by Nadia Aidan
After what had transpired in the bathroom, he’d vowed not to touch her intimately again. He couldn’t, because every time he did, he lost another piece of himself to her, another part of his soul.
His heart had always belonged to her, but his soul… He’d convinced himself he’d lost it to sin and depravity long ago. But, every time she touched him, she healed him and he swore he could feel his soul mending.
He didn’t deserve it—to have his ravaged soul healed. He didn’t deserve any of it. Not her touch, not her salvation. His life had been an endless wheel of suffering. He wasn’t even certain if he knew how to exist in the space of happiness. And that was what she offered. In the stolen moments when he was inside her body, she offered him salvation and happiness—neither of which he deserved. Neither of which he’d ever had. Both of which he would die without when she took them away.
His resolve was strong inside his head, but now she stood before him removing her clothes and he was weak once again.
“Selena…” He backed away from her, calling her name in warning, but she did not stop her advance upon him until his back was flush against the wall, and even then she didn’t stop until a mere inch separated them.
“Why do you fear touching me now, when you have not before?”
That was not true. He’d feared touching her from the very first moment. He’d feared what touching her would do to him. His fear had not been unwarranted.
“Someone is trying to kill us. It is best that we remain alert and vigilant.”
“Are we not safe within these walls?”
“We are not safe anywhere.”
She continued to remove her clothing until she wore nothing, his warning falling upon deaf ears.
“Do you think we will survive this ordeal?”
“I cannot answer that, Selena, because I do not know.”
She touched her palm to his torso, her eyes gentle. His breath stilled in his chest.
“If you died tomorrow, I would mourn you, Adonis, just as I would be grateful to you for showing me true passion. For giving me new memories to wash away the old ones, for taking my pain away and giving me pleasure. Would you deny me such pleasure, when your body desires this too?”
He sucked in a sharp breath when her hand began to wander, but he did not relent. “Three days ago you wanted to kill me. I do not believe that you would mourn my death.”
“Much has changed in three days.”
He captured her hand when it settled atop his thickening erection. “And much is still the same.”
“If I died tomorrow would you mourn me?”
His voice was ragged when he spoke, but he did not lie. “Of course I would.”
“I could die tomorrow, we both could, and yet we have tonight to celebrate that we are still alive.” She resumed her perusal of his body, and this time he did not stop her. “Do not deny us this, when you so desperately want it, just as desperately as I do.”
He closed his eyelids, shutting out her eyes that shimmered with desire, her cheeks that were flushed red, her full lips that glistened beneath the moonlight.
He could not have resisted her if he’d wanted to, been commanded to…even if his life had depended upon it. He’d never been able to deny her anything.
Tangling his hand in her hair, he pulled her close. “You will be the death of me,” he rasped just before he crushed his mouth to hers. She would be the death of him for so many reasons and in so many ways.
Adonis urgently kissed her with a fervour that shocked and scared her, but she did not retreat. She clasped his head within her hands and held him close, fusing their lips, melding their bodies together until nothing separated them.
She would be the death of him… That revelation had been wrenched from him, torn from his lips as if it had been ripped from his very soul. She understood such sweet agony, the torture of one’s mind and body warring for dominance, because she felt it to the core of her being.
She loved Adonis and hated him in the same breath. She understood why he’d resisted her touch—it was the feelings aroused when they were together like this, making him vulnerable… to her. She understood because she was equally vulnerable to him.
When they were together like this, one could almost imagine the past didn’t exist, that if they survived there was hope for a future. Such thoughts were foolish, but she was unable to stop them. Selena could not help but wonder—could two people so scarred by their joined past actually heal together and find happiness?
It was futile to think such things when her next breath wasn’t even promised and neither was his.
She’d come to him to kill him—the last thing she’d expected was that she’d regret or question her decision, but she did. Her hatred was wasteful and useless and it had consumed so much of her life—a life that could end at any moment.
If she died tomorrow, she would have experienced so few moments of happiness and joy. If she died tomorrow, her life would have been such a waste.
That was why she kissed him with her entire being, why she took his warm breath inside herself and absorbed his entire essence. If she died tomorrow or the next day or the day after, she would always have these stolen moments with the man who’d destroyed her life and had given it back to her in the same breath.
Their kiss seemed to go on for hours, days, though it could not have been for more than a few minutes. Each of them clung to the other, the solace of their bodies providing respite from the turmoil that was now their lives.
She drew away from him, ending their kiss, her chest heaving as she lost herself in swirling amber eyes that stared down at her as if she was the most beautiful, most desirable woman in the world.
Her heart skipped a beat at the look in Adonis’ eyes, his feelings so openly revealed in the golden beauty of his tawny gaze.
She wondered what he saw when he looked into her own eyes. The pleasure he invoked, the desires he fulfilled? Or did he see what she so desperately tried to hide from him, from herself—the look of a woman who sought love, and offered it in return. With death hovering all around them, she offered her heart, and demanded his in return. To lose her heart to a man she’d never stopped loving was a small price to pay when she could soon lose her life.
Selena twined her fingers with his and led him to the bed. His chest was bare, and he removed his pants, stepping out of them to kick them aside. No words were exchanged as he lay across the tousled bed, his golden body sparkling beneath the silver moonlight.
