"This is what I wanted to show you - to share with you - the bond of soul mates. Once you have seen it, it is something that you wil remember always. It may even change you. It has surely changed me."
Gently, Hades bent to her. First he kissed the closed lid of each of her eyes, then he placed his lips over hers. The kiss began as sweet and hesitant, but when Lina's arms slid up around his shoulders and she opened her lips to accept him, Hades automatical y deepened the kiss. She was there, a reality in his arms. This time he did not have to imagine that he touched and tasted her. His desire for her, which had not truly been sated, surged through his blood. With a moan of pleasure, he met her tongue with his own. She was soft and she tasted of ambrosia and heat. His hands slipped inside the covering cape and found her waist. Hades caressed the curve of her hip, fol owing the path his fantasy had taken. He buried one hand in the silk of her hair and he felt her breath quicken as his other hand roamed up and down the length of her thigh. The silky slip of a nightdress offered little barrier. She shifted in his lap, so that the hard flesh of his erection pressed firmly against the curve of her buttocks.
The sound deep in his throat was low and feral. How had he lived so long without her? He desired her with a fire that was burning him alive.
His hand traveled back to the luscious curve of her waist and continued up. He could feel the round ful ness of the side of her breast, and in his mind he again saw the puckered nipples glistening wet with water and oil. His fingertips found the hard bud and he rol ed it gently through the thin silk.
Persephone made a choked gasping noise against his mouth.
The sound penetrated the red haze of lust that fogged his brain and he wrenched himself back from her. His cape had been pushed aside and Persephone's body lay across him, trembling and exposed. Her hair was disheveled and her lips were red and swol en. By al the gods, what was wrong with him! Had he lost total control of himself? He hadn't wanted it to happen like this, even a cal ow fool knew better than to maul a goddess in the middle of a forest. Uttering a curse he stood, lifting her abruptly to her feet. She had dried pine needles and smudges of dirt on her nightdress and she looked achingly young and al uring as she gazed up at him, a confused smile tilting her sensuous lips.
Hades was fil ed with shame. He stil wanted to press her to the ground and take her right there. He brushed frantical y at the pine needles that clung to her robe, muttering nearly incoherent apologies.
The force of the God's passion stirred a desire in Lina so intense, so fierce, that it was a little frightening. But as she watched the lust that drained from Hades' face being replaced by an expression that could have been either anger or embarrassment, she brought her breathing under control and commanded her mind to function again. She'd never had a god for a lover, but she was certainly no virgin, and she shouldn't be reacting like one.
"I did not mean to bring you here to... to..." He shook his head miserably and continued to wipe at her dress. "To rut you like a beast."
He wasn't angry, she realized with relief. He was mortified. Lina grabbed his hand and tugged on it until he met her eyes. "Hades, stop. I'm fine. What is this al about?"
"A goddess deserves more than a tussle on the bare ground." Her smile was slow and sensuous. "I can't speak for other goddesses, but I was enjoying that tussle." She slid her hands up to rest against his leather breastplate. She could stil feel the furnace-like heat radiating from him. "And I wasn't sitting on the bare ground. I was sitting on your lap."
Hades expel ed his breath in an audible sigh. The haunted expression in his eyes made him look decades older. Gently, he touched the side of her face. His voice was thick with restrained emotions. "Truly, I did not bring you here to seduce you, but I find that I cannot keep my thoughts away from you... nor my hands. I desire you above al things, Persephone, may the gods help me," he finished in a rush.
"Then may the gods help both of us, Hades," Lina said. And when his lips met hers she refused to think of Demeter and tomorrows.
Hades broke the kiss gently, while he was stil able to control himself. She was so soft and so open to him. That she desired him was obvious, but Hades wanted more than to possess her body. He wanted her soul. With a gesture that was incredibly tender, he straightened his cloak around her shoulders and wrapped her arm through his.
