I could not seem to get in enough air to form words for so long that it made him smile, but he waited this time.
“It was… You looked at me in a way that no one ever had before. Like I was more than just a dirty beggar boy. You… possessed me. For years after, I would lay awake and agonize over what you must have been thinking that had made you look at me like that.”
Riordan stared at me in awe, and then his eyes lowered to my mouth again, and my pulse roared in my ears. I had to resist the urge to lick my lips.
“As my life got harder, I started to think back on that first meeting with resentment because it… felt like you lied to me when you looked at me like that,” I admitted.
His eyes widened, his hand tightening on my neck as if he could stop me from thinking these things in the past.
“And that is why I punched you,” I finished.
“Orion—”
“Please do not. I don’t want to talk about that.”
He seemed to consider arguing, but something in my expression convinced him to let it go for now.
“I thought of you too,” he revealed, giving me a faint smile when my mouth dropped in shock at his admission. “And I was so relieved to see you at Ergastiri. Before you punched me, of course,” he added with a smirk that made me snort at him. “But I thought about you, and I worried about what may have happened to you in that city.”
“Why?” I wanted to know.Neededto know.
“I am not sure,” he admitted as his thumb brushed my neck affectionately again. “But some Imítheos youth have been known to recognize their futureskiáat a young age. Perhaps I knew we were meant for one another.”
“So all this time…” I trailed off when he nodded in understanding of my confusion. “Why did you not say?”
“Imítheos do not feel desire the way Ktínos do until we choose a mate. I knew I could not give you what you would have wanted from me,” he explained.
“You thought I would pressure you?” I guessed.
“No!” he assured me, looking genuinely horrified by theassumption. “No, I never wanted to make you feel like you had to be loyal to me. But that doesn’t mean I did not love you all along,” he tried to reassure me.
But I was far from pacified. It felt like my heart sank into my stomach as I read between the lines.
“But all those lovers I took… Did I hurt you?”
He sighed, tilting his head back as if he regretted how the conversation was going.
“I did not begrudge you for having those relationships. They were natural to you and satisfied a need I could not at the time. I didn’t know how long it would be until our trio was complete, and I knew you wouldn’t thank me for keeping you celibate for long,” he tried to tease me.
“Riordan—”
“I did what I felt was fair at the time, but I am sorry if it was the wrong choice. What I am trying to say now is that I love you too,” he cut in with frustration.
My heart thudded against my ribs as I repressed the instant and vicious impulse to tell him not to. To make sure he knew that I was wholly unworthy of his affections in ways that he would never even be able to imagine.
But I stubbornly battled down those urges and allowed myself to shift closer until my lips brushed his. I savoured the delicate sound of his breath being drawn in sharply and the tremble of his lips as he awaited my next words.
“And now? Do you feel desire for me now?”
He did not bother to respond verbally. He kissed me, and it felt like I split in half when my heart nearly seemed to burst out of my chest. My mind scattered as my body reacted with an instinctive greediness to devour this man that I had loved for almost all of my life.
Mine.
All yours,he agreed mentally, drawing my attention to the fact that the barriers between us had been obliterated by the intensity of our passion.
But I was far too distracted by the feeling of his hard cock against mine to care about privacy. My mind was too consumed by the realization that I could recognize the similarities in the way he and Amira kissed me. I always expected her claim on myskiáto enrage me, but the fact that I could almost feelherkiss againsthismouth only fuelled my desire for them both. It reminded me that they would have learned to kiss together, and it was such a heady thought. They had a unique rhythm, but there was so much I could teach them: pleasures I could share that they might not have thought to explore yet…
I was certainly more experienced.
