by AJ Nuest
He closed his eyes and looked inward to the white-hot chambers of his heart. She had gifted him the wistful strands of hope and, in return, he would present to her all that he was and more. “And if she fears my intensity, then I shall rid myself of that which she has owned since the moment of her appearance.”
He dropped his head to gaze upon the breadth of his fiery chest and Fortuna’s gasp echoed to him from across the expanse of his kingdom. “Father, no. You cannot.”
Calling forth the strength of his will, he reached his mighty hand inside and rent his heart from within the scorching chamber depths. Agony tore through his soul, radiated along the writhing filaments of his being. He collapsed to his knees. His inner light flickered and dimmed. Molten ichor flowed through his fingers, yet he gritted his teeth and crushed the dazzling orb in his fist.
“You cannot perish, Father! We will all of us be lost!”
Brilliant white shards tumbled from between his fingers. The glimmers of his utmost power littered the balcony at his knees. Falling to his hands, he gathered them up and flung a portion of his shattered heart toward the limitless ends of the universe.
The bellows of his lungs faltered. His breath burned, and still he tossed the embers far and wide, disbursing the splinters throughout the whole of his love’s ebony kingdom.
The great weight of his realm pressed down upon his shoulders. He fell forward onto his chest, and a prayer of longing left his lips that his love would heed his call.
* * *
A cool caress tended the aching emptiness in his chest and his suffering eased. A portion of his strength returned and Helios blinked, the gleam of his radiance flickering like golden rafters against his wide blue sky. His head lay cradled upon a tender lap and, when the white goddess leaned forward, a weft of her shimmering hair tumbled forward to tickle a silken kiss across his shoulder.
Relief surged through his earthly form. She’d returned. For all his faults, she’d come back to him.
He smiled into her lovely face and a sigh of contentment left his lips as she dotted a chilly kiss upon his forehead.
“Why, my lord?” Worry creased the smooth skin between her brows and she placed her hand on his cheek, fresh and soothing against the fevered tide of his healing. “Why would you so foolishly risk the woes of ruin and destruction?”
He lifted his arm to run the back of his finger down her cheek and a winding tendril of steam wafted into the air at the contact. A silver tear glistened in the corner of her eye and his soul rejoiced at the love reflected in its meaning. Could she truly not know all he would have done to ensure her return? “So all creatures in the heavens may forever bear witness to my devotion.”
Hiding her lips behind one hand, she closed her eyes and turned away from him. “I am unworthy of such a sacrifice. To the last, I would not have made the same decision.”
He arose to sit beside her and cupped both her cheeks in his palms. No, no, the outcome of her verdict had not been misplaced. “Nor would I had the seats of our kingdoms been reversed.” He lowered his forehead to hers and absorbed within himself the essence of her ethereal beauty. “I do not deem your judgments exceedingly harsh. ‘Twas the light of your pale eye whence showed me the error of my ways. Indeed, I am the one who earned the result of your disfavor. ‘Tis by my actions the love of my daughters was lost.”
A gentle smile tugged the corner of her lips and she placed her palm atop the place his absent heart once beat time without end. “Your daughters still honor and worship you. See here? Each of them have gifted you a fraction of their light.”
He snapped his head down to peer upon the puncture he’d wrought in his being. Delicate yet strong, nine exquisite beams of light glimmered within the walls of his chest. Nine pieces of his daughters, each offered in sacrifice to ensure his wellbeing.
Tears formed in his eyes, and yet the moisture evaporated before it had the chance to fall.
He covered her hand with his. “And do they find happiness in your kingdom? Have my daughters, at last, obtained a small glimmer of contentment?”
The moon goddess peeked at him from beneath the fragile icicles decorating her lashes and her smile blossomed into a quiet laugh. “Your daughters frolic about the heavens, quite enthralled by the glittering jewels you so hastily cast into my realm.” She turned her hand beneath his and twined their fingers together—cold separating warm, graceful white ribbons wound between the umber heat of his. “For you have presented each of them the completion of their utmost desire. The countless eternal embers of your white heart.”
And rightly so, for that is what they had truly yearned to receive. He returned her smile, brought their linked hands to the flawless edge of her chin and lifted until she met his gaze. “And you, my white goddess? How may I bestow your utmost desire?”
