Esher (Guardians of Hades Romance Series Book 3)

by Felicity Heaton

  Awareness grew inside her as she lay with him, coming down from her high, and it birthed a need so powerful she couldn’t deny it.

  He needed release too.

  She wanted to be the one to give it to him.

  CHAPTER 9

  Esher shifted onto his knees when Aiko moved, reaching for his jeans. “You don’t have—”

  He lost the ability to speak as she unbuttoned his fly and gritted his teeth as her small hand found his aching shaft. He hissed and tipped his head back, the heat and softness of her too much for him to bear. He couldn’t stop himself from rocking against her, and as she stroked him, gaining confidence, he began to forget about his need to stop her.

  Almost started to enjoy it.

  Until a dark snarl burst from his lips, torn from him by a black urge to get her damned hand off him before she could harm him. He took hold of her wrist and pushed her back as he leaned away from her so she couldn’t touch him again, controlling her in the only way he could without hurting her.

  Without leaving.

  He had to leave.

  Her dark eyes fell to his hips, to the hard outline of his cock in his black trunks, and then lifted to his side. The desire that had been in them faded, replaced with concern, and a frown wrinkled her nose.

  She reached out with her free hand and he shook as she edged it towards the scar above his left hip, visible now that he had leaned back, his shirt and t-shirt riding up his stomach to reveal it.

  “Esher,” she whispered softly, and he felt her worry. “I thought your wound was on the other side.”

  Her eyes darted to his, and he realised that for all his attempts to keep the stab wound from her the night they had met, she had been aware of it. But she hadn’t mentioned it. She had been aware of something else too—that he hadn’t wanted her to know.

  He hadn’t wanted her to be aware of just how vulnerable, how weakened he had been.

  Easy to attack.

  He stared at her. She hadn’t attacked him though. She had tended to him, had taken care of him, had been gentle and kind. She wasn’t a threat. She wasn’t. Not even now, when he felt more vulnerable than ever. She didn’t want to hurt him.

  He sucked down a deep breath, released her hand and told himself again that she didn’t want to hurt him, that her concern was genuine and she wasn’t out to take advantage of his vulnerability. She wasn’t like the others.

  His gentle little butterfly.

  He looked away from her, unable to look at her when he did this, exposed a vulnerability for the first time in forever, because he feared his other side would use it to seize control, to whisper poisonous things about her that he knew were untrue, but that would be his undoing.

  Esher carefully lifted the right side of his shirt and t-shirt, revealing the faint mark where the blade had plunged into his side just below his ribs.

  She frowned at it, and then lowered her gaze to his left side, to a wound that was still dark pink and healing. “Were you hurt again?”

  He shook his head. “It happened before we met.”

  She lifted her eyes to his. “But the other wounds healed.”

  “I… it’s healing… but I don’t want to think about it.” Because whenever he thought about it, it filled his head with doubts, gave rise to fear that felt as if it was choking him.

  He looked at Aiko and realised he didn’t want to think about anything right now.

  He just wanted to feel.

  He just wanted her.

  He wanted to continue this madness they had started, wanted her to drive him out of his mind so he didn’t think about what she was, because he couldn’t think about it. If he did, he would end up hurting her.

  Gods, it was the first time he actually wanted to be driven out of his mind.

  Only he didn’t want to be driven right into his other one.

  He wanted that part of him silenced, gone, locked away so it wasn’t a danger to her.

  It had been when he had been touching her, lost in her, and it had been when she had touched him, before he had foolishly thought about what she was and what he was doing with her.

  Fuck thinking.

  It was overrated.

  Feeling was better.

  He took hold of her hand, shook only a little as he guided it towards his tight shaft, and gripped the waist of his trunks with his other hand. He needed her hand on him again, needed to feel it on his flesh this time. Now that he had started down this path, he didn’t want to go back, didn’t want to stop. It had been centuries, too long, since anyone had touched him, his experiences of it so few that he could no longer remember what it had felt like.

  But Aiko’s touch had been bliss.

  He wanted more of it.

  He wanted to forget everything else existed. There was only her in this world, and this moment.

  He lifted the waist of his trunks, freed his cock, and moaned as he felt her gaze on him and looked at her. Her dark eyes were round, pupils blown with desire that ricocheted through him too, had him hot and needy, his shaft growing harder at just the thought of her touching him.

  The rain grew heavier, the scent of earth filling the strained air in the teahouse.

  Before he could make her touch him, her hand moved forwards, taking his with her.

  He groaned and rolled his hips as her fingers skimmed down the length of his cock, from blunt tip to his balls, an exploratory touch that almost had him bursting. She shuffled closer, the scent of her perfume mingling with the heady aroma of her release, filling his lungs and pushing all rational thought to the back of his mind.

  “Gods,” he muttered beneath his breath as she took him in her hand, encircling his cock with her fingers, her skin hot against his.

  He released her and leaned back, couldn’t stop himself as she moved her hand on him, up and down, her touch light but devastating. He alternated between closing his eyes and staring at her, torn between a desire to do both as she gained confidence again.

