Page 125 of A Touch of Chaos

“Shh,” Hera implored. “Do not speak. Love me instead.”

Zeus’s eager mouth closed over hers again before he kissed along her jaw and down her neck. Her fingers tangled into his graying hair as he made his way to her breasts, lapping at the oil coating her skin.

“You taste so good,” he said with a growl.

Like sleep, Theseus hoped, annoyed that this wastakingso long. He glanced at Hypnos, who remained on his perch, eyes averted from Hera and Zeus’s painful display of affection.

Had Hypnos given Hera a fake potion? It would be one way to enact revenge.

If something did not happen soon, Theseus would snare Zeus and Hera together. What torture it would be for the Goddess of Marriage to be trapped beneath her husband, who would then know her seduction had only been a scam.

There was a part of him that wanted to witness that aftermath.

Zeus continued his descent, and as he lowered to his knees, Hera turned her head to the ceiling.

“How long does it take?” she asked.

Zeus chuckled, assuming her frustration was borne from ignorance.

“Patience, my pearl,” he said. Hera’s gaze dropped to his, and his expression grew very serious, his eyes shining with a strange light. “I will kneel for no one but you.”

Hera let her hands thread and twist into his hair as he pressed kisses to each of her thighs, his mouth inching closer to her sex.

He groaned, and then his head fell heavily against her legs.

“Zeus?” she asked and then took a step back.

He swayed and then fell to the ground with a hard smack.

“By the gods, that took long enough,” Hera said, snatching her robe from the ground and securing the tie firmly around her waist. “I shall have to bathe in acid to scrub the memory of his touch from my skin.”

She shuddered visibly.

Theseus removed the Helm of Darkness while Hypnos transformed from a chained bird to a chained god.

“If you had used the potion the way I instructed, you would not have had to endure such…torture,” said Hypnos haughtily. “It was meant to be consumed, not licked from your body.”

“Itoldyou,” Hera snapped. “Zeus will not accept food or drink from me.”

“Could it be because the last time you offered him a draught, he woke up in chains?”

“Perhaps he should not wake up at all,” said Hera, glaring down at her sleeping husband.

“As much as I would like to indulge you,” said Theseus, “we need him.”

“Youneed him,” Hera countered. “I am not trying to win Cronos’s favor.”

“But you are trying to win a war,” said Theseus.

“Yes,” Hera hissed. “And you released the one Titan who has had endless time to dream of all the ways he will take his revenge against the Olympians.”

“Perhaps you should cease considering yourself an Olympian.”

“Do you think that will matter? Cronos does not forget transgressors.”

“A trait you seem to have inherited from him,” said Theseus.

“Andyouinherited your father’s arrogance,” she countered.

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