Swept Away (The Krinar Chronicles 0.40)
When he finally rolled off her limp body, spent and sated, the sky above their shelter was dark and clear. He could see the stars, and he knew the storm had passed.
It was safe to let her go now, except he didn’t want to.
Arus wanted to keep Delia for the rest of his life.
Chapter Seven
Delia woke up gradually, the images from her dream lingering in her mind as she slowly returned to consciousness. Her eyes still closed, she smiled, thinking how she’d never had such a sublime dream before. Even now, her sex throbbed pleasantly from the memory of the god’s possession—of his powerful body driving into her as she lost herself in the heated rapture of his embrace.
There had been pain too, she recalled, but it had been over with quickly. She’d felt torn in half when Arus had first entered her, but then he had done something—touched her neck in a way that had initially stung—and the pain had dissolved, replaced by unimaginable ecstasy.
By a sexual pleasure so intense just the thought of it made her insides clench.
Still smiling, Delia rolled over, reluctant to wake up fully. It was incredible how vivid her dream had been. The storm, the bubble-like shelter made of transparent walls, even the god’s unusual name—she’d never been able to remember so many details from her other dreams.
This dream had felt real. So real, in fact, that she could still smell the clean male scent of Arus’s skin and feel his hand stroking her hair.
Wait a minute. There was a hand stroking her hair.
Delia bolted upright, her eyes flying open, and she saw him: the god she’d just been dreaming about.
Except it hadn’t been a dream—it couldn’t have been, because she wasn’t in her family’s ramshackle hut.
She was on a strange bed in a room with ivory walls, and she was naked in front of Arus, who was sitting next to her dressed in an odd-looking white outfit.
Gasping, Delia grabbed for the nearest piece of cloth—a sheet that felt incredibly soft as she wrapped it around herself. Her heart racing, she jumped off the bed and gaped at the god, who was regarding her with an unreadable expression on his beautiful face.
“Where am I?” Delia’s voice shook as she cast a frantic glance around the room. “What is this place?”
Everything around her was ivory-colored, and there were no windows or doors. And the bed— No, surely her eyes were deceiving her.
The bed, which was just a flat white board, was floating in mid-air.
“You’re on my ship,” Arus said, getting off the board to walk toward her. His dark eyes gleamed as he stopped in front of her, causing her to crane her neck to look up at him. “I brought you here so I could make sure you weren’t sore after last night.”
Delia must’ve looked as uncomprehending as she felt, because he explained, “We have healing technology here.”
“Oh.” Overwhelmed, Delia stared up at him. Now that he’d pointed it out, she realized there wasn’t even the slightest soreness between her legs. Details from last night continued to return to her, and she remembered how painful the initial breaching of her maidenhead had been—and how he’d kept thrusting into her afterwards for what must’ve been hours.
By all rights, she should’ve been very sore.
“You healed me?”
“I did.” Raising his hand, Arus cupped her jaw with his large palm, his thumb stroking gently over her cheek. “I didn’t want you to be in pain.”
“Oh.” Delia exhaled, everything inside her reacting to that warm, comforting touch. She didn’t know what to do, how to respond to his peculiar kindness, so finally she just said, “Thank you.”
Arus’s chiseled lips curved in a smile. “You’re welcome, darling. Now, are you hungry?”
Delia’s stomach chose that moment to rumble, and he laughed. “Sounds like you are.”
* * *
He fed her food that tasted like ambrosia—a mixture of some unfamiliar fruits, vegetables, and nuts, with a sauce that made Delia’s taste buds weep with pleasure. He got the food directly from one of the walls. It had parted at his command, delivering the bounty they were feasting on while sitting at a floating table—which had also come out of a wall.
“What kind of ship is this?” Delia asked when she was full. She didn’t understand Arus’s magic, but it didn’t terrify her quite as much anymore. It was clear to her that he didn’t intend her any harm—and that he had to have come from Mount Olympus, despite his earlier protestations.
“It’s a ship that carries us between distant worlds,” Arus said, and his answer solidified her conviction. “The stars you see are not just little lights in the sky; they’re suns, like the one giving Earth heat and light. Those suns have planets like Earth orbiting around them, and I come from one of those planets.” He paused, waiting for her questions, but Delia had no idea where to begin.