by Addison Fox
He’d never fully understood her gift, but he’d lived in contentment, knowing she’d never find that coldness in his own soul.
But how wrong he’d been.
Shaking off the old, useless bitterness, Aidan shared a memory he knew she’d treasure. “My father was happy when you and I found each other, you know. He felt you were a suitable mate for me.”
Interest now sparked in the caramel-colored depths of her eyes. “He did?”
“He most certainly did.” A flash of remembrance dragged a quick laugh. “Thought I was a hound dog for snagging an older woman, to boot.”
“Little did he know just how old,” Meg murmured, but he saw the hint of an answering smile.
“Oh, I think he had an idea. I know times have changed, but people back then were far more accepting of the things they didn’t fully understand. And quite a bit more open to the idea of mortals and immortals.”
“I suppose so. Did he know you were turned?”
Aidan nodded, touched she even thought to ask. “I found him at the end of his life. Told him I hadn’t died that day locked in battle with Tyrus. Instead, that Themis had sought me out and asked me for my service.”
“He understood?”
“Understood and was glad I’d found a calling.”
“He loved you very much.”
Aidan shrugged, uncomfortable with the words. “He was a soldier. I believe he loved me in his own way, but it didn’t involve a demonstration.”
She nodded. “The battle-hardened soldier to the end.”
“I did see one small chink in his armor, though, when he asked about you.”
Her eyes widened at that. “Me?”
“He asked where you and I would make a life. He seemed rather infatuated with the idea you’d be his daughter-in-law.”
Aidan stood and walked across the room. The air cracked with renewed energy as he stood before her. “He believed you were a proper mate. Was shocked when I told him otherwise.”
“He didn’t know the level of my betrayal.”
The reality of what had happened so long ago began to wither away as something new replaced it, unfurling before him like a rose in bloom. With that hope, Aidan kneeled before her. “It wasn’t betrayal. Nor was it fair of me to refuse you the chance to explain.”
He leaned forward and she placed her hands once more against his cheeks. “Aidan. Our moment has passed. There’s too much history. And we can’t go back and alter its course.”
“So forget our history. Let’s make a future full of new moments.” Aidan pressed his lips to hers, convinced of her rejection even as he hoped for her acquiescence.
When her mouth opened to him, greeting his kiss with an answering response of her own, he leaned in and swooped her up in his arms.
And took a large step toward their future.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Aidan settled her on the bed and came down over her, his weight supported on his forearms. With another hard, searing kiss, he made love to her with his mouth. Long, lazy moments stretched out as they touched and took, remembered and rediscovered.
Meg felt the feather-light touches along her stomach as Aidan lifted her blouse once more. His beautiful hands roamed over her, seeking, questing.
Taking.
“I want to see you,” his words were whispered against her jaw as he rained kisses from just below her ear and down her neck. Urgency strained his voice. “Please let me see you once more.”
Meg gave herself up to the moment, no longer caring if they should stop. “Yes.”
He pulled her forward, then gathered the material at her waist and dragged it over her head. The brief urge to cover herself—to shy away from the adoration that filled his deep blue gaze—vanished when he brushed his hands over her. Meg felt an answering tug deep inside as her body came to life after so many long, lonely years.
Face-to-face, they sat opposite each other. Aidan reached behind her and unhooked her bra, running his hands over her as the thin, silky material slipped to the floor. She watched, unable to tear her gaze away as his large hands covered each breast, his long slender fingers roving in tight circles over her nipples.
Sensation arrowed through her as a lazy pleasure began to build at her center. Her head fell back when his mouth replaced his hands and his quick and clever tongue mimicked the same circle against one breast while he continued to touch the other.
Meg reveled in his ministrations, the satisfaction of finally being in his arms after so long away only adding to the impossible joy of the moment.
“You feel terribly overdressed,” she whispered against the soft hair at his temple. When he lifted his head from her breast, his wicked smile held a world of promise.
“So just what do you plan on doing about that?”
Meg didn’t need any further encouragement. Reaching for the hem of his T-shirt, she dragged it up over the thick muscles of his chest, on past the heavy, curved roundness of his biceps and shoulders. Flames seared her as her fingers brushed his skin and with deliberate movements she dropped the T-shirt before seeking more of that delicious heat.
The muscles of his stomach quivered under her touch as her fingers danced over flesh, but it was the unmistakable groan of need she heard when she dipped lower, past the waistband of his jeans, to where his cock pressed against the heavy zipper.
“Touch me,” Aidan whispered against her mouth as his hand moved unerringly to cover hers.
“Yes.” She couldn’t stop the answering response as her fingers closed around the hard, heavy length.
With their lips still joined, Meg slid her tongue around his as she ran her hands over the smooth skin of his penis, tracing the underside before moving back around to the thick crown. Without thinking, she reprised her movements of more than two thousand years ago, her sense memories of what gave him pleasure filling in the gaps of time as if they’d never been apart.
