“Oh, no,” she said with mock concern. “Whatever shall I do?”
I averted my gaze, hoping to find something—anything—to get me out of this situation. The room was still dim compared to my prison cell, illuminated only by crackling braziers near the red stone walls. The ceilings were too high up for me to actually see—disappearing in a cloud of shadow—yet royal purple silk curtains draped down from somewhere high above, swaying at the faintest motion or gust of air, effectively partitioning the room into a dizzying array of private nooks and crannies.
This was not exactly what I had envisioned when she’d offered up her persuasive skills to her father. This felt…like she was running her own angle, and that it just might be the most important thing she’d ever done. I saw it in her eyes. The desperation and determination.
Not necessarily in a sinister way, either. Whatever this was, she was committed, and she was more afraid of me not learning her lessons than she was of her father’s wrath.
A tenacious, nubile nymphomaniac was a nefarious nemesis to contend with.
How best to battle such a foe? How could I fight and win? Stubborn argument would just be a form of denial. I needed her to know that I acknowledged her arguments—especially her good ones—and that I could withstand whatever tactics she tried to employ. I couldn’t participate, but I couldn’t childishly not participate. She needed to see me kiss her fire, sample her sweetness, and then pull away, standing firm on my position. Otherwise, she would just keep dialing up the lust.
Aphrodite slowly, deliciously, lowered herself down onto all fours and began crawling towards me, licking her lips. Her irises glowed golden—reminding me of her brother Hermes, unfortunately—and her plump lips were engorged with blood. She settled into a kneeling position at my boots. Then she calmly reached towards her garter and withdrew a purple dagger that I had mistaken for some sort of decoration or buckle. Rather than stabbing me, she sliced through the laces of my boots and yanked them off before I could say anything. She flung them out of our love nest.
“You won’t be needing those anymore, my love,” she whispered. “I’ll be making your toes curl hard enough that you would have destroyed them anyway,” she added with a dark chuckle.
“You can’t do this,” I pressed, unsuccessfully trying to scoot away. “I don’t consent. I do not want this,” I growled.
She paused with a sad smile, settling back on her haunches in an effort to calm my agitation. “Nate…” she said, looking at me.
I stared at her beautiful face, not even needing to study her mesmerizing nudity. Her face was captivating enough to stop all rational thought. Had she looked this pretty outside earlier? It was a feral, primal yet elegant, combination.
“I would never do this without consent.”
I let out a breath of relief, ignoring the sweat dripping down my temples. “Good. I do not consent—”
“But before I reach your lips, you will beg me for this,” she promised me in a calm, utterly confident, and hungry tone. “Without any magic or power used against you, I promise that you will beg me for this lesson. And you should. It has nothing to do with me being the goddess of sex and desire. You deserve to be seduced and savored,” she purred, and I felt myself nodding in agreement. “It is not my problem that you have been misled by unconfident women who do not know that they are playing with fire.” Her eyes twinkled in the light from the braziers, casting reflections of what momentarily resembled Kama Sutra highlight reels. “Your first love, Indiana Rippley, was a weakness. You were not in love with the woman herself. You were in love with the concept of being in love.” She very specifically enunciated the difference, making sure I caught her meaning. “She knew how to feed your beast—your primary love language.”
“My primary love language?” I asked, snapping out of the hypnotic lull of her voice upon use of the word beast.
Aphrodite nodded. “I believe it is physical touch, but I intend to test my hypothesis.”
I shifted awkwardly and Aphrodite smiled in faint amusement. “Indie is old news. We all see how that turned out for me. In fact, it scarred me, if I’m being honest.”
Aphrodite nodded delightedly, as if suddenly encouraged by my answer. “It did.” I momentarily froze to stare at her in surprise. She smiled compassionately. “Indie birthed the carnage within you. Unchecked, it will destroy everything you have ever cared about.”
