Chapter 6 #3
Thanatos licked the hollow of my throat, and I moaned involuntarily.
I was going to do nothing about it, I decided quickly, save for appreciate the evidence of his body’s desire.
I was already so overwhelmed by his kisses that I feared even thinking about his cock might cause me to burst into flames.
Instead, I wove my fingers into his hair and tugged gently to guide him back to my lips. He allowed me to direct him, but nipped my bottom lip in a display of performative indignation.
“My oracle is pulling my hair,” he marveled, stating the obvious as though it were the most unbelievable action in the world. The slightest shift in pitch betrayed a new edge to his voice. Was I imagining an increase in the pressure against my thigh?
“Oh, am I yours now?” I flirted breathlessly.
Thanatos nibbled my lip again, then traced it with the tip of his tongue. “Yes,” he said simply. Then he seemed to realize what he’d implied, and he looked to me for approval with a pout very unbecoming of the dreaded reaper of souls.
I kissed him deeply, giving his hair the slightest teasing tug as I did so. I felt the rumble of the sigh he caught in his throat. “Very well, precious Death,” I conceded with a grin.
Thanatos laughed. “I do not think I will ever become used to the way you speak of me. But then again, I suppose this entire happening is just one more thing that I do not understand.” He kissed my cheek, breathing deeply, massaging circles into my back with his thumb.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I mean…how can it be that the one person who sees me is the one who makes me feel this way?” he wondered. “I did not even know that I could feel this way.”
“You didn’t know?” I repeated in shock. “Do you mean you’ve not done this before?” It should have been a stupid question—surely he could have anyone he wanted, I thought—but then again, the way he’d described his existence didn’t seem especially conducive to romance.
“I…” His voice faltered, and Thanatos blushed for me in the pale moonlight. “No, I have not. I have never felt…never wanted…” He regarded me with a sudden intensity, his brow furrowed.
“I have always been content as I am,” he told me.
“I have never felt the need to concern myself with these things, with lust and with…love. I thought it was just because I am Death! I mean, I do not even interact with this realm very much! I am not like the other immortals. I have no need to eat or sleep or touch…so why would I need this?”
But he was giving me a desperately needy look right now. I nuzzled closer, brushing my lips over his ear. “So you can feel like this.” I nibbled his earlobe gently, then trailed soft kisses down his neck. A happy sigh escaped his throat. “Do you feel me?” I whispered.
“Yes.”
“Then you’ve been denying yourself,” I said, leaning back to gauge his response.
His wings twitched, and a befuddled expression passed over his features. He shook his head slowly. “No. I think it more likely that I am incapable of this sensation without first feeling safe and wanted.”
“Safe and wanted?”
“Mortals flee from me, Cyrie,” he explained with a groan.
“If they want something, it is my secrets or my mercy. The gods of the Underworld want the souls they are due. Even Hypnos requires the dark shadow to his reverie. After ages spent as a fixture of nature, I cannot think of anyone who has ever wanted just…me.”
“I see you as you are,” I breathed.
“And you want me even so,” he finished. “It is confounding. Exhilarating. And now I crave you so very much. Hades fair, what have you done to me? I have never felt anything so consuming, not in all of my existence.”
I smiled shyly, my heartbeat racing. It was a sentiment I shared, although I suspected it meant a bit less coming from a mortal confined to a temple. “Neither have I,” I admitted. “But it’s lovely, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He smiled, and brushed his thumb softly over my lips. “Kiss me again.”
I obeyed. I cradled his hauntingly beautiful face and kissed him with all the fervor that was welling up inside me, threatening to burst. And when he kissed me back, I wondered sincerely whether the highest paradise of Elysium could ever compare to this feeling of heady, passionate exploration. I never wanted this night to end.
Thanatos doted on me until the early hours of morning when I lay half asleep on his shoulder. “I should take you back,” he said then.
“I don’t want to leave you,” I pouted.
“You have to go to sleep.”
“But I want to kiss you forever.”
He chuckled into my hair. “You can kiss me more tomorrow.”
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“…Okay.”
We flickered together into the empty hall at the base of my tower.
Thanatos squeezed me tightly and murmured one last thing into my ear.
“I never really understood the Olympians and their favorites,” he said.
“The lengths they go to, the mountains they move to protect the mortals they love. But I do now.”
“The mortals…they love?” I whispered, stunned.
He kissed my forehead tenderly. “Yes.”
He disappeared and left me alone in the silent hall. I sneaked up the stairs to my bedroom with tears in my eyes once more.