The Dark-Hunters (526 page)

If she didn’t know better, she would believe his claim of divinity. There was something unnatural about the desire he created in her.

But gods and their issue had an essence that was unmistakable. All she felt inside this human was hatred, despair. He hurt so badly that it was almost painful for her to be near him.

“Why are you so sad?”

“You would never understand.”

Most likely not. Sadness wasn’t something she normally felt. As for despair …

It was completely alien to her.

In all eternity, she’d never wanted to comfort a human. Today, she did and she didn’t know why.

“Do you ever smile?” she asked him.

He shook his head.

“Never?”

“No. All it does is draw people toward me. Make them want me more.”

“But I thought all humans longed to be desired.”

Again he scoffed. “Do you know the Atlantean term
tsoulus?
”

“Sex-slave?”

He gave her a blank stare.

Artemis gasped as she caught his meaning. “You’re one of them?”

“I was.”

Her vision darkened with the knowledge. “And you dared to touch me?”

“So will you kill me now?”

That made her anger falter under another wave of confusion. Who was this man who braved more than any before him? “If you wish to die so much, why not kill yourself?”

His lip curled as his eyes flared with fury. “Every time I’ve ever tried, I was brought back and punished for it. It appears the gods don’t want me dead so I figure if one of you kills me, then I’ll finally be at peace.”

“Then it’s not fated for you to die.”

He came to his feet with a snarl so feral that Artemis actually took a step back in fear.

“Don’t you dare say their name to me. I refuse to believe this was my fate. I was not meant to be this. I was never meant to be…” The pain in his eyes tore through her. “This can’t be all I was born for.”

“It’s the fate of mankind to suffer. Why should you be different?”

Acheron couldn’t breathe as her words tore through him. Over and over in his mind he saw himself and his past. Saw the horrors and degradations he’d suffered.

But the most horrifying thoughts were those of the future. Forever alone with nothing but scorn and abuse for company. Being forced to eat against his will, or worse, traded like nothing more than a sack of wheat.

Too angry to speak, he stormed from the room and headed to his “prison.” Granted it was better than the hole his father had thrown him into initially, but it was still a prison.

It was all he would ever know and if his father had his way, he’d be kept shut in here for the rest of his life.

At least there were no guards outside it today. Even they had been given a day of freedom. A day to do as they pleased.

“Why did you leave?”

He drew up short as Artemis appeared before him. “Why are you following me?”

“You make me curious.”

“Curious about what?”

“About you.”

He laughed bitterly at that. Even a goddess was no better than the humans who hounded him. “Do you want me naked so you can explore me?”

Her cheeks darkened, but even so he saw the heated look in her eyes.

He also noticed she didn’t contradict him. So be it.

Artemis watched as her newfound human slowly released the pin for his peplos. She should stop him, she knew it and yet she couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

She trembled from expectation of what he might look like naked. No wonder her brother spent so much time with human females. If they were half this evocative …

He dropped his peplos to the floor.

Her thoughts scattering, she swallowed as she saw his nudity. He was even more handsome than she’d suspected.

His skin was tawny, inviting, and stretched over a body that was finely honed and well muscled.

Against her will, her gaze dropped down to the part of him that was uniquely male. He was very well endowed and as she stared at him, his shaft grew larger, thicker as it slowly lifted to curve against his body. His balls tightened.

She’d never seen a man like this. Rife with desire. So bold and uninhibited by fear of her.

He closed the distance between them. “Don’t you want to touch me?”

Yes she did, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. She felt the heat from his body, the stirring of his breath against her face.

His nearness was intoxicating.

He took her hand into his and led it toward his erection. His grip was tight as he brushed her palm against the tip of his cock. He was so soft, and yet hard.

She swallowed as he slowly slid her fingers down the length of him until he rubbed her hand against the soft sac. She bit her lip while he rubbed himself against her palm. His body was so different from hers. So incredible and beguiling.

He released her hand.

Her first instinct was to withdraw, but she wasn’t one for timidity. Instead, she ran the back of her fingers underneath his sac, letting his balls sag around them. His body felt so strange to her.

She lifted her hand up in silent exploration over his stomach to his chest.

He didn’t move to touch her. He just stared at her silently while she explored every inch of his body. His eerie silver eyes were incredible. She’d never seen anything like them. Never felt anything better than his masculine skin beneath her hand.

Oh, but he was luscious.

“Do you want me to fuck you?”

She shivered at a question that should have offended her to the core of her being. At the deep accent of his voice. She wanted him with a madness that was consuming.

If only she could.

“No,” she said quietly. She looked up at him. His gaze was searing. “I want you to do to me what you did earlier. Make me feel that again.”

He took her hand and led her toward a bed where they could be alone. Undisturbed.

She shouldn’t be doing this. She was a virgin goddess. Untouched by man or god.

At least until today.

No one had ever kissed her before. No one had ever breached her. She’d been known to kill men just because they had seen her naked and yet for this one, she was willing to let him seduce her.

She didn’t know why any more than she understood the compulsion inside her to be with him.

He just made her feel oddly happy. Warm. Decadent. Desirable.

Acheron laid her back against the mattress. She was nervous—it was something he was used to with women who lacked experience. Even so, she was beautiful. Her auburn hair fanned out over his pillows, making him even harder for her. It wasn’t something he was used to feeling.

The scent of roses clung to her skin. He kissed her lightly on the lips while he grazed his hand up her leg, lifting the hem of her gown. She stiffened a bit, but quickly relaxed. She was shy.

Not wanting to embarrass her, he left her lips to crawl down her body.

Artemis was uncertain as she watched him vanish beneath the folds of her white gown. Even so, she could feel him moving. Feel his whiskers scraping against her thigh as he trailed a hot line of kisses up the inside of her thigh until he reached the part of her that ached for him.

