Chapter 17
As soon as the elevator doors slid open and E faced Plutus’s apartment, he was there in front of her. Like he’d been waiting outside the elevator doors since she called him.
He didn’t worry about his own feelings. Didn’t rehash the big argument they’d had only the night before. Plutus took one look at her and asked, “What’s wrong?”
She knew she had to look devastated, because she felt it in her bones. The devastation of being helpless in a system designed to work against her in so many ways. “Fuck ‘em,” she muttered, her mind still racing.
“Fuck who, little one? Who needs to be fucked. Not me, right? Or, at least, not in the way you said just now. In a different, far more pleasurable way, I hope.”
She did manage a laugh. He wasn’t trying to make her laugh, either. Worry etched his beautiful golden face. His horns tipped down toward her as his chin buried itself in his hard chest so he could study her, figure out what went wrong. Help her. She knew he’d help her.
“Mitchel and my advisor are the people to whom I was referring.” She was so stiff, so formal, for no reason. Until she melted at a soft touch on her shoulder from her mate. Her stiff back and locked knees finally gave way.
Plutus caught her, of course, pulling her tight against his chest before twirling her around and half carrying her to the couch, where he sat her on his lap like a ventriloquist dummy.
She blinked up at him and he shoved a stray pink hair off her forehead and tucked it securely behind her ear. “Please, my E. Tell me what happened?”
It wasn’t a demand, but a question, and she knew he’d never demand anything from her.
Unless they were in bed. He wanted her to give herself, her life, to him.
Not force her to reveal herself. Not strong-arm trust from her.
He was sneaky, cheeky, pushy at times, but never forceful with her.
The least she could do was give the info he wanted right them.
She blurted it all out in a rush. Without pause.
Maybe without breathing or blinking, she couldn’t really tell.
A growl grew from Plutus’s chest with each detail.
It started low, a hum almost, but rumbled higher and higher until the final word.
Which might have been because her voice broke a little at the end and she visibly swallowed down the tears threatening to claw their way free.
She just couldn’t cry. Not then. Gods, she had too much to do to sleep, much less lose herself in tears.
She did have the time to lay a hand on his warm chest, uncovered in his favorite home attire of a Grecian robe.
The growl vibrated, a force against her hand, as she looked up into the green eyes she often saw filled with humor.
They were cocked in cold calculation just then.
Until he blinked rapidly, shook his head, and cleared his own throat, so he could speak.
“What’s your plan?”
“To prove them all wrong. To show them I can do whatever I need to do to succeed. Without being a bitch about it or sabotaging others. I’m going to do the damn thing, even if it means two weeks of sleepless nights. It will get done.”
Plutus gave a solemn nod, as if he expected nothing less from her. “What do you need from me, E: quiet support, solutions, or vengeance?”
She wanted to damn the god for making her teary-eyed with the question. Simple enough thing on its face, but they loudly signaled the man he was, the way he could push his initial reaction away to give her what she needed and wanted.
She knew he’d do the same, repeatedly, the rest of her life. If she’d let him. And in that moment she felt even more foolish about running out on him the other night.
Reaching up to caress his cheek, she watched, fascinated, as his clenched jaw flexed then smoothed at her touch.
A laugh slipped out at the idea this powerful god seemed to be putty in her hands, molten gold willing to form in whatever shape she needed.
She only needed his true shape, though, and she knew it with even more certainty after this little episode.
“Quiet support. With the addition of tasty food to fuel my long days. However, I reserve the right to call for mighty, godly vengeance later.”
“May I give the man a small taste of my wrath?”
“How small?”
“Nothing to mortally wound or maim, but enough to teach him a lesson he desperately needs?”
She didn’t want any smiting to happen on her account, but something smaller didn’t seem too off course for the jackass. E nodded, and a wide, wicked smile lit Plutus’s lips.
“Now, little one. Do you need any of your research materials from your apartment or do you have what you need with you? I can go get whatever you require. I’m also mid-roast so you’ll have work fuel soon enough.
