48. Nat

48

Nat

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I jolt awake, heart pounding, the darkness pressing against the windshield disorienting me. The car has stopped moving. Sin’s hand is no longer on my thigh.

Panic rises in my throat. I thrash against my restraints, a thick orange paracord biting into my skin. Where is he? Did they find us? Take him?

My door wrenches open, and I form tight fists with my hands, an attack loading in my blood. But it’s only Sin’s face that appears, gently haloed by the dim creep of sunlight.

Relief crashes through me.

“Easy, Bloodspiller,” he rumbles, reaching to untie me with deft fingers. “We’re here.”

I rub my wrists and ankles when they’re free, ignoring the flare of annoyance on Sin’s expression.

Binding my arms and legs to the car’s frame was our compromise. Afraid I’d send the car shooting into oncoming traffic while asleep, I’d pitched sleeping in the trunk, bound and gagged.

Sin had said the only thing that will ever stuff my mouth is his cock.

I blame exhaustion for my lack of comeback and the heat his promise pooled in my belly.

Between the purr of the engine, Sin’s clove scent, and the roll of his voice telling me every detail of the safe house, I passed out before we hit the highway.

“We’re right on time,” Sin declares, helping me out on numb legs and lifting me to the hood of his car. He sits next to me.

He’s found a shirt, a limoncello colored polo that paired with his buzz cut makes him look like a ken doll.

Ridiculous. I kind of like it.

We’re perched on an overlook high above a deep canyon.

The rising sun casts a comforting, golden hue across the layered bands of red, pink, purple and orange soil striping the steep canyon walls. It’s like staring into an exposed cross-section of the earth itself, vibrant color and sparkling veins.

A light mist clings to the lush vegetation clustering near the cliff edges. Scraggly pines and stubborn shrubs jut from the sides of the ravines, roots clinging to the crumbling sediment. In the distance, the serpentine path of a thin stream glistens as it meanders along the bottom of the gorge.

Sin’s large palm finds the small of my back, solid, protective, and supportive. Everything he has been for me.

He’s brought me to the sunrise.

No.

He’s showing the Underworld the sunrise. The exposed earth soaking up every spear of light. The rich colors of my home.

I lean into him, letting his strength seep into me.

“Thank you,” I murmur, twisting to meet his gaze. It’s heartbreaking in the sunshine, brimming with emotions I dare not name. “For this. For everything.”

Something moves swiftly over his face, there and gone too quickly to decipher. Then his mouth is on mine, hot and demanding, robbing the air from my chest.

For this, I willingly miss the sunrise.

I yield to him, parting my lips for his sweet, wicked tongue, arching against him.

Too soon, Sin breaks us apart, breathing ragged, eyes wild and dark as they bore into mine.

His long legs slide off the hood. Standing before me, he catches my ankle to drag me down the warm curved metal until my boots hook on the front bumper.

His jeans are dirty with silver and pink and red, ripped and burned and ashy. He's got bruises on his throat and temple. A hundred cuts and slashes healing together in new pale lines.

Still, he does it perfectly.

He dampens two fingers on his tongue, touches them to the earth and comes to me, stepping between my thighs. Quiet. Reverent. As if he’s done it a thousand times, he starts at my chin, marking downwards, pulling on my hair for me to tip up.

The line of mud follows his touch all the way to my heart, where he marks a shaky X.

“I think I got the right spot this time?” he whispers, flirting, always.

I love you , I long to say, but I think it’d emerge with a cry. In that tone Sin says crushes him.

So instead, I take his fingers and use them to draw the line on him. The mark of my home.

I cover his hand with mine over his heart, the only clean clothes he had left now muddy.

“We have a tradition in the Underworld.” My voice sounds careful. Quiet. “Actually, we have a lot. I’m unsure of the point of half of them.”

“Zeke strips butt ass naked on the blue moon. Does there need to be a reason?”

I laugh. “To gain acceptance from the Erinyes for courtship, a partner must be ready to fight one of our own. Persephone threatened you. That’s a challenge.”

Not a flash of fear. “What? You don’t think I can take her?”

“Of course you can’t, you imbecile.” I smack his side. “It doesn’t matter, anyway.”

“It sure as fuck does. I’m not losing you.” His words are intense, heated, sending a thrill down my spine.

“The fact that you are willing to fight, that’s what matters. That’s it. Bravery and courage, and an unwillingness to concede. Those are the traits of the Furies. She set you up to be with me.”

Sin’s eyes widen a fraction, then narrow, a smirk forming. “She did, did she? Damn. Are you still going to love me even though I’m best friends with your parents?”

“I was born of fire and armor.”

“Nat.”

“And who said I loved you? Not me.”

“You do. I’ll make you love me.”

“Another threat.”