  Her eyes remained rooted on his shaft, dark with need he could feel building inside her again, and he wanted to know her thoughts, needed to see if they matched the images coming to life in his mind, a vision of making love with her.

  She brushed her thumb over the exposed crown, sending heat rolling down the length of his shaft to his balls, and he groaned. Bliss. Divine.

  Her nerves rose, and he mustered enough brain cells to ask what was wrong, but before he could utter the words, she leaned over him and placed her free hand on his thigh. Her breath washed over the head of his cock, followed by a tentative flick of her tongue, and her hair brushed his stomach.

  Gods.

  He moaned as she tongued the crown, as she wrapped her lips around him and took him into her mouth, his hips bucking up to drive him into her wet heat. Some more noble part of him said to stop her, but fuck, he didn’t want her to stop. He wanted to stay right where he was, wanted to feel her mouth on him like this forever.

  Pure pleasure rocked him as she explored him with her mouth, taking him deeper. She was hot and wet, like molten fire scalding him, and he tried to hold back. It became impossible when she circled the base of his cock with her hand and began moving on him, sliding her hand up and down in time with her mouth, making sure every inch of him felt the bliss of her caress.

  A moan rolled up his throat, and the urge to thrust deeper blasted through him, so powerful he lost himself to it, had his hand tangled in her pigtails before he was aware of what he was doing. He gripped her as she bobbed on him, pushing her back down whenever she retreated. She moaned, the muffled sound sending a wave of heat through him, a hit of pleasure that rivalled the feel of her mouth on his cock.

  Outside, the rain fell harder, growing heavier in time with the pleasure surging inside him, rising swiftly to crash over him.

  He grunted, each exhale a broken sound as his body rocked, writhed of its own will, searching for release.

  When it finally broke over him, his entire body quaked from the forc
e of it, his hand tightening in her hair as he held her in place and jetted into her mouth, a strangled shout lodged in his throat.

  As the haze of pleasure dissipated, and he grew aware of the world again, embarrassment swept in to crash over him as fiercely as his climax had.

  He released Aiko and hastily covered himself as she sat back, her cheeks pink, flushed with the pleasure he could feel in her.

  “Sorry for doing that,” he muttered, feeling like a monumental dick in the aftermath of it, when it had felt so damned good at the time.

  “Don’t be.” Her cheeks looked as if they wanted to grow a shade or two darker as she shyly added, “I liked it.”

  His did.

  Damn them.

  Esher buttoned his jeans, and stared at her, reeling and trying to take in what had just happened, marvelling at her as she fixed her appearance and kept glancing at him, little looks that stirred something inside him, in the region of his chest, and had a single thought flowing around his mind.

  He didn’t want to hurt her.

  He would sooner harm himself than hurt her.

  Her face finally flushed darker, and she awkwardly smoothed one of the ruffles of her black skirt.

  “Sorry,” he murmured and dragged his eyes away from her, aware that his staring was the reason she felt embarrassed and nothing else. Not what they had done. Gods, that had felt as natural as breathing. “I haven’t… this is… I haven’t been with anyone like this in a long time. I’m not sure what to do… but I feel as if I should do something.”

  Except feel like a royal idiot.

  Fuck, could he sound any more like one?

  “The rain stopped.” She managed a smile as she pointed towards the glass front of the building.

  Esher looked there, his eyebrows rising high on his forehead as he uttered, “Oh, would you look at that?”

  He cringed. What the hell was wrong with him? Acting all ‘what a surprise’ and ‘how odd’ when he had been aware the rain had stopped dead the second he had climaxed.

  He had a feeling she was aware of it too.

  There was something he hadn’t been aware of though. He frowned at the sliver of sky he could see between the bottom of the roof and the trees across the lake. It was clearing now, revealing darker blue that signalled evening was approaching.

  “It’s getting late,” he said and her eyes landed on him again, and when he looked across at her, a feeling struck him, a need that mastered him. He didn’t want to take her home, didn’t want to part from her yet. He needed her still. So he put it all out there, risked what felt like everything in that moment. “Are you hungry?”

  She seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding. “There’s a nice restaurant near here.”

  “I live close by.” The words left him in a knee-jerk way, bursting from his lips as the thought of sitting in a crowded restaurant sent darkness surging through him.

  He didn’t want to let it come over him, not because he might hurt her, because he realised now that was impossible, but because he didn’t want her to see that side of him.

  He didn’t want to frighten her away.

  He realised he might have been a little too forward when she just stared at him. After what had happened to her on the train, she had every right to find it hard to trust another male. His first thought was to tell her that she could trust him, but could she really?

  While he didn’t want to hurt her, couldn’t hurt her, he couldn’t say the same of his other side. If it took control, he wasn’t sure what he would do to her.

  “Forget it… I’ll walk you home.” It was the more sensible course of action, especially when he considered that it would be dark soon, and the gate might need defending or a Hellspawn might want him to open it.

  Or worse.