I’ll leave details of the tiny smidge of vengeance for later, as a little treat for getting all your work completed.
Which I am fully confident you will do, in spectacular fashion. ”
During his little spiel, he set her off his lap and rose from the couch, ready to do whatever she required.
Ready to give her whatever she needed in this moment of crisis.
He towered over her, like he did the first night she met him when he’d crowded her against the exposed brick in her apartment, claws clamping on her neck and massive fangs exposed in a snarl.
She remembered the look, but for the life of her, she couldn’t imagine it now.
Not from this god. Not from her mate. Her love.
In absurd fashion, much like her life of late, she just blurted it out then, without preamble or forethought. “I love you.” It wasn’t a whisper, but a solid statement with weight and certainty.
“Oh, little one. My love.” He scooped her up for the second time in half an hour, smooshing her tight to him as she hovered off the ground.
He pulled his head back while still holding her close to his warm, somehow purring, chest. “You are my mate. Beyond that, you are the funniest, smartest, toughest woman I’ve known in my long life.
We are forever connected as mates, but I must say, fate chose well.
Because even if you were not my mate, I wouldn’t be able to help loving you fiercely. ”
Those tears threatening to fall broke free, but for a good reason.
She gave him her heart without thought, but if she’d thought about it, she would have fully expected this.
The acceptance of all she was with all he was.
He looked concerned then, wiping away her tears. “E? Are you okay? I apologize if–”
“Oh, kiss me, you silly god,” she said around a tear-filled laugh.
He wasted no time fulfilling her request, and she knew her life would always be this, from this moment forward. If he chose to stay with her, go with her. Because she couldn’t be in New York City anymore.
That final worry had to be pushed to the side, however. They could talk about it later. When she finished her thesis and defended the hell out of it. When he wasn’t kissing her with a hot, needy passion she wanted to meet.
He picked her up and she followed, wrapping her legs around his hips as they continued to kiss deep. Plutus carried them back to his bedroom with ease and laid her down gently in the middle of his bed, following her down but catching himself on his elbows so their lips finally broke apart.
One clawed hand came up and stroked her from forehead to chin before his forehead dipped down to meet hers. “There’s so much I feel, so much I want to say…”
“Sshhhh,” she said, moving to kiss his cheek. “The feelings are good enough. Words can come later.”
He pulled up, a bright smile on his lips, then gave her a kiss on the nose before he moved down her body, tossing every scrap of clothes she wore when he got to it.
Soon enough, she was naked before him, his mouth and tongue leaving hot trails up her legs until they hit her pussy.
She quivered as he paused there then cried out in bliss as his tensile tongue licked over her clit in gentle sweeps.
He nuzzled, licked, and sucked softly until she was a writhing mess. “Please,” she said between pants.
He moved up her body in answer, pausing only to roll to her side so he could undress at lightning speed.
“You have no need to beg, my E. No need for anything ever again.”
He nudged her legs apart with his own, dropping between her open thighs and hiking her knees up and over his hips. Then, he slid home, and she moaned loudly at the stretch and rub of him.
He moved with deliberate, controlled motions, the ebb and flow never increasing or decreasing, until the steadiness of it became almost too much for her to bear.
But she’d bear it, because he wanted her to.
Because he knew what her body needed, always.
Because she loved him and loved the way he made her body feel with his own.
Her pleasure climbed higher and higher, moving up a ladder until a rung snapped and she toppled fast and hard, crying out in Plutus’s ear as she did. He waited there to catch her, whispering “My love, my E,” as she calmed.
Only then did he keep moving, his pace more insistent as he chased not her pleasure but his own. She cooed to him, encouraged him, called him hers, as he found his own pleasure deep inside her.
His sweaty brow hit hers once again and she breathed deep the tarnished metal and smoky whiskey scent of him, loving the fact she also had that smell lingering on her now.
They kissed, sweet and languid, before he moved off to her side and simply held her until she needed to take care of herself.
Then he held her as they both rested, despite the other shit that’d happened to her that day.
With Plutus by her side, she could make it through.
She knew that, just as she knew she loved her mate.