The rest of the space was windows and city, and I dared anyone to peer into this room, which took up the top floor of the highest building in Manhattan.
I dropped to my knees, enjoying her shriek of surprise. When I lay on top of her, I reached between us and grabbed her crystal necklace. Tugging it overhead, I enjoyed the glow she bathed me in.
“I swear, you’re weird,” she grumbled. “Most guys go for the bra, not the necklace.”
“I’m not most men,” I teased.
She snickered, then cut a look behind me and snickered some more. I arched back to see what was so funny and had to smile—Achilles had made an appearance, in a pair of black aviator shades.
“That obvious, isn’t he?” she teased, laughing when he began to strip until he was bare save for the sunglasses.
I reached down and began to press kisses to her gleaming throat. She was like a bolt of pure light and it made me even harder than her sexy form, her lush tits, and shapely ass combined. The energy in her called to me, and for once in my life, I felt like I’d met an equal.
In the grand scheme of things, she wasn’t, I supposed. She was no Goddess, but she was the consort of a God, and that mattered in my world.
Her power called to me and that was all that counted.
I slipped my tongue along the lines in her throat, enjoying how she writhed against me, her hips jerking up as I found a particularly sensitive spot.
But this wasn’t about me.
I knew Achilles hadn’t properly claimed her yet, and this was the first time we’d made a sexual advance after she’d awoken from the healing sleep I’d placed her in. It was time, but I just needed a little taste to see me through the famine.
When I sucked down, her hands clutched at me, and she wriggled, her core pushing against my hard dick with a need that more than matched my own.
I only pulled back once I’d marked her. Only when she was panting, did I roll off her.
She mewled and reached for me, but Achilles was there, and he was naked and hard. I could almost see how her tongue cleaved to the roof of her mouth, and I wasn’t surprised. Achilles was delicious, after all. His body was like a sculptor’s wet dream, all taut and tanned, rippling with muscle, with life.
She reached out for him, and he came to her, but he didn’t haul her close as I had. Instead, he began to draw her tee overhead, then went to work on lowering the short, flirty skirt she wore that danced around her thighs when she moved.
When she wore nothing save for her underwear, he stared at her a second, his hand resting on her belly the only point of connection between them.
From my new location at the head of the bed where I watched from a short distance, I saw the muscles in his throat work as he swallowed, processing the sweet sight of our woman.
“Achilles?” she whispered. “Is everything okay?”
“I never imagined you’d be this beautiful.”
Her brows rose. “If anyone never imagined anything, it’s me, Achilles. You’re all so much more than I ever anticipated. I’m not even sure if I deserve you,” she finished on a low whisper.
Perhaps she’d hoped for reassurance, but she’d gone to the wrong guardian for that. Achilles snorted and said, “You don’t deserve us, Ella. We’re not good enough for you. But we will try our best to be everything you need.”
She’d stiffened at his initial words, but by the end she was smiling softly at him, and she reached for his free hand, making a bridge with their fingers.
“I need you,” she crooned, and I watched his nostrils flare as he sucked down a sharp breath.
“I need you, too, tín eaftoú gynaíka. More than you could ever know.”
“Show me, then. Please?”
He sucked down a sharp breath, raised their joined fingers to his lips and kissed her knuckles before untangling himself from their clasp. With short, brisk movements, he unfastened her bra, then dragged down her panties until she was as naked as he—well, save the glasses.
When she let her legs fall apart, he stared at the folds of her sex like a man who was being welcomed home for the first time in too long, and maybe that was exactly how Achilles felt. Maybe he felt as though he’d been looking onto heaven’s gates while never being allowed in.
I bit my lip, wondering what he’d do next, and he didn’t surprise me when he kept things as brisk as I’d anticipated.
Achilles was a soldier.
He wasn’t soft.
He didn’t languish caresses and soft kisses on his women. I’d seen him fuck too many not to know his style, but I’d hoped things would be different for our woman.
Even as I knew that Castor would take care of her after if I called for him, I watched on, faintly disappointed, as he pressed his cock against her pussy. He didn’t attempt to slip it inside her though, just rested it there then dropped down, pressing his forearms on either side of her head, and joining their mouths.
It was a soft kiss at first. A gentle peck, a tender nip of her bottom lip. Then, her mouth opened, and things changed. His tongue thrust inside, but she didn’t let him fuck her mouth, hers fought back. Harder, faster, until they were both panting, until their hands gripped at each other’s waists, until her nails were digging into his back, until his were clutching at her hair, angling her head just so.
It was the hottest kiss I’d ever seen, and in my years, I’d seen plenty.
Nothing else could induce me to reach down, unzip my fly, and grab my cock. The surge of desire hadn’t abated from before when I’d hauled her in here, but my control was like iron—I did nothing unless I so chose. Except now. The sight of them mauling each other in a mutual craving, as though they were both starving and only the other could provide the exquisite sustenance they needed, had my fist clamping down on my shaft.
My abdomen tensed as I watched Ella grip a tight hold of Achilles, her legs coming up to drag him where she needed him. I watched her rub herself against him in a way that told me she was dragging his cock against her clit, using him like men had used women since the beginning of time.
