For The Love Of A God by Rosanna Leo (ebook reader for comics .txt) 📕

wasn't even sure she believed any of it anymore. She was beginning to think she'd made Eryx up completely.

But then she opened her door, and there he was.

Sitting on her couch. Body tensed. Dressed in plain jeans and a plain T-shirt which didn't make him look even slightly plain. Smiling at her, despite the melancholy turn of his green eyes.

"I hope you don't mind,” he said quietly in the deep voice which still gave her the shivers. “I let myself in."

And, as Maia so often felt compelled to do in his staggering presence, she hit the floor in a dead faint.

Cradling her on the floor where he'd caught her, Eryx watched her eyes flutter open and felt sheer joy tear through his gut.

Gods, she was beautiful. Dark circles and pale skin and a couple of new, gray hairs notwithstanding. She was the most perfect sight in the world. And anyway, he had a few new gray hairs himself, thanks to Nemesis.

But he wouldn't allow himself to think of the witch here and now. Not with Maia in his arms.

Smiling, he glanced down at her shirt. This one had a cartoon image of Wonder Woman on it.

Fucking awesome.

He stroked his fingers through her hair, gently removing her hair pins. “Come back to me, baby. You're just as white as the day I said I'd send your statue to Russia.” And then he laughed.

She just stared at him, afraid to move. Her eyes were so dark and haunted. It killed him that those eyes had glimpsed such terror and felt such pain because of him.

"You're not dreaming, Maia,” he said quietly. “It's me."

"Eryx?” Her chest heaved, and he felt her sorrow in her wracked breath.

His heart simultaneously breaking and rejoicing, he picked her up and carried her into her bedroom. She was a blessed weight in his arms, all soft and lush, and he was dying to make love to her. But he couldn't rush her, or she'd end up round the bend. Her nerves were clearly on edge as it was.

"I have so much to tell you,” he said as he deposited her gently on the bed. When she inched away from him, he gritted his teeth, hating the distrust in her eyes. As much as he wanted to lay her down next to him, under him, over him, any damn way possible, he took a breath and merely sat next to her. “I've been many things, Maia, but I'm not a ghost. I swear it."

"But how...? Nemesis..."

He choked back the bile in his throat at the mention of the name. “Nemesis is no longer an issue. I promise you."

She must have glimpsed the momentary hate in his eyes, because something in her own eyes softened. Tears formed there, and he could see the barrier slip even as she stared at him. She was starting to believe ... again. “It's really you?"

"And I'll never leave you again, Maia.” He reached for her hand, loving its softness, loving its delicate lines. “I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"Oh God,” she cried, as the barricade in her mind finally tumbled. “Just kiss me first!"

He did. Thoroughly.

It occurred to Maia while Eryx was kissing her that she was really warm. Burning up, actually.

But it wasn't the same heat he'd created in her before. As he was touching her now, he wasn't giving her the same zinging electrical shock he always used to. It still felt good, more delicious than her favorite blackberry cheesecake ice cream, but it was different. She lay back and received his kisses, trying to determine what had changed.

His eager lips traced a path from her mouth to her ear to her neck, nuzzling in her cleavage, and starting a significant bonfire there. Just no otherworldly zaps of godlike energy.

Then it hit her. He was still human. How could he have escaped without his powers?

"Eryx,” she uttered, feeling drunk on his kisses as much as the realization. “Eryx, wait."

"I can't wait. Oh gods, I've waited so long!” He buried his face in her chest again, shoving Wonder Woman aside with his fingers.

"But I need to know,” she said, sitting up. “What happened to you? Are you...?"

He sat up, breathing hard to steady himself. “A god? No. I can't go back, Maia. There's really no procedure for, uh, reinstating my powers. The myths don't tell you every god has the ability to forsake immortality, but it's a one-way ticket. You can't ever reverse such a monumental decision.” He reached for her hand and kissed her palm.

As crushing guilt stamped out the fire in her sex, Maia took a good look at him. He was beautiful, more beautiful than anyone she'd ever known. It was only when she looked closely she noticed some new, slight imperfections which hadn't been there before.

He was pale, at least paler than she'd ever seen him, and not quite so Mediterraneanly golden. There were dark circles under his eyes, circles matching her own. And faded scars. Long ones running down his forearms. Little ones cross-hatching his cheeks. He had bruises on his knuckles and a cut healing at the corner of his lip. All in all, Eryx looked like a handsome human man who'd been in one too many bar fights. Feeling anguish slice through her core, Maia voiced the thought which had been plaguing her for months. “She hurt you."

Realizing her questions needed answering just as much as his cock needed to be buried deep inside her, he put her hand down and smiled at her. He couldn't make this conversation topic light and breezy. It was better just to come out with it. “Yes. She did."

She didn't say a word, but he noticed the little twitch of her eye and the way her lip trembled.

He frowned, seeing her stricken face, and decided she didn't need the full, vivid description of his punishment now. He'd put it off as long as he could. If, when she wasn't so fragile, she wanted all the gory details, he'd