Chapter 47
“My choice is made, Lieutenant. You’ll have to take me as prisoner to keep me from going,” Tethys hissed, slamming Araes’s bedchamber door behind her.
The air was heavy between them. Tethys curled her trembling hands to keep Araes from noticing the frigid heartbreak now coursing in her veins. She was utterly drenched and felt the biggest of fools, thinking she’d make it even a mile down the trail.
Wringing her braid out, she watched Araes, as still as marble, from across the room.
The cramp in her jaw deepened as she bit her cheek.
This soldier, once with unstained honor and the highest of morals, now looked at her with eyes that blazed in darkness.
She shifted in her boots, struggling to master her shallow breaths.
“Never in my hundreds of years of existence have I met someone who has vexed me so,” she seethed, feeling a lingering raindrop roll down her cheek. She didn’t bother to swipe it away.
Araes gritted his teeth and prowled toward her.
“And you are the most infuriating…”
He took a step, his rage matching her own.
“Maddening…”
Another step.
“Incessant...”
Another.
“Enraging…” He stood so close now.
Tethys’s breath hitched. The man before her dripped with deadly prowess. Her heart slammed into her throat as she realized the darkness stirring in his honey gold eyes wasn’t anger or hatred or even irritation. No, it was raw, unrelenting need.
His stare washed over her body, trailing each curve and crease of the soaking wet tunic that clung to her skin.
He stole another step of space between them.
She sucked in a breath that smelled of him—peppermint and leather. It was intoxicating. Tethys drew in another. She could spend the rest of her damned eternity cocooned in that infuriating scent.
“I would love nothing more than to travel far from here. To put the entire damned continent between us,” he said, brushing his nose against her brow. He too breathed her in. “To claim my loyalty to Venia and never look back.”
“Then let me go, if that’s what you wish.” She drew a breath, her eyes fluttering shut as their foreheads connected and he laced his fingers through her hair.
“Unfortunately for the both of us, I’ve concluded that there is nowhere far enough for you to escape to.
There is nothing I can do or say that is distraction enough to keep me from what I now know to be true.
I cannot, and will never, have enough of you.
You are the poppy and I am an addict. You are the air I breathe and the water I drink.
You are the dream I hope to return to when I lay my head to rest at night.
You are every damn missing piece that fulfills me.
Not Venia. Not my battalion. Not even the rest of the fucking realm. ”
Her tunic scratched against her skin. Her flesh was fire beneath his touch as he trailed his fingers down her cheek, her neck, her breast.
“I’ve found myself entirely at your mercy, and I will follow you to the ends of this world if you ask me to,” he whispered.
Everything melted around her.
“Ask me again, Goddess.”
“Come with me to Aquilae?”
“Ok,” was all he said.
Her hands were steady as she wrapped them in his curly brown hair. Her heart was quiet as she placed her lips on his. Never in her entire existence was she so sure, so resolute, about something than this.
Araes tipped her chin to deepen the kiss, and the taste of his tongue against her lips set fire to her blood. She burned beneath his flames as she wrapped herself around him.
“Lock the door, Tethys,” he said, pulling away.
Her name on his lips was everything she ever needed.
“And if I refuse?” she whispered.
“Someone may walk in. We’d be caught and the consequences would be…catastrophic” he said, leaning down to face her. His lips were a hair’s width from hers. She couldn’t bear it. She needed to feel his warmth against her skin, needed to taste him again.
“I do not care,” she murmured, closing the space between them. His hands gripped her waist before she could kiss him.
“I will not risk you exposed. Especially in the position you’re about to find yourself in.”
She prayed to Eos for strength. For composure.
This mortal would be her undoing.
“Fine,” she said, brushing her shoulder against his as she started for the bedchamber door.
The click of the lock was permission enough for him.
Araes rushed behind her, twirling her to face him. Then, his lips were on hers, moving and matching her own voracity. Her body took control. The lieutenant slammed into her with a near savage strength. She felt her back hit the doorframe, and she knew she was at his mercy entirely.
His hands worked their way from her cheeks, to her shoulders, to her breasts.
He was delicate and rough all at once as he traced the shape of her nipple beneath the cotton tunic.
