“Not long.” My gaze dropped to his mouth. Those lips were perfect.
He made a deep sound in his chest, and that flutter picked up in my stomach. “What time is it?”
“No clue.” I couldn’t tear my gaze away from his lips. “But I think we might’ve slept in.”
“Maybe.” The hand slipped up to my neck, and he guided my mouth to his. There was a quick flash of concern over brushing my teeth and kicking morning breath, but that worry went out the window the moment our lips touched.
The kiss was slow, lazy, and never-ending. It felt like forever since he’d kissed me like that when, in reality, it had really only been a handful of hours, but I lost myself in that kiss, in Aiden. And kissing him now was nothing like it had been those hours before. I felt the pressure, the intense sweetness, and the love behind every stroke of his tongue and sweep of his lips, to my very soul. The hand in my hair tightened while the other traveled north, up my thigh, and then over the curve of my hip.
Aiden’s hand stilled and then swept back down, causing me to suck in a sharp breath. He pulled his mouth away from mine and opened his eyes. They were a pure, heated silver. “You’re not wearing anything under this shirt, are you? Like, at all?”
I giggled. “I think you know the answer to that.” He had to, especially considering where his hand drifted to in that moment. I wasn’t giggling anymore. I was barely breathing.
He made that sound again, that absolutely sexy male sound that rumbled through him and then me. “You’re killing me, agapi mou.”
“I’m sure that’s not what I’m doing to you.”
Aiden moved lightning fast. He rolled me onto my back and was above me, on me, pressing his leg between mine. His lips found mine like they’d been born to do so. This kiss was different. Hungry. Starving. My hands slid up the hard sides of his stomach and then onto his back. Those sculptured muscles flexed under my hands as the kiss deepened until my senses were spinning.
There was probably a lot to do today.
Some would also say there were a lot more important things we could be doing at this very moment.
I would argue against that point voraciously, because there was nothing more important than this. Not when those wonderfully rough hands skimmed under the borrowed shirt. His hips rocked against mine, and a fire raced throughout my blood. I wrapped my fingers around the band of his pajama bottoms.
“Agapi mou, I’ve missed you.” His lips moved across my jaw and trailed a heated, shivery path down my throat, and then back to my lips. “I need you.”
My heart stuttered. “Yes.”
Who knows what I was really saying yes to? Anything at that point. Karate chop a few daimons while I was naked? Sure. Do trig formulas for fun? Okay. As long as he kept kissing me, kept calling me agapi mou, and kept touching me, I’d say yes to a lot of things. Too bad we weren’t doing this while I was still in school. I could’ve used his kisses as an amazing studying incentive.
His hand hooked around my hip, urging me to wrap my leg around his, and I stopped thinking. If only I got these damn pants off—
A sudden pop and crackle preceded the overwhelming and very unwelcome presence of a god. Aiden’s lips stilled against mine. My eyes popped up, latching onto his quicksilver ones. No way. I refused to believe it. No freaking way.
“Hades will be here in twenty minutes,” Apollo announced from somewhere way too close to the bed. “Either speed this up or pick it up later, kids.”
“Oh my gods,” I whispered, horrified.
“Oh, and I hope you two are being responsible,” Apollo added.
And then he was gone. There was a muffled, hoarse shout from a room nearby.
“Damn him,” Aiden muttered, dropping his head onto my shoulder. He shuddered. “Damn him to the Underworld and back again.”
My cheeks burned. “A bell—the first chance we get, we are buying him a bell.”
CHAPTER 12
A god popping in and out of your bedroom was, unsurprisingly, a major mood killer.
After Apollo vanished, neither of us was willing to risk him coming back with a ten-minute warning. Aiden had offered to speed up the get-ready-together process by sharing a shower.
From the bed, I raised my brows. “I don’t think that would be a quick shower.”
“You’re right.” He backed toward the bathroom door, his pajama bottoms hanging too low on his hips to be legal. “Can’t blame me for trying.”
He disappeared, and I flopped onto my back, groaning. I was going to ninja-kick Apollo in the face when I saw him.
Today, I didn’t put jeans on. I wore my Sentinel uniform.
My hair was still damp when we headed to the dean’s office. I don’t know why we had to keep meeting in there. It wasn’t so much because of what Ares had done in that room but because there were a lot of stairs to climb.
A lot.
The whole crew waited inside the office, and I knew Apollo was in there with Hades. I ran my hand over my arm, watching the marks glide seamlessly across my skin.
“Itchy?” Aiden asked.
I shrugged a shoulder. “The marks always go crazy when there are gods nearby.”
As we walked toward the dean’s office, he reached over, trailing his fingers along my arms. “Do they still react when I touch you?”
Heat crawled through my veins, and I nodded. The marks had followed the path of his touch. “Yeah, they still like you.”
One side of his lips curled up, and a look of male pride crossed his face. I shook my head. Boys.
We entered the office, and all the godly power in the room, plus Seth’s presence, was a bit overwhelming at first. I clenched my hands into fists to keep myself from bouncing off the walls or monkey-climbing Seth.
The two gods stood a good head taller than everyone else. They were shoulder to shoulder, but they couldn’t have been more opposite of one another. Where Apollo was all golden skin and sunlight, Hades was dark as night.
Aiden sent Seth a downright frightening glare as he strolled toward the people clustered around the two gods. At least he didn’t punch Seth, so that was a start in the right direction.
I guessed.
Seth lingered in the back, leaning against the wall as he eyed the two gods with an edge of distrust. I took a deep breath and approached him. A new wariness crept into his expression. “What’s up?” he asked.
“I didn’t say thank you.”
One golden brow rose. “For what?”
“For helping me out yesterday,” I explained, turning so we stood side by side. “I didn’t say thank you, so thank you.”
“You’ve said thank you three times now.”
“Yeah.” I leaned against the wall. “I can say it again, if you want.”
Seth turned sideways, facing me. When he spoke, his voice was low and held a biting, hard edge to it. “I don’t want you to say it at all.”
I arched a brow, but before he could elaborate, Marcus cleared his throat, drawing my attention.
Two gods stared at us.
I swallowed. Eerie. At least Apollo had normal eyes. Hades, on the other hand, looked like someone had forgotten to give him irises and pupils.
Seth pushed off and went to stand by the opposite wall, his back stiff and shoulders tensed. The gods tracked his movement like lions watching a gazelle. Then Hades turned to me.
The god’s lips spread into a tight smile. “Nice to see you again, Love.”
With the exception of wanting to kill me that one time, Hades was an exceptionally gorgeous man. And he had a British accent, which made him that much hotter. I had no idea why Hades had one, and I’d yet to hear another god with the same accent.
“No puppies this time?” I asked.
His eyes narrowed at the reminder. The last time we’d met, it had been in a convenience store in Middle of Nowhere, West Virginia, and I’d taken out a few of his prized three-headed hellhounds.