But Keras was nothing like him.
Her brother was the liar. He used his position to manipulate females into doing his bidding, probably whispered whatever they needed to hear in their ear to convince them to sleep with him, and then discarded them when he grew bored with them.
She had watched him for centuries, knew him better than anyone.
Her brother was the despicable one.
Not Keras.
Keras loved her, she felt sure of that, believed the words he had told her with an earnest look in his green eyes, and the feelings she had felt in him.
He loved her.
Ares must have seen the momentary flicker of doubt in her heart, because his lips twisted in a cruel smile that brightened his blue eyes.
He casually turned away from her, stroked a hand over his golden hair and stooped to pick up his heavy blue cloak from one of the chairs. He fastened it to one side of his gold chest piece and then the other, took his time about inspecting the richly coloured material before lifting his head.
His eyes locked on her again.
“Keras was in the mortal world for two centuries.” Ares picked a piece of lint from his cloak and flicked it onto the mosaic floor. “I wonder how many females he convinced to sleep with him in that time.”
His blue gaze slowly narrowed on her as a smile curled the corners of his mouth.
She refused to be rattled by him, refused to believe the hurtful words he was lining up on his lips.
“A man has needs, Enyo. The pleasure of one’s own hand is nothing compared with the pleasure of sinking yourself into a hot, slick, welcoming body.”
She glared at him.
“He has probably bedded hundreds of females. Thousands. Perhaps even several at a time.” He pulled a face of mock pity as she glared at him, the shield she had brought up around her heart taking a hit as her mind filled with images of Keras with other women. “Poor, sweet, foolish, Enyo. Did he tell you that you were special? Did he say he only has eyes for you? That he hasn’t slept with anyone since you two met?”
Ares paced the room, wisely keeping his distance from her, his gaze fixed on her wherever he went.
“He is not a liar like you.” She couldn’t hold back those words as rage began to get the better of her, the hurt mounting rapidly inside her now drawing it to the surface. “He isn’t.”
She believed that.
“Strange that he never came to see you.” Ares pivoted to face her and she steeled herself again, because the glimmer in his eyes said he had thought of something that would break her and found pleasure in it. “Two centuries banished from the Underworld… but not this one. What stopped him from coming to see you?”
“He was not welcome here.” She knew that in her heart, clung to it like a raft in a stormy ocean. “The sons of Hades have never been welcome here. Not only that, but he had a duty to perform in the mortal world.”
“Duty? Pfft.” Ares waved her away. “How noble that excuse sounds.”
“It is not an excuse.”
He grinned again. “He did not come here… did you go to see him?”
She glared at him again, because he knew damned well that she hadn’t been to see Keras.
He pulled that mock-pity face again, and the urge to slap him returned. “Did you not go to visit him because you feared you would discover he had a lover?”
“No,” she bit out, but her heart called her a liar.
She had feared that.
Keras was handsome, drew the gazes of females wherever he went and gained their attention without even trying. She had told him she was getting married before he had left her. There had been no reason for him to remain loyal to her, even if he had viewed her as more than just a friend and had loved her as she had hoped. In fact, she had felt that if he had loved her, he would have had even more reason to find himself another female. Her announcement would have hurt him and he would have wanted to rid himself of his feelings for her.
So, gods, yes, she had feared he had found someone else to love, or had indulged in a string of lovers, moving from one to the next as her brother did.
Her strength failed her, her heart taking a direct hit as her brother’s words all rolled up on her, collided in her head to tear her down. The urge to strike her brother transformed into an urge to get away from him, to find some space and be alone.
She needed to be alone.
“Zeus ordered you to participate. Do so or do not. I do not care.” She turned on her heel and stormed from the room.
Flinched when Ares called after her and drove a dagger into her back, right into her heart.
“When you realise he is a liar and has used you, do not come crawling back to me.”
Enyo strode into the courtyard that overlooked the city, breathed deep of the fresh air and closed her eyes, desperately trying to push out the hurt and let the warmth that had filled her for the past few days flood her again.
Only it refused to come.
Because she needed to see Keras again.
She teleported to the gate and stepped onto it, and as soon as she reached the Underworld she teleported again, landing at the gates of the palace. The guards stepped aside for her and she hurried forwards, avoiding the main temple that loomed before her and heading to her right instead, towards a building that stood in the distance there.
The black Palladian three-storey mansion looked small in the shadow of the mountain that towered behind it, but it housed close to forty rooms, including ten bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms, and a master bedroom that was enormous. The central third of it had great towering columns that supported a triangular pediment and made the house resemble the main palace. The lowest windows of the house were small, set into a wall of chiselled blocks that was deeper than the smooth stone that filled the façade above it. Lights shone from those windows, and she imagined how busy the staff were now that the master of the house had returned.
Hades had built it for Keras only a century before he had banished his son to the mortal world, and she could clearly recall how Keras had hated it at first. He had missed his family, even though they were only a short distance away in the main palace, and had complained about rattling around in such a large home, all alone.