"The night grows cold. We should return to the palace." He brushed a long lock of hair from her face, noting the disappointment that flashed through her eyes. Good, he thought. He wanted her to desire him and yearn for him, until it was more than his body that she craved. He led her back to the path that would take them to the palace. Lina's thoughts were spinning. Her body stil felt overheated, and her heightened physical sensitivity somehow merged with the incredible beauty of the scene she had witnessed between the soul mates. The poignancy of the lovers' devotion stayed with her. Under her hand she could feel the pulse of Hades' blood, which was steady and strong. He had brought her there to witness the rebirth of the soul mates, but he hadn't used it as a seduction device - if that had been his intention, he could have taken her right there on the ground. But he hadn't. Hades obviously wanted more from her than sex. Her soul quickened even as alarm bel s rang within her mind. Love - he had shown her his idea of love. Hadn't he already said that he believed mortals understood love better than the gods? Did the gods have soul mates? She had no idea. Al she knew about the immortals was what she had inattentively read decades ago. What she did remember was that the ancient gods were fickle, that they discarded lovers at their whim. That didn't fit with what she was learning about the God who walked by her side.
She glanced up at his dark profile. Who would ever believe that she had found such desire and romance in the Land of the Dead? As if he felt her gaze he looked down at her. Hades' lips twitched and then curved up.
"You look as if you have many questions playing through your mind. You know I have already given you leave to ask me anything, and I promise you that this time I wil remember my manners and not insult you as my guest."
Lina felt herself blush and she hoped that the dreamy darkness hid her suddenly pink cheeks. She had completely forgotten about snapping at him and his instant withdrawal from her. It seemed like it had happened an age ago, and that they had been two total y different people then. She leaned into him, loving the strong feel of his arm and the way he bent attentively over her.
"It was a magical thing we watched tonight," she said.
"Yes, it was the most perfect type of magic - that which is created natural y by the soul and not contrived by the gods."
"The gods don't bring soul mates together?"
Hades snorted. "No. Mortal souls find their own match; they do not require the meddling hands of the gods."
His words brought another question to her mind.
"Can the dead fal in love?" she asked, thinking of the shy looks Eurydice had begun giving Iapis.
"Or is it only soul mates that have the ability to love after death?"
"You can answer that question yourself, Persephone."
Lina glanced sharply up at him, but his tone was instructional and not patronizing.
"Think, Goddess. What is it that loves? The body or the soul?" He prodded.
"If you're asking about real love, and not just lust or infatuation, I'd have to say the soul." Hades nodded. "The body is just a mantle, a temporary covering for our true visage."
"So that means that the souls that exist in Elysia, or even in your palace, can fal in love?"
"Any of the unnumbered dead who are capable of it may find new love." Hades frowned. "But you should know that not al souls are capable of that emotion."
"Are you talking about mortal souls, or do you mean the souls of the gods?" Hades stopped walking and turned to face her. They were standing very close and her hand stil rested on his arm. The God hesitated before answering her. Then his fingers brushed her cheek in a familiar caress.
"I cannot speak for the other gods, only for myself. My soul longs for its eternal mate." He bent and brushed his lips against hers. He gestured to the space behind her. "It seems we are back where we began."
Lina looked over her shoulder and blinked in surprise.
They had stopped at the mouth of the little path that led to her balcony. Without speaking, Hades cupped her face in his hands in such a gentle gesture that Lina expected the kiss to be sweet and brief. When his lips met hers she realized that she had been very mistaken. The God took his time tasting her, splaying his fingers into the thickness of her hair until he was caressing the sensitive nape of her neck. Lina ran her hands up his arms, thril ed anew by their muscular strength. He nibbled at her bottom lip before ending the kiss. Stil holding her he spoke against her mouth, "Wil you ride with me tomorrow?" His voice was husky with desire. Heart fluttering, Lina nodded.
"Yes."
"Until tomorrow then." He released her reluctantly, brushing a strand of hair from her face. Then he bowed to her, turned and strode away.
Lina climbed the steps to her balcony and entered her room on shaky legs. As she sagged onto the bed she caught a reflection of herself in the mirror situated over the vanity across the room. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair looked wild. Hades' cape had fal en down around her waist and her sheer nightdress was smudged, a couple of pine needles clung to the side of her hem. And even from across the room she could see the clear outline of her aroused nipples.
" Misericordioso madre di Dio!" she said, using her Grandmother's most potent exclamation.
"You're forty-three years old," she told her reflection. "And you haven't felt like this since... since..." She shook her head at her strange, youthful image. "Since never. No man has ever made you feel like he does. And he wants eternal love." She squeezed her eyes shut. "Oh, Demeter. What am I going to do?"