“He does loves you, Dite. He always did. And always will. He will come for you again, and all I ask is, please… do not break his heart. He’s suffered more than enough.”
“I love him, Ares. You must know I always have.”
He closed his eyes, a ghost of a smile upon his handsome face. Then he slipped his hand off of me and stood. “I will visit you, if you will allow it. I meant it when I said I want to get to know you. For our children’s sake.”
I nodded.
“And for mine.” He said it so softly I almost hadn’t heard it. But I was transfixed by the sincerity in his dark, stormy eyes.
I stood up slowly and grabbed his hand. He let me hold it, and I framed my stomach with it. He went still. The children were silent, but I could almost feel their curiosity at the touch of the hand that was not my own upon them.
“Of course I would allow it. They are as much a part of you as they are me.”
He looked at me, and I felt his sudden tension course through his palm.
“What? What is it?” I asked.
“It would be so easy, Aphrodite. So fucking easy.”
And I thought that maybe I knew what he was saying, but just as with her part in the schemes against Hephaestus, there were certain things I didn’t really want to know.
I leaned up and kissed his cheek. And just as in our memory, he dropped his forehead to mine.
“You have a good heart, Ares. Buried beneath that rage you learned to control so long ago. Do not be afraid to show it.”
He chuckled. “Only Love would think me good.”
“Yes, well, once upon another time, I knew you very well. And I also know,” I said slowly, not sure if I should be doing it, but I did it anyway, “that your heart is not as unaffected as you’d like to make everyone else believe.”
He pulled back, looking at me with that self-imposed and steely control of his. But I’d always been able to see past the façade with him. I nodded. “I won’t tell a soul, but maybe you could consider that you do not have to be alone forever. There is a love for you out there, a great one. Though it won’t be without its bumps.”
“She loathes the very sight of me. Even if she did care for me once.”
I shrugged. “People change. Just look at me.”
He laughed. Laughed so hard that his entire demeanor transformed, making him look so young and carefree. So unlike the brooding war god he always was.
I touched his cheek with my fingers. “It is good to see you again, my friend.”
“Oh, Aphrodite, I do not want to let you leave. And yet”—he released me swiftly and stepped back—“I must.”
I nodded. “Yes. You must.”
He clipped his head once. “Goodbye.”
I smiled and turned, waving open a travel tunnel, and just as I was about to step foot in it, he said, “I’m watching you, woman.”
I laughed and glanced at him over my shoulder. “Yes, well, what else is a bored god to do?”
“Aphrodite,” he groused, and I laughed as I sailed through the tunnel back to my family.
It was finally done, and I was free.
And it felt damn good.
16
Hephaestus
“Drink your tea,” Calyssa said to me sharply. Pushing the flowery painted and stupidly small mug in front of me.
I twisted my lips. I didn’t want tea. I wanted to be left in peace. And yet I could not forget what she’d done to me before, either.
And judging by the sparkle in her eyes, she knew exactly what I was thinking. She held her own mug in front of her mouth, its steam rising around her pretty face, causing her tentacles to expand and contract, as though they were also enjoying the tea.
I cleared my throat and reached for it with nerveless fingers, tipping my head. “You know, I really am not thirsty. You needn’t have put yourself through the effort.”
“I’m sorry, did you think I was asking?” She blinked, face impassive, but I knew if I continued to press the matter, she could, and likely would, turn into an enraged barracuda in less time than it took me to blink.
I took the damn tea. And I drank it down in one swallow.
I was just about to replace the mug when I saw the words written on the bottom. My eyes jerked up toward hers.
She was smiling, and she had fangs. Large, menacing fangs. I swallowed hard.
“Caly,” Hades rumbled affectionately. “She did not, in fact, poison you, Hephaestus.”
She snorted. “Not for lack of trying, either. He just wouldn’t let me, the marshmallow.”
He chuckled. And I could never understand what had turned such a rational god like Hades into such a simpering fool for something that could easily wake up one night and decide to eat him.