She straddled his torso, her hands lightly tracing the contours of his chest, her eyes meeting his. She bent down to kiss him, her lips gentle at first until he cupped the back of her head, deepening the kiss, his mouth searching, his tongue probing.
She abandoned herself to the pleasure he aroused inside her. The heat he awakened in her belly uncoiled to spread throughout her entire being. Her breasts were heavy with desire, her nipples almost painfully tight as the lips of her sex grew wetter, her tunnel slick. She could feel his cock hard and ready, nudging against the swells of her ass, gently teasing her flesh, and she reached behind her back to grasp him, stroking his length with her curled hand.
He groaned against her lips, and she drank in his pleasure and satisfaction. Tightening her hand, she pumped him faster until she felt a slick wetness along her fingers.
Pre-cum.
The metallic scent of his arousal tickled her nostrils, and she absorbed it, filling every part of herself with the essence of him.
His hands gripping her hips startled her, and she wrenched her lips from his, staring down into his flushed face.
“Get on it,” he croaked out.
The words came out as a harsh, needy command and her pussy clenched at the image his words conjured before her eyes—their bodies intertwined, her buttocks bouncing against him, her hips rolling as she took his shaft inside her cunt over and over again.
She pushed backwards at the same time he lifted her hips. He settled her atop him, her entrance poised a
gainst the tip of his cock.
In one smooth, fluid motion, he released her hips sending her sinking down upon him, inch by torturous inch. Her heat enveloped him. His cock stretched her. Groans poured from their lips in unison, their pleasure mingling, meshing together until their bodies were one and he was buried to the hilt inside her.
She felt so full of him, so stuffed, but even as she struggled to adjust to the thick length of his cock, she braced her palms against his chest and began to move. She rocked against him, slowly at first, her hips undulating in lazy circles until he was panting beneath her, his eyes hooded, his fingers digging into the tender skin along her hips.
His body radiated with unleashed power beneath her, his restraint wavering. Her own body sought the release he offered. She began to move in earnest then, impaling herself on his cock, taking him hard and deep until sweat poured from their skin.
Sin and sex hovered in the air, clinging to their bodies and the walls around them. Their lovemaking was wild and primitive, tinged with desperation. Gone was any hint of tenderness or restraint. The threat of death would do that.
Selena pumped her hips up and down, swallowing his shaft with each thrust. Her nails raked his chest, his nipples, and he gasped in pleasure and pain. Her wildness fuelled his, and he surged up into her, matching her strokes with driving, slamming thrusts of his own.
The sound of flesh slapping together echoed in the room. It was only drowned out by their sighs and groans, and the steady rocking of the headboard ricocheting against the wall. The bed squeaked and protested beneath them but they heard little else over the drumming of their hearts.
A gush of feminine wetness poured from Selena’s cunt, drenching his thrusting cock and Adonis sighed then groaned out his pleasure, sexual energy crackling and pulsing all around them.
Selena called his name as she quickened her pace, a toe-curling fire beginning to spread throughout her. Her orgasm hovered inside and all around her. She dug her nails deeper, clenching her sheath tighter until she shattered into tiny pieces, screaming his name in pleasure and sweet agony.
He joined her instantly, his head thrown back as he pushed up inside her, his hands imprisoning her hips as he pumped his seed into her waiting body on a deep, hoarse grunt. Adonis spurted inside her as if he had not come in ages, filling her, scorching her.
The essence of their climaxes came together in a harmonious blending of pleasure until it overflowed her body and trickled from her.
As she settled into the afterglow of her pleasure, her strength seeping from her, she slumped against him, completely boneless. Their breath was stilted, their heartbeats hammering in unison. It was a long time before their bodies recovered and either of them could move.
Still joined, Adonis rolled them over so that they lay face to face, while one of her legs remained draped over his hip and the other trapped beneath him. She ignored the slight discomfort of his weight, holding him close to kiss him gently.
It was an oddly tender moment, given the brutal intensity of their lovemaking that had claimed them only moments ago. She’d thought her heart was frozen—that she could never, would never love again, and certainly not this man—but she felt it beginning to thaw as he steadily chipped away the ice surrounding it, with his tenderness, his compassion…his vulnerability. Adonis the man, the god, he was not who he seemed. He was deeper, far more complex than she ever could have imagined.
Adonis’ eyes darkened and the air around them shifted. She gasped when he brought their bodies closer, his manhood stiffening inside her.
Her eyes rounded in surprise, conveying her thought—she could not imagine he had already recovered, that his body craved her again—but when he pulled her head towards him and claimed her lips, she surmised that it did.
The position made his strokes shallow and this time their lovemaking was slow, languorous. He ignited a fire of pleasure inside them, slowly building it, stoking it until sexual heat danced all around her, and she welcomed his thrusts with the gift of her slippery, wet heat.
His shallow thrusts drove her crazy, made her wild until she begged for more. Her body needed more. Adonis rolled her beneath him then, covering her body with his and she gasped in pleasure when he drove home, hot and hard, giving her everything she’d clamoured for.
