Seth shifted his arms and his elbows dug into the mattress as his large hands cradled the sides of my face. Deep inside me, only his chest moved against mine and only his thumbs glided over my cheeks. Tears burned my eyes, but not from pain, because it really wasn’t that bad. Oh no, there was a deep and tender emotion swelling in my chest.

“Josie?”

Throat dry, I swallowed and opened my eyes. My breath caught again at the sight of him. His face was tense and those amber eyes were luminous, so bright they’d outshine any star in the sky. He was waiting for me, making sure I was all right, and nothing could set me more at ease. “I’m okay.”

“Thank the gods,” he grunted, voice strained.

Seth began to move then.

He flexed his hips, pulling out slowly. The pull, the friction of the act, sent my pulse skittering. My muscles locked up. He smoothed his thumb along my lower lip. “Relax. I need you to relax, okay?”

“Okay,” I whispered, forcing myself not to be so . . . so stiff.

He pushed in again, seated deep, and I was pretty sure my nails were scratching his skin. With a moan that sent shivers down my spine, he lowered his mouth to mine. He held himself still again as he parted my lips. The kiss started out slow, leisurely, as if he had all the time in the world, and I got a little lost in that kiss. The burn eased off, but the pressure increased, becoming a pulse that demanded more.

I tentatively wiggled my hips, stopping when a harsh groan brushed my lips.

“You don’t have to stop,” he said. “You want to move, agapi, you move. You do exactly what you want, because there isn’t a damn thing you can do wrong.”

Agapi.

Love.

A word I wouldn’t have understood before the demigod abilities had been unlocked, but I did now.

The endearment warmed me, and I did want to move. So I did. I arched my hips, moving them in a small circle. The act sent tiny coils of pleasure radiating out from my core, and Seth remained still, his forehead against mine as I grew accustomed to the feel of him.

Growing bold, I dragged my hands up his back and down, over the tense muscles of his lower back and further south. He made that sound again, and when he tilted his hips, it was my turn to moan.

Seth shifted his weight onto one arm as he moved his hips, sliding back and forth slowly and then faster, deeper. His hand cradled my hip, steadying me as he thrust forward, eliciting a sharp cry of pleasure from me.

He shuddered at the sound. I gripped his shoulders as I wrapped my legs around his waist. A rough curse burst from him as he went deeper. He moved in a rhythm that drove me crazy and was not enough and too much at the same time.

“Seth . . .” My hands spasmed over the muscles flexing and rolling along his spine. “Oh, gods . . .”

His back bowed and his lips moved down my throat and further, to the tip of my breast. I jerked, back arching, and that pace he was setting picked up, became feverish. Molten lava flowed in my veins as bolts of biting pleasure shot out.

“Gods,” he groaned; his mouth was near my temple now and he was moving so fast, his hips slamming into mine. “This,” he said, dragging his hand down my belly, to the place between my legs, just above where we were connected. “This is what I want. Nothing else. No one else.”

“Yes,” I gasped out, and I might’ve repeated the same word over and over, in a way that would’ve been embarrassing if I cared at that moment, but I didn’t.

Seth was doing things with his fingers I didn’t even know were possible.

He was everywhere—his hands, his mouth—on me, in me, and it was too much. I couldn’t keep up. I didn’t need to. My head was spinning and the intensity of the bliss building inside me heightened to the point my hips jerked clear off the bed.

I threw my head back, screaming his name as everything came apart. Release exploded and it was shattering, lighting up every cell, and the pleasure rolled out in tight, sensual shockwaves, obliterating my senses. I heard myself tell him that I loved him and I told him in a crazy, abandoned way, in a voice I didn’t recognize.

Seth’s restraint broke. No longer holding himself back, the pump of his hips lost all rhythm as he shoved his arm under my lower back. He lifted me up, sealing me tight to him as he ground against me, sending another wave of exquisite pleasure. He extended his other arm, up my back, holding me off the bed as his hips pounded forward. His strength was overwhelming. He held me up and he took me like I . . . like I wanted to be taken. The moment was incredible, like nothing I’d ever experienced before.

Then he was on me, pressing me down into the mattress, not an inch of space separating us as he kissed me hard. His hips jerked once and then twice, and then I could feel him pulsing.

Seth said my name against my lips, and it felt like forever passed while our hearts slowed and the sweat cooled on our skin. “Are you okay?” he asked.

“Perfect,” I murmured. “So perfect that I can’t . . . even move or think.”

He chuckled and then he finally moved. He lifted his head and pressed a kiss to my forehead and then my brow. He dropped a kiss on each eyelid and then the tip of my nose before he found my mouth, and gods, when he kissed me it was the sweetest, tenderest thing ever. It spoke those three words I’d said, but he hadn’t. That kiss said it all and more.

Not only did it say love.

It spelled hope.

Seth

Lying on my side with Josie tucked to my front, I told myself over and over again that I could do this with her.

But I had to do this right.

Josie snuggled against me, wiggling her bottom against my groin, and fuck, I’d been hard since she fell asleep, and each time she moved it sent a jolt straight from my dick to my spine. Curling my arm around her waist, I held her tighter, unwilling to wake her.