The ichor in his veins quickened as she leaned close and tipped her head, granting him a gentle kiss. “Allow me to explore all that which has been offered me as your consort and wife.”
The hunger of his needs flared and sizzled down the length of his spine. He rushed forward and captured her lips a second time, imbibing on the exhilarating potency of her kiss, the honeyed curves of her mouth. Her tongue darted along his and desire roared through the filaments of his soul, heightening the luster of his aura.
Whatever she asked of him, he would grant her all that she wanted and more.
Helios stood and tugged his goddess’ fingers, bringing her to her feet. As they left the balcony and entered his palace, she crossed her hand along the space behind them and the fertile orb he’d placed in the sky was cast into shadow. All the heavens were shuttered from view. A blink of his eye and mounds of downy pillows lay scattered along the baked stone floor.
Desire shimmered amid the myriad striations of her gaze as she lowered to her back and reclined along the thick cushions. Her alabaster limbs lay relaxed, nimble and open in invitation.
He knelt at her feet and a hum of contentment eased from her throat as he encircled her ankles in his fingers. Cool and smooth, flawless and radiant, her legs slid like glossy moonbeams beneath the heat of his palms. Her midnight gown bunched and gathered atop his wrists as he explored her further. Short pants heightened the rise and fall of her chest, and his arousal spiked as his hands swept the thin skin behind her knees.
Her pulse leapt and danced against the shallows of his palms. He fluttered his fingers along her inner thighs and a smile tipped his lips when she moaned. Her shoulders shifted. A rhythmic thrust raised her hips into the steamy air.
Tightening his hold, he wrenched her forward. A chuckle rumbled in his chest when she gasped and widened her eyes. Yet the hard tips of her nipples strained against the fabric of her dress, and she writhed as the caress of his palms skimmed up the backs of her thighs to cradle the curves of her bottom.
His shaft lengthened and hardened. He gritted his teeth against the unyielding urge to plunge deep inside her core. She would be a cool breeze to bank the embers of his lust. The ideal fit to stoke the seething spark of his arousal. He clenched his fingers and her back bowed. She fisted the pillows and the column of her throat arched, exposing the delicate blue threads of her veins. Pressing his hands higher up her form, he bracketed her ribs in his fingers. The folds of her gown pooled at her waist and he soaked in the glistening moisture dampening the white curls between her thighs.
Her legs parted and the tempting scent of her arousal flooded his senses. He licked his dry lips in anticipation and dropped to his elbows, bringing her sweet offering within reach of his starved tongue.
A flat swipe over the dewy pearl nestled in her slit and the flavor of harmony detonated across his palate. She was with him in his desires, coiled and ready to receive the throbbing demands of his needs. A second swipe, and she seized his shoulders, rolling her head side to side.
He blew a hot breath against her quivering center and she drove her fingers into the blazing flames of his hair. A glance toward the ecstasy etched across her lovely features and he lowe
red his head and dove deep, nibbling and sucking, tapping and swirling. The hard pulsing in his shaft ached for release. Beads of moisture formed along his brow, and still he focused on the building flutters grasping at his prodding tongue.
A gathering of the air coursed over his back, and she convulsed beneath him, her muscles taut, her breathing ragged. The walls of his palace rocked, reverberations tolled upon his ears as he drank her in. Over and again, he sipped and lapped, until the tremors of her fulfillment slowly ebbed…and yet still, he would never have his fill.
A smile of sated indulgence adorned her face as she gazed at him from beneath the heavy-lidded fringe of her lashes. She opened her arms, and joy unfurled within the magnitude of his rays as she invited him home. “Come.”
He crawled up the length of her languid limbs, lowered his hips and seated the pulsing length of his shaft along her quivering core. She wriggled against him and the last of his restraint was swept asunder by the shimmering devotion in her gaze.
“I am not afraid anymore.” She braced his cheeks in her hands and landed a tender kiss upon his brow. “Join with me and let our union forever symbolize the binding pledge of our love.”
Yes. Forever…throughout the age of time and existence, they would be one.
He eased away from her, aligned himself form and soul with her blessing and thrust forward. The head of his shaft penetrated the barrier of her purity and she gasped. He seized her hips, ceasing his movements.
