“This is wrong,” I said in a breathy whisper, kissing down the column of Helios’s neck.
Wrapping his strong arms around my waist, he lifted me into the air and walked toward the abandoned cave on Cacao Mountain, the secret hideout we had marked for times like this when we couldn’t keep our hands off each other and didn’t want anyone to find out about us.
Helios dug his warm fingers into my waist, setting my body alight. “We should stop.”
I tilted my head, feeling his hot mouth move south between my breasts. Taking my swollen nipple into his mouth, he tugged on it. I curled my fingers into his hair—styled in dark waves—against his radiant golden skin.
“My brother is going to catch us,” I said when he placed me down in the cave on a patch of leaves.
Our words got lost in the soft pastel blues and pinks of dawn, lighting up the night sky, a beautiful shift between the night and the sun. We both knew it was wrong, but we didn’t care. We had been warned that the moment we met would doom us for eternity.
And if it did, I’d willingly let our love destroy us.
He pushed the straps of my sheer indigo babydoll dress off my shoulders, giving himself better access and moving his lips further down my body. My fingers burned almost as hot as the sun as I trailed them down his taut back, touching every one of his strong muscles.
I liked the feeling of his warmth on my cold skin, of pain festering inside of me, heat burning me from the tips of my fingers down to my very core. Some kingdoms in the Underworld might’ve been burning with flames but they were nothing compared to the Sun himself.
Moaning softly, I arched my back and let him brush his thumbs over my hardened nipples. “Helios,” I whispered. Light flooded into the cave from the entrance and shimmered off his skin.
He grinded his hips against mine, and I clenched, wanting nothing more than for him to touch me already. We didn’t have much time to ourselves. Dawn would be over soon, and I would have to return to the Underworld before Erebus came looking for me.
Pressing himself harder against my pussy, he rubbed two fingers around my swollen clit and placed a hand over my mouth. “Shh, shh, shh, Nyx… don’t want anyone to hear those pretty little moans of yours.” He brushed his teeth against one of my nipples and bit down softly.
I moaned into his hand, brows furrowing together. Heat rushed to my core. And when he slipped a finger into my wet pussy, I arched my back and squirmed in his strong hold.
“Do you like that, my little Shadow?” he murmured against my naked body, curling his finger at just the right angle to hit my g-spot. My toes curled, a wave of pleasure shooting through me. I reached down between my parted legs and stroked my hand against his hardness through his low-hanging tunic-style pants. He slipped another finger into my pussy and thrusted them in and out, rougher this time.
Slipping my hand into his pants, I stroked him faster, wanting—needing—to feel him and only him. My entire body felt like it was in flames, devouring me, suffocating me, yet I couldn’t get enough of it.
After curling his fingers inside of me again and massaging my g-spot, he stared down at me with eyes glowing gold. “Cum for me, Shadow. Cum all over my fingers. I want to taste you again.”
My body trembled under his. I grasped his wrist, heels digging into the hard ground, and tried to pull his fingers away from me—the pressure more intense than it ever had been before. He wrapped an arm around my waist, held me close to him, and continued to pump his fingers inside of me, all while staring into my eyes and whispering sweet nothings to me.
Wave after wave of pleasure hit me, heat rushing to my core, my pussy pulsing around his fingers. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and relaxed into his tight hold. He slowly pulled his wet fingers out of me and sucked them into his mouth, eyes burning hotter and hotter by the moment.
“Nyx,” he whispered after groaning to himself, looking more divine than any of the other gods I’d met. There was something about Helios that drew me to him. I couldn’t quite understand what it was, maybe the forbiddenness of it all, maybe the way I liked how much he warmed my night sky, maybe I just loved him for him.
All I knew was that I didn’t care if my brother accepted him or not because he would never find out about us. I would never let him touch Helios, would never let him hurt the only man I ever loved. I’d do whatever I had to do to keep Helios mine.
If that meant hiding him, then I would hide him.
If that meant eliminating anyone who could spill our little secret, then I would eliminate them.
If that meant giving my life to Erebus in exchange for Helios’s protection, then I would.
Helios meant everything to me.
I ran my hands over his hair as he gazed down at my wet, quivering pussy with a smirk stretching across his face. He laid down next to me on the bed of leaves, his fingers still playing with my folds. “You’re mine,” he mumbled against my ear, sucking softly on the skin. “Tell me how long you’ve loved me.”
“Centuries,” I whispered, knowing that I only had a few more minutes before I had to leave for the Underworld. The sky’s pastel colors had turned a few shades brighter, an orange-yellow light shining through the trees. In the distance, wolves ran through the forest, their paws pounding against the dirt. “I’ve loved you for centuries.”
Fixing his smoldering gaze on me, he pulled me closer. But I reluctantly pushed him away and sat up. “I have to go,” I said. “Erebus will be looking for me and you need to go see your sister. It’s almost daytime.”
