My Spartan Hellion (25 page)

Lamia stopped in mid-thrust, her sword high above her head.

“Thanos!” she exclaimed breathlessly.

He glanced in her direction but did not address her. As furious as he was, he was afraid of what he would say. Besides, he would see to her shortly, right after he dealt with the larger matter…

Turning towards Adonis, he raised his fist high, crashing it into Adonis’ jaw before the boy had the chance to react. The young man stumbled back, but, much to his annoyance, did not fall.

Adonis’ blue eyes darkened with anger as he readied himself to charge Thanos.

“Adonis. No,” shouted Lamia and she grasped Thanos’ arm, her eyes pleading. “Thanos, please do not do this.”

Shrugging her off, he gently nudged her aside.

Unsheathing his sword, he pointed it at the younger man. “How dare you raise your sword to my wife? She could have been hurt.”

“Hurt?” Adonis laughed dryly. “The only way I could have hurt her was if she’d been blindfolded and tied up. Lamia and I were simply enjoying a friendly sparring match—”

Friendly?
There was nothing
friendly
about the way the boy looked at his wife whenever he was around, which seemed to be quite often of late. His eyes turned cold. “Stay away from my wife—”

“Oh, so Lamia is your wife now? How convenient for you all of a sudden. One dawn she is your wife, the next dawn you don’t even acknowledge her presence. Maybe on the morrow she shall be your wife again, but who knows? You may decide to ignore her agai—”

“Enough, Adonis,” Lamia warned, but her warning came too late.

“How dare you!” Thanos thundered, rage scorching hot and violent through his veins. He advanced towards Adonis but was forced to halt his steps when Lamia blocked his path. Throwing herself between Thanos and the young
hoplite
, she braced her hands against Thanos’ chest.

“Thanos, he is just a boy. He is brash and hot-headed. Do not do something you will later regret. It is not worth it,” she said quietly.

“Move, Lamia,” he gritted out, his eyes never leaving Adonis.

“No, Thanos.”

“Move, Lamia.
Now!
” he shouted.

When she still refused to budge, he grasped her by the waist, picked her up and set her aside.

Before either Lamia or Adonis could react, he rounded on Adonis and smashed his fist into the boy’s face again, much harder than before. This time Adonis crumpled to the ground in a heap.

“
Thanos!
” Lamia cried and she tried to run towards the fallen Adonis but Thanos wrapped his arm around her waist, halting her mid-stride. Lifting her up, he slung her over his shoulder and held her firmly against him with his hand splayed across her backside.

He turned to face the nearby
hoplites
and nodded towards Adonis’ unconscious body.

“Get your soldier,” he said before he stalked off, still holding a wildly struggling, fuming Lamia.

As Thanos stalked away from the
gymnasium
, the crowd erupted with a flurry—clapping and cheering wildly. They had enjoyed the show.

Thanos barely heard any of it as blood pounded in his ears, his entire body coiled tight with barely leashed fury.

Lamia beat wildly against Thanos’ back as she was carried unceremoniously into their home. He’d even held her over his shoulder as he rode atop Zeus, which had been the ultimate humiliation. Curious and sympathetic eyes followed her while she’d flopped like a limp doll against him.
Help me,
she’d wanted to say. She had never been so mortified in her entire life.

Once they were safely ensconced in their bedchamber, Thanos finally lowered her feet to the floor and released her.

Face to face, their angry gazes clashed.

“How could you!” they shouted simultaneously.

Lamia’s eyes rounded. “How could I? Adonis and I were simply sparring, nothing more. But you have to charge in there, beat him up and then drag me off like I am a disobedient child. You are nothing but a bully, Thanos.”

“You should be grateful all I did was knock your boy lover out. I should have killed him. How could you take that philanderer to your bed? He has fucked everyone in this cit—”

She drew back sharply. “Adonis is not my lover. He is my
friend,
Thanos. Nothing more.”

“Then why did he feel at liberty to say such things about what goes on between us in the privacy of our home? How does he even know we have had our differences if you did not tell him?”

