When he leaned down to kiss her, she sighed, all those nerve endings inside firing with the need to be claimed by him again.
“Speaking of the nymphs,” he said, easing back a breath. “I must have been imagining things earlier when I walked through the courtyard before coming up here, because it almost seemed like several of them were...”
“Pregnant?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly as if just realizing that was what they’d look like.
She smiled. “It wasn’t your imagination. They are pregnant. Almost all of them.”
“Seriously?” His brow lifted. “All of them?” When she nodded, he looked around then said, “Wild. Their orgies finally worked, I guess.”
“It wasn’t the orgies. It was you.”
His gaze snapped back to hers. “Me?”
She laughed. “Don’t worry. I don’t mean like that. I mean, what happened at those orgies is how they got pregnant, but you were the reason those orgies finally worked.”
His brows knit together to form three little lines between his confused eyes. And the look was so cute, it was all she could do not to kiss it away, then feast on every inch of his body.
She laughed again. “Actually, it was us. When I showed up here, that changed things for you.” Her fingers grazed his chest then fell to his lap, where they skimmed his semi-hard erection. Leaning in close, she kissed him gently and said, “My being here made you wake up.”
He sucked in a breath. “You don’t mean...”
“I do, actually. Dionysus is the god of wine and ecstasy and fertility, remember? Your libido is linked to the nymphs’ survival as a race.”
“Whoa.” He glanced around the lookout, letting his gaze skip over the candles he’d obviously conjured with his magick and the couch and chairs and tables she’d moved up here on her own. “Okay, that’s fucking wicked.”
She smiled and brushed her nose and lips against his jaw. “Would this be the wrong time to tell you that I’ve always wanted children? Not right away, of course. I want you all to myself for a while. But down the line, I’m thinking, two, three, maybe even four. Definitely more than one, though. I’m an only child, and I want our kids to be able to torment each other. It’s not real parenting until you have to referee wrestling siblings.”
He turned his head and looked at her, but his eyes weren’t filled with fear or shock. They radiated absolute love. The kind that runs soul deep. “Kids, huh?”
“Mm-hm.” She nodded. “What could go wrong? I mean, Zeus has a bunch of kids and look how well that turned out.”
He laughed and pulled her onto his lap. “Would this be the right time to tell you that I love you? Endlessly? Because I do. More than all the stars in the heavens and all the sands through time.”
“You can tell me that any time, in any way,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “I’ll never tire of hearing those words. Because I love you just the same, dios.”
His arms closed around her, and he kissed her softly, gently, so completely she knew anywhere with him was where she was always meant to be.
Brushing her fingertips against his sexy jaw, she pressed her forehead to his and just breathed him in. “I can’t believe you went to hell for me.”
“I went to Tartarus for you,” he corrected. “And I’d do it again in a heartbeat to keep you safe. I’d even voluntarily spend time locked up with the Fates if that’s what it took. Because the only hell that exists for me is a world without you in it. All those years alone, even the brief times we were together in the past, that was my hell because I hadn’t found you yet. Not the you from before, but the you right now, here today. The only person in all the ages who’s ever been strong enough to love a monster and make him want to be something more.”
“You’re not a monster,” she whispered.
“I’m definitely not a hero.”
“No, you’re not that. But as you already know, I never wanted a hero. I like the wild side too much.”
He chuckled as she pushed him down and stretched out on top of his tantalizingly naked body.
“Besides, heroes come and go.” She nipped at his jaw. “But you... You’re mine until the end of time. The only thing I ever wanted was a devil with a heart. And I found him. In you.”
“You didn’t find him. You freed him. And you saved me from the darkness and showed me the light.” His eyes turned all soft and dreamy. “Don’t ever stop being my light, mono mia.”
“I won’t.” She lowered her lips to his. “I never will. And if you even think of changing your mind, I have the perfect tower to lock you in to make sure you stay mine.”
He laughed as she kissed him, and against her lips, he mumbled, “I definitely won’t be changing my mind. But anytime you want to get freaky in that tower, just let me know.”
“Maybe later. Right now, I plan to get freaky here in this lookout with my dark prince.”
He laughed again. Whispered, “Hell, yeah.” Then groaned as she drew him into the light and beauty of her wicked kiss.
Eternal Guardians Lexicon
agkelos – Term of endearment; my angel
Argolea – Realm established by Zeus for the blessed heroes and their descendants
Argonauts – Eternal guardian warriors who protect Argolea. In every generation, one from the original seven bloodlines (Heracles, Achilles, Jason, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, and Bellerophon) is chosen to continue the guardian tradition
binding/bound – Marriage/married
chará – Term of endearment; my joy
daemons – Beasts who were once human, recruited from the Fields of Asphodel (purgatory) now ruled by Hades
emmoní – Term of endearment; my obsession
Fates – Three goddesses who control the thread of life for all mortals from birth until death
Fields of Asphodel – Purgatory
Horae – Ancient goddesses of balance and justice
Isles of the Blessed – Heaven
kardia – Term of endearment; my heart
kobalos pl. kobaloi — Gnomelike creatures who mine Hades’s invisibility ore.
maenads — Nymphs who are the devoted followers of the god Dionysus
matéras – Mother
meli – Term of endearment; beloved
Misos – Half-human/half-Argolean race that lives hidden among humans
mono mia – Term of endearment; my one and only
nymph pl. nymphs – Mortal maidens who are beautiful and youthful-looking, and who inhabit rivers, woods, and other locations
Olympians – Current ruling gods of the Greek pantheon, led by Zeus; meddle in human life
Orb of Krónos – Four-chambered disk that, when filled with the four classic elements—earth, wind, fire, and water—has the power to release the Titans from Tartarus
paidí – Child
pampas – Daddy
Pandora’s box — Powerful artifact controlled by Pandora, the first mortal woman ever created
parazonium – Ancient Greek sword all Argonauts carry
patéras – Father
satyr pl. satyrs – Mortal male beings with the heads and torsos of a man, but legs and horns of a goat