She nuzzled her nose to his, cooing in his ear. I’d never thought it was possible for monsters to actually love anything, and yet she was as much of a simpering idiot for him as he clearly was for her.
I sighed. Love… it made fools of all.
“She’ll be along soon enough,” Hades said, looking over at me.
I shook my head. “I really… I should go. I’ve overstayed my welcome.”
“Yes, you have,” Calyssa said flatly.
Hades hugged her tight. “No, you haven’t.”
“Have,” she singsonged.
Hades rolled his eyes. “She’ll be here any moment. I’m sure of it.”
I’d already been waiting for an hour. Not that she’d known to expect me—it wasn’t as though I’d actually talked to her beforehand. I stood. She was probably relieved to be done with me, honestly. I couldn’t blame her. Feeling stupid and like I needed to get away, back to the peace and solicitude of my forge, I dipped my head at them both.
“Thank you for your gracious hospitality, but I really need to stoke my forge. If she does come back, just please tell her that I ca—”
“I’m here,” she said.
And I felt as if someone had just shot an arrow through my soul.
I swallowed hard and moved on legs that felt like sand, turning until I saw her. Still wearing my flames upon her beautiful body.
“Aphrodite.” I couldn’t say her name stronger than a whisper.
“We should go,” Hades rumbled.
“But it’s just getting to the good stuff,” Calyssa groused.
“I’ve got a bowl of carrots, Caly, and—”
I felt the pressure of their traveling through a time tunnel at my back, and then nothing but silence.
I stood in the kitchen of their massive home, alone, with her.
I blinked.
And so did she.
“What? What are you doing here?” she asked, looking around, a confused frown pinching her eyes tight.
I shook my head, wondering if I’d just made the biggest mistake of my life. Aphrodite had loved me, but not me, me. A different version of me. What had made me believe for even a moment that she’d actually want to be around me again?
Shame crept up my neck and settled dusky red in my cheeks. “I keep asking myself the same thing.”
Frowning, she glanced over toward the hearth, where I smelled fresh bread baking. There had to be servants to run a mansion this large, yet we were completely alone.
I gazed at the dress, feeling so stupid and as though I needed to run away and lick my wounds, but I’d promised myself that just for once in my miserable, godsforsaken life, I’d be bold. Be brave. And dammit, I would try. I really would try. “You. You look beautiful, Aphrodite.”
She clutched at her breast as a noise I couldn’t quite define spilled off her tongue.
It suddenly felt very hard to breathe.
“You wore my flame,” I said simply, not even sure what I was saying. But thinking that maybe I wasn’t saying something so much as asking something.
Her cerulean-blue eyes cut toward mine, pain and longing reflected back at me. “Of course I wore your flame.”
I curled my hands into fists. Body buzzing and electrifi
ed, feeling the lightning start to strike my eyes.
“Why?” I rumbled the word. “Are we friends now? Is that what we are?”
Her mouth curled upwards. “Are we friends?” she asked me back. “I don’t know, Hephaestus. What are we now?” She pointed at her stomach. “I carry your brother’s children. In fact, I hear it’s not the first time. I woke up in a world that hates me. With a husband who’s cast me out. What are we? I’m sure I don’t know.”
Her eyes began to shine, and I knew the diamonds would spill from them. I took a step toward her, but she held her hand out. Looking defiantly beautiful. Golden flames began to mingle with my blue ones. Gods, she was everything. Everything. My heart shone in my eyes. I knew she could read it, and I could not hide it. Not from her.
“I wanted to hate you for all the hurt you’ve caused me. I wanted to hurt you as you’d done to me.”
“You can,” I said simply.
“No!” she screamed, and the tears were flooding down her cheeks, sizzling away in fiery flames.
God, I loved her, so very much. And I hated that it had taken such a scandal to make me realize that. I would forever hate myself for shaming her in this way. But I could not undo what’d been done. No matter how much I might wish it, I could only be here for her now.