The sight filled me with liquid heat, and I was grateful for her confidence, grateful because Achilles growled then jerked back. He was flushed, his body hot, hard, and heaving. His cock jolted in time to his pulse, and there was pre-cum dripping from his shaft as he grabbed it, then with one arm holding him up, pressed the tip to her lips and began the long slide home.
Her legs had clung to him before he entered her, but now, with each thrust that joined them, she hauled him tighter, closer. Her body was quivering as she accepted every inch, and Achilles took advantage. He dropped his head and with one hand, gathered one of her tits and slurped her nipple into his mouth. Sucking down over half of her breast, I watched as she ran her hands into his hair and dragged him against her, holding him close, not letting him go, not even letting him move—not from the way her thighs kept him tightly pressed to her. No room for any maneuvering at all.
His teeth bit down with enough roughness to make me wince, but Ella seemed to flourish. Her cry sounded joyful, effervescent, and her glow seemed to falter for a millisecond before burning brighter than before.
A gasp escaped him, and whatever she’d done, had his head flinging back, his throat cording with tension as he rolled with it, processed it, tried not to explode.
For a second, I wasn’t sure who’d win that particular round, then he released a growl, grabbed her hands and pinned them over her head.
The Achilles of before came out to play then.
He fucked her.
Short, hard thrusts that had the futon bed shuddering under his power. The way he pinned her down, though, kept her head from shaking, and the intensity of his stare as he maintained his focus on her, had her shuddering in his hold. I watched tears trail down the sides of her face, watched as she began to shake her head, a litany of, “Oh my God, oh my God,” escaping her in a dazed drone that she didn’t seem to realize she was even saying.
I tightened my fist abou
t my cock as I sped up, needing the extra friction, needing to come as they did, when they did. I tilted my hips to the side so I’d come on the sheets and not on my suit, then I saw her panties that Achilles had tossed on the bed in his haste to denude her, and I grinned as I grabbed them then wrapped them around my cock.
In time to his earth-shattering thrusts, I stroked myself, and when she released a high-pitched mewl, her ‘glow’ shuddering as hard as she was, and Achilles released a roar that had my ears ringing, I came. The relief was instantaneous, but what helped the most was the knowledge that the bond between my wife and my guardian was fixed into place.
It was like a gentle hug after a shitty day—well, a gentle hug from Ella, that is. I’d never appreciated hugs before her, but from my wife? That was another matter entirely. And even as I felt the sun sputter in response to their union, I forced it to simmer down, refusing to allow anything, even that mighty power, to ruin this moment for my woman.
❖
Castor
“I thought other Gods couldn’t share your territory?” Ella asked.
“One of the twelve Gods of Olympus,” Apollo explained to our wife as she wandered around the large crystal store.
The walls were dark, but there were muted lamps dotted all around the storefront and they brought out the individual facets on what had to be over ten thousand crystals.
I’d never seen as many in my life. Small and large, wide and thin. Everything from clear to rainbow in hues.
It was a beautiful space, and with Ella having removed her crystal necklace, the ones in the store were glinting like a rainbow had just landed in here to illuminate them all.
“Because you’re like the council of all the Gods, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I thought she googled us?”
I shot Lux a look. “She did. But even I get confused sometimes.”
He rolled his eyes at me. “You can pretend to be the dumb jock with everyone else, brother, but not me.”
Ignoring him, I folded my arms across my chest as I watched Ella trace her fingers over the myriad stones in the store. She smoothed her thumb over ones shaped like eggs, then rubbed the craggy geodes that came as nature intended. Her touch was bizarrely sensual and I was already rocking a hard-on after I’d felt her, Apollo, and Achilles climax earlier.
“So, other, lesser Gods can move around freely? That doesn’t seem fair.”
“The price of power, agape mou,” Apollo said gruffly, and I knew the way she was touching the stones was affecting him. What couldn’t be helping was the way she was glowing too—he hadn’t said anything, but I had a feeling that the light she emitted worked on him like a porn magazine would on a horny fifteen-year-old boy.
“Do you keep tabs on the Gods in your area?”
He shrugged, but his eyes were glued to her fingers. “No.”
“We do,” Lux butted in, shooting Apollo a look, “on his behalf.”
She hummed at that, then when a soft chime sounded in the background, she turned toward the gentle noise, as did the rest of us.
When Hecate appeared, there was a muted light surrounding her. Like that of the moon. I’d never seen that before and it wasn’t the first time I’d met her…
What was that about?
Concerned, I looked at Pollux to see if he was seeing what I was, and from his frown, I knew he was.
Apollo strode forward, his hand held out for Hecate’s. She accepted it, her fingers sliding around his palm, over his wrist, and coming to clasp his forearm, as was a God’s way of greeting someone they respected.
“It is good to see you again, Hecate.”
“Indeed, Apollo, it has been many years.”
He tilted his head to the side. “I’m certain that you weren’t glowing the last time we met.”
Her lips curved. “No. I can feel one of my own’s presence. That is calling to my energy. If I hadn’t been on the phone when you arrived, I’d have come straight away. I can tell a child of my line is here.”
