The Sea Queen (The Dark Queens Book 1) Page 8

  Instead of me being the one commanding him to obedience, I was the one now locked and chained to the bed with my legs spread wide to the world. Although my cuffs were furry and pink.

  “Well,” I grumped, shaking my wrists a little, “so this is what it feels like. Now you may release me, male.”

  His grin made my heart stutter. He was truly fun to look at. And suddenly all my fears of the past few hours melted away under the excitement of our bed games.

  “If you’ll remember, Calypso, you promised me every other night. This is my night, and I will take my due.”

  When I’d left him this morning, he’d been casually dressed. But at some point he’d changed, because he was now undoing his tie, and just that small movement made me want to pant as he casually revealed a small sliver of his swarthy flesh one tantalizing and agonizing inch at time.

  “I find myself cross with you today, Thalassa.”

  I was like a dogfish in heat. I arched against the bonds, but really, I was rather intrigued by what he’d planned for me.

  “Oh, I know this game.” Clearing my throat, I whispered meekly, “Yes, Master.”

  He arched a devilish brow. Long, blunt fingers undid the first three buttons of his black silk shirt.

  “You will only address me as Master from here on out. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Master,” I gulped, still sort of straining against the furry cuffs. I wet my lips when he finally slid the shirt off, revealing all that yummy ropey muscle.

  His skin was so tight, his muscles rigid and powerful looking. Even covered in the scars, I was sure I’d never seen a man half as glorious as he.

  “I want to lick you,” I murmured dreamily.

  To which he reared his hand back and swatted the side of my ass. Yipping, I half jumped off the bed, dragged down only because of the cuffs.

  “You bastard!” I hissed, ready to drive a spear through his gut for the outrage.

  Lifting a hand again, he cocked his brow. “Remember your manners, Thalassa. For tonight, I am your master.”

  Oh, the game. Bloody hell.

  “Yes, Master,” I grumped, and then wiggled my foot. “My thigh burns, you a-hole.”

  Sitting on the edge of the bed, he gently ran his callused palm across the place he’d smacked, and I had to admit, it felt dreamy.

  Whimpering in the back of my throat, I tried to wiggle into his touch a little deeper, wanting to feel his weight already and flog his dolphin with my blowhole.

  Obsidian eyes gleamed as though he knew my thoughts. He probably did; I wasn’t trying to hide my lust for him.

  Clearing his throat, he stood back up, and I felt bereft of his touch. I was addicted to the feel of this man.

  His hands landed on his pants, but instead of undoing them, he merely rested his fingers and looked at me. I was ready to yell at him to take it off already.

  “Do you want to know why I’m cross with you, Thalassa?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Not really, Master. And I do wish you’d stop calling me Thalassa. You make me want to retch when you do that. Also, are you going to pound me yet or what?”

  Walking over to the vanity, he rested his weight against it and gave me an amused look. “You’re a horrible slave.”

  “And you’re a terrible master. What’s a girl got to do to get laid around here?” I jerked my hips upward, spreading my legs just a little more so that he’d take a good, hard look at the evidence of my desire.

  He gulped but quickly shook his head.

  “I’m hungry. And I haven’t used the restroom the entire day.”

  Oops.

  Well, that put a damper on things.

  “You’re a god. You don’t have to take a dump, Master.”

  “That’s besides the point, Thalassa.”

  I mock gagged.

  “Stop.”

  “You stop.”

  He growled. And it was so cute I couldn’t help but chuckle.

  “I can get out of these cuffs if I really want to.”

  “Yes, I’d imagine you could. Revoke your word, and you can do as you please.” He shrugged, seeming entirely too unconcerned for my peace of mind.

  I narrowed my eyes. “Do you not wish to bed me anymore, Hades?”

  He pursed his lips.

  It’d only been one day. Had I done it wrong that he held me chained? At least I’d put him out of his misery quickly.

  Pointing at his pants, he muttered, “You can see that I do.”

