He laughed and then his attention turned upward. The shadow of the Earth flirted with the edge of the moon above. The Satyr Moon was here, and he'd wanted to make love to this woman for too many days now. Desire shot up his spine, an ache he'd despised from the curse but had taken for granted until it hadn't been there. That, of course, had been a blessing in disguise since Sage turned out to be a nymph, and he wouldn't have been able to fully be with her that way until tonight regardless.
But now…
His eyes grew heavy lidded as his gaze lowered to her chest. Her breathing had grown shallow, and he pulled the strap of her little black dress down her arm. Sage bit her lip and stared up at him with such admiration he nearly trembled.
What would sex be like with someone who actually loved him? He'd never had that, even when he thought perhaps he had. No time to dwell on bad memories now. It was time to create new ones. Better ones.
Sage sat up on her knees and pulled her dress over her head. She hadn't worn a bra, and her black lace thong made his mouth water for a taste of her. The desire to take her right then and there was strong, but he resisted. There was time to go slowly since they had all night once the ritual was done. Adonis laid her back against the blanket, kissing her as she wrapped her arms around him. Her warm vanilla scent enveloped him, and her natural hair color brought her beauty out in a way the purple hadn't quite managed. If Aphrodite had thought she'd make Sage unappealing, it'd had the complete opposite effect.
Beneath them, the ground rumbled. This is it. It's happening. The ritual had begun. A quick peek above the trees revealed the edge of the moon partially shrouded in shadow. The lunar eclipse was set to last over half an hour. As a dais composed of earth and rock broke through the ground, Adonis sat up and gave Sage a reassuring smile. "It's going to bind you to it. Let it. Once we are done, it will let you free."
She nodded with a wicked glint to her eyes, raising her arms above her head and lying back. Gods, she was sexy. The black fleece blanket pooled to the ground as the dais rose higher until it finally stopped at just the right height for him to make love to her while still standing. Vines crawled up the sides to enwrap her wrists and hold her steady.
"This is a bit barbaric," Sage tugged on her bonds. "But I have to admit…it's turning me on, old man."
He chuckled at the names they'd mocked each other with that first night, when he'd been angry and lashed out at her. "I can't play along this time because what I see here is all woman, and I'm too eager to finally have her."
He stripped off his T-shirt, ripping it on one of his horns but he didn't care. Making quick work of the rest of his clothes, he came closer to her. The last time he'd seen this dais, he'd been under Dionysus' influence, made stronger by his own internal rage and selfishness. "I don't deserve this," he confessed softly. Adonis reached out to touch her but closed his fist at the last second, letting it fall to his side. "I…don't deserve this."
"Look at me," Sage snapped. He listened. Her body was displayed for him alone, her sex wet and ready beneath those lace panties. Everything he wanted, dreamed of, was laid out for the taking. "You deserve to break your curse. You deserve to be happy."
"I'll always have the emotional baggage with me. I'm not sure I'll ever be truly rid of it."
She smiled faintly, "And I'll always be there to listen if you need to talk about it."
His heart was so full. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Sage's eyes narrowed. "Did I not come to this very spot to get some kinky satyr sex? What are you waiting on? Fulfill my fantasy before you're not a satyr anymore."
Her teasing did a lot to ease him. Adonis brushed his fingertips over the lace waistline of the thong. "So you want satyr sex, huh? I see you have a lot of realistic expectations."
"It's either that or finding a sex-crazed tentacle monster, and for some reason I think the latter would be far less erotic in reality and a lot squishier with painful suction cups."
He stared at her, completely at a loss for words. "I…don't know how to follow that up."
Sage wiggled on the dais, spreading her legs.
"Oh, right. You want satyr sex."
Her laugh and happiness at his playful side made him feel more alive than sex alone ever had. People said the right person came along at the right time, and that time wasn't the same for everyone. It had taken over three-thousand years for his to make herself known to him. Maybe Gaia had guided them together, maybe not. If he'd known what he'd have, he'd happily wait longer for her to find him—but thankfully the wait was over.