Her body lurched in response to the delicious sensation.
The world ceased to exist outside of him.
His touch, his smell, his taste. She wanted all of it—both the darkest, ugliest nightmares and the beautiful, lightest daydreams. She wanted everything.
Heat melted through her body sending ripples of anticipation through her very core.
The threads of her sanity unraveled for the man that stood before her.
The man that chose her.
“Do you want me to stop?” Araes’s voice was gravel on her lips.
“No.”
That simple phrase was all it took for him to pounce again. His hands continued their exploration, trailing from her breast to her belly, to her hips. The ache between her legs intensified until Tethys couldn’t take it any longer. Her legs jellied.
If her mind wasn’t entirely consumed with desire, she might think herself pathetic. The man before her hadn’t even touched her yet, and she was a damn near mess.
“You have been a constant thorn in my side, Goddess,” he whispered through kisses. His words crept into her mouth with the tongue that now licked her bottom lip.
“All I’ve wanted is to be free from your torment. All I’ve prayed for is relief from you. And now, seeing you restless and squirming, there’s no place I’d rather ever be than here. Watching you come undone for me,” he said. His voice was a mere whisper raising gooseflesh on her skin.
“Yes,” she breathed.
Araes unlaced her trousers and slid them down her body, exposing the bare flesh of her thighs to the cool spring air. He pulled the lacy undergarment she wore to the side and traced a finger along the crease of her sex, stopping when she jumped at his touch.
“I love every damned piece of you,” he growled with burning vibrant eyes, his thumb circling the sensitive flesh. Her body went completely rigid as he slipped a finger inside her.
“Eos give me strength,” she pleaded, throwing her head back.
“Your body gives you away, Goddess. You can’t control its reaction to me, can you?
” He pressed his thumb harder against her clit, sending her pleasure spiraling higher and higher.
She was a hair’s width from her edge, but he held her captive at the brink.
Tension ached through her body, like a raging tide rushing through her very center.
“Please Araes, I beg you,” she cried, squirming beneath him.
He pressed a powerful thigh between her legs.
The feel of his cock twitch beneath his trousers sent another pulse of anticipation over her.
She wanted—no, needed to feel him in her hand, to hear his breaths go ragged as she stroked him over and over again.
With shaking hands, Tethys undid the lacing holding him in and pulled the leather pants down his body. His cock sprang free, the enormous length terrifying and exciting her all at once.
No, she hadn’t freed him. She’d unleashed him, uncaged him.
Before she could take another breath, Araes grasped the back of her thighs and lifted her. Wedged between the strength of his body and the doorframe, she surrendered to him.
He ripped the lace from her undergarments, his blazing eyes never leaving hers, and pressed into her, filling her entirely.
The way her body stretched around him was absolutely villainous.
Tethys cried out, wrapping her arms around his neck.
She felt every muscle in his back ripple as he plunged into her again, and again, and again.
“The way you feel, Goddess…” he growled.
“Yes…” Her reply was a gritty cry she barely recognized.
Their bodies connected in a nearly savage way.
A powerful way, and suddenly she craved control—begged for it.
Araes withdrew from her, trailing kisses down her neck and lowered himself to the bedside.
He felt it, too, her need to take the lead.
Tethys crawled on top of him, the head of his cock pulsing against her entrance. Her lips parted as she lowered herself onto him, feeling her body stretch as he again filled her. She groaned letting her soaked plait fall down her back.
Araes gripped her hips, guiding her up and down as she rode him, chasing her pleasure deeper and deeper. He bit his lip, a growl forming in his throat. Tethys’s eyes focused on his, watching the man lose himself in her completely.
“Fuck, Tethys,” he groaned, his head falling back. “Don’t ever stop fucking me this way.” Her body tensed around his cock as she lowered herself again, sheathing him inside her to his hilt. His thumb trailed to her clit, its strokes matching her rhythm as she rode him.
Her thighs trembled as her pleasure reached its peak and when Araes pressed his thumb to her clit once more, everything shattered around them.
She cried out, feeling wave after wave of an all-encompassing climax wash through her until nothing but time and space and their bodies existed in this world.