Page 71 of Hercules

With gritted teeth, he climbed into that figurative cockpit and reached for its gorgeous pilot. Firmly but gently clutching her hand before speaking again.

“You’re going to try it no matter what I say, aren’t you?”

The quick hitch to one corner of her mouth was his vexation and devastation. “Can’t be too hard to find a portal to Tokyo from the Underworld, right?”

He secured her other hand, wasting no time in increasing his pressure. “That’s just the easy part. Lois. You know that, right?” A tug on her now, doubling down his incessant message. “Have you been back there at all since you and your mom had to flee?” Only two seconds of her averted stare supplied that answer. “So are you going to be okay going back now? There’s no baggage check for this kind of a trip, Matia Mou. It’ll be with you the entire time—”

“But so will you.”

Her insistence was so calm, her audacity so adorable, that he was barely past processing for a doubletake when she pushed at her advantage.

“Lion Man? It’s asking too much, isn’t it? If you’ve got baggage that’s too heavy, I understand. Just give me directions to the right portal and—”

He pulled on her harder. Harder still, until she crashed fully against him with a startled gasp. Nothing like a rough rush of breath to remind him of everything he’d better forget now. Like the last time they were this tightly wound together. And breathing hard. And struggling to remember which direction was up.

And recognizing what a precious present they had in their connection to each other.

A gift beyond her or him. Past the gods themselves.

A treasure from the universe itself.

If that was his baggage, he’d carry it across all of Asia for her.

He released one of her hands to brace his fingers against her face and force it straight up. Right now, nothing was more important than embedding the message in his eyes onto her soul. And she did see it—though not all of it. Not the full scope. The sheer space inside his bags, which had held nothing but hopeless shadows for him for so long. But now their edges were aglow, brimming with stardust and surprises and even the warmth that tickled the brackets of his own mouth.

Because of the heat of her.

The endless constellations she’d reignited in his skies…

But she still didn’t see it.

So he bent his head, determined to kiss the comprehension into her.

CHAPTER 20

Lois didn’t hold her breath on purpose. But from the moment Herc dipped his head toward hers, his hooded gaze intent on her mouth, he might as well have been waving an invisible wand in the air. It was just a few seconds, like the final hush in a theater before an anniversary screening of Dirty Dancing, that changed everything.

Something special was coming.

This man knew exactly what he wanted and precisely how to get it.

Except…no.

This was different. So different.

He wasn’t here, so huge and hot and close, to get. With every push of his lips and slant of his head, she was surer of it. This was something from him, not the other way around. His new message.

An inscription on her awareness…

A missive that brought new meanings.

Implications that made her wonder if she’d ever breathe normally again. Was it possible? Even when this was all over and she was back in the regular realm, would everyday air be as vital to her? Would anything or anyone after being here in the Underworld?

No.

After being in the Underworld with him.

The demigod who’d already given her so much—his protection, his adoration, his billion and one ways to orgasm—yet now, gave her more.