He ran his length over her panties, the wet lace making him groan and the friction causing her to suck in a breath. "I've wanted this for days, Adonis. Take off my panties."
Instead, he continued to slide himself through her folds, leaving the lace between them. The sensation of the wet material was nice, and from the way her hips mimicked his motions, it drove her crazy too. "Don't be in such a rush."
"Adonissss…" she pleaded. "Please."
He skimmed his hands up to cup her breasts, and once those hard little nipples, cool from the night air, made contact with his warm palms, she cried out, arching her back. She came already, and he wasn't even inside her yet. Such a wanton little nymph, and this was only the beginning. Sage climaxed so easily at his touch, at what he did to her with his mouth. He couldn't wait to see how responsive she was when he finally claimed her.
Adonis pulled the material of the thong aside. The thought of that one strip of clothing on her and nothing else made him harder. There was a reason lingerie was so effective in stoking the fires of lust.
He watched her face as he entered her in one long, tediously slow thrust. Sage held his gaze as pleasure and delight brought a smile to her lips. When he started to move, her head fell back, and her heady moans filled the night air. Adonis made each thrust slow and deep. The light from the moon and candles lit her skin, not enough to show the flush he knew to be there. He cursed those vines for keeping her hands bound. They should be on his body the way his were on her hips.
"Gods, Sage, you drive a man to madness." He glanced down at where they were joined. His glistening skin against hers, that lace shoved to the side as he stroked in and out of her. Adonis spread her legs wider, speeding up his thrusts. Sage cried out as he changed the rotation of his hips, and soon she was shaking with another release.
Adonis spilled inside her on a groan while seated deep. He closed his eyes and rode out the pleasure. His eyes opened as Sage ran a hand through his hair, loose and sweaty over his forehead. The ritual was complete, and so her hands had been freed. She leaned up now, supported by her opposite hand, smiling warmly up at him.
"More," was all she said, and Adonis nodded. He stepped back long enough to pull the soaked panties from her body, and then wrapped her legs around him. This time, she embraced him against her chest as he rocked into her, using the dais to keep her steady. He kissed her while making love to her until they came together as the eclipse reached fullness overhead.
Sage pushed at his chest and he backed up a step, pulling out. She hopped down and shoved him onto the ground before she straddled his waist and sank on top of him, eyes closed and head back in rapture. When she opened her eyes, pleasure lit her face. Then he realized, here in the grass, in the woods, she was in her element. Sage was becoming the nymph she was born to be even while his time as a satyr was at a close. He cupped her breasts as she rode him at her own pace, not quite slow, but not fully rough either. Her taking what she needed from him was hot as hell, and he didn't last long as she ran her fingernails down his chest in euphoria.
When the eclipse faded from the night sky, the pain came. First to his skull, and then in his legs and feet. Sage comforted him as his body returned to his human state. He'd forgotten how much it had hurt when he'd been cursed. Yet even then, while his body screamed in agony, he wanted to be inside her. It wasn't the curse, though, that drove his arousal. It was the woman. His woman.
All sense o
f time faded as they spent the night enjoying each other's bodies and different positions. Ariston hadn't been lying about the satyr stamina remaining after the curse was gone. Now, he and Sage lay wrapped in their blanket, grass and leaves tangled in their hair. The candles had long since burned down and gone out, and the sunrise had given the sky a golden hue mixed with pale blue.
"That was the best night of my long life," he kissed the top of her head as she stretched lazily.
"Mine too, even better than the other night when you broke down my door."
He smiled. Adonis had used his mouth on her a few times in the morning hours, and she had pleasured him orally in return. "You reminded me it was time for breakfast." His dick twitched as she moaned and kissed him. Too bad he didn't have a sturdy kitchen table in that junky house, because suddenly he had all sorts of plans of feasting off her naked body.
His phone buzzed from his discarded jeans near the spot the stone dais had been. Sometime during the night, it had receded into the ground, leaving no trace of it behind. The field, however, had sprouted dozens upon dozens of wildflowers in the night. Sage's doing.
