“You are more lovely than all the stars in the heavens. Then Aphrodite herself,” he whispered, voice roughened by desire.
And though my body trembled, yearned for his touch, my heart ached with a pain that felt like I would die from it.
His hand was on my cheek just a moment later.
“My Psyche, you are unwell. I can feel it in your soul. What is the matter?”
He had such an uncanny ability at understanding my moods. He always had. Further proving my sister’s words true. He had to be a sorcerer of some great power to do so.
I swallowed the thick ball in my throat and shook my head. “I…I feel unwell, Phin.”
The endearment slipped off my tongue so easily and I wanted to weep. I loved him. With every fiber of my being I loved him. I wanted him to take me into his arms, I wanted him to make love to me. Slowly. Tenderly. With the stars above us and nothing but sky beneath us, as he sometimes would do.
I wanted to feel his thick and heavy cock slide deep inside of me and I wanted to feel secure in his arms. Loved.
But I was scared now. Scared of who he really was. Scared because of all the lies, all the secrets.
I could feel the could cold iron beneath my pillow, burning me, mocking me. Could I actually do it?
“Do you love me?” I whispered. The words exploded from deep inside my soul.
I heard his gasp and then… his mouth was on mine. But he wasn’t taking. He was giving. I swear, but I could feel something like the sun sliding down my tongue. I could feel the rush of wind billowing through my body. Touching him was magical. It was… magical… he’d concocted that potion, that terrible potion that’d made me an abomination to all men around me. He’d created a garden full of delights that existed nowhere else on the earth.
He was a sorcerer.
He truly was.
Adelia was right.
“Something has happened,” he whispered urgently. “I feel you moving away from me. In spirit. In mind. Your heart is so far from me.”
Laughter that sounded like sobs spilled from me. “You lied to me, Phineas. We are not wed. I am a fallen woman. You’ve betrayed my trust.”
“No. No.” I felt him move, felt him crawl into bed with me. “We are wed. I promise you.”
“You lie. My sisters told me the truth. That was no priest who joined us, just a charlatan. Only a priest or a god could truly unite us and since Aphrodite did not, there can only be one truth. We are no—”
His finger slid over my mouth. His words were rushed, panicked. “I vow to you by the darkness that binds that we are joined. Man and wife.”
“You are not a god that could do so.” My voice cracked and I couldn’t contain the tears. He’d lied and still he lied.
“Please, please, my Psy—”
“No, do not call me that. Tell me who you are. Tell me the truth, right now, Phineas—” I laughed, the sound was high pitched and even slightly deranged, “of course, that’s not even your true name, is it? I know nothing of you. Nothing. Give me one thing. One thing to make me believe in you.”
“I love you,” he said it softly. Resolutely.
And it pierced my soul because I still felt its truth, but I now knew I was defective. It was me that believed it, not him. I was so desperately in love with him that every part of me wanted to believe. But I no longer could.
I closed my eyes. His body soon curled around mine. I wanted to scream at him to leave me. To go away and never come back. That he’d hurt me far worse than my own father ever had.
But I wanted his touch far more. I was a masochist. I shuddered.
His arm slipped around mine.
“I will prove to you how much I love you, Psyche. I will never stop proving that to you. Only let me hold you. Don’t banish me, my darling. I could not walk this life without you. I am so very desperately in love with you.”
The rattling sobs poured shamefully out of me. He crooned, he rubbed my back, he whispered of his love and devotion to me for many hours. But soon I felt his body grow heavy and I knew that sleep had finally claimed him.
Though my mind had not quieted.
Back and forth it’d gone.
No man would so debase himself as he had if it wasn’t true love.
But then perhaps he did not want me to leave because he did need me to complete a dark spell.
For the first time tonight, I willingly touched his body.
I ran my hand down his arm, heart thumping madly in my chest, waiting to feel the slick slide of scales, but instead feeling nothing but hot, warm flesh.
How ugly must he be that he would keep himself hidden in shadow as he was? And how vain and shallow must he have believed me to be that he’d always refused to show himself to me? I would have loved him anyway. Looks had never meant much to me. But his heart was turning out to be as ugly as he must outwardly be.
He’d lied to me. For so long.
I slid out from under his arm. Anger was now beginning to replace pain. I was just about to get out of the bed when for some reason I reached for the knife. I had no intention of harming him. Ever.
But I would flee. I would escape, just as Adelia had begged me to. I’d need protection out there. I could not return to father’s palace. I was despoiled now. They would not want me.
I looked for a robe, and all I could find was a silken black one. A gift he’d given me several weeks ago.
The silk looked literally threaded through with glints of diamonds. His gifts had always been lavish. Silly. I’d secretly loved them. But now…it hurt.
Still, I couldn’t find my gown and I didn’t want to rouse him. I just needed to get out of this place. Forever.
I had just knotted the sash when a light popped into existence in the room.
I looked up and gasped.
There was a male in the room. A strange one. Tall, and handsome in a sloppy kind of way. With thick waves of brown hair that fell to his shoulders, he was dressed in a style I’d never seen a male wear before.
He grinned. “Ah, so you are the beautiful, Psyche.”
His voice was mesmerizing and I knew it was no mortal that stood in our room with us now.
In one hand he held aloft a flickering blue flame. God fire. My eyes widened. I knew that’s what it had to be.
And if he was holding god fire, then it meant he was a—
“Dionysus at your service,” he murmured, before bowing deeply.
Shocked, all I could do was stand there. The knife gripped loosely in my hand. “What…what are you—”
He stood. “Well, my dear, it is time as they say for the silly boy to learn a most valuable lesson. Lies get you nowhere. You wish to see the monster you’ve mated, no? Then come…this light will reveal all.”
He tipped the light forward and I gasped as for the first time ever I was able to see a clear outline of a massive body lying in the same bed I’d been in just minutes ago.
His face was still in shadow.
My heart raced.
My palms sweat.
I nibbled on the corner of my mouth. “I…I can’t.”
He snorted. “Oh, but you can. You really, really can. And the truth is, you must. There are forces at work here, girl. Fate rests in the balance. Come.”
The way he said it. How he said it. I could do nothing but obey.
My feet moved as though with a will all their own. He took my free hand, cupping it and blowing a bit of the god flame into it. I hissed, waiting for it to burn me up. But maybe the god of drunks had spared me that fate, because it did not hurt.