Chapter 11

11

Nemea

I swallow, but obey his command, grateful for a direction and more than a little turned on by his suddenly less deferential demeanor.

Up close, the water is crystal clear, but I dip a toe in to test the heat before stepping in at the corner of the pool where three shallow steps lead down. I wade into the water, which is the perfect temperature, hot enough to soothe my fatigued muscles, but not so hot it hurts. But then I could probably withstand hotter, now that I know what I’m made of.

The lantern light around the perimeter casts flickering shadows on all the walls as Alcides moves, padding on bare feet around the edge to the steps. The water ripples with his descent into the pool, and my nipples prickle in awareness of his approach. When he reaches me, he stops, just close enough for me to sense him, to feel his breath faintly gusting against the top of my head.

His voice is low and deep, almost a whisper, when he finally speaks.

“What you missed, which would have perhaps set you more at ease in this moment, was my own promise of what I would do to you that first night you spent in the prison. Do you remember?”

“How could I forget?”

“You heard from most of the others, all their lewd suggestions. But all I could think in that moment was how none of them deserved you. Because you are a goddess in my eyes, Nemea. But even a goddess likes to get dirty, which I realize now.”

He pauses and drifts both wet hands up my arms from elbows to shoulders. I let out a shuddering breath at the warm contact, my body coming alive.

“Breathe, Nemea. Because I’m going to take my time tonight.” He rests his hands on my shoulders only briefly before sliding them down my back and beneath my arms. He presses against my back, his erection digging into my spine as he cups my breasts.

I take a slow, deep breath, leaning back against him, and mentally reach for my power without really thinking, just to gauge its level. There is more than I had in the amphitheater, evidence that it’s this kind of contact that replenishes it. Even an incomplete bond with one of them fills me, little by little.

He grazes his thumbs across my erect nipples and I bite my lip, eyes closed to simply experience what he wishes to give.

Mouth close to my ear, he says, “What I’m going to do is tease you. I’m going to lick and suck and caress every inch of you, every sensitive place from the tips of your perfect breasts, to the wet, slick heat between your legs.

“I’m going to put my mouth on your hot little cunt and lick until you gush all over my tongue. I’m going to slide my fingers into your pussy, then into your mouth, make you taste yourself on my fingers after you finish.

“And when you’re limp and spent, then I’m going to have my way with you, fucking you slowly, so slowly. I want to feel every deep inch of your pussy sliding over my cock. I’m going to fill you up with my cum, then turn you over and do it again, and again.

“Because you’re right; I am practically a god. I can go all night. But you have the stamina of a Titan. I’ve seen it myself. So I want to see if you can match me as well as you matched Asterius and Typhon. You took on all three of the Brothers Bane that day in the baths beneath the prison, which took stamina. I promise you, Nemea, I can last longer than all of them combined. But I’m positive you can take it. Are you ready?”

I’m so absorbed with the arousal rising higher and higher with every idle stroke of his thumbs across my nipples, I nearly can’t find words to answer. He drops his mouth to my neck and nips gently, then murmurs close to my ear, “Tell me you’re ready.”

“I’m ready,” I breathe.

As if that was all he was waiting for, he spins me, then lifts me in one smooth motion, striding to the edge of the pool and setting me on the cool stone. His blue eyes are dark and intense, the irises faintly sparking with lightning when he descends on my mouth, kissing hungrily. He presses his hands to my inner thighs, urging them apart and then releases my mouth to lean back and take me in.

I’m astonished by the look of utter wonder in his eyes during his brief pause, but his desire overtakes it a moment later. He hooks his hands behind my knees and pushes them up, and I have no choice but to lie back.

I let out a startled cry at the first hot lick of his tongue between my legs, then lose myself in the pleasure. His hair is damp when I twine my fingers into it, the silken tendrils curling around my fingers as his tongue curls over and over against my clit. He lets out a hum of enjoyment, sinking a little deeper and hooking his arms around my upper thighs so I’m forced to either drape my legs over his shoulders or raise my knees and place my feet on them.

As if sensing my uncertainty, he grasps each of my ankles and pushes them up and wide, showing me a third alternative: opening myself even more for his attention.

I hold my knees wide, abandoning all inhibition. He pauses long enough to take me in, licking his glistening lips as he draws his thumbs down between my folds, sliding one lower to coat my rear opening with my juices.