Her tight sheath quivered around him, and he gritted his teeth to dispel the surge of his impending release. A bead of sweat tracked down his back as he brushed her hair from her brow. “You have never submitted to another?”
She lowered her gaze to his chest; shook her head.
Ah, yes. How else would she have kept herself protected from others of his kind?
Applying the tip of his finger to the edge of her chin, he returned her gaze to his. Doubt shimmered in the opalescent facets of her eyes, yet he was more than pleased to find he was the first—and henceforth, the only—to have ever been sanctioned the gift of her affections.
He kissed first one side and then the other of her lips, savoring the supple curves, coaxing her to open to him. When, at last, her mouth parted, he slipped his tongue inside with the same enthusiasm he fully seated the length of his shaft within her ivory walls.
Her arms wrapped around his neck. Her legs rose to encircle his hips. Euphoria swelled and capsized as the brightness of his love chased the last of her uncertainties into shadow.
Withdrawing a fraction, he glanced down to their joined bodies and groaned as he sank back into paradise. Nothing he’d ever encountered so represented the meaning of ecstasy. Never before had he been so lost to the direction of his light.
The firm band of her sheath tightened around him and he plunged deep, establishing a rhythm, increasing his pace as he angled his thrusts. Sparks ricocheted down his spine. His lowered back tingled. A dim roar gathered in his ears and all thought except the sweet tug of her moist channel vanished from his mind.
Arcing high, she squeezed her eyes tight and shuddered around him. A growl rasped up his throat, and the impact of a sound wave boomed throughout the halls of his palace with his explosive release. He pumped his hips, extending the pleasure and expelling the full force of his soul into her fair form.
Collapsing atop his pale goddess, he sealed the limitless depth of his gratitude with a searing kiss. Throughout the unending seasons of his reign, he would forever be lost to his white goddess’ charms.
* * *
Her sun god had been right all along. The proof was there, as certainly as his small green and blue orb spun on its slow rotation in the sky.
Selene leaned her head back on her lover’s shoulder and he tightened his warm arms about her waist. Upon their arrival on the balcony, they had both stood in awe and wonder at what their lovemaking had wrought. Moments or centuries could have passed while she rested in his arms, peering down at the small creatures inhabiting his planet.
They were the culmination of everything her sun god had hoped for. A people to love and offer their love in return.
“I shall call them humankind,” he whispered, brushing a kiss across her ear. She shivered in his embrace, and then smiled beneath the tempered heat of his chuckle. “For they were cultivated in the midst of our union, and sprang forth from the earth in our image.”
She nodded, though a note of sadness wafted down to settle in her heart. For all their glorious passions, she was not made to live out her days in his realm. The balance between their kingdoms must be maintained.
Turning in his arms, she gathered him close, the cool mounds of her breasts pressed to the width of his fiery chest. “I must go back to the night.”
He expelled a hot breath over her shoulder and the misty clouds surrounding them billowed and expanded into the atmosphere. “Will you return?”
Her eyes fluttered closed and she smiled, clasping him tighter still. That he had not ordered her thus bespoke the immense transformation of his anger. Though he would ask, the choice was hers to make.
She had but one answer. “You have only to speak my name and I shall swiftly heed the call of your summons.”
He quickly withdrew from her, merriment sparkling in the amber depths of this gaze. “I have not yet been granted the pleasure of such knowledge.”
Ah, yes. He’d said her name didn’t matter. To be his consort and wife was blessing enough. She stepped back from him and lifted her arms, manifesting a frigid gale to do her bidding. Mayhap there was one lesson which he’d yet to learn. “Tell me, my lord. What name shall I call you?”
“Helios.” He strode forward as her feet left the balcony; reached for her toes as a blast of arctic air boosted her aloft. “Wait, my love!” Flames of agitation leapt from his shoulders and he raked his auburn hair back from his brow. “You have not conveyed how am I to beckon you near.”
She smiled and soared to the edge of his kingdom, paused at the hazy rim and blew him a kiss. “We are but two halves of one soul, my lord Helios. From now until the end of ages, you may call me Selene.”
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First published in Great Britain by HarperImpulse 2014
Copyright © AJ Nuest 2014
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Ebook Edition © April 2014
ISBN: 9780007591596
Version 2014-04-10
Digital eFirst: Automatically produced by Atomik ePublisher from Easypress.
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