by Lazu, Sotia
Anthony let her have the guest room and even told her the door locked from the inside, so she’d feel safe.
In the morning, he took her clothes shopping, and didn’t once try to peek while she was in the changing room or convince her to buy revealing, skintight outfits. The only time he piped up was to tell her not to forget a pair of sneakers. And he wasn’t annoyed when she couldn’t decide which top to get or what color she preferred.
“How do you feel about a walk on the beach? Maybe we can go for a swim, too,” Anthony said when they were back at his place, her purchases put away.
Panic clogged her throat and stole her breath. Not the beach. Not the sea. “Can’t we stay in? You could paint me.”
His eyes lit up. “I’d love that.”
She asked him if she should wear something specific, but he told her he wanted her to be comfortable, so she stayed in the jeans and jumper she’d worn on the way back from the stores.
They went to the studio, and Anthony asked her to look out the window.
She wished he hadn’t. The sea reminded her of Delphinos, and she should be forgetting him.
No. Never forgetting him again. Just letting him go.
“Beautiful,” Anthony muttered. He didn’t speak again, the only sound in the room the scratching of his brushes against the canvas.
Halie’s body was going stiff by the time he said he was done for the day. He dipped his brushes in a jar with a clear liquid that soon swirled with color, and then helped her on her feet. He didn’t step back, so their faces were inches from each other when she stood. This was where it all came together—their first kiss. Halie closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see his were blue and not bright green when he’d slant his lips over hers.
Crash.
Halie jumped back, her heart hammering in her chest.
The noise came from the direction of the kitchen, and was followed by more crashing and what sounded like a door banging against the wall.
Buffy growled, but a loud, deep rumble shut him up.
“Stay here,” Anthony said. “I’ll check it out.”
“Halie.” Delphinos’ voice reverberated through the house.
She gave Anthony an apologetic look, while happiness and dread roiled in her stomach. “He’s here for me.”
Anthony placed himself between her and the door of the studio. “Your ex? I’ll protect you.”
“In here,” she called out. Delphinos came this far. He’d find her anyway. She only made her location known to keep him from wrecking the place, not because she couldn’t wait to see him. Nah uh.
Footsteps thudded toward them, and she gently pushed Anthony aside. “He won’t hurt me,” she said. “Ever.” Though he might wipe the floor with any guy who stood in his way.
“Are you...” Anthony kept talking, but she no longer heard him.
Her senses were attuned to the naked man who stood in the doorway, green eyes blazing.
“You came,” she said. “You shouldn’t be here.”
“You shouldn’t be here. You belong with me, Halie, and I’m done explaining this to you. If you don’t come with me right now, Poseidon be my witness, I’ll throw you over my shoulder and carry you out.” Delphinos strode to her, not sparing Anthony a glance.
She chuckled. Would he? “Don’t be sil—”
He leaned down, shoved his shoulder against her belly, wrapped an arm around her legs, and lifted.
Halie kicked the air. “Put me down. I must stay here.”
He smacked her ass, sending a delicious tingle to her womb. “You’re coming with me, and that’s that.”
She should be fighting him off. Should be trying to get him to let go.
She was done fighting off love.
His feet were on sand now, his steps slower.
“Put me down? Please?” Halie said.
He didn’t, but he shifted her so she was cradled in his arms. “You’re not going back to him,” he said.
Halie shook her head. “Are you sure about this? My father won’t be happy. The witch—”
“I don’t care about anyone but you. I want you for the rest of time.”
She looped her arms around his neck and kissed him gently on the mouth. “Take me under?”
The words were barely out of her mouth, before Delphinos let out a guttural cry and ran into the sea. When the water came up to his thighs, he said, “Ready?”
She pulled down Anthony’s shorts and kicked them away. “Well beyond that.”
He plunged into a wave, and she had a tail again. How did she think she could give up on this sense of freedom that made her heart blossom?