He grasped my hips and pulled me back down to him. “Stay with me.” He sucked on my neck harder, fingers dancing up the sides of my throat. “Please, Nyx.” Another lingering kiss. “I just want to spend a day with you, take you out on my chariot, fly us around the sky.”
“Helios, please,” I said in a breathy whisper, pushing him away. “I have to go. Being out here is dangerous enough. We can’t let anyone find us. It’s getting more and more dangerous every time we meet.”
Helios blew out a deep breath and rolled onto his back, staring up at the ugly rock ceiling. I tapped my fingers against my thighs, letting reality sink in. We couldn’t keep doing this forever, my brother was bound to find out. If he didn’t catch us, he’d hear it from someone. We weren’t as sneaky about it as we should’ve been.
It was almost broad daylight. Wolves were running around the Sanguine Wilds around us. Monsters and beasts from the Underworld were heading back now. It was too dangerous. We would get caught, I was sure of it.
“What’re you thinking about?” Helios asked, pushing a strand of indigo hair off my face. His skin burned mine, almost too hot this time, which meant that dawn was nearly over.
I shook my head. “We really need to stop this. Erebus will find us. And when he does, he’ll try to kill you for being with me.”
“I know that he cares about you, Nyx,” Helios said. “But would it hurt if he found out?”
Before I could stop myself, I sat up and stared down at the man like he was crazy. “Yes, it would,” I snapped, my jaw clenching. Erebus cared for me… but he cared a little too much. It was more than a brotherly love. It was a psychotic and dangerous love. One that I knew would get us in trouble.
“What is he going to do? Kill me?” Helios asked, letting out a deep chuckle. His skin glowed gold, just like the sun, and I had to hold myself back from accepting all his warmth because there wasn’t anything funny about this.
Erebus did cruel, vicious, heart-wrenching things to the people who loved me.
Ruler of Darkness, Erebus commanded the depths of all gloom in the physical world and the nonmaterial one too, on Earth and off. And Erebus was a master at finding someone’s own darkness and using it against them. He knew exactly how to hurt someone so terribly that they couldn’t shine anymore.
And Helios had a lot of shine to take away.
“He will hurt you,” I said. “And I can’t let that happen.”
“He’s jealous of my strength and might,” Helios said. “I’d burn him before he got close enough to me.”
I shook my head and pulled the straps of my dress over my shoulders. “Erebus has never been jealous of your strength. He’s jealous of your light. He’s stronger than you think he is. He’s part of the Underworld, wicked and brutal just like the majority of the other gods down in Erebus’s Kingdom.”
“You live there, but you’re not evil.” Helios sat up and tied his tunic. “You’re exaggerating it because you don’t think I’m serious about us. You have this awful way of trying to push me away, but I’m not going anywhere. I know you’re good.”
I stayed quiet. Helios might’ve loved me, but he didn’t know about all the cruel things I’d done before him. Haunting memories of innocent children being sacrificed in the middle of the night, of animals and monsters running wild, of claws and blood and death flashed through my mind that I quickly shook away. But that wasn’t me anymore… that wasn’t me.
“Let Erebus try to hurt me,” he said, almost as if he was challenging him.
Pressing my lips together, I blew a deep breath from my nose. This would send Erebus into a rage more powerful than anything I’d seen before, and I’d seen him act in his demonic ways. I feared for Helios.
“You’re scared of him, aren’t you?” Helios asked me, brows furrowed together. After wrapping his arms around my waist, he pulled me on top of him and brushed his fingers against my cheekbone. “You don’t have to be scared of him. I’m here to protect you.”
Outside, the sun rose slightly, illuminating the giant oak trees. Wolves howled into the early morning sky, taking their usual run around the cave, doing a loop or two around the Sanguine Wilds.
I always wanted to run with them, as I thought they were some of the most beautiful creatures in the forest, but I had to return to the Underworld before Erebus came looking for me. I needed to get out of here now.
“I’m not scared. I’m being cautious.”
Helios narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re shaking just thinking about him.”
After clamping my arms to my sides to steady them, I gave him the best glare I could muster. I felt so weak admitting it to Helios. I was supposed to be strong, all gods were. But maybe I wasn’t strong enough, maybe I would never be strong enough to endure Erebus’s wrath.
“Let me take you away,” Helios said. “You can live with me. I can save you from him. I’ll protect you from any harm. You’re my one and only, Nyx. I won’t let Erebus hurt you. Erebus doesn’t deserve any of your love.”
I parted my lips to protest but then pressed them back together. Always living in a fantasy world, Helios didn’t understand that my actions had consequences. They had for thousands of years.
“Maybe one day,” I said, pulling away from him. I ran my fingers through my hair to brush out any knots and walked to the cave’s exit, taking a peek at the wolves as they rushed by me, making the tree branches and leaves sway in their breeze. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Helios.”