“Then I suppose you have a vacation home for the length of the lease.” His eyes flashed down to where my shirt—his shirt—had just lifted.
A low rumble sounded from his ribcage. Theo’s weight shifted away from me quickly, the bed shaking from the movement. He seated himself on the far side of the bed, lifting the covers. “Sleep on it, we can decide in the morning. Can you kill the light?”
“Oh,” I breathed, my cheeks burning.
The heat of guilt was fiery across my skin.Why did I do that?Was I asking for something more? I’d never made the first move in my life! Intimacy wasn’t something I’d prioritized or even craved on Earth. The handful of times I’d dipped my toes in those waters had been initiated by the guy and disappointing at best.
I clicked the lamp off, shuffling into the covers he’d already climbed under. I was suddenly extremely aware of how small this bed was. Had our legs been touching last night? Was I too tired to notice? Had he been this warm? Had I felt this deep, foreign vibration in my bones? It was barely noticeable, but soothing. Like the subtle quake of sleeping in the back seat of a car on the highway on a warm summer night.
I squirmed my hips, only for my thighs to slip against each other. Fuck I was horny. I slowly shifted an arm around my stomach, indulging in just a single press into my clit before the shame overtook me. I wasnotabout to touch myself next to Theo while he tried to sleep. I was just going to have to let these feelings simmer out.
I needed to think about something other than the four-armed god in bed with me who was solving all my problems one unrequested and undeserved favor at a time. Maybe I was mistaking gratitude and genuine enjoyment of his company for somethingmore.
Whatever it was, so much for a dry night’s sleep. At least I was exhausted enough to doze off almost immediately.
Theo
My groinached.
My eyes stung from staring blankly at the wall for hours in the dark.
My muscles were heavy from straining with self-control.
I felt filthy for spending the better part of the night fighting the urge to flip on top of the goddess sleeping next to me and claim her oh-so-ready body. I was torturing myself every time I entertained the idea, but how could I not? The scent of her mouth-watering blackberry arousal was literallybeggingto be addressed. She wanted me. Or at least, she wantedsomethingsqueezed between those luscious thighs. I was more than happy to be that something.
Gentle wasn’t in my nature—or any Quadmos’s nature. I’d have rut her until she was so spent she needed to be carried back up the damn mountain to recover in her field.Ifher divine mother would still let her in after the way I defiled her daughter.
That didn’t dissuade my appetite. I’d behonoredto carry her home satisfied and exhausted.
What truly stopped me from acting on my desires was the soft snoring that started almost immediately after the room fellsilent. She was exhausted and finally sleeping in a bed. Who was I to interrupt that? Even if the sweetness of her wet dreams was tormenting me.
Andfuckwas I feeling the effects of that torment today. I was used to ignoring my feelings and putting on a pleasant façade, but that was proving impossible after pulling an all-nighter fighting my most primal urges. Frankly, it worried me. I was comfortable with my on-demand “off” switch. Now I was agitated, tense, andhungry… without knowing what to do about any of it.
“I’m nervous to tell Ida,” Vivian confessed, pulling my attention outside of my own skull.
We’d been trudging through the mud uphill for hours, saying very little. I wasn’t sure what my conversation skills would be like. Filthy? Rude? Non-existent? Not worth the risk of finding out.
“Do you think she won’t like it?” I asked.
“No… I think she will. But it doesn’t feel like a decision I should make for her. I wish we had more time to close the deal.”
“Sorry I couldn’t negotiate an extension.” I’d tried to this morning on Vivian’s request but was unsuccessful. Housing was limited. First come, first served.
“You don’t need to be sorry, you didn’t do anything wrong. You’ve been nothing but generous, even though you owe us nothing.”
She kept saying that. That I was helping them for no good reason. Today, not feeling like myself, the claim irked me more than usual. “I owe you my life,” I stated flatly.
“Sure,” she dismissed, before letting out a deep sigh. “I just feel bad about the whole situation.”
“The whole situation?”
“It’s the short notice. It’s me having to make the call. It’s that I owe Ida a lot, and I kind of feel like you’re paying my debt right now. It should be me handling all of this as thanks for her taking such good care of me when I hadnothingand nobody to lean on.”
“You don’t have a debt to anyone just because they wanted to help you.” I didn’t want her to feel bad about any of this. I was here to make thingseasieron her. Not introduce a sense of moral agony.
“You’re one to talk, Mr. ‘I owe you my life’,” she scoffed. “We really need to stop the cycle of favors before it gets out of hand.”
“You’re the one who needs a reason for everything I do,” I grumbled.
