“So love is obligatory?”
“Not exactly. I mean… yes, it is, but it’s not.”
She rubbed at her forehead. “I don’t comprehend this.”
Aricles pondered it for a moment. “Love obligates you because you want to take care of the person who holds your heart. Their happiness and well-being mean much more to you than your own. So yes, but it’s not truly obligatory, because you don’t really have to take care of them. It’s your own desire that makes you feel such.”
“Ah… that makes sense.”
“And,” he continued, “when they’re gone from you, it’s a harsh loss that haunts and saddens you. All you want is to see them smile. To watch joy light up their face, and to be with them.”
Bathymaas nodded. “I think I understand now.” It was how she felt about him. She didn’t like to see him struck in practice, and when he bled, it caused pain to her chest. Like now… she was still concerned with the fact that he was bulging when she’d never known him to do that before.
And the thought of him hurting…
It, too, gave her a pain in her chest.
She lowered her gaze to his groin. “Why are you not bound today?”
The color returned to mottle his cheeks. It was so adorable and sweet that it somehow made her want to touch them and ease his embarrassment. “I was injured in practice and didn’t want to risk reopening the wound with the binding.”
She gasped. “Where were you hurt?”
“Across my hip.”
Aricles caught her hand as she reached to see it. His breathing ragged, he stared at her with a pain-filled expression. “Please, goddess. I’m hard enough already. If you touch me there… it’ll only be worse for me.”
“My touch hurts you?”
He nodded.
“Then why do you spend time with me?”
He smiled at her as he let go of her wrist. “Because the pleasure of your company is worth the pain it causes me.”
That made no sense to her whatsoever. “I cannot comprehend mortal emotions. How can any pleasure be worth pain?”
“It just is.”
The fact that he was willing to suffer to be in her presence brought a strange sensation to her stomach. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it compelled her to lift her hand and lightly brush her fingers against his lips again. “Will you kiss me, Aricles, so that I can see why people do it?”
He expelled a long breath and the light faded from his eyes. “I would love to, my lady. But I fear I’ve never kissed anyone like that. I’m sure I would bungle it.”
“I wouldn’t know if you did since I’ve never had a kiss either. And even though you might bungle it, I still think I’d like to see what the fuss is about. Are you not curious, Ari?”
Aricles felt his heart pound at her question. He was more than curious about how her lips would taste. But he was also a bit scared.
Who are you to question a goddess?
He was her servant and her warrior…
Still unsure, he gently laid his hand against her cheek and stroked her lips with his thumb. “Are you certain you want me to do this?”
She nodded.
Ever so slowly, he lowered his lips to hers. The moment he tasted her, his entire body erupted with a heat so high that it made his past attractions to other women seem mild and insignificant. He shook all over as images of making love to Bathymaas tormented him. He would give anything to hold her like that, but he knew it could never be and he was lucky she’d allowed him this much.
Bathymaas wasn’t sure what to expect, but as his tongue swept across hers and his scent filled her head, something inside her splintered. Her breathing intensified even more… as did his. She felt his heart pounding against her hand. Strong and powerful.
Like him.
He was so hard and fierce, except for his lips that were soft and gentle. And in spite of his inexperience, his kiss was wonderful and it did the oddest things to her body. Made her throb and ache.
Aricles’s head spun at the taste of Bathymaas. In all his fantasies, he’d never dreamed a kiss could be so sweet. His body roared to life, making demands on him the likes of which he’d never felt before. It took every ounce of self-control he had to placate himself with just this tiny part of her.
Pulling back, he stared down at her beautiful face.
She opened her eyes and for the first time, he saw real emotion in those golden depths. Her eyes flared before she cupped his head in her hands and pulled him back for another sizzling kiss.
Bathymaas knew she should release him. It would be the smart thing to do, and yet…
She wanted to possess him in a way she couldn’t comprehend. More than that, she wanted to push him back and straddle him. To run her hands all over his body, and she had no idea why. While she’d occasionally seen animals have sex, she’d never really thought about it. It was what they did to have offspring.
But right now, she wanted him inside her. It was as if her body starved for him the way her stomach craved food.
And she had no idea why.
Did he feel that, too?
Forcing herself to withdraw, she tried to steady her breathing as she looked up at him from beneath her lashes. “Is this emotion, Aricles?”
“It is for me, goddess.”
“What do you feel?”
“Hunger, my lady. Possessiveness. Tenderness.” Love. But he didn’t dare say that out loud. He’d already made that mistake with a woman. “Most of all, protective and caring.”
Bathymaas looked down at her arms and the strange bumps that always came to her whenever he was near. “What are these?”
“Chills.”
She ran her hand over his biceps. “You have them, too. Do you also want to touch me?”
“I do, my lady.”
“And yet you don’t.”
“I told you I wouldn’t dishonor you. I would sooner die than cause you any harm.”
Her vision clouded and her throat tightened as he spoke. She blinked several times, but instead of getting clearer, her vision worsened and something wet fell down her cheeks. “What is this? Am I going blind?”
