The Chilling Change Of Air (Elemental Awakening, Book 3) (34 page)

"Stunning," he whispered, no small amount of male satisfaction gleaming back at me. "Once more, I think," he added and I might have moaned in distress or desire, it was hard to tell.

He gripped my butt cheeks, pulled my rear further off the barrel's top, left me balanced precariously as he started to really pump into me. Each thrust rocking the unstable surface beneath me, sending me back against the wall, making the breath rush out of my mouth in a gasp. A soft exhalation accompanied each rock of his hips, and then the look of utter adoration on his face stole me from the world and left me floating in a star studded space I'd never known existed before now.

"You are mine," he somehow managed to whisper between the thrusts. One hand moving between our bodies, making my legs wrap more tightly around his waist for fear of falling off the barrel without his hold.

A thumb rubbed over my nub, then stroked back again, and then repeated. I was so sensitive, almost too sensitive, I whimpered, my eyes rolling back as he determinedly sought my orgasm, his thumb pressing harder, the sweeps coming faster, my insides clenching and rippling and threatening to explode.

And then I was up off the barrel, Theo's magnificent strength holding me aloft as my arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, my ankles crossed at his back. Our hips rocking, skin slapping, breaths grunting. Oh dear freaking God, this was insane. I couldn't catch my breath, I couldn't stop making little whimpering sounds, I desperately rocked back against him as he less and less steadily pumped his hard length into my core.

One of his hands was up my back, supporting my head at my nape, the other was holding my body aloft with a hand on my butt cheek, fingers digging, squeezing, pulling, making me experience sensations in parts of my anatomy I never knew were erogenous zones as well.

"Casey," he groaned, his face falling into the crook of my neck. "I have to bite you," he whispered against glistening skin. "
Oraia
," he pleaded, asking permission for something that he knew would hurt, but couldn't seem to deny himself.

A need as strong as this coupling was. A desire that came from deep within him, as intrinsic a part of his make-up as
Pyrkagia
.

"Do it," I said, gritting my teeth as I felt an orgasm begin. If I came while he bit, it wouldn't be as bad. The sensations of discomfort and disappointment washed away in utter blissful release.

I felt Theo thicken, harden even further, if that was at all possible. He'd been big before, stretching me, filling me, taking me somewhere I'd never experienced except with him. The thought of biting me turned him on, and he'd been pretty well beyond turned on to begin with, but now with the permission to go ahead and claim me as only a
Thisavros
would claim his mate, he was about to explode.

It didn't matter that we both knew it wouldn't work. Nico had been right, even without the supernatural connection, Theo and I were
Thisavros
in our hearts and bodies and minds. Our souls may not have had that honour, but the rest of us willingly accepted it as fate.

His lips pressed against my skin, his tongue licked, sending me over the edge and falling, falling, falling, and then teeth bit down, skin depressed and I waited, waited, waited, for the pain of flesh tearing.

But it didn't come. The climax too great. I cried out, my mind blanked, and then as stars exploded and lights flashed and somewhere in the world, but feeling too close by far, lightning struck making glass shatter and ozone to mix with burning wood and the scent of the fresh grass and thick forests to assail my nose, I felt it.

Joy. Happiness. Desire for more, for him to never stop, to keep biting and licking and pumping and thrusting and sending me dizzyingly up and up and around and around until I came with a shout of surprise and awe, and Theo followed with a loud groan of triumph.

He panted as he kept pumping, his teeth free from my skin as his lips found my ear and he whispered through the fog of utter completion, "Take me. All of me. Take my body, my heart, my seed.
Thisavros
."

He shuddered, buried himself deep, and emptied all of what he was inside in an exquisite display of virility and sexuality and golden, love-filled eyes.

Thisavros
. I closed my eyes as realisation hit and the world, for that small moment, felt perfect and right.

Theo sank to the cold floor on his knees, my legs still wrapped tightly around him, my chest pressed hard against his, my face buried in his neck and my arms holding on for dear life as I sobbed. Body racking convulsive gasps, tears streaking down my cheeks and falling on his still too hot skin; ugly, desperate noises and too frantic clawing to stay connected and close and never let him go.

It was embarrassing. It was cathartic. It was the release of months of agony, days of torment, and a lifetime's - no, an eternity's - worth of love for this man, this preternatural powerful being. This beautiful creature who had chosen me as his mate and despite everything everyone threw at us, despite separations, and memory loss, and the world coming to an end, he chose again.

He let me cry. He held me tenderly, whispering in Greek in my ear, words I didn't understand but needed, soft touches, smooth strokes of his hand down my back, gentle kisses against my temple, in amongst my hair.

Then when I finally cried myself out, so exhausted, but invigorated and full of life and hope and utter blissful contentment, he pulled back and looked down at me, such tenderness in his golden gaze. He brushed my hair off my face, our bodies still intimately connected,
Pyrkagia
still dancing along the surface of our skin.

"It's back," he said simply, and all I could do was nod and sniff and offer a wide, watery smile.

We stared at each other for what felt like minutes, soaking in features, letting the sensation of a
Thisavros
connection sink in. Savouring it.

Then Theo sucked in a shocked breath of air and I swear, even in the dim light I saw a sheen over his eyes, as he whispered, voice reverential and in awe, "I remember. Cassandra, I remember."

"What?" I said, ineloquently.

