Chapter 24

24

L averna was the first to let go of the embrace. She had needed to feel Romulus's solid presence and heat to calm the shaken feeling in her chest. She sat down at the table while Romulus opened the bottle of wine she had found. She knew his place would be nice, but she hadn't expected to feel like a home. Her fingers got itchy just looking at all the pretty art, weapons, statues and trinkets around her.

"Why am I suddenly glad that you don't have more pockets to hide things?" he asked, pouring out her wine.

Laverna gave him her most innocent look. "I would never steal from someone who just cooked me dinner."

"Liar," he replied fondly.

"Just think how much fun you'll have searching me before I leave."

Romulus sat across the table from her. "And do you plan on doing that tonight?"

"All depends. Do you have dessert?" Laverna said and quickly put a forkful of risotto in her mouth. She groaned. "You're good at cooking too? Fates, I hate you sometimes."

Romulus only smiled. "I'm sure I'll survive. Besides, we haven't even begun to delve into all the things I'm good at."

"I'm sure," she said with a roll of her eyes. It didn't sound like innuendo, but her brain went there anyway. It was hard not to. Casual Rom was her favorite version of him. He looked great in a suit, but Rom in sweatpants? That was what did it for her horny girl brain.

She ate more of her dinner and slowly started to feel better. She liked that he would take care of her when she asked and let her go first into a dangerous situation when the circumstances called for it.

Laverna took a sip of her wine and asked, "So you said I could ask you anything and you would be honest about it?"

"Yes," he said and put his fork into his risotto. "Do you have a question for me?"

"Probably a lot of them," she replied. She drank more wine for courage. "I'm not good at talking when things matter. I get tongue-tied and a bit dumb, and because it's you, it's even worse."

Romulus's foot ran up the side of her calf under the table. "Laverna, you can say anything to me. You have never been afraid to hurl insults or piss on my monuments, so I think you can ask me anything."

Laverna tried not to laugh. "You really are never going to get over the pissing on monuments thing, are you?"

"Not ever," he replied with a smile.

Laverna straightened up in her chair. "Okay, first question. You have been different for weeks. I thought Bellona's fight with the mafia over Rafael was what was bothering you, and then I thought it was the stress of the witches. What changed your mind about…about me?"

"Some of it was Bellona, but the main problem was that I saw you again," Romulus admitted and drank some more of his wine. "My wolf has known since we first met that you were my mate. I never wanted to believe it, so I put all of that possibility in a box and locked it up tight. I was very good at lying to myself over the decades, especially because you aren't a part of my control of the city. I used it as an excuse to stay away and avoid you as much as possible. I saw you in Elysium, and it was like a punch in the guts. I couldn't keep it locked up anymore. I was telling the truth earlier when I said I'm tired of fighting you and against what I've always known to be right."

Laverna's breath hitched. "And what's that?"

"That we were made for each other," he said simply.

"But we couldn't be more different, Rom. Look around you. This is your life. Do I look like I'm someone who belongs in designer outfits and posh get-togethers? I'm not built to be arm candy. You would realize that soon enough, and I won't change for you in that way," Laverna replied, trying to get him and his wolf to see reason.

Romulus's eyes glowed. "Stop trying to find bullshit excuses to keep me out, Laverna. I don't want arm candy. I have had centuries of fucking arm candy. I want you. As you are. Messy, complicated, argumentative, thieving menace of a woman!"

Laverna's heart was beating too fast, and she could feel the cracks getting bigger in the walls around her heart. She couldn't hold them together anymore, not when it came to him and all that he was offering her.

"I can't trust that you won't trample me as soon as you're bored, Romulus."

"So it's fear holding you back then," Romulus stated in disbelief. He opened the whiskey and had a mouthful straight from the bottle. "I can't undo the past, Laverna. I can't make you trust me when I say I won't trample you. But the same goes for you too."

"What do you mean by that?" she demanded.

"You are a fucking goddess, and I was raised in a brothel as a no-one, a farm boy with dreams of grandeur and cursed with immortality for his crimes. You don't think I know I'm beneath you? Fuck, it's one of the reasons I never dared try and tell you that you are my mate. Why the fuck would you want me? I resented it, and so I made it worse. I know I did. But it doesn't change the fact that I love you, and I'm not going anywhere."

"Yes, you are." Laverna got to her feet. "You are coming to bed with me."

"I—What?" Romulus said, eyes wide.

"I told you I'm not good with words when it's you. You need to know I'm still going to make your life difficult at times. I'm still going to be afraid you'll change your mind about us." Laverna held out her hand to him. "But I've never wanted to steal anything like I've always wanted to steal your heart. So come to bed with me, farm boy, before I come to my senses."

Romulus took her hand and stood, a dazed expression on his face. She knew that feeling. It was shock and longing, and Laverna had felt it every day since Romulus had licked her in his bathhouse.

Only the Fates knew how everything would work out tomorrow night, and she wasn't going to be rushed to get what she wanted. Laverna led him back to his bedroom, and to the king-size bed covered in dark red sheets.