  His brothers might show up at the mansion, popping in right in front of her to scare the shit out of her.

  The thought of them doing such a thing had his darker side surging to the fore, but it wasn’t his other self this time. It was the darkness born of his father’s blood, a dangerous brand of possessiveness that was almost intoxicating, had him feeling a little hazy and vicious as he stared at Aiko, a need to wrap his arms around her and keep her all to himself beating in his veins.

  He would kill anyone who tried to take her from him.

  Including his brothers.

  That thought left him cold, threw a bucket of icy water over the dark desire to possess her, and shook its grip on him, giving him back control.

  He would never harm his family.

  “Esher?” Aiko’s soft voice pierced the dark veil of his thoughts and he blinked and looked at her, found her kneeling closer to him, the press of her hand light against his cheek. “I would love to have dinner with you.”

  He stared at her, fighting to take in her words and make himself comprehend what she was telling him. She wasn’t talking about going to a restaurant. She was talking about dinner at his place.

  She was trusting him with her safety, trusting that he wouldn’t hurt her, and gods, he would do his best to live up to that trust.

  He would show her that she had been right to place her faith in him.

  He grinned at her.

  “I’m a great cook.”

  CHAPTER 10

  The sky had cleared by the time Esher stopped in front of a small gatehouse in the middle of a long white wall topped with traditional grey ribbed tiles and scrubbed a hand around his neck, rubbing at the short hair at the back of his head.

  Aiko looked around at the street, including back the way they had come, towards the distant park, and then returned her gaze to him. Had he changed his mind and no longer wanted her to see the place he called home? It had to be close, because they had been walking a while, far longer than she had expected based on what he had told her.

  Did he live in one of the box-shaped two storey houses that were set a way back from the white wall, giving the traditional building space and respect that it deserved? The houses around it were worn and basic, but he didn’t need to be ashamed if he lived in one. They were as simple as her family’s home, and what most of the population of Japan lived in now.

  For an agonising moment, she thought he might insist on taking her home instead.

  But then he heaved a sigh that stretched his dark shirt tight across his chest, let his hand fall from his neck and turned not towards the dull grey houses that were jammed close together, but towards the imposing wooden gate opposite them.

  She could only stare as he pushed the heavy gate open and looked back at her, something that resembled nerves or possibly fear in his eyes.

  If he thought she was going to say something negative about the fact he lived in a traditional house, or judge him for having such an expensive home, then he was mistaken.

  But, damn, it was impressive as she stepped through the gate he held for her and came face to face with a sweeping mansion fit for an emperor. White panelled walls supported the width of the grey tiled roof, and dark aged wood enclosed the elegant entrance of the house in the centre of the building. The grounds between her and the door had been lovingly manicured, with topiary spotted around the gravel that bordered the entire front of the mansion and continued around the sides to her left and right, and beautiful cherry trees and maples on the grassy areas in each corner.

  On either side of the path in front of her, ancient stone lanterns stood proud, almost as tall as she was, and to the left of the house, a covered walkway linked it to another smaller building.

  Esher shifted foot to foot beside her, and she felt his unease ripple through her.

  She wasn’t sure she had ever seen a home so beautiful, so perfect. She had stayed with her family at inns that had looked similar, but this place felt different. More serene. Quieter.

  Soothing.

  Esher drew his hand over his face, glanced at her, and then closed the gate and led the way towards the house. He kicked his boots off at the entrance, one at a time, and set them on
the rack. It was strange to see him do such a thing, and her earlier comment about how he hadn’t learned the traditions of her land came back to haunt her. He knew them, and he respected them.

  She joined him on the porch, removing one shoe and placing her foot on the wooden deck before stooping to remove her other one. When she handed them to him, he set them down next to his and stared at them, a glimmer of conflict in his eyes that disappeared when he blinked.

  He opened the door for her.

  Aiko followed him inside and stopped dead as the size of it hit her.

  It was enormous.

  The room spanned almost the entire length of the house, with a long polished traditional wooden dining table occupying most of the mats to her left, and a strangely out of place and modern group of couches and armchairs set up to her right, facing a huge flat-screen TV.

  Esher kept moving forwards and she peered into the room beyond the dining table. A kitchen. Walls had been built around it, separating it from a wooden walkway that led to the smaller building she had seen outside. That walkway branched to the right too, past paper-panelled rooms that were closed off.

  When light flooded the room, she looked at Esher and her breath left her in a rush.

  He stood on a covered walkway beyond the panels he had opened, staring out into a garden that had her re-evaluating her use of the words serene and beautiful for the exterior garden she had passed through to reach the house.

  This was beautiful.

  She moved forwards, her feet carrying her towards the elegant formal garden enclosed by the three sides of the house, filled with pale gravel and perfectly positioned topiary, and mossy boulders. It turned to grass near a broad rippling pond that flowed beneath the wing of the house to her right, and a traditional red wooden bridge crossed it at a narrow point, leading her eye to the huge cherry trees in full bloom on the other side, where the garden undulated in a more informal series of hills and valleys.