The Pandora Principle

My fists clenched at my sides. “Because your actions speak louder.”

 

 

He crossed the room before I finished exhaling and wrapped his hands around my wrists, sending tiny shocks along the fox and up my arm. I gave a tiny gasp, and he pulled me against him, with his lips only inches from mine. My heart twisted into a knot, and I licked my dry lips.

 

Even another night would never be enough for me, and it remained all I could have. Though we belonged to the same world, we were on opposite sides. He’d seen centuries of lovers and would have many more when I was dust. All the reasons swirled around my head in a thick fog that strangled me from the inside.

 

That’s when the locks trapping the ker unclicked. I slammed my forehead into his nose.

 

He pushed away from me, holding a hand to his face. “What the fuck?”

 

“There’s only one way to keep you with me. All others, you’ll eventually abandon me.” I rolled my shoulders back as the world took on a darker tint.

 

His eyes widened. “This isn’t you talking. Cassi, you need to fight it.”

 

Yes, fight me. A voice hissed in my brain. You’ll only lose. You’re weak. Love is weak.

 

Love? Since when had I started loving Hermes?

 

I stared into his eyes as my heart seemed to rise into my throat. Nothing good happened to those who fell in love with gods. I wouldn’t be any different, but maybe loving him could hold the ker at bay.

 

I closed the distance between us, wrapped my arms around his neck, and slammed my mouth into his. The kiss was hard and angry at first, filled with my clinging desperation, but he changed in, sliding his tongue along the contour of my upper lip. One hand rested on the small of my back, and he pulled me in closer while the fingers of the other stroked my cheek. A tension between my shoulder blades dissipated, and I relaxed into him as the box stopped rattling.

 

He cupped my ass and lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he carried me down the hall and into my bedroom with our lips locked together the entire time. I needed his touch, needed his scent of olives surrounding me more than I needed to breathe. Okay, I still needed air, but this came close.

 

The bed creaked as we collapsed on top of it, finally breaking our kiss. He stared down at me with his eyes almost black with passion before he swooped down to plant kisses along my collarbone. His hands slid along my ribs, down my hips and along my thighs, leaving little jolts in their wake.

 

I pushed him away long enough to yank my t-shirt over my head and toss it on the floor, followed by my bra. Hermes ran his tongue down my neck and between my breasts as I slipped his shirt up to play with those hard muscles underneath. He grazed my right nipple with his teeth before he took it into his mouth. I arched my back with a loud gasp and gripped the bottom of his shirt.

 

“Oh, you like that?” he asked. “But what would the Fates think? Maybe I should stop …”

 

“Don’t you dare,” My breath caught in my throat.

 

Hermes’s tongue traveled lower, circling around my belly button as he removed my pants. He nipped at my ankle softly and trailed kisses up my leg to my inner thighs. He licked at my slit and grinned up at me, causing an anticipatory throb to echo through me.

 

“If my words aren’t enough to make you believe, then I’ll have to show you,” he said. “Tonight, I worship you.”

 

He flicked his tongue against my hardened bud, sending delicious tremors through my body, before he plunged it inside of me. I groaned and grasped the sheets on the bed. He drove me to the brink and pulled back with a pause. I gave a frustrated cry, unable to articulate what I needed at that point as the electricity of his touch that I’d come to love faded away. Not for long, though.

 

He returned, glorious in his nakedness, and hovered over me, resting his weight on his elbows. He slid his rigid shaft along my folds, and I moaned as a heated shudder passed through me. His cock pressed against my hungry opening, and I raised my hips, loving the little bursts of heat that spread from my loins to the rest of my body. He pressed his forehead against mine and locked his gaze with mine.

 

“It’s just you and me, now,” he said. “My name will be the last one you scream.”

 

My joyous shout filled the room as he plunged into me. My fingernails dug into his arms as I bucked my hips up with each of his thrusts. The rattling of the ker and the darkness had faded away to nothing. Hermes filled every part of me, and I welcomed him. We were the only two that existed in this whirling storm of passion. My blood roared in my ears as my orgasm thundered through me.

 

“Oh god, Hermes,” I cried out.

 

He threw his head back and gave a rumbling moan as he exploded inside of me. We lay there panting, staring into each other’s eyes for several moments. He chuckled and rolled to one side, taking me with him, and planted a small kiss on my temple.

 

“Told you I’d make you scream my name,” he said.

 

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