“That’s what she did to you, godsdammit, and I am not her! I am not fucking her! She was a monster. A nightmare. Why did you let her do those things to you, Hephy? Why? Why? Why didn’t you remember me?”
She dropped her head into her hands, and though I did not hear her sob, her entire body trembled violently with the tears that seemed to swell up from the very depths of her lovely soul.
I didn’t care if she didn’t want me to hold her. I simply had to. Just as I needed air to breathe, I needed Aphrodite in my arms. I took her hand, and at first, she resisted but not for long. She shook like a sapling in a powerful breeze as she slipped into my arms, clinging to me tight, and ripping my heart out with her precious, precious tears.
I kissed at them, feeling my own lightning and flames begin to dance around me. We were an inferno of fire, but Hades was the god of death, and our fires did not harm his home. We stood within those healing flames, holding onto one another.
And I whispered everything to her that I’d felt come up in me during the trial.
“I will never forgive myself for hurting you. For causing you such grief, such pain. I love you, Aphrodite. I am not an eloquent man or a handsome one or even all that articulate. But I love you. And I will never stop telling you that for all the days of our long-lived lives if you will have me back.”
She sniffed, rubbing her nose into my chest, and I was scared, terrified out of my mind that it wouldn’t be enough. That I’d hurt her so much I could never make this right again, and I had to. I couldn’t live without her.
“Why did you let her hurt you like that?” She finally asked after the worst of the tears had subsided. “Don’t you see? That is not love. What she was, that was not love.”
I cupped her precious face in my massive palm. Awed by the magnificent creature that allowed me to hold her so. Her lashes quivered upon the tops of her pearly cheeks, and my heartbeat roared like an engine within me.
I’d been dead inside, all my life. Loving something I knew was wrong, but compelled despite it all to continue loving that which slowly killed me.
“Because I was made to love you, Aphrodite. And only you. She tried to kill off that fire in me and very nearly succeeded, but it was not her that I clung to. It was the promise of you that would come into my life like a wild, burning flame. And… and from the moment that you came, I felt you. And it scared me. I was terrified, because I knew that if I let myself, I would be consumed by you, and then…I could never be whole again.”
She looked up at me, eyes as blue as the morning sky. “Is it possible to see me, and only me, Hephaestus? Or will there ever come a day when you will look upon me and see the face of the other? Will you one day hate me, my Hephy? Because if so, I would rather live without you than with you. As much as it pains me to say it or even contemplate it, I refuse to carry around the burden of sins that were not my own.”
A cry of pain and desire so cutting that it left me in agony crawled up my throat and spilled off my tongue. I did not think. I merely did.
I was through believing that I wasn’t good enough. If she wanted me, then by damn, I was hers. Completely. Fully. One hundred percent.
I stole her mouth and made it mine. My touch was soft, feather-light, a question. May I?
Hunger exploded through her tiny little body, and she wrapped her arm around my large neck, pulling me down to her. Like kissing lightning. She shoved her tongue into my mouth, and I groaned. The taste of her was ambrosia. It made me drunk, made me dizzy, and I knew I was lost forever. If she wanted to break me, I could not stop her. I was utterly, wholly, and completely hers.
I gripped her tight, sliding my hands up the soft swells of her gorgeous belly. I did not care whom these children belonged to, because they were hers and I loved everything about her. The good, the bad, the not so wonderful.
She breathed life into me. And I felt the pain of neglect, of hate, of never feeling good enough begin to slide away.
She was healing me with her endless, bottomless wellspring of love that poured out of her like cool waters.
I shivered, dropping down to my knees, and she went willingly with me.
Aphrodite was tender. Gentle. So different from the other woman, in fact, so different that I knew I would never confuse her for the other. Because this was the woman I’d been created to love.