His strokes were still slow, his pace unhurried. Their bodies, which had just been sated, relished the languid rhythm of his lovemaking. Selena savoured his tender thrusts, the gentle caresses of his chest against hers—brushing her nipples with each stroke—the teasing slide of his fingers against her bare thighs as he ploughed deep inside her.
Her hands took their time exploring his body as well. With her fingertips, she traced every sinew of muscle in his chest, his shoulders, his arms. Every touch drew from him a soft sigh or a sharp gasp. When she twisted the flat nubs of his nipples between her fingers he let out a deep, hoarse groan. She teased him, taunting him with her touch. He did the same with the slow slide of his cock inside her pussy.
It was a long while before the slow burning fire inside her began to leap and rage out of control, and when she felt her orgasm coiling at the core of her sex, she welcomed the dull throb of release. This time her climax came on a furling wave of sensuous pleasure as her tunnel clenched with tiny flutters all around his stroking shaft.
The tight fist of her cunt surrounding him dragged Adonis with her, and he orgasmed on a deep groan, his face buried against the crook of her neck as he shuddered then shot a stream of warmth against the entrance to her womb.
They were both boneless by the time he collapsed atop her—their bodies weary, but pleasantly so. They held each other, their limbs entwined. The intimacy of the moment was not lost on either of them and they clung together in silence, not wanting to sever the fragile bond that was steadily building between them, growing stronger with every gesture of trust and tenderness. Neither wanted to speak for fear of breaking the spell.
But nothing lasts forever—neither pleasure, nor pain.
A door slammed and footsteps echoing against hardwood floors brought a swift end to the intimacy of the moment.
The initial fear that there was an intruder eased upon recognition of the familiar, steady, confident rhythm of booted feet striking the floor.
Ares had finally returned.
Chapter Ten
Selena soon discovered where Ares had disappeared to and to whom he’d spoken when almost as soon as he returned home he began calling her name along with Adonis’.
They exchanged a curious glance as they hurriedly pulled on their clothes. They were just walking into the adjacent sitting area when Ares barrelled into the room.
His eyes locked on her, deadly and intense. She barely had a moment to secure the belt of her robe before he was upon her, his hand imprisoning her neck as he slammed her into the wall.
She struck out with her fists to his face, then her knee into his groin, but he was relentless. In the distance she heard Adonis calling his name, she saw him trying to pull his brother off her, but Ares was ruthless.
“I visited your brother this evening. And do you know what he told me?” Ares snarled at her.
She could barely breathe, let alone talk, so she remained silent, imprisoned within his grip against the wall.
“Let her go!” Adonis boomed, his voice reverberating through the room. It must have registered somewhere in Ares’ mind because he did just that, and she could breathe again, but he still crowded her, as if he half expected her to attack him.
“What is wrong with you?” Adonis demanded. “Attacking Selena like that?”
“Tell him why I attacked you, why I trust you even less than I did before.”
She looked at Adonis, then at Ares, then back at Adonis. He must have seen it in her eyes…or did he smell it in the air?
Betrayal was a funny thing—it was the only emotion that could wound deeper than heartbreak. He’d broken her heart and now she’d betrayed his trust.
She looked back at
Ares because she could no longer bear to look into Adonis’ eyes—the eyes of her past. He’d bared his soul to her and she’d done nothing but lie to him.
Selena had underestimated Ares. She had not seen this coming.
With a sigh, she revealed the truth, or at least what she was prepared to reveal…for now. “That you visited my brother, I believe. That he told you anything, I highly doubt. Jarrod has his own agenda, consistent with mine. To reveal it to you would not be in his best interests, which is why I know you must have put the pieces of the puzzle together on your own—or at least what you think is the puzzle. What did you find, Ares, that gave me away?”
“Correspondence between the two of you in his office. To your credit, the messages were cryptic and brief, but it contained enough for me to realise that you’d lied about not knowing Jarrod and that he was your accomplice in something. The rest I figured out on my own.”
“You think you’ve figured it out.” Her smile was slight. “But I assure you this game is bigger than all of us combined.”
Ares’ gaze turned menacing. “Tell me your role in this now or I will kill you myself.”
“Killing me will change nothing. My death will not stop what must happen. But as to my role in all of this?” She cocked her head to the side, wondering how best to proceed. She could not tell the entire truth, but neither could she keep all of her secrets. Ares surely wished her gone because of her deceit, but Selena still needed something from them. And because she still needed them, she needed them to believe she was not a threat, even if they could not trust her. “Well, it is simple,” she said finally.
“You were right, Adonis,” she admitted, although she did not look at him. She still couldn’t. “The money is just a foil. Not even that. It is simply a diversion.” She kept her eyes trained on Ares as she spoke. “As you already know, sixteen years ago Woodward orchestrated the events of that night where Adonis was forced to ruin me and then humiliate me. I always knew my father was behind it, from the very beginning. After what happened, he disowned me and petitioned the courts to have me cloistered in that convent where I was a prisoner. I could not leave. For many years I was trapped there under the watchful attention of nuns who thought they were protecting me. I’ve always known of Woodward’s involvement. What you don’t know is why he would do such a thing.”