He helped her climb onto his back, and she held on with one arm at a time, as she slipped off the borrowed T-shirt.
“Hold on tight.” He reached over his shoulder, to cup her cheek. “We’re going home.”
“No.” She felt his body tense, and hurried to add, “Not yet. I want to be with you first. On our beach.”
Delphinos clasped both her hands where they rested on his chest, and used his tail to propel them faster. They surfaced right outside Santorini as the sun peeked above the horizon, and the secluded beach was blissfully empty.
As soon as she had legs again, Halie wrapped them around him and climbed around to his front. “I missed you.” It had been a little more than a day since he was last inside her, but she meant the words.
He raised his face to the sun, and she caught a glimpse of pain in his gaze before he kissed her again with savage hunger. Why didn’t he say anything? Did he change his mind about them?
“Are you... Is everything all right?” she muttered.
“Shh...” He kneaded her buttocks with one hand and buried the other in her hair, keeping her captive while he plundered her mouth.
Halie’s worry melted away when his thoughts echoed in her head. Doesn’t matter. Mine. My Halie. Love. Need. Mine.
She wasn’t supposed to hear him when they were in human form, but she didn’t care. He loved her, and he was hers as much as she was his.
His cock, thick and hard, slid along her labia. She wanted nothing more than to feel him inside her, but first she had to taste him. She lowered her legs, and disappointment clouded his face, before it turned into surprise when she caressed his length and waggled her eyebrows.
She tangled her fingers with his, and he let her lead him out on the sand. She held his gaze as she dropped on her knees before him.
“Halie...”
She shushed him and pushed his shaft up, so she could run her tongue up his length, then wrapped her hand around him. Her fingers were an inch apart, and that she couldn’t encircle him made her all the more eager to stretch her lips around him.
She sucked on the tip of his cock and let him push inside her mouth. She wanted to draw it out, but she couldn’t pace herself as she slid her mouth up and down his length. She sucked at every upstroke before taking him in again. Faster. Deeper.
“Poseidon.” Delphinos groaned and pumped his hips, making her gag. “Halie, you need to stop. I’m going to come.”
Halie’s jaw ached, but she kept sucking as she raised her head. She let her teeth graze the underside of his glans, and stroked the velvet skin with her tongue.
“Enough.” He pushed his hand in her locks and tugged, until she reluctantly withdrew with a wet plop and stood, so he could claim her mouth again. Without breaking the kiss, he helped her down to the sand and lay on top of her, and Halie folded her legs around his hips.
Her body was a ball of raw need. She needed him. Deep inside. She wedged her hand between their bodies and grasped his shaft, then angled her hips so he nudged at her entrance. “Take me. Make me yours,” she thought at him.
Delphinos met her gaze. “I can hear you.” Awe colored his voice, and then he was piercing her, stretching her to the point of pain.
Halie didn’t care. The throbbing in her pussy stoked the fire in her belly with each thrust of Delphinos’ hips. This time she didn’t look aw
ay from the feelings simmering in his eyes. Instead, she tried to show him how much he meant to her—how she’d been his even when she denied it.
The desperation with which he kissed her minutes ago faded, as he drove inside her in long, languid strokes, his cock rubbing the bundle of nerves and making her body hum like a Midshipman fish.
Delphinos sucked on her nipple and circled her clitoris with his thumb. She bucked her hips into his touch. He always knew how to touch her—how to pluck at her body’s chords and make it sing.
“I thought I lost you forever,” he murmured against her wet skin.
His hair was matted with sweat and seawater when she grabbed a fistful and forced him to look at her again. “I belong with you. To you. I don’t care what that prophecy says. My heart is yours.”
“Halie...”
“I love you.”
He crushed his mouth to hers and pinned her in place with a punishing grip on her hips, as he pumped harder, pounding her into the sand. The fire in her womb roared. She dug her nails in his shoulders and fell over the edge, pleasure crashing into her in waves and pulling her apart, until she was no more than white foam, spreading along the shore.
