by Celia Aaron
Then, I was gone.
Chapter Three
The smell of earth and rain swirled in my lungs. My feet were on solid ground. The sun was shining, not a cloud in the darkening blue sky. I was standing on the road, only slightly muddy from the earlier rain. My Jeep was right where I left it.
It was as if I hadn’t been gone at all or perhaps just for a moment. The only difference was that the storm was gone. Everything else felt the same. I knew it was just as I’d left it, could feel it in my bones. I let out a breath and doubled over, putting my hands on my knees and just breathing as my mind tried to get a handle on what happened.
Was I losing my mind? Did I experience some sort of seizure? I stayed there until my heartbeat calmed and my breathing evened out. Vertigo threatened so I stood straight up. I shook my head, as if it would somehow make all the discordant pieces fall back into some sort of logical pattern. It didn’t.
Something had happened to me. I had no doubt of it. But what? I looked at the cloudless sky above, but there was no answer there. I was just a woman, standing in the middle of a corn field. No bull. No god. Just me.
I had to let it go. I was here now. Whatever I imagined had happened was over. Maybe I could stop by Doc Henshaw’s and get a quick checkup. It was all some sort of episode, a dream and nothing more.
I took a step toward my Jeep. Ouch. My core ached like it never had before, and the slightest rub of my panties against my swollen flesh sent a buzz throughout my body.
Shit. That could only mean one thing.
“It was real.” A chill went through me. I didn’t know if it being real made things worse or better.
Ignoring the pain, I dashed to my Jeep and climbed in. I slammed the door, as if being inside would give me some modicum of calm. It didn’t. Sitting in the driver’s seat and looking ahead reminded me of the bull, the one with Zeus’ golden eyes.
I’d just fucked a married man – no, strike that – a married god. I was a homewrecker of epic proportions. I started the engine and gunned it down the slippery road. I needed to get home, to hole up for a while and try to think through what just happened. Normal started to settle around me as I ate up the miles between me and my farmhouse at the edge of the national forest. I passed the usual landmarks – the co-op, the post office, and finally the pasture fence leading to my house.
My little white farmhouse looked the same, as if nothing earth-shattering had just happened. It had the same dark green shutters and the porch light was on, glowing lightly in the fading afternoon sun. I rushed across the yard, up the porch, and through the front door. I even locked it behind me, even though no one ever bothered with locked doors this far out in the country.
Saban weaved around my feet and meowed for his dinner.
“I’m losing my mind, buddy.” I knelt down and scratched under his chin. He kept talking to me, meowing me into submission on the dinner issue. “Fine, come on.”
I poured some food out and sat next to him on the kitchen floor, the cold tile a decent balm on my sore bottom. I leaned my head back and replayed some of the moments with Zeus as Saban crunched contentedly beside me. I absentmindedly trailed my fingers through his midnight fur as my thoughts wandered.
Before long, Saban was sated and we both went to bed. I fell asleep thinking of those golden eyes watching me, making me promises I knew they couldn’t keep.
***
The next few weeks were normal. Everything fell back into a usual rhythm. Office visits, emergency calls to the farms in the county, and evenings spent at home with Saban. Sometimes, though, when I drove along the country lanes, I felt a presence. It was as if he were with me. Every so often the feeling would be so strong that I would stop and inspect the passenger side of my Jeep. But I was alone.
Weeks turned into months. The weather turned colder. I spent what little spare time I had reading up on the Greek myths and legends. Apparently, Zeus was a known playboy who frequented young women in various guises. He’d chosen the bull for me, fooling and capturing me. After I read the last book I could stand that detailed his conquests in explicit detail, I threw it across the room. I’d been played. By a god, no less. I’d given my virginity to someone who’d taken countless women over millennia. I was just another notch on his bedpost, though at this point, the post was likely whittled down to a toothpick.
