Love's Immortal Passion

by Cat Johnson

  “Mmm. You’re awake.” He nuzzled her neck, while rhythmically pressing his hardness against her. His hand slid down, raising her knee and opening her to him, and Bliss let him slide into her. He proceeded to love her once more.

  The next time she woke brilliant light filled the room. It was most likely the warmth of the sunlight slanting through the window and hitting her back that woke her. Bliss stretched and felt the pull of sore muscles in places she’d never been aware of before. She knew he would be gone, but she rolled over and looked anyway. If he was still there, she’d get to see him, but he’d also see her and know of their deception.

  Luckily Bliss found herself alone in the large bed. Her and Psyche’s secret was still safe.

  Why the bed was so enormous, she didn’t know. It could easily have been half the size and it wouldn’t have mattered since they’d spent the entire night on top of each other. Even the few hours they’d slept he’d remained touching her, usually with their limbs intertwined, as if he was afraid she’d disappear. Perhaps he did think she’d try to escape. She, or rather Psyche, had come here against her will, practically as his prisoner. Though where could she go? Between the servants watching them and the elevation on the secluded mountaintop, she’d have no chance of escape.

  Remembering the many times she’d cried out in pleasure, she realized she had no desire to leave. With a sigh Bliss also realized she needed to get out of the comfort of her lover’s large bed and back to her sisters.

  Her lover. She had a lover. Psyche’s lover to be accurate, but hers none the less. The delicious soreness between Bliss’s legs was testament to that. And tonight they’d both be back here, together once again. But for now, her sisters would be worried about her.

  Stiffly, Bliss rose from the bed, realizing the room reeked of their lovemaking. Her cheeks heated. Could the servants smell? Would they know what they’d done in that room all night? Were they even capable of judgment? Bliss considered that as she searched the floor for her chiton and dressed.

  She had barely entered her own chamber before she found herself surrounded by her sisters and Hagne.

  “Oh, Bliss. Thank the gods you’re all right.” Psyche grabbed her by both arms and pulled her close into a hug.

  “What was he like? Did you see him?” Adelfa stood next to Psyche looking more curious than concerned.

  Hagne hovered nearby wringing her hands. Bliss chose to address her before the others. “I’d like to bathe, if I could.”

  The servant sprung into action. “Of course, mistress, and I’ll get you fresh clothes as well.”

  Bliss nodded, weary.

  “Was it horrible?” Psyche’s question was barely a whisper.

  “No.” She shook her head and managed a comforting smile for her sister. “I’m fine. I swear. Just tired.”

  “Did the monster force himself on you all night?”

  Bliss’s gaze went to Adelfa who’d asked the question. The last thing Bliss was in the mood to do was satisfy her sister’s morbid curiosity. Though she also couldn’t further perpetuate the opinion that their host, if she could call him that, was a monster. Not answering the question would do just that.

  “He’s a man, Adelfa. Just a man. Not a monster.”

  Psyche frowned. “Really? But the servants, and his voice filling the hall even though we couldn’t see him.”

  “I can’t explain any of that, Psyche. Maybe he has a connection to the gods. I don’t know.” Maybe he was one for all she knew. That perhaps might explain why after only one night with him, she couldn’t wait to be with him again. The gods were reputed to be irresistible to mere mortals. At least she’d heard that Aphrodite was. “And to answer Adelfa’s previous question, no I did not see him, but from what I could tell he is just like every other man.”

  If every other man knew how to make her tremble with pleasure from barely a touch and could love her body until she nearly wept with joy. Bliss thought of the many parts of him she’d become intimately familiar with and shook at the memory. She glanced up and noticed both her sisters watching her closely. She didn’t want to discuss last night with them. For some selfish reason she needed to keep the details to herself.

  Just in time to save Bliss from any further questions, Hagne reappeared carrying a fresh chiton. “Mistress. I can take you to the bathing chamber, if you wish.”

  “Yes, please.” Nightfall would be there before she knew it. Her heart sped at the thought, but before tonight she needed to get clean and rest.

