CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
His eyes lit up with understanding. Oh? Does that include outstanding tolls, unpaid bets, and debts of gratitude as well?
How could he joke at a time like this? Yes.
Interesting. Now he was ghosting his lips along my forehead, down over my eyelids, across my cheekbones. His warm breath fanned over my skin, causing prickles of heat. Although I don t know if out here on the street is the proper place for you to thank me.
He was teasing me, tormenting me. Nearly offering me what I wanted but staying just out of reach.
Why was he behaving this way?
Stupid girl, because he likes you!
I quickly pushed Demaratus out of my head. I did not want him here while this was happening.
Maybe Jason withheld his kisses in some misguided attempt to wear me down. He didn t know that I was already worn down. My resistance was so thin it was like a spider s web, easily pushed aside with the tiniest amount of pressure.
He kissed my cheek. Perhaps I ll sneak into your room in the temple one night and surprise you. That would be a better place for you to thank me.
His words sent an illicit thrill through me. You wouldn t dare cross onto the temple grounds.
Lips brushing against my forehead, he said, It would depend on who was waiting for me on the other side. And how willing she might be.
If he were anyone else, I probably would have punched him for his implication that I was willing and waiting.
But when Jason said it?
There was no one more willing than me.
And I was tired of waiting.
His arms were on either side of me, enclosing me against the wall. It was a terrible defensive position. He could have easily overpowered me.
I didn t care. I liked how it felt.
Now his fingertips had replaced his lips and he was tracing the outline of my face, creating little pools of fire everywhere he touched.
You are so soft. It sounded as if he hadn t meant to say the words aloud. What do you bathe in that makes your skin so soft?
Water, I responded without thinking and was rewarded with his grin.
Soft, and so, so sweet.
I am not sweet.
You are. The sweetest thing I have ever tasted.
He kissed along the column of my throat and I felt the tip of his tongue flicker out to taste my skin. I arched against him in response and he made a sound at the back of his throat at my movement.
I realized then that he wasn t going to kiss me. I was the one who had lost the bet. He had asked for a kiss as his reward-he hadn t offered one.
He pulled his head back so that he could look down at me, our gazes locked. He was waiting.
You want me to kiss you. It was a statement, not a question.
A smile hovered just above his lips. That s very bold of you. You didn t even ask my permission.
I didn t think I needed to.
You don t.
Satisfied, I wrapped my arms around his neck. We had done this before but it still felt like the very first time, like it was all fresh and new. I was equal parts anxious and eager.
Not to mention that during our last kiss he had been the one kissing me. I let my fingers drift up into his hair, and the dark, silken strands caressed my hand. I wasn t the only one who was soft.
But his hair was the only part of him that I was touching that felt soft. His broad body was pure muscle. Firm. Hard. I brought my hand around so that I could explore the stubble along his jaw, the texture rough against my fingertips. He expelled a sharp breath and let his eyes drift shut.
I trailed my fingers down over his jaw and then farther south. I touched where my xiphos had pressed into his neck hours ago. He swallowed.
I m sorry I cut you, I said. And I was. I had committed a crime by marring such beauty.
It was worth it. His words were rough, full of longing.
Perhaps it was my turn to kiss him better. I pushed forward so that my lips pressed against his throat. I was rewarded with the sound of his breath catching.
Not as indifferent as he d pretended earlier.
Although that act might have been nothing more than a ploy to trick me.
He d said I would know when he was luring me. And it seemed that was exactly what he d been doing.
Luring me in.
I didn t mind being trapped, though.
Lia. My name on his lips was both a whisper and a warning that I didn t quite understand. Perhaps he was telling me that if I wanted to change my mind, now was the time to do so.
My stomach tightened in anticipation. I didn t want to stop.
My pulse beat slow and thick as I brought my mouth up to his and carefully, oh so carefully, fitted our lips together. I let out a moan of pleasure. It was everything that I d remembered, everything that I d wanted, everything that I d been dreaming of for the past month.
Glorious.
He quickly took control of the kiss, leaving me gasping. One of his large hands cupped the base of my skull, cradling me while he parted my lips and deepened the kiss. His other hand stole around my waist, somehow pulling me even closer.
I d never craved anything the way I did his mouth. My lips were frantic. I needed more. I demanded it. He made me feel like a ravenous beast.
And he was every bit as hungry and desperate as I was.
His lips meeting mine, his tongue against my own, it felt like a kind of battle. Like swords clanging against one another, caressing as they pulled apart and reengaged.
Why does kissing you always feel like swordplay? I asked against his mouth, sighing the words.
And we haven t even involved my sword yet. He grinned back.
