Hex Goddess (All My Exes Die from Hexes Book 3)
Page 27
His hands landed on her hips, pulling her nearer. He brushed a kiss across her lips. “It happened so fast. I just have to know: you still having the feels?”
She pulled back, eyeing him like he’d just started reciting nursery rhymes in Polish. “The what?”
“The feels. It’s what all the kids are saying now.”
“Sounds like a mild case of the flu. How about we stick with adult language?”
His eyebrows wagged.
“Jerry! You know what I mean. Now, back to your question.” Riona put her arms around him, lacing her fingers around his back. “Yes, I remember the wedding. Yes, it wasn’t just some thrill-of-the-moment decision that I regret. And yes, I love you.”
“I’m going to give you the feels all over your body.” Jerry licked his lips. “Wife.”
A proud, teasing smile drew up the corners of her mouth. “Husband.”
“Okay, enough with the chitchat. Let’s consummate it and all that jazz.”
Even when he was a demon, she couldn’t remember seeing him move so fast. Jerry’s mouth assaulted hers before she had time to blink. His kiss rendered logic and reason mere sideshow attractions.
“I love you.” His words were spoken into the side of her neck, and barely strung together.
“You better.”
In their previous (very) physical encounters, Jerry always offered her a diverse portfolio of lovemaking styles, from slow and tender, to fast and frantic. This was shaping up to be one of the desperate and dangerous variety.
Jerry pulled away as his hands gripped the collar of her toga. “You look amazingly hot in this, but it needs to go.”
After a few moments of twisting, he managed to strip her of the useless garment. Exposed to the air, as well as his will, Jerry swooped her up, pressing another needy kiss on her lips as he moved her to the bed and deposited her on the mattress.
“There’s not enough of me,” he panted, working to remove his shirt as Riona’s hand came up to help in the effort. “I need to be all over you, around you, and especially, inside you.”
In a whisk of her intentions, his garments turned to dust. He stilled, looking down at his torso, before giving her an approving nod.
Riona’s hands framed his cheeks. She pulled his face down to hers. “Right now, let’s just focus on being inside me, okay?”
He must have agreed, because he took her the very next moment. Riona’s body embraced the reunion as Jerry slid into her. He sheathed himself, a full phalanx of need, pulsing, and drawing a gasp from her. God, he felt so good, and their separation had been much too long.
His thrust, barbaric and strong, made her body quake. Maybe he couldn’t be everywhere, but he sure gave it his best shot. With each stroke, he pounded into her with unbridled abandon, punctuating each plunge with loving words.
“So... good... missed... you... woman.”
Her ears were vaguely aware of the bed frame keeping time on the wall, but she didn’t really care. Riona arched her back, rocking her hips, and letting Jerry inside her even more deeply. His hands kneaded her breasts, massaging, his thumb and forefinger rolling her pebbled nipples and nearly driving her over the edge.
They wouldn’t last a minute.
In an attempt to slow things down a little, she thrust up her right hip. Jerry rolled beneath her as she mounted him again, her hips working her core around a piece you could’ve set your clock to.
“Mmm, yes.” She moaned, riding him at a more leisurely pace. Jerry’s hands anchored her hips, helping her wax and wane, inducing the friction she so desperately needed.
“You’re so wet.” He licked his lips. “You’re going to affect the climate.”
“Olympus is too dry anyway.”
Her body urged her to move faster as she answered. “I missed you too, but god, I really need this.”
“You need me?” He stilled, his sensitive eyes boring into her soul.
“I need you.” She pulled his mouth to hers, kissing him long, deep, and wet. “I’ve needed you for a very long time.”
Again, they tussled for position, rolling until Jerry had her underneath him, hammering into her like a jazz trumpeter riffing with the snare drum.
“God, Riona, you’re so...”
He was getting there. A coil in her stomach tightened. No way he would beat her. She doubled her pace, throwing all her concentration into feeling him inside her. She needed this so bad. Even more than air.
The fire inside her raged, then reached its boundaries. “Jerry, I’m ...”
“Come for me, baby,” he encouraged her. His hands clasped her backside as his final thrusts explored new depth. “Scream.”
Only incoherent words and inhuman moans of pleasure followed. Riona’s neck arched, pressing the crown of her head into the mattress. Even though her eyes were closed, fireworks exploded on the inside of her eyelids. Her soul became a physical entity entwined with her limbs, her core, and her whole being, coated her in warmth and security. Her body felt like a playground, and a boisterous levity overcame her, as if she could float away. If not for Jerry’s body pinning her down, she very likely would have. With one more downward drill, he too came apart, calling her name as his release spilled into her. Spent, Riona tried to catch her breath. Slowly, her eyes came open. Riona looked up at her husband with the grin only a satisfied woman can wear.
That was followed by her jaw dropping to the ground.
In a moment, she scooted out from under her husband and pressed her back to the headboard. “Jerry?”
“Yes, dear?”
“What are those?”
His lazy gaze followed her accusing finger. Jerry sat back on his heels as he observed with passing concern, what managed to pique his wife’s curiosity.
“That’s weird, they never came out unsolicited before.”
“Jerry?”
“Yes?” He returned his gaze to her.
“You have wings, Jerry.”
He laughed, reaching up behind her. Her body shivered when she felt a sensation on her back that shouldn’t have been there. Unless she’d gone Quasimodo without realizing it, Jerry’s hand gave a jerk, and when he put it back in front of her, her eyes beheld a perfect, soft, fuzzy white feather.
