Because it meant something to her. And she hoped it meant something to him as well.
A lump formed in her throat. She wasn’t sure how to answer. Not without putting her heart on the line. A heart she’d only just rediscovered in the last few days. All because of him.
He crossed back to stand in front of her. “Well?”
She hated that she wanted his approval. More than she’d wanted anyone’s approval before, even Cynurus’s. Though they were technically the same. Gods, none of this made sense, and she especially hated how that made her vulnerable. Vulnerability wasn’t something she had much experience with. “You don’t like it? I told you if you didn’t, you could find a different room downstairs. I was just trying to—”
“Why haven’t you taken it?”
Her mouth closed. She stared up into his intense gray eyes. Eyes that seemed to be looking deep into her soul. It took several seconds before she realized he wasn’t talking about the room but about the Orb.
Her gaze slid to his chest and the Orb she knew lay against his skin, hidden under the white button-down he wore. She’d seen the outline of it under his shirt after she brought help for Gryphon. Knew he’d put it on and that he’d probably already placed the earth element in its slot. And she knew right then that this was her defining moment. She could tease and seduce and imply all she wanted, but the only way she was ever going to prove her loyalty to him was to be honest.
“Because I don’t want it.”
“Zeus does.”
“Zeus is going to have to learn to live with disappointment.” When his eyes narrowed, she knew it was now or never. “I’m leaving the Sirens.”
Skepticism crossed his handsome face. “Why?”
“Two reasons. The first is because now that I’ve seen that thing and felt its power, I know no god can have it. If balance is to remain, it needs to be destroyed. I know that can’t happen before all the elements are found, but giving it to Zeus won’t do anything but cause trouble. I’m sure of it.”
“And the second?”
Right. The second. Skyla bit her lip. There was a jumping-off point, then there was a diving-off point. And right now she was either going to hit the water face-first and come up breathing, or she’d crash and burn in the bottom of an empty pit.
She pulled up her courage. “The second is that I can’t in good faith stay with an order that wants me to kill the man I love.”
There was no reaction from him, not even a muscle twitch in his jaw. And in the silence that followed, Skyla’s anxiety amped a good three notches.
“You love me,” he finally said. When she nodded, he added, “No one loves a daemon.”
Her heart pinched. “No one but me.”
For several long seconds he didn’t say anything. And she still couldn’t read his expression, had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. And then he frowned. “You are seriously fucked in the head, you know that?”
Her defenses came up. The same ones she’d used to protect her heart for far too long. A heart that was now battered and bruised and aching because she’d taken a chance and it had all been for nothing. “I—”
He closed the distance between them, grasped both sides of her face with his large, warm hands, then lowered his mouth to hers.
The air left her lungs on a whoosh. The fight slid right out of her body. As his tongue dipped into her mouth and she tasted the sweetness of him, she wrapped her hands around the guardian markings on his forearms and told herself not to let go.
There was urgency in the kiss. Mixed with relief and need. So much need it curled her stomach and made her whole body ache.
“Skyla, Skyla, Skyla…” She loved the way he mouthed her name against her lips, drew her closer with his arms until the long lean line of his well-defined body pressed up against hers. “They’ll never let you leave because of me.”
“It’s not their decision to make.” When he eased back and looked down at her with those soft gray eyes, her confidence shot up again. A confidence she now couldn’t believe she’d been lacking. “It’s mine. And I choose you. Daemon or no daemon. Argonaut or not. Zeus and Athena are wrong about you, Orpheus. You’re not evil.”
“How can you be so sure?” he whispered.
“Because I watched you with Maelea. I saw the way you protected her when you didn’t have to. The way you protected me even though you knew what I was. And I saw the lengths you went to, to save your brother. An evil soul can’t love like that.”
“I don’t have a soul—”
“Yes, you do.” She tightened her fingers around his forearms. “One that deserves so much more than you’ve been given.”
Emotion turned his eyes to shimmering silver. “Skyla—”
She rose up on her toes and kissed him, sliding her arms around his neck and drawing him even closer. “Let me love you, Orpheus.”
She kissed him long and deep, groaned into his mouth when his arms circled her waist and his warmth surrounded her. She stepped back toward the bed, pulling him with her, loving the way he couldn’t seem to stop kissing her, couldn’t seem to stop touching her just as she was touching him. When her legs bumped the mattress, she eased back, tugged him down with her until they fell on the mattress and his weight pressed into her, the heat from his erection pressing into her lower belly, warming her from the outside in.
She yanked at his shirt, broke the kiss long enough to pull it over his head. His mouth was back on hers, kissing, licking, sucking as he found the buttons on her shirt and undid them, then tugged her torso up enough so he could wrench the shirt from her arms and toss it on the floor behind him.
The Orb fell against her chest. Warm and enticing. She ignored it and focused on him, sliding her hand over his rough jaw.
His gaze ran over the red bra she wore, down to her waistband. “Gods, you are so beautiful.”
His hand followed, skimming over her cleavage, then down the line of her abdomen to trail heat to her belly button. She sucked in a breath even as a shiver raced down her spine. “It’s not real. Once I leave the Sirens, I won’t look like this anymore.”