With a tender expression, he lifted his hand and gently brushed his thumb against her face. “They’re called tears.”
“Why do I have them?”
He tenderly dried her cheeks. “Whenever something hurts inside you or something touches your heart they can manifest unexpectedly.”
Frowning, she looked down and lifted the Egyptian amulet from between her breasts. “But my heart is here. Nothing has touched it.”
Biting back a smile at her innocence, Aricles placed a single finger between her breasts. “No, my lady, your heart is in here.” But as he spoke the words, he realized she didn’t have a heartbeat. He scowled.
She held her amulet out to him. “I’m not like you, Ari. When I was a child, I discovered that those who are born to mothers have hearts and heartbeats and that I do not. I asked my father about it and he gave me this amulet and said that it contains his heart that he lost to me the moment I was created. He said it holds his love for me and that even though I’d never understand what love is, that so long as I wore my amulet, I’d have a piece of him with me to keep me safe in his absence. This is my heart.” Her frown deepened at the happy expression that brightened his face. “Why do you smile like that?”
“Because you now have two hearts, my lady. Your father’s and mine.”
She still didn’t understand what he meant. Placing her hand to his chest, she felt his heart beating. “Yours is like my father’s. Strong.”
“Even so, hearts are fragile and easily broken.”
“How?”
“It doesn’t take much. When you love someone, a single tear,” he wiped away another of hers, “or frown can shatter a heart. And if something happens to the one you’ve given your heart to, their loss can break it into so many pieces that it never heals again.”
Her jaw went slack. “Then it’s a go
od thing you gave yours to me to keep. For I can never die or be harmed.”
His smile widened. “I am lucky, indeed.”
“And this physical side of love… is it important?”
“No. Love can endure without it.”
“Are you sure?”
Aricles nodded as he brushed back a piece of hair from her face. He knew that they would never be physically intimate, and while a part of him craved that experience, he loved her enough to not ask for something he knew he couldn’t have. Something he wasn’t worthy of. But at the same time, the thought of not sharing these quiet afternoons alone with her, of not having her drill him with random odd and embarrassing questions, hurt more than he could bear. “I am.”
Suddenly, she pulled her amulet off and placed it around his neck. The stone amulet was still warm from her body temperature. “What are you doing?”
She placed her hand over it. “You gave me your heart. It’s only fair that I give you mine.”
He smiled at her precious and innocent sweetness that touched him all the way to his soul. “It doesn’t work like that, my lady. Love isn’t about fairness. It’s about emotion.”
“You are about emotion. I’m about fairness.” She patted her necklace. “This is fair. I don’t need two hearts and you can’t live without one. So I have yours and you have mine.”
And he would never treasure anything more. He placed his hand over hers and reveled in the inner beauty that was his goddess. “Thank you, my lady.”
Bathymaas inclined her head to him as she stared at their joined hands. For the first time, she was beginning to understand why people did the strange things they did.
Not for themselves, but for others.
As she’d told Ari, she couldn’t be hurt or killed. But that wasn’t true of him. And the more she thought about something happening to him, the more her chest tightened. The harder it was to breathe. Even without asking, she knew this was physical pain. Something she should be completely ignorant of.
Yet that was no longer true.
Somehow, they had exchanged hearts, and if anything ever happened to Ari…
She honestly feared what she might do. When her father had given her a heart, he’d never said what would happen should it break or shatter. All her life, she’d kept it safe. But now that Ari had it, she could no longer keep it from getting hurt.
Most of all, she couldn’t keep him from harm.
“Be careful for me, Ari.”
“Always, my goddess. You are the very air I breathe.”
Warmth spread through her at those words. For some reason, they were important to her.
Just like him.
August 23, 12,251 BC
As soon as they dismounted in the small town nearest the cottage where they’d been born, Galen pulled Aricles to the side so that he could whisper while Bathymaas looked about at the people who called Didimosia home. “Why is the goddess with us?”
“She wanted to see a wedding.”
Glancing back to where she waited with their horses, Galen grimaced. “She makes me nervous.”
Aricles smiled at his brother. “Relax. She won’t harm you.” He clapped his hand against Galen’s shoulder then returned to the woman he loved and adored.
Dressed in the finest white silk, she was beauty incarnate and looked extremely out of place in the mortal realm. For his brother’s wedding, he and Galen were dressed in their best chitons and chlamyses. But compared to her, they looked like the rubes Galen accused them of being.
Her ethereal gaze swept his body, making him even harder than he’d been. “Ari… It is so strange to see you in clothing.”
Aricles blushed as several people turned to stare at them with great curiosity.
Bathymaas frowned as she noted their reactions. “Did I say something inappropriate?”
“No, my lady. They thought something inappropriate.”
To his shock, her cheeks darkened. “Is this embarrassment?” she whispered to him.
“Do you want to fall into a hole where no one can see you, and take back your words?”
She nodded vigorously.
“Then yes, my lady. That is embarrassment.”
The most adorable scowl contorted her beautiful features. She leaned closer to whisper in his ear. “I don’t like this emotion, Ari.”