I shook my head stiffly. “No. That isn’t true. I have…Callie,” I argued. With my hormones on full blast, it had taken me a moment to remember her name.
Aphrodite studied me in silence. “Oh? Your fellow Horseman? Dismissing the well-known dangers of romance with a subordinate, how has your sex life been with the White Rose? Have you unfurled those silky, pious petals? Have you buzzed about and tasted that nectar, little bee?”
I blushed at her analogies. “Well, not very sexy,” I admitted. Then I blushed. “I mean no sex. Callie is exceedingly sexy.”
Aphrodite licked her lips. “She is indeed,” she agreed with an amused smile. “There has been no sex because even you know, deep down, that you two are not compatible. You could be, but both of you have made choices to prevent it, even if you did so subconsciously. That is often the most honest of decisions.”
I stared at her, struck silent. Did…she have a point? Callie and I had never made time for each other. The best word to describe our romance was—
“Later,” Aphrodite whispered, pouting out her lower lip. “The surefire blade to love’s heart. Love is like an errant spark from a bonfire. It cannot be saved for later or it burns up. It must be fed immediately. Nurtured, cared for, protected from the storms of wind and rain that threaten to douse it. Embers and sparks hold the power of creation—of life itself.”
“I thought you gods could no longer read my mind?” I demanded uneasily, knowing that their particular parlor trick was no longer a tool they could weaponize against me. Not since I’d embraced my ability to kill a god.
Aphrodite nodded. “I am reading the mind of an uncertain, love-weary man by looking at his face and his eyes. Nothing godly about it, godkiller. This is my purpose.”
I let out a frustrated breath, refusing to let hormones and healthy relationship concerns sway such a serious concept as my feelings for Callie Penrose. “It’s complicated. Callie has a lot on her plate, and so do I. It’s not easy to make time for love when you’re constantly fighting wars.”
“It is not easy. But it should be natural,” Aphrodite countered. “Love and war are two sides of the same coin. Anything worth keeping is worth fighting for. If the embers of love were so easy to grasp, they wouldn’t be nearly so powerful. There would be no need for war without love.”
I sighed, accepting her answer and silently chastising myself for not having foreseen it.
“And for the record, Ares has never let war neuter his desire. Quite the contrary. Your other friends have found love, despite their duties. If even gods can find love, surely a wizard can. You have had ample opportunity to bridge the gap with Callie Penrose, but neither of you have done so. You think you are a monster, and Callie Penrose teeters between anger, vengeance, doubt, guilt, and a dozen other emotions.” She pursed her lips clinically. “Know that this failing is not your fault alone. Callie is complicit in stirring this cauldron of carnage. She is next on my list to cure.”
My cheeks heated at the brief mental image of Aphrodite teaching Callie about sex. I licked my lips anxiously, trying to think of anything to stall her. I could withstand some teasing without succumbing. She’d promised she wouldn’t take advantage of me.
Aphrodite sighed in pitiful amusement, reading my body language. “You square your shoulders, and face every manner of physical danger with your chin raised, but you run and hide from your own thoughts and fears. I will help you confront them, whether you want me to or not. Running is no longer an option, my pet,” she murmured, her eyes smoky and dripping with desire.
“Unchain me!” I snapped. “If you
think you can seduce me, you shouldn’t need chains!”
She smiled at me. “Oh, my precious lamb. You are not wearing chains. You haven’t been wearing chains for some time, now.”
I flinched, glancing up at my wrists. I still wore my manacles, but no chains. I stared in disbelief. I leapt out of our love nest.
Or…I tried to. I hit a soft, invisible wall and bounced off, falling down onto my back on the pillows, right where I had just been held captive. I glared at Aphrodite. “No chains, you say?”
“You are not allowed to run away from your problems any longer, Catalyst. I’m about to blow your mind and suck out every drop of carnage in your body and soul. I have told you this several times. Now, lie back and take your medicine.”