  I grinned, licking my lips. I wondered what he would taste like. Oh, that would go on my list of things to do.

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “I’m hungry.”

  “No, you’re not.”

  “Damn it, woman, no I’m not. But you cannot leave me to rot in this cell for the entire day without something to entertain myself with. Do you hear me?”

  He genuinely sounded grumpy about it. “Would it make you feel any better if I said I just forgot?”

  His deep voice rolled across my skin like sun-warmed honey. “What do you think?”

  “I’m guessing not.”

  Hades shook his head, causing some of his hair to spill across his forehead. He was generally neat in appearance; immaculate would be the proper word.

  Seeing him so casual in such an intimate setting had me thinking crazy, wicked thoughts. Thoughts like never letting him out of this room again for the rest of eternity.

  “Master,” I said it softly.

  His nostrils flared. The man looked like a devil, and he made my soul dance.

  “Speak, slave.”

  “I have an ouch right here.” I thrust my hips up.

  “Do you?” A wicked glint filled his eyes.

  “Yes.”

  His fingers stroked the vanity the way I wished they’d start stroking me. He had such beautiful hands, big and veiny. I wanted them all over me right now.

  “And what do you think I should do about that, slave?”

  “Kiss it better,” I chirped.

  I’d expected him to say no, or at the very least to say I was a bad girl who did not deserve her master’s favor. He did neither.

  Hades was on me in a flash, covering my body with his own like a living blanket but careful to keep his weight on his arms.

  “Say that again, slave,” he demanded, and goddess, I obeyed.

  “Kiss me better,” I breathed like a lusty little kitten.

  With a hungry groan, he tore at my lips. He was wild, and I loved it. I melted against him.

  I wanted to touch him, touch every square inch of him, but I was still bound.

  “Release me,” I demanded.

  “No,” he snarled, then nipped at my jaw. The bite was hard, brutal, and excited me to my very core.

  My blood sang, and I grew dizzy with lust.

  Then his tongue was dancing along my flesh where he’d bitten, and all I could do was grunt my pleasure, shoving myself upward as best I could, trying to create some sort of friction against the bulge in his pants.

  “Don’t move, or I’ll stop,” he snapped with eyes blazing like cut jewels.

  Feeling both strangely lethargic and flat-out lusty as hell, I would have handed him my soul just then if he’d demanded it.

  “Yes, Master.”

  A rumble exploded from his chest. The man was turning into a beast before my very eyes. The depths of his passions electrified me, spurred on my own.

  I didn’t move, but I couldn’t help that the waters swirled, that a tempest raged outside these walls. My powers were out of my control for the moment.

  He moved down my body, nipping and laving with his tongue along the way, circling first one nipple and then the other. His hands were squeezing my hips, and I tingled everywhere.

  I was nothing but a bundle of excited nerves.

  Hades was at my navel, then below it, then right at the line of my pubis. I practically drooled on myself, knowing what came next. I’d never had anyone touch me there save for
him. Many times I’d watched mortals exploring each other’s bodies in the dead of night, and always one thing seemed to bring out the animal in them more than anything else: the touching of tongues to the jewels of the body.

  Vertigo held me fast, I was ready to be swept up by the tide of his devotion, when suddenly it all stopped.

  His weight was gone, and I was cold.

  Opening my eyes, it took my dazed mind a second to realize he was standing back where he’d been before and gazing at me with a cocky grin.

  “You bastard! Get back here,” I barked, ready to rip his balls off his body if he didn’t return to me at once and pleasure me.

  He shrugged. “I’m hungry, Thalassa. I’ve not yet been fed, and I find my energies flagging.”

  My nostrils flared. “You want food. Fine.”

  With a snap of fingers, I dropped heaping platters of whatever I could think of down onto the vanity. The room dripped with scents of roasted meat, brined olives, sweet pomegranates, and herb-scented rices.

  “Thank you.” He grinned. Then, turning his back to me, he sat and began eating.