From that day on, I decided to put the “incident” behind me. That’s what I called it – the “incident.” I couldn’t bring myself to face the truth of it all. The memories stayed, despite my efforts to erase them. They bubbled up when I was asleep, and I would wake with my fingers trying to evince the same desperation my dream lover had brought so easily. They never did. Every orgasm was somehow hollow, nothing compared to what he’d given me.
I kept moving forward, building my small practice and serving the community. I even went on a few dates with a couple of the local farmers’ sons. Even as they talked about topics I knew well, I couldn’t stop my thoughts from straying back to the man who had made me feel so alive, if only for a short time.
“—then I came on back to try and learn how to run the farm and you aren’t listening to a word I’m saying, are you?”
My gaze snapped backed to Dean, my date. He had been persistent, showing up at my clinic every so often just to chat. He was growing on me, and it didn’t hurt that he was incredibly handsome, smart, and well rounded. But I was screwing it all up by daydreaming about my impossible incident. “I’m sorry. I am. I’m just—”
“Distant?”
“Yeah. It’s me. I’m sorry.” Color rose into my cheeks. He was right. I’d been thinking back to the white satin sheets, the beguiling smile that haunted my dreams. It was unfinished somehow. All of it. And no matter how many dates I went on, even with men as perfect as Dean, I couldn’t move on until I had some sort of closure. Would I ever get it, though?
“Listen.” He reached across the table and took my hands in his calloused ones. “Whenever you get over whoever it was that got to you so bad, I’ll be here, waiting.”
My eyes opened wide. “But you don’t even know me.”
“I do.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of my hand, the sensation causing heat to flow up my arm and throughout my body. “I knew the moment I saw you.”
He released my hands and leaned back before motioning to Gladys for the check. The diner buzzed around us, everyone wrapped up in their own lives. Maybe I was getting too wrapped up in the one little bump in my past. But I wasn’t able to let it go, not just yet.
Still, Dean’s quiet confidence stirred something inside me. He was right. I had someone to get over. I needed to put it behind me. It was over. It was either a delusion or the strangest moment of my life. Either way, what was done was done. The man in front of me was gorgeous and, if I were being honest, unquestionably sexy. The dark stubble along his jaw was tantalizing and his broad shoulders were made to be clung to. It was as if the blinders were suddenly lifted. I saw him. My heart swelled, finally awakened from its long dormancy.
I opened my mouth to ask him back to my place for coffee when my phone rang. It was the clinic. Shit. “I have to take this.”
“Sure,” he flashed a smile that made me warm all over.
“The Branfields’ mare is having major difficulties.” Dean’s sister, Gina, was on call for the night. Looked like I was, too. “Ty said he needed you as quick as possible. She’s in distress. He’s afraid to lose both her and the foal.”
“Okay.” I shot a look to Dean. He leaned back in his seat and ran a hand through his hair. It was tousled, as if he’d just gotten up, or maybe fucked. Either way, he was handsome. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
I stood and threw my phone in my bag. Dean stood, too, grabbing up his hat and following me out the door of the restaurant. “Put it on my tab, Gladys,” he called.
The air outside had a bite to it, snaking up my skirt and chilling my skin. I strode to my Jeep and opened the door before turning to say my goodbyes
. Dean was right behind me. I hadn’t realized he was so close. Now that I was facing him, he took another step toward me, backing me against the Jeep. He smelled like leather and hard work.
I looked up into his eyes and felt something inside me thawing and melting.
“I have to get out to the Branfields. Their mare—”
He kissed me, fast and rough, his mouth claiming mine in a swift predatory movement. I felt it all the way to my knees, becoming jelly in his arms as he pulled me close. His tongue was wicked, probing at my lips and then sinking past my teeth. He caressed my tongue and I clasped my hands around his neck. His hard cock pressed into my stomach. What would it feel like in my hand?
I moaned into his mouth and he swallowed the sound.
And then he let me go. I stood, barely able to hold myself up, as he took a step back. He placed his hat on his head and tipped it at me. “Like I said, Tara, once you’re done with whatever it is that’s got you turned around, you come to me. Understand?”