My face flushed deep purple as she speared me with her eyes. I didn’t bother chastising her for her phrasing because there was nothing chaste about the goddess of sex. Instead, I focused on the situation. She wouldn’t force herself upon me, which was a relief. But she wasn’t going to let me flee. Which meant that I needed to prove to her that I was addressing her concerns—I needed to withstand her torturous foreplay without succumbing prematurely. My earlier plan was my best chance at a victory—taste the meal she was offering and then turn my nose up, respectfully, at the plate. She was obviously too good with words, and I was betting she was even better at the brass tacks of physical persuasion.
I needed to prove to her that this carnage she spoke of was not a threat to me. Or that I was strong enough to handle it. “Carnage. Explain it.”
“I am trying to do so, but it is not a thing of words.” She pursed her lips, leaning her shoulders back to consider her response. “The words do not mean anything until actions are undertaken. You will see after I ride you into oblivion, and then through it, before steering you back out unscathed.” Her eyes smoldered, and I realized that her long fingernails were trailing up and down the arch of my foot in a calming, sensual manner—and that I hadn’t even noticed it until my eyes saw it. It felt…euphoric.
I took a calming breath. “Fine,” I growled, resolving myself to my plan of last resort. “Bring it on. You will not tempt me, woman,” I said defiantly, even though at least several respectable inches of my reputation disagreed with the words—that part of me was unsurprisingly curious to learn and experience what bedroom games Aphrodite had mastered.
Because she had likely forgotten more about sex than all of mankind collectively knew. And here I was, trying to withstand her wiles. If wizards were chasers of wisdom, shouldn’t learning the martial arts of love have been a mandatory prerequisite to life? Especially when everyone sought it at one point or another over their years. How had no one heard of this carnage?
Part of me accepted many of Aphrodite’s arguments as facts, even though the dominant part of me committed to doubling-down on my position—turning my abstinence into the Alamo for a hopeless last stand rather than allowing myself to relish in this orgasmic arcane field of study with the master of all professors, Aphrodite. But my principles were at stake.
I loved Callie—
“You do not love the White Rose,” Aphrodite murmured, forcefully but gently.
“She loves me—”
“Again, she does not. You both dangerously misuse the word love based on an incorrect definition. You both expect unconditional love while—at the same time—giving each other unspoken conditions. It truly is quite baffling to watch,” she said, sounding vexed.
“What is wrong with me loving Callie?” I asked, fearing she had a personal stake at risk. Maybe that was her angle—why she was so different from when I’d seen her hours before. She wanted me for herself.
She flung her hands up aggressively, startling me. “NOTHING!” she snapped. “If you two truly wanted each other, I would be your greatest supporter! I am the goddess of love, not home wrecking. I literally cannot get in the way of love without figuratively stabbing myself in the heart, much like a wizard cannot cast a fireball at his own chest. Similarly, I cannot abide a perversion of the definition of love because you lack the proper lexicon and define love subjectively.”
She was panting, seemingly on the verge of a mental breakdown. In that moment, I knew she believed this with her entire heart. She couldn’t get in our way without weakening her godly essence. This wasn’t some game. Even if she saw me as an enemy, she could not let this stand.
She took a calming breath. “Enabling your idiocies will cause the world great harm. You two are both entirely too powerful to walk into the Omega War thinking you are wearing armor when you are actually wearing neon, flashing bullseyes painted on your backs and chests.”
I arched an incredulous eyebrow. Aphrodite was visibly huffing air—which had a delightful effect on her currently non-existent toga. I shook my head, raising my focus to her face.
Aphrodite noticed and laughed, my testosterone-fueled reaction serving to calm her down. She locked eyes with me and tried again. “You think you want each other because you think you are supposed to want each other. You’ve heard the term a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?” I nodded. “You are both choosing a bird in the hand…not realizing that you each have a noble eagle already perched on your shoulders. Eagles that you placed there of your own volition, even if you both seem to have forgotten.” She shook her head angrily. “If I wasn’t looking at you right now, I would have assumed you had both been spelled to not notice the eagles.” She pursed her lips, questing for a different, better metaphor. “I’m watching you crying about how you wished you had ten dollars when you’re holding a twenty in your other hand.”
