He reached underneath me to start rubbing me, moving at a smooth and steady pace that made my eyes roll into the back of my head. “Just a few aphrodisiacs… things that get all the right things pumping in your body.” His mouth moved down my neckand across my shoulders, where he delivered those deep and sexy bites again. “I could eat you up…”
“I think you’re trying to!” I exclaimed, which made him burst into laughter.
He tilted my face up to turn it so he could lock our lips. “Be a good boy and make those wonderful sounds again. They’re really turning me on.”
“Gods…” I groaned out at his corny comment, but he thought I said it out of pleasure, so he went back to rhythmically moving in and out of me. I lost myself in that rhythm and let my face fall into the bed, so I could bite down on the sheets. In the reflection of a mirror on the nightstand, I noticed my eyes were swirling black pits, stuck in their Elemental form the way his were. I was going to comment on this, but Odysseus moved just right, and that made me scream his name and lose myself to the act itself.
Chapter twenty-seven
Trying to Live with the Things I Have Done
Pandora
The whipping winds outside the small cabin we inhabited beat against the wooden siding like an angry mob was trying to break in. I turned my hands in front of the small wood burning stove, which had a kettle full of murky water boiling away for some tea. The blanket around my shoulders kept slipping, as if it, too, had no desire to protect me, but I still pulled it back into place despite its protesting.
The door to the small space opened, and Ambermourn entered with two paper bags. He was soaked from head to toe due to the violent storm outside but seemed unbothered by this. He set the bags down on the round table beside the stove before wringing his gloves out over the sink and wiping his glasses clean. “My, some weather we’re having tonight, I’ll say!”
“Yes…” I meekly replied.
He pushed his glasses back into place before moving to the bags, where he pulled an assortment of packaged goods from.I watched him set each of these items down on the countertop, peering over his shoulder to see if he got anything I liked. He caught me and let out a soft chuckle. “Let me guess… you’re a cheese, jam, and crackers kind of girl?”
“How did you know?” I questioned as he moved for a plate, then began dishing me up a serving.
He set the snacks into my waiting palm before tenderly combing a strand of hair behind my ear. “We both enjoy the finer things in life. I got some wine, too, if you’d like some?”
“I might die without it,” I dramatically proclaimed. With a flick of his wrist, he procured a mason jar and filled it halfway with cheap wine, but wine, nonetheless. I thanked him wordlessly and sipped the liquid deeply, humming to myself as the slick alcohol coated my throat. After, I moved to spread jam over my crack before breaking off a piece of cheese and finishing the combination, which was a beautiful melody of sweet, savory, and salty on my tongue. “This, is what I desperately needed.”
“Anything for you, Goddess.” Ambermourn made himself a plate and glass before sitting beside me on the bed, which took up most of the cabin. He politely chewed on the edges of some cheese before his eyes drifted to the fogged glass window. “Are you recovering well?”
“As well as can be,” I offered as my gaze fixed to him. “Will you please tell me where we are, now?”
He was hesitant, but complied, mostly due to the look on my face. “The Cairngorms, Scotland. A relatively quiet and secluded area away from the noise of Valyce, Odrikius, and those pesky Gods.”
“I see.”
An awkward silence perfumed the space between us. Ambermourn scratched at his neck as he thought of something to say, anything to break the unbearable silence, but he came upempty-handed. I did not want to fill it myself, so I let the raging storm talk for me for a while.
Finally, he managed to find his voice. “So, um… what are our plans here?”
“Our?” I prompted.
His ashen-colored eyes grew as wide as saucers. “Do you mean to dispose of me after all I did to free you?”
“I never said that,” I answered swiftly, and to his relief. I sipped my wine again, really taking in the notes of stale grape. “I don’t know how you can help me more than you have is all. You’ve done a lot, surely, but I have run out of need for you.”
“Oh, I disagree!” He spun to take one of my hands and grip it tightly. “I am faithful to you, Goddess, you know this. I’m sure I can dosomethingto help. I want to rid the world of those Gods-to-be as much as you-...”
“No one wants them gone as much as I, Evander Ambermourn,thatI can assure you,” I bitterly cut in over him, making his shoulders slack. I shook him off of me and brought my face back to the fire to keep myself calm and centered as I spoke. “Those children are nothing but a thorn in my side. No, not a thorn… a fucking wooden pole.”
“I understand…”
“No, you truly do not. Stop saying you do when you do not know a Gods damn thing.” He winced under my harsh tone. I snapped a cracker once, twice, three times before cramming the broken piece into the corner of my mouth. “I have a lot to rebuild because of those little shits. Not to mention…” I ground my teeth, “My darling little husband has turned on me as well. So much for loyalty and a multi-millennium marriage, eh?”
“I would never betray you like that,” Ambermourn declared, moving to kneel before me. He clamped his hands down on my lap and spoke into my knees. “I am faithful to you, and only you. I will do whatever you ask of me, when you ask it.”
“Even if I asked you to kill Atlas?”
His shoulders tightened when I said this. He held his stance, but his voice warbled as he spoke. “I have done enough damage to him. Why would you want me to kill him?”