The truth was, I was surprised as shit that she’d admit to having a line, period. Hecate had been known as the virgin Goddess, as was the way with Artemis, and though I’d teased about them getting down and dirty with each other, it was a huge admission to make… Talk about living a secret life since forever.
She peered around Apollo, an eagerness to her movements that stunned me even more. “Where is she?”
“You can tell it’s a girl?”
Hecate tutted. “Of course.” She moved away from him, apparently discontent with his lack of haste, and headed toward Ella whose own glow seemed to shimmer ever brighter.
At the sight, Hecate faltered. “My, my, your power is very strong, little one.”
Ella bit her lip. “Things are a little complicated.”
Hecate tilted her head to the side. “Indeed. You may call me Dam, child.”
“Damn?” Ella’s brow puckered and she shot me a look.
“D-A-M, like a mother, Ella,” I reassured her, and she bit her lip as she nodded.
“Yes, Dam. Things are a little complicated.”
“How? Explain?”
Apollo strode toward Ella and, slipping an arm around her waist, did as Hecate had asked.
By the time he’d explained that Ella was inhabiting someone else’s body, Hecate’s mouth had begun gaping. Then when he informed her that Ella and Cindy came from two separate, discordant lines, Hecate began bustling around the store. She was still listening, but her movements were brisk and to the point as she ran her hands over the crystals in a way that reminded me of Ella’s touch.
It wasn’t like how I’d touch a stone. Theirs was a caress.
“I take it word has spread about Hades gaining a wife?”
“Indeed. Ours is a small community. He was the first, you are the second. I wonder who shall be the third?” Hecate asked, but her voice was distant, her focus elsewhere.
A sudden squeak and a bark had me jerking, even though I’d known to expect Hecate’s constant companions—her familiars. She had a polecat that was a nasty bitch—a witch named Gale that had been transformed into the creature as punishment—and a black dog—Hekuba, an ancient queen, who had been forced to transmogrify into the beast as means of castigation. Where familiars were concerned, she hadn’t exactly gotten the friendliest in the world.
As the two creatures scampered into the store, they came to a braking halt in front of Ella. The polecat pissed on the floor, a move that had Hecate tutting, clicking her fingers so that the liquid was cleaned away within nary a blink of an eye, and the dog began sniffing around Ella like she was a treat the canine wished to chow down on.
“Fear them not, daughter. They’re only curious. Your scent is unusual.”
Ella shot Apollo a look. “It is?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I’m accustomed to the tang.”
“The tang?” she demanded with a squeak. “I stink?”
Hecate’s laugh was amused. “No, child. No. It is unusual for you scent of the night and of the day. To creatures as simple as my familiars, that is unnatural.”
Ella huffed. “Great.”
My lips curved and at my side, Achilles snickered. He was so happy, it was getting weird. The dude needed to get laid more often if it made him smile this much.
More of the Goddess’ laughter tinkled from her and we watched as she returned to Ella’s side, her hands filled with crystals.
“If I’m so weird, why aren’t you perturbed?”
Hecate’s smile was wicked. “When you have lived as long as I have, child, weird is infinitely delicious.”
Ella scowled then grunted, “You’re all crazy.”
“You say that rutilated quartz helps dampen the glow?” Hecate asked Apollo, ignoring our wife’s slur—Ella needed to learn to watch her tongue, I thought with a wry sigh.
“If it’s in contact with her skin.”
She hummed. “I understand. Now, if that’s the case, w
e have an issue. Crystals can be charged in the sun. They will also fade under its strong rays, and they can become brittle and damaged.
“With as much power as you put out, that will happen swiftly.” She shot Apollo a look. “I’d start buying out stocks of garnet, tiger's eye, citrine, carnelian, and of course, sunstone.”
He cut me a look. “Castor?”
“On it.” I picked up my cell and began sourcing the five stones Hecate had listed.
“Another issue aside from burning them out as happened when you dealt with the solar storm, although I doubt you’ll experience anything like that again—claiming a mate is a unique moment in time. The only thing that could trigger something of that nature is the birth of a child.
“Until such a time occurs, you will have the opportunity to shield yourself with crystals, and when you do expect to give birth, I will gladly be present to help with the midwifery.” She reached out and squeezed Ella’s hand, a giddy excitement about her that had me staring at Achilles uneasily.
“I don’t think I’m ready to have a kid,” Ella mumbled, as uneasy as I.
“No, of course not, but when you are, yours could be one of the first new Gods to roam this world as it is today.” She beamed at Ella. “It is an exciting time to be alive.”
Ella cleared her throat. “Yeah, I guess.”
“But I digress, the output of your energy is so immense that you may find you react to certain crystals in a way that could be disconcerting.” She reached for a pendant of tiger’s eye. “This combines earth and sun energy, and is a stone of balance. You will find that it aids you, as it did Achilles and his ilk once upon a time, for ancient warriors wore it for strength and good luck. But for you, you may find that it gives you more courage than is wise, and it may spur you on, motivate you in an area where you were lacking, for example.” She hummed under her breath. “Have you noticed no changes with the rutilated quartz?”
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 28