“Have any of them tasted you here yet?” he asks, eyes bright and wicked.

“Ty,” I say, shivering a little at the memory of all of Typhon’s tongues licking every last erogenous zone I possessed.

Alcides chuckles. “Of course. I have never witnessed him with a partner, but I’m not surprised he has skills with his tongues. I hope he got as much enjoyment out of it as you no doubt did.”

“I returned the favor, sort of.”

He cocks his head, still slowly teasing my ass with a slick fingertip when he looks at me. “Did you manifest a giant tongue somehow? If you can shift into a beast like him, that must have made him quite happy.”

“No,” I say on a laugh. “I improvised. It’s called sounding . Or so Chrysaor informed me later. Because it’s something he likes too.”

“Explain this sounding to me. I’m listening.”

He dips his head again, pressing his mouth to my pussy and covering my flesh entirely, his tongue sinking deep. I can’t help but let out a groan at how deliciously sensitive I am to his licks. When he teases the tip of his tongue across my puckered asshole, I gasp.

Pausing just enough to lift his eyes and look at me, he says, “Go on.”

“It… it’s where, uh… fuck,” I’m finding it more and more difficult to maintain a train of thought with the very tip of his tongue teasing in and out of my ass. He pushes a thick finger into my pussy at the same time, curling it and hooking to rub against my G-spot.

“Nemea,” he admonishes when he pauses again, just enough to let me breathe before he rubs a thumb over my clit and sends me spinning again. He drops a kiss to my hipbone, still finger-fucking me, then sinks his teeth in playfully, but the sensation sends another jolt of pleasure deep into my core.

“You have a hole in your dick,” I finally manage to blurt. “Typhon’s just happens to be big enough to fit my arm into. Evidently doing that… uh…” My focus wavers again when he applies more speed and pressure to my clit.

“He enjoyed having his cock hole fisted by you, didn’t he?”

“Y-yes. But channeling my magic is what made him come. I tried it with Chrysaor, but he has toys, jewelry, I guess? Small enough to fit him.”

“Hmm,” he says, and I glance at him. He’s still teasing me with one hand while finger-fucking me with the other. He holds my gaze as he plunges his pinky finger into my ass, and I arch my back in abrupt pleasure at the penetration. “Next time I see Chrysaor, I will ask him to show me.”

With that, he descends again, capturing my clit between his lips and sucking gently, then subjecting me to a rapid-fire barrage of licks while his fingers plunge faster in and out of me. I claw at the stone floor, crying out as he draws my climax out of me, continuing to lick until he’s wrung me dry several times over.

But he doesn’t give me even a second to come down. I’m still in a daze, gasping for breath when he hoists himself up out of the water, his lower body dripping wet, his cock a hard, glistening curve between his thighs. His torso shimmers with steam and sweat in the warm lantern light. I’m struck dumb again at his magnificent beauty.

He pushes my knees up and wide again, then lowers himself above me, pressing his tip to my soaked opening.

“Yes,” I gasp in the split-second when he meets my gaze, his silent question in the barest lift of his eyebrows. “Gods, yes, fuck me Alcides. Fuck me until I scream.”

His face is a mask of intense concentration that crumbles to ecstasy when he pushes deep in one smooth stroke.

“Fuck, you fit me so well,” he says, holding still as he hovers above me, his thick shaft throbbing inside me with a heavy pulse that matches my own heartbeat. “Wrap your legs around me.”

I do as I’m told, and he begins to move, sliding in and out so slowly I marvel at the control he has to be able to move that way while supporting himself above me. On one arm, no less, because he’s busy caressing me with his other hand, first holding my hip, then sliding his hand down my thigh and back up. He rests his palm on my chest, as if feeling my heartbeat, which is pounding hard with his gradually increasing tempo.

He touches my chin, then dips his head to capture my mouth in a searing kiss that leaves me even more breathless than his cock plunging in and out of me. When he pulls back to gaze into my eyes, he slides his fingertips across my lower lip and I realize they’re still slick, coated in my juices.

“Open,” he says. “Taste yourself.”

I open my mouth wide enough for him to slide two fingers between my lips, tentatively licking around his fingertips. The flavor is tangy, new, but not unexpected. I’ve tasted women before, just not myself.