She stroked my body, purring with delight as she did. Letting me know that she loved all of me. And when she came to my legs, she did not balk or pull away. She snapped her fingers, and I was me. Just me. Withered legs and all. Her touch was loving and exploratory.
I trembled as she trailed her hot, velvety fingers over my deformed parts. I closed my eyes, arching up into her touch, trembling all over. She was touching me. The most beautiful woman in all of creation was touching my body. And not just with curiosity or even simply wonder, but love. I felt it. Everywhere. Rolling through me. She loved me. Heat crawled through my eyes, and I felt the rains start to fall.
“I love you, Hephaestus, and only you,” she whispered huskily.
I stuttered my next breath. Unable to look upon her, scared that she would see my weakness and judge me, deem me as unworthy. The female had completely unmanned me in every way.
“Only ever you, my Hephy. Look at me, beast.”
And I did, because I could never do other than what she commanded of me. I was a slave to her in every way, and this time, I knew she would give me all of herself in return too.
She brushed her hand up her body, banking the fire and revealing every inch of her sultry, perfect body to my perusal.
I shuddered, cock so full with blood and desire that it was painful. But it was a good kind of pain, the very best kind.
She grabbed my hands and brought them toward her breasts. “Gods, they hurt all the time.”
I knew what she wanted me to do. I rubbed them gently, easing her pain, tongue tingling with the need to swirl myself over them until I turned those precious pink jewels into tight nubs of pleasure.
“Oh yes, Hephaestus. Oh yes.” She tipped her head back, her long blond hair trailing like a flame down her back, and my cock was so damn hard and leaking, crying out for release. But this was for her right now.
My big, powerful hands, sometimes so clumsy, were also capable of extraordinary gentleness when I wished them to do be. And right now, she was the clay and I the potter.
She moaned, smiling from ear to ear. Looking more beautiful than anything I’d ever beheld before in my life. This was my world that I held in my hands. My everything, and I wished I could be more of an eloquent man, more like my brother. That I could wax poetic about her beauty and perfection, but I could not. All I could do was give her every bit of me.
My heart. My soul. My body.
And she began to writhe upon me. Moving gracefully, like a kitten in heat. Purring and clawing at my chest with her sharp little claws.
Her blue eyes gleamed with flame. “Do you love me, Hephy?”
She sounded drunk with passion, and I was awed speechless, because Aphrodite had never spoken to me thus. I’d heard her like this with others. But never me. Never the ape. Never the monkey boy. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her. That she was the entirety of everything to me. That I could never again be whole without her, that she was in me. Completely in me.
I nodded, only able to utter one word. “Forever.”
Her lids slid shut, and then she was lifting herself up on her knees and positioning herself over my painfully hard cock, and I couldn’t believe this. That I existed in a world where a woman this exquisite, this perfect, could want me as she did.
She slid down my body, and I trembled. Outside, the rains began to lash and rage. But she held onto my head, bringing my face to her breast and dropping dozens of tiny kisses upon my brows. The bridge of my nose. My cheeks. My forehead. Before tipping my chin up and taking my mouth for her own.
“I love you so much, my beast. So very much.”
I shook. All over. But she never let me go. She held on tight as she moved and danced over me. Her wet, tight sheath sliding up and down my hard, engorged cock over and over again, and we both cried out, and I watched her, that beautiful goddess, dance upon me, her beast of a man. And she was smiling. Smiling down on me.
“I love you.” She whispered it again, as if she knew how much I needed to hear that. How much I needed to know it was true.
I gripped her around the waist, letting her guide me. Set our pace. She’d go fast, and she’d cry out, then she’d slow down, and she’d undulate those gorgeous hips of hers, moving so that I went as deep as any man possibly could. This was heaven. This was home.
I was home.
Then she took one of my big, ungainly hands in hers and brought my thumb to her rosebud lips and sucked me in, mimicking our movements. I grunted, the pleasure overwhelming and burning me alive.
The Forge King (The Dark Kings Book 6) Page 22