The full display of tattoos canvased his upper body, stories that bled into one another in tales of violence and heartbreak. Battles, both physical and metaphorical, were drawn with intensity and the steady hand of a talentedartist. Therewasn’tany part of his exposed torso left untouched by the ink.
Following the blend of colors and lines, they disappeared into a pair of black silk pants that hung unfairly low on his hips. The drawstring looked suspiciously loose, as though one languid stretch might be enough for them to expose him fully.
“Mm, now that we’re both more comfortable,” he spoke with a smoothness that rivaled warm honey.
I pinched my brows together in a moment of brief confusion before awareness washed over me. Looking down at the length of my own body, Eryx hadn’t been the only oneto undergoa wardrobe change.
Instant heat flooded my cheeks as I discovered myself wrapped in a black silk bodysuit. The teddy’s neckline plunged deep between the swells of my breasts, while sheer mesh panels traced my sides down to the high-cut hips.?
My first reaction was to pull away from him, but our wrists remained tied together by that damn sash, leaving us both stuck in each other’s orbit.?
Eryx’s fingers came beneath my chin, tilting my head so I looked up at him. His thumb possessively swiped across my lower lip, catching a smudge of pink lipstick that I hadn’t recalled applying.
A choked noise escaped me, bordering between a whimper and a protest.
“What’s wrong,Heartspite? Don’t like it whensomeone else plays games of desire and lust?” heasked mockingly.
The struggle within me was caught between wanting to thrash against this swath of cloth tying us together oruseit to draw us closer.
“That’s not how it works, Eryx,” I argued, the words weak in their delivery.
He chuckled, leaning in close enough to brush his nose against mine. The feeling of a butterfly caught in my chest threatened to overwhelm all rational thinking.
“Then, I think we should put Aphrodite’s sash to the test. Don’t you agree?”Thebrush of his lips against minewas so faint andbrief that I wondered if it had been true contact or just the loaded promise of his words hanging in the air.
I realized just then that my hand was squeezing his with enough force that my fingers burned from the intensity. With more effort than it should have taken, I uncurled my fingers one stiff movement at a time.
Straightening, he granted me precious space. Not enough and simultaneously too much for my dizzied thoughts and conflicted feelings.
“Kneel.”
A demand. One charged with authority. A single word that wrapped around parts of myself that Iwasn’tsure had ever existed beforethat verymoment.
Before I could evaluate it further, I was already lowering myself before him. When my knees met theground, I found those butterflies in my chest growing more frantic against my ribs.
Uncertainty filled my face as I stared up at him, silently questioning if I had done this of my own accord orif thesashwasinfluencing me?
He picked up on my existential crisis. “Poor little Charlee, you look confused. You know what Ithink? Deep down, you want this. You’re tired of aligning hearts. I think you realize the damage you inflict and want to pay your penance.”
Is that what he was chalking this up to? Guilt over perceived shortcomings?
“I make people happy.”
A bitter smirk crossed his lips. “Do you?” A heavy beatpassedwith the unspoken truth that I hadn’t madehimhappy.
Every question he posed speared me with doubt’s ugly persistence.
“Here’s your chance,Heartspite. Prove me wrong. Show me that you aren’t above acknowledging that even you can’t fix your failures.”
Eryx rotated our hands, dragging the back of my knuckles over the bulging outline at the front of his pants. The thin material did little to buffer the thick and hard length of him.?
He may be the god of discord, but his cock may as well have been blessed by Priapus. The god of fertility—or more specifically, peniseseverywhere—was well known for his oversized dick. Though some suggested that hewasn’tvery adept at wielding it in the bedroom.
Gods help me, a part of me wanted to know if Eryx was more capable.
I felt myself leaning forward, drawn to wanting to show him he could feel things. That I could make him feel things, that I wasn’t a failure at my craft, that I wasn’t a failure at heart.
“Tell me what you want,theos.”