His warm, desire-filled eyes slid back to hers. “What do you mean?”
“I mean this Barbie-doll body is part of the gig. Once a Siren leaves, her body transforms back to the way it was before she joined the order.”
His eyes narrowed with mischief. “Is this your way of telling me you were three hundred pounds with a hook nose before joining the Sirens?”
She ran her hands up his impressive arms. “Maybe not quite three hundred.” When his eyebrows lifted in question, she smiled. “It’ll be the same me. This is just the enhanced version.”
“Explain ‘enhanced.’”
“Well, for one, I’m not really this tall. Take about three inches off my legs. My hair isn’t normally this blond, and if memory serves—and remember, it’s been quite a while—my waist isn’t quite this small.”
“What about these?” His large palm slid up to cup her right breast.
Warmth puckered her nipple beneath the red lace. “Now those will likely stay the same.”
That mischievous grin widened as he flicked the clasp, freeing her breasts to spill out into his hand. “I had a feeling they were real. I can always tell.”
Her stomach tightened, and the humor faded as he lowered his mouth to her right breast, laved his tongue over her nipple, then drew her deep into his mouth to suckle.
Her fingers found their way into his thick brown hair and she arched her back, offering whatever he wanted. As much as he wanted.
He worked her over with his tongue, with his lips, with the wicked hot breath he blew across her nipples until they ached for more. She opened her legs so he could sink down into her body. So that long hard cock pressing against the fly of his jeans could rub right where she wanted it most.
“Orpheus…” She drew his mouth back to hers, kissed him deeply. Then eased back so she could see his face. “Will it bother you? If I don’t look e
xactly the way I do now?”
His gaze started at the top of her head, traveled down the length of her body, hovered where their hips were locked together, separated by only his jeans and her pants. “I like this body, I won’t lie. But it’s not what I love about you.”
Her heart tripped, and her voice cracked when she asked, “What you love about me?”
“Yeah, what I love.” His fingers crazed her throat, traced the line of her sternum between her breasts, and hovered over her heart. “Every time I think about the way you cared for my brother…” He swallowed, and tears dampened his eyes. “You don’t even know him.”
“I know you.”
One corner of his mouth curled. “Yeah, and you still cared for him, regardless.”
“Orpheus—”
“No one’s ever cared about me before. No one’s put their life on the line for me. No one even considered it. You did it not only for me, but for my brother. I—I didn’t think anyone could love me.”
Her heart pinched all over again, and she ran her fingers over his stubbly jaw, the cap she’d kept on her emotions for so long finally blowing free. I loved you before, daemon. It just doesn’t even come close to how much I love you now. “Then you thought wrong. And if you’ll let me, I’ll spend the next five hundred or so years proving just how wrong you were.”
His gaze searched her face. “You will?”
“Well…” Her cheeks heated. “If, that is, you want me to. I might have some free time on my hands soon.”
A slow, easy, devilish smile inched its way across his lips, and he pressed that heavenly erection against her mound all over again. “Oh, I want you, Siren. I’ve wanted you since you first set out to seduce me.”
She lost herself in his kiss. Was so light-headed from his lips and teeth and tongue, she barely registered him kicking off his boots, sliding out of his pants, and dragging hers from her legs. But she definitely knew when his fingers brushed her wetness and his thumb circled her clit, sending a current of electricity racing through her body.
“Orpheus…”
“Like that?”
“Mm, yes. More.”
He chuckled as he stroked her, seemed to enjoy it when her whole body quivered. As he slid two fingers deep inside, he continued to tease her clit with his thumb and lowered his head to her breast, flicking her nipple with his tongue until she moaned. She dropped her head back and lifted one leg so she could dig her heel into the mattress, granting him more access. Pleasure gathered beneath his hands, around his talented fingers sliding in and out of her sheath, along her nipples, where his tongue was doing insane things to her breasts. But it wasn’t enough, wasn’t ever enough when what she wanted most was so very close.
She hooked a leg over his hip and rolled him to his back, thrilled when she felt the naked, blunt head of his cock brush her aching folds. She wanted to taste it again, take it deep in her mouth like last time, feel his pleasure pulse along her tongue. But the throb between her legs was too great. The heat too intense to stop and readjust.
“Orpheus…” Her mouth was on his again.
“Hold on.” He pushed her back. And she watched in awe as he tore the chain from around his neck and dropped the Orb on the floor along with his clothes.
Hero. The word revolved in her mind again. If she hadn’t known it before, she knew it now.
“Now,” he said, his hands sliding to her hips, guiding her, taking charge even though she was the one directing things. “Where were we?”
The head of his cock slid along her folds, pressed against her opening just enough to draw a groan from her chest, then retreated. She tightened her muscles, tried to lower herself down, met the resistance of his strong hands holding her still.
“Um…yeah,” she managed. “I think…right there.”
“There, Siren?”
“Yes.” She kissed him. “Stop tormenting me.”
“Tell me again.” He lifted his head and kissed her long and deep and slow. “Tell me again what you did before.”
She knew what he wanted. The same thing she wanted. “I love you, Orpheus.”
