8

"Crafted me?"

Antero's surprise was clearing enough for his clever mind to start working again.

"Beautiful Antero."

Melis happily gave him the epithet, though his stomach tightened with some fear.

Antero had made Melis more powerful than he had ever been, but standing before him, Melis was again little, again weak.

Their souls might fit together, but Melis could not be his match if he could not be his equal.

"Loving One, there is something I must show you before you choose me. I… I must trust in your noble heart."

That didn't mean he couldn't still be terrified.

He kept his gaze above Antero's shoulder as his invisibility fell from him like a dropped cloak.

Antero pulled in a sharp breath.

Melis had many forms because that was the nature of desire.

With no one to face but his reflection or his beloved, he was a slight but soft masculine figure of perhaps just past twenty years, with curved, plump cheeks and freckles across his nose and shoulders, and only a dusting of hair across his chest.

His skin was warm gold, his amber eyes a fraction lighter than his messy, shining hair.

His teeth were blessed with a slight gap at the front, his hands and feet were too big for his frame, and his cock was adequate, though nothing to Antero's perfection. His wings were tawny brown and shining gold, lighter than air itself.

A burst of admiration brought his head up.

He met Antero's gaze as it returned to his face and smiled wide enough to show the gap in his teeth. "Truly?"

Wanted.

Melis' heart carried the word through his veins.

Wanted.

As I am, I am wanted.

Childishly perhaps, this was followed by a spiteful thought suited to The Stinging Wasp: not even War is as brave as me.

Then lust came on the heels of Antero's admiration and Melis forgot War entirely.

"Melis of This Form, Beautiful Desire,"

Antero purred, "silly boy.

Come here if you wish a kiss.

Or command me to come to you and I will."

"I cannot command you anymore, Love,"

Melis told him in a distracted rush, flying across the bed to take his place in Antero's lap.

He removed his crown of roses and settled it over the head of his beloved husband before dropping his hands to Antero's shoulders.

"But I do desire a kiss."

Antero gazed at him with wonder, seemingly too mesmerized by Melis' face to ask about the crown, although Melis spent a satisfied moment thinking the roses suited him more than they had ever suited Melis.

"You can't command me anymore?"

Antero asked in a daze, reaching up to trace the small arch of freckles across the bridge of Melis' nose as if enamored of a few speckles.

"Are you certain of that, little god?"

Melis smiled wider, so much that he was embarrassed at himself but could not stop.

"I am not certain of anything, except that I am the most powerful god there is if you are near, and that if my husband does not kiss me soon, I will leave him to his day's business, unkissed and unfulfilled for all the long hours until night falls again."

"If that is my husband's desire,"

Antero teased as he slid a hand to the back of Melis' neck to pull him in.

Melis pushed closer to meet him, bodies fitting together as neatly as their souls.

Antero was smiling as well despite his lingering confusion.

Melis would explain all to him, but later, much later, after kisses and whatever else they might manage before their time spent apart. Melis was hoping to taste more of him, and to have Antero see him, this time, while he made Melis squirm. He suspected the humiliation would be stronger that way and shivered so hard it rippled through his wings.

A god begging.

Indulgence would approve.

But most importantly, Melis desired it and Antero was proud to give it to him.

His husband was all heart. That was why he had waited for Melis and why Melis had needed to prove himself worthy.

The warmth radiating out from Melis met the glow from Antero as the sun reached to embrace Day.

"I thought you didn't deal in bliss?"

Antero correctly named the feeling between them.

What Melis might have stupidly called mere joy only yesterday.

"We do now,"

Melis informed him breathlessly before he was kissed at last.

The End