“Yes, okay. I, ah, okay.” I couldn’t form a thought in response to his demand.
He turned on his heel and strode to his pickup. I climbed into my Jeep and just sat for a moment, trying to collect myself. My phone buzzed again. Gina was texting me about the mare. I needed to get it together. I had responsibilities.
I slammed the door closed and cranked the engine. Dean watched from his truck, making sure I was on the road before turning back toward his farm. His brake lights disappeared from my rearview as I travelled the bumpy road to the southern end of the county where the Branfields lived. It was a fifteen-minute trip filled with updates from Gina every so often.
I gave her instructions over the phone to make the mare more comfortable. It didn’t sound good. The mare had progressed too quickly, already pushing out the foal’s legs, but its head was trapped. If I didn’t get there soon and work with the mare, both horses could be lost.
I turned down the gravel road to the farm, the moon lighting my way. I sped between dormant fields, patiently waiting for spring.
It was subtle at first. Just a slight tingle along my spine. Then my hair began to stand on end. I slowed and stopped. Bright as day, lightening sparked all around me, blinding in its intensity. Ahead, the same bull – golden horns and eyes, walked to the Jeep. My heart pounded, the blood in my ears matched by the cacophony of thunder all around.
I opened the door with trembling hands and stepped out. The bull regarded me with his familiar eyes, warm and far wiser than any animal should be able to claim.
“Zeus, look—”
Chapter Four
I was back in the silky cloud. I rolled over and stretched out, but the large body next to me woke me from the pleasant dream. Golden eyes and a warm smile greeted me.
“Welcome back, Tara.”
I pushed away from him, trying to scramble off the bed, but he was on top of me in an instant. “Who was that man you were with tonight?” His eyes darkened, the golden swirl punctuated by twilight waves. “The one who touched what’s mine?”
“He’s just a man…”
“That’s right. Just a man.” He put his lips to my neck, kissing softly before biting.
I surged underneath him, not sure if I wanted to run or spread my legs. He barely moved.
“I’ve been waiting for the right moment to snatch you up.” He cupped my breast and squeezed, making my pussy clench on itself.
“I can’t. There’s a foaling mare. I have to…” My words trailed off as he dropped his mouth to my nipple and sucked. There was somehow a connection straight from the stiff tip of my breast to my pussy. It was suddenly alight with need, burning for his touch.
He licked and sucked and bit until I was lost in the pleasure and wanting more. He kissed down the mound to my stomach. I trembled at his sweet touches, his warm lips. I had tried to put him behind me, to put all this behind me, but here I was again. When he reached my pussy, I gasped. His tongue darted out and whipped my clit. My hips came off the bed, begging him for more.
“That’s it, my little pet.” He spread my legs and feasted on me, rubbing his lips and tongue all over my pussy. I screamed at the sudden pressure and heat. He dug his fingers into my thighs, keeping me beneath him as he tasted every bit of me. My core was tightening, the tension in my body ratcheting up.
Then all the luscious heat was gone. He backed down the bed and stood. His cock was large, and a small pearl of wetness was at its tip. I wanted to lick it. “Come here, pet. I want to see your pretty mouth around my cock.”
I crawled to the edge of the bed and dropped down to my knees. He was so large that I didn’t know if I could take it all in. He gripped my hair, clutching me to him until his cock was poised at my lips. I opened and looked up at him as he slid his head inside. Lightning crackled, streaking across the blue above.
He tasted salty and masculine. I closed my eyes and moved my head forward so he touched the back of my throat. I tried to pull away as my gag reflex kicked in, but he held me as I sputtered until I calmed down. Tears ran down my face. The whole time he kept working his shaft back and forth from my lips. I gripped his hips and accepted him. There was nothing else I could do.
He groaned and pierced me with his golden eyes as he fucked my mouth. His strokes increased and he guided one of my hands to the base of his shaft. I worked my mouth and hand in tandem as his hips thrust into me again and again. I found myself spreading my knees apart, my pussy desperate for contact, release, something, anything.
