by Lazu, Sotia
A relationship. If she’d said these words before, when they lay in bed, he’d be the happiest man in creation. Alas, it was too late. Even if she did love him, she was also afraid of him. She associated him with her bloody demise, for Chaos’ sake. He lowered his voice and said the only thing guaranteed to keep her away. “I was wrong. I don’t love you. It was my loneliness, forcing my words.”
Her face crumbled, and her shoulders slumped. She wrapped her arms around herself. “No. You meant it. You love me. I saw it in your eyes.” But her voice was small and weak.
And it broke him that he had to hurt her more, to save her later. “I’m sorry. I just don’t feel the way I thought I did.” It took everything he had, to give her a nonchalant shrug.
Olivia turned to Eros. “Can you please take me home? To New York?”
Hyperion swallowed his pain and nodded. She’d be safe there, and she’d never find out what became of him.
Chapter Nineteen
Funny, how two days ago her worst problem was too much alcohol in her blood system and a statue coming to life, and yet her life made more sense then than it did tonight.
Within that time frame, she’d found the perfect man, had him declare his love, offered herself up to him, and lost him. Probably to the stunning brunette with the bedroom eyes, who for some reason wore a soaked evening gown.
How could Olivia think he meant it when he said he loved her? He was immortal, and she only had decades to live. Of course he didn’t want to be with her. He probably only said what he had to, to get her into bed. Stupid, stupid Olivia. Her pulse thudded in her ears. She had to get out of here before she dissolved into tears. If he could turn her away so easily, it shouldn’t be that hard for her to forget him when she was back with the people who really cared about her.
And if she kept telling herself that, she might one day believe it.
Why wasn’t Eros sweeping her out of here, so she never had to see Hyperion’s face again? His beautiful face, with those hard angles and soft eyes that melted her determination even as he cast her out of his life...
“Forgive me, my love,” Hyperion said. But his lips didn’t move. She’d know; she stared at them, willing them to form proclamations of love instead of the words that tore through her heart.
“What was that?” she asked, taking a step closer to him.
Eros reached for her, but she pulled away. Another minute wouldn’t hurt. “Hyperion, what did you say?”
He swallowed audibly. “I said I’m sorry. I misjudged my feelings.” Why did he look so miserable, when he was the one calling the shots?
“After that. You called me your love.”
Hyperion staggered, like he’d been socked in the gut. “I didn’t say that.” His eyes were wild. He whispered something after that, but she only caught the end of it. “—hear me?”
“Yes, I can hear you.” Her hurt mingled with irritation. What fucking game was this?
Eros chuckled, and the corners of Circe’s lips twitched. Were they all in on it?
But no. Hyperion looked as confused as ever. “How is this possible?” This time she saw him form the words.
“Oh I don’t know... I have ears, I guess? What are you playing at? You said you don’t want me. Why call me your love?” Why wouldn’t he let her go, so she could start licking her wounds?
“This can’t be. No mortal can hear a Titan’s thoughts, unless the Titan projects them.” Hyperion studied her face intently.
“Who knows what soulmates are capable of?” Eros stage whispered.
Soulmates? Olivia returned Hyperion’s scrutiny, and now she heard more. Love. Soulmate. Forever. He wasn’t saying the words aloud; she was plucking them from his head. She focused, and a wave of pain hit her chest and radiated throughout her body. It squeezed the air from her lungs and twisted like a knife in her belly. Not her pain. His. At the thought of losing her. Can’t hurt her again. Olivia. Witch can help. Stone. Must. Soon.
The burst of thoughts was disjointed, but she probed more, until she made sense of them. He was afraid he’d somehow hurt her, and that was why he wanted to cut her loose. That was why Circe was here. She was a witch, who’d turn him back into a statue.
“You love me,” Olivia said. “Everything else is bullshit.”
He clenched his jaw. “You’re afraid of me. I brought destruction into your life. My feelings aren’t what matter, when all you see when you look at me is your death.”