Chapter Thirteen - Delphinos
Delphinos thought he’d felt perfect bliss before, every time Halie came apart in his arms, but as he spilled inside her now, their flesh slapping together and their bodies contorted in ecstasy, he realized he’d been wrong.
This was happiness.
This was heaven.
This was abruptly over, as Halie faded, and then vanished. He fell forward, but before he crashed face-first into the sand, he dissolved too. Such an odd sensation, losing control of his limbs, and then having them disappear altogether. Odder still, when his brain was still muddled with the force of his release.
He needed to find a new superlative for odd, because oddest wasn’t adequate to describe how he felt when he rematerialized on top of Halie’s naked body on the cold marble floor of Circe’s great hall.
Of course. He’d challenged the witch, and now she’d demand restitution.
He begrudgingly withdrew from Halie’s warm body and stood defiantly in front of the witch, who looked as ancient as ever, the dry skin of her face plastered to her skull, her milky eyes sunken, and her hair floating around her head in wild white tufts. She was dressed this time, thankfully.
“What...?” Halie sounded dazed.
Not that he blamed her—he was surprised his legs didn’t give out.
His body still tingled with his orgasm. “I told the witch I’d kill to be with you. Now she wants to test that.” He didn’t look back. If the witch snuffed out his candle, his last memory of Halie would be the love shining in her eyes, not her worry over his fate. “Do I get a weapon, witch, or must I use my bare hands?”
Halie gasped. In a split second, she was between Circe and him, facing the witch. “You can’t fight him,” she said. “Your prophecy was wrong. I could never love a human, when I already love Delphinos. Can’t you let him go, to make up for your mistake?”
“My love—” He put a hand on her shoulder and tried to move her out of the way.
Halie slapped his touch away and rounded on him. “And you.” She poked his chest with her index finger. “What did you think would happen to me, if she killed you?”
“I thought you’d find another mate in a century or two.”
“You’re the only one for me, you giant ocean sunfish.” She fisted her hands and pounded at his chest, while he tried to hold her still.
“Can you make her forget if I lose?” he asked the witch.
She arched a thin eyebrow. “I do not meddle with people’s free will.”
Delphinos threw his hands in the air. “Now you have principles? You lied about the prophecy and tried to separate us. I ought to turn into a giant scorpion and use my last breath to pierce your blackened heart.”
“So dramatic.” Circe rolled her eyes, and for a long second, Delphinos feared they’d drop into her skull. “You are lucky I enjoy insolence,” she said, “but do not overdo it, lest I change my mind.”
He opened his mouth to tell her he couldn’t care less about what she enjoyed, when she roared, “Silence.”
Invisible binds wrapped around his head and covered his mouth. He tried to transform into a man-sized octopus, fully planning to choke the life out of the witch before he perished, but he couldn’t move.
Halie wasn’t faring much better, judging by her indignant grunts and stiff posture.
“I never lied, nor was I mistaken.” The years slid off Circe, until she was the voluptuous blue-eyed brunette once more. “I am not to blame for your miscomprehension of my words. I said your Nereid would give her heart to a man who would love her upon dry land. Never did I say that man would be a mortal.”
Did she mean... Was Delphinos Halie’s prophesied mate? Had they lost all this time together the past century because of a misunderstanding?
He glared daggers at the witch.
She threw her head back and laughed. “I’d better tell you the rest of it, before you work yourself into a frenzy. I’m not going to fight you, daimon. Again you twisted what I said, to fit your narrow-minded perception of me. The reason I said you should do your best to be with her, was that you are fated to be together for eternity.”
Delphinos tried to think of a witty comeback, but really, he should kneel, apologize, and grovel. He was willing to, when the witch flicked her wrist. “Go. Enjoy the rest of forever together.”
Halie collapsed back into him, and he picked her up and carried her out of the palace, through the forest, and into the water.
Under the sea.
Home.
