Dark Restraint (Dark Olympus #7)

1 Ariadne

1

Ariadne

Ten Weeks Ago

My father gave me strict instructions to stay in the house on this afternoon of blood and death. It’s the smart thing to do. No matter what else is true, I want to live. I’ve shared what information I could in the only way I knew how, and it’s up to Apollo and Cassandra to figure out the rest. Strangely, knowing that doesn’t make me feel better.

But then, I’ve always been a coward.

Tension seems to bleed into the hot and sticky afternoon air, pressing it against my skin as I slip out the back door and onto the grounds. If I was braver, I would try to warn my father’s party guests of what’s coming. I would put myself between them and danger.

Instead, I head for the maze. It’s a monstrous creation, predating my father’s ownership of this house. The previous owner was incredibly eccentric—or is , I suppose, since Hermes is here at the party right now. This house and its grounds feel like something out of a novel, a fantasy world where turning down the wrong path can land you in a portal to another realm. I’m far too old to believe in that kind of nonsense, but that doesn’t stop me from entering the maze and winding my way through the tall walls of green.

Since my father brought us to the countryside on the outskirts of Olympus, I found myself coming to the maze more and more often. Today, I don’t even have to count the turns. My feet know the path by heart. Within minutes, I reach the center.

No one else in my family bothers to come here. My father didn’t even notice that I’d absconded with several of the lawn chairs and gone so far as to plant flowers. I doubt I’ll be around next year to see them bloom, but gardening calms me all the same. Claiming this space has been the tiniest of rebellions, nothing compared to what I did at the party itself, but I can’t help the thrill that goes through me as I sink into my chair. This is as close to private as someone like me can manage. Well, except for…

I hear him well before he finds me. He makes no effort to hide the weight of his footsteps. Even though there’s a secret part of me that awakens in his presence, I can’t help the shiver of dread. Everything’s changed. It was always going to, but knowing that doesn’t bring me any peace. My father has had over a decade to put the foundations in place for this plan. To train two unstoppable killers to do his dirty work.

One of them is hunting me right now, tracing my route through the maze as if I’ve left behind a red string to lead him to me. The truth is far less magical. Asterion comes to the maze nearly as often as I do; even in this refuge, I can’t escape him.

Not that I try very hard.

Today of all days, though, I don’t want to see him. Not when he’s finally enacted the plan my father crafted him for. Taking the life of one of the Thirteen so that he can slide into that position and claim the title for himself. Somewhere on the grounds, Theseus is doing the same. All in service of the destabilization of Olympus. With two of my father’s household sitting among the most powerful positions in the city, the real reign of terror can begin.

I can’t make myself look up as his shadow falls over me, blocking out the sun. The Minotaur. A presence so fearsome that my father doesn’t refer to him by name. No one does. According to most who have cause to brush against him, he’s more monster than man.

He’s always been Asterion to me. At least until today.

I might be a coward, but I can’t sit here and ignore the truth indefinitely. I drag in a breath that feels hot and sticky on my tongue and look at him. I understand why everyone fears him. With his massive body, his scars, and the blank look in his dark eyes, he is terrifying. He’s also beautiful in his own way: long, dark-red hair and medium-brown skin, strong hands that are just as capable of building things as they are of holding a weapon, and his mouth…sensual and decadent.

His eyes aren’t blank right now. They’re so hot, I’m surprised I don’t burn up on the spot. I may have been studying his form the way I always do when it’s just us, but he’s doing exactly the same thing—drinking me in as if he might never get another chance. There’s a level of desperation to the chemistry that snaps between us. It can never be.

He is my father’s perfect weapon, and I’m the perfect daughter, destined to be married for the family’s political gain. In no world would my father give my hand to a murderous orphan, part of his household or no.

I lick my lips without meaning to. “Is it done?”

“Ariadne.” His voice is just as scarred as his body, rough and jagged. He takes one slow, stalking step toward me and then another, eating up the distance between us with long strides until he can lean down and plant his hands on the arms of the chair to either side of me. I’m not a small woman; what my body lacks in height, it makes up for in plentiful curves. I’ll never be the delicate little doll my father wishes for, but I’ve never felt anything less than desirable when staring into Asterion’s eyes.

He’s so close. I can see the sweat dampening his skin and making his dark shirt press firmly against his carved torso. Gods help me, but I inhale deeply, chasing the scent that is him and him alone. “Answer my question,” I whisper.

“I let her get away.” He releases the chair with one hand to clasp it loosely around my throat. “For you. I will weather your father’s rage. For you .”

