Enslaved

Chapter Sixteen

“Well?” Maelea asked.

As she held her hand out to him, the doubt he’d struggled with before melted away. Ignoring the offering, Gryphon slid his fingers into her luxurious hair instead. Then reveled at the spark of lust that flared in her eyes as he drew her mouth toward his. “I can think of a much better way to seal this deal, sotiria.”

A tiny gasp slipped from her lips when his mouth closed over hers. But it turned to a groan that supercharged his blood as his tongue dipped into her mouth and he kissed her the way he’d wanted to kiss her ever since he’d awoken with the mother of all hard-ons.

Her arms closed around his neck, and she pressed those tantalizing breasts against his bare chest as she kissed him back. Her nipples hardened through the thin cotton dress, and he knew from the sensations rushing through his skin that she couldn’t possibly be wearing a bra. His jeans grew even tighter as he wrapped his arms around her, as he tugged her hips toward his. As the heat of her pelvis seeped into his own.

He changed the angle of the kiss, nipped at her bottom lip. Shivered at the sweet, erotic taste of her on his tongue.

“Gryphon?” she said against his lips.

“Mm, yeah?” He fisted the cotton dress at her lower back, wanted so bad to lift her up on the counter, push inside her body, take her hard and fast. But he wasn’t going to do that. Because this time he needed to make sure she enjoyed the experience. Wanted to remember each and every time she came apart. Which would be way more than once. Guaranteed.

Her hands slid to each side of his face. She kissed him. Eased back and licked her lips as she stared at his mouth. Kissed him again until he thought he’d go mad. Finally stopped long enough to say, “Are you hungry?”

“Starving.” But not for food. Just for her.

“Me too. Take me upstairs.”

Relief whipped through him like a tornado.

He lifted her around the waist. Her mouth closed over his and she wrapped her legs around him without his asking, stroked her tongue against his as his hands slid down to cup her ass.

He carried her out of the kitchen toward the stairs. His brain was nothing but mush. He had no idea how this had happened. How she’d gone from hating and fearing him to wanting him with the same desperation he wanted her, but he wasn’t about to question the whys of it all. He only wanted more. More of her sweetness. More of her body. More of this fullness in the center of his chest that felt way too damn good.

He made it halfway up the rickety stairs before his bare feet slipped on the carpet runner. He was still wobbly, not totally healed from whatever had happened to him, but he didn’t want to let go of her. Grunting against her mouth, he turned so he wouldn’t drop her. Her spine hit the wall. She pulled back from his mouth for only a second, then kissed him harder, pushing her sex against his erection and tangling her tongue with his until he saw stars.

He groaned, hitched her over onto his thigh so he could balance her weight, and pulled her dress up the backs of her thighs. The hem was damp from the ocean. She smelled like jasmine and salt. She rocked against him, tore her mouth from his, nipped his ear, then offered her throat. He answered by kissing her jaw, the soft skin behind her ear, drawing her lobe into his mouth and suckling as his hands finally found skin.

“Oh, yes, Gryphon.” She rocked against him again, the heat of her mound so close to his cock, he hurt.

He gripped the backs of her thighs, kneaded the tight muscles, slid his hands higher, and shuddered when he realized she wasn’t wearing panties. “Maelea…”

She found his mouth again, dropped her hand from his shoulder, slid it down his bare chest. Her fingers brushed his lower abs, sending jolts of electricity through his pelvis. Then she pressed her hand right between her legs and gripped his cock through the denim of his jeans.

His legs buckled. He gasped. Tried to push her against the wall so she didn’t go down with him. He hit the stairs on his back. Pain echoed up his spine, but it was fleeting. Because as soon as Maelea’s feet touched the ground, she lowered herself and kissed him again. Hard, hot, needy kisses he felt everywhere. Then her mouth slid to his ear and she straddled him, rubbing her breasts against his chest, her sex against his erection, her hands anywhere she could reach.

He threaded his fingers in her long hair, drew her mouth back to his, lifted his hips to meet hers as he kissed her. As he tasted the wetness of her mouth, as he felt the fire from her body, everywhere. He didn’t even care that the stairs were digging into his spine. She broke the kiss, trailed her mouth down his throat. Shivers rushed over his skin, and he groaned. Then nearly came when her tongue circled his nipple and she nipped at the very tip.