"Everything. Laying eyes on you the first time I walked in your store. Flirting with you every day for almost a year. Watching you blossom and gain courage and start to flirt back. The day
Gi
showed itself in your kitchen out the back. The green that shone in your eyes and nearly brought me to my knees. Our first kiss. Taking you for the first time. Everything. Every single beautiful, frightening moment. I remember."

"How?" I really wasn't up to stringing words together. This was surreal. Unbelievable.

A dream.

"The
Thisavros
connection," Theo guessed. "Whatever my father did was tied to that."

"I don't understand," I managed.

"We'll talk to Aktor, he may know something. But,
Oraia
, I remember." His smile said it all. The boyish grin he rarely showed the world, the joy and excitement that reached his eyes.

And then I felt him harden inside me. The grin turned wicked. The glint in his eyes sensual.

He reached out and pulled our clothes over, spreading them behind my back and then laying me down on top.

"Again," he purred, starting to rock his hips, growing evermore thicker and longer and harder inside me. Stretching me and making a flood of wetness invade my core.

"Theo," I gasped, as he circled his hips and ground against just the right spot.

"I have a mind to fill you with my seed again," he advised quite reasonably against my neck. His lips smoothing over pebbled skin and finding his
Thisavros
mark. He kissed it, then licked, then sucked.

My back bowed.

"Now is not the time to get pregnant," I commented in a puff of air as his thrusts increased in force. All this talk of "seed" sounded a bit too purposeful. I'd always known how difficult it was for
Athanatos
to procreate, but maybe saying it aloud while doing the deed helped.

"It's my need to mark you," he rasped against my cheek, hot breath fanning my skin, hot body gliding over hotter flesh. "A
Thisavros
reunion, when significant time apart has transpired, is primal," he explained, managing to get words out between thrusts, the punctuation of his hard pumps inside me making him grunt on the end of each segment spoken.

It was such a turn on.

"Oh," I managed and he rumbled in laughter, twirling his hips and pushing up on muscled arms to watch me fall apart beneath him.

My eyes flicked open and found gold staring down above me, transfixed with what he saw on my face.

"I want to get inside you," he declared, then thrust, slow and measured. "I want to empty myself, fill you up." Another thrust, slow and measured. "I want you smelling of me." Thrust. "Covered in me, inside and out." Thrust. "Wearing my mark on your shoulder." Thrust. "Growing my child inside." Thrust. "I want to shout to the world, you are mine." Thrust. "I want you screaming loud enough for every male in the city to hear I satisfy you beyond measure." Thrust. And then two more as his eyes closed and his nose flared and he moaned low and long.

Utter turn on.

I came again in a rush, his hips circling and grinding, pumping and thrusting, making me fall apart in every way possible. My limbs weak, my body glowing, my heart soaring.

He moved, placed one arm under my hips lifting my rear up and allowing him deeper inside.

"I may not be able to stop this," he announced, his jaw tightening, the words pushed through clenched teeth.

I could see his orgasm approaching, it was fascinating to watch his body curl and tighten, to feel his shaft thicken and harden, to sense the impending explosion as a tangible thing.

"I may need to fuck you for the rest of the day," he managed on a low growl from the back of his throat.

"Fuck," I breathed, intending to argue the point that this wasn't fucking, it was making love, but that was the only word I could get out.

Theo chuckled, picked up speed and said, "You're right. This is mating."

Ah, what?

"Take me,
Oraia
. Milk me.
Aetheros
, I am yours."

"Yours," I repeated, but what I meant was,
I was his
, not the other way around.

He smiled, held my gaze determinedly, and then let me see him come. His shaft again buried deep, his big body shuddering above me, his lips parted and a gasp of delight escaping as he filled me with his seed.

It felt right. Those words. Archaic and foreign to my ears, but right. Because as Theo held my gaze throughout it, and I felt the well of his release deep inside, I swear I heard
Aetheros
sigh.

A sound of hope and expectation, of resounding joy and a sense of anticipation.

The first sign that maybe this wasn't the end of the world, but the beginning of something else.

Something beautiful and frightening and so very special.

Something that Theo was giving me and I, unknowingly, was giving him in return.

Life.

Theo looked a little stunned. Actually, as we sat up and began to dress, I'd go as far as saying he looked shocked.

I frowned at his extraordinarily perfect butt, before he pulled his trousers on and hid it from me.

"So," I started and he turned back around to face me as he pulled on his shirt. "A mini Theo or Casey running around?"

An amused smile banished the shell-shocked look of before.

"I seriously doubt that," he offered, helping me into my own t-shirt. "It is notoriously difficult for our kind to procreate." As I'd already suspected. "Some say it takes an act of our god to conceive."

He obviously hadn't heard
Aetheros'
joyous sigh.

"Did you not intend for that to happen?" I asked, tentatively. Had he just got carried away in the moment?

"Nothing's happened, Casey," he argued softly. "Other than our
Thisavros
connection being re-established and somehow returning my memories to me. Which is just as well," he went on, reaching forward to do up my jeans with the utmost of care. "Now is not the time to bring new life into the world."

A part of me desperately wanted to argue that fact, because deep inside it felt so very right. Although, logic made me reconsider the notion. Of course now was not the right time. What was wrong with me?

"So, all that talk about
taking your seed
was spur of the moment," I pressed, unsure why I was pushing this at all.

Theo paused. His eyes turning thoughtful. "No," he said with a shake of his head, still with that contemplative expression on his face. "I meant it, when I said it. I just hadn't realised I wanted it until then."

"Well," I offered, thinking he needed a lifeline. "I guess the reunion makes us do things we hadn't expected."