Sentinel

me off or with his hand playing in my hair. I wasn’t sure how comfortable it was for Aiden, considering I was sprawled half on top of him, but when I woke in the morning, neither of us had moved. I was still on my side, one leg thrown over his and my cheek on his chest.

Pleasant pressure built inside me. I wanted a million mornings of waking up like this. I was going to have those mornings. I stayed there for a little while, feeling and listening to Aiden breathe. My mind started to wander over so many things—Seth, my father, my friends, the state of things for half-bloods, the future if we defeated Ares, and what would happen if we failed. By the time I got tired of where my mind had gone, half his body had to be numb. I started to push off.

Aiden’s other arm swung around with startling quickness, and his hand landed just above my knee. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked, voice gruff from sleep and from…from something else.

A flutter started in my stomach as I raised my head to look down at him. His dark waves were going in every direction. His eyes were heavy-hooded, and his lashes were thick. The slight stubble on his jaw pushed over the edge into dangerous territory. Only Aiden could look so sexily sleep-ruffled. “Nowhere?”

“Sounds about right.” One hand curled around the edges of my hair while the other crept up my thigh, causing me to shiver. “How long have you been awake?”

“Not long.” My gaze dropped to his mouth. Those lips were perfect.

He made a deep sound in his chest, and that flutter picked up in my stomach. “What time is it?”

“No clue.” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his lips. “But I think we might’ve slept in.”

“Maybe.” The hand slipped up to my neck, and he guided my mouth to his. There was a quick flash of concern over brushing my teeth and kicking morning breath, but that worry went out the window the moment our lips touched.

The kiss was slow, lazy, and never-ending. It felt like forever since he’d kissed me like that when, in reality, it had really only been a handful of hours, but I lost myself in that kiss, in Aiden. And kissing him now was nothing like it had been those hours before. I felt the pressure, the intense sweetness, and the love behind every stroke of his tongue and sweep of his lips, to my very soul. The hand in my hair tightened while the other traveled north, up my thigh, and then over the curve of my hip.

Aiden’s hand stilled and then swept back down, causing me to suck in a sharp breath. He pulled his mouth away from mine and opened his eyes. They were a pure, heated silver. “You’re not wearing anything under this shirt, are you? Like, at all?”

I giggled. “I think you know the answer to that.” He had to, especially considering where his hand drifted to in that moment. I wasn’t giggling anymore. I was barely breathing.

He made that sound again, that absolutely sexy male sound that rumbled through him and then me. “You’re killing me, agapi mou.”

“I’m sure that’s not what I’m doing to you.”

Aiden moved lightning fast. He rolled me onto my back and was above me, on me, pressing his leg between mine. His lips found mine like they’d been born to do so. This kiss was different. Hungry. Starving. My hands slid up the hard sides of his stomach and then onto his back. Those sculptured muscles flexed under my hands as the kiss deepened until my senses were spinning.

There was probably a lot to do today.

Some would also say there were a lot more important things we could be doing at this very moment.

I would argue against that point voraciously, because there was nothing more important than this. Not when those wonderfully rough hands skimmed under the borrowed shirt. His hips rocked against mine, and a fire raced throughout my blood. I wrapped my fingers around the band of his pajama bottoms.

“Agapi mou, I’ve missed you.” His lips moved across my jaw and trailed a heated, shivery path down my throat, and then back to my lips. “I need you.”

My heart stuttered. “Yes.”

Who knows what I was really saying yes to? Anything at that point. Karate chop a few daimons while I was naked? Sure. Do trig formulas for fun? Okay. As long as he kept kissing me, kept calling me agapi mou, and kept touching me, I’d say yes to a lot of things. Too bad we weren’t doing this while I was still in school. I could’ve used his kisses as an amazing studying incentive.

His hand hooked around my hip, urging me to wrap my leg around his, and I stopped thinking. If only I got these damn pants off—

A sudden pop and crackle preceded the overwhelming and very unwelcome presence of a god. Aiden’s lips stilled against mine. My eyes popped up, latching onto his quicksilver ones. No way. I refused to believe it. No freaking way.

“Hades will be here in twenty minutes,” Apollo announced from somewhere way too close to the bed. “Either speed this up or pick it up later, kids.”

“Oh my gods,” I whispered, horrified.

“Oh, and I hope you two are being responsible,” Apollo added.

And then he was gone. There was a muffled, hoarse shout from a room nearby.

“Damn him,” Aiden muttered, dropping his head onto my shoulder. He shuddered. “Damn him to the Underworld and back again.”

My cheeks burned. “A bell—the first chance we get, we are buying him a bell.”

CHAPTER 12

A god popping in and out of your bedroom was, unsurprisingly, a major mood killer.

After Apollo vanished, neither of us was willing to risk him coming back with a ten-minute warning. Aiden had offered to speed up the get-ready-together process by sharing a shower.

From the bed, I raised my brows. “I don’t think that would be a quick shower.”

“You’re right.” He backed toward the bathroom door, his pajama bottoms hanging too low on his hips to be legal. “Can’t blame me for trying.”

He disappeared, and I flopped onto my back, groaning. I was going to ninja-kick Apollo in the face when I saw him.

Today, I didn’t put jeans on. I wore my Sentinel uniform.

My hair was still damp when we headed to the dean’s office. I don’t know why we had to keep meeting in there. It wasn’t so much because of what Ares had done in that room but because there were a lot of stairs to climb.

A lot.

The whole crew waited inside the office, and I knew Apollo was in there with Hades. I ran my hand over my arm, watching the marks glide seamlessly across my skin.

“Itchy?” Aiden asked.

I shrugged a shoulder. “The marks always go crazy when there are gods nearby.”

As we walked toward the dean’s office, he reached over, trailing his fingers along my arms. “Do they still react when I touch you?”

Heat crawled through my veins, and I nodded. The marks had followed the path of his touch. “Yeah, they still like you.”

One side of his lips curled up, and a look of male pride crossed his face. I shook my head. Boys.

We entered the office, and all the godly power in the room, plus Seth’s presence, was a bit overwhelming at first. I clenched my hands into fists to keep myself from bouncing off the walls or monkey-climbing Seth.

The two gods stood a good head taller than everyone else. They were shoulder to shoulder, but they couldn’t have been more opposite of one another. Where Apollo was all golden skin and sunlight, Hades was dark as night.

Aiden sent Seth a downright frightening glare as he strolled toward the people clustered around the two gods. At least he didn’t punch Seth, so that was a start in the right direction.

I guessed.