His arms closed around her with such force, it drew a gasp from her lips. He buried his head against her neck while she wrapped one arm around his shoulder, the other around the back of his head, and held him close, sifting her fingers through his hair, feeling the beat of his heart against her own. He didn’t make a sound, but she felt the tears on her skin, felt his big, strong body shake with the power of so many pent-up emotions. And in the silence between them, she closed her eyes and just held on while he let them out. While she gave him what strength there was inside her.
All her life she’d been alone. Even the few times she’d been in love, she’d still been alone, because she’d never opened herself all the way. She’d never admitted who she really was, never confessed her hopes and dreams, never shared her soul. This time, she would. This time, everything was different.
“I won’t go after Zagreus,” she whispered. “I’ll go wherever you want me to go. Do whatever you need me to do. All I want is you, Gryphon. For a few years, for as long as we’ve got together. If, that is, you want me too.”
He lifted his head from her shoulder. Tear streaks ran down his cheeks. His eyes were damp and bloodshot. But the haunted look, the dead look, was finally gone. In its place were the softest, bluest, sweetest eyes she’d ever seen.
“Sotiria,” he whispered, framing her face with his hands, brushing his thumb over her own tear to wipe it away. “I used to dream of you. Of the one person who would touch my heart and make me whole. I just didn’t expect her to show up when I was half the man I used to be. Orpheus may have saved my soul from the Underworld, but you…you saved me from myself. I will always, always just want you.”
His mouth closed over hers before she could draw another breath. And though he kissed her with those sweet and tempting lips just as he had before, she felt the hesitation, felt the worry lingering beneath.
She needed to show him nothing had changed. She needed to prove to him just how much everything he’d told her only made her love him more.
Her hands slid down to his arms, then gently she eased away from his mouth, moved out of his grasp, and stepped back toward the couch, the whole time keeping her eyes locked on his.
He watched her with longing and fear. A fear she wanted to erase forever.
She gripped her long-sleeved T-shirt at the hem, pulled it over her head, dropped it on the floor at her feet. Then she flicked the button of her jeans, slid down the zipper, pushed them partway down her hips.
Desire flared in his damp eyes. A desire she wanted to stoke to a full-blown flame.
She turned, bent over at the waist, shimmied out of her jeans so he had a nice, clear view of her backside. They hit the floor near her shirt. Then she unclasped her bra, let it fall in her hands, looked over her shoulder as she held it out so he could see, and dropped it as well. His eyes were locked right where she wanted them—on her body. His face was flushed with desire and need. She slid her fingers into the lace at her hips, started to push them down. His gruff voice stopped her.
“Don’t.”
Her heart pounded hard as he moved close. His gaze ran over her, from the top of her head, down her back, hovered on her ass. But she couldn’t read his expression from this angle. Didn’t know what he was thinking. He barely moved, barely breathed as he continued to study her in the firelight.
“Gryphon…”
He slid to his knees. Pushed her hands away from her hips. Finally whispered, “Let me.”
Relief rippled through every cell in her body. Her chest rose and fell with her labored breaths as he ran his palm down her right buttock. As he trailed the fingers of his other hand across her lower back. As he hooked his fingers in the sides of her thong and slowly pulled it down.
This close he could smell her—jasmine and need and hunger. And all of it—the way she felt, the scent of her arousal, the things she’d said—it all coalesced to leave him light-headed.
She loved him. No one had ever loved him. After the Underworld, he didn’t think anyone ever could.
His heart—a heart she had reawakened—filled as he brushed his fingers against her inner thigh. As she trembled all over again. “Put your knee on the couch. And lean forward.”
She hesitated the briefest of seconds, then stepped out of her panties, braced one knee on the couch, and rested her elbows on the arm of the sofa. He pressed against her other leg, telling her without words to widen her stance. And as she slowly opened herself to him, his heart pounded hard against his ribs.
She trusted him. Not just with her heart, but with her body too. The impact of that nearly stole his breath.
“You are gorgeous,” he whispered.
She shuddered. And before she could turn and look at him, he leaned forward and ran his tongue over her clit. She sucked in a breath. He slid between her folds, then finally found the opening of her sex and tasted all of her.
She groaned, dropped her head against the armrest. Gods, he loved the sounds she made. Loved the way she tasted. He slid his tongue back down to her swollen clit, circled the tight knot, flicked it again and again, delighted in the way she moved against him. Sweat broke out on his skin as he listened to her moan, as she pushed back against him. He wanted to slide inside her, to take what she was so obviously offering, but this wasn’t about him. This was about her. About showing her how much what she’d said meant to him.
How much she meant to him.
She dug her fingers into the fabric of the couch. “Gryphon, I—”
She gasped again, then moaned when his finger slid down her backside and finally into her sex.
“Oh, gods.” She tightened around him.
He pushed deep, drew back out, thrust in again. She was so wet. Wet and hot and perfect. She moved against him while he pumped into her sex, while he licked her. Tried to force him deeper. Tried to urge him faster.
He knew she was close. Needed to make her go over. Wanted to taste her release. He closed his lips over her clit and suckled. And was rewarded with a tremor that shook her whole body.
“Gryphon,” she gasped. Her arm gave out and her face hit the sofa as her orgasm consumed her. She tightened around his fingers, and his dick twitched in response, as if the same electrical shots rushing through her body were exploding in his.
He’d never known giving pleasure could be enjoyable until her. Hadn’t realized what he was missing in life these last few months. Not just sex in general but…love. Her love, her trust, her faith in him…together it sealed the hole in his chest he’d been living with since the Underworld. It brought back the man he once was.
No, that wasn’t right. It made him into the man he’d always wanted to be.
He continued to tease her, continued to caress from the inside, slower with each stroke until the aftershocks left her body. Then he squeezed her right cheek and pressed a gentle kiss to her left.
She breathed deep, seemed to have trouble focusing. As she blinked several times and stared into the flames dancing in the fireplace, a thrill rushed through him at the knowledge he’d done that to her. He’d left her breathless and foggy. As breathless and foggy as he’d been since the first moment he touched her.
She turned quickly, found her footing, gripped his shoulders, and pulled him to his feet.
“Maelea—”
Then she closed her lips over his, licked into his mouth, ripped open his jeans, and pushed them down his hips.