Adonis gives a strangled laugh. “Good eye.” He nudges me toward the couch. “They’re not real. Just decoration.”
I don’t have to ask where they came from. It seems like the kind of perverse gift my wife would send a lover. A small, strange part of me doesn’t like that he still has evidence of her in his home, but it’s none of my business.
She’s not here.
I am.
I grip the back of Adonis’s neck and drag his mouth to mine. I love the way he gasps against my lips. There are no games here like with Aphrodite, no power plays and worrying that each move, each touch, gives away more than I intend. There’s just pleasure with a man I’m quickly coming to crave.
One who cares if I hurt myself, even a little. I don’t know what to do with that. I start to sink onto the couch and Adonis catches my elbows, lowering me slowly. I break the kiss long enough to say, “I sit down all the time. I don’t need you to treat me like a child.”
He grins against my lips. “Maybe I just like touching you.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I don’t say anything at all. I press him back a little and hook my fingers into the waistband of his pants. His cock is a hard imprint against the fabric, but I purposefully avoid it for now. One tug brings him between my thighs. Close enough that I give in to the urge to drag an open-mouthed kiss over his abs. “Spend a lot of time in the gym?”
“You would know,” he rasps. He grips my shoulders and kneads lightly. “You have more than enough muscle to spare.”
Because I thought I’d be a warrior. Not a hero—never that, not with the skeletons rattling around in my closet—but someone who commanded respect and fear in those around him.
Instead, I’m a failure. I failed to take the Ares title and bring Helen Kasios under our thumb. I failed to kill one of the other titles that would have been a good fit for me. I failed to avoid a marriage to a damned witch who comes far too sweetly for my peace of mind.
I’m failing at being Hephaestus.
Adonis sifts his fingers through my hair and tugs gently. “That feels good.”
I exhale slowly. I might have failed at everything else, but I’m succeeding at seducing this man. I’m going to make him feel good, make him come so hard he won’t be thinking of anyone but me.
That, I can do.
“I’m not done yet.” I lick my way down his stomach, but stop short of his pants. I want his cock in my mouth, but even more than that, I want to see him without a single thing hiding his body from my sight. A few tugs on the pants and they slide off his narrow hips, pooling around his ankles.
My mouth literally waters at the sight of a naked Adonis. I don’t know if I believe in perfection, but it’s hard to argue against its existence with this man standing before me. His brown skin is smooth and unblemished by the scars that pepper my body. Even his cock is perfect, long and broad with a wicked curve.
I draw a single finger down his length. “You’re like a fucking piece of art. Are you sure you’re real?”
“Real enough.” His hands spasm in my hair. “If you don’t stop looking at me like that…”
It’s only sex. A release for both of us. Or that’s what I tell myself as I dip down and take his cock into my mouth.
I ignore the fact that those reassurances have the flavor of lies.
17
ADONIS
There is no scenario where fucking Theseus is a good idea. I should have turned him away when my doorman called up. I certainly shouldn’t have answered the door without a shirt just to see if he’s as affected by me as I am by him.
Even then, I’d half convinced myself that it would end with a conversation…then with the kiss.
Until that look in his eyes when I wouldn’t let him hurt himself to bring me pleasure. That shocked and almost awed expression. As if no one has ever stepped in for his benefit before. It doesn’t make sense. Surely he has people who care about him.
I can’t afford to be one of them, but that doesn’t stop me from wanting to guard this soft part of him I’ve been shown unexpectedly.
Now, standing before him while he sucks down my cock, I’m lost. I half expected him to go about this the same way he seems to go about everything—quick and efficient. Instead, he teases me as he explores my length with his mouth. Sucking me down one moment, easing to achingly light movements around the head of my cock, then licking down to my base and back up again. The pleasure leaves me helpless to do anything but dig my hands into his hair and hang on. “Fuck.”