She could understand why he had found it unsettling. The house had been built for large parties, for having guests staying for periods of time, company to share the grandeur of the place with and impress them with the opulence of it all.
The problem was Keras had never been one for lavish affairs.
He had never been one to make friends.
She paused on the path to it that cut through a meadow of tulips in full bloom.
In fact, she couldn’t remember him having any friends.
Other than her.
Her heart skipped a beat and she lifted her head, her gaze instantly fixing on Keras as he moved to the elegant balustrade that lined the edge of a raised paved area at the front of the house, separating it from the gardens where Enyo stood.
Gods.
That same heart started at a pace as she drifted towards him, heat flooding her as she drank her fill of Keras as he paced, his left hand resting on the hilt of the sword that hung from his waist.
She had forgotten how handsome he looked in his armour.
The black pieces resembled the ones his father wore, the boots rising to above his knee to end in a pointed cap that shifted away from his thigh with each step. The crimson edging them made them stand out as he pivoted, the swiftness of the movement causing his scarlet cloak to flare outwards. That same shade of red covered the pointed fingers of his gauntlets, making them look as if he had already bathed his talons in blood.
The black and red armour that protected his chest clung close to it, shaped like muscles that made her itch to peel it off him and see the real ones he hid beneath it.
He paused as he noticed her.
Smiled.
That smile faded as the black slashes of his eyebrows met and he disappe
ared, reappearing right in front of her in a swirl of shadows.
“What did your brother say to you?” He lifted his hand, darkness warring with concern in his green eyes as he carefully stroked her cheek with the backs of his talons.
Was it that obvious?
Enyo turned her cheek to him, not wanting to answer that question because she didn’t want to look weak.
She didn’t want to look as if she doubted him.
She didn’t want her brother to be right.
Keras sighed. “It was about me, wasn’t it?”
She nodded, the barest dip of her chin, and the feelings colliding inside her whirled faster, building speed that filled her with a desperate need to say something, to get everything out into the open and off her chest so the crushing weight of doubt would be lifted from her heart.
Whether that was because Keras admitted it was true or confirmed it was a lie didn’t matter.
She just needed to know.
She looked at him, deep into his emerald eyes, seeking the truth there.
“After we parted… when you were in the mortal world… did you—” Her courage failed her as darkness washed across his features.
And crimson invaded his irises.
“I will kill him.” He dropped his hand to the hilt of his sword and gripped it.
She lunged for his arm to stop him from drawing the weapon, heart fluttering wildly in her throat as two new thoughts clashed in her mind.
Did he want to kill her brother because he had revealed the truth to her, or because he had tried to turn her against him by lying to her?
Keras’s hard expression softened and he loosened his grip on his blade and cupped her cheek, his gauntlet cool against her face.
“It has always been you, Enyo. From the moment we met. I have been loyal to you.”
She hadn’t realised how badly she had needed to hear those words, not until they wrapped around her like a comforting blanket, keeping the chilling cold of her brother’s lies at bay.
She sank into Keras’s touch, her strength wavering, hurt welling up in her heart but for a different reason now.
Keras’s eyes darkened slightly again. “He’s a bastard.”
“He’s my brother,” she whispered, part of her still feeling as if she should defend him, even after he had hurt her, had intentionally tried to ruin things between her and Keras by sowing discord.
“He’s still a bastard.” Keras gently gathered her into his arms, gripped the back of her head and held her. “The only reason I haven’t stepped to Olympus to kill him is because it would kill you too. I cannot hurt you like that.”
She smiled faintly, silently thanking Keras for knowing her so well, and for caring about her so deeply.
Ares was her only family.
She might hate him sometimes, and he could be callous and cruel, but he was her brother.
She wanted to resist as Keras drew back and gazed down at her, ached to be pressed close to him again, but something in his eyes stopped her.
“What—” Keras cut himself off. His emerald eyes darted between hers, laced with uncertainty, and she sensed the nerves rising inside him. He stared into her eyes for a moment, and then drew down a breath and forced words out. “What about you? Was there ever—”
She was quick to shake her head, to end his pain and suffering, to take it all away for him. “Never. Not since we met. It was always you for me, too.”
The barest hint of a smile curled the corners of his lips.
“I want you to live here with me.”
She warmed right down to her bones as she stared into Keras’s eyes and saw in them that he truly wanted that.
“Because you do not like rattling around in this big empty house?” She smiled softly over his shoulder at it.
He huffed. “It is not so empty right now. You would find it amusing to know I am out here because it is too noisy in there right now. I wanted some peace.”
Her smile became a teasing grin. “You finally have guests, and you want them gone. That is not playing the good host.”
He shrugged that off and dropped his arms, wrapping them around her waist as he gazed down at her. “I always preferred it when it was just you and me. I had hoped that by complaining about being lonely that you would keep me company more. Speaking of which… you didn’t answer me.”