I blinked at her. “Are you trying to say that we are settling for each other?” I blurted. “That’s insane. Callie is one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met.”
Aphrodite shook her head, looking frustrated—as if I’d momentarily come close but then missed it in an entirely new manner. “She is. And you are. One man’s ten is another man’s twenty,” she said, moving her lips as if tasting the phrase. She pinched the bridge of her nose and then closed her eyes, still not satisfied with her analogy.
I was simply glad that I had so far delayed her advances with my apparently asinine beliefs.
She snapped her fingers eagerly. “How about this? I am also an amazing woman. Tory Marlin is an amazing woman. Every single woman standing behind you, beside you, and against you is an amazing woman—for many different reasons. That does not mean any of them are the most amazing woman for you, specifically. Nor does it mean that they are equally amazing. Everyone has different tastes. Although you know Tory is amazing, something in your own mind admits that she is not the right woman for you. You have numerous reasons, whether consciously known or not. Understand?”
I stared at her. My arms stretched out to either side in an inviting manner—to show her that I was not curling up into a ball to hide from her advances—or my own emotions. She needed to know that I was confident in my claims, not that I was arguing to delay the inevitable—which I totally was.
Unfortunately, Aphrodite was a master debater. She knew her way around the circular arguments of love and personal pleasure. I wasn’t certain that I perfectly understood her points, but I was getting close enough to see the writing on the wall. Damn her. Who was I to debate love with the fucking goddess of it?
“You’re saying that no matter how amazing we could be together, we could be even greater with someone else. These eagles you mentioned,” I said, wondering who she thought these eagles were. Did Callie have another suitor waiting in the wings? Did I?
She nodded. “Yes, and based on your own feelings, not mine,” she clarified.
I nodded thoughtfully, wondering why she was so confident that she knew how I felt about Callie or vice versa. “How can you be so certain?”
Aphrodite smiled sadly, and something about the look in her eyes told me that I had used up my last delaying tactic. She gripped one of my ankles in each hand and gently spread my legs apart to establish a landing strip for
her express flight to my groin. I tried to keep my face composed but I probably wasn’t doing very well. My magic staff was still betraying me, for one thing. “Settling for something other than your heart’s desire does not cause immediate harm, but it does create a vacuum of unfulfilled desire. And, in that vacuum, the carnage will eventually find you and eat you alive. The both of you.” She licked her lips. “All this will be readily understood once I’ve finished with you, Master Temple.”
And then Aphrodite leaned forward, crawling towards me again. I swallowed audibly, forcing myself not to whimper. “Luring me into sleeping with you will only serve to prove your point that I don’t love Callie,” I pressed. “So, all I have to do is withstand your advance to prove that I do love her.”
Professor Aphrodite was apparently finished talking. She was old school. This was no longer a lecture on love.
This was an apprenticeship in pleasure.
13
The flaming braziers around the room dimmed further, and I heard the faint sounds of a marching drumbeat—but it was more primal and savage, dark and chilling, like an old Viking war song. And then a man’s rasping but musical voice began chanting to the drumbeat. The melody was faint and raw, as if we were listening to a dream—or nightmare—given life.
If I hadn’t been so focused on my surroundings, I might not have even noticed it at first. Despite the grim background music, I felt every hair on my head rise up, and my skin suddenly felt inflamed by the musical call to arms.
Aphrodite was establishing the mood. And it wasn’t sexual.
It was war, just like she’d said earlier. Love and war, two sides of the same coin.
Two armies of inflamed, passionate flesh, sweat and blood, slamming into each other across a silken battlefield that was soon to be soaked with the bodily fluids of first contact.
Carnage: Nate Temple Series Book 14 Page 9