"I don't know, but if you ever figure it out, let me know and I'll be sure to stop it."
She sank her fingernails deep into his tattoo. "My Acheron, ever defiant. Ever vexing."
She ripped open his T-shirt and removed it from his body.
Ash held his breath as she pulled his back to her front and hungrily skimmed her hands over his bare chest. As always, his body betrayed him and reacted to her touch. Chills ran over his skin and his gut drew tight as his groin hardened.
Her hot breath fell against his neck as she ran her tongue along his collarbone. He leaned his head to the right to give her more access to him while she unlaced his tight leather pants.
His breathing ragged, Ash clutched his hands against his thighs and waited for what was to come.
She freed his swollen shaft and sheathed it with her hands.
Her tongue teasing his neck, she ran her right hand upward to the tip of his manhood where she stroked him until he was so hard for her that he hurt. He moaned as she dipped her other hand down and cupped and stroked him from underneath while her right hand continued to tease him.
"You're so large and thick, Acheron," she whispered hoarsely as she used her fingers to coat him in his own wetness so that she could stroke him even faster. Harder. "I love the way you feel in my hands."
She took a deep breath in his hair. "The way you smell." She nuzzled his shoulder with her face. "The sound of your voice when you say my name." She ran her tongue across his shoulder blade back to his neck. "The way your cheeks mottle whenever you exert yourself."
She nibbled his ear. "The look on your face when you release yourself inside of me."
She brushed her breasts against his spine so that she could whisper her next words in his ear. "But most of all, I love the way you taste."
Ash tensed as she sank her long canine teeth into his neck. The momentary pain turned quickly to physical pleasure.
Reaching over his shoulder, he cradled her head to his neck and rocked himself against her hands as she stroked him even faster than before. He felt her and her powers flowing through him, uniting them even closer than the intimacy of sex.
His head swam until he could see nothing. All he could feel was Artemis. Her demanding hands on him, her hot, living breath against his throat, her heart pounding in time to his.
They were synchronized. Her pleasure was his and, for this moment in time, they were one creature with one heartbeat, bonded on a level that transcended human understanding.
He felt her desire for him. Her need to possess every part of his mind, body, and heart. He felt as if he were drowning. As if she were pulling him far away from himself, into a cold, dark cell where he would never again find his way back.
He heard her whispering to him in his mind. "Come for me, Acheron. Give me your power. Your strength. Give me all that you are."
He fought against her intrusion, and as always, he lost the battle.
In the end, he had no choice except to give her what she wanted.
Ash threw his head back and roared as his entire body shook in complete orgasmic ecstasy. Still she drank from him, taking his essence and powers into her own body.
He was hers. Regardless of what he might think, want, or feel, he would always belong to her.
Panting and weak from her possession, Ash leaned back against her and watched as a thin trail of blood ran down his chest...
THREE MONTHS LATER
Sunshine smiled as she carried her small box of oil paints into the living room. She'd been intending to take them to her new studio that overlooked Talon's swamp, but as soon as she had caught sight of her husband hanging her paintings of his old cabin up on the wall, she'd stopped.
He didn't seem to know she was there. He had the hammer hanging out of his back pocket as he lifted the framed landscape and placed it on the wall.
As soon as the two of them had emerged from her loft after Mardi Gras, Talon had decided to build them their own house.
Together, they had designed every detail. An extremely large computer room and a garage to accommodate his toys, and an open, airy studio for her art. They even had a game room with shelves that displayed his massive collection of Pez dispensers. Snoopy took a prime location in the center of the middle shelf.
But her favorite room was the small one that adjoined their master bedroom suite. The one that would hopefully be a nursery someday.
"Did I get it centered?" he asked, surprising her that he knew she was standing behind him.