Page 102 of A Touch of Chaos

“I’m ready,” she said.

He offered his hand. He didn’t need to touch her to teleport, but he thought it might be comforting. She didn’t hesitate, and when his fingers closed around hers, they vanished, appearing in the living room of his home.

When they arrived, she immediately released his hand.

“Where is she?”

“In your room,” he said and then corrected himself. “Well, notyourroom, exactly. The guest room.”

He had never seen her eyes so bright or her excitement so high, and truthfully, it made him sad. It was the first time he realized what all this had really done to her.

She started toward the door but paused.

“Thank you, Dionysus,” she said. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

He hoped it meant the world, because that was exactly what it would cost.

She did not wait for a reaction. She turned and raced to the door, knocking quietly.

There was a pause, and then it opened, at first only a crack and then wider, and there was Phaedra, ghostly pale, illuminated from behind by a warm amber light.

“Ariadne,” she whispered.

Ariadne nodded, her mouth quivering, but it was Phaedra who burst into tears first, and then she threw her arms around Ariadne’s neck and sobbed.

Dionysus left the sisters then. It felt intrusive to linger.

He headed down the hall to his room and showered. When he was done, he climbed into bed. For a while, he just lay on his back and stared at the ceiling. His mind felt so full of words and emotions, he could not even begin to process what had taken place over the last twenty-four hours. He just hoped that when Theseus came, he was powerful enough to protect his people.

It was late when Dionysus woke to Ariadne entering his room. He didn’t remember falling asleep and wasn’t sure how long he’d been out. He rose onto his elbow.

“Ari?” he asked, feeling groggy and a little disoriented. He spoke as he yawned. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

He might be half-asleep, but he thought that was strange. “What exactly did you mean to do?”

She stared at him from the end of the bed, and then it dipped with her weight, and he watched in disbelief as she crawled to him.

Suddenly, he was very much awake.

“Ari,” he said.

“Dionysus,” she replied, her voice a heady whisper.

“What are you doing?” he asked as she guided him to his back with a hand on his chest.

“What does it look like?” she asked as she straddled his already-hard cock.

This has to be a fucking dream, he thought.

He let his hands rest on her thighs.

“I think you should explain it,” he said. “In detail.”

Her eyes glittered in the darkness, and she rolled her hips against him lightly, as if testing how he felt against her.

He let out an audible breath.

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