Pleasure arced from his nipples to his cock. His vision blurred. He needed to get her upstairs. Wanted her in that big white bed. Couldn’t think of anything else. He tried to find the words to tell her to stop, but her mouth moved from his nipple down the center of his stomach. Her tongue circled his belly button. Then every muscle in his body tensed when she gripped the waistband of his jeans and popped the button, finally freeing him.

His cock sprang up, hard, hot, pulsing. She wrapped her small hand around his shaft, looked up at him with lust-filled eyes as she caressed him. Long, teasing strokes that made him burn with the fire of a thousand suns.

“I love the way you feel,” she whispered. “I love the way you taste. I want to feel you come against my tongue.”

Oh, holy gods. If she kept up that kind of talk, he was going to lose control. And he didn’t want this to be about him. He wanted it to be about her. He wanted to feel her pleasure. Taste her release. Make her as crazy as she’d made him.

Before she could take him into her mouth, he gripped her arms, dragged her up his body, and kissed her again. She moaned into his mouth, stroked his length one more time before letting go and bracing her knees on each side of his body. He gripped the hem of her dress, pulled it up her thighs and around her waist. Her naked sex brushed his cock, and she shivered. It would be so easy to pull her hips down to his, slide inside her right here, take what he desperately craved. But not yet. First he wanted her dizzy with need.

He tugged the dress higher up her rib cage, over her breasts, and finally broke the kiss to pull it over her head.

She was completely naked. And so damn gorgeous. He dropped the dress on the stairs, took in every curve and angle and the way the morning light highlighted soft skin, the lines of her ribs, the gentle indent of her belly button. Her nipples hardened as he stared at her, and he watched her stomach muscles cave in and quiver, watched her eyes grow wide as he palmed her breast, as he brought her nipple to his lips and ran his tongue over the tight, stiff peak.

She braced her hands on the stairs on each side of his head, leaned forward to give him better access, moaned long and low as he suckled her. With his free hand, he pressed against her lower spine, pushing her higher up his chest as he trailed his lips down her stomach. She took the cue easily, lifted one knee, then the other, and moved her hands up the steps until she was finally straddling his face.

He could smell her. That sweet, tangy scent of her arousal. Remembered the unique aroma from their night on that boat. When he breathed hot against her sex, she moaned and pushed up so her torso was perpendicular to the stairs, then gripped the spindles of the banister on one side and braced her hand against the wall on the other. “Gryphon…”

He looked up, reveled in the way her eyes darkened with arousal as she watched him. “My turn to taste you.”

He lifted his head and made one long, lingering sweep up her cleft with the flat of his tongue. She groaned. Dropped her head back and shivered. He did it again, loving the way her whole body shook. Loving the way she tasted.

He licked her again and again, trailed his tongue up to her clit and circled. Gripping her ass with one hand, he brushed the finger of his other hand against her opening and was rewarded with a guttural sound from her throat as he pressed inside and stroked.

“Gryphon…I love that. Oh, gods, you’re going to make me come.”

Exactly what he wanted. All he wanted. He slid his finger out, pressed inside again with two, and closed his lips around her clit to suckle. She lifted her hips, lowered, rocked against his face while he drove her closer to the edge. He stroked deeper with his fingers, circled and swirled with his tongue. And when she tightened around him, when she cried out and he tasted her release on his tongue, his entire body spasmed, as if he were coming too.

He continued to lick her, to gently caress her, as the aftershocks rocked her body. As they echoed through his. He knew he hadn’t ejaculated, but he felt her orgasm as strongly as if it were his own. In his skin. In his veins. In the very bottom of his soul.

She shuddered one last time, dropped forward to brace her hands against the stairs over his head. While she tried to catch her breath, he looked up her body. Noticed—in the morning sunlight spilling over them—faint white lines on the skin of her inner arms.

He’d seen those scars in that shower they’d taken together at the motel. But then he’d been too distracted to wonder about them.

Like he wasn’t distracted now? Skata, he’d worry about them later. Right now he needed her.

He eased out from under her. His balls were so tight, he knew it wasn’t going to take much. But he wasn’t about to let go until he felt her come again. This time when he was deep inside her.

