Sage crossed her arms. "You're dense sometimes, you know that? She wanted you. Tried to make me agree to give you to her like you're a piece of property in exchange for helping us get around...this." She gestured in the direction of his dick, lifeless as ever.
He expected jealousy, not wanting him to move on. He didn't expect this. Did Aphrodite seriously think he would be stupid enough to want her again after how she'd left him to fend for himself in the most frightening moment of his life? "Oh."
"'Oh?'" Sage's eyebrows raised into her hairline. "All you have to say is 'Oh?'" She marched toward him, shoulders tense as she poked a finger against his chest. "I was yanked from my bed and sexually harassed by a goddess. She wanted me to trade you to her by implying she could help me out so she could have you." She jabbed him hard on that final word and he swiped her hand away.
Adonis barely heard what she said after being derailed by two words. "She sexually harassed you?" What the hell had Aphrodite done? If she had hurt Sage in any way—
"Whoa, calm down." Some of her own anger dissipated as she stepped between him and the door. "Nothing big. Just wanted to show me she could trick my body, and I am assuming yours as well. She touched me and made me like it." She shuddered. "Then the bitch left me naked for a couple of drunk idiots to jeer at."
Sadly, it didn't surprise him. "That's more than mere harassment, Sage." What would have happened if she had taken the bait? Thank the gods she hadn't. His heart swelled. She so easily could have fallen for Aphrodite's bullshit the way he had, and even now could be setting him up as the lamb for the slaughter for that goddess' amusement. "Sage," he started, softening his tone, wanting to tell her how proud he was of her for being stronger than he was against Aphrodite, but she cut him off.
"And then you come up here to see me because you thought I left?" She shook her head. "To think I believed you might have actually cared."
Irritation snapped his handle of control. He slammed a hand on the top of a dresser, the sting of it small compared to the thwack that reverberated through the room. "I do care, damn it. I came up here because the moment the lust overcame all sensible reason, the only person I wanted to fuck was you. And what's more, Aphrodite wouldn't have bothered you if sex was the only thing on my mind."
Sage's mouth dropped open, and if he wasn't mistaken, her nipples hardened. "You…what?"
"You heard me." He stalked forward, herding her toward the bed. "The bitch is jealous of you, but she made a big mistake. Because, by removing you from the inn, all I could think about was folding you over the first surface I could find and having my way with you. No one else. Just you."
"Wanting to have sex with me isn't exactly caring." She pouted.
Wasn't that exactly what she'd wanted from him? No, Aphrodite had offered her that. She hadn't accepted. Why were women so fucking difficult to understand? "It is when it overrides caring that, not only were there two women in the rooms next to and across from me, but all over the city." He inched closer. "The curse doesn't give us a choice when we get to that point."
Sage's legs hit the back of the mattress and she couldn't go any farther. A compelling flush alighted along her collar bones. "You would have tried even if it ruined your chance at breaking the curse?"
"I didn't care about that. Only this." He reached out and wrapped one hand around the back of her neck, the other he placed on her waist. Dragging her against his body, he leaned down and kissed her. Sage melted into it, running her hands through his hair. Her tongue slipped into his mouth as though she was famished and needed to consume him to survive. The fires that should have erupted in his blood were absent, and that frustration grated. A need did remain, however. The need to keep this woman in his life and not for the sole reason of holding his curse at bay.
"Adonis," she whispered. "I thought you didn't want me."
"Just because I'm frustrated doesn't mean I don't want you." He pushed her backward onto the mattress. She bounced when she landed, and his gaze homed in on her breasts. Gods, he wished he could feel desire when he was with her. It felt as though part of him was missing. That didn't mean they couldn't be intimate, and perhaps it was a blessing since he couldn't get carried away and lose his chance at being human again.
As he pulled her hips to the end of the bed, he crouched down on the floor and spread her thighs wide. He licked his lips at the beautiful sight awaiting him, and then he flicked his gaze up to her face. Her purple hair cascaded over her shoulders, over her heaving chest as she breathed fast and erratic in anticipation.
"Do you want this?" he asked, knowing by the increasing moisture at the junction of her thighs that she did. By the slightly crazed look in her eyes, the parting of her lips, the way she gripped the sheets at her sides. A shiver coursed through her body, and she bit her lip in anticipation.
"Yes." The huskiness of her voice made him grin.
That's all the confirmation Adonis needed as he slid his hands around her thighs to drag her against his face. Sage shuddered as he kissed the warm flesh on either thigh before taking his time to slowly lick and kiss at her center, making her moan. When was the last time he'd performed this act and did it
