He brushed a finger down Acacia’s cheek, watched her back rise and fall in deep sleep. Studied the way her lashes formed spiky crescent shapes on her pale cheeks. Her courage still awed him. Last night she’d been ready to take him on. There was no other female in the universe who would dare stand up to him when he was in one of his moods, but it hadn’t stopped her. She was fearless. And as selfless as he’d told the king. Everything he’d never wanted but now couldn’t imagine living without.
He’d known she was his from the first taste. Long before he’d ever slid deep inside her. If he’d been more in tune with his humanity, he would have recognized it the first time he’d kissed her back in her small house. But he hadn’t. Because he’d needed her to unlock that side of him he’d always repressed.
She was his curse. His soul mate. His life. And there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to keep her from dying.
His finger ran down her shoulder, over her back until he found the sheet covering her gorgeous ass. He gripped the cotton and pulled it down, then eased up on an elbow and looked at her marking.
Gods, it was fading. In a matter of days, it would be gone.
His chest squeezed tight, and though he wanted nothing more than to slide back inside her and wake her from the inside out, he knew he couldn’t. Shouldn’t. She needed to save her strength, not use it up pleasuring him.
One glance at the window told him the moon was setting and morning would be here soon. Careful, so as not to wake her, he pulled the covers up around her shoulders and headed for the shower.
Her scent all over his body was distracting and arousing at the same time. As he lathered and rinsed under the hot spray, he told himself he was doing the right thing. The king had been correct on one count. Sometimes a great sacrifice is necessary.
He cut the water, grabbed a towel and dried his hair. After toweling off his legs, he pulled on new jeans, lifted the terry to his shoulders and froze.
Someone was outside on his porch.
Skata, he’d been wrong. They’d come for him already.
A deep male voice echoed through the closed doors. Followed by Acacia’s surprised and wary one.
His heart rate jerked.
No. He was wrong. They’d come for her.
Casey sensed she wasn’t alone even before she came fully awake.
She sat bolt upright and stared into the darkness. A candle flared on the low table across the room, illuminating the man seated near the fireplace.
“Don’t let me interrupt your sleep,” he said in a deep voice. “I do so enjoy watching the innocents.”
Casey pulled the sheet to her neck in a protective move. That tingling from her birthmark intensified until it was a screaming roar up and down her spine, but she didn’t open her mouth. Some hidden instinct warned her not to.
The man slowly rose, and even in the dim light from the candle she saw he was at least seven feet tall, with enough power in his right pinky to decimate her and everything in this house.
He wasn’t an Argonaut. This person…being…was a god.
And oh, shit. That meant all of this was real.
He stepped toward the bed. “Yes, I am. Care to guess which one?”
She swallowed the lump growing in her throat and pulled the covers tighter to her chest. She was blindingly aware she was naked beneath the sheet. And had a horrifying thought.
What if…what if he can see through it!
His chuckle was low and menacing. “Of course I can. But don’t worry. I’m not here for your sex, human. I’ve plenty of my own sluts to choose from. Besides, the visitor who came to Tartarus to beg for your soul was enough Argolean for me.”
“Hades,” she whispered.
His evil grin widened, and he bowed once. “Alive and in the flesh. I’d like to say I’m pleased to meet you, but that would be a lie. And I never lie.” His eyes narrowed. “Now, ask me who my visitor was.”
Her heart pounded against her ribs. She glanced around for Theron, only to confirm he wasn’t anywhere near. She swallowed hard again as she looked back at Hades. “No one would go see you on my behalf.”
His black-as-sin eyes glinted. “No one but your sister.”
The door to the bathroom flew open. Theron, bare chested and wearing only a pair of low-slung jeans, with hair damp as if he’d just stepped out of a shower, charged.
With a flick of his wrist, Hades sent Theron shooting backward until he slammed into the wall and crumpled to the ground. Pictures and shattered glass rained down around him. Hades held his arm out, as if creating an invisible force that kept Theron from getting up.
The god’s soulless black eyes refocused on Casey. “Your sister bargained with me, so that you might live.”
“Acacia—”
Hades shot out another beam of energy so sharp, Theron’s whole body jerked.
“Stop!” Casey leapt to her knees on the bed. Hades glanced her direction, but she knew she was no match for him. She forced the fear from her voice, for Theron’s sake. “Stop. Just. Don’t hurt him. I…I don’t understand any of this.”
“Why would anyone expect you to understand, human?” Hades looked in Theron’s direction with disgust. “As your Argonaut here omitted the real reason he brought you to this realm in the first place.”