He slid his arms around her waist, lifted her off the steps. She was so light, he turned her easily. She gasped when his mouth found hers again, but then she was kissing him with urgency, wrapping her arms tight around his neck and her legs even tighter around his waist.

Gods, this was what he wanted. All he wanted. All he’d dreamed about since the first moment he saw her at the colony. Couldn’t believe she was here with him now. He palmed her ass, rubbed the length of his shaft up and down her wetness as he carried her the rest of the way up the stairs. Even though it brought him within degrees of boiling, he luxuriated in the vibrations that echoed through his chest when she groaned.

He dropped her on her back on the bed. Eased away just long enough to push down his jeans and kick them off. She reached for him when he came back. Kissed his forehead, his cheek, his jaw, then finally found his lips again. Shivers rushed over his spine as he settled in the vee of her body. As his cock brushed her wetness and the tip barely pressed inside.

“Gryphon…” She dropped her head back against the mattress, tightened around him.

“Sotiria, look at me.” He wanted to see her eyes when he filled her. Wanted to know what she was feeling.

She blinked several times, then finally opened those dark orbs to focus on him. And as he pressed into her, he watched those eyes widen, watched them haze over with pure lust. Watched her give herself to him.

No fear. No pain. Just trust.

Warmth unfurled inside his chest as he eased out, as he pushed into her again. As she trembled beneath him. And for the first time in his life, he felt completely whole. Not empty. Not the shell of the man he’d always yearned to be. Not the broken soul he’d been since the Underworld. With her, here, he felt…complete.

Emotions rolled through him. Ones he couldn’t define and was afraid to try to. So many, the combined power slammed against his ribs. The connection he felt to her now…it was different from before. It wasn’t bathed in darkness. It radiated light. A light that warmed him from the inside out. A light that shoved aside the voice until he couldn’t hear it anymore. Until the buzz he’d lived with the last four months was gone too. Until there was nothing but the two of them, rocking together on this bed, losing themselves in each other over and over and over again.

“Gryphon.” She lifted her head, kissed him, slid her hands down to his ass and pulled him closer.

He knew what she wanted. The same thing he wanted. He braced his hands against the mattress and drove into her deeper, kissed her harder, pushed her to the edge with every thrust. And when her climax rocketed through her, when she broke free of his mouth and groaned long and low, he didn’t let up. He plunged harder, faster, drawing out every last spasm and shudder and ounce of pleasure from her that he could.

Only when he knew she was spent, that he’d given her ecstasy no one else ever had…then he finally let go. And shook from the sheer force of his orgasm as it exploded through every nerve ending in his body.

He was shaking when he finally collapsed against her. She wrapped her arms around his sweaty shoulders, her legs around his damp back. His head fell into the hollow between her shoulder and neck, and her warm breath washed over his temple as she pressed her lips against his forehead. Her heart raced next to his, and he knew he had to be crushing her, but he couldn’t move. His body wasn’t working yet. He thought that orgasm on the boat had been the best of his life? It hadn’t even come close to this.

Aftershocks rippled across his body, sent electrical jolts through his muscles, keeping him immobilized.

Her chest rose against his as she drew in a deep breath. Lowered as she blew it out. “Gryphon?”

“Yeah.” His brain was slowly coming back online, even if his limbs still weren’t responding. “I…I’m hurting you. I’ll move.”

“No, it’s not that.”

He braced his hand against the mattress, started to push off her, but she tightened her pelvic muscles, stopping him.

He grew hard all over again.

She smiled against his temple. “Mm…that’s what I was hoping for.”

Arousal and desire and need rushed through him. A need more demanding than before, because now he knew how to sate it.

He eased up on his arm and looked down at her. She tightened her legs around his back and clenched her sex, drawing him back deep inside her, then smiled up at him with a wicked, sinful grin that made his blood run hot.

Her cheeks were flushed, her lips swollen from his kisses, her eyes filled with the same hunger coursing through him. But there was something else. Something more. Something…

His chest cinched tight as she shifted her weight and rolled him over, as she flexed her hips, as she claimed his mouth all over again.