His shaft thickened even more in my mouth before he pulled away on a groan. “Not yet, my pet.”
He lifted me and sat me on the bed. Then he lay down and pulled me on top of him. I straddled him, his large thighs spreading me open as I slid my wet skin across his cock. He grunted as I moved against him, my clit desperate for contact.
“I want to watch you ride me. I want you to come all over my cock. But only when I say.” He clenched my hips. “Only when I say, Tara. Understand?”
“Yes.” I would have agreed to anything. Lust blotted out any rational thought.
He pushed me up and tucked his thumb under his cock, jutting it skyward. I slid down on it slowly. His head pushed inside slowly, my body still unused to his size. I rested my hands on his chest and eased lower, giving myself time to adjust. He pushed down on my hips, impaling me faster even as I cried out and tried to raise up. He wasn’t having it, the darker swirls of gold in his eyes taking over.
“I want it all Tara. I will have it,” he gritted out and maintained the pressure pulling me to him.
When he was fully inside me, I dug my nails into his chest. He gave me only a moment to accept him, to ease the pinching sensation. Then he was rocking up, sliding his cock fully in and out as I moaned. He was so thick it should never have worked, but I was wet enough to take it all and beg for it harder, deeper.
“Zeus, please,” I cried and bounced up and down on his shaft as he surged in a rapid rhythm. He gripped me so tightly his fingertips would no doubt leave marks on my skin.
He pounded upwards rougher and rougher, zinging my clit with each impact. He moved his hands to my tits, palming them and squeezing as our bodies met again and again. We were moaning and our skin slapped together, the wet sounds of our union delicious to my ears.
My pussy was hot, pulsing, ready. I wanted to come. Each resounding blow brought me closer to the edge, my body poised to go up in an explosion.
“Wait for me.” Zeus ran his thumbs over my budded nipples, making me wild for him.
“I can’t. I can’t,” I cried.
He pinched my nipples hard between his thumb and forefingers. “You can and you will.” His eyes were dark, focused.
“Please!” I repeated the word over and over, the pressure between my hips unbearable.
He reached up to my shoulders and shoved me down onto his cock hard in a vicious movement, thrusting up hard as he did it.
“Come, my pet.”
I screamed as I finally enjoyed the r
elease that had been simmering. It exploded in a volcano of heat, my body seizing and shuddering as his cock spurted inside me. I milked him, taking every last bit of his seed as I became nothing more than a lightning rod for pleasure. I was alight, and not just from his electricity that shimmered around the room and in the sky above.
When the last bit of tension rolled from my body, I sank onto his chest. I panted into the golden hairs there, my lungs burning from exertion. He ran his hands to my waist and massaged me.
How does he have the energy to even move after that?
“Oh, I have plenty more where that came from. I expect to taste you again before showing you to your secret hideaway.”
I lifted my head and looked into his eyes. “What do you mean, secret hideaway?”
“Oh, I have to keep mortals like you away from Hera. She’s a jealous bitch, after all, even though she’s always whoring around on the side.” He shrugged.
The things I read during our time apart came crashing into my brain, stumbling in like a drunk at a child’s birthday party. I rolled off him and snatched the sheets to my chest.
“I’m just another one of the mortals you’ve seduced.” I’d been tricked again. My traitorous body hadn’t given another thought to fucking him.
He rolled over to his side and propped his head on his elbow. “Yes, what of it?”
My mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding? I thought you and I were … I thought we—”
“What, that we’re in love?” He smiled.
Okay, that stung a little. “No, I just mean I thought you wanted me for more than just, you know, more than—”
“Fucking?”
“Right.” I stopped talking. I didn’t seem to be able to control my body or my mouth.
“I think you’re a beautiful mortal. I want us to enjoy each other. Is that so wrong?” His voice was low, sexy, and magnificent just like the rest of him.
I shook my head, refusing to fall under his spell again. “No. I mean, yes. I can’t just stay here and forget about my life.”