Oh gods… Her nightmares had been true. He’d been tortured in the Underworld for six months because of her.
“I’m fine,” he said again, this time squeezing her tighter, warming all the places inside that had just gone cold. “I’m better than fine. I’m home. Right here with you. And I’m not leaving again. I promise. So long as you still want me.”
Her heart was so full it felt as if it might explode.
“So long as I still want you?” Pushing him to his back on the floor, she kissed him hard.
He groaned and opened, sliding his tongue around and over hers, fisting his hands in her hair as she crawled up his body and tore at the buttons on his shirt with frantic hands.
“I want you, Zagreus. I always want you. Skata, I want you now.”
He growled as she ripped his shirt open, sat up so she could pull it off, then took charge of the kiss, tasting her so deeply and completely she forgot whose air she was breathing. Breaking away, he said, “Arms up,” then yanked her shirt off and tossed it behind him next to his.
Her heart pounded in time to the throbbing between her legs as he flipped her to her back on the carpet. Bracing her arms against the white rug, she pushed up and watched his muscles quiver and a vein pulse in his neck as he scooted back and ripped her pants open, then yanked them straight down her legs.
He was power and strength and oozed virility. Even after everything that had been done to him. And her sex wept with anticipation as he shucked the rest of his clothes, knelt between her legs, grasped her at the thighs, then dragged her across the floor to him.
He leaned down and kissed her, bracing one big hand near her shoulder on the floor. “Say it again.”
She threaded her hands into his hair and lifted her hips, desperate for that first thrust. Against his ear, she whispered, “I want you. Don’t make me wait. Take me already, dammit.”
He chuckled against her throat and reached down between them.
“Oh gods…” The blunt head of his cock slid through her wetness and teased her clit, making her groan, making her squirm beneath him because it wasn’t enough. She dropped her head back and lifted her hips.
“Just me,” he said in a strained voice, shifting closer. “Just one god. Mm, you are so wet, mono mia…” He kissed her deeply. “I won’t be able to last long.”
A thrill rushed through her, knowing she had such power over a god. But it was quickly forgotten when he flexed his hips, holding her gaze trapped in his as he pressed deep inside her.
She gasped at the delicious stretch she never thought she’d feel again. And her heart contracted because their coupling this time was familiar yet new. Not just rooted in lust or passion but filled with trust and honesty and love. The kind of love she’d once thought she didn’t need.
“Tell me again,” he groaned as he kissed her. “Tell me you want me.”
“I do want you.” She lifted her hands to his face, wrapped her legs around his hips, and kissed his trembling lips. “I always want you. Take me, dios. Make me your princess.”
He groaned into her mouth, drew his hips back, and thrust in hard with his magnificent cock.
His skin grew damp. Hers tingled everywhere they touched. He kissed her like he was starved, his tongue streaking over and around hers, claiming her mouth with the same urgent frenzy he was claiming her body. Between her legs, her flesh burned, growing slicker with every stroke of his pulsing shaft.
Electricity gathered in her center. His muscles contracted. Her body jostled against the floor. And when that energy sparked like fire in her blood, she knew a blinding climax was about to claim every part of her.
“Look at me,” he grunted. “I want to see it. I want to see everything. Come all around me, mono mia. Come, and take me with you.”
Somehow, she managed to peel her eyes open. And the instant her gaze met his, when she saw the brutal passion in his for her, only for her, the orgasm tore through her with the force of a hurricane, sucking up everything around her—all the light, all the sound, and all the pain she’d lived with since the day she’d lost him.
Every muscle in his body contracted, then he jerked and let out a guttural groan that instinctively made her sex clench around his gorgeous cock, milking him of every drop of pleasure. He twitched above her—inside her—then groaned again, telling her he was as lost as her.
He exhaled long and hard, then his big, damp, muscular body collapsed against hers.
Feeling as if she were floating, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, sifted her fingers into his hair, and pressed a shaky kiss to his temple, loving the way his hot breath ran down her neck, loving the way he felt against her, around her, inside her.
Her heart. Her soul. Her one and only prince.
He rolled them to their sides long before she was ready to let his weight go, shifted the arm underneath him to the back of his head so he could lean against it, then ran his fingers over the sensitive skin of her arm.
Gazing at her with sated, loving, tender eyes she would never tire of, he said, “I told you I wouldn’t last.”
She chuckled and skimmed her fingertips over the sexy scruff on his jaw. “I’m not complaining.”
Muted music echoed from the castle courtyard far below, along with voices and laughter. She could tell the party was already under way. The nymphs were always ready for a party, and they’d been planning this feast for several days, since before they’d even known Zagreus was coming back. She had no desire to take him down there and share him with them, though. She wanted him all to herself.
“So…” She slid her hand over his shoulder and down his arm, tracing the serpent tattoo on his skin. “Are you going to tell me what happened in the Underworld and how you escaped? Or are you going to make me lie here and guess.”
“I didn’t escape. I was let go.”
“Hades let you go?”
“No. My mother.”
She sat up. “Persephone?”
“Yeah.” He rolled onto his back, his arm still behind his head, and looked up at her. “Shocked the hell out of me. One minute I was in Tartarus, being tortured, then the next… I was in the Fields of Asphodel. With my mother.”
Her eyes widened as he relayed the story, and when he was done, all she could do was blink.
He stared at her for several seconds then slowly sat up. “You don’t seem totally shocked to learn Hades isn’t really my father.”
“I’m not. I mean, I am, but... I think some part of me already knew.”
“How?”
“Nysa. When you first brought me to Ehrendia, she hinted you weren’t Hades’s son. That you were something more. I didn’t believe her then, but... It makes sense. That’s why the nymphs just stepped aside when you arrived here and let you lead them.”
He shot her a sexy smirk. “And here I thought it was because of my wicked reputation.”
“Well...” She smiled and skimmed her fingers over his muscular shoulder, unable to keep her hands to herself when he was so close. “They all did want to fuck you. Still do, probably. But...” She tipped her face up to his. “You were clearly waiting for me.”
His eyes shifted from sexy to downright smolder. “I was waiting for you, mono mia. I’ve spent my life waiting for you.”