He slid his hands down to her slim hips and helped her ride. Dark hair fell in a curtain around their faces. He brushed it back. Let her take control. And gave himself over to her the way she’d done to him.

It wasn’t a mystery anymore. He knew what that connection he felt to her was. Could read it so easily, now that his mind was clear and the voice was gone. Would have known the first time he’d tasted her if it weren’t for that damn interference.

She was his soul mate. Everything he’d ever wanted. The only person who could calm him, who could make him feel again. The woman he would eventually lose when she finally got her dream and was accepted into Olympus.

“Touch me, Gryphon,” she whispered against his lips. “Anywhere. Everywhere. I just want you.”

He was wrong. He did have a heart. A heart that had reawakened, all because of her. And after everything he’d been through, after all the torture and agony and bitter misery he’d endured, he knew none of it was going to compare with what would happen to that heart when he finally lost her for good.

Emotions closed his throat. All he could do was wrap his arms around her, drag her as close as possible, and take what little she could give him now.

And give the same back to her tenfold.

The wind rustling the thin curtains through the open window brought Maelea’s eyes open.

Darkness pressed in, shards of moonlight illuminating the room in ribbons of white. As waves lapped gently at the shore outside, she glanced down at Gryphon, draped over her, his head pillowed on her chest as he slept, his legs tangled with hers beneath the sheet, his arm wrapped around her waist as if he never wanted to let go.

Warmth spread through her chest when she remembered how he’d touched her with those big hands, how he’d pleasured her so completely, how he’d looked at her not with dead eyes, as he had before, but with emotion-filled pools of blue, as if she was the only thing in the world he needed.

She ran her fingers through his blond hair, traced the puckered edge of a scar near his temple that she hadn’t noticed before. In sleep the lines on his face relaxed, the stress and anxiety he carried with him eased. He looked more childlike than warrior, more human than Argonaut. Cocooned here with him in this secluded house, in the quiet of the early summer evening, she wondered how she could ever have been afraid of him.

He was not at all what she’d thought. He wasn’t cold and unfeeling. Wasn’t the monster those females at the half-breed colony had talked about. Wasn’t anything but lost and alone, just like her.

Her chest tightened, and she drew in a breath to ease the ache around her heart. She’d accepted her lot in life long ago. Knew that being alone was part of the hand she’d been dealt. She just hadn’t expected to find someone who shared her feelings, who understood her, now of all times, when she was finally ready to make her move to Olympus.

Carefully, so as not to wake him, she eased out from under his weight. He grunted, shifted to his belly, tucked the pillow under his head, then resumed the steady draw and push of air as he relaxed back into sleep.

He was really gorgeous, asleep in her bed, looking so big and masculine against the feminine furnishings. The sheet lay angled low across his muscular back, the white of the cotton such a stark contrast to his olive skin and thick blond hair. In the moonlight the Argonaut markings on his forearms stood out, reminding her he was more than just a man who’d brought her to four—no, make that five—blistering climaxes in the last few hours. He was a hero, regardless of what had been done to him in the Underworld. One of Zeus’s appointed heroes.

Zeus.

There was a mood buster, if ever she thought of one. Her father. The King of the Gods. The male who’d sired her but had done nothing to help her over the long years of her life. The god who hadn’t once even acknowledged her presence. She knew why—because doing so would break the agreement he’d made with Hades, thereby ensuring Hades wouldn’t retaliate against her mother’s treachery—but it still stung. And now she was trying to get to his realm. Trying to prove herself to someone who obviously didn’t care about her. Was she completely insane or just slightly fucked in the head?

Scowling at her obvious stupidity, she moved into the closet, quietly pulled out her thin robe, belted it around her waist, and headed for the stairs.

It was close to midnight, but she was wide awake. They’d spent all day in bed, pleasuring each other, drifting off to sleep only to reawaken and start all over again. And while her body was exhausted and she knew she should sleep, she couldn’t, because her mind was racing. Night was her time. When she felt most alive. She supposed she had her mother to thank for that too.

She grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch, pushed the screen door open, and wrapped the cotton around her shoulders. Night, even in summer, was cool on Vancouver Island, but not freezing. As she headed down the rickety steps, she stared out at the water glistening like a million diamonds under the light of the moon and drew in a deep breath that immediately calmed her.

