eunuch friend wouldn’t much appreciate it. Hephy never had a woman, or a man, with him. In fact, he was always quite alone. And I knew this because I wasn’t only watching Ares now. For some reason, I found the beast extraordinarily fascinating, even though all he did was work his silly smithy day and night.
Hephy didn’t answer, only continued to pound the jizz. Gods, I’d never be able to look at lightning the same way again.
I sighed as he shifted and his beautiful body flexed and moved with him. He wore a mere scrap of cloth around his waist, exposing the mechanical legs fully. He’d still never showed me his body without those damnable false legs.
Weird that I should be so obsessed with seeing all of him, but surely if the upper half looked that good, then it stood to reason the bottom half would as well, right? That was my working theory, anyway.
He kept working and kept working and really, I should go and get ready for my date. I probably only had an hour left now thanks to the beast ignoring me for so long. But I could wait him out, because I didn’t have a clue what to wear, and Hephy was so good at helping me pick out my outfits. He had a real eye for that. Who’da thunk it?
I gently kicked my legs back and forth, but I had to admit that after a couple hours of this, I was getting impatient.
“Hephy,” I whined, finally breaking, “I feel quite ignored now.”
“Oh, really.” He stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. “Did my not talking to you for three hours not give you a clue yet? I’m busy, woman.”
I snorted, loving when he teased me. My silly heart went bump, bump, bump whenever he did.
I rolled my eyes. “Turn around, beast, and talk with me. I will not leave until you do. I’m quite bored, you know, and if I’m late for this date, I will blame you entirely for it.”
He sighed theatrically but did as I asked. His beautiful, beautiful face was even dirtier now. So was his body.
“You need a bath. You’re dirty.” I wrinkled my nose.
“Woman,” he growled and rubbed at the bridge of his nose, further smearing the sweat and dirt, “I really do need to work, and you’re—”
I made my gown fade to near translucency. He shut up, his jaw dropped, and the whites of his eyes grew big.
“Aphrodite,” he growled but still hadn’t taken his hot eyes off of my breasts, “it’s not polite to tease.”
I grinned, biting my bottom lip coquettishly, before saying, “who said I teased? You know, I’ve never ridden a bear before.”
He coughed and shook his head, and though I could tell it took serious effort, he cut his eyes to mine. But where I’d hoped to find laughter, or hell, even desire glittering in his eyes, all I saw was anger.
At me.
“Go.” He said it softly. Almost cruelly.
I flinched. “But—”
“Go. Now.”
He pointed, and I shook my head, fashioning chain mail over myself, feeling the sudden need to hide from his disapproving glare.
“Did I… do something wrong?” I felt heat burning in my eyes and couldn’t understand it. Was I about to cry? Because he’d gotten vexed with me?
I hopped off my throne and rushed to him. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it in mine. “We
are friends, you and I. So I will humble myself to you as I would for no other. Forgive me, my Hephy. Please.”
I didn’t know why I’d flashed him as I had. I honestly couldn’t understand myself half the time. But he’d been ignoring me, and well… I never handled that well.
The hardness was gone, but there was pain in his eyes that lingered still. As if sensing my study of him, he closed them. And I leaned up on tiptoe, rubbing my palm over his coarse cheek.
“I am sorry, my friend.”
He rumbled deep in his chest but nodded. “You should not tease me, Aphrodite. Friends do not do that to one another.”
“Look at me,” I whispered with urgency and was flooded with relief when he did. Rain danced in his eyes, and I’d never seen anything quite so beautiful before. “I promise. Not you. Never you. I can learn things, Hephy, if you’ll only give me a chance.”
He squeezed my hand one last time before letting it go. And I felt bereft without his hot, calming touch.
I was coming to quite crave his presence. Not that I’d ever actually told him that. But I felt centered when I was with Hephaestus. As though I didn’t have to put on airs and be silly and sexy, as I had to be with everyone else.
I gave him a wimpy smile. “Friends again?”
He pulled me into his hard frame and hugged me tight. And it felt so good. So very, very good. I wrapped my arms around his waist, and he was so broad I was unable to even lock my hands together.
“Always,” he murmured tenderly. “Always, my rose.”
I smiled, because all was right with the world again.
“And just so you know, you should wear fire. It is what Ares likes best,” he whispered hoarsely.
I nodded. “And you, Hephy? What do you like best?”
He frowned, eyes casting down toward my feet, then he reached behind us and with just his pinky finger dipped out a tiny curl of white-hot flame. He did not look at me but breathed upon it, and then he handed it to me.
When I took it, it changed instantly into a tight white dress with a heart-shaped corset and a bell-shaped skirt that would just barely cover my ass.
The Greek Gods of Romance Collection Page 47