  Chapter Four

  The angle of the rays of light slanting through the window arch of her chamber dropped lower and the now familiar flutter low in Bliss’s stomach began again. Any moment, just as it had for the past weeks, a knock would sound on the door and a ghostly mist would appear to lead her to his chamber.

  She was ready. Glancing down at her wrist, she fingered the latest trinket he’d bestowed upon her. He’d begun giving her a gift each day beginning their second night together. Beautiful, insanely valuable items that unfortunately had the side effect of making her sisters envious.

  Perhaps Bliss should be passing the gifts along to Psyche, since the giver thought she was the one he had bestowed them upon, but she couldn’t bear to part with them. That had nothing to do with the monetary value. Gazing upon the jewels and silks and trinkets comforted her during the long hours of each day when she was apart from him.

  Even now, so close to sunset, she craved and missed him with a near painful intensity. Why she still waited for the servant to get her she didn’t know. Bliss could well find her own way to the chamber by now. She fought the urge to go there now herself and not wait. At this point, she far preferred the bedchamber belonging to her lover than the one she shared with her sisters.

  Bliss glanced at them, huddled together on Psyche’s bed across the room. Things had become different recently and she didn’t like the change. Her sisters had withdrawn and grown secretive. Even now, Psyche’s gaze met hers and then broke away.

  Sad for the loss of the close bond with her sisters, Bliss let out a sigh. Perhaps it was her fault. Since she spent every night in his chamber and a good portion of each day resting, she’d withdrawn from them too. They’d long since stopped asking about what occurred when she went to him, and Bliss had no desire to tell them. The relationship with her siblings suffering was the last thing she’d imagined happening when she suggested she take Psyche’s place.

  Bliss heard the soft knock on the door and got one last glimpse of the sadness and regret on her own face in the mirror’s reflection as she laid the headscarf over her hair. Hagne was there next to her, adjusting it so it hung evenly and hid her face completely.

  “Thank you, Hagne.”

  “Of course, mistress.”

  Bliss glanced in her sisters’ direction again. She didn’t have much time. The ghostly servant awaited her, but besides the sudden strain she felt from Adelfa and Psyche, something else dampened her days and marred the happiness she found each night in the arms of her lover. “Hagne, may I ask you a question? A personal one?”

  “Yes, mistress. Anything.”

  “Do you…do my sisters… What I saw…” Bliss stopped and tried to figure the best way to ask.

  Hagne’s head dipped in a nod. “You want to know if they forced me.”

  Bliss nodded. Hagne’s gaze shot to Psyche. The look on her face softened and Bliss’s suspicions were confirmed. “I can see your love for Psyche, Hagne, but what of Adelfa?”

  Hagne shrugged. “I would do anything my mistress Psyche asked of me.”

  The knock sounded on the door again and Bliss knew she had to go. “Please then, Hagne, do this for me as your mistress. If at any time either one asks you to do something you don’t want to do, come to me. Please. Promise me this.”

  “I promise.”

  She could delay no longer. “I have to go.”

  Hagne scurried to open the door then stepped far back from it. They all tended to keep a distance from t
he eerie figures who brought them food and came to summon Bliss, or rather who they thought was Psyche, to their master’s bedchamber.

  Pushing aside the nervous anticipation that still fluttered within her each time she went to him, Bliss glanced back one more time at those within the chamber and left to await him.

  Inside the room where she’d spent every night since her arrival, she paced impatiently. Finally the sun dipped low below the horizon leaving the room in darkness and barely a second later, as if he had been waiting, Bliss heard the door of the chamber open.

  She sensed him move toward the window where she always waited for him. When he reached her, he wrapped his arms around her and sighed out softly, “Psyche. My love.”

  His voice, now familiar to her, filled the room. The pain of his calling her by her sister’s name, also familiar, filled her.

  “My love,” she echoed softly.

  His lips met hers before he pulled away. “You’re unhappy.”

  Bliss could hear the frown in his voice.

