Helios Crowns His Mistress

by Michelle Smart

  With all the stress in his life—from his grandfather’s deteriorating health, Theseus’s shocking news, the forthcoming Gala, his own engagement and everything in between—it was no wonder his mind was playing tricks on him and making him see things that weren’t there.

  Music from the DJ’s deck began to play; a soft dance beat for everyone to tap their bare feet to, its pulse riding through his veins.

  Soon Amy would be his again. And when he got her back in his bed he was never going to let her go.

  CHAPTER SIX

  DESPITE HER LONGING to be away from the hotel, far from the pull of Helios, Amy was enchanted by what surrounded her. The beach, under the light of the twinkling stars, was the most perfect scene imaginable. The noise of the lapping waves mingled with the dance beat playing behind them and gave her a sense of serenity that had been missing from her life since Helios had announced his intention to marry.

  ‘I need to use the bathroom,’ Greta murmured, rising from the table. ‘Are you coming?’

  ‘I don’t think you need me to hold your hand, do you?’ Amy said drily.

  Greta laughed and set off into the hotel on decidedly unsteady feet.

  Amy shook her head with a smile. Greta had been enjoying the steady stream of free cocktails even more than Amy had enjoyed the steady stream of free coffee.

  No sooner had Greta gone than two men with matching goatee beards and dreadlocks pulled back into ponytails appeared. Both were dressed in black outfits that brought to mind samurai warriors crossed with pirates. These men were Agonites; Amy would bet her savings on it.

  With interpreters translating from their Greek, the two men insisted that the table Amy was seated at be moved back ten feet. As soon as that was done they drew a line in the sand, marking a semicircle which they made clear no one should cross.

  Curiosity drove everyone to their feet. Without her heels on Amy had trouble seeing anything, so she ducked out of the crowd to stand at the top of the steps leading down to the beach. The extra height and distance allowed her to see unhindered.

  As the men set themselves up, removing objects she couldn’t see from two huge crates, Greta came out of the bathroom and made her way to the semicircle of people crowding around them.

  The sun had long gone down and standing alone, without the shared body heat of the people below, Amy felt the slight chill in the air. Rubbing her arms for warmth, she kept her gaze on the men, pretending to herself that she hadn’t seen Helios step out from the bar with two large cocktail glasses in his hands...

  ‘I thought you looked thirsty,’ he said, climbing the steps to stand with her.

  Her heart and throat catching, she shook her head. Deep down she’d known that separating herself from the group would be perceived as an open invitation.

  His smile was knowing as he handed her one of the drinks. ‘Try this. I think you’ll like it.’

  The glass was full of crushed ice, and the liquid within it was pink. Fresh strawberries had been placed around the rim, and sprigs of mint laced the cocktail. Wordlessly, she took it from him and placed the straw between her lips.

  He knew her tastes too well. ‘It’s delicious. What is it?’

  ‘A strawberry mojito.’

  ‘Did you make it?’

  He laughed lightly and shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t know where to begin.’

  She took another sip. The combination of fresh mint and crushed strawberries played on her tongue, as did the taste of rum.

  ‘What are you drinking?’

  ‘A Long Island iced tea. Try some?’

  She shouldn’t. Really, she shouldn’t.

  With the moonless sky filled with twinkling stars, the scent of the sea, the background throb of music, the laughter coming from the crowd of people before them...it was a scene for romance, one she should turn and run away from.

  Yet her hand disobeyed her brain, reaching out to take the glass from him, bringing the straw his own lips had wrapped around to her mouth so she could take a small sip.

  Her eyes widened. ‘That packs a punch!’

  He grinned and took the glass back from her, brushing his fingers against hers for a second too long.

  Little darts raced through her hand and up her arm. She took another sip of her mojito, fighting desperately to stop herself from leaning forward and into him. He was so close...

  ‘I found out the other day that I’m an uncle,’ Helios said, making conversation before she could remember to flee again. Besides, this was something he really needed to talk about, before his head exploded with the magnitude of it all.

  ‘Really?’

  Her shock mirrored his own initial reaction to the news. ‘Theseus. He had a one-night stand with a woman he met on his sabbatical.’

  ‘Wow. That was a few years ago, wasn’t it?’

  ‘The boy is four. His name’s Toby. Theseus only found out by accident and a quirk of fate—he lied about his identity to the mother, so she was never able to tell him. And then she turned up at the palace to work on the official biography.’

  ‘That really is a quirk of fate. Is he going to recognise him?’

  ‘Yes. And he’s going to marry the mother to legitimise him.’

  She took another long sip of her mojito, her eyes wide as she finally met his gaze. ‘Does your grandfather know?’

  ‘Theseus is going to tell him after the Gala. We’ve agreed it’s best to let that day be for our grandfather.’

  She looked down at the ground. He wondered if she was thinking the same thing, that he was using the Gala to make the announcement of his marriage. But his announcement was different—for his grandfather it would be the pinnacle of the day, confirmation of the security that would come with knowing his heir was going to embark on matrimony.

  ‘Theseus’s relationship with my grandfather is complicated. Being a Prince of Agon is not something he’s ever liked or adjusted to. It’s the reason why he’s been working so hard on the biography, to prove that he is ready to embrace who he is.’