  Surely he was kidding. Trying to get at me. But as the minutes ticked by with no hint of him stopping, I finally lost my head.

  “I hate you!”

  “No, you don’t.” He winked at me in the mirror.

  If I revoked my word, he won. He was practically daring me to do it.

  “I do, I hate you all.”

  “Let’s not pretend with one another, my dear. It is beneath us both.” Turning, he dabbed at his mouth with a napkin, all calm, cool, and collected as could be.

  I’d seen the beast and now I was seeing the gentleman, and they both drove me mad.

  Sighing, I calmed the waters and tried to relax. He wanted to wait me out. Well, two could play this game.

  “How’s the food?”

  “Delicious.” He inclined his head, taking a sip from a golden goblet full of ambrosia.

  “I want some.”

  “No.” He tilted his brow. “I’ve got other plans for you tonight.”

  “And just when do you plan to do me, Dead Boy?”

  “When I’m ready.” He crossed his leg.

  He wore no shirt, just silk trousers with black loafers. He should look a fool. He did not.

  Again he was staring me down, devouring me with his steely eyes. And the room was fraught with tension so thick I could hardly breathe around it.

  My ears started buzzing; my body trembled. It was hard to remember to stay in form. I felt exposed, and not just physically. I didn’t care about being naked in front of him. It was my natural state after all. But Hades wasn’t just studying me, he was memorizing me. Every line, every curve. His gaze slowly consumed me.

  I’d been annoyed with him, and now I could hardly remember my name.

  Standing, he walked slowly back to my side once more. Never once saying a word, he released me from my bonds. I felt suddenly unsure without them.

  It was such a strange, vulnerable feeling, not knowing what he meant to do to me.

  Planting his hands on my hips, he turned me so that now my legs dangled over the edge of the bed.

  Fire danced through his eyes as he stared boldly at my center.

  I swallowed hard when he dropped to his knees and, without saying a word, took me into his mouth.

  I bucked, and a groan that sounded almost like pain rumbled from my chest. Instinctively, I wrapped my legs around his shoulders and writhed, dancing on his mouth as his tongue skated across my center.

  His touch was like a shock of lightning. I couldn’t believe or understand what was happening to me, the raw tempest of desire obliterating every rational thought in my head. I was a creature of one need.

  Desire.

  Clawing at the back of his head, I whimpered, pleading in gibberish for him to end this agony.

  But Hades was not to be rushed. His timing didn’t alter. His movements were precise and purposeful, drawing me in deeper and deeper, making me feel like I’d been snared within the folds of a spider’s web.

  Spots danced before my eyes, and blackness threatened to take me under.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” I vaguely heard myself mutter. I wasn’t even sure why I’d said that. But I couldn’t seem to stop the deluge from pouring out. “Oh, Hades. Oh, my Darkness.”

  And then I was there, cresting that pinnacle that literally fractured my body into a million prisms of bliss. I could no longer contain my form. I needed to be free, needed to be all. If I hadn’t left this body, I wouldn’t have survived the taking.

  My soul slipped free, and I was me again. I was the Sea, I was all things. I wrapped myself around his body, anchoring myself as best as I could as my waters continued to churn with pleasure so intense it was nearly a knifing pain.

  Life exploded from within me. Creatures swam up from the deep. My children came out to greet me, to comfort me, but I couldn’t stop myself from floating away. I couldn’t think clearly.

  Hades, I whispered on a current, save me...

  And I felt him. Felt him take me in. Hold me fast.

  I clung to him, trembling in his arms, but his grip was unyielding, demanding.

  “Look into my eyes, Thalassa,” he commanded.

  I did. And finally I felt the fury of this taking begin to release me, I was steadied, calmed.

  And I was terrified by the power I’d just given him over me.

  With a cry, I rushed from his arms, losing myself in the deep, far, far away from him and his paralyzing, magical touch.

