The Forge King Read online

And I could not contain myself. I knew it was too fast, but her touch destroyed me. I came, grunting and groaning, and she tossed herself backward, but I caught her in my hands, watching her as she moved on me as if I was the best damn thing she’d ever known in her life.

  “Fuck me,” I breathed, feeling on the verge of orgasming again and again and again. The tightness in my stomach, the spiraling in my body, and the way my blood raged with crystal resonance, I was ready to come again.

  I’d always heard that Aphrodite could do that for her lovers. I’d just never known the pleasure of it before now.

  This was all so new for me. I was falling in love with a woman who loved me back. A woman who did not mock or jeer or taunt me, but who told me I was beautiful, I was perfect, I was everything.

  I roared as I thrust deep into her and came again. Flooding her body with my seed.

  We were gods, and the impossible could still happen. I did not know whether my seed would create life. All I knew was if she would let me, I would be a father to her children. I would be her lover. Her protector. Her servant.

  She rolled us over, so that now she was beneath me and I was on top.

  My mind was in chaos, because she’d done it. She’d loved me. And she did not look at me now with shame or embarrassment. She was smiling up at me. Lightly tracing a finger along my jawline.

  I moaned, feeling so full that I thought I might actually burst from the wonder of knowing what the other me must have felt when he’d gotten to worship her.

  “You do love me, don’t you?”

  “Oh, my Hephy,” she whispered with tears burning in her eyes, “I have always loved you, from the very moment I spied you staring broodily at that cake. I fell in love with you, even then.”

  I grinned, but inside I was jumping for joy. Ecstatic and amazed anew. I could touch her, however I wanted to, and she not only allowed it, but she reveled in it.

  I palmed her beautiful round breast in my hand, and she moaned. “I never thought I’d know this again,” she whispered, heart shining like a burning torch in her eyes.

  I trembled, closing my eyes, and breathed as she held my face in her small, perfectly wonderful hands.

  “I can love you, Aphrodite,” I whispered hoarsely, opening myself up to her completely, taking that last and final leap of faith with her. Knowing the risk I took but also understanding that the reward of taking such a risk was worth it all. “I can love only you, see only you. Want only you. From this day on, I will never see her again, because when you touch me…” I opened my eyes and smiled down warmly at her. Tears trekked down her face, and I gently brushed them away with my thumb. “When you touch me,” I continued, “I don’t feel her anymore. She is dead to me. Now and forever. And it is only you, Aphrodite, if you’ll have me.”

  She didn’t utter a sound, but she pulled my face in, and I let her lead me. No matter if she took me into Tartarus itself, I would follow this woman anywhere.

  She kissed me, laving her tongue along the seam of my mouth. Her movements were soft. Slow. Languid. Purposeful.

  I sighed, opening my lips, and she slid in. Our tongues dueled. Danced. Tasted. And supped.

  Our kiss lasted for an eternity and no time at all. And then I was rolling her onto her side, not wanting to bear any of my weight down on her precious stomach. She slid her foot along my calf, opening herself up to me, and we never broke our mouths apart as I slid in home.

  She shuddered, hugging me so tight to her warm, rose-scented body. “So good, Hephaestus. You were always so good.”

  I rumbled my approval of her words through my big barrel chest. Taking my time with her. Running my fingers along the soft contours of her precious, precious body. Molding her as I would my clay. My strokes strong and sure. And she arched beneath me, so pretty. So perfect. A net of her glittering pink power enveloped us both, and I felt her lust, her love, and her bottomless desire for me and me alone.

  I pumped into her. Slow and steady. Easing in and then out, in no hurry, prolonging the perfection of our joining.

  She gasped when I hit a certain spot in her cervix.

  “Oh dear, primordial gods,” she whispered, “it’s so much better. So much better than I remembered.”

  A part of me wanted to think it was because I was better than what she’d ever had. But there would be no more comparisons. Comparisons were a poison that could infect us both, and the ghosts of our past lovers had to be gone. Forever. That was the only way we could move on and forge our new destiny.

  I kissed her mouth. Her neck. I kneaded her breasts, and with my free hand I encircled her bright-pink pearl with just the tip of my pinky finger.

  Her pants grew, increased in strength and frequency. Then she was gleaming, fire was crawling from out of her pores. Encircling me. She screamed as she dug her claw-like nails into my back.

  “Hephaestus, my Hephaestus!” she cried, and I grunted as I came in a mighty surge, filling her again with my seed.

  She was mine. And I was hers. All hers.

  We made love throughout the long night, and she whispered of her fealty, her devotion and love to me. And bit by bit, I knew this was real. Not a dream. Not a fantasy.

  And just as the twilight of sky began to give way to the rising of the morning sun, I leaned up on my elbow and looked down at her. I’d lost count of how many times we’d made love. All I knew was I could spend an eternity loving this woman and it would never be enough.

  She wore a shy smile, but her eyes radiated her love for me. Her fingers played in the now short strands of my hair. I would need to let it grow out some again. She’d actually seemed to like it long, and I would do anything, be anything for this woman.