  “That was not a question. You already know the answer. You know what I feel without my telling you.” Thankfully, he didn’t seem to know what she thought. If he did, he’d know Psyche was not the sister he’d been making love to these past weeks.

  He hesitated for the briefest of moments. “I do.”

  “How?”

  “It’s a gift I have.” He shrugged. “Tell me what has you unhappy, my love.”

  She sighed. Bliss couldn’t exactly tell him that over their weeks together she’d fallen in love with him, a man she’d never seen who was also in love with her sister. Nor could she admit the pain his loving Psyche caused her when it was she who shared his bed nightly. “Our time is short enough already. I don’t want to waste a moment of it.”

  He drew in a sharp breath. “So much love, and so much pain. The love I’ll gladly claim, but please tell me the pain is not because of me.”

  His hand came up to cup her cheek.

  It was as if he could see into her very soul. Aside from the lie, the deception that would always be between them, she’d gladly invite him inside her heart and mind. “I’m not so gifted as you. I must ask and trust your answer. What do you feel, my love?”

  “During the hours I spend here with you, I’m happier than I’ve ever been.” He paused, and then laughed, a cherubic giggle that made him sound young and carefree. “And my answer made you happy, as well. I’m glad. So very glad.”

  He was right. Her heart had soared at his answer and rose even higher when he scooped her up and carried her to the bed. His mouth roamed her body and his hands undressed her in a dance that had become routine.

  “I can’t begin to tell you how it makes me feel that you’re mine.” His perusal of her moved down her body as he spoke. “I crave you while we’re apart. I wonder what you do days when I’m not here. I relive what we do together nights and I imagine what I want to do. My body may be absent, but my heart and mind are here with you every moment of every day. That is what I feel. I never want you to have to wonder again.”

  He kissed down her stomach as the muscles jumped from his touch, raising his head only long enough to speak those last words, then there was no more talk. His lips left a burning trail on her skin, all the way until he settled between her thighs and then his tongue assaulted her tender flesh. Her hips rose as he pushed her pleasure higher until she thought she would die from the intensity. Finally he relented and ended the sweet torture. He crawled back over her, and then his face hovered near hers again.

  Covering her body with his, he slid inside her while claiming her mouth with possessive kisses before he pulled away. “Mine. My love. You’re all mine.” His powerful strokes reinforced the intensity of his words. She was his.

  Perhaps hours later, she couldn’t be sure, wrapped in his arms, her nude body tangled with his and the covers, Bliss startled awake. Listening through the darkness she finally identified the sound as that of the doorknob rattling.

  They’d never been disturbed before. She had a feeling not one of the servants would dare disrupt their master in his chamber. Yet Bliss heard the distinct sound of rustling outside their door as the knob jiggled again. Frightened, she slid from her lover’s grasp and lowered her feet to the cold marble floor. Blindly she felt for and finally found her chiton on the ground where he’d dropped it after he’d stripped her bare before their lovemaking.

  She slipped the garment over her head but couldn’t locate her headscarf. The door swung open and a wedge of light showed through the widening crack. Bliss’s heart began to pound when she realized no matter who was at the door, they had a light and she would finally be able to gaze upon the face of her love. Fear mingled with anticipation as the door swung wider and then the mystery of who would dare disturb them was revealed.

  Bliss sprung toward the entry. “What are you doing?”

  “Exposing the monster who imprisons us all,” Adelfa said in a much louder voice than that with which Bliss had asked her panicked question.

  Trying to block her sister’s entrance with her body, Bliss stood in front of them and held the door so they couldn’t open it farther. “You can’t. That is his one rule. No one can see him.”

  “I can’t let you do this for me any longer, Bliss,” Psyche explained softly. “It’s obvious he’s bewitched you. This must end now before we lose you completely.”

  “He hasn’t bewitched me—“ Bliss’s protest was cut short as Adelfa pushed past her and with the oil lamp in hand, strode boldly to the bed.

