I feel so at peace. So…happy.

I think of Yshrem, where Aron will “meet his destiny” and I squeeze my eyes shut. I don’t want to think about that today. I’ll just think about the man sprawled atop me, who feels so good I never want him to move.

“Tell me you love me,” I whisper, stroking his hair back from his face as he sits up.

Aron frowns, gazing down at me. He touches my cheek, caressing my face, and then shakes his head. “I am a god, Faith. We do not love.”

Strangely enough, that response doesn’t bother me, because I’m pretty sure he’s wrong. “You’d miss me if I died, though, wouldn’t you?”

His brows draw together, and thunder snaps overhead. “Why would you die?”

“I’m just saying—”

Aron shakes his head slowly. “You are not allowed to die, Faith. Do you understand me?” His jaw is clenched, and there’s a wild look in his eyes I haven’t seen before. “I forbid it.”

I nod, and when he leans in to kiss me again, I fight back a smile. Yeah, dude’s totally in love with me.

He just won’t admit it to himself.

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66

We don’t leave the bed for three days.

Well, that’s not entirely true. I get up to pee, to eat, to drink, but other than that? I spend every moment with Aron. Kissing Aron. Touching Aron. Aron touching me. It’s a magical time, really. I think of it a bit like a honeymoon, where we’ve finally joined at a higher level and now we’re just enjoying each other and learning more as we go. I learn that Aron likes for his hair to be brushed, and that it arouses him. I learn that he gets aroused by watching me eat, because I enjoy it so thoroughly. I learn that Aron gets aroused by the soft sounds I make when I sleep, because he wakes me up and fucks me hard, then lets me go back to sleep.

Really, I learn that pretty much everything turns Aron on.

I’ve never been the object of intense fascination of a god before. He doesn’t eat, doesn’t sleep, and focuses all his energy entirely on me. In the three days we don’t leave bed, I orgasm more times than I think I have in my entire life. The scent of sex feels permanently etched into my skin, and like a wanton slut, I only crave more. How can I not? The guy knows how to work a clit, he knows where a G-spot is, he’s got a massive cock and undying stamina.

Of course I’m eager to jump into the sack with him every time.

After a few days of this, though, I wrinkle my nose at my own smell. “I don’t suppose this tower has a bath, does it? Because I sure could use one.”

Aron lifts his head from where he’s kissing down my belly. “You want to bathe? I can bathe you.” His eyes gleam. “It would be my pleasure.”

I snort. “In a tub? Because I haven’t seen a tub here.”

“This was a human tower once,” Aron says. “It might have a tub.”

“It was?” I’m shocked. This place is so creepy and surreal that I can’t imagine anyone living here…then again, haven’t we been hanging out here for days? Weeks? So maybe I need to rethink my idea of “creepy.”

Sure enough, Aron asks Markos and Solat, and they’ve seen a washroom a few floors down. A short time later, we’re in the washroom together and the massive marble tub has been filled with steaming hot water, thanks to Yulenna. I relax against Aron’s broad chest as he cradles me in his arms.

“Now this is the life,” I murmur, trying not to look too hard at the clusters of cocoons in the spiderwebby corner directly across from us.

“It does not take much to please you,” Aron says with amusement, and twines his fingers with mine under the water. “A tub full of water, at least five climaxes a day, and all the food you can stuff into your mouth.”

“When you put it that way, you make me sound terribly demanding,” I say, smiling as I close my eyes and rest against him.

“Being an anchor is demanding work,” he murmurs, lips brushing against my hair.

“Work.” I snort. “There’s a lot of things being an anchor involves, but I don’t know if I’d call any of them ‘work.’ The biggest task I have is putting up with the bullshit you spew on a regular—”

My words choke off as he cups my pussy and slicks a finger between my folds, rubbing my clit. “Watch what you say, sweet Faith. You don’t want me to punish you, do you?”

Oh lord. Aron’s definitely got a dominance streak and it comes out when he’s feeling frisky. Now I’m getting even more turned on. “Right here? In the bath?”

“You can bathe first,” he reassures me, and gives my pussy a pat as if telling it to be patient. “Are you hungry?”

“Is this a full-service bath? I am spoiled.” I slide deeper into the water, which means my hair is sticking to his chest, and his rock-hard thighs are beneath my arms. “But no, I can wait for now.”

Aron runs his fingers through my wet hair, then begins to soap it with a bar we borrowed from Yulenna. “Is this much like the baths in your world? On Ert?”

“Earth,” I correct. “And yes and no. We have running water, where you turn a spout and the water comes out of the pipe hot.” Yulenna filled basins and heated water to make this happen. “And on Earth I’d have shampoo and body wash and conditioner for my hair and all kinds of good-smelling bath products. And bubbles.”

“But no war god to soap your body for you,” Aron says, and drags a handful of water over my breast.

Nope, he’s got a point there. I arch against his hand, smiling when he begins to tease my nipple into a hard point. For a guy that didn’t want to get involved, he’s been nothing but touchy-feely ever since, not that I mind. “I’d trade bubble baths for you every day.”

“Is there anything you miss?” He releases my breast and smooths soapy water over my shoulder. Is he washing me, then? Or just caressing? I sit up again, so he can do as he likes, and one big hand smooths up my back.

I moan at his touch, because it feels so good. “Hamburgers,” I murmur, hugging my knees and resting my cheek against them. “Big, fat, sloppy hamburgers. With cheese and extra pickles, mayo and mustard, tomatoes, lettuce, and a sesame seed bun. Bacon, too. Oh yeah, totally dripping with bacon.” And now I’m hungry.

Aron chuckles, rubbing the washcloth up and down my back. “It’s always food with you.”

“Hell yeah, it is. I’m always hungry. That’s your fault.” I smile.

His fingers dance up my spine, then the washcloth brushes at the cleft of my ass. “Because I keep you in my bed and use you until you are begging for relief? Because I make you come at least twice before I slake my own needs? Because I am not satisfied until your cunt clenches tight around my cock and pulls me deep?”

I suck in a breath at his words. “Well, there is that, but I meant I’m always hungry because I’m your anchor. I have to eat for both of us.” In fact, I could eat right now, but I’m too lazy to get out of the water, because it’s warm and a flirty, thoughtful Aron is irresistible as he washes me.

I love the sound of his lazy chuckle. It fills me with warmth even as he glides the cloth over my back. “Do you miss your world, then?”

I knew this question would come up eventually. If anything, I’m surprised he hasn’t asked sooner. I’m also a little surprised I haven’t thought about it more myself. Earth hasn’t been on my mind much in the last few days. My thoughts have been completely and utterly about Aron. “Do I miss Earth? I don’t know. I mean, I miss hamburgers and strawberry milkshakes and cars—remind me to tell you about cars sometime. But it’s more like that was the world I was familiar with. I knew Earth. I knew how to get around on Earth. I knew what I was doing, and I knew what my choices entailed. I feel out of my depth here, and some of the stuff Aos doesn’t have scares me a little. Like, say, health care. Do you guys follow the whole “slap a leech on it” method for sick people? Because I really can’t approve of that. And I shudder to think of what passes for a gynecologist in this world.”