  It was time to make the last and ultimate sacrifice. I girded myself and tamped down the fear that saying these three simple words made me feel.

  “I love you,” I whispered brokenly. “I love you so damn much, Aphrodite. I cannot be without you. Live without you.”

  She grinned, and joy pinched her lovely eyes. “Then never leave me again. Vow it, god of the forge. Be mine only. Forever.”

  “Always,” I whispered, tracing heart-shaped lines over the mark she’d been given. Already, it healed, and soon, it would be no more, but I would never forget what she’d done for me.

  “I love you.” I repeated it and knew I would keep repeating it all the days of my life.

  She sighed as she ran her soft, velvety foot along my hairy, withered calf. I continued to stroke her flesh, painting lines upon her beautiful body and smirking as I felt the children kick again. They’d been kicking for the past hour. “They are strong. But I guess they should be. They do have their father’s blood coursing through their veins. What an extraordinary set of circumstances we’ve found ourselves in, little ass.”

  She giggled and then snorted, and gods, it felt like heaven to my ears. Burying my face in the hollow of her rose-scented throat, I kissed her softly. She moaned and wrapped her arms around my neck.

  “And you’re really okay with this?” she asked. “Truthfully, Hephy, I’m not sure I could have been had our situations been reversed.”

  I snorted. “Aphrodite, I am the luckiest man in all of the cosmos. And I love children. It would be good to have help at the forge.”

  She laughed. “Well, from what I’ve heard, Ares and I tend to make some rather unusual children.”

  I shrugged. “First time for everything. Though you do tend to make a type, that’s certain. Either hate or love with you two.”

  “Ah.” She rolled her eyes. “How will anyone ever believe that I’ve stayed faithful to you when I’m about to birth a litter of his children? I do not understand the Fates sometimes.”

  I grabbed her waving hand and brought her palm to my mouth. Planting a hard kiss on its center before gently biting it.

  She moaned, running her foot along the inside of my thigh and breaking me out in a wash of desire all over again.

  “We will be an unusual family, to be sure, but at least
we’re not brother and sister.”

  She giggled. “Considering half the pantheon is just that, I’d say we definitely have a leg up on the competition.”

  I snorted. “Indeed. No bull-headed children for us. But, Dite…” I leaned upon my elbow, framing her stomach in my large hand and waiting to speak again until I was sure I had her undivided attention. “I need you to know that it wouldn’t matter to me if they were considered monsters to the rest of the world or not. Or if you and I never bear our own. I want to build a life with you, whatever that means for us. I’m here for it all.”

  She smiled. “You promise?”

  “With all my heart,” I said without hesitation.

  She nodded, but suddenly, she looked sad and worried, and I frowned.

  “Little ass?”

  A small smile twisted her lips. “It’s not you, Hephy. It’s only that I have four other children, and I’ve apparently, been very awful with them, and a part of me wishes to meet them, but another part is worried that they will hate me for an eternity.”

  I kissed her, and she sighed. “I will take you to meet them when you are ready. I know them well. They do not despise me as much as some of the others on Olympus do.”

  “Hephaestus, you befriended her children, didn’t you?”

  I pursed my lips, saying nothing.

  “And that right there is why I love you. You are quite impossible not to. You do know that, right?”

  I snorted and shook my head. I’d felt sorry for the children who’d had no say in the family they’d been born to, and if I’d started to maybe care for them over time, well… I was their uncle, after all. But I did not wish to speak of other children right now. I was a greedy god and wished my goddess’s attention alone.

  “You know…” I continued to trace intricate patterns upon her perfect skin.

  She sighed and nodded at me to continue.

  “That trial did help me to see one thing.”

  She lifted her brows. “Oh, and what might that be, great god of the forge?”

  I smiled, but my words were very serious. “Never to take you for granted again, little ass.”

  She stopped laughing and grew suddenly serious, and I frowned, because I didn’t want that, either. I loved to see Aphrodite sparkle, and she did that when she was happy. So I tickled her ribs, and she grinned back at me just as I knew she would.

  “If you wish to take me to silly balls, my goddess, then I say yes. Whatever you wish, whatever you want, I’m here for you. Through thick and thin. Your partner in every way. So thank you.”

  She frowned. “For what?”

  I brushed my knuckle down her cheek, luxuriating in the silky feel of her softness upon my unyielding hardness. “For never being ashamed of me. For never asking me to change. For always being there. Fighting for me. Protecting me. For feeding me that silly cake that made all of this happen in the first place. You are everything to me, Aphrodite. Absolutely everything.”

  Giggling, she turned her head, but I tipped it back with my finger and nodded.

  “I fed the other you with that cake,” she said.

  “Yes, maybe then, you did. But I still have trouble picking up those ridiculous, stupid cakes that mother orders, and you will feed me again.”

  “Oh, is that so? I did not know I’d signed up for a lifetime of cake-feeding servitude. Maybe I ought to rethink this whole commitment thing.”

  “Like hell you will, woman,” I growled, wrapping my withered leg around her bottom and pinning her fast to my side.