Where they could just be.
Epilogue
Eros walked Cerberus to the edge of the water and smiled. “I could be happy with a girl like Halie, you know,” he said.
“No you couldn’t.” Circe walked up behind him and leaned on his shoulder. “She’s too vanilla for your tastes. Like her sister.” She tilted her head toward Pherusa, who sat on the sand, wiping furiously at her eyes with the backs of her hands. Moping for her Titan.
Eros skated one hand down Circe’s back and inside the slit of her long chiton. “You’re wicked for letting her suffer. You could tell her the truth. Could have told Halie and Delphinos the truth, to begin with.”
She spread her legs enough for him to slide his hand between her thighs. “Someone taught me people don’t appreciate things that come easy. Besides, if you didn’t like my plan, you didn’t have to play along, Anthony.”
He laughed. “You know I love a little role play.”
Circe arched a perfect brow. “Plus Halie’s hot.”
“Nah.” He slid one long finger inside her pussy. “You know me—I’m all about true love.”
“That, and sweaty, kinky sex.” She bit his earlobe and dissolved into thin air.
“Hey.” Eros spun around, to see her waking up the stairs to her palace. He looked around. They were no longer on the hidden cove where Pherusa mourned her long-lost love, but on Circe’s island.
“You coming?” Circe asked.
“Only after you do.” He looked at the three-headed dog that everyone else saw as a Labrador. “Keep an eye out for the old ones. I’ll be busy for the next few hours.”
Circe laughed. He liked her laugh.
He ran after her and caught up to her as the gates swung open. Her bed was as soft as clouds, but they never made it beyond the threshold before he tackled her to the floor and rolled on top of her.
He liked her moans more.
The End
But this is only the beginning for this world where Greek mythology comes to life. The Titans are awakening, and their powers are threatening to unravel them and destroy the world. All that can stop them? Bonding with their true soulmates.
And you know who’s first, right?
Keep reading for a teaser from TITANS, Book 1 – A Nereid for the Titan.
&nbs
p; “Stop,” Pherusa pulled him back from her father. “Look at me. I swear to you, on everything I hold dear, that neither Father nor I had anything to do with your capture.”
It took everything he had to withdraw from her warm touch that made his skin tingle. “My capture? I was in stasis, buried alive beneath the bottom of the sea, for ages.”
“Three thousand years, yesterday. I counted them,” she whispered.
Had she? Could he be wrong? Could his imprisonment have cost her as much as it did him? No. He’d been the one trapped in darkness. Alone. “You also swore you loved me and would help me hide from Zeus, and I believed you. You think your oaths hold any weight now?”
“It wasn’t me. Father was worried that night, and he implored me to stay here and let Aphros bring you to me. I shouldn’t have listened, but I would never knowingly hurt you. You have to believe me.” She took a step back, her gaze pleading with him, but it wouldn’t work. She’d once convinced him he was her everything. Now, he knew better.
“Every time you open your mouth, more lies come out. No matter. I’m not here for you; I’m here for your father. ” To Nereus, he said, “You have a day to hand me your kingdom, before I destroy it.”
A sea daimon with green hair, whom Prometheus didn’t recognize, stepped up. His hands were bare, but sea daimons could change form at will, so being weaponless made him no less dangerous. “King Nereus, let us detain him. He may be more reasonable after a few hours locked away.”
Prometheus laughed. “I was locked away longer than you’ve been alive, little man. See what it did to my reason? Make a move, and I’ll show you my true form before I bring this palace down on all of us. I have nothing to lose.”
“No blood will be spilled because of me,” Nereus said. “But I cannot hand you—”
The old crone behind Nereus put a skeletal arm on the king’s shoulder and whispered something in his ear.
He shook his head, never looking away from Prometheus. “Titan, know you are making a mistake. You had nothing but allies in this room until you chose to lose us. I will not yield to your threats, and neither will my kingdom. Make such a demand again, and prepare for war.”