“Oh baby,” he groaned as she used the beaded wetness at the tip to add silky moisture to the increasing speed of her touch.
Lost in Aidan, Meg barely felt it when he undid the button at her waist. It was only when he was dragging her to her side so they lay face-to-face did she feel his fingers skim the edge of her thin panties before he slid one inside to trace the line of her slit.
A wanton wave of pleasure assailed her and she fumbled briefly, her hand fisting his cock even harder than she intended.
With his free hand, Aidan stilled her movements, his breath escaping on a harsh rush of air. “You’re so wet. So hot. And it’s been so gods damned long, Meg. I need you. Now.”
The impossible pressure dug its claws into both of them and the hard, urgent moments whipped into something full of dark desperation as the pleasure made them both its slaves.
Both made quick work of the clothing that remained between them before Aidan returned to her, his body poised over her.
With one hand on his back, she used the other to guide him to her. A low moan escaped her throat as he filled her. With that, the long years of aching memories and a deep-seated emptiness were replaced with the exquisite reality of him.
Aidan.
And then there was no room for memories as the present took her. With long, hard strokes he filled her, their bodies joining and rejoining in a matched rhythm that demanded everything.
Meg reveled in his heavy body that moved over hers, in the harsh control he maintained that corded the muscles in his neck, in the low moans that telegraphed his pleasure. As her own built under the pressure, she pushed herself to give more.
And in the giving she fell over that glorious edge.
* * *
Aidan thrust one last time as her body wrung everything from him. He buried his face in the soft skin of her neck, the thin sheen of sweat there dragging an almost caveman-like satisfaction from the very depths of him.
She’d been pleasured.
Well.
She pressed small kisses on his temple and he slowly lifted his head. The mi
ndless haze that had filled his vision faded as her flushed face and ripe, wet lips broke into a broad smile.
“It really is true.”
He smiled in return before shifting to the side and pulling her against him. “What’s really true?”
“You don’t forget how to do that.”
Aidan lifted an eyebrow. “You were worried about forgetting?”
“The thought had crossed my mind. It’s been a long time.”
The meaning under her words finally registered and he shifted to move up onto an elbow. “How long?”
“When was the last time we were together?”
Something rather fierce and possessive unfurled in his chest as what she offered to him became clear. “There’s been no one else?”
“No,” she said softly as she lifted a hand to his face. “There’s been no one else.”
He struggled to make sense of the gift, intangible in value and offered freely. “Surely that can’t be.”
“Oh, it be,” she laughed lightly.
Aidan heard the hints of embarrassment under the words and fought to sooth her, surprised when no words rose up to his aide. “I . . . but we . . .”
“Why do you think I clung to you like a desperate monkey yesterday in the library when you kissed me?”
He couldn’t hold back the laughter as he once again pulled her close. “I was too busy clinging back to notice.”
When she only smiled in return, he slid his arm out from underneath her and moved so that he lay over her, the length of their bodies fully flush. “Speaking of clinging,” he whispered with a row of kisses down her throat, on a path to her breasts, “I find the need to cling to you desperately once more.”
Aidan received no arguments when she wrapped her arms fully around his neck and pulled him close for a long, lazy kiss.
* * *
Meg glanced at the small cup of espresso at her elbow, the warm, rich scent inviting her to take the first sip.
“Why are we here again?” She didn’t want to come off like a petulant child and she knew full well they had a lot to deal with in the form of Tyrus’s threat, but nothing would have pleased her better than to spend a good month wrapped up in Aidan, sprawled across that very large bed of his.
His eyes flashed with a wicked gleam that had a wave of need spiraling through her belly like wildfire. “As opposed to my bed?”
“I didn’t mean that, exactly.”
He leaned in and pressed a loud, smacking kiss to her lips. “But you were thinking it.”
Meg wanted to be shocked—knew she probably should be—but all she felt was sheer, unadulterated happiness.
After one more kiss—this time slower and more deliberate—Aidan turned back toward an interactive station embedded in the tabletop and began typing commands into an on-screen keyboard. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner. But your comment about the library gave me the idea.”
“From the size of yours, I got the idea you had all the books you needed at home. What are we doing here?”
“Our little collection is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, my dear. This is where the good stuff is.”
Meg looked around once more, the rich smell of worn paper and old wooden shelves setting off one of her earliest memories. “I haven’t been here since I was a child and forced to come here for my lessons.”
“That’s too bad. I come here all the time.”
“You do?” The thought intrigued her and as she turned it over in her mind, Meg realized it fit.
Aidan placed a finger against her lips as the librarian-slash-hostess placed a foamy cappuccino on the table next to him. “The books you requested will be up shortly,” she added in a low tone.
Meg looked around the austere room. Large, marble columns rose what looked to be about three stories and a heavily-painted ceiling arched overhead.
The library was one of the foremost centers of learning on Mount Olympus and home to every work ever published. While the gods had always been known for their capricious whims and equally changeable natures, their love of learning was absolute.
