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Delia’s breath hitched at the intensity of his gaze. “Because you’re a god?” Despite her certainty, her words came out as a question, and she silently berated herself for sounding foolish. “I mean, because you’re a god and deserve to be respected,” she said in a firmer tone.
There, that was better. Surely he would accept one goat. Her family couldn’t spare more—even one would leave them without enough cheese for trading.
To her surprise, the stranger laughed, the sound deep and genuinely amused. “A god?” His dark eyes gleamed as another bolt of lightning split the sky above them. “You think I’m a god?”
Delia blinked the rain out of her eyes. “Are you saying you’re not?”
He laughed again, the sound blending with a boom of thunder, and she felt his pace accelerate from a walk to a run. He was moving so fast the ground looked like a blur under his feet. Delia began to feel nauseated but didn’t dare close her eyes.
She had to see where he was taking her.
After a few minutes, she realized he was heading for the hills to the east of her village. There was a forest there. Maybe he hoped to find shelter under the trees? She knew trees were dangerous during lightning storms, but maybe they weren’t dangerous for him.
Maybe he was as impervious to Zeus’s fury as he was to the waves in the sea.
What did he intend with her? Delia’s stomach churned, and she knew it was as much from her anxiety as her captor’s running speed. The god had said she would be warm and safe, but he was taking her away from her village—away from her family and people who could help her. Delia’s sisters had to be worried already. Eugenia, the oldest, had noticed the darkening sky this morning and told her not to go searching for mussels, but Delia had been determined to gather extra food for their dinner tonight. With five daughters to feed, her family was always struggling, and Delia tried to help as much as she could.
Well, as much as she could without marrying the blacksmith, who’d begun courting her after his wife’s death last month.
“You should accept Phanias,” Delia’s mother had told her two weeks ago. “I know you don’t like the man, but he’s a good provider.”
He was also old, fat, and had beaten his last wife, but Delia hadn’t bothered pointing that out. Her mother didn’t care about such minor things. Her only concern was having enough food on the table, and she believed that Delia—the prettiest of her grown daughters—was the key to achieving that goal. Delia had been trying to delay the inevitable, but she knew it was only a matter of time before her father gave in to her mother’s urgings and made Delia accept Phanias’s offer.
“Here we are,” the god said, startling her out of her thoughts, and Delia saw that they were already at the forest. Stopping under a thick tree, he lowered her to her feet. “We should be far enough from the storm surge now.”
He was still holding her, his large hands gripping her waist, and Delia’s breathing turned uneven as she tilted her head back to meet his dark gaze. She was one of the tallest women in her village, but the stranger was much taller. With both of them standing, the top of her head only came up to his chin, and his naked body was powerfully muscled.
To her amazement, Delia realized fear wasn’t the only thing she was feeling. There was a strange melting sensation in her core, a pooling of heat that made her pulse throb and her insides ache in an odd way.
“Why did you bring me here?” She tried to keep her voice steady as she pushed at his chest again. His flesh was hard under her fingers, his skin smooth and warm to the touch. Even through her soaked dress, she could feel the heat of his palms where he gripped her, and the unfamiliar ache within her intensified. “What do you want from me?”
To her relief, the god released her and stepped back. “Right now, I want us both to get dry and warm.” His voice sounded strained, as if he were in pain. Before Delia could wonder about that, her gaze landed on his lower body, and her breath stuttered in shock.
The stranger was fully aroused, his erection hard and massive as it curved up toward his flat, ridged stomach.
Gasping, Delia took a step back, but he was already turning away from her. Extending one powerful arm in front of him, he said something in a foreign language, and she saw that he was wearing a silvery band around his wrist. She opened her mouth to ask him about that, but before she could utter a word, she heard a low humming noise—almost like a buzzing of a thousand tiny insects.
Startled, Delia looked up at the tree, but the buzzing wasn’t coming from there. The sound was emanating from somewhere in front of the stranger.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said, turning to face her again, and her eyes widened as she saw the air behind him begin to shimmer. The shimmer intensified, brightening with each second, and then she saw a transparent bubble rising behind him—a structure that looked like a mushroom cap made out of water.
“It’s a tool I have, not magic,” he said, watching her, but Delia knew he had to be lying. Her knees began to shake, and she backed away instinctively, afraid the bubble would swallow her as it grew. The wet bark of the tree pressed against her back, stopping her, and she turned to run, determined to get away from the god with such frightening powers.
Before she could take more than two steps, his steely fingers closed around her arm, turning her around. “Don’t be afraid,” he repeated, holding her, and she saw that the bubble behind him was no longer moving. It was now taller than him and wide enough to fit five people.
“W-what is that?” Her teeth chattered, and she had n
o idea if it was from shock or the cold rain and wind. “H-how did you—”
“Shh, it’s all right. Let’s go inside and get you warm.” Wrapping one muscular arm around her shoulders, he pulled her against his side and shepherded her toward the magical structure. “It won’t hurt you.”
Delia tried to dig in her heels, but it was futile. She could no more resist his strength than she could fight a rip current. Within a moment, he had her standing in front of the water-like wall—a part of which disintegrated as they approached, creating a sizable opening.
Delia froze with pure terror, but he was already leading her through the opening. As soon as they stepped inside, she realized there was no more rain or wind.
They were shielded by the bubble the god had created.
Chapter Four
