It didn’t take long before he was working her jeans’ zipper, and her hands were just as frantic, tearing open his pants to release his massive length. The moment it sprang free, she took the shaft in her fist, reveling in the desperate male sound that broke from his throat.

His gaze gleamed with hunger as it locked with hers. Lips parted to allow for his panting breaths, he braced himself on one arm and slid his palm under her panties. His fingers slipped between her folds, and he groaned.

“You’re so wet.” One finger pushed inside her, and she nearly came. “So tight.”

“I thought I was too weak for you.” She squeezed his cock, rubbed her finger in the drop of wetness at the tip, and he hissed in pleasure.

“I was wrong,” he rasped. “I’ve seen how you handle Battle, Hal… and me. I was so f**king wrong.”

He leaped off the sofa, yanked her jeans from her legs, and then stripped out of his clothes. When he was done, he stood in front of her, a stunning work of masculinity. And, to her delight, he was as smooth and hairless between his legs as he was on his chest. Her heart jerked as he palmed his straining erection.

“I never do this.” He squeezed himself, and she became glued to the motion he began—long, slow pumps of his fist down the length and back up to swallow the head as he delivered a little twist.

“Um… you never… masturbate?”

His eyes were slits behind his heavy lids, but the intensity was in no way diminished. “I never slow it down like this. It’s always rough and hard with a female.” He sank down between her legs, but he never stopped the erotic play with his penis. “It’s always been about the release. The who-can-fuck-who-the-hardest.”

Images of him pounding into other women—females, as he called them—wrung a nasty punch of jealousy out of her, but when she inserted herself into the picture, she flamed hot. To have all that undiluted sexual power ramming into her like a force of nature… oh, God.

“I want that.”

Her declaration sent a shudder through him, and his strokes sped up. The idea excited him. “Not… now.”

He still thought she was too weak. But if it were true that she was dying, she certainly wasn’t going to get any stronger. “Ares—”

“No. You aren’t like those other females. I want this to be different.” He backed up, lowering his head between her legs. There was no warning, just his hot, wet tongue penetrating her slit.

She arched skyward, might have launched right off the cushion if he hadn’t gripped her h*ps and held her firmly against his mouth. He alternated long passes of the flat of his tongue with lingering, gentle pulls on her cl*tand deep thrusts inside her.

“You taste like the ocean. Fuck…” Groaning, he lifted one leg over his shoulder and opened her wide, his thumbs spreading her to the night air and his sultry breath. She rolled her hips, encouraging him—not that he needed it. He pleasured her with a vengeance, his carnal timing keeping her at the edge of orgasm for endless, blissful minutes. Streams of erotic sensation made her mindless, light-headed, and before she knew it, her hands were tangled in his soft hair, guiding that magic tongue where she needed it most.

He didn’t tease. He worked her with a goal, and when she began to buck, gasping for air, he growled against her core and latched on, sucking while plunging his tongue into her in a devastating rhythm. Her cl**ax spun up like a storm, a whirlwind of ecstasy, and before it had fully tapered off, Ares lunged, mounting her, his closed fists coming down on either side of her head, the broad tip of his shaft nudging her center.

“I love the way you come,” he whispered into her ear. “You’re loud, the way a male likes it.” Her breath caught at his words, but then he was rubbing his erection through her folds, sliding back and forth over sensitive tissues, and nothing mattered but getting him inside her.

“Wait.” She slapped her palm on his chest. “Protection?”

He lifted his head, his brows drawn in confusion. “My guards are stationed nearby—ah, you mean for the sex.” She nodded, and also really hoped his guards hadn’t heard any of this. “I can’t contract or transmit disease, and I take skullwort every two months to prevent my seed from planting.”

Oddly phrased, for sure, but who cared? She was aching, her cl**ax still throbbing, and she just wanted to get on with it. She stopped thinking, reached between them to guide him to her entrance. “Now,” she said hoarsely.

“Now,” he agreed, and rocked his hips, plunging into her. They both moaned.

His entire body undulated, his muscles bunching and flexing, and when he threw his head back, the corded tendons in his neck strained. They moved together, her legs wrapped around his waist and locked at the ankles over his butt.

“This,” he breathed, “is so good. You’re… still rippling.”

The sea breeze wrapped around her, mingling with the scent of Ares’s warm skin, the steamy sex, and the sweet flowers that lined the patio walls. Suddenly, he reared back, gripped her thighs, and watched their mating. It was such a turn-on, and she was so freaking into it. She braced herself on her feet and lifted her h*ps off the cushions so she could meet each of his powerful thrusts with one of her own.

The sight of him watching, the way it affected him so strongly, brought her to the very edge. His broad chest expanded in great, shuddering breaths, his eyes burned, and yet, she sensed he was holding back. He was driving into her with passion she’d never felt from the two lovers she’d had—the high school boyfriend she’d lost her virginity to, and then Jackson—but Ares’s great power was restrained.

She. Was. Not. Weak!

An ancient, primal feminine instinct awakened in her, and she snarled, rose up, and dug her nails into his chest. He made a harsh noise, baring his teeth in surprise and pain. She didn’t spare him. Ruthlessly, she raked her nails over him, dragging them over the rolling eight-pack of his abs. His roar of pleasure accompanied a mighty surge, and suddenly, she found herself lifted and her back pressed against the wall, with one of Ares’s arms behind her as a buffer. Her knees were spread wide on the cushions, and Ares was kneeling between them, his h*ps pistoning urgently as he drilled her deep and fast.