Jerry drew the object to his mouth and kissed it. “So do you.”
Her hands reached back behind her head and snatched a fistful of fluff. “How?”
Her husband didn’t reply to her query. Instead, Jerry arched his back, letting his wingspan fill the room, and pulled his wife up to straddle his lap. He patted her chin with the tip of his finger, while his eyes surveyed her lips.
“Sooo... We have some things to discuss. But later. First, I think we need to do that again.”
Epilogue
Hades realized it was easier for him. Not because he loved his brother any less than Persephone loved her father, but because he had almost three decades to adjust to Zeus’ imminent death. Three decades to make amends, spend time together, and cherish the king.
Persephone, however, had none of it.
“This doesn’t seem possible. How can he be gone, just like that?”
Her voice, an uncharacteristically soft wisp of sound, cracking slightly after hours of crying, disturbed him far more than her bloodshot eyes or flushed cheeks. His wife’s defining feature for eons had been her resilience, and her innate ability to shake off the worst life could throw at her. Hell, she survived the endless revolts in the Underworld, the great rapture, and being a Red Sox fan for a century. But the loss of her father? That may have been the limit, Hades thought.
Suddenly, a bit of her standard composure resumed. Persephone unfurled herself from her fetal position and pushed her back against the headboard of Hades’ bed.
“Why did you do it?”
“I was sworn not to tell. It was one of the conditions Big Boss...”
“No, not that,” she interrupted. “Why did you sacrifice me for, of all things, Clare and Dee? You hate Dee.”
> His chest fell as he let out his breath through pursed lips. “I don’t like Dionysius. Can’t say I ever have. But he is my flesh, and my brother’s progeny. More than that, he is your brother, and one of the people you treasure most in the world. It is my honor and profound duty to provide for my own.”
“And me?” Her glistening eyes could have spilled over at any moment. “Why did you sacrifice my heart?”
“The angel who acted as our envoy demanded that Zeus and I both sacrifice what we loved most in the world. For your father, full of zeal and vigor, that was his life. For me, well... It’s always been you.”
A glint of a smile lifted the corners of her mouth.
“Besides, I’ve made a career out of winning and losing your favor,” Hades continued, raising the pad of his thumb to wipe a tear from her cheek. “I figured I could find a way to do it one more time.”
“Is that why you had my dad put that provision into the dissolution?”
He nodded.
“And here, I thought you were giving yourself one last avenue to be king.”
His heart seized. King. He had been king once, long ago in another epoch. He couldn’t deny being wed to an heir of Zeus held certain future bonafides. Not like this, though.
“You are heir to Olympus, my dear, not I. You are the queen now. In the past, perhaps that meant something, but I fear in these times it’s more of a burden than a blessing. If I would ever desire to share that title with you, it would only be to ease some of the weight that falls upon you now. Our civilization is dying, and as the queen, it’s your duty to summon the angel of death when one of us wishes to pass into the sunset.”
“No, I refuse to let that happen.”
He lifted an eyebrow.
“We will not cower, sitting around, just waiting to die. Enough. It’s time we stood up and fought for what is ours. It’s time we declare war. And we start with the ones who put us in this situation.”
“Steph, do you know what you’re implying?”
Sliding off the bed, she rose to her feet. Lifting one palm to the level of her eyes, Hades watched in awe as his wife summoned her newfound power, granted her by the Accords as the ruler of the nephilim.
Lightning cracked across Persephone’s outstretched palm. A ball of energy, barely containable, threatened to spin out in any direction she wielded it.
She met her husband’s gaze as her fingers closed, sealing in the power. “I do. War. To perish or prosper, husband. And we start with the ones who did this to us, who drove us to surrender. The archangels must die.”
The story continues with All My Exes Die of Hexes – Book Four: When Spell Freezes Over. Coming soon.
About the Author
Killian McRae would tell you that she is a rather boring lass, an authoress whose characters' lives are so much more exciting than her own. She would be right. Sadly, this sarcastic lexophile leads a rather mundane existence in the San Francisco Bay Area. She once dreamed of being the female Indiana Jones, and to that end she earned a degree in Middle Eastern History from the University of Michigan. However, when she learned that real archaeologists spend more time lovingly removing dust with toothbrushes from shards of pottery than outrunning intriguing villains with exotic accents, she decided to become a writer instead. She writes across many genres, including science fiction, fantasy, romance, and historical fiction.
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OTHER TITLES
Romantic Thriller
Snapped
Historical Romance
A Love by Any Measure
New Adult Romance (written as Mari K. Cicero)
Complements
The Start-Up Bride
Paranormal Romance
The Motion of the Potion – All My Exes Die from Hexes #1
The Devil You Know – All My Exes Die from Hexes #2
Hex Goddess – All My Exes Die from Hexes #3
Coming October 2017:
When Spell Freezes Over – All My Exes Die from Hexes #4
Coming November 2017:
Hung by the Fireplace – An All My Exes Die from Hexes Prequel #5
Urban Fantasy Fairytales (written as Kendrai Meeks)
Reluctant Hood – Red Hood Chronicles #1
Relinquished Hood – Red Hood Chronicles #2
Coming 2018:
Untitled – Red Hood Chronicles #3
Enter the Kingdom - The Stroke of Midnight #1
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Hex Goddess
All My Hexes Die from Hexes – Book Two
Killian McRae
2015, 2017
Copyright ©2015, 2017 by Killian McRae
All Rights Reserved. Except as specified by U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or media or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior written permission of the author.
This work represents a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.