“Yes. Nat.” Calloused fingers graze my cheek with a gentleness that overwhelms my senses. His voice drops a low-pitched rumble. “This one is barbed and deadly, I will fight you, I will fuck you, I will hold you in our bed, and I’ll even haul my ass out of it to watch the sunrise with you. And when you say it, when you tell me you love me, I’ll make you repeat it, I’ll make you moan it.”

I close my eyes at the confession. At the pleasure that riots through me with it. “Smug.”

He laughs, low and sweet. “Very. I’ll make it my fucking ringtone and then force Drake to call me while I’m buried between your thighs.”

“Poor Drake,” I mutter, heart fluttering. I lift my legs to clasp Sin’s hips, hands braced behind me on sun-drenched metal.

“Yes,” Sin murmurs, kissing up my throat. “Poor Drake. Pity him, because I know you’d never kiss a male you pity.”

“Is that so?”

“You hate me, Bloodspiller, but you never pity me.”

“I—”

The earth around us fractures, great fissures snaking through the dirt and rock. The canyon walls shudder.

Instantly, Sin covers my body with his, shoving me down, tucking my face into his chest.

A shield at what’s to come.

I freeze under him, clutching him close, waiting for the next onslaught of horror to pounce on us.

A curse, a Queensguard, a God. Anything to take away our happy ending.

Then the oddest thing happens.

Sin groans into my ear. “Don’t hate me for this Bloodspiller. I’m just extremely lovable.”

“Please. You insufferable—” The words die within me as Sin helps me sit.

Diamonds. Countless radiant, massive diamonds sit in a sea encircling us. Sparkling and dancing in the sunlight.

I blink, struck speechless.

Hades is giving his blessing.

I compel myself to swallow, my fingers curling into the soft fabric of Sin’s shirt. “This … he really does love you.”

“No,” Sin tucks me close to him. “He knows I’m yours, and so he puts up with me.” I stare, disbelieving. Hades loves me despite everything. Not being enough Fury, being too much.

Sin presses a kiss to my knuckles, and then my lips, my cheeks, my forehead, back to my mouth. “I love you.,”

It’s wonderful. Hearing it. Until a lone, nagging thought lurks into the depths of my mind, itching to shred this perfect moment apart.

“Sin …”

“That tone, love. Save me from it.”

“The Diakonos at Emil’s. Many were pregnant.”

“Yes, I know. Don’t worry, love. We’ll help them.”

“No.” I lick my lips. “We didn’t.” I stop, start again. “Furies are not very fertile, so I never considered it, but we can conceive, and you, you’re of the Gods, who are the definition of virile. I could be …”

His grin widens with each word.

My heart pounds, a mixture of fear and anticipation churning in my gut.

“You could be what, Bloodspiller?” Sin prompts in a purr that heats my cheeks. His hand stretches across my lower belly. The heat of his touch sears through my shirt.

I struggle to find my voice. “Pregnant,” I utter softly, the word feeling strange on my tongue. “I could be pregnant with your child.”

His eyes darken into pools of desire and something deeper that I refuse to label. His breath ghosts across my ear. “And if you are? What then, Natasa?”

I shudder, leaning into his caress, craving more even as my mind races with the implication. “I don’t know,” I admit, hating the vulnerability in my tone. “I never thought … I mean, I’m a Fury and you’re the descendent of Eros. Hate and love, what would a child even be?”

He smiles at me. “I think they could be whatever they wanted to be, but I’d hope they’d be like us, striving to do good and be happy even when it’s hard.” His palm presses more firmly against my stomach. “I love you, Natasa.”

Tears prick my eyes, and I fight them off. “I might not be.”

It doesn’t matter. His hand remains securely pressed against my belly, his touch both comforting and electrifying. “And if you’re not? Would you still want to be?”

I hesitate, studying his touch, fingers spread possessively over me, missing one ring. The one he refused to take back.

“I’m not going anywhere, Nat. Not now, not ever.”

“It’s not the right time,” I tell him, “But I … I would love it. Love to make a family with you.”

“Then we’ll keep trying until you are.”

I explore his face for any sign of uncertainty or fear, but discover only unwavering love and commitment.

“You’re insane,” I whisper. “And ridiculous. And hormones will make me no less bloodthirsty. I might kill you if you look at another female.”

Another broad grin, white teeth on golden skin. “A little jealousy never hurt, Bloodspiller. It’ll help me stay young.”

“We’re immortal.”

“All the more reason to avoid complacency.”

He inches forward to capture my lips in a searing kiss. I melt into him, my hands fisting in his shirt, coaxing him closer. The diamonds beneath us seem to shimmer and dance, as if celebrating this moment, this promise of a shared future.

When we finally break apart, both of us are breathing heavily. Sin rests his forehead against mine. “I’m yours.”

“Sin …”

“Breaking my heart, love.”

I grab his chin, force purple eyes on me. “I tried really hard to hate you.”

“And I tried really hard not to love you.” He kisses me again. “Be mean to me until I die, Nat.”

“I promise.”