She moaned the instant his lips and tongue found that spot. Biting the heel of her hand, she surrendered herself to the pleasure he gave her. It was blinding and exhilarating. No wonder the other gods and humans risked so much for this.

And this time, when she came, she fully understood what was happening to her body. At least she did until he made her do it again and again.

Acheron growled at the taste of Artemis. At the sound of her cries filling his ears. He loved the way she purred. The sensation of her hand in his hair, stroking him.

She slapped her other hand against the mattress beside her. “You have to stop. Please. I can’t take any more.”

He gave one last, long lick before he pulled away. “Are you sure?”

She nodded.

Reluctantly, he did as she asked and moved to stretch out beside her even though his own body was far from sated.

Artemis draped herself across his chest, listening to his ragged breathing. He was still hard and stiff.

“Does it hurt you to stay like this?” she asked, brushing her hand over his cock.

He drew a sharp breath as if her caress pained him. “Yes.”

“Can you not pleasure yourself?”

“I can.” He studied her face. “Would you like to watch?”

Before she could answer, his hand closed around hers, holding her palm against him.

Acheron closed his eyes at the heat of her hand against his cock. Sex meant nothing to him. It never had. It was just something that was expected of him.

He’d masturbated before crowds and with lovers more times than he could even recall. For some reason, it seemed to give other people pleasure to see him come. He barely felt the momentary release of hormones anymore. It was a piercing pleasure, quickly gone.

He’d long ago learned to want something more than this.

But it wasn’t meant to be and he didn’t know what it was he craved anyway. Artemis was here because, like many others before her, she was curious about his body. She might come back to visit him. She might not.

There was a time when he would have been beaten had a lover not returned for him.

Back in Atlantis, everything had hinged on his ability to make people crave him. How much sleep he was allowed. How much food.

How much dignity.

If his lovers didn’t feel well sated after leaving him, he was beaten for it.

Now his father would beat him if he ever learned of this. The king demanded celibacy from a man who had never known it. But in truth, he liked being with Artemis. Her touch was gentle. Her skin creamy and soft.

Sucking his breath in, he imagined what it would feel like to slide himself inside her body. No, better yet, he imagined what it would be like to have her hold him cradled against her as if he mattered. The very thought of someone caring about him,
really
caring about him, was almost enough to make him smile. But he knew better.

What he had was a stupid dream that had been fed by Ryssa and Maia at a time when he’d been gullible. Those illusions were long shattered.

Artemis was a goddess. He was lucky she would even deign to be in the same room with him. He would please her because that was what they’d trained him to do.

There could never be any kind of relationship between them. No doubt she’d vanish as soon as this was over. He’d be alone again.

Nothing in his life ever really changed.

Artemis watched Acheron’s face while he used her hand to stroke him. It was odd to touch a man like this and she wondered what thoughts were in his head. Normally she could hear mortal thoughts when she wanted to, but for once she couldn’t.

How very strange …

He stiffened ever so slightly before his hot seed shot through her fingers. Instead of crying out as she’d done, he merely sighed raggedly, then released her.

She ran her hand through his warm moisture, studying it. “So this is what makes women pregnant.”

“In most cases.”

“In most?”

He shrugged. “Mine is harmless enough.”

“How so?”

“I was sterilized at puberty, Goddess. My kind always are. No one wants to be made pregnant by a whore.”

Artemis arched her brows at his disclosure. “Humans can do such a thing?”

“No, but the Atlanteans can. They taught the procedure to the Apollites.”

She studied his fluid again. “’Tis a shame they did that to you,” Artemis said quietly. “You are far too beautiful to be made sterile. Shall I fix you?”

“No. There’s no reason to. I told you, no one would ever welcome a child conceived from me.”

It was the pain in his silvery eyes as he spoke that brought an unfamiliar ache to her chest.

Her poor human.

He looked spectacular lying back against the white linens that only emphasized the wide expanse of tawny masculine skin. Every muscle of his body was a study in perfection. He was so inviting. Warm. And he was completely unabashed about his nude sexuality. About what they’d done. He wasn’t cocky or arrogant that he had touched her.

He treated her like she was …

Human.

Most of her family couldn’t stand her. Humans feared her. Even her handmaidens laughed among themselves, but kept their guard up whenever she drew near.

But this man …

He was different. He held no fear of anything or anyone. Like a powerful, untamed beast, he was defiant and bold. Unyielding in her presence. He was docile now, but the power of him was undeniable. It was frightening even to her.

“Have you any friends?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“I suppose I’m not worthy of any.”

Artemis frowned at his reasoning. “It can’t be that. I haven’t any either and I am more than worthy. Perhaps there is a flaw to us.” She paused as she thought about that. “No, that can’t be right either. I have no flaws and yet I’m as alone as you are.”

Never before had Artemis realized just how alone she really was. Her twin brother had friends. He had lovers. Apollo was the closest thing to a friend she’d ever known, but even he was reserved around her. Apollo never invited her to do things with him unless it involved destruction or punishment. He didn’t laugh with her or ask her to go out carousing or gaming.

For the first time in her life, she realized just how lonely she was.

“Will you be my friend?”

Acheron was utterly stunned by her unexpected question. “You would befriend me?”

She cocked her head as she watched him with a small puckering of her divine brow. She was shimmery and ethereal—far beyond the reach of something like him. “Well, yes. I mean, we can’t let others know it, but I like what you have shown me. I wish to learn more about this world and about you.” She smiled warmly at him as if she were truly sincere with her offer. It reminded him how rare such a thing as sincerity was. And friendship …

It was an elusive dream he dare not allow himself. People like him didn’t have friendship. Any more than they had love or kindness. Yet he found a foreign part of himself aching for want of it.