“Everyone knows that you have cast me aside, Thanos. That you have rejected me for a prostitute,” she said bitterly, hating the slight catch in her voice as she fought against the painful ache now engulfing her heart.

“What are you talking about? I have not cast you aside for any woman and certainly not a prostitute.”

She was incredulous at the blatant lie he now told as she folded her arms across her chest. “Just last eve Basha had to pay a prostitute the coins you
promised
her before we could drag your drunken self home. Do you not remember that?”

“I do not remember much from last eve,” Thanos admitted with a frown. “But I am certain I did not even have my purse upon me, and I never would have promised coins to another without it. I believe this prostitute you speak of has cheated you out of your
drachma
.”

She considered his words as she studied him closely. Thanos was not a liar—withholding truths regarding important matters he was certainly guilty of, but not once had he ever lied to her—and something told her he never would.

That prostitute had better hope they never crossed paths again because Lamia was going to give her some coins all right—a fist full of them.

“So, you are telling me you did not seek out a prostitute last eve?”

“I just told you
no—
”

“So you have not bedded any other women since I have come here.”

Thanos exploded. “Are you even listening to me? No, I have not bedded any other women. Certainly not since you’ve been here, not since I’ve met you, even, and not for almost an entire
annum
before.” He stalked towards her, seizing her arms. “And you had better reply the same. If you have bedded another man,
especially
Adonis, I shall march back out there and kill him.”

“Another man? There has been no other man but you, Thanos. And as for Adonis, he is simply my
friend,
which I keep trying to tell you—”

“He does not think so. He desires more than friendship from you. I have seen it in his eyes. He covets you. He covets what is
mine
.”

His?
Thanos’ words stilled her, sparking fury in her heart. He had some audacity. He’d ignored her for over a full moon, but now all of a sudden she was
his.
She struggled to break free of his grasp. “Yours? I am no longer
yours,
Thanos. Not anymore.”

Anger scorched through his gaze, so intense that she almost trembled. She had never seen him so angry and, had he not still held her, she probably would have taken a step back.

“You just told me that you had bedded no other man but me,” he whispered coldly.

“And I haven’t—”

“Then whom do you belong to if not me?”

Her lashes shuttered her eyes, for she could not gaze upon him as emotion welled up in her throat. She
was
his, she had been from the very beginning, but it was obvious he no longer desired her.

“I
want
to belong to you, Thanos,” she choked out softly, amazed she’d found the strength to admit even that, despite how vulnerable it left her to him. And yet she could not stem the words of her heart now that she had begun. “But you do not want me anymore. You never look at me, you never touch me or even speak to me, and we have not made love in over a full moon.”

With a gentle hand, he cupped her cheek, forcing her gaze to his face. Disbelief softened his eyes, chasing away the last of his anger.

“You told me you wished to leave me, Lamia. How could I treat you as my proper wife, knowing you planned to walk away from me? I wanted you to
want
to stay with me—but you do not. I will not lie and say it does not pain me to know you wish to leave, because it does. I hate that you could so easily walk away from what we have built here, and yes, every time I think of this, I find myself angry with you, but that does not mean I stopped wanting you, Lamia. I have never stopped desiring you,” he said softly, his thumb stroking her bottom lip.

The ache that had torn apart her heart since their bitter fight began to ease. His gentle touch, the longing in his eyes, his earnest words… Thanos had not cast her aside, he still wanted her, and that knowledge freed the tender emotions she’d guarded so carefully and for so long, hoping to spare herself from knowing pain. In the end, those walls she’d erected had not spared her any measure of pain, for Lamia had still experienced it in the deepest regions of her soul when she’d believed she’d lost Thanos forever.

It was because she loved him.

She loved Thanos—
with her whole heart, her entire soul.

She’d been trying to fight it, then she’d tried denying it, but her efforts—they’d been futile. Almost from the moment she’d met him and had discovered how different Thanos was from the other men she’d known, she’d let him inside her heart. His compassion for others stirred her, along with his tenderness, his strength. When she was with him she always felt safe, cherished, and even if he did not actually feel the emotion for her, he made her
feel
loved.

