Chapter 7

She held his hand as they walked into his – to their – bedchamber.

"Lie back," she told him. He obliged, nodding vigorously and nervously. She straddled him, guiding him into her warmth. There was pain as he filled her – she wasn't nearly wet enough, but she was eager – he did not push her. She waited, learning the feel of his body within her, waiting and waiting, even as he apologized with a shaking, strained breath. She smiled. She loved this man. She would make love to him. She was determined to show him.

Soon, all either one of them could hear was each other's breathing and the sound of skin hitting skin. His hands were wrapped tightly around the sheets, white-knuckled in his grip. She saw his abdominal muscles flex and jerk with each movement from her, and she knew for sure then that she was his first just as much as he was hers.

She saw him looking up at her with dark, lustful eyes, and with a roll of her hips and his name on her lips, she saw his love there, too. Her savior: her kind and quiet king, now her husband and lover. She reached for his hands and brought them up towards her waist, where he held tightly. But that would not satisfy her; she wanted him to feel her, just as she was feeling him. She brought his hands up to her breasts, and he groaned as she moved on him.

Hades was enveloped in her heat, completely lost in her embrace. It was too much for him, and yet not enough. He wanted to have more of her; to utterly consume her and be consumed by her. Burned in her fire – fire that filled him with life, and not the fear of death, like Hyperion's white flames. He wanted to burn in her fire forever; feel her soft and supple body against his hard edges.

He flipped them, gaining purchase on her hips as she bent down to kiss him. He flipped them, and she was under him, and he pressed his thumb against her, out of complete accident, and she writhed against him. He did it again, this time with more care, and he felt her clench around him, soft and wet and his. His wife; his flower. He loved her, would burn for her. He kissed her neck, breathed her name as he reached his peak, just as she breathed his. Hades had finally reached Elysium.

When the time came for pomegranates and divisions, they were ready. They had found solace in each other.