I take his fingers deeper, sucking gently while he stares down at me. When I’ve sucked him clean, he traces his wet fingertips across my lower lip again, then drops them to one breast, teasing them around my nipple.

Movement from the side catches my eye, and we both glance to the arm he’s propped himself up on. My tattoo has migrated halfway off my side, twining itself around Alcides’ muscular arm.

He frowns in confusion for a moment before laughing.

“He likes you,” I say.

“Indeed. I didn’t know it could do that.”

“He can do more,” I say with a wicked smile. With a thought, the octopus unravels itself from his arm and moves down my body, then reaches again, sliding four of its eight arms around Alcides’ hips.

I can sense its movements as easily as I sense my own hands, resting on Alcides’ shoulders. The octopus slides long tentacles over his ass, cupping both large mounds and squeezing.

He stares intently down at me, slowing his strokes.

“Do you want more?” I ask, my voice raspy.

“I don’t know,” he admits, brow furrowing. “Maybe.”

The octopus teases between his legs, one curious tip probing against his perineum, two others pulling his cheeks apart for the fourth to tease between. His eyes widen briefly and he lets out a soft gasp when that tentacle grazes across his puckered opening. He stills entirely, gaze fixed on mine.

“That feels good,” he says.

Smiling, I hook a hand around his elbow and turn to kiss his forearm, all while teasing him more. At my mental command, the octopus pushes inside him. He drops his head and lets out a groan.

“Fuck, no wonder they were always fucking each other so much.”

I chuckle. “You never thought to try it too? I’m sure Pan would’ve been happy to accommodate you.”

“I don’t believe in sex for the sake of sex. I didn’t have the same connection with any of them that I have with you.”

“Then we’ll have to make up for you missing out. Fuck me.”

He grins and starts moving again, this time with harder thrusts that take my breath with every deep plunge. The octopus keeps tempo, shallowly fucking his ass while teasing his balls from behind. Above me his big shoulder flexes with every movement, and I meet every roll of his hips with a tilt of my own.

“So good,” he murmurs, dipping again to kiss me. He deepens the kiss, and we share a moan as he quickens his pace. The tip of his perfectly curved cock rubs against my insides in exactly the right places. My pleasure remains a steady, delicious hum, but when he speeds up I’m close to flying once again. I cling to him and he dips lower, rocking his hips even deeper as he kisses me again, then stares deep into my eyes.

“You are everything, Nemea. Are you ready for me?”

“Yes.”

His brow furrows with intense pleasure, and I’m sure mine reflects the same. His hips smack against me in rapid slaps, every thrust hitting me perfectly. My orgasm is sitting right at the very razor’s edge, and I hold onto it for as long as I can.

My octopus has ventured deeper into him, rubbing against that bundle of nerves inside his ass that’s the switch to drive him wild. His eyes suddenly widen and he lets out a roar, his cock slamming deep. He holds me by the hip as he comes, his cock pulsing into me. I let go in that moment, crying out with my own climax, tightening my legs around him and clamping him tight to me.

His gaze remains fixed on me, both of us panting hard through the aftershocks until we both heave shaky breaths, smiling like idiots at each other. My octopus has receded to dormancy on my skin again, and my body feels deliciously noodly after two amazing orgasms back-to-back.

Alcides slowly pulls himself up to his knees, but doesn’t let me roll over. He holds my knees wide as he pulls out and I can feel his cum dripping down my channel and over my ass. He smirks as he trails two fingers through the mess, pushes them inside my pussy, and pulls them out again.

Then he leans over me once again, cream-coated fingers held up. “You know how this works.”

I obediently open up and take his fingers again. The flavor this time is more salty-sweet than tangy, and I suck his fingers clean.

But I don’t immediately open my doors to him. I learned my lesson with Chrysaor, trying to draw him into me without asking first. I didn’t realize at the time that I wasn’t just sharing minds with him, that the sanctuary that manifests within me isn’t just a mental construct—it’s a place every bit as real as the prison I escaped from. And when we go there, we are physically there .

Alcides rolls to the side and props himself up on one elbow. “Is everything okay? You can let me in.”

“I will. I just wanted to do it right. I didn’t want to just take us there without knowing you’re ready.”

He touches my cheek. “I am.”

Nodding, I roll to my side to face him, cupping his cheek too. Then I look into his eyes, staring deep as I let the sanctuary materialize in the back of my mind and draw him into it with me.