She loved the ocean. Loved the water. The gentle lap of waves against shore always relaxed her, especially in times of confusion, of which this definitely was one. She found a spot midway to the water and dropped down in the sand as she tugged the blanket tighter to her chest, the silky granules like heaven beneath her bare feet.

For the first time in forever she felt torn. She’d finally decided what she wanted, was finally brave enough to go after her goal, and now had found…what? Her soul mate? She frowned. She didn’t believe in soul mates, but she did believe in love.

Was that what she was feeling for Gryphon? So soon? That idea was even more ludicrous than her earlier ones. No, she wasn’t convinced this was love, but she found it damn inconvenient that after all these years of being alone, she’d finally found someone who needed her to fill a void no one else had been able to fill. Not a single person—mortal or immortal—had ever needed her like that. Not even the few men she’d loved and lost along the way.

She wasn’t delusional. She knew Gryphon hadn’t made her any kind of promise. He hadn’t said much of anything, for that matter. He’d been too busy making love to her. But she knew he felt something for her. Could see it in his eyes every time he touched her. This connection they shared was deeper than the darkness that resided inside each of them. The question was, if she had the choice to stay with him or go to Olympus, which would she choose?

“What are you doing out here in the dark?”

She jumped at Gryphon’s voice so close behind her, whipped around to look up at him. He was wearing nothing but those low-slung faded jeans, his hands shoved into the front pockets, his hair mussed, his eyes sleepy. Moonlight glinted off his bare chest, highlighted his strong stomach muscles, the thin red lines of his wound, which was already healing, and the dusting of hair that led from his belly button and disappeared beneath the waistband of his jeans.

A wicked burst of heat unfurled in her stomach as she stared at him. A heat that told her the question she’d posed to herself was not one she could answer when he was anywhere close. “I couldn’t sleep.”

He stared at her for several seconds as if she might jump out and bite him, then finally nodded her way. “You got room in there for one more?”

She smiled and opened the blanket.

He eased in behind her, angled one leg on each side of her body, pulled her back tight to his chest so she leaned against him, then wrapped the blanket around his back so it cocooned them both. Then he slid his arms around her waist as she closed the blanket again at her front.

His breath ran down her neck, heated her skin. His arms around her were snug and secure, and when the stirrings of an erection pressed against her lower back, she remembered all the erotic, amazing things he’d done to her in that bed.

Her eyes slid closed. She drew in a breath, let it out slowly. Told herself to enjoy this, just being close to him. Everything else…her future, his future, what would happen in a few days…none of it mattered.

“You like the night, don’t you?” His voice was gruff near her ear. And so damn sexy, a shiver of arousal rushed through her when she remembered that voice whispering to her as they’d made love. “I used to watch you from my window. You always went out at night.”

“You watched me?”

“Does that creep you out?”

She looked out over the sparkling water. It used to—when she was at the colony and she’d look up to see him in the window. But now…now it electrified her. “No.”

“I thought you were beautiful.”

Her pulse picked up speed. “You did?”

His thumb brushed the underside of her breast. “I did. I do. Your skin glows under the moonlight. Did you know that? As white as snow. Every hour in that room alone…” His throat worked against her as he swallowed. “It was dark and depressing. Seeing you outside at night…it gave me something bright to look forward to.”

Her heart bumped. She didn’t know what to say. Holding the blanket closed with one hand, she slid the other down to his at her waist and closed her fingers around it.

He nuzzled her neck. “That’s how you found the entrance to the tunnels, isn’t it? When you were out exploring at night?”

She smiled, because watching her was obviously how he’d known where to intercept her. “It is. Orpheus wasn’t going to let me leave any other way.”

“Orpheus worries about you. Now I understand why. He feels guilty for exposing you to Hades so he could rescue me.”

She ran her fingers along the backs of his and remembered her perfect house on Lake Washington. Remembered those hellhounds destroying it. “I know he does. I was upset when he first brought me to the colony, but when I found out he’d come after me to save you…well, not much you can be angry about there anymore, you know?”

“I’d still have been angry. Orpheus has always done shit without thinking of the consequences.”

