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Elpida rubbed her cheek against the warm male chest. Muscle stretched and bunched, hard and utterly lickable.
Huh? She didn’t remember sleeping with someone. Didn’t remember meeting someone to sleep with. When could she have? She was driving to pick up Daphne—
Fuck.
She opened her eyes and rolled away from the hard planes, only to drop indignantly into the cold, wet earth. Looking up gave her a too detailed view of the crazy—and crazy-hot—stranger’s scrotum and fully-erect penis, so she dropped her gaze to his huge feet. And come on, the situation allowed for her to think of his... things as balls and dick.
“What—? What—?” What to ask first? A naked guy had literally crawled out of a hole in front of her, and if she wasn’t mistaken, told her in Ancient Greek that he was Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus.
And that was all she understood, because high school was a dozen years ago, and her knowledge of Ancient Greek came from a couple books she half-heartedly skimmed through, to pass the class. Also, brother to sounded almost identical in the ancient and modern version of the language.
Maybe he said he was named Epimetheus, like Prometheus’ brother?
Whatever his name, he knelt in front of her, and she tried not to watch the bobbing member between his thick, muscular thighs, but it was remarkably proportional to his enormous body. Remarkably clean, too, as was the rest of him, considering he’d been under the earth minutes ago.
He said something and smiled. It softened the angles of his face and made his eyes shine gold. Nah. That was her headlights, reflecting off his irises.
“I don’t understand you,” she said again, though she might have caught the word name. Maybe he was a tourist. “Do you speak English?” she asked in English. When he didn’t react, she asked the same in German. “Sprechen Sie Deutch?”
Nada—and that was the only word she knew in Spanish, so she couldn’t try that.
Epimetheus gently took her hand and helped her to her feet. Her ass hurt where it had made contact with the ground. She was lucky she hadn’t bumped her head. Or she had, in the car, and was still there, having a lovely hallucination.
But that wouldn’t explain how she felt safe when his large hand was wrapped around her palm, almost swallowing it. Then again, that definitely wouldn’t make sense if she was awake. She should be running away from him, screaming, not getting lost in his eyes.
Were they really gold?
And she shouldn’t be tapping her chest and saying, “Elpida. Possibly concussed. Nice to meet you. I think.”
He wasn’t dangerous. If he were, with his obvious strength, he could have raped, killed, and filleted her by now. Instead, he was cupping her neck and brushing his thumb against her cheek. Then her lips.
She parted them before she knew what she was doing, and leaned in. Would he kiss her?
The thing nudging her stomach snapped her out of her lustful haze. She had to pick up Daphne and return to Athens, and to paved streets and cement buildings, and lack of gorgeous naked zombie strangers.
Okay, so he obviously wasn’t a zombie. He was warm, his skin the bronze of someone who spent hours in the sun sans bathing suit, and evidently not into her brains. Though he didn’t seem to mind her body, judging by how his gaze turned hungry when he lowered it to her breasts.
She splayed her hand on his chest and took a step back. Relief mingled with a touch of disappointment when he didn’t press on after her.
“I have to go. Need to be somewhere.” If her car would oblige her. Still, she couldn’t leave him here. “Can I give you a ride to the nearest city?” Assuming she could find that.
He tilted his head, studying her face. His eyelashes truly were gorgeous, and his lips were wide and generous. He had a mouth that seemed made to smile. But his eyes... Gold flecks swirled and danced in the irises, occasionally overtaken by a darker, almost black color. Gorgeous eyes.
Sad eyes. She was looking up at him, and he cried. He was calling... her name? No. A name she knew but couldn’t make out. And he wasn’t calling it now; he was whispering it. In her ear. In her hair. Against her chest. He rained kisses all over her face. She felt his lips, warm and moist. When they touched hers, she tasted the saltiness of his tears.
“Don’t cry, my one,” she tried to say, but it came out a choked croak.
He clutched her to him, and she felt his desperation as if it were hers. He needed her to stay, but she couldn’t. She was so tired. Her frail body refused to obey her when she begged her hands to cup his cheeks one last time. He didn’t grow a beard—ever—because she didn’t like it. She loved his smooth skin. Loved his strength and his power and his simple approach to life. She loved his laugh, but was never going to hear it again.
She tried to keep her gaze on this face that she adored. She couldn’t smile or form words, but she let him feel the love that flowed inside. So much love, it hurt her chest as much as her inability to draw breath did. The spark of life in her grew weaker, her tether to him more frayed. And then she saw no more.
Elpida gasped for breath and swayed, as she tried to separate her vision—was it a vision?—from a reality, but before she could find her footing, another mental image slammed into her, wiping away the scenery and replacing it with the top of a mountain, the sun high up in the sky.
An enormous naked man stood on it—no, crawled out of the earth, like Epimetheus had. It could be him, but the stranger had his back to her, as he raised his arms above his head. Dark clouds gathered overhead, hiding the sun, and a deafening roar overtook all other sound.
The man clenched his fists, and the world died.
She didn’t know how she knew, but it was like billions of hearts around the globe stuttered and then ceased. Hers wasn’t among them. Her body already lay sprawled at the man’s feet, dead eyes staring at the darkening sky.
Epimetheus’ lovely face floated back into view, and the horrible premonition frayed at the edges before dissolving into her present. What had she just seen? Would she actually love this man until her dying breath? And would he destroy the world for her?
Nah. She was probably having a stroke. Or a delayed panic attack, triggered by the crazy that was tonight.