He met her gaze before delivering another exquisite lick. "I'm getting your body ready for me so that I won't hurt you when I enter you." He pulled back. "Have you changed your mind?"
She shook her head. "I want you, Acheron."
He kissed his way slowly up her body while he continued to tease her with his hand.
Artemis clutched him as another orgasm tore through her. The moment it started, Acheron slid himself deep inside her body. He moved so quickly and smoothly that instead of hurting her, it increased her orgasm to a blinding level.
Her head lolled back and forth on the pillow as she tried to make sense of this. But there was no sense to it. And when Acheron started to slowly and deeply thrust against her, she moaned in ecstasy.
Acheron lost himself to the contented sighs Artemis made that matched his strokes. She held him in a way no one ever had before . . .
As if he meant something to her.
Tears pricked at the back of his eyes as he drove himself even deeper into her. No longer drunk, he was in bliss. All he could see was her beautiful face.
Her eyes darkened an instant before she brushed the hair back from his neck and sank her teeth into him. The moment she did, she came again.
The sensation of her drinking from him while her body clutched his drove him over the edge. Unable to stand it, he too came in a blinding wave of ecstasy.
He collapsed on top of her while she fed. Between his orgasm and blood loss, he was weak and sated. She rolled him over onto his back so that she could drink even more.
At the moment Acheron would have given her anything she asked of him. Even his life.
Artemis pulled back as her leg touched something wet on the bed. Glancing down, she saw her blood mixed with his seed on her mattress. The reality of what she'd just done slammed into her with a force so sharp it shattered all her happiness.
She was virgin no more.
If Apollo or the others found out . . .
She'd be ruined. Ridiculed. Humiliated.
What had she done?
You've been defiled by a human whore . . .
His eyes half-hooded, Acheron reached for her. She pulled back as her heart slammed against her breast. This was terrible. Awful. Terrified over what she'd allowed him to do, she left the bed, feeling sick.
Acheron followed her. "Artemis?"
"Don't touch me!" she snarled as he tried to hold her. She pushed him back.
"Did I hurt you?"
The concern in his voice left a ragged hole in her heart. But it was nothing compared to the shame and fear she felt. "You've ruined me."
In that moment she hated him for what they'd done. How dare he make her want him like this. Make her forget who she was and why her virginity was so important.
Dear gods, what had she done?
She wanted to kill him and yet she couldn't. How could she hate him so badly and still crave him?
"Why did you touch me?"
He looked stunned by her question. "You asked me to."
"I didn't ask you to kiss me in my temple," she accused. "I'd never known a kiss before. And then you touched me . . ." She slapped him hard for the affront.
Acheron staggered back in shock as his cheek burned. Before he could recover himself, Artemis attacked him, slapping and punching. When that didn't seem to satisfy her, she flung him against the far wall and held him there with her god's powers.
I will protect you . . .
Her words rang in his ears as he stared down at her, waiting for her to finally kill him. Truthfully he'd rather be dead than feel the splintering in his heart over what she was doing.
She'd lied.
Suddenly, he slammed to the floor. That same invisible force rolled him over and held him against the marble as Artemis approached him with a feral glare. "So help me, you ever breathe a word of this to a single soul and I will see you killed so painfully that your screams for mercy will resonate throughout eternity."
Those words brought tears to his eyes as they reminded him of so many others who'd hated him because they craved being with him. How many dignitaries and nobles had come to him and then cursed him the moment after he'd pleasured them?
They lived in fear of a whore ruining their precious reputations. They'd kicked him from their beds or knocked him to the ground, cursing him for their own lust as if he'd wanted it.
Why had he ever thought for one moment that Artemis would be any different?
In the end, he was what he was.
Nothing.
"Do you hear me?" Artemis snarled in his face.
"I hear you."
"I'll rip your tongue out."
He had to force himself not to laugh at a threat he'd cut his teeth on. But he knew the truth. His tongue had more value than anything else since it gave them the most pleasure. "Your will is my will, akra."
She grabbed him by the hair and pulled his head up to force him to look at her. "I am the goddess Artemis."
And he was Acheron Parthenopaeus. Cursed whore. Despised slave. Incapable of being loved by anyone.