I can’t catch my breath, and it has nothing to do with him restricting my airflow. He’s not. But in all the years we’ve known each other, he’s been incredibly careful never to touch me. Not like this. Not with intent and…possession. “You can’t talk like that.”

“Can’t I?” He leans closer yet, until he blocks out the very sky. Until his cheek brushes mine as he speaks directly into my ear. “Now we’ve both betrayed him.”

He knows.

But that’s impossible. There’s no way he could know that I left information for Apollo to find. Now is the time to push him away, to demand he remember his place. To retreat to a safe distance with the reminder that I will never be his.

I don’t move. I don’t speak. I can barely seem to breathe at all. Because he’s right. I have betrayed my father at this party. I will likely do it again and again in the coming conflict if I think it can mitigate the loss of life. But betraying him now? Like this? It’s nothing less than selfish.

I don’t know that I care.

“Tell me no, Ariadne.”

“What?”

“Tell. Me. No .”

I don’t realize his other hand has released the chair until he grips the front of my dress. His rough knuckles press against the delicate skin of my breasts, sending a jolt of pure need through me.

Understanding dawns, bringing with it conflicting emotions of fear and desire. “We shouldn’t.” I’m protesting for the sake of protesting, but it’s the truth.

My father may look the other way when it comes to how Asterion watches me, the strange almost friendship that has cropped up between us, the way we seem to gravitate toward each other again and again. But he won’t forgive this. If we cross this line, he’ll slit Asterion’s throat. I’m afraid to think of what he might do to punish me. “We can’t ,” I force myself to say.

“We can . What’s one more betrayal?”

“Asterion—”

“Tell me no.” The rumble of his voice makes me press my thighs together. “Or I’m going to rip this dress off you.”

Now’s the time to do exactly that. If I say no, he’ll stop. Asterion may be a monster in so many ways, but not with me. Not like this.

What’s one more betrayal?

I don’t tell him no.

He pauses for one beat, and then another. I expect him to rip my dress down the center, to send the line of vintage buttons flying. Instead, he thumbs open the top one. And then the next. And then the next. Exposing me, inch by agonizing inch. All without moving away or putting any distance between us. It’s just as well; if either of us had a chance to think this through, surely common sense would reassert itself. We would remember who we owe everything to. Me by blood, him by circumstance.

By the time he bares me to the waist, I’m shaking so hard that I rattle the metal chair against the gravel. Asterion drags his knuckles up the center of my body to catch my chin. He still has ahold of my throat, still not doing more with his grip than claiming me. Now, finally, he moves back so that he can capture my gaze. “You’ve been mine from the moment I saw you. Your father might have been dangling you in front of the Olympians like a particularly tempting fruit, but we both know the truth. You are mine, Ariadne.”

My stomach flips and I want to hate what he’s saying, to reject yet another man claiming to own me. I’ve never belonged to myself, not from the moment I was born. I never had a chance. No matter what else is true, being claimed by Asterion will change everything. “You’re wrong.”

He drags his thumb roughly over my bottom lip. “I’m not.” He reaches down without breaking my gaze and shoves up the bottom half of my dress. “But if I am, then tell me no.” He slips his fingers beneath the band of my panties and wraps his fist around the fabric. “Because if you don’t tell me no right now, I’m going to take what we both know is mine.”

No one has ever touched me like this. Other people my age interested in sex have done plenty of exploring, whether it’s out in the open or in secret. My brother certainly has, leaving a trail of broken hearts in his wake. Not me. Not Minos’s precious, innocent daughter. According to him and people like him, my value hangs on a hymenal thread. I think it’s bullshit, but when it comes to my life, I’m not the one who holds the power.

Except… Right now it feels like I am.

I may be shaking and overwhelmed, but there’s a fine tremor in Asterion’s hand where his knuckles press to my pussy. All it will take is one word, two little letters, and this all stops. What is power, if not that?

I reach up with a tentative hand and fist the front of his shirt. Agreeing to this will damn us both, but I’m not sure I care. We were damned the moment my father decided to bring us to this place. Any deaths that happen today are only the beginning. That blood is on my hands by proxy. “You didn’t kill anyone today?”

“I didn’t.”

Maybe I’m a fool for believing he did that for me. So be it. I drag in a breath. “Don’t stop.”

He doesn’t ask me again. He rips my panties from my body with a violence that makes me jerk. And then his mouth is on mine, his fingers tightening around my throat ever so slightly as he marks me with his tongue and teeth.