"You should probably answer that," she said and sat up, looking around at the mess they made. Candles and clothes were strewn everywhere. Her red hair was sticking up and she looked like a pixie.
"Do I have to?" he groaned and reached over to try to snag his jeans.
"Maybe Hermes is finally calling you back?"
It would figure the god would call him as soon as Adonis no longer required any assistance, but somehow, he doubted Hermes was the caller. Retrieving the pants, and his phone, he quickly discerned it was not Hermes calling him, but his brother. Hermes had programmed the number into his phone in case he needed it. Adonis answered quickly, "Hello?"
"Well?" his twin asked, a hopeful note in his voice. "Did it happen?"
A grin spread over his face. "Yeah. I'm mortal again." That was so weird to say out loud. Sage beamed at him from where she was brushing the dirt off her dress. As she pulled it on over her head, he asked, "Are you still at The Aegean Inn?"
"Leaving shortly with Pan for New Jersey. Lily is there with Katerina and the baby."
Disappointment overtook him. Now that his brother was talking to him again, he wasn't ready to part ways yet. "I see."
"Katerina has decided to postpone her and Pan's wedding a bit because of all the stuff happening with the gods and all these damn monsters popping up lately. So, Lily is helping her pick out a new date and all that. But the reason why I called…"
Anxiety clawed at him. "Yeah?"
"I spoke with Lily, and we had a long talk. I forgive you, okay. She does as well. I know things between us have never been good, and there were reasons you acted the way you did that weren't entirely your choosing…"
He wasn't going to put the blame off of him for his part in it. "Ariston—"
"Let me finish," his brother said, and took a deep breath. "Now that we are both lowly mortal men again, we need family. We need to sort this out, and it may take time to fully do that."
"I agree," he said. Sage sat next to him and squeezed his thigh encouragingly. Adonis wasn't sure if she could hear any of the conversation through the phone or not or could merely read his emotion off his face. Either way, he was grateful to have her in his life.
"Right now, though, you need to focus on you and Sage. Don't break her heart, you hear me?"
This made him laugh. He had absolutely no intention of doing so. "Got it."
"One more thing," Ariston said, his tone brightening. "The syrinx worked. London is now a nymph—a water nymph—and Jacen is human again too."
"Holy shit, that's fantastic!" Pan had actually done it. This was a gamechanger for the rest of them. Except maybe Calix—which sobered his excitement a bit. They'd still have to tell him when he came home, whenever that was. He said his goodbyes to his brother and told the news to Sage, who cheered loudly.
"Looks like I won't be the only new nymph in the city." She bounced around cleaning up the area while Adonis got dressed. "Everything seems to be looking up."
"Indeed, it does," he agreed, and wrapped her in his arms. Sage dropped her bag of melted wax and the folded-up blanket and embraced him around his waist. He kissed her, smiling against her lips. Sometimes the world threw a series of bad situations at a man, but the right woman could turn the tides and make it good again.
Epilogue
One Year Later
Calix sat on the cold stone steps of the temple he'd called home for, well, he wasn't sure how long he'd been there, actually. He hadn't seen a calendar or an electronic device with his own eyes since leaving Savannah. Had months passed? Years? It didn't matter, not to him. Centuries came and went as quick as minutes in the long term. A millennium could change as swiftly as the tides if one wasn't careful.
He took a bite from the apple he'd taken from the bowl of fruit on his way outside. He was ready to leave this place, had been for a while now. His training with Ares had been painful at times, but necessary. Theron would answer for what he'd done, not just to him personally but to all the women he'd brutalized, taunted, and toyed with.
He'd waited long enough, perhaps too long. Guilt coursed through him as he thought about how many other women had suffered while he trained and healed from the physical and mental wounds he'd received during his captivity. Calix might have healed on the outside, but mentally he was still as ugly and broken as the scar tissue left behind from the mortal wounds he'd received in his imprisonment. He'd been decapitated, but that hadn't killed him so long as his heart stayed in his chest. Likewise, he'd seen his beating heart ripped out and shredded. He'd eaten it. Watched Theron eat it.
