and itched. The healers had to make a cream and a pill. I’d be eating her, not fucking her, but I have a feeling I’d catch something like that if I tried to eat Demeter.”
“Are you all free and clear now?” I purred, stroking her arm.
“Oh, I caught nothing from the nymphs. Demos likes them because they kiss his ass, but he kept it in his pants while that was being passed around. All of us are totally healthy.”
“You didn’t throw Demos under the bus there. You could have.”
“Can I confess something? I don’t hate Demos. It’s just so fun to get his feathers in a twist. I know you like him. I know you like all of them. I just want you to like me too.”
I rolled Pavlina on her back and smoothed her hair off her forehead.
“I do like you, Pavlina. And I don’t want to talk about Demos right now.”
She reached up and touched my cheek.
“What do you want to talk about?”
“I want another kiss.”
Pavlina had me on my back in seconds. My spinning class was no match for a monster in terms of strength, but I didn’t want to fight her. I let her. I was probably the weakest link with fighting Demeter and her armies. I was a book nerd who liked cardio, but hated lifting weights. I’d get my ass handed to me if I tried to get into a fistfight with anyone down here. At least I had that green fire.
I forgot all about how I should have at least taken a basic self-defense class with all the shit that happened to women back on Earth when Pavlina kissed me so hard I was pretty sure my lips would be bruised the next day. What the fuck? My arms shot over my head and were plastered to the headboard.
Pavlina pulled away from me and bit her lip. She looked worried. I craned my head up, and she’d trapped my hands with her webs.
“Sorry. My webs come out to play when I get excited. Are you mad?”
She was straddling my waist, and my arms were bound with her webs. I wasn’t the slightest bit angry. It was turning me on, and I wanted more. I strained my neck up as much as I could because I wanted another kiss.
“A little bondage never hurt anyone. Just be you, Pavlina, wicked webs and all.”
She beamed at me like no one had ever said that to her, but I must have unleashed her monster because she pulled a knife from her boot and cut my top off. I felt the cold metal on my chest as it slid under my bra. I should have been scared. I knew enough about Pavlina to know that even when she had her human face, if she had a blade on her, it would be sharp enough to slice through bone. I wasn’t, though. I knew enough about Pavlina to know when she fell, she loved deeply, and I’d managed to earn that honor. She’d never hurt me.
The knife jerked up and severed my bra without even nicking my skin. Pavlina slammed the knife into the headboard and buried it in the wood. She turned all her attention back to me. I’d been with other women before, but none as intense as Pavlina.
She licked and nipped at every inch of my torso before she pulled another knife out her boot and rid me of my clothes below the waist too. That knife joined the other blade in the headboard. She leaned back on her ankles and just admired my body.
“You’re the loveliest creature I’ve ever seen. Even when it was common for monsters to roam the Earth, people feared us. You didn’t lose your shit at all when Hades brought you down to our little prison.”
“Honestly? My major was a lot of science and math classes. I knew I wanted to become a veterinarian, and I’ve always loved science, but math has never been my favorite. I didn’t get a lot of fun classes to take. I took Greek Mythology during my freshman year as a required elective, and I loved that class. I was pissed Hades kidnapped me, but I think by the time I got to the dungeon and met all of you, I was getting a little giddy that things from one of my favorite classes were real and I could talk to you.”
“Still, I think you’re my kind of insane, River. Hades would have brought you home