She lifted the hem of his shirt and gently kissed the groove between his pecks. He wasn't a six-pack pretty boy. He was all bulky muscle, the kind of strength from years of combat combined with the power of the beast within him.

Romulus let her touch him before lifting his shirt over his head. He didn't object when she tugged his drawstrings loose and let his pants fall to the floor.

"You need to get on that bed," she said, gently pushing him towards it. "I want to show you the only way that you are beneath me."

Romulus's eyes heated, but he did as he was told. Laverna didn't think she would ever get used to seeing him naked. It was so much she didn't know where she wanted to start.

Laverna slipped out of her own clothes and slowly crawled up his body. "Permission to use a few goddess tricks?"

"Do whatever you want to me," he replied, sending a thrill straight down her spine. Her power danced out of her, looping around his wrists and lashing them to the headboard. He chuckled, "I like where this is going."

Laverna kissed the laugh right from his mouth. Her tongue brushed against his lips, and he opened for her. The roughness of his stubble and the softness of his lips were enough to keep her there, just enjoying kissing him. Romulus didn't rush her either. He really was surrendering to her. The knowledge made her feel more powerful than she had in centuries.

Laverna kissed and sucked her way down his neck and to the chest she loved so much. With wicked delight, she discovered he had sensitive nipples, and she made a point to leave her marks all down his body. She licked over his hips and the V-muscles that led to the prettiest cock she had ever seen. She wanted to taste him, to give him the kind of pleasure he had given her, and take her time doing it.

Romulus whimpered with the first lick of her tongue. She sucked off the pre-cum that had already been dripping out of him before relaxing her jaw and taking him.

" Fuckkking Fates ," Romulus groaned, his hips lifting to meet her mouth.

Laverna put a hand on his abs to push him back down and pin him in place. He had explored every inch of her, and she needed to do the same. He had edged her until she was almost crazed, and she was going to get her revenge for that.

Every time his breathing got a little too rapid, she gripped the base of his dick and eased off until he calmed again. He was muttering ancient curses under his breath, and she laughed wickedly before giving his balls the same attention.

Seeing this man who had always been such a giant of a personality, his constant boiling alpha energy brought to heel under her, was the sexiest damn thing she had ever seen in her long, long life. Her pussy was drenched, and she hadn't even touched herself. When he was nearing his edge again, Laverna stopped sucking him and moved up his body. His expression was hazy, lost somewhere between pleasure and pain.

"Look at me, Romulus," she commanded, divinity threading through her voice. His golden eyes focused on her, watching intently as she lined the broad head of his cock to her pussy and sank down on him.

He strained against the golden bonds holding him, his whole body shaking. Laverna breathed deeply and let her body adjust to him, her fingers gently stroking over his chest.

"You are so damn beautiful, Laverna. How did I resist you for so long?" Romulus said, his face full of wonder.

" Why did you resist is the better question. We could have been doing this for centuries," Laverna pointed out and rocked her hips in a slow circle. Romulus trembled beneath her, so she did it again.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," he murmured, his voice breaking.

"I'm a goddess, Romulus. I don't want apologies from you. I want penance," she said and dropped her human form altogether. Her crown of laurel leaves and bone appeared on her head, and golden light shimmered under her skin.

Romulus's back arched, and she placed a hand on his chest, holding him down as she began to ride him. He didn't look away from her. He only let his own power out to clash against hers. Instead of fighting against it, she embraced it, let them wash together as she took his body.

" Mine ," the wolf said through Romulus's mouth. "My mate."

"Yes," Laverna replied, and her orgasm sparked lightning through her ichor. She was so lost in the feeling of pleasure and power drowning her that she didn't realize he had broken free of her bonds until she was being lifted off him. She laughed breathlessly as he positioned her on her hands and knees and wrapped his big hands around her throat.

"My mate," Romulus repeated and nipped the skin over one shoulder blade. "My goddess. My love."

"Yes, Rom." Tears fell down her face, the last of the wall between them shattering. "I love you. I want you to be my mate."

Romulus pressed his face to her back, his cheek wet against her skin and breathing ragged. "I never thought that this day would come. I never imagined..." He kissed her skin, and then all of the gentleness left him. He pressed his cock back inside of her and slammed it up to his hilt. Laverna cried out even as she pushed back, needing more. Always more.

"Yes, Rom. Take me the way you want me," she begged. And he did. His hand was back around her throat, the other dropping to her clit and making her come in a shaking gasp that had her lowering herself to her forearms because she couldn't hold herself up. He didn't stop, only grabbed her hips, lifting her up with his immense strength and fucking into her with all he had.

Laverna fucking loved it. Loved that he let her dominate him, despite his alpha side. Loved that they could switch, and she could just submit to him and everything he wanted to do to her.

Laverna gasped as a thread of his power reached out and tied itself to hers. She could feel all of him, the way he loved her and how the intensity of it frightened him, the strength of the creature inside of him and how it had longed for her, and the pulsing burden of the city that he was tied to.

"I love you, Rom. I've always loved you," she sobbed into the sheets.

Romulus cried out, shaking as he filled her, her name on his lips the best prayer she had ever heard.