  ‘Whereas you’ve always embraced your destiny?’ she said softly.

  ‘I am who I am,’ he answered with a shrug, not admitting that for a fleeting moment his brother’s news had given him pause for thought. Theseus had a ready-made heir and a fiancée he certainly was not indifferent to...

  But, no, the thought had been pushed aside before he’d allowed it to float too far into his mind. The throne would be his. It was his destiny. It was his pride. Being King was a role Theseus would hate with every fibre of his being.

  Seeing Amy using her straw to fight through the ice to the liquid left in the bottom of her glass, he signalled to a passing bartender for two more drinks.

  ‘The news about Toby is confidential, of course,’ he said, once the man had returned to the bar. ‘Only you and I and Theseus’s private staff know.’

  ‘Which means half the palace knows.’

  He laughed. ‘The palace grapevine has a life of its own, I admit, but I hadn’t heard anything before Theseus told me, so I don’t think word has got out yet.’

  ‘No one will hear anything from me.’

  ‘That goes without saying.’ In their time together he had learned to trust Amy completely. He’d never had to watch what he said to her... Apart from the time he’d failed to tell her about the real purpose behind the pre-Gala ball.

  Something glistened in her eyes, a spark that flew out to touch him and cut the last of the smile from his face. Had it not been for the bartender, carrying their fresh drinks up the steps, he would have leaned in to kiss her.

  Amy blinked herself out of the minor stupor she’d been in danger of falling into and took a grateful sip of her fresh mojito.

  It was crazy, but Helios’s news about his nephew had brought a spark of hope within her. If there was a readymade heir in the family...

  But, no. Such hopes were futile. Helios had been born to rule this great nation with a royal bride at his side. It was his destiny. And she, Amy, was
a nobody.

  ‘The entertainment’s about to begin.’

  ‘Sorry?’

  That knowing smile spread once again over his handsome face. He nodded at the crowd on the beach.

  Following his gaze, she saw the two piratical men standing side by side in the semicircle they’d created, their legs parted in a warrior stance. What ensued was an acrobatic display of perfect synchronicity that on its own would have been marvellous but which then switched to a whole new level.

  The men ducked out of Amy’s eyesight before reappearing with thick, long sticks, the ends of which were ablaze. Her mouth opened in awe as she watched them dancing and twirling and leaping and whirling whilst the fire made patterns in the darkness, bringing the very air to life.

  ‘You look cold,’ Helios murmured, stepping behind her and wrapping an arm around her waist to secure her to him.

  Transfixed by what was happening on the beach, her skin dancing with something like the same flames that were playing out before her, Amy didn’t resist, not even when he brought his mouth down to nuzzle into her hair. Her insides melted and despite herself she leant back into his hardness, dizzying relief rushing through her at the sensation of being back where she belonged. In Helios’s arms.

  She gasped as she felt his hand slide over her stomach and drift up to rest under her breasts. She knew she should throw off his hand and walk away, that allowing herself to be held like this was the height of stupidity and danger, but no matter how loudly her brain shouted at her feet to start walking her body refused to obey.

  A thumb was raised up to brush against the underside of her breast and he pressed his groin into the small of her back, letting her feel his arousal. The fire-wielding acrobats became a blur in her vision as her senses all turned inwards to relish the feel of Helios against her.

  She should be like a marble Minoan statue. Unresponsive. Cold. But his touch turned her molten.

  Send her to hell, but she rubbed against his arousal. He hissed in her ear, dropping his hand to her hip and gripping it tightly. She could feel his racing heart beating against her back.

  Only the loud sound of applause cut through the sensuous fog she’d fallen into.

  The show had finished.

  The crowd was dispersing.

  Blinking hard, aware of Greta searching for her, Amy finally managed to make her body obey, grabbed Helios’s hand and pushed it away.

  She took a step to distance herself from the security of his hold and drank the last of her mojito.

  ‘Come back with me,’ he said. For once, there was no arrogance in his voice.

  She kept her eyes from his, not wanting him to see the longing she knew would be written all over her face. ‘I can’t.’

  ‘You can.’

  Greta had spotted them and was heading for them, or rather weaving unsteadily towards them.

  ‘Come back with me,’ he repeated.

  ‘No.’ She propelled herself down the steps, desperate to be away from him before her vocal cords said the yes they so yearned to speak.

  He followed her, grabbing her hand when she reached the bottom step and spinning her around.

  She waited breathlessly for him to say something, but all he did was stare at her as if he was drinking her in, his thumb brushing little swirls over the inside of her wrist. The message he was sending didn’t need words.

  Tugging out of his hold, she hurried away before she could respond to his silent request.

  * * *

  Helios pressed a hand to his forehead and growled to his empty bedroom. He’d been back for over an hour and not even his two Long Island iced teas, which had virtually every spirit imaginable in them, had numbed his brain enough to allow him to sleep.

  His body still carried remnants of the arousal that had been unleashed by holding Amy in his arms. One touch was all it had taken. One touch and he’d been fit to burst.

