Page 14 of On a Pale Horse
“Well, it backfired. As I mentioned, people react to me. Well, a woman wandered into my room and she started reacting immediately. I could only distract her before Cloris showed up and found her with me, naked.”
Persephone winced. “Yikes. I bet that didn’t end well for anyone. Especially the poor woman who interrupted.”
He nodded slowly, not meeting her eyes. “Probably the most humiliating moment of my very, exceedingly long life. And that includes my imprisonment with Hel.”
She bit her lip as if she were weighing something in her mind.
He gave her time to finish her thoughts.
“What if I actually helped you?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, I will physically join you and give her no choice but to involve herself.”
Arousal skittered up his nerves. He glanced at her as covertly as he could.
She was a certainly a beautiful woman.
He could imagine worse punishments. “And what exactly would that entail?”
“It would probably involve a little pain, a little sex, some fun.” She shrugged her shoulder.
“And what about Cloris?”
“What about her? We are on good terms. I adore her. We can’t be in a relationship together, as we are too similar in temperament, but I think we could handle a night with a beautiful man.”
He enjoyed being called beautiful by someone who wasn’t chemically obligated to offer such a compliment. “Okay, when?”
She pulled a few more strands of grass from the ground. “I won’t be gentle with you. Cloris may coddle you, but I won’t.”
He swallowed heavily. “I don’t want anyone to coddle me. I want to be taken. I want to be used. I’m so tired of people tiptoeing around me. It’s been around two thousand years since Hel held me prisoner. While I won’t get over it, ever, I’m more than ready to move on with my life and gain some new insight into my sexuality.”
“Are you telling me you haven’t had sex in two-thousand years?”
He thought about it a moment… “Well, not likeactualsex. No.”
“Good God.”
He laughed. “Do you see why I came here? You’re my last resort.”
“Last resort, my ass. Guy, you need to go find a woman to take care of that.”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t want just any woman. I want Cloris. I will take her, or I will take no one.”
“What about me?”
He stared at her full lips. They shimmered in the overhead lighting, a soft pinkish brown. He scooted forward to cross the grass, closing the distance between them. Waiting to see if she would react to him at any point. She didn’t move a muscle, simply waited, patiently. “Should we see if this is even possible?”
She gave him a soft nod, and he dipped his head to kiss her gently. It was a soft kiss until she reached up and anchored her hand at his neck to pull him in deeper. She tasted like a spring rain shower. It was amazing. It didn’t last long, just long enough to heat his blood to a low simmer.
Her eyes sparked green and gray as she released him with a small lingering peck on his bottom lip. “You’ll do.”
“Well, with that endorsement, I feel a little sorry for the ambush that is about to happen.”
She laughed again, and it washed over him. “Don’t worry about that. She’ll only be mad for a moment.”
He didn’t have an answer for that because Cloris’ anger was a powerful thing. Even a moment of it. “Can you meet me at the Underground? Room nine tonight at ten?”
