I glide to my feet and ignore his heated stare as I round his body. I wrap my hands around him, tracing patterns down his chest and leaving a trail of kisses down his spine. My fingers brush his hot steel length, making him gasp. “I haven’t forgiven you,” I whisper, making him tense. “But mistakes made from a place of love I can understand. In fact, I think I probably invented those mistakes.”
His hands grab mine and he guides me back to his front. He kisses my knuckles. “I’m learning,” he states. “Expect me to fuck up more often than not. I can wage a war without breaking a sweat, but navigating a relationship with you is like walking blind through a minefield. I have never had someone that I was frightened of losing before now. Your death, I can’t go through that again.”
I close my eyes, letting loose the tears that had been threatening to escape since he bared his soul to me. He cups my cheeks, his fingers gently wiping my tears away. “The truth is, your mortality terrifies me. I want you, the strongest you can be, so you can defend yourself from the countless enemies I have made over the years. They will see you as a weakness, even as a goddess.”
“Then we don’t bond,” I whisper. “I will not be your weakness.”
He sweeps the hair back from my shoulder and shakes his head. “The bonding doesn’t make you my weakness, it’s the depths of my feelings for you. If you were to be taken from me again, I would destroy the world. Bonding will make you stronger, it will give you an eternity at my side.”
“Okay,” I say.
His eyes bore into mine. “Okay?”
“I will marry you, bond with you, mate with you—whatever you want to title it. I am yours and you are mine.”
He wraps his hands around my waist and sears me with a kiss that burns its way to my soul and marks me as his. I gasp at the feeling; it’s beyond whatever the bite mark was. It’s deeper, permanent, a vow to obliterate anyone who threatens me. As he backs me up to the bed, he reaches behind my back and tugs on the material. In one swish, it unravels and drops to my feet, leaving me naked. His gaze caresses my flesh like he’s found the holy grail.
“What are you waiting for, Reinheart?”
“You have stolen my breath, my heart, and my soul. I don’t deserve you,” he whispers before pushing me back onto the bed and climbing over me. “But, I will never stop trying to be the man worthy of your love.” His lips descend upon mine as the heated sensations and the velvet pressure tease my skin, igniting my desire until I’m squirming underneath him.
There are no demands, no punishments, no games, and no lies between us. This is raw passion, and it’s making my head spin. He lines himself up with my slick entrance and pushes his way inside of my body. I claw at his back as I pant and urge him to go faster. He grabs my wrists and pins them above my head, his other hand holding my hip down to stop me from bucking to take him deeper.
I beg him to unleash himself on me, to take my body to the brink of pleasure and blur the lines with pain. I plead with him to give into the violent delights I know he revels in. The ones he’s got me addicted to.
He keeps the pace slow, tortured, making me feel every inch of him until that place in my soul he’s seared his name to, raises to the surface and opens up for him.
He skims his nose down mine, capturing my eyes with his. His soul peers back at me through his gaze; the beauty of it is devastating. “Do you know who you take into your body, Natia?” he asks, thrusting into me inch by inch. “Do you know who you just vowed your entire soul to?”
I nod and tangle my fingers with his. “I do.”
“Say it.”
“You are Erebus, brother to Night, father to Heaven and Day. You command Dreams and control Death. You are Darkness,” I declare.
He grins, releasing my hands, and drags my body closer to his before seating himself inside me, the fullness sending me hurtling over the edge as the pain in my soul tears the breath from my body. It sucker punches me as I flail under his body. Pleasure wars with pain, making me see stars. That was a claiming, not just a mark that says I am his. Our souls gazed at each other and found a match. We were bound in a way that no mating, bonding, or marriage could ever replicate.
* * *
The night is spent wrapped in his arms, worshiping each other’s bodies, laughing about silly things like lovers and sharing memories that have changed us. I eventually fall asleep more whole than I have ever felt in my entire existence, knowing deep down that this includes before my rebirth as Natia Waterford.
A banging on the door makes me grumble and I try to bury myself inside Archan. He chuckles as he kisses my forehead.
“Go away,” I mutter. I’m not ready to leave our little nest of heaven. Ironic, since this is Hell.
“We leave in fifteen, lovebirds,” Lucifer says before thudding footsteps indicate his departure.
I look up at Archan. He drops a kiss on my lips that makes my heart flutter. “Poseidon won’t be pleased,” I remind him.
He chuckles. “We still have the bonding ceremony, and the actual bonding. You still need to gift me with your mark.”
I frown. “But—”
“What we did last night was the way of the ancients. It is a ceremony that intertwines souls. Nothing, no one, no spell can ever break that. We will still bond because it’s what the newer gods recognize and accept.”
I snap my mouth closed. “I think I’m going to need a ring if I have to marry your ass twice.”
He smirks. “Anything for you.”
