Page 40 of The Shadow Gods

Leo

Hector didn't leave me right away. He kept his fingers inside me, rhythmically thrusting as I came through each peak. The light strokes made me shudder and gasp. My whole body was lit up, tingling like I had static running along my skin.

He kissed my thigh, then my hip, my stomach, the tip of my breast, and my neck. With a move that made me dizzy, he spun us, so he was beneath me and I was on top.

Oh. This wasn't a position I liked. The hotel lights were on, and my hair was probably a mess. I was red-faced, still hadn't caught my breath, and it was physically impossible to suck in my stomach when I panted.

Beneath me, Hector seemed perfectly content. His hands tickled me as he ran them along my sides, over my breasts, and to my hips.

He didn't shift to slide inside me or push for me to move. He looked at me, and I did my best not to hide.

Curling toward me, he grasped my neck to pull me closer. I could taste myself on his lips. My body heated. I wasn't able to hide anything from him. He didn't allow it.

It was so like him. He dragged everything into the light, refusing to let things remain secret or shameful.

I curved my fingers around his arms, trailing them to his elbows to hold him to me. It was then, as I moved my hands up and down, that I felt them.

Opening my eyes as he sucked on my neck, I glanced at his shoulders. The long, ropey scars were easy to miss. Dark pink, they could have been mistaken for shadows.

But I knew what they were.

This was where myth and reality barreled toward each other and smashed with such force, the world shifted.

The quote came to me from somewhere deep inside, and it took all my control not to say it aloud.Reckless one, my Hector, your own fiery courage will destroy you.

I had read theIliada thousand times, and the scene of Andromache, Hector's wife, begging Hector not to go to war had been one of my favorites. But it wasn't a story. None of this was.

And here was more proof.

Hector rested back on the mattress, his hair dark against the white sheets. “What just happened?”

Tracing the scars, I swallowed hard. I didn't want to let it out. I didn't want him to know what I was thinking, but I couldn't make my fingers leave these scars.

He glanced at my hands and let out a long breath. “It was a long time ago.”

But these scars had never disappeared. Leaning down, I touched my lips to one, then moved to his other shoulder and kissed the other one.

I swallowed hard, over and over, because thinking about what these represented tore my heart out. This wasn't just his death. These scars represented the fall of Troy and the death of his son.

His hands went to my head, holding me there, and then, just held me. Strong arms wrapped around my back, he kept me close. Wetness seeped through my lashes, but I sniffed quickly, refusing to cry. I didn't want to steal his pain or somehow make him feel as if I pitied him.

I didn't.

But these moments when everything became real hit me like a truck. Suddenly, I could put myself in Andromache's place and understand, fully and completely, the fear she must have had at losing Hector.

“No man will hurl me down to Death against my fate. And fate? No one alive has escaped it, neither brave man nor coward,”Hector quoted, shocking me into stillness.

Slowly, I rose to stare at him. His blue eyes were bright and held mine. “This was long, long ago, Leo,” he said. He touched his fingers to my throat, from one side to the other, as if tracing the scars from my other life. “But we're alive now, and what did you say?I'm not wasting a night with you.I'm not either. I'm not wasting a second more to regrets or guilt.”

I let my breath out, nodding at the rightness of his words.

Leaning down, I touched my lips to the slow smile growing on his. It started off tender and soft. His big hands spanned the width of my back, warming my skin.

I touched him back, palming the muscles along his side and stomach, holding my hands against him until he groaned deep.

I'm falling in love with you.It wasn't the truth. I'd fallen. In the time it took for me to kiss one scar and then the other, I pulled Hector into my heart, wrapped myself around him, and held him there.

This serious, dark, loyal man made me happy. Which was crazy.

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