He sat up so fast, a gasp tore from her mouth. But it turned to a groan when he pulled her hips down to his and thrust inside her. Flesh settled against flesh. His erection twitched inside her. He rolled her to her back and whispered, “Wrap your legs around me.”
She did. Groaned again as he pushed in even deeper. He retreated, thrust into her again and again, stoked her already-roaring fire to within degrees of exploding. When it wasn’t enough, he hooked his arms behind her knees, opening her wider, and drove himself one more reaching inch inside.
“Gods, Skyla,” he said against her lips, “I love being inside of you. I don’t even care that you had to seduce me at the start to get us to this point.”
She gripped his face with both hands. “I didn’t seduce you, Orpheus. I didn’t have to. That connection you kept asking me about is real. All I did was fight it. Way longer than I should have. Believe me. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.”
“Ah, gods, Siren.” His eyes darkened and he lowered his mouth and kissed her again, this time as if he couldn’t get enough. His thrusts picked up speed. She lifted her hips to meet him, wrapped her arms around his muscular shoulders, slick with sweat and flexing with his movements.
She knew his release was coming. She could feel it growing with every press and slide and groan and thrust and retreat. She lost herself in the feel of him—hard and hot and so very thick. And when he arched his back and his entire body quivered over hers—inside hers—she let herself go.
For the first time ever, she let everything she’d worked for, every disappointment and heartache along the way, every long lonely moment in a life that never should have been, finally go. And as he collapsed against her, as his head slid into the crook between her neck and shoulder and his hot breath washed over her flesh to tighten her nipples all over again, she ran her fingers over the damp skin of his shoulders and told herself there was no going back. Not for the order. Not for Athena. Never again for Zeus.
Not even when the King of the Gods sent her sisters to kill her, which she knew he would undoubtedly do soon.
Chapter 25
That connection you kept asking me about is real.
Images swam behind Orpheus’s closed eyelids as he hovered on the edge of sleep. Images that blended with Skyla’s words and refused to let him rest. Her standing in the chaos of that concert the night he’d been looking for Maelea. Protecting Ghoul Girl with that magical bow and arrow when she thought he was there to harm the girl. The way she’d kissed him after she was pulled from that avalanche. Covered in sweat in the Underworld, comforting his brother. The last few hours alone in this bed, as she’d used her body and voice to enrapture as she had from the start.
His daemon was gone. He didn’t know how, but he couldn’t feel it anymore. Not even a rumble of awareness. Something in the back of his mind said its absence was somehow linked to Skyla, but he didn’t know how that was possible. All he knew was that for so long he’d lived by the push and pull of that daemon. To be free of it…it was like no other feeling in the world.
Save being inside Skyla.
That connection you kept asking me about is real.
Her image flickered again behind his eyelids. And though he knew he shouldn’t be this content when his brother lay floors below, haunted by horrors Orpheus didn’t want to imagine, he couldn’t stop feeling alive any more than he could stop the steady thump of his heart.
And yet…
Something niggled at the back of his mind. The images shifted like billowing smoke, taking shape in different forms. Skyla again, only dressed differently. Speaking…more formally. Telling him…Telling him what?
Just as the first time they were together in this room, a kaleidoscope of images, all centered on her, cycled through his mind. Only these were clearer. The sounds growing louder. Playing like scenes from a movie. Until the great climax. And t
he moment the curtain was parted and the wizard finally revealed.
He jerked out of bed, a reflex of muscle and mind and complete and utter shock, and hit the floor with a thud that echoed through his bones. But the physical pain was fleeting. The emotional pain, the lingering torment, the years of torture, consumed him from the inside out. And betrayal, like a hot, sharp knife, sliced through what he thought had been a heart.
Skyla peered over the side of the bed, her hair rumpled, her eyes sleepy, her lips still swollen from his mouth. “Are you okay? What happened?”
Orpheus breathed through his nostrils to remain calm. But inside a firestorm had erupted and the blaze was consuming him in a flurry of flames for which there was no relief.
“Orpheus?”
“You knew they were coming. You left me there to die.”
“What?”
The past, a past he hadn’t remembered until just now, zipped across his mind. And the why and how and that connection he’d been feeling finally made sense. “We argued and you left. And they came in minutes later. The Sirens. Your Sirens. The ones you sent.”
She eased up to sitting, tugged the sheet around her. A wary look passed over her features. Features that were still as beautiful as he remembered. Even now, over two thousand years later.
Two thousand years. Holy fuck.
“You’ve obviously had some kind of dream. Why don’t you come back to bed and—”
“That wasn’t a dream.” He pushed to his feet, images now on fast-forward in his head, and scrubbed the heel of his hand across his forehead, only it did nothing to erase the pain. And the torment. And the horror. “I knew there was some connection between us. I knew you were lying to me from the start.”
“Orpheus? Okay, just wait—”
The bitter bite of betrayal shoved out all the shock and awe from before. “Why don’t you call me by my other name? The name my father gave me? The name my grandfather and your boss condemned.”
She tightened the sheet around her breasts. In the dim light from the fading fire he saw understanding. And fear. For the first time since he’d met the Siren he saw true fear on her flawless face.
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