Then I was the one plunging us back into battle. It really was like combat-he would thrust, I parried. He advanced and I was there, ready to engage him in return. He retreated and I coaxed him back into the fight.
He had somehow completely disarmed me and I had permitted it.
Everything happening between us was so visceral and intimate. He was devouring me, kissing me into oblivion. The crushing heat of his lips against mine burned through my entire body, consuming me.
It felt like there were massive, flapping geese in my stomach, their wings beating so hard and so quickly that I was going to take flight.
How could everything feel new and surprising but also like something that had happened a million times before? As if we already knew each other s bodies perfectly?
The way that Jason could tilt his head, or slightly change the pressure of his kiss, or dig his fingers into my back and have me panting against him, practically begging him for more, was beyond my comprehension.
As if he instinctively understood every single way to make me respond, to make me melt, to turn me mindless with need for him.
Only him.
Fire raced up and down my veins, engulfing me. Jason seemed to burn just as brightly, just as hotly. His breathing was harsh, rapid. I clung to him, as if I were out at sea during a wicked storm, my boat destroyed, and all I could do was hold on to a piece of driftwood to keep breathing while the seas and skies raged all around me.
Jason, I breathed. It felt as if I would go mad. As if the sensations and feelings he created were too much for any one person to bear. They couldn t be contained within my mortal and weak body.
He was like magic.
I slowly became aware of something warm and bright. I mistakenly attributed it to the way he was kissing me, but then I opened my eyes to see that the sun was rising over the horizon.
With a gasp I pulled away from him. I have to go. It was difficult to form words, my overly sensitized lips aching for him, my body screaming at me to keep kissing him.
What? Why? He seemed every bit as disoriented as I was.
The sun is up. My brain began to function again and I realized how bad this could be for me. They re going to realize that I m missing.
It might have already been too late.
I cursed myself for being so intoxicated by him that I had potentially risked my place at the temple. I disentangled myself from him with every part of me protesting.
Wait, one last kiss, he said. He reached out to cup my face with his hands and I meant to tell him no, that I was late, but instead I leaned into the kiss, which quickly escalated.
Stupid girl, time to leave!
I had to reluctantly break it off again. I really have to go.
Thank you for repaying your debt. As Simos said, it was a pleasure doing business with you.
It took every bit of willpower I had to walk away from him. I reached down to get my sword and returned it to its sheath.
Please remember that if you want to go home to Locris, I can arrange it for you. All you have to do is ask, he said.
I wonder what it would cost me if you sailed me across the ocean.
He grinned. I would be happy to set up some sort of repayment plan with you.
My entire body ached from the mental images that put into my head. I began walking toward the temple, worried that if I didn t make myself leave right then I was going to change my mind and take him up on his offer.
Sail home, convince him to stay with me in Locris, and find a different way to save my nation.
It suddenly didn t sound so bad. And if I were already married to Jason, there would be little the Ilionian prince could do about it.
But I knew it wasn t realistic.
Not to mention that Jason had never once seriously brought up the subject of marriage and I felt like he was the sort of man who would run away screaming into the night if I said something about it.
We reached the corner where the next turn would lead to the front of the temple. The same place where he had destroyed an entire ambush for my sake. That rush of warm emotions filled me again. I didn t want this night to end. I wanted to stay with him.
Although I knew I couldn t.
Thank you for sending the soil, I said suddenly as I realized that I d never thanked him for that.
Thank you for the kiss, he said.
It felt like I should be the one thanking him. As if I should be composing epic poems to express how incredible it had been, how good he was at it.
Not knowing what else to say, I nodded and started forward. Before I could take a step, his hand was on my arm.
Lia, if you re going to sneak out again, send for me.
That wasn t going to happen. I would leave the temple again, but there was no way that I would deliberately involve him in doing so. I knew that whatever we shared, whatever this was, had to be over.
Even if I didn t want it to be.
I nodded, though. As if I agreed.
He gave me one fleeting, quick kiss and then I ran for the archway. I pressed myself against it, looking into the courtyard. I didn t see anyone. I risked glancing over my shoulder one last time, but he wasn t there.
It ended up being easy enough to sneak back in. I ran for the temple and no one noticed. No alarm was raised. I reached the temple patio and leaned against one of the columns to catch my breath.
I was safe. I had made it. It was time for me to clean the temple. I had a reason to be out of my bedroom and no one would question what I was doing.
There was sweat on my forehead and I brushed it away with the back of my hand. Had that been from running over here, or had it been Jason s doing?
That made me remember something he had said and I took my sword and reached up to the side of my head and cut off a chunk of my hair. I was probably leaving a gaping hole behind but I didn t care.
I held the hair up in the blooming sunlight.
Red.
It was definitely a dark red.
What did that mean?