Knowledge was power and no one believed that more than the immortal members of the Pantheon.
The fact no one was here besides the two of them was a different matter entirely. Just because the gods liked access to information didn’t necessarily mean they were all that anxious to spend their time enmeshed in it.
Still fascinated by the idea of Aidan spending time here and unwilling to let the matter drop, Meg waited for the librarian to disappear before pressing him again. “You really come here all the time?”
In all the years she’d sought to avoid him, she’d never imagined they could have nearly crossed paths. Although she did much of her work on earth, she spent the majority of her free time on Mount Olympus.
“I do.”
“Looking for what?”
Aidan shrugged as he looked up from the screen. “Whatever.”
“I don’t know why you hide from the truth.”
“What truth?”
“You’re a scholar to the core.”
The same hesitation he’d shown earlier crept into his eyes. “It’s part of what I do. In service to Themis.”
Meg was intrigued. She’d heard of Themis, of course, and knew what Aidan had become after he allied with the goddess of justice, but she didn’t actually know what he did. “Like a job?”
“Sort of. All my warrior brothers and I realized early on we’d be far more effective in our battles if we actually had a base of knowledge and unique skill sets that contribute to the greater good of what we’re doing. So we all do something different.”
“Montana mentioned something yesterday about finding Quinn in the security center.”
“Exactly. That’s his area of expertise. He’s always loved gadgets and thinking up ways to catch assholes. Modern technology has allowed him to hone those skills to a sharp point. Hell, he invented our first security system via a set of ropes, pulleys and a series of heavy boulders you didn’t want to be on the business end of.”
“And the others?”
“Archaeology, the criminal underworld, rogue members of the Pantheon. Everyone focuses on a different area of expertise.”
“What does archaeology have to do with service to Themis?”
“Do you have any idea the power housed in some antiquities? Our Leo, Brody, finds them and destroys or disables them, whichever’s easiest.”
“So you’re the scholar.”
Aidan nodded, but the discomfort she’d sensed earlier faded as he warmed to his subject. “In the same way antiquities have some serious properties, ancient texts are often full of ways to disarm enemies, manage problems or understand where something came from.”
The librarian returned pushing a cart of books and she saw Aidan’s bright blue gaze warm with their arrival. Something opened inside of her in that moment, as she watched the man she loved do something he loved.
In the same way the moments they shared gave her an insight into his soul, it was still only one piece. One part of who he was.
When Aidan lifted the first book and began flipping gently through the old, brittle pages, Meg realized she was being given the opportunity to see yet another facet.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Aidan reached for his coffee and willed the caffeine to work its magic. They’d been at this for hours and he still hadn’t put his finger on exactly what he was looking for.
The information he sought eluded them, despite the fact that he knew it was there.
The answers were all there, if only he could dig deeply enough. If only he had enough patience to find them.
Tyrus was sponsored by someone. Oh sure, he’d managed to stay off the collective radar of he and his warrior brothers and even Themis, presumably, but he was there. As immortals, they left a mark on each other and on the history of humanity that unfolded each and every day.
He just had to find the thread.
Meg wa
lked back to the table and added a couple of large volumes to the pile. “I’ve been through every book I could find on your father’s battles as well as Tyrus’s father’s battles. Nothing’s turned up.”
Aidan glanced up at her, the disgusted note in her voice obvious. A small moue turned down the edges of her lips and as he caught sight of her, something hard slammed into his gut.
“What?”
Whatever control he’d always prided himself on snapped as need and desire formed a knot in his belly. “Can you come here for a minute?”
Her head tilted slightly in confusion but she followed him as he walked to the nearby stacks, the heavy bookcases rising around them.
“Is everything o—?”
He never even gave her time to finish the sentence as he pulled her against his body. He took the impact of the movement, presenting his back to the heavy wooden bookcase while he pulled her close. Aidan felt her momentary confusion as her lips stayed solid against his, before recognition hit and she opened for him. Her arms wrapped around his neck and then she was there with him, riding the moment, feeding the conflagration that burned around them even as she took greedily from it.
Mindless with need, he took and took, desperate to feast on her. He dragged his tongue through her mouth once more, the exquisite sensation of having her meet him and drive him harder tightening his body nearly to the point of pain.
“Aidan!” she whispered against his lips.
“What?” he mumbled, stroking her through the thin barrier of her clothes.
“We can’t do this here.” Despite her protests, she didn’t break the contact of their mouths, instead pressing her lips against his with maddening insistence.
“Then let’s go.”
The air grew heavy around them as Aidan transported them back to the brownstone, the tools they were accessing in the library a distant memory.
“That’s handy,” she added dryly while his bedroom shimmered back into view around them.
“I’m nothing if not efficient,” he added before unsnapping her slacks and dragging them down her legs.
Meg felt his hands reach for her blouse and she couldn’t stop the tease that sprang to her lips. “Who knew old books were such an aphrodisiac?”