  “I just need a moment to compose myself. Just a minute.”

  But as I knelt there shivering, I knew those words were little more than a big, fat lie.

  Chapter 9

  Hades

  She left me.

  And I stumbled backward onto the bed, rocked by the intensity of my own emotions.

  The seas burbled with life, glowing with the colors of creatures familiar and bizarre as they buzzed through the waters searching out their queen. Fins brushed by me, an array of fish swirling like glinting steel.

  I wasn’t bothered by the crush of them. Not even by the long-tailed serpents that slithered between my legs.

  These animals had been born the moment she’d shattered in my arms. I’d never experienced something so...profound in all my life. And the taste of her, it was magic.

  Looking at the door, I could tell she’d dropped the enchantment. I was free to move unmolested through her halls, but I found I had no desire to leave this room.

  The halls of my temple were always full to bursting with the dead seeking me out, needing my ear to settle matters. I’d not known a moment’s peace in all my days.

  Wetting my lips, I imagined what I would do, where I would go if I were her. Something had passed between us this night, something neither of us had been prepared for.

  She’d created life under my touch.

  I’d been with goddesses and mortals, and sex was always just sex. I’d felt my own powers manifest with my first taste of her, felt the fires of death rage through my blood, fill my eyes. If she’d been a human, she’d have been consumed, her lifeline cut short. But Calypso had taken all I’d had to give and turned my curse into a blessing.

  I stared without seeing at the door for what must have been an hour, trying to make sense of what my life had now become. But answers eluded me. The animals were long gone.

  Standing, feeling the need to pace, I walked back and forth for a moment until a strange blue glow attracted me to the window.

  It was her.

  Nothing now but a towering, watery pillar of femininity, she walked with the casual grace of the newly dead. What I’d assumed to be a gown made of diamonds covering her from her neck to her toes was actually a small school of silvery fish.

  Green hair undulated behind her in the gentle waves. Wherever she stepped, green sea moss grew, carpeting the sands beneath her feet. Swimming idly behind her was a massive great white s
hark.

  She reminded me of a ghost, of the newly dead who came to my halls, moving as though with the grace of life still kissing their souls, untouchable and unbearably beautiful to behold.

  I palmed my chest over the spot of my furiously beating heart, telling myself that this was nothing. What we had was idle play, what all Olympians did when needing to satisfy the lusts of the flesh. None of us truly cared for each other. Not in the way I saw my dead care.

  The dead had always appealed to me. They were more real than the petty, selfish, creatures I called “family.” Humans had a way of truly understanding and appreciating the value of another. There was a lot of ugliness in their world, but there was also more laughter, more verve, and more truth among them.

  Calypso, having not lived among any of us, was her own being. She did not understand our politics, nor did she care to learn them. She’d offered to take me in because she’d wanted me. Selfish, possibly, but also honest.

  She wanted nothing more from me than what I wasn’t already willing to give. In many ways she was like my dead, the very best parts of them.

  “Thalassa,” I whispered.

  And even though we were separated by thick walls of coral and rock, she stopped walking. Her spine went straight and stiff, and her head turned just slightly to the side, giving me her profile.

  “I know what happened to her,” I said. “They will find me guilty.”

  Her fingers twitched by her side.

  My heart was heavy, my stomach sick with nerves. I wouldn’t die from the tortures, but it would be far from pleasant.

  Did you kill her?

  Her words filled my head, and I shook it. “No. I did not. But I know where she is now.”

  I thought she would ask me where, but she didn’t.

  Tell me no more, Hades.

  I frowned.

  As though sensing my confusion, she shook her head. The waters are not ours alone tonight. I sense Poseidon’s cronies listening in.

  Clenching my jaw, I went to move back to my bed, but she turned and locked eyes with me.

  They glowed just like the rest of her. Goddess, she was breathtaking. I’d not noticed the bright-pink sea rose she’d tucked into her hair, but now that I did, I couldn’t help but smile.