Her feelings overwhelmed her as her heart burst with love for Thanos, an emotion she never thought she would ever feel for a man. She ached to reveal herself to Thanos, but it was still so new, so foreign to her that she found she did not yet have the courage to speak her heart. Instead she said softly, “I never stopped wanting you either, Thanos.”

He threaded his hand through her hair, and she read both tenderness and longing in his gaze as he tilted her head back and slowly lowered his head to kiss her lips.

She closed her eyes as she welcomed his kiss. It had been so long. So long since she’d felt the brush of his lips, the heavy weight of his body against hers, the tight feel of his cock inside her.

She trembled at the first taste of his lips. Twining her arms around his neck, she held him close, caressing his tongue with hers, savouring the essence of him. She moaned, grasping for his garments, tearing at them.

Thanos smiled down at her and in a single fluid motion he wrenched off his
chlamys
, casting it aside. She lifted her arms to shrug out of her own sweat-drenched
chlamys,
hurriedly tossing it to the floor.

Their movements were frenzied as they touched each other, their hands stroking everywhere their lips could not reach. A groan escaped his mouth when she nipped his lips with her teeth. She could feel his control waning. They had been without each other for far too long.

Thanos grasped her hips and lifted her. “Wrap your legs around my waist,” he commanded.

Instantly, she clamped her thighs around him, gasping when her back slammed into the wall, the cool marble sending chills across her flesh. She stroked his shoulders as he pressed her deeper against the stones, his body trembling, his breath coming in stilted pants.

Sensing the urgent need in him she tilted her head to the side and whispered in his ear, “It is fine, Thanos. I am ready.”

She felt him shudder with relief moments before he plunged into her waiting warmth.

“Lamia,” he groaned, his face twisted in agony.

She cried out in response, her eyes slipping shut as his thrusts came fast and hard, pounding her into the wall.

She was so wet for him as liquid fire filled her clenching tunnel. “Fuck me, Thanos,” she begged as she threw her hips at him, her ass bucking furiously, her heavy breasts bouncing against his chest.

A guttural roar escaped his lips and he surged harder, deeper into her sopping wet heat.

She dug her fingers into the skin along his shoulders and her mouth fell open. Just one more. Just one more thrust
and…

“Thanos,” she cried, arching as her body convulsed violently. Her channel fisted tight around his cock as her release roared through her, her warm juices drenching his thrusting length.

“Lamia,” he moaned, riding her harder, the sounds of their sweaty flesh sticking together echoing off the walls of their chambers.

His cock slammed furiously into her, once, twice, three more times before he stiffened against her.

“
Fuck
,” he rasped lewdly, his eyes clenching shut. The veins in his neck strained as his muscles bulged into tight knots. His cock jerked then twitched inside her, jets of his warm seed pouring into her waiting cavern.

Lamia held Thanos through the tumultuous throes of his release, his entire body shaking with tremors. When he was no longer able to stand, he collapsed to the floor, taking her with him. They lay there, a tangled mass of arms and legs, their breathing laboured as they stared into each other’s eyes.

She smiled warmly, stroking the stubble along his jaw, her eyes saying what her lips could not. Lamia knew the very moment he glimpsed the depth of her emotions in her open gaze because his eyes widened. He blinked, and, when she looked into his face again, his gaze was dark and hooded. He pulled away from her both physically and emotionally, his every emotion now closed off from her.

He was afraid.

She understood his fear, because she’d struggled with her own until just moments ago. Before, she would have erected her wall out of defence, locking herself behind it to protect herself from the pain of Thanos’ rejection. This time, she did not.

Thanos may not love her, he might never love her, but that did not diminish her feelings for him, feelings she could not deny.

Lamia understood the fear of baring one’s soul to another and daring to love. Ironically, it was her love for him that gave her the strength to remain vulnerable before him despite the uncertainty of his feelings for her.

Her gaze did not waver.

She wanted him to realise that, if he would only dare to open his heart to her, she would treasure it for the gift that it was.