“Most people don’t.”
“How does one cope with it?”
“We keep our chins up and carry on with as much pride as we can manage.” He took her hand and placed it in the crook of his elbow so that he could lead her toward the local gathering hall his father had rented out for Perseus’s wedding feast.
Running ahead of them, Galen went in first, with his arms raised. “The party may commence! The most important person is now in attendance.” He grabbed Walla, one of the girls they’d grown up with, and carried her to a corner where the wine was kept.
Bathymaas arched a brow at Aricles over Galen’s words and actions. “Should I ask?”
“Mental defect from when I threw him out of our crib for stealing my rattle. We usually overlook it.”
Bathymaas laughed then froze… as did Aricles. Eyes wide, she swallowed audibly. “I found that funny.”
He smiled at her. “You have a most beautiful laugh.”
And that made her smile.
Realizing what she’d done, she quickly squelched it. Panic gripped her and that, too, made her panic all the more. As Lilliana had done with Caleb, Aricles had changed her. Greatly. He was so unlike anyone she’d ever known. So sweet and gentle.
Kind.
And the more he explained emotions to her, the more she knew she felt them. Especially whenever he was around.
But she would have to be more careful lest someone else realize that she was no longer without emotion. As the goddess of justice, she should never have experienced them. Ever. How could she be impartial or just with emotions clouding her judgment?
And yet, she liked what Aricles made her feel.
All of it.
Steeling her expressions, she allowed him to lead her to his father and introduce them. A much older and thinner version of the twins, he wasn’t quite as tall, but still she could tell where Aricles and Galen had inherited their good looks.
He offered her a kind smile. “So you’re the goddess who stole my boys from me. I can see now why they didn’t hesitate to follow you.” He gave her a quick wink. “Were I a hundred years younger, I’d have gladly followed you, too.”
She inclined her head to him. “Thank you, Master Praxis.”
“You made it!”
She turned at the happy male voice to see a shorter, younger version of Aricles and Galen. All the men in their family seemed to be virtual copies of each other. Same rabidly blue eyes and reddish-brown hair…
Same handsome smiles.
Aricles hugged his younger brother then introduced them.
Perseus bowed proudly. “My wife and I are honored by your attendance, goddess. Thank you for allowing my brothers to come. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.”
She glanced to Aricles, who was more like a father to Perseus than Praxis was. “I don’t think I could have kept them away… even with my powers. They are terribly devoted to you and your father.”
Blushing, Perseus ran back to his petite blond bride, who was as obviously in love with him as he was with her. Bathymaas watched as they embraced and he kissed her with the same amount of passion she’d felt when she kissed Aricles.
Suddenly breathless, she glanced at Ari and felt the peculiar wave of heat surge through her body that always hit her whenever she looked his way. In her mind, she imagined being the bride and Aricles running up to her with the same exuberance.
“Are you all right, my goddess?”
The concern in his voice made her weak in the knees. “I’m fine, Ari.”
He handed her a kylix of watered-down wine.
While Aricles spoke to his father, she wandered about the room, list
ening to people and watching how they acted and interacted. People had always fascinated her. They were so incongruous and unpredictable.
So very odd.
The music was lovely, and those who danced did so with carefree, happy abandon. It was only then that she realized Aricles never partook of such frivolous behavior. Unlike Galen, who hoisted a woman over his shoulder and twirled about with her while drinking from a silver kylix, Aricles was forever rigid and dignified. Controlled.
Circumspect.
He’d told her that it stemmed from the year his mother had died, when he was eight. Perseus had been just a toddler, and their father had been so distraught that he’d been unable to function without his wife. For two months straight, his father had lain in bed with drink, rising only to attend the most basic of bodily functions. All the upkeep for their farm, servants, and family had fallen to Ari’s young shoulders. His father had given him no chance to grieve himself for his mother while he took care of his brothers, but rather had thrown him into adulthood far too soon. And then when his grandfather had taken ill two years later, he’d been sent to care for him and his farm until his grandfather had died.
Barely twelve years old, Aricles had been alone with his grandfather when the man had taken his last breath. And all the funeral preparations had fallen to him, too.
It wasn’t until now that she fully understood what the loss of his childhood had meant for him. Other men his age were laughing and groping at the women around them. Dancing and singing with unfettered joy. They leaned up against others without thought or concern.
Like Galen.
Meanwhile, Ari stood sober and somber.
Except for when they were alone. Then he could be giddy and sweet. His eyes would light up with life and he’d jest with her as he helped her to understand humor and human ways.
As if sensing her saddened mood, Aricles started for her then was diverted by a small girl who was trying to reach for bread on the table. With a kind smile, he picked her up and helped her to get it then returned her to her feet.
The girl’s mother joined them and thanked him before she led her daughter away. Bathymaas stared at the woman’s distended belly. It was obvious she was about to have another child, maybe even tonight. She’d never paid attention to pregnant women before.
Dark Bites (Dark-Hunter World) Page 4