She ran to him, the warm sand propelling her feet forward, like even the earth wanted them together. She looped her arms around his neck and rose on her tiptoes to press her lips to his. “All I see when I look at you is the man I love,” she whispered.
He tensed, not moving to embrace her or return her kiss. His body might as well already be marble. “It’s too late. You must go. Forget about me. I am unraveling.”
“And this is your chance not to,” Circe said.
Eros laughed. “Ah, it’s so good to see love conquer all.”
They were talking nonsense, but Olivia couldn’t be bothered with them. Hyperion’s feelings of love washed over her, as tangible as his body in her embrace.
“There’s still time.” Circe faded into the breeze, the echo of her words trailing after her.
Hyperion finally brought his arms up around Olivia and nuzzled the crook of her neck. “I only wanted to protect you. Unless we’re bonded, I am doomed to spiral out of control and destroy everything around me. I didn’t want you to be in harm’s way.” That was what unraveling was about. And that was why he’d tried to drive her away.
Olivia wanted to be upset that he’d hide this from her and lie, but it was impossible when she’d glimpsed his pain at losing her. “Circe said there’s still time.” She bit her bottom lip. “What do we have to do?”
“Make love.”
Her cheeks burned. “We did that. A lot.”
He grazed his teeth over her shoulder and lowered the strap of her tank top. “You must offer me your heart when I’m inside you.”
She wedged a hand between their bodies, to cup his shaft that hardened against her palm. “And your heart?”
“That’s already yours.”
Olivia molded her body to his and turned her face to him.
Hyperion slanted his mouth over hers. “I’m yours,” he said in her head.
She opened her mouth and massaged his invading tongue with her own. “Whatever may come, I’ll stay with you until the end of my days,” she thought at him. Or until he no longer wanted her. Sadness marred her elation. Her lifespan wasn’t a long time, by his standards.
Hyperion walked her backward, until they were inside the cave. “I love you.” He swept his hand above the sand and rock and tiny flowers blossomed to form a bed for them.
Olivia allowed him to lay her down on the soft petals and helped him get rid of her top before peeling off her jeans. She hadn’t taken the time to pull on underwear when she’d left his suite, so she was now spread before him naked. “Come to me.” She’d never before felt so exposed or so safe.
She held out her hands, and he knelt between her parted legs.
Their previous times together, Olivia had been too preoccupied with the newness of everything and the intensity of her pleasure to really take him in.
She’d always found him gorgeous—even with the hair and the beard. Even as a statue. But now he was... She couldn’t think of words strong enough to describe how stunning his eyes were when happiness mingled with the hunger in his gaze. She wanted to trace the hard planes of his chest and abs with her tongue, and feel his weight settle between her legs.
He squared his wide shoulders, preening under her scrutiny, and his long, hard shaft bobbed.
Olivia bit the inside of her cheek. How that thing fit in her would remain a mystery, but she couldn’t wait to try it again.
“Say you love me,” he said.
She snapped her head back up to look at his face. His solemn expression reined in her lustful tho
ughts. Her heart thudded in her chest. Why was she stalling? Maybe because despite his assurances, she was but a brief moment in his eternity.
Which didn’t change how she felt. She smiled and arched an eyebrow. “You know I do.”
“I need to hear it, Olivia.”
She lifted her knees and swayed her hips. “I love you.”
He glided his gaze down her body, heavy like a caress. “Say you’re mine.” He focused on her pussy and flared his nostrils, and fresh moisture pooled between her legs.
“Again?” she asked, and when he tickled her side, her laugh echoed in the cave.
“Say it,” he ordered in her head.
“I’m yours,” she replied the same way.
Hyperion splayed his fingers on her inner thighs and separated her nether lips with his thumbs.
“This is mine,” he whispered.
Olivia pushed into his touch. “Then take it.”
