So why was she fighting it so hard?
 
 He wanted to shake her into understanding. But she started that with her language lesson.
 
 “Mouth,” Olivia said, brushing her lips against his jawline.
 
 Shivers ran down Kaias’s spine.
 
 “Lips.” She said a new word he didn’t know and kissed him again.
 
 He wanted to know what she was saying. The language sounded so different; it spurred his curiosity.
 
 “Kiss,” Olivia whispered. She placed her lips against his and kissed.
 
 Everything she tasted was so sweet. She was killing him with her words and touches. This delicate, beautiful creature was somehow stronger than him, just from her fingertips caressing his bone crown.
 
 “What are you saying?”He whispered to her.
 
 “Mouth ismouth.Lips arelips.And this,”she kissed him again, allowing him to taste her. “It's called akiss.”
 
 Kaias purred again. She was trying so hard to seduce him, to put him in a place where his power would be stripped away. Little did she know, she was becoming his power and strength.He knew it the moment their hearts thrummed in Koureshtka’s Tomb. Koureshtka wanted him and Olivia to be together.
 
 Like all great teachers, his goddess was showing him through experience. No one ever succeeded in putting him in this emotional space. No one else had ever tried to stand up to him or tell him how they needed to be. Boundaries didn’t exist for him. And yet, here she was, standing her ground.
 
 Kaias lowered himself down and lifted Olivia from the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pushing close to his erection. Kaias kissed her, locking their lips and breaths together. He walked her to the wall, pressing her body against the warm stone.
 
 The sun had set entirely, replaced by the two moons. Koureshtka’s twin daughters watched down at them from the heavens, their light shining into their room.
 
 “Why are you doing this?”He asked.
 
 Olivia panted. She raked her fingertips against his back, making him rock forward. He wanted to tear through their clothing to where there was nothing left but them. Quickly, he moved a hand down to his pants and began to work on the fastening.
 
 “I’m trying to show you how much my life matters.”
 
 Kaias shook his head. He chuckled at what she said.
 
 “Words matter this much to you?”He teased, “So much that you would sell yourself to continue working?”
 
 “Knowledge matters that much.”
 
 Kaias paused. His pants fell to his ankles as he stared into her eyes. Knowledge. Sharing it and being a part of it mattered so much that she would seduce him? He believed she would do it anyway, the way she trembled for him. But there was something in that reasoning that had him thinking.
 
 It was as if they were Vrex and Koureshtka. She would do everything in her power to share knowledge and rule withempathy, whereas he was forced to live in a world ruined by blood and power.
 
 Kaias sighed. “You may be Olivia to the people.”
 
 “What?”She asked softly.
 
 “You want to be Olivia to the people, and I will agree to that,”he kissed her softly. If this was all she needed to stay with him and to continue to be his Kou, who was he to stop it? “But in international functions, you are my Kou. You will be Lady Olivia, Consort of the Abyss, Sister of Koureshtka.”
 
 Olivia nodded. Tears flowed down her cheeks as she hiccuped a smile.
 
 “I am Lady Olivia, Consort of the Abyss, Sister of Koureshtka,”she said, the title proudly. “Kou to Lord Kaias.”
 
 Kaias growled in agreement. “What is Kou in your language?”
 
 “We don’t have an equivalent,”she answered.
 
 Kaias nodded, proud that his world had something hers did not encompass. Olivia was so much that he couldn’t pinpoint everything. He wanted to learn more and planned to, starting with her body.