  She laughed breathlessly, joyfully, and my heart felt as if it would burst.

  “Yield to me, witch,” I murmured heatedly.

  She was still giggling as she said, “Witch?”

  “Yes, for you have bewitched me completely. And only a witch could have done so. I am a besotted fool for you, woman.”

  She sighed. “I like the sound of that.”

  I kissed the tip of her nose. “You know, I know who you are. What you are. You never have to fear being exactly that with me.”

  She stopped laughing but looked at me with such warmth that I felt hot and tingly all over. She touched my cheek, and I moaned as I rubbed myself upon her hand like a bloody stupid, rutting beast.

  “If you are implying that I can seek company outside of your own, you should know that I have absolutely zero desire to do that. You’ve quite killed that in me, Hephaestus, and I should hate you terribly for it. But I find that unless I rut a shaggy, dark-haired beast, I lose all enjoyment for the act entirely.”

  I grunted, feeling a lot like a caveman staking my claim. “How did I get to be so lucky, Aphrodite?”

  She shook her head, staring up at me with her blue, blue eyes. “I am the lucky one, Hephaestus, to have found a lover like you.”

  “Will you marry me? Again?” I grinned.

  She smirked. “As long as we do it here, with no one for witnesses save those who actually love us, then yes, I will be yours for an eternity.”

  My heart warmed, but I gave her a look of incredulity. “Who love us? You do know your best friend twisted my body into a pretzel. I do not feel even an ounce of love from that female.”

  She laughed, the sound like morning church bells on a gentle summer breeze. My heart was full. So damn full I knew I could never be this happy again.

  “You just have to get to know her.” She patted my chest. “Believe me, if she didn’t like you, you’d know it.”

  “She tried to poison me today, Dite. I think you’ve disillusioned yourself concerning that woman.”

  She laughed even harder, and honestly, I was a little worried for my lover. Was she truly so hard-pressed for friendship that she couldn’t see she’d made her bed with a shark?

  “Give her a few hundred years, and then you’ll love her just as I do.”

  “Oh, only a few hundred. Good lord, maybe it is I who haven’t quite thought this through.”

  She did not pin me with force, but she leaned up and kissed my mouth oh so tenderly. And I felt her love glittering through me.

  I breathed out plumes of pink power.

  She batted those long, lovely lashes of hers back at me. “Still thinking, Hephy?”

  I shook my head. “Yeah, nope. You’re mine, woman. All mine.”

  I tackled her, making her laugh, but then I started kissing her, and I did not stop kissing her and making her scream my name for the next three days and nights.

  We got married. Hades officiated, and Calyssa threatened to rip my balls off if I ever hurt her BFF again. And oh, I was so very wrong. So very, very wrong. Because I was happier each and every day even more than the day before that one.

  And I loved those children, and Aphrodite gave me all of herself. Her heart. Her soul. Her gentleness. And her love.

  And that love, it made me the very best me I could never have imagined I’d someday become.

  She was my queen and I her king, and together we built an eternity of laughs, smiles, and so much love that we drowned in it. And that was okay because neither of us needed to breathe much, anyway.

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  * * *

  And please, if you enjoyed this book, write a review for it, reviews are so important to us. On the next page I’ll lis
t all of my works. So make sure to turn the page!

  Kingdom Books written as Marie Hall

  (The Kingdom Collection: 1-3)

  Her Mad Hatter

  Gerard’s Beauty

  Red and Her Wolf

  Jinni’s Wish, Book 4

  Hook’s Pan, Book 5

  Moon’s Flower, Book 6

  The Huntsman’s Prey, Book 7

  Rumpel’s Prize, Book 8

  Hood’s Obsession, Book 9

  Her One Wish, Book 10

  A Pirate’s Dream, Book 11

  * * *

  Book Listing for Dark Kings and Queens (Kingdom spinoff series) written as Jovee Winters:

  Sea Queen, Book 1 (Caly and Hades)

  The Passionate Queen, Book 2 (Queen of Hearts)

  The Ice Queen, Book 3

  The Magic Queen, Book 4 (Baba Yaga)

  The Dark Queen, Book 5 (The Evil Queen)

  The Fairy Queen, Book 6 (Galeta)

  The Centaur Queen, Book 7

  * * *

  The Mad King, Book 1 (The Mad Hatter)

  The Jaded King, Book 2 (Beauty and the Beast)

  The Magic King, Book 3 (Rumple)

  The Wolf King, Book 4 (Big Bad Wolf)

  The Death King, Book 5 (Hades)

  The Forge King, Book 6 (Hephaestus and Dite)

  UPCOMING Titles

  The Bewitching Queen: Rayale’s story

  The Pirate King: Hook’s story

  The Fire Queen: Fiera’s story

  Other books by Jovee: Blue Moon Bay cozy pnr mystery romance

  Cookies, Curses, and Kisses, Book 1

  Holly, Curses, and Hauntings, Book 2

  Cupcakes, Curses, and Spirits, Book 3