He smiled back at her as he eased to his knees before the thorny black bush and saw why she was so happy.
It bore an onyx rose.
Her first bloom.
She had been trying so hard to make something other than bushes, brambles and vines over the last few weeks, wanting to be able to use her powers over nature to make the things her mother could. Flowers had been at the top of her list, and whenever she had failed, she had grown quiet and withdrawn, and he’d had his work cut out for him. Making her believe she would manage it one day had been growing harder and harder, and gods, he was glad she had finally produced her first flower.
He hated seeing her depressed.
Wanted her to always smile like this.
“It is beautiful,” he murmured and she glanced at him, and then her gaze returned to him and lingered. He lifted his hand and brushed his palm across her rosy cheek. “You are beautiful.”
The rose on that cheek darkened and she gently brushed his hand away. “Hush now, Thanatos.”
She didn’t like it when he made her blush, but he loved it. He loved seeing that colour on her cheeks and knowing he put it there, because he seemed to be the only one who could make her blush like that.
“Soon the entire garden will be filled with roses and other blooms.” He looked around them as he stood and offered his hand to her. She slipped hers into it, the gentle slide of her fingers over his palm stoking the fire inside him. He pulled her onto her feet and into his arms, tucked her close to him as he gazed down at her. “You have only been here a short time, but you have already transformed this place… just as you transformed me.”
Her blush deepened. “I did not transform you at all.”
“Perhaps a better word would be freed. You freed me. You restored me.”
Before he could continue, she silenced him with a kiss, one that he knew was designed to keep him quiet and stop him from trying to make her blush even deeper. Thanatos sank into it as he held her to him, as he teleported them to their bedroom. As soon as her feet touched the floor, she pushed out of his arms, the heat and hunger in her gaze scalding him as she looked him over.
“Gods, I missed you.” She positively growled those words, brought a smile to his lips that disappeared in a shocked gasp as thin vines burst from the wooden boards beneath his boots and attacked the plates of his armour, stripping it from him.
He arched an eyebrow at her.
“I ache for you, Thanatos. Do not make me wait.”
Gods, she undid him. She knew exactly what to say to make him wild for her, to tear down his control and pull him under her spell. He growled as he reached for her, as her vines continued to peel his armour away to leave him naked before her. Her blue gaze darkened as she ran it over him, the hunger in it driving him, making him burn for her.
Thanatos gripped her waist and twisted her away from him, tore at the lacing on the back of her corset, cursing how intricate it was and how it slowed him. He needed her now, had been thinking about her non-stop for days. He pressed his aching length against her behind as he tugged the laces loose, as he peeled the soft leather from her curves and cast it aside. She moaned and leaned back into him, her skin brushing his, and he feathered his fingers up her stomach to the valley between her breasts as he kissed her throat.
“Thanatos,” she murmured, breathless already.
Her hands dropped to her leathers and he rubbed against her bottom as he dropped his there too and helped her with them. She tortured him by bending over to push them down her legs, revealing her bare backside to him.
Thanatos rubbed a hand down his mouth and uttered a curse, couldn’t stop himself from taking hold of her hips and grinding against her as she removed her leathers.
Calindria glanced over her shoulder at him, crimson shining around her dilated pupils. He knew that possessive look. He thrust against her and her gaze grew hooded, a moan escaping her. She turned in his arms and kissed him, leaped up and wrapped her legs around his waist. Her soft heat met his hard length and he groaned as he held her to him, as he rubbed against her.
“I’ve been aching to do this since you left.” She kissed his neck, nipped at his earlobe, and tightened her grip on him.
The world went black and he grunted as he landed on his back in the middle of their bed with her on top of him.
A growl burst from his lips as she pressed her hands to his chest, pinning him to the mattress, that possessive crimson light in her eyes growing brighter.
“Gods,” he muttered.
Surrendered to her.
Calindria rose off him and seized his shaft, brought it to her and sank back on it, taking him into her, driving him to the very edge of madness, in danger of pushing him over it. He groaned and gripped her hips as she rode him, each fierce thrust making her breasts bounce and that fire in her eyes blaze hotter. It seared him as he rolled his hips, driving into her, taking her as hard as she was taking him, losing control and becoming a slave to the need that surged through him.
Her sweet moans of pleasure drove him, had him guiding her with one hand and planting the other against her right breast. He thumbed her nipple and palmed her breast, growled as she moved faster, taking him now. Unable to hold back the need to touch her, to feel her climax, he dropped his hand from her hip and brushed his fingers over her sensitive flesh between her legs.
Calindria threw her head back and cried out, her body clenching and unclenching, milking him as her movements faltered.
Thanatos gathered her to him on a low growl, pinned her to his chest and kissed her hard as her legs fell open. He dug the heels of his feet into the mattress and thrust into her, each wild pump of his cock into her slick quivering body shoving him closer to the edge. Panic loomed at the back of his mind and he fought it, opened his eyes and stared into Calindria’s. It was his beautiful goddess with him. His love.
His forever.
Release hit him in a blinding rush that tore a bellow from him and a sweet cry of bliss from Calindria as she joined him, as her body flexed and trembled around his, demanding his seed as it burst from him.
He shook all over from the force of it, from the relief that swept through him on the heels of it as Calindria sank against him and kissed him, gently bringing him down.
Thanatos clung to her, breathing hard, astonished and awed by how good it had felt. He felt as one with her as he held her on him, as he continued to pulse inside her, as her breathless little sighs teased his ears.
He had never felt so connected to anyone as he did to Calindria in that moment.
He eased her back and brushed his hands across her damp cheeks and brow, sweeping the rogue strands of her golden hair out of her face so he could drink his fill of it. Her smile undid him all over again, her sated look only adding to his pleasure as he gazed at her.
“Gods, I love you.”
Her eyes lit up. “I love you too.”
He framed her face with his palms.
His perfect match.
His beautiful goddess of death.
His.
And gods help anyone who tried to take her from him.
A feral and possessive snarl came from deep within him and her smile turned wicked and a little bit amused. Thanatos yanked her down to him, rolled on top of her and kissed her, wiping that smile from her face as he claimed her lips.
Claimed all of her.
Again and again.
And again.
The End
* * *