Page 25 of Tides of Time

Orion had never told her a siren drowned him to save him, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it had always been here. Was this merely one step of a loop they always saw out?

“There!” Galene’s hand landed on Ariana’s arm, and her other hand pointed to where Orion floated mere feet from them, a trail of blood leaking behind him. “You know what you must do.”

Ariana’s tears tracked down her face as she swam closer. Orion’s eyes were closed, but she could see the faint rise and fall of his chest. He was not dead yet.

“I’m sorry,” the words were lost to Ariana’s sobs as she grabbed his hand and began to swim down.

Sinking deeper and deeper, she fought against the suffocating pressure of the ocean's depths. The darkness enveloped her like a familiar embrace as she swam closer to the depths they called home. Her heart raced with fear and guilt as her mind screamed at her to let him go. Orion’s body jerked and twisted, awakening from the lack of oxygen and sending panic coursing through his veins.

“I love you,” she screamed, her voice cracking with desperation. “Please forgive me.” Her hand constricted like a vise around his wrist, her blood pulsing so fiercely that she could feel her veins expanding. With every beat of her heart, she feared losing Orion to the waves above if she could not force herself to continue.

“That is enough, my child.” Poseidon’s deep timbre filled her mind, and a blinding white light forced her eyes closed.

ELEVEN

“Don’tyou ever do that again,” Orion snarled at his wife the second her head returned to his chest. “Don’t you ever fucking do that again.”

His hand traced the soft strands of her hair, his heart racing as worry and fear threatened to consume him. The weight of a life left unlived pressed heavily on his chest, like an anchor pulling him down into the depths of uncertainty. His fingers trembled against her hair as he struggled to hold onto the present moment, fearing the past she almost stole.

“What do you mean?” Ariana’s voice cracked as she sat upright.

“Don’t play stupid with me, wife.” He snarled the word like he regretted the truth behind it.

“You remember?” She tucked a hair behind her ear and tried to look away.

“No you don’t,” Orion caught her chin with two fingers and forced it upright. “You’re not running from this conversation. I didn’t give you my fucking consent.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, her glittering eyes filling with tears.

“I didn’t give you consent to steal decades from us by damning us to a mortal life.” His lips captured hers, and he didn’t care that he was aggressive. He was pissed. “I didn’t consent to the loss of a single fucking second with you.” he hissed when he pulled back from his bruising kiss. “And I never will.”

“I’m sorry, I needed out.”

“You would trade decades with me for a chance to live like a normal human?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds so foolish to give up what we have.”

He snorted. “You’re damn right it’s foolish, and I’m going to remind you why.” His hand slipped between her legs, using little pressure to spread them apart so he could brush a finger over her swollen clit. “Every single second of our lives together is important to me.” He pressed a finger inside her body, and her legs fell open on a gasp.

Orion still held her chin in his other hand. “Look into my eyes, Ariana. Stay with me as I make you remember.”

Her body quivered in response to the firm and persistent pressure of his finger thrusting in and out of her wet and eager pussy. With each thrust, her hips arched off the bed, aching for more of his skilled touch. Their eyes locked in a heated stare, but her focus wavered as her eyelids fluttered, overwhelmed by the intense pleasure rippling through her body.

“This is what you need to remember, he growled and added a second finger into her heat. You’re wet for me already.” Releasing her chin, Orion captured Ariana’s lips with his and thrust his tongue against hers the instant the kiss began.

This wasn’t about gentle and tender.

A lifetime of memories slammed into him - memories that shouldn’t exist but did because she’d fucked around.

Memories of her in his home. Memories of them saying I love you at a time when she’d not even been born yet. Memories of dying in her arms and being saved by them as well.

He’d had time to be furious because the memories came before she did. Time to think about if he would walk away from her for her selfishness or fuck her until she couldn’t think straight. When she’d left, he’d not been overly worried, but knowing that their life, the one she almost gave him and then stole by walking away on the beach, had been at risk was a fury he’d been unable to ignore.

With each thrust of his fingers into Ariana's warm, wet core, his body responded in kind. The heat between them was palpable, crackling and electric as they engaged in a form of passion they had never explored before - hate-sex.

He couldn't deny the rush it gave him, the raw intensity that coursed through his veins with every touch and movement. It was like a fire burning inside him, consuming him until there was nothing left but the desire to give and take in equal measure. Judging by the way her hips bucked against his hand and her moans filled the room, Ariana enjoyed it, too. This was a dance of opposites, fueled by anger and lust, but ultimately leading to an explosive release that left them both sated and breathless. As they collapsed onto the tangled sheets, he couldn't help but think that their passion was unlike anything he had ever experienced - a dangerous and addictive combination of hatred and desire.

“Orion,” she gasped as she rode his finger, her body pressing against the heel of his hand to give her the relief she craved from his touch.

---