I may have been a passive passenger for most of my life, but I’m choosing this. I’m choosing him , even if it’s only right here, right now. It can’t be forever. But I don’t say that as he breaks our kiss to pull off his shirt and shove down his pants. His cock is big enough to make a thread of fear dampen my desire, but Asterion drops to his knees and buries his face in my pussy before I can decide if I really do want to say no.

The first drag of his tongue through my folds makes my brain short out. I’ve read about this. I’ve bought toys that are supposed to mimic this. What a joke. There’s nothing like the feeling of his tongue on the most intimate part of me. His fingers dig into my hips, pulling me several inches off the edge of the chair so that I can spread my legs wider for him. I don’t make a conscious decision to shove my hands into his hair, to lift my hips and seek more, but my body has overridden my brain. His broad shoulders make a perfect perch for my thighs, and he licks me as if he’ll never get enough.

What we’re doing is strictly forbidden, and we don’t even have the decency to do it under the cover of night. The sun bears witness to my orgasm cresting, to Asterion pressing his palm to my lips to stifle my cries as I come all over his face. He gives me one long lick, and then another. There’s a pause, as if he might keep going, might not stop until I’m coming again. As if he might never stop.

But then he turns his face to my thigh and bites me. Hard. I shriek against his palm, the pain getting mixed up in pleasure. It confuses me. That feeling only gets more complex when I look down to see blood. He bit me hard enough to break the skin. A lot.

He rises and wraps a giant fist around his cock. “You might have been tempted to forget this. Now you won’t.” He angles his cock to my entrance and looks at me, tracking the tear that leaks from the corner of one eye. Asterion shifts his hand away from my mouth long enough to say, “Tell me no. Tell me no right fucking now or I’m going to take this virgin pussy and claim it as mine. Forever.”

“That’s not how virginity works.” I don’t know why I say it. My thigh is one throbbing ache, and no matter if I’m already feeling empty and yearning for more pleasure, I can’t pretend my orgasm has washed away all the reasons we shouldn’t do this. His bite made sure of that.

“It is with us.”

Some instinct overtakes me, and I dart forward to set my teeth into the space between his thumb and forefinger. He watches me as I bite down, his dark eyes intense. Instead of pulling away, he presses his hand more firmly into my mouth, against my teeth. At the same time, his cock breaches my entrance. He doesn’t go fast, but there’s no time to adjust to the sheer size of him. It hurts. Oh fuck , it hurts.

“You can take it.” He slips one arm behind my hips and pulls me closer, pushing himself deeper. “Leave a mark, sweetheart.”

I bite down in sheer desperation. The coppery taste of his blood hits my tongue just as his cock hits the end of me. Pain and pleasure dance together, confusing my senses. It’s only as pleasure takes the lead that I realize he’s not moving. That he hasn’t moved from the moment he sank fully inside me.

My tension turns into pure need as I shift restlessly against him. Only then does he begin to move. Long, harsh thrusts that hit something inside me that makes everything go hazy. I’ve orgasmed plenty on my own. I’ve used toys and techniques and explored my body to find out what works for me.

Nothing has ever felt like this .

This time, when my orgasm rises, it feels world-ending. There’s no taking this back. I don’t want to. I couldn’t stop for anything. I bite harder on his hand even as I grab his hips and pull him deeper into me. He growls, the fierce rumble vibrating through his body and into mine. That’s what makes me come. My orgasm goes on and on, driven to new heights I didn’t think were possible. And then he grinds into me, starting the whole process over again. It’s only as he stills that I realize he’s following me over the edge.

He tugs his hand free and replaces it with his mouth. Our kiss tastes of blood and sex and a promise that I’m not certain I can follow through on. In this moment, nothing matters. Nothing but us .

He thrusts into me one last time and then withdraws. We both look down to where his seed leaks out of my pussy. Distantly, part of me is screaming that I’m going to regret this. We didn’t use a condom. It didn’t even occur to me to ask for one. Even if it had, I don’t know if that would have been enough to stop me from wanting him with nothing between us.

Nothing but the impossibility of us.

Asterion grips my thigh over his bite and squeezes hard. “You’re mine, Ariadne. This is a promise. When you start questioning that, look here. Remember.” He takes the time to button up my dress as I stare at him. Then he pulls on his clothes in quick, efficient moves. One last claiming kiss and he’s gone, striding out of the maze the same way he came in.

He took my panties with him.

What the fuck have I done?