Yet he'd been forced to remain alive to suffer more. Suffer longer.
A swift breeze lifted the tendrils of his blond, wavy hair. It had grown back to shoulder length after he'd cut it some time ago, and he debated chopping it all off again. The shadow of the visitor that had disturbed the air around him fell across the top of the steps. Above dainty sandals, tiny white wings folded themselves into slender ankles, leaving an outline of what would appear to a mortal as tattoos. Calix didn't even look up as he took another bite of his fruit. When he swallowed, he asked, "What do you want, Hybris?"
The raven-haired goddess of hubris smoothed the skirt of her black dress and took a seat next to him, holding out an envelope. His name was scrawled across the front in an elegant hand. Tentatively, he took the object, setting his partially finished apple on his lap. The seal was easily broken with his finger, and he pulled out—and invitation.
A wedding invitation for Pan and Kat.
"How soon?" he asked, the date meaning nothing to him as time was a lost concept for the moment.
"Two weeks," Hybris said. She placed a hand on his wrist and squeezed supportively. "You don't have to go if you aren't ready."
He both was and wasn't. Ever since Orestes had died, Calix had struggled with wanting to be around the rest of the Satyroi. He'd failed his friend, like he failed Theron's victims by turning a blind eye to his proclivities.
You didn't know he was so twisted.
He should have! When Theron had joined that maenad in her murder sprees, he should have known it then. Should have killed him when he killed her. Sparing Theron's life had been his worst error in judgement.
Calix closed his eyes. "I'm ready. I have to leave this place and do what I've been training to do." Wishing Pan and his future wife happiness would give him time to readjust to being around the others, but he wasn't sure he would be returning to The Aegean Inn permanently. The others were all cheerfully in relationships, and he, well…Calix had enjoyed the satyr life until he'd lost his partner in crime. Without Orestes, even that seemed dull. A bitterness filled his mouth at the thought of watching everyone's happiness while he had nothing. "I'll go to the wedding, and then I start my search for Theron."
Hybris nodded. "I'm glad. Everyone misses you."
Calix cleared his throat again
st the emotion lodged there and returned the invitation to the envelope. He slipped it into his inner jacket pocket, collected his apple and stood. With a lingering look over the treetops down the hill from the temple, he turned and headed inside to prepare for the trip back to the United States.
He missed everyone else, too. Unfortunately, he was sure to disappoint them since he would never be the Calix they knew and loved again. That man had died the day his best friend had.
The End…or only the beginning…
Coming Soon:
Gods and Monsters: The Adventures of Hermes, Part 3
An Excerpt from A Satyr for Christmas
Most women wouldn't complain about being paid to observe attractive, sweaty men on a concert stage, but Chastity Michaels would have happily given up the assignment to anyone else. She crossed her arms, standing on the very edge of the crowd, just outside of the railing at the front of the stage. A security guard gave her a once-over before turning his bored expression toward the crowd. The small venue was standing room only and filling up fast. A woman nearby said something rude about her cutting ahead of them, and she briefly lifted her press badge so they could see she was there for a job, not enjoyment. Chastity didn't want to be there any more than the fans behind her wanted her there. Nevertheless, the complaints stopped, and the woman returned to vocally fantasizing about the band members in vivid detail that no one should have to hear spoken aloud.
Taking out her cell phone, Chastity checked the time. No opening acts were scheduled, which she considered a blessing, but for a band gaining massive popularity so fast, it surprised her. And if they didn't have an opener, shouldn't the band be on stage already? Chastity had better things to do than reviewing another mediocre rock band known for their wild theatrics, prosthetics, and sexually suggestive lyrics. She had been strong-armed into reviewing them in order to also get the assignment for a new stage production she'd been wanting to see that was opening here in Atlanta.
All Hallows' Satyr (The Cursed Satyroi Book 5) Page 19