“Impatient.” He gave her clitoris a little twist. “I was thinking of taking my time. Tasting you.”
She snorted. “Not like the world may end if we don’t hurry up, or whatever.”
Hyperion’s mouth found the apex of her thighs, without him moving. He held her gaze, while he made her feel his tongue slide inside her and then lick a trail to her clit. In her head, he wrapped his lips around the sensitive button and sucked, and her hips bucked. The sensation was incredible, but not as thrilling as the hunger the real Hyperion watched her with.
Could she return the favor?
She closed her eyes and thought of having him on his back as she sucked on the tender flesh of his throat, beneath his ear.
Real-Hyperion whooshed out a breath and sat back on his haunches. “How did you—?”
This was fun. She brought one finger to her lips, to shush him, and thought of curling her fist over his length. Her fingers wouldn’t close around his girth, but she squeezed and tugged.
His cock jumped in her fantasy, and she ran the pad of her thumb over the head, to spread the bead of precum. She slipped her fist from the tip of his cock to the base and back up, tightening her grip on every upstroke.
The Hyperion kneeling before her panted, and his mental ministrations had stopped.
Olivia thought of climbing in his lap and positioning herself above his cock. The head nudged at her opening, and she tilted her hips so it bumped her clit. She conjured her memories from earlier today and felt herself taking in the first inch of his length.
“Ah Hades.” The real Hyperion grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her to him.
Olivia fluttered her eyes open, as he settled her legs on his shoulders. He clasped her buttocks and lifted her, aligning her with his shaft.
She pumped her hips, letting him glide along her sleekness.
Hyperion growled and dug his fingers in her flesh, and Olivia barely had time to brace herself, before he drove inside her in a single, quick thrust.
God in Heaven, he was huge.
He was big yesterday too, but then she’d expected her first time to hurt. This position allowed him to go deeper, and he stretched her to the point of pain.
And she fucking loved it.
Hyperion used his grip on her ass to propel her to him again and again, hitting deeper with each lunge, and pleasure built inside until it overtook the pain. It overtook the fear over what came next. It overtook reason. She was being taken by a Titan—a primordial being, a god that predated the continents.
She was going to come.
“I’m close,” she managed.
He let her legs flop to the crooks of his elbows, and pummeled inside her faster, as incorporeal hands kneaded her breasts and pinched her nipples into hardened peaks.
Olivia needed just a little more. More friction.
She tried to wedge a hand between their bodies, and Hyperion stopped her with a growl.
Two invisible fingers tweaked her clit, and a third one prodded her ass. She clenched reflexively, but Hyperion rolled his hips and hit that bundle of nerves he had such ease locating, and she gave herself over to him completely, as her orgasm crashed over her in a wave that had her grasping for purchase and gasping for breath.
Chapter Twenty
Hyperion tasted Olivia’s release at the same time she squeezed his seed out of him.
He’d meant for this to last—at least long enough to save creation—but lost control when she’d gripped him like a velvet vice. He’d satisfied his soulmate, though. And since he was a Titan, he needed no recovery time.
He draped both of her legs over one arm and caressed her hip with his free hand.
So beautiful.
Her skin held a faint tan, except for the pale bikini lines. Her perfect breasts were perky, the nipples straining toward his touch. He cupped one and rolled the nipple under his thumb, then squeezed till a groan escaped Olivia’s lips.
“Okay?” he asked.
She nodded and lowered her eyelids, her expression one of bliss.
Her nether lips were swollen and ripe like a peach, as he pulled out of her and slowly pushed back inside. With her legs pressed together like this, the added pressure threatened to unravel him faster than Zeus’ failsafe, but the position allowed him to give her more of his length. And it provided him a perfect view of her dazed smile and the curve of a buttock at the same time.
Olivia moaned something incoherent, and he ached to kiss her mouth, but that would mean adding several inches to his height, and his cock would grow accordingly. Could she take more?
