Chapter 10 #2
Thanatos huffed out a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob.
When he met my gaze again, his eyes were shining.
“I cannot deny the exhilaration of being seen as I am,” he said gently.
“But I see you just as well. My curious, clever mortal. Passionate and empathetic. Brave enough to be with me despite all that you face.” He let go of one of my hands to cup my face again.
“I would have no other,” he breathed, and he leaned down to plant a kiss on my lips.
“Tell me you love me,” I whispered.
“I love you, my naughty priestess.” He kissed me again, soft and sensual and all too brief. A question laced with fragile hope.
I wrapped my arms around him, and I gave away my heart. “That’s all I need. My eyes are open.”
His next kiss came with such ardor that I fell backward onto the pillows, pulling him down on top of me. We fumbled for each other, gasping for more, and in our haste we were rewarded with an awkward embrace and a kiss separated by a mouthful of his hair.
I burst into a giggle as I brushed the strands off of my tongue. Thanatos joined me, and the heaviness of our worries slipped away on the notes of our laughter.
“You must forgive me,” he sighed, punctuating his request with a kiss free from obstructions. “All of this is so new to me. Exhilarating, yet terrifying. And I…have never been afraid before.”
“Never?” I almost couldn’t believe it.
“Never.” He repositioned on top of me, shifting my legs apart to settle between my thighs. “What had I to fear? But now, I fear both having you and losing you.”
“Have me first,” I proposed breathlessly, consumed by the impulse to grind against him. “Fear later.”
“Yes,” Thanatos chuckled. “I think I will.”
He returned his lips to mine, his tongue exploring, building in intensity. Our hips rocked together, his cock sliding over my wetness, turning me mad with want. We shuddered against each other, and he broke our kiss with a gasping breath.
“There is one more fear I must admit to,” Thanatos confessed.
“What’s that?” I panted.
“That you have opened something within me. A door that cannot be closed. I am afraid that I need this now—need you. That I always will. Even after…”
“Even after you take my soul?”
“Yes.”
Warmth blossomed in my chest, deepening my blush. Love and sympathy and protectiveness vied for my response.
“One day at a time,” I suggested. “One need at a time. For instance…you seem particularly needy right now.”
“Do I?” he tempted. He shifted between my legs, sending a shock of sensation through my core.
“You do,” I purred. “And I cannot put into words just how much I enjoy it.”
He leaned down, his lips at my ear. “This is what you do to me,” he whispered, stroking his length against me. “What are you going to do about it?”
I wasted no time. I fisted one hand in his hair, tugging gently as I nibbled on his neck. With my other, I reached between us and guided his cock to my ready, aching entrance. Thanatos moaned as his tip slid into me, and he succumbed to a series of shivers before he was even fully inside.
I clung to him fiercely, flooded with relief and anticipation. This must be the most transcendent sensation in the world: to be so delightfully full, to hear Death whimper for me, to feel him shake in my arms from the pleasure we gave each other.
But then he moved in me, and the heavenly rush surpassed every pinnacle that came before. My articulate thoughts retreated with each sensual thrust, replaced entirely by a singular, desperate plea. More. I released his hair and dug my fingers into his back instead, relinquishing all control.
Thanatos pinned me down harder. He thrust into me with unfettered intensity, and I saw stars.
I was incapable of lowering my voice, no matter how much I tried.
Over and over his pounding hips drew out my heated cries, and the room filled up with the sounds of my moaning.
I might have been embarrassed, except that he was not exactly being quiet, either, and his pleasure only fueled my own.
The tension built in my pelvis again, faster this time than ever before.
I arched my hips, digging my nails into his skin, my moans escaping as breathy cries.
“Don’t stop,” I begged. And he hardly had a chance to react before the rapture of being filled with him sent me tumbling into an ocean of bliss.
I squeezed my legs around him and held him inside me as I came, massaging him with my peak.
Pulses of overwhelming pleasure flooded over me, all flowing from that wonderful place, the one I could only ever feel when he stroked it with his cock.
When the sensation began to fade, he rocked into me again, faster, and I cried out as he drew me back into the unrelenting waves. “Fuck! Thanatos!”
He moaned heatedly in response to my elation, in reply to the sound of his name. He flapped his wings once, gasping, his hips picking up a desperate pace. “My woman,” he groaned. “My love. Ages upon ages, and now you have shattered me. You are everything, Cyrie!”
My name left his lips as a yearning cry, and I felt him let go, his body shuddering on top of mine. He wore that most perfect expression, the face that only I got to see. Vulnerable ecstasy.
When we floated down from our high, we collapsed there together, satisfied and spent.
He rested his head on my chest, still panting softly as the room readjusted to the sudden quiet.
I stroked gently through his hair, admiring his beauty, adoring his soft skin and sweeping wings.
Our fingers intertwined as my heartbeat slowed.
We lay there in silence, holding each other, basking in the glow of our risk and our reward. Here, I felt safer than anywhere. Here, in this room, was all the happiness I could ever dream of. I would gladly risk my life for just one more moment.
But since my choice had been settled…I saw no reason why I shouldn’t ask about the fate with which I danced. I parted his messy hair and traced lovingly down his spine, between Death’s inky wings.
“Hey, Thanatos?” I murmured through my lazy euphoria.
“Mmm. My love?”
“Will you tell me more about the Underworld?”