“Yes,” she said after what felt like an eternity of struggle to find the words. “He was many things, but he didn’t rape me.”
He let out his breath gently. “None of it was your fault.”
“So you said. Still, he wasn’t like you were earlier. He didn’t seem to care about my pleasure. He wasn’t trying to cause me more pain, but there was no mitigating it, either.”
He frowned. “The pain comes with the first time. And you’ll be tight this time because it’s been so long. But, Elizabeth, I want you to understand. There won’t be pain tonight. This—” He motioned to his cock. “—is here to pleasure you, not hurt you. I’d never,everhurt you.”
She believed him in that moment and her love for him swelled even higher. She nodded because she could find no words, and then she looked at him again. “May I…touch it? I was too afraid to ask that night.”
He smiled. “Of course.”
He rolled on his back and laced his fingers behind his head to support him. She eased to her side, looking him up and down. “You look like a very casual Hades in this pose.”
“Well, Persephone, I link my hands behind my head so casually because I’m afraid I won’t be able to control myself. And I need to do that. For you.”
She blinked down at him, her god of the underworld, and then she smiled. It was time to give in to the darkness. To live in the seductive pleasure he would give. Just one time to surrender to him and his world.
She reached out and touched him, but not his cock. She started at the winged ridges of his collarbone, tracing there, feeling how hot his skin was. She dragged her fingers lower, her nails brushing the flat pectoral, the hard nub of his nipple. He hissed out a breath as she did so, and his muscles tightened like he was struggling for control.
She continued lower, tracing all the ridges of his abdomen, cupping the swell of his hip, and only then did she brush the back of her hand across his thigh and cup the length of him.
He gasped out her name and he sat partially up, his wide eyes focusing as her fingers folded around him, gripping the shaft gently. His skin was soft around that steely erection and she rubbed her thumb across it.
“Elizabeth,” he said in a garbled, almost pained tone. “Christ. Stroke it, please.”
Thepleasewas drawn out, begging her. And she met his eyes as she did what she’d been asked. She stroked him from base to tip, smoothing the drop of liquid that had wept from the opening, lubricating him a fraction.
“What do you think of it now that you’ve touched it?” he gasped out, lifting against her as she stroked him a second time.
“I’m not afraid of it anymore,” she admitted. “And I want to see what happens next.”
“Good,” he grunted, and then he flipped her on her back a second time. His hands pressed into her shoulders, holding her in place as he dropped his mouth to her throat. He sucked there, hard, scraping his teeth across her skin as he ducked his head into the notch where her shoulder and neck met. She drove her fingers into his hair, whispering his name as electric pleasure ricocheted through her.
He smiled against her flesh, nipping lower, lower until he nuzzled her nipple through the fabric of her dressing gown and nightrail.
“Too many clothes,” he muttered, and leaned away to flick open her robe tie with little effort. He parted the fabric, flattening his hand against her belly. She felt the warmth of him through the silk and found herself arching against him, seeking more. “I’m taking them off,” he said.
She nodded and pushed at her robe herself, yanking it down her arms, pushing it away as he chuckled at her ardor. Once she was free of it, he leaned in and caught the strap of her nightgown with his teeth. He looked up at her as he dragged it down her shoulder, licking a path until the strap drooped at her shoulder. He kissed his way back up, sliding his hand beneath the fabric, brushing her breast, and then it was bared to the warm air in the room.
She froze and looked down her body. Her breast was naked, cupped in his hand, his thumb stroking over her exquisitely sensitive nipple. He watched her as he touched her, slow and steady, like they had all night, all week, all the rest of their lives to do this.
But that wasn’t true. And she needed what he would offer before it disappeared forever. She moaned in frustration-laced pleasure and lifted to him, demanding what she couldn’t name. Didn’t fully understand. Already he had done more to prepare her than Aaron had all those years ago.
Already she wanted more.
He dropped his head to her and brushed his bearded cheek against her. She hissed, arching, and he smiled before he turned his head and his tongue darted out to trace the exposed nipple. She cried out as sensation threaded through her veins. He lifted his head.
“Hush now or we won’t get to finish,” he admonished in that dark, seductive voice that dragged her further into his underworld. The only place she wanted to be.
She clamped a hand over her mouth as he sucked her, this time harder, and it felt like every part of her shattered with unexpected, powerful pleasure. She was riding the ocean now, just as she had been when he touched her, licked her between her legs. She knew what would happen when she hit the right wave. She knew what intense pleasure she would find there.
She reached for it, lifting to him, digging her hands into his bare shoulders as he licked his way between her breasts and lowered the opposite strap. Now she was naked from the waist up, and he laved one nipple then the other, always back and forth, always relentless until she was almost incoherent with pleasure and need like no other.
Only then did he trace down her body with his tongue, pulling her nightgown along her stomach, her hips, and finally low enough that she could kick it away. She was naked now, and she blushed as he looked at her.
“So beautiful,” he all but purred as he touched her, his rough hands stroking her skin. He caressed her thighs, massaging gently before he pushed her wide and exposed her sex. His gaze lifted, meeting hers, holding it.
Then he bent his head and licked her. She arched up against his tongue, gripping the coverlet with both hands and squeezing her eyes shut as wicked pleasure pulsed through her, at first gently and then more insistently. He was talented with that tongue, swirling around her clitoris, sucking and teasing until she was gasping for breath and she felt the edge of release waiting for her.
