Page 34 of Currency in Flesh

I clenched my thighs, a little noise escaping my lips. “I do,” I panted. “I want this so badly, Highness. Please, please let me worship your body. Let me worship your soul.”

Her answering laugh was wry and dark, the water now coming up almost to her thighs. “I have no soul, Grace. Will you want me still?’

“You’re wrong,” I answered, bracing for a response. When nothing came, I continued. “You have a soul—it’s just been threaded through the fabric of this place for so long that you have forgotten what its fiber looks like. I see it. I see it in the kindness you show the women who arrive here in pain. I see it in the vicious way you avenge them. I see it in the part of you that screams for justice below a world that is unjust.”

Her steps quickened, and she stood before me. Her hand pressed against my lips. But I was emboldened, not ready to give up on this moment of very naked honesty. I shook her off, knowing I would pay for it later. “I seeyou,”I choked out. “I see you in the little moments of softness you show me. In the way youabhorSean. I am not so foolish as to think that you hate him because of who he is or whatever bargain he failed to fulfill. You hate him because of what he did to me. Deny it all you want, but I know the truth.”

She stilled, fingers trembling ever-so-slightly against my chin. Steam curled around her, its milky fingers stroking her hair. When my eyes met hers, I found them wide—pupils blown and gaze focused. “Grace…” her voice was faint but devastatingly dark. With a small shake of the head, she straightened. She shoved both hands into my hair, grasping the strands in a near-frantic fervor. “You do not know me,” she growled.

“Yes,” I said without looking away. “Yes, I do.”

Her mouth crashed into mine with enough force to split mybottom lip. Blood welled, flowing from my mouth into hers and she groaned. The sound made my pussy clench. I would have come had she touched me, but instead she dropped my hair and pushed me backward. I staggered, losing my footing and falling on my ass. Hot water splashed around me, wetting my hair and dripping down my cheeks like tears. My hands scrabbled for purchase, and she stopped me with a stiletto pressed to my chest. The heel was sharp, biting into the soft skin between my breasts. I could see the rise and fall of her foot from my heaving breaths. She pushed, and I let her, leaning back in surrender, even as her red-bottomed shoe put bruising pressure on my sternum. The spring’s surface swirled around my silk-swathed tits, only my shoulders still above water. Lady Cora’s dress was soaked to her hips, plastered to her body and showing every lithe line. I couldn’t keep my eyes from running up her leg, tracing the muscular length of it from calf, to knee, to thigh…

To cunt, shimmering with want just above the water, even in the faint light.

I panted, entirely at her whim. She had me, andfuckI liked it. I wanted her to take out her emotions on me, to use my body to process the truths that perhaps I had forced her to confront. I opened my mind to her, and the moment she felt my mental boundaries drop, the glow of her eyes flared. I let her see every filthy thing I wanted from her, every way I wanted her to prove herself a true goddess. Her almost imperceptible smile was the only sign I got of her acceptance before she glared down at me, pressing her heel into my flesh hard enough to break the skin, and spit on my face.

Sean had been a spitter. When he was angry, it was his way of showing me precisely how little I meant to him. But now, with Lady Cora? It felt like I had been anointed. I wasn’t being degraded, I was being blessed. I licked the flecks of spray from my lips, smiling up at her in challenge. She met me, grindingthe ball of her foot into my sternum, just below my collared throat. It pressed me into the stone and limited my breathing. I let a tiny groan slip from between my lips.

Abruptly, she removed her heel. Crouching, she brought her face down closer to mine, water lapping at her waist. Her dagger-tipped nails moved across my cheek, rubbing her spit and the mineral-rich water over my face with a villainous little smirk. “You like it when I treat you like my little bitch, don’t you, Grace?”

My nod was not answer enough, and she slapped me, the sensation clear and sharp. “Yes, Your Highness,” I panted. “I like when you show me.”

“Show you what?” she asked, brow raised.

“Show me that you are aGoddess, and I am nothing more than your plaything.”

Her lips softened into a true smile. “Have you learned nothing, blossom?” she asked. “You are precious to me, of unfathomable value. You want a Goddess? I am not a magnanimous deity, I am a Goddess of darkness and death. I would burn the meadows to blistered earth if only to keep you. I would snuff out every soul with a snap of my fingers. I would give a thousand centuries, allow unending, malignant evil to spill from the pit and flood this realm and the rest. There is nothing I would not do for you, Grace.”

I pressed my eyes closed, shaking my head from side to side. “I fucked up,” I replied. “I made assumptions, tried to tell you how to do your job. It’s not my place, and I needed reminding. I’m so sorry.”

“No, darling one,” she whispered, the collar vanishing from my neck. “Ineeded reminding.” She placed her hands on either side of my shoulders, her hair falling forward like a golden, velvet curtain. Sliding one knee over me, she straddled my hips and lowered her face to mine. Her dress floated around us both, brushing my wide thighs with feather-light caresses.The heat of the spring was nothing compared to the heat deep within me. Every cell of my body burned, my hips lifting slightly to put our bodies as close as possible. I felt the beat of her heart in time with mine, and the steady rhythm was a silent symphony.

This kiss was what ancient men penned ballads about, the thing that sent nations to war and civilizations to ruin. Through her, I understood everything and nothing at once. In the smoked-currant taste of her, surrounded by swirling steam, we existed in multitudes.

And something happened I never could have anticipated. With the queen of the Underworld’s tongue against mine, near-scalding water lapping at our skin, I found forgiveness.

“Wait—” I panted, breathless. She pulled back enough to meet my gaze. “I don’t want this to happen with Sean still lingering in this realm.” The faint bubbling sound of the spring was the only noise.

Her forehead creased. “He is going nowhere, marigold,” she said.

“I know, but I want him to. I don’t need to keep punishing him for what he did. As long as his pathetic, whimpering ass still exists, he occupies a part of my mind. I don’t want him to have that anymore.”

“What would you like to do with him?” she asked, still sounding a bit uncertain.

“I want to end him, and I want the very last thing he sees to be us—together.”

A shadow of a chuckle buzzed through her into me, each place our bodies met humming with it. “My, my, my, such a diabolical little serpent you have become,” she said. “I was expecting a clever little mouse, but you have opened your jaws and swallowed her whole.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Before I had even taken a breath, we appeared in the pit. Lady Cora’s knees still framed my hips. We were soaked from the spring, the barely-there fabric of my nightgown doing nothing to hide the hard nipples that studded my full breasts, spreading toward my sides. The goddess stood, leaving my body cold, and with a casual motion like she was brushing lint off her dress, she was dry once again—looking impeccable, not a hair out of place.

I glanced down at my drenched, tiny nightgown, my broad, bare thighs pale like the moon against the dark marble floor. My warm-chestnut hair fell around my face in a chaotic tangle. I laughed at the contrast, and was pleased to see Lady Cora’s lips quirk up as well. “Are you gonna help me out, too?” I asked, grinning.

She shrugged. “I could, or I could leave you nice and wet.”

“You could always help me dry now and then see how wet you can make me later…” I winked.

---