Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(63)

Lina wiped at her eyes and sniffled. "What wil happen to them?" she asked in a broken voice.

"What you saw them become is how the soul appears after al memories and al links to the body are removed, Their souls wil fol ow Lethe to its beginning. There they wil be reborn as infants to live new lives," Hades said.

Lina swiveled in his lap so that she was facing him. "But wil they be together again? If they're reborn as new people with no memory of their previous lives, how can they find each other?"

"Soul mates wil always find each other. Do not weep on their behalf. The woman spoke the truth, they wil be together again."

"Do you promise?" Lina's voice trembled with emotion.

"I promise, sweet one. I promise."

Slowly, warring against eons of solitude, he cupped her face in his hands. Hades made his decision. He had to try. He would be lost if he didn't. Hades gazed at her while his pulse beat erratical y. Taking a deep breath, he let his thumbs wipe away her remaining tears.

"This is what I wanted to show you - to share with you -  the bond of soul mates. Once you have seen it, it is something that you wil remember always. It may even change you. It has surely changed me."

Gently, Hades bent to her. First he kissed the closed lid of each of her eyes, then he placed his lips over hers. The kiss began as sweet and hesitant, but when Lina's arms slid up around his shoulders and she opened her lips to accept him, Hades automatical y deepened the kiss. She was there, a reality in his arms. This time he did not have to imagine that he touched and tasted her. His desire for her, which had not truly been sated, surged through his blood. With a moan of pleasure, he met her tongue with his own. She was soft and she tasted of ambrosia and heat. His hands slipped inside the covering cape and found her waist. Hades caressed the curve of her hip, fol owing the path his fantasy had taken. He buried one hand in the silk of her hair and he felt her breath quicken as his other hand roamed up and down the length of her thigh. The silky slip of a nightdress offered little barrier. She shifted in his lap, so that the hard flesh of his erection pressed firmly against the curve of her bu**ocks.

The sound deep in his throat was low and feral. How had he lived so long without her? He desired her with a fire that was burning him alive.

His hand traveled back to the luscious curve of her waist and continued up. He could feel the round ful ness of the side of her breast, and in his mind he again saw the puckered ni**les glistening wet with water and oil. His fingertips found the hard bud and he rol ed it gently through the thin silk.

Persephone made a choked gasping noise against his mouth.

The sound penetrated the red haze of lust that fogged his brain and he wrenched himself back from her. His cape had been pushed aside and Persephone's body lay across him, trembling and exposed. Her hair was disheveled and her lips were red and swol en. By al the gods, what was wrong with him! Had he lost total control of himself? He hadn't wanted it to happen like this, even a cal ow fool knew better than to maul a goddess in the middle of a forest. Uttering a curse he stood, lifting her abruptly to her feet. She had dried pine needles and smudges of dirt on her nightdress and she looked achingly young and al uring as she gazed up at him, a confused smile tilting her sensuous lips.

Hades was fil ed with shame. He stil wanted to press her to the ground and take her right there. He brushed frantical y at the pine needles that clung to her robe, muttering nearly incoherent apologies.

The force of the God's passion stirred a desire in Lina so intense, so fierce, that it was a little frightening. But as she watched the lust that drained from Hades' face being replaced by an expression that could have been either anger or embarrassment, she brought her breathing under control and commanded her mind to function again. She'd never had a god for a lover, but she was certainly no virgin, and she shouldn't be reacting like one.

"I did not mean to bring you here to... to..." He shook his head miserably and continued to wipe at her dress. "To rut you like a beast."

He wasn't angry, she realized with relief. He was mortified. Lina grabbed his hand and tugged on it until he met her eyes. "Hades, stop. I'm fine. What is this al about?"

"A goddess deserves more than a tussle on the bare ground." Her smile was slow and sensuous. "I can't speak for other goddesses, but I was enjoying that tussle." She slid her hands up to rest against his leather breastplate. She could stil feel the furnace-like heat radiating from him. "And I wasn't sitting on the bare ground. I was sitting on your lap."

Hades expel ed his breath in an audible sigh. The haunted expression in his eyes made him look decades older. Gently, he touched the side of her face. His voice was thick with restrained emotions. "Truly, I did not bring you here to seduce you, but I find that I cannot keep my thoughts away from you... nor my hands. I desire you above al things, Persephone, may the gods help me," he finished in a rush.

"Then may the gods help both of us, Hades," Lina said. And when his lips met hers she refused to think of Demeter and tomorrows.

Hades broke the kiss gently, while he was stil able to control himself. She was so soft and so open to him. That she desired him was obvious, but Hades wanted more than to possess her body. He wanted her soul. With a gesture that was incredibly tender, he straightened his cloak around her shoulders and wrapped her arm through his.

"The night grows cold. We should return to the palace." He brushed a long lock of hair from her face, noting the disappointment that flashed through her eyes. Good, he thought. He wanted her to desire him and yearn for him, until it was more than his body that she craved. He led her back to the path that would take them to the palace. Lina's thoughts were spinning. Her body stil felt overheated, and her heightened physical sensitivity somehow merged with the incredible beauty of the scene she had witnessed between the soul mates. The poignancy of the lovers' devotion stayed with her. Under her hand she could feel the pulse of Hades' blood, which was steady and strong. He had brought her there to witness the rebirth of the soul mates, but he hadn't used it as a seduction device - if that had been his intention, he could have taken her right there on the ground. But he hadn't. Hades obviously wanted more from her than sex. Her soul quickened even as alarm bel s rang within her mind. Love - he had shown her his idea of love. Hadn't he already said that he believed mortals understood love better than the gods? Did the gods have soul mates? She had no idea. Al she knew about the immortals was what she had inattentively read decades ago. What she did remember was that the ancient gods were fickle, that they discarded lovers at their whim. That didn't fit with what she was learning about the God who walked by her side.