She chuckled, because that sounded a lot like Orpheus to her. But she also knew what Orpheus had done had been for good, not selfishness. “He loves you, you know.”

Gryphon rested his chin against her shoulder. “I know.”

They sat for several minutes in silence, just looking out over the water, his warm breath heating her body, his fingers against her waist slowly stoking the fire in her blood.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something,” he said into her hair.

“What?”

“How did we get from that boat here? I mean, I know you said we drove, but…how the hell did you get me off that boat? I must have passed out, because I don’t remember anything except…”

She smiled. “Except sex?”

His lips curled against her neck. “Yeah. That. Really hot sex.”

Desire slid back through her veins. She shouldn’t be turned on again, not after the numerous times they’d already ravaged each other, but she was. “Well, when your legs buckled and you fell and hit your head then passed out, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get you off that boat before someone found us, so I untied it from the dock and we sailed across to the other side of the lake.”

“So that’s how I got that bump on my head.”

She cringed. “Yeah. Sorry. I tried to stop you from falling, but you’re a little heavier than I am. I couldn’t hold you up.”

He chuckled. “So you stole someone’s boat.”

“I didn’t steal it. I borrowed it. And I’ll have you know I left it tied to a dock on the other side of the lake in pristine condition along with a note apologizing for the owner’s inconvenience. Then I stole a car.”

His laughter echoed all through her torso, and she found herself smiling all over again. “My woman, the thief. No wonder Orpheus likes you.”

Her pulse sped up at his words. My woman. She wasn’t his woman. Didn’t think she ever could be. But hearing him say it… It touched her in a way she hadn’t expected.

He hugged her tighter as they sat in the sand looking out over the moonlit water. “Why aren’t you with someone? Why are you alone? Why hasn’t some male snatched you up already?”

The questions caught her off guard. “You know why I’m alone.”

“Because you’re hiding from Hades? You can hide with someone. You don’t have to hide alone.”

“I haven’t always been alone. When I was younger—much younger—I didn’t particularly like being alone. But I learned early on that relationships with humans lead to nothing but heartbreak. Their lives only last a maximum of a hundred years, and mine…well, my existence is ageless, so long as I don’t do anything to draw attention and get myself killed.”

“Were you ever in love?” he asked quietly.

She thought back. Remembered the joy. And the pain. The heartbreak lingered longer than the love. Funny that now it was all she could really remember. “Three times. The first was a Spartan warrior. That was dumb. He died before we’d really even gotten to know each other. But he was kind and gentle, and back then I had delusions that a warrior could take on a god. I was wrong.”

When he didn’t say anything, she went on. “The second was many years later. I was older, thought I was wiser and more prepared. He was a gladiator who’d won his freedom, and he was as sick of war and fighting as I was. We had a small house on the coast in Spain. He only lived to be about sixty. Died in his sleep.”

Theodosius. That had been his name. His gentle face flashed in her mind. It had been so long ago, it was as if all the love and pain and heartbreak had happened to someone else.

She drew in a breath. “And the last…well, it was over a thousand years later. He was a Spanish explorer. Let me sail with him. That’s how I ended up in the new world. Liked it so much I stayed. But he died of malaria.” Her heart pinched at the memory. “Since then… Well, since then, let’s just say it’s just been easier to keep to myself. Safer, too.”

His arms tightened around her. “What about half-breeds? Their life spans are longer. As long as Argoleans. And there are Titans living in the human realm.”

She nearly laughed. “Half-breeds? Are you serious? The ones at the colony looked at me like I’m a freak. No, someone who knows Hades’s fury definitely wouldn’t want to be with me. As for Titans…that would be like condemning myself to this realm forever. If Zeus ever found out I shacked up with a Titan, he’d make sure I never got to Olympus.”

“I guess I can see your point. Still…you shouldn’t have to be alone.”

Just the fact he cared touched her heart. “I’m used to being alone, Gryphon. I’ve been alone a long time. Love is nice, but it’s fleeting. I know for a fact it doesn’t last. Heartache and pain? They last. They’re the only things that endure.”

He turned her hand over. Pushed her sleeve up and ran his fingers down the scars on the inside of her forearm. “And what about these?” he asked quietly. “Do these last?”

