Page 61 of Vengeance of the Gods

She didn’t have to ask to be choked the second time. Bridger knew what would get her there the fastest. His grip wasn’t anywhere near as tight, only applying enough pressure for her to feel her pulse thrumming against his hand.

It was as if his hold on her neck said, Look at me.

Vega didn’t dare look away.

The other hand still held onto her hip, pushing her as deep as he could get. She was a whimpering mess. “Just like that.” Her voice sounded only a little strained from his hand around her throat.

Bridger pulled her by the neck, bringing their lips together at the very moment Vega fell off the cliff and dove into the overwhelming ecstasy of her next orgasm.

He slipped his hand to the back of her neck, pulling away from their kiss to watch Vega’s face as she came so hard she couldn’t keep her eyes open.

Her walls tightened and stomach quivered, gripping Bridger as he thrust his hips up once more, joining her over the edge.

“Oh fuck.” The gravel in his voice vibrated against Vega’s lips while she felt his cock pump her full of his warm release.

She couldn’t get pregnant—nothing could survive in a cursed body, so instead of spiraling about Bridger finishing inside her, Vega enjoyed the come down from her own release, watching Bridger’s gaze turn into a sated and aloof stare. His lips parted as the last of his orgasm ran its course, and this time it was Vega who kissed his lips softly, letting his last groan of pleasure hum against her swollen lips.

After one more kiss, she shifted to move off Bridger’s lap, but his arms wrapped around, holding her in place with his ear planted against the spot between her breasts, where her heart beat erratically in her chest. “Not yet. Give me a minute.” He chuckled, the sound low. “I’m not ready to let you go back to hating me yet.”

As if she’d ever truly hated him in the first place.

She smirked, pushing the sweaty hair out of his eyes while he slowed his breathing and lifted his head to look at her. “But hate-sex is so good.” Vega traced her thumb down the slope of his nose.

He hummed, eyes fluttering closed for a second. “I think we proved one theory wrong.” Bridger’s eyes had returned to normal when he opened them.

“And what theory is that?” she asked, raising her scarred brow.

“It’s definitely not as good as we remember.” He licked his lips and smiled. “It’s better.”

23

With the heat of the car keeping them warm, Vega and Bridger wrapped themselves up in the backseat, her head resting on his bare chest as her fingers delicately traced the outline of the scar he’d received when she’d stabbed him through the heart.

Even with his powers, her wound had still left a mark.

“Do you ever wonder what happened to Pluto and Romulus?” Vega asked, her voice as heavy from after-sex exhaustion as Bridger’s felt.

“Mmm,” he hummed lazily, opening his eyes as he twirled a piece of her hair between his fingers. “You mean god of the underworld and the twin brother who killed Remus? I mean, no, not necessarily."

“I brought it up to Marlena once, before the summoning… and now I wonder if she thinks about it like I do.”

That piqued Bridger’s interest, and he dropped the section of Vega’s hair he’d been toying with.

“We know the gods she summoned, right? The twelve originals whose powers created our realm, and then we got Remus.” Vega paused, looking up at Bridger through her long lashes. “What happened to Pluto? To Romulus? And why would I get pulled back to Rome after breaking a piece of my death curse, where the tales of our bloodlines are nothing but nearly forgotten mythology?” She had always needed to talk out loud when problem solving.

“You think they’re still floating around somewhere, waiting to be summoned?” he asked.

Bridger felt Vega shrug. “There’s no way they’re in Tolevarre or Earth. Absolutely no way or they would have answered when Marlena summoned the others.”

“What if Pluto is stuck in the underworld?” When the question left his lips, Vega shot up, staring at Bridger with a look in her eyes that meant she was onto something.

Vega wore nothing but her giant gas station T-shirt, the length pooling around her waist. “When Remus bound himself to the gods and died, whatever was left of them went to create Tolevarre. Pluto would have died too, right? Or was it only the gods on Earth?” They weren’t answering each other’s questions, only adding more to the pile of unknowns.

“What about Romulus though? Could he be there too?” They were on the right track—Bridger could feel it, and by the way Vega looked down at her wrist, she felt it too.

“I mean, he bound all the gods together, essentially cursing them to die with him… We know that, but did he sentence his brother to something different? Could he have sentenced him to something different?” She sighed as she asked another question.

“Have you ever found anything about his curse? In all your years of research, there has to be something.” Marlena hadn’t found anything—that much Bridger knew or they’d probably all be dead by now.