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He blinked back to Elpida’s living room and strode to the couch before she could react. “You’re mine,” he said.
Elpida gasped. Her eyes were wide as saucers as she parted her lips to speak. She was about to deny him, so he kept talking.
“I am sorry I didn’t tell you the truth from the beginning. Rhea was in my mind, telling me you were sent by Kronos. That I should kill you.” He wasn’t making things better, judging from her deepening frown. “But from the moment I saw you, I felt tethered to you. Something about you was reeling me in. Resistance was futile.” He smiled. “You’re everything I ever wanted, and you are mine. You belong with me. You may not see it, and I know you’re scared—”
“I saw me dying in your arms.”
Not what he expected her to say. “What do you mean?”
“Back when I first saw you, when I fainted, I had a vision. I saw myself looking up into your eyes, while my life ended.” She shrugged. “You’re a Titan, the god of love is sitting in my living room, watching us with a weird smirk, and I have visions. Had them all my life.”
He sank to his knees in front of her, his ass bumping into the coffee table and sending it screeching backward, and took her hands in his. “I would never hurt you.” There was no doubt in his heart. Even before, when he couldn’t stop himself from smashing up her place, he had reined in his powers when he felt her love.
Elpida turned one of her hands upward, to tangle her fingers with his. “I know that now. My visions have always been of the future, but this time... What I saw was Pandora’s passing.” She searched his face with her gaze. What was she looking for?
He nodded, to urge her on.
“The thing is I didn’t know it then. And still, I took you in my car, and I invited you into my home, and I...” Her cheeks darkened to crimson. “I kind of jumped you, that first day.”
Epimetheus chuckled. “You kind of did.”
“What I’m saying is I felt the connection between us too. And it doesn’t scare me that you’re a Titan—though I’m gonna want details on what exactly your powers are. But can we really be together?”
“Yes.” How could she not see it? They couldn’t be apart without the world literally collapsing. And that wasn’t his main reason for wanting her.
“Do you want me because I’m her?” Her question blared in his mind, though she didn’t speak.
“I want you because you’re you,” he thought at her and rubbed a circle over her knuckles with his thumb. “Because I want to spend eternity loving you. I love you like I loved her, but I don’t see her when I look at you.”
Tears rolled down her eyes, and she freed one of her hands to wipe at them. “I’d better not be losing it. This had better be real.”
He caught her wrist and placed her palm over his heart. “Feel this? It’s beating for you.”
She sniffed but didn’t pull away. “That guy”—she nodded toward Eros above Epimetheus’ shoulder—“says if I say yes to you, to this, it’s going to be forever. The real, scary kind. The real scary kind.”
If this was what worried her, it was easily fixable. Epimetheus let a slow smile split his lips. “Like you can ever have enough of me.”
The corners of Elpida’s eyes crinkled with mirth, but the expression faded into one of concern. “But—”
She’d said enough. He tugged her forward and crushed his mouth to hers, swallowing her protest. He could kiss her all day and all night, but it was time for more. “Eros, you can show yourself out,” he told the god without glancing at him. He blinked with Elpida to her bedroom and nudged her back toward the bed.
She landed on the mattress with an oof. “I didn’t say yes.”
“Oh, you will. I have solid arguments.”
Elpida propped herself up on her elbows and looked at him. “I’m listening.”
“Who said anything about talking? You said you wanted to know more about my powers. I thought I’d show you.” He pinched a ribbon of air and sent it to twirl around each of her buttons in turn, undoing them but not separating the flaps of fabric.
Elpida watched intently. She didn’t look scared, but amazed, and amazed was good. It came before awed, and awed would come right before she did.
Epimetheus spread his hands, and her white shirt imitated them, revealing a thin lace bra, the color of her skin. It’d be a pity to destroy it, but he’d get her a new one. A snap of his fingers, and the front of the bra split apart and fell to the sides, leaving her perfect, creamy breasts and those mouthwatering nipples bare to his hungry gaze. He rolled his tongue in his mouth and willed Elpida to feel the movement against her skin. She dropped back, her nipples pebbling.
“Feel my lips on your stomach?” He thought of kissing and nuzzling the pale flesh. Licking a ring along her navel and blowing on it. She shivered, and he did it again, before having a breeze unclasp her dress pants and lower them to her hips.
“More.” Gaze locked on his, Elpida placed her feet on the edge of the bed and pushed, lifting her delectable ass, so he could keep stripping her.
He mentally caressed each and every square centimeter he uncovered, until the pants hung around her ankles. Then he reached out, grasped the fabric, and pulled it the rest of the way off, to toss the garment behind him. He could make a show of taking off the underwear that matched her bra, but he had to touch her. Taste her. For the second time today, he knelt in front of her.
He wedged his hands beneath her ass cheeks and pulled her closer, to rub his nose against the soaked lace. “First I’m going to taste you, and then I’m going to fuck you. And there will be no turning back after that.” He closed his teeth over the flimsy material and jerked his head back and to the side, ripping the lace from her mound.
If she said something, he didn’t hear it, because her thighs pressed onto his ears, trapping him in place. He pushed apart her knees and spat out the lace, then buried his face in her core.
Her muscles tensed as he swiped upward. She grabbed two fistfuls of his hair and pulled his head up. “No.”
“No?” Why? She loved this last time. Did he do something wrong, or did she really not want to be with him?
“I need you inside me.”
Epimetheus’ heart lurched in his chest, wild happiness threatening to unravel him before Zeus’ curse had a chance to. Not tearing off his sweatpants was an exercise in self-control, but he stood slowly and used the time it took to slide them off, to stay his trembling hands. This was really not the time for him to be sensing Kronos, but Coeus’ visage flashed by Epimetheus’ eyes, unbidden. Eros hadn’t mentioned him. Was he awakening?
Elpida shifted her hips, and Epimetheus stopped thinking. All he was now was hunger and fire, and she was the one to sate him.
He stroked his cock, not missing the nervous way she bit her lip. “What’s wrong, my one?” he asked.
She squeezed her eyes shut. “You’re too big.”
He laughed and was surprised by how real and freeing it felt. “Don’t worry, baby. I’ll fit you perfectly.” He draped his body over hers and slicked his shaft along her slit. The tip of his cock was coated in her juices before he positioned himself at her entrance.