  Bliss dove after her sister, trying to grab the lamp and take it from the room before he woke. The jostling caused the oil to spill and as Bliss watched in mingled horror and awe, she saw the drops hit the cheek of the most beautiful man she’d ever seen in person.

  His eyes flew open and instead of love, she saw surprise followed by anger and pain clearly written across his features.

  She had been very wrong. This was no man. This was a god, and not just any god, either. His golden curls and his youthful appearance were those she’d seen so many times immortalized in both portraits and sculpture. She should have realized long ago if not from the majestic lair he’d brought them to, then from his ability to read her every emotion. This was the god of love. Her love, her lover, was none other than Eros.

  His gaze went from Adelfa and her lamp, to Bliss whose hand still gripped Adelfa’s forearm as if to help her light the room. Then his glance settled on Psyche’s fear-filled face as she stood just behind them nearer the door.

  “You betrayed me.” The voice she hadn’t heard since their arrival, the one that shook the very foundations of the house as well as the ground beneath it, boomed, echoing off the walls and making her tremble. “Get out. All of you!”

  He spoke directly to Psyche but it was Bliss’s heart that felt the blow of the words. Bliss fought the urge to vomit as the non-corporeal servants pushed her and her sisters from both the chamber and the palace. She’d had the love of Eros and lost it. He thought she’d betrayed him by lighting his face, but she hadn’t.

  She turned back to her sisters, the cause of their banishment. It was then she realized through the haze of tears that they all stood in the dim light of predawn on the side of the mountain, but where there should have been Eros's massive palace behind them, there was nothing but mist and a frightened Hagne surrounded by their bags.

  Near hysteria, Bliss’s mind raced. Would he forgive them? Even if he did, it would be Psyche he forgave, not her. To him, Bliss was Adelfa’s accomplice in betraying him. And if she dared to tell him it was her in his bed each night, letting him love her while calling her by her sister’s name, the betrayal would be tenfold.

  She shook her head, confused and in more pain than any human should be able to bear. “Why?”

  “I wanted to save you.” Psyche’s voice shook with her tears.

  “By angering him?” Bliss’s voice rose higher. “I didn’t ask to be saved.”

  “Of course not
. Why would you?” Adelfa took a step closer to her. “He would have made you his queen. No, more than that, a goddess. Goddess Bliss to stand next to the mighty Eros, God of Love. No wonder you went so willingly to his bed. When did you figure out who he was, Bliss? I’m betting the moment you saw his magnificent palace and decided to make it your own.”

  “You did this out of your hateful jealousy and envy. You were jealous of my happiness. You couldn’t stand I had someone who loved me and you don’t.”

  “He didn’t love you. He loved Psyche,” Adelfa spat back, trying to grab Bliss’s hands as she stepped forward and aimed a slap at her face.

  Bliss’s pain and anger erupted into a blind rage. With a scream of frustration she dove onto Adelfa and pummeled her sister with both fists and words. It wasn’t until Adelfa was huddled in a ball in an attempt to protect herself from the blows Bliss rained upon her that Hagne managed to pull her away. Bliss felt the young girl’s body shaking and that brought back some semblance of sanity.

  Psyche ran to Adelfa’s crumpled body on the ground and looked up at Bliss with fear in her eyes. With her own body shaking, Bliss backed away, horrified at her own behavior. “It doesn’t matter. We have to get home.” She glanced back at where there used to stand the place where she’d spent some of the happiest moments of her life.

  Bliss picked up her bag and started toward the steep path down the mountain. The sun had risen over the horizon enough she could make out the rocky route they’d have to navigate on foot. With no way to contact her father, they were on their own until they reached a village, or at least a homestead. Concentrating on a plan to get the group safely home dulled the screaming pain in her heart but she knew it would return soon enough.

  “Come. We should go.” Bliss glanced back at her sisters in time to see Adelfa’s face contorted in anger as she leapt at her. The weight of Adelfa’s body striking hers drove her to the ground. Bliss felt sharp pain as she struck hard rock, before it all dissolved into darkness.