“They’re softer than they look,” he said, his voice catching in his throat.
She wasn’t certain he was talking about her wings or...
“Mars, too. He’s like... me. But, perhaps not for long...” she breathed, letting the last bit of her armor fall.
“HeisAres... isn’t he?”
Athena nodded.
“Well, he was Ares. He wanted to shed that image, be a better person, which I get. But... he’s not exactly the smartest...” she said as Brian continued to stroke his fingers down her wingslongingly.
You are going to destroy me, aren’t you Briony Leehan?
“That’s why we were in the library. He gambled with fate, and now he’s losing his power. And my father—”
Brian breathed deeply before speaking. “Your father,Zeus?”
Athena nodded. “Yes, my father, Zeus, expects me to fix it... but I don’t know how to fix it.”
Brian slid his hand over her wings, tracing his fingers along the flesh of her back, causing the goosebumps to prickle again.
“We’ll figure it out, Athena. I promise. There’s got to be an answer somewhere.”
She felt on the edge of the world, in Brian’s arms.
“You don’t think I’m a monster?” she asked shakily.
“How could you think that? This?” He ran his fingertips along her feathers, tugging lightly. “You’re the closest thing to an angel I’ve ever met, and I thought thatbeforeyou let your wings out.” He smiled.
“I read a lot of books as a kid about you, you know. And if I know anything, it’s that you’re one of the smartest, bravest, heroes in history. You are unstoppable.” He slid his free hand in her hair, and she could see his eyesglowed,too. With a silver glow that echoed her own.
Fate was either very cruel or very romantic, but at that moment Athena did not care as she leaned into Brian and took his lips upon her own. He groaned in satisfaction as she unbuttoned his pants, sliding them to the sand. When she pulled away, she gazed up at him with challenge.
“Have you ever gone skinny dipping before,” she asked, the haze of lust returning.
“Can’t say that I have,” he purred as he ground his cock against her.
She smiled coyly.
“It’s exhilarating,” she said as she started to curl her fingers under his shirt, helping him to remove it.
“Yes, you are,” he said with a smirk as he dropped his shirt into the pile of clothes beside them.
Athena brushed her fingertips over his swollen head, gazing up at him with so much love and adoration it should have been criminal.
“Come get me, Brian. Show me how good you can be,” she whispered as she took off for the dark waters, feeling more alive than she’d ever felt before.
CHAPTER17
Athena stirredthe sound of a buzzing, vibrating phone. She groaned sleepily as she felt around blindly for her phone. Her vision started to clear and everything sharpened, thanks to her inner owl’s natural ability to see in the darkness.
Brian tightened his grip on her hip as he pulled her closer to him in his slumber, and the world came rushing back to her as she looked aroundBrian’sroom.
The night they’d spent fucking in the ocean waves, the drive home to Brian’s place, the sex that followed as they fumbled their way in the door. Brian leaving her to her slumber as he toddled off to “research”. At some point, he must have joined her...
Athena swung her legs over the side of the bed, feeling slightly dizzy. She picked up her phone from the ground, tiptoeing through the hallway to Brian’s kitchen. The dawn danced between night and day as she pulled up her notifications, seeing nearly twenty texts from Calliope and Mars about Hades.
Among the texts, while she was off getting stuffed by the world’s most delectable human, Hades had gonemissing.