  If he’d been one of his ancestors from four hundred years ago he would have marched down the passageway, broken down her door and demanded she give herself to him. As he was a prince of these lands she wouldn’t have been allowed to refuse him. She would have had to submit to his will.

  But good Queen Athena, Agon’s reigning monarch from 1671, had been at the forefront of the abolition of the law which had allowed women to be little more than chattels for the royal family’s pleasure.

  And even if he could he wouldn’t force Amy into his bed. If she came back to him he wanted it to be under her own free will.

  He knew she’d returned to the palace. After the fire show she’d disappeared into the throng, and then the last he’d seen of her had been when she’d climbed into one of the waiting palace cars with some of the other live-in staff.

  Why was she doing this to him? To them? She was as crazy for him as he was for her, and he struggled to understand why she was resisting so hard.

  He knew that she wanted to punish him because he had to marry someone else—if he were in her shoes he would probably feel the same way. The mere idea of her with another man was enough to make his blood pressure rise to the point where his veins might explode.

  As ashamed as he was to have done so, he’d got his security team to find out who she’d dined with on Saturday night. Leander Soukis, a twenty-two-year-old layabout from a small village on the outskirts of Resina. How Amy had met this man was a mystery. And there was something about their meeting that ground at him.

  Never mind that Leander was five years younger than Amy, when Helios distinctly remembered her saying she couldn’t relate to younger men, he was also a slight, skinny thing, with a bad reputation. He came from a wealthy family, but that counted for nothing—Leander had been kicked out of three schools and had never held a job for longer than a week. Indeed, he was an ideal candidate for his brother Talos’s boxing gym, which he’d opened in order to help disaffected youths, teaching them to channel their anger and giving them a leg up in life.

  Why had she gone on a date with him of all people? Had it been her way of proving to Helios that she was serious about their relationship being over? Maybe he should have accepted her resignation rather than let his pride and ego force her into staying. If she was gone from Agon he wouldn’t be lying in his bed with a body aching from unfulfilled desire.

  But he knew such thoughts were pointless. Amy didn’t need to be in his sight to be on his mind. She was there constantly.

  And he would bet the palace that right at that moment she was lying in her bed thinking of him.

  A soft ping from the security pad on his wall broke through his thoughts.

  Jumping out of bed, he pressed a button on it, which brought up the screen issuing the alert. It was from the camera and the sensors in the secret passageway.

  Peering closely, he saw a figure moving stealthily along the passageway, getting closer and closer to his room. With his heart in his mouth he watched as she hesitated, and willed her to take the final step and knock on the door.

  * * *

  Amy stared at Helios’s door, not quite certain what she was doing or how she had got to this point.

  Knowing she was vulnerable to temptation, she’d accepted an invitation to go to one of the other curator’s apartments for a drink: a mini-soirée she would usually have loved attending. She’d tried so hard to pull herself out of the trance she’d fallen into, but her contribution to the conversation had been minimal. She couldn’t remember a word of it. It was as if she’d been floating above it all, there in body but not in spirit.

  She wanted to blame the alcohol, especially the mojitos Helios had given her, but that would have been a lie. It was all down to him.

  She’d gone back to her own apartment after just one drink, but before she’d even stepped into her bedroom she’d stopped and stared at the door that led to the secret passageway. Her breaths had shortened as a deep yearning had pulled at her.

  Impulse had overridden common sense. She’d unlocked the connecting door and stepped into the passageway in the s
ame dreamlike state she’d ridden back to the palace in, not consciously thinking about where she was going. But now, standing at his door, sanity had pushed its way back through into her mind.

  She couldn’t do this. It was all wrong.

  Closing her eyes, she pressed the palm of her hand to his door, holding it there.

  This was as far as she dared go. If she were to knock and he were to answer...

  She heard the telltale click of the lock turning.

  She snatched her hand away, her breath catching in her throat.

  The door opened.

  Helios stood in the doorway, naked, nonchalant, as if Amy sneaking up to his room and doing nothing but touch his door was an everyday occurrence. Except the nonchalance was only on the surface. His chest rose and fell in tight judders. His jaw was taut; his nostrils flared. His eyes bore through her as he did nothing but stare.

  And then he moved, sending out a hand to wrap around the nape of her neck and pull her to him and over the threshold. As soon as they were in his room he held her firmly and pushed the door shut. He pressed her against it, trapping her.

  ‘Why are you here?’ he asked roughly, leaning close enough for his warm, faintly minty breath to touch her skin.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she whispered.

  She didn’t know. The closest she could come to describing it was her subconscious overriding her resolve. Now, though, the opposite was true. The sensations darting through her had overridden her subconscious and every inch of her had sprung into life. There was not a single atom of her body that wasn’t tilting into him, yearning for his kiss, his touch.

  ‘I know.’

  Then, with a look that suggested he wanted to eat her alive, he brought his mouth to hers and caught her in his kiss.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  IF HIS KISS had been the demanding assault she’d anticipated Amy would have been able to resist and push him away. But it wasn’t. His lips rested against hers but he made no movement, stilling as if he was breathing in her essence. Amy inhaled deeply in turn, letting the warmth of his breath and the scent of him creep through her pores and inhabit her.