She frowned, unsure what he was talking about.
He pulled her a little closer and she pressed her hands to his chest, tilted her head back and looked up into his eyes. They warmed and shone at her, bewitching her.
“I want you to live here with me.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
He hiked his shoulders again. “In a roundabout fashion.”
She pretended to think it over, enjoying the way his face slowly darkened, his impatience showing on it as he waited.
When she had been silent for longer than a minute, he huffed. “Will you move in with me or not?”
She cast her gaze over the house. “It is a rather nice house. Large. Elegant. Very grand. What woman wouldn’t be happy to be mistress of it?”
He glowered at her. “Answer me.”
“I am,” she said with a sly smile. “In a roundabout fashion.”
He huffed again.
She skimmed her hands up to his throat and swept her fingers over it, and along the line of his jaw.
“Yes.”
That single word falling from her lips changed him entirely. His eyes lit up, a smile chasing the shadows from his face as he grasped her backside and lifted her, raising her mouth to his. He kissed her softly, with so much love that she was sure she would melt.
He stopped and drew back as raised voices came from behind him, grimaced when Valen shouted something obscene. Esher answered him and it felt good to hear he was awake again.
Keras’s brother Ares hollered something back at him.
“I always felt a little envious of your family,” she murmured, amused by the argument about having to live in Keras’s house while Keras looked dismayed and close to the end of his tether. “It is so different from mine.”
The light that had been filling her flickered and died as she thought about her Ares, as she recalled the things he had said to her and her heart ached all over again. She loved her brother, but Keras was right. He was a bastard. He always made her feel as if the love was one sided, as if she was nothing but a pawn to him, something he could strategically use to advance his own rise in the ranks of Olympus.
“As much as I hate him, he does love you. I saw it once.” Keras stroked her sides.
She shrugged this time. “Perhaps… but he buries it under layers of narcissism.”
A smile tugged at Keras’s lips. “It is as strange to hear you speak out against your brother as it is to be home.”
“I am done with being what others expect of me. This is my life. I get to choose how I live it.” Strength flowed through her as those words hit home, struck something deep inside her that made her feel right for the first time in a long time. She lifted her eyes to lock with Keras’s. “Or who I live it with.”
He dipped his head and kissed her again as he gathered her to him. Warm light filled her as she sank into his embrace and lost herself in his kiss, the feeling of rightness growing stronger inside her as she thought about her future.
A future she would be sharing with Keras.
Cool darkness swept around her and when it receded, she was in a large room with rich blue walls and elegant antique furniture.
And a huge four-poster bed.
Keras backed her towards it.
Chapter 24
The soft glide of Keras’s lips down her throat had Enyo tilting her head back into the black silk sheets. A groan tumbled from her as he kissed the swell of her breast, as his fingers teased the straps that held her chest piece in place. He didn’t stop kissing her skin as he worked to free the buckle, as he eased her breastplate open and cool air washe
d across her stomach.
She closed her eyes and melted into the bed beneath him, surrendered to him completely, letting him do as he pleased and drifting in the warmth his touch ignited in her.
A touch that seemed to take away all her tension and anger, had her mind emptying and all of her focus shifting towards this moment with him.
His cloak brushed between her thighs as he moved, as he drifted lower to tease her breasts with his mouth. She trembled as he sucked her nipple through the material of her bandeau, sank deeper into the mattress and raised her arms, toying with her hair as he worshipped her body.
Gods, it felt good.
It felt right.
She had dreamed of a moment like this for centuries, had imagined it countless times both when she had been alone and when she had been with him, trying to guess at what it would feel like to have his mouth on her, his hands on her.
The reality of it was far better than any fantasy or dream she’d had about Keras.
The previous times they had been intimate had started off like this, a slow and gentle exploration of each other, but had always ended in a fast and frantic coupling.
This time, it felt different.
She felt that all the way down to her soul.
Keras pushed the bandeau up and eased it over her head, discarded it and dropped his lips to her breasts again. She moaned and arched to meet him as his lips swept across her nipple, sending a thousand sparks skittering over her flesh.
He groaned with her and skimmed his hand down her stomach, heading for the juncture of her thighs.
The cool kiss of metal against her skin made her still.
“Wait.” She lowered her hand and pressed it to his shoulder, to the hard plate of his armour.
As much as she had fantasised about him wearing this armour, she wanted to feel his flesh against hers, ached for him to be skin-on-skin with her this time. Maybe later they could indulge the fantasy building in her mind, one that had her shivering as she thought about him skimming the talons of his gauntlets over her breasts.
He pulled back and frowned down at her, and then his hand.
That frown deepened and he eased back onto his knees, hastily removed his gauntlets and tossed them onto the floor. He followed them with his cloak and an urge blasted through her, had her rising onto her knees before him and taking the heavy material from him. She set it down on the edge of the bed and looked him over, deciding where to start.
Keras: Guardians of Hades Series Book 7 Page 27