'Talking it is, then,' he said, and as he'd done the last time he'd needed to soften her, he meshed his lips into hers.
CHAPTER TWELVE
SCARLET STARTED to utter a protest. She'd already kissed Gideon once, and now had his intoxicating taste seared into her mouth, her body, after centuries of fighting to remove it. Centuries of fighting to forget his weight, his heat, his strength. She didn't need to do so again, didn't need another reminder. Didn't need the cravings to return.
Not that they'd ever stopped.
She thought to push him away. He was weakened right now, and wouldn't be able to stop her when she scrambled off the bed and out of the bedroom. He wouldn't be able to draw her back into his arms, hold her close, overshadowing pain with pleasure.
But then his tongue rolled against hers, so damn sweet she could have wept. Then he whispered 'Scar' as if the nickname were a prayer, and rather than protest, rather than push him, she cupped the back of his neck with one hand and tangled her fingers into his hair with the other, canting his head.
The kiss deepened, from languid to shattering in a single second. A match lit, thrown. An inferno. Raging. Thoughts derailing. Nothing mattered but here, now. The man, the passion. The past fading.
Thoughts struggling to form.
What are you doing?
Mouths claiming. Feasting. Breath mingling. Warm, then hot, then scorching. Tearing her down. Building her back up.
A glimmer of reason.
Don't just start to protest. Do it! Protest. Don't just think to push him away. Do it! Push.
Fire, cooling. Ice, crystallizing. Yes, yes. That's what she needed to do. Protest, push. She wouldn't lose herself again. She was smarter than that.
Prove it.
Scarlet wrenched her lips from his. Panting, she said, 'You want to talk, we'll talk.' Her body shrieked a protest all its own. Still, she continued. 'I'm the daughter of Rhea, and I was born inside Tartarus. For thousands of years, it was all I ever knew.' The words rushed from her, laced with desperation. Surely this topic would douse her passion completely.
Gideon stilled. There was disappointment in his bright eyes, but also thrums of eagerness. Finally, he was getting what he'd really wanted. Information. 'Don't go on.' He didn't move off her, though, and she foolishly didn't insist that he do so. 'I don't want to know everything about you.'
How easy she was. Another declaration like that, and she might kiss him. 'At first, Rhea loved me, cared for me. But then, as I grew older, she began to see me as a threat. She wanted me dead. Real bad.'
This topic should have dulled her passion, but it didn't.
Every muscle in Gideon's body tensed. And not in desire.
Great. The distraction ploy had worked. Only, it had worked on the wrong person.
'When we were freed, the Greeks defeated, I tried to follow her to this palace. I hoped to make amends with her, make use of the libraries.' To search for information about Gideon, but Scarlet kept that to herself. 'She had me barred from entering.' Bitterness trickled from her voice, but again, it didn't dull her passion in the slightest. He was on top of her, and all she had to do was open her legs. 'She told me I wasn't worthy to walk the halls.'
His eyes narrowed dangerously. 'How'd you get her to keep you out this time?'
Knowing what he meant—how had she gotten her mother to let her in—Scarlet said, 'I bargained with her.' Would he be pissed about that? 'I have to stop you from giving Cronus whatever it is you promised him. What did you promise, by the way?'
No. No anger. Surprising. 'We didn't agree to discuss it at a later date,' he said.
Ah. The old you'll-owe-me-a-favor-of-my-choosing-at-the-time-of-my-choosing. 'You lied to him, of course.' It was a statement, not a question.
Gideon hiked his shoulders.
She'd take that as a resounding yes, and wished she could trust herself to flatten her hands on those wide shoulders, feel the muscles bunching and straining underneath. 'So there you have it. What you didn't know about my life in a dirty nutshell.'
He peered down at her for a long while, silent, searching. So many emotions played over his features. Regret, sorrow and the anger she'd looked for before. 'I'm...not sorry for all you've endured. I'm...not sorry for my part in it. Damn it!' The anger clearly won, and he pounded the mattress with his fists, bouncing them both. 'I really love that I can't tell you what I really mean without setting us back a few days.'
His apology weakened her as nothing else could have. His vehemence delighted her. Combined? They slayed her. 'Hey, don't worry about it,' she offered, at last giving in to the desire to touch. Her fingers traced up his arms, learning every ridge of muscle and sinew. 'Gideon Speak is kinda fun.'
Like that, the anger drained from him, wonder overshadowing everything else. 'You aren't too good for me. In every way. No, thank you, devil. For everything.'
He thought she was too good for him? Slayed. Her. 'No welcome,' she replied softly.
He licked his lips as his gaze fell to hers, and suddenly she knew his passion hadn't been extinguished, after all. 'I—I—'
'Want to kiss me?'
He nodded. 'I'm not dying to do so.'
Don't admit it, don't you dare admit it. 'Me, too.'
One more time, she thought dazedly. She would enjoy him one more time. Sex, though? No, she wouldn't go that far. But kiss him, continue touching him? Oh, yes. She needed to pass the time, anyway. At least, that's the only reason she would cop to just then. Besides, it wasn't like she truly would have left him here, helpless against any god or goddess who entered the room. For the moment, he was still her husband and she would protect him.
'If we do this, the shadows and the screams will return,' she warned. 'I won't be able to stop them. They're part of me, part of my demon.'
'I dislike anything that's a part of you. I don't want to experience everything you have to offer.'
Melting... 'Then kiss me,' she commanded. Then his sweet words would cease, and she could begin to rebuild the ice. That needed ice.
Gideon needed no other encouragement. His lips were on hers a second later, kissing her as if he needed the air in her lungs to survive. He moaned as if he'd never tasted anything more delicious. Kneaded her breasts as if nothing, even weakness, could prevent him from enjoying them.
Once again, her blood heated in her veins, a growing inferno that liquefied her bones. Her nipples hardened, ever-ready for his mouth, and her skin tingled, a plea for more.
'Want you clothed,' he rasped.
Only time she ever had to translate his demon's lies was when they were in bed, her mind on other things, so it took her passion-fogged brain a moment to realize that Gideon actually wanted her naked.
Sex? she thought again. If she got naked, he would be inside her. She might even beg for it. Beg...yes... Hopefully, though, she had a little too much pride for that. 'No,' she managed.
He paused, lifted his head. Their gazes met, his eyes so bright a blue they rivaled a king's ransom in sapphires. He licked his already moist lips, breathing careful. 'How about we don't negotiate?' His voice was rough, as if each of the words had been rubbed with sandpaper.
Negotiate, huh? 'All right.' Never let it be said that she was unreasonable. 'Shoot.'
'All rather than half.'
Reality: he was willing to remove half her clothing rather than all. A concession, yes, when he could have insisted on full nudity. Eventually, she would have caved. 'And in return I get...?'
'Definitely not an orgasm.'