A couple inches wouldn’t hurt. “You look incredible, taking all I can give you,” he murmured, as he let his body grow just enough for his lips to reach hers. Olivia bowed her back, and he paused, but she buried her hands in his hair and sucked on his tongue greedily, her inner walls convulsing around him.
He drove into her like this, her body folded into his, while he drew out their pleasure, until he felt her tremble with another release.
“My heart is yours,” he whispered against her lips, sending his spendings deep into her core.
“My heart is yours,” Olivia replied. “Forever.”
But she was mortal.
He clenched his teeth against the unwelcome thought and clung to her reply and Eros’ words. Who knows what soulmates are capable of? Besides, lesser gods had granted mortals eternity. No reason he couldn’t do the same. He’d find a way.
He brushed Olivia’s hair out of her face, to meet her hooded eyes.
“Was this all?” she asked.
Hyperion pursed his lips. “I can keep going, but I may damage you.”
She laughed, and his cock stirred back to life, but he let it lie wedged between her thighs. “Is my endurance funny to you?” he asked with a fake scowl.
“I didn’t mean the sex—I already can’t feel my legs, so yes, let’s take a break for a few. Maybe grab a bite.” She laughed again when he nibbled on the taut flesh of her breast. “Stop it. I meant, shouldn’t there be some sign that we prevented your unraveling? Another light show or something?”
“Deus-ex-machina time.” Eros’ voice made Hyperion blink to the entrance of the cave. Only he was allowed to eye his soulmate naked and disheveled.
“Oh, relax, big guy. Not like I haven’t witnessed every sex scene ever,” Eros said from behind him.
Hyperion spun and saw Eros handing Olivia her clothes.
“Still wanna leave?” Eros waggled his eyebrows at her.
Olivia sat up and held her shirt in front of her. Her glare looked murderous, but a grin tugged at her lips. “Now I want you to leave,” she said. “Go somewhere far, far away, and leave us alone.”
Eros blinked to the opposite side of the cave when Hyperion sent a fist flying his way. He huffed and crossed his arms. “Hey, I’m only here because someone requested a light show.” He snapped his fingers, and drops of liquid light in all possible hues rained down on them. “Tah dah.”
Hyperion bit down his irritation in favor of more urgent matters. “So it’s done? I
’m safe to be around?”
“Yes, yes. You are. You’ll be glad to know that your life forces’ merging means Olivia will live for as long as you do. And since your big ass is virtually indestructible... I’d start making long-term plans.”
This was the best news he could ever hope for. Unless Olivia objected.
One look at her beaming smile set Hyperion at ease. She was his forever, because she wanted to be.
Eros leaned back against the stone and sighed. “Now we have to figure out what to do about Atlas. Last I heard, he was in the sea, but Circe said—”
“Has he awoken?” Now he was in no danger of creating a hole in the world, Hyperion was ready to throw another punch at Eros for procrastinating and still looking at his soulmate.
Eros frowned. “Well, no, but—”
“Leave,” Olivia said, pointing at Eros.
“Now.” Hyperion took a menacing step his way.
There would be time to save the world again later, though he doubted Atlas would have trouble reining himself in. He was always the most self-composed of their bunch.
For now, Hyperion’s first priority was spending quality time with his soulmate.
“What does your heart desire?” he asked her when the god of love popped out of their cave.
“I’m still hungry. I could go for Chinese.”
“Done.” He gathered her in his arms and blinked them across the world. They’d have to find clothes before he could feed her.
Chapter Twenty-One
“So you spent this morning saving the world on your back, and then Tall Dark and Stupid-Hot flew you to China?” Christina gaped.
“He calls it blinking. It’s like you disappear from one place and appear at another the next moment. Very disorienting.” Add in the time difference and the fact that he landed them naked smack-dab in the middle of a market in Shanghai, in the early afternoon, and he’d had to do a lot of compulsion before she was dressed in silk and sat in front of a plate of fried dumplings.