She drew in a breath and held it. She knew he’d seen her scars, but part of her had hoped he wouldn’t bring it up. She knew now she’d been foolish to think that.

“They…” Unease rippled through her. “No one hurt me, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

He ran his fingers over the thin lines again, and she fought the urge to pull her arm back. “Then how did you get them?”

“I…I went through a phase.”

“A phase?”

She cringed. “Yeah. A phase. It was stupid. But after Theodosius died—he was the gladiator—I wasn’t coping well. I can’t explain what it’s like to be ageless to you. To watch the ones you love die. To remain when they’re gone. I was alive, but I felt dead inside. And then one day I accidentally cut myself in the kitchen, and for the first time in months I felt something. It was pain, but even pain was better than feeling dead. And it was freeing.” She looked down at her feet in the sand, knew he’d never understand this. “So yeah, I went through a phase. Every time I felt dead inside, the pain reminded me I was still alive.”

“So you still…are you still in that phase?”

“No,” she said on a breath. “It was hundreds of years ago. Anytime I feel dead inside now, I just look at the scars and I remember. It’s enough. Learning to keep to myself helped tremendously, too. If you don’t put yourself out there, you can’t get hurt.” She tried to add some humor into her voice, because this was getting way too serious. “Plus I was never very good with a knife—as you know from seeing me wield a weapon. I was too afraid I was going to kill myself to do any real damage.”

He didn’t chuckle. In fact, he was silent so long, she wondered if she’d creeped him out. Then he said, “When Zander lost Callia, it nearly killed him. He lost the will to live. I can’t imagine what that was like for you, not once, but three times.”

Surprise registered. That he understood. And his reaction tightened her heart. “It was lonely.” And so very painful. So painful she didn’t want to repeat it if she didn’t have to. But something told her she was already on the road to love and might already be too far gone to stop it. She swallowed hard. Tried not to think of that. “But I adapted. Now I have these ugly scars to remind me about the price of love.”

His fingertips brushed her scars again, and warmth curled through her skin under his touch, shot straight to her heart. “They’re not ugly. Nothing about you is ugly. And not all love has to be painful.”

Her chest pinched down tight. Gods, if he kept up the sympathy and understanding, she’d fall head over heels in love with him before the moon set.

Water lapped at the shore as they sat in silence. She didn’t know what to say. And then a thought occurred. One she knew she probably shouldn’t ask but suddenly needed to know. “Have you ever been in love?”

He was silent so long, she knew the answer had to be yes. Knew he was likely thinking of some other female right now. And the knowledge of that…it depressed her.

“No,” he finally said. “Never before.”

Her pulse picked up speed. And if it was possible for her heart to skip, it did. She tried not to read too much into his words. Knew it would only lead her to more pain and heartache down the line, but she couldn’t stop herself.

Never before.

She had been in love. She hadn’t lied. But it had never been like this. Never as fast. Never as all-consuming. Never as deep. And now she knew why. Because none of the humans she’d loved had been Gryphon. None had understood her the way he did. None could.

Her heart beat hard against her ribs. Would she stay with him if she could? Would she sacrifice Olympus for him? She didn’t know. She only knew that, right now, she wanted him. Wanted him more than she’d ever wanted anyone else, ever before.

He pressed his lips to her neck, then to her ear. And shivers of delight rushed over her skin wherever he touched. “I’m getting cold out here,” he whispered.

“You are?”

“Mm-hmm. Was wondering if maybe you’d like to take me inside and warm me up. I saw a claw-foot tub in your bathroom.”

Relief and desire rushed through her. He still wanted her. She leaned her head back against his shoulder, offering more of her neck. “You did, huh?”

“Big enough for two, I’m almost certain.”

Heat spread between her legs when he nipped at her earlobe. “It’s only ever held one before.”

His hands slid up her rib cage to cup her breasts. And shards of arousal ricocheted through her veins at the intimate touch. She tipped her head to the side and glanced over her shoulder so she could see his tantalizing mouth.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a wicked turn of his lips. “Because I don’t want to think about anyone else doing to you what I’m about to do to you in that tub.”

Fire exploded in her veins.

Neither did she. She just wanted to think about him. She wrapped her hand around the back of his head and dragged his mouth toward hers.