Rocking his head, he sank his teeth into the juncture between her throat and shoulder, and dear, sweet Lord, she was done for. His possession was swift and sure and she reveled in the animal mating. He was marking her with his teeth, with his body, and even the bruises she’d have later would be evidence of the savage fever that had taken him.

Her orgasm blazed through her with the intensity of the Greek sun, scorching her from the inside out. Her body clenched, the pleasure going on and on until he shouted a guttural curse, his body convulsing as a hot wash of seed jetted into her, touching off another orgasm for her, and maybe another for him.

Though he collapsed against her, his face buried in her neck, he kept moving inside her long after it was over. “Are you okay?” His voice was a wonderfully husky rasp against her hot skin.

“Never… better,” she breathed.

With jerky movements, he eased her away from the wall and rolled them both onto the cushions so he was on his back and she was on her side, one leg and arm draped over him. His heavy sex lay glistening and spent on his stomach, and his chest rose and fell with gradually slowing breaths.

“We can’t do that again, Cara.” He trailed his fingers absently over her thigh.

“But I liked it.” Loved it.

“You shouldn’t have provoked me,” he snapped. “And I shouldn’t have let you.” His voice tempered, went low and even. “You can’t afford the energy expenditure or injuries, and I can’t afford—”

“Can’t afford what?”

“I can’t afford to get too close to you. Even if you transfer the agimortus, you’ll be a target for anyone who wants to hurt me or get to me by hurting you. My sons paid in blood because I loved them. That will never happen again.”

“It’s just sex, Ares.”

His eyes flashed. “It’s more than that, and you know it.”

“No, I don’t. I don’t want to get attached to you any more than you want to be attached to me. But things are pretty intense all around us, and we could both use a break and a little pleasure. You asked if I’d ever been fucked, and I said no. Well, now I have. And I liked it. So quit being squeamish, and do it again.”

Spelunking had to be the dumbest word in the English language. Limos supposed that what she and Thanatos were doing in central Oregon’s underground lava tubes couldn’t really be called spelunking, since they weren’t doing much climbing or exploring, but Than seemed to delight in saying the word over and over just to irritate her. He had the oddest sense of humor.

She didn’t know how deep they were inside the mountains of the Cascade range, but they’d been chasing the fallen angel for at least two hours now, and this was getting boring. Besides, she hated caves. Too claustrophobic, too dark, and way too much like the region of Sheoul where she’d grown up.

“Why did Zhreziel pick here to run to?” she muttered, as she picked her way over a pile of unstable rocks.

Than glanced over his shoulder at her. “Is that a rhetorical question? Because I hope you don’t expect me to know the answer.”

She sighed. “I just hope your spirits are holding him.” Li and Than had found Zhreziel in New Zealand, where they’d battled, and then had chased him to Japan, Turkey, Korea, and now, here. Finally, Than had released a couple of his souls from his armor and sent them after the angel. They couldn’t kill Zhreziel, but their attempts would keep him grounded and unable to flash away.

“We’re close.” Than opened a Harrowgate to get them across a wide fissure. “I can feel them.”

They stepped into the gate and came out on the other side of the bottomless expanse. “Do you really think we can repair Reseph’s Seal?”

Accustomed to her rapid changes of subject, Than didn’t miss a beat. “Yes.” There wasn’t even a question for Than, even though all he had to go on was an Aegis engraving in Deliverance’s hilt, “From death will come life,” which could mean anything.

Limos had always found Than’s life of absolutes to be annoying, but in this case, she was glad to have him be so certain. She hated what Reseph had become, but she loved who he’d been. She just hoped they could repair the Seal before Deliverance was found.

Aegis bastards. She knew they had the dagger, knew because they’d taken it from her. Her brothers might believe that the Templars had lost it, but the truth was that she’d stolen it. It wasn’t something she was proud of, but she’d been… different back then. Truth was, she had been relieved when they’d stolen it back after they’d incapacitated her back during the Great Famine.

“Think we’ll see those two Guardian guys again?”

“Yes.”

“The R-XR dude, Arik, was kind of hot, don’t you think?”

“Never seen anyone hotter,” Than said, his sarcastic delivery so deadpan that anyone who didn’t know better might think he was serious. “He fills my dreams with his hotness.”

“Now we’re getting into TMI. Your wet dreams aren’t something I want to know about.” An agonized moan from deep inside the tunnel urged them on. Sounded like Zhreziel was getting his angelic butt kicked. She’d have had a little sympathy for him if he hadn’t punched her in the face and given her a bloody nose in Korea. Bastard.

“Just don’t be thinking the soldier is too hot. You need to stay away from guys like him.”

Guys like him? She needed to stay away from all males. When it came to sex, she and Than both had to be careful, but for very different reasons, and while Than couldn’t have intercourse, he could still enjoy someone else’s body if he chose to. Li could only look.

“Duh.” Than had a tendency to be a little overprotective. It was funny the way all her brothers were so different. Reseph had been her buddy, the one she’d party with. He’d always sit back and laugh when she got herself into trouble, not because he was laughing at her, but because he knew she could get herself out of it, and he got a kick out of the way she did it.

Thanatos was the overprotective one, always there to break heads if anyone pissed her off. He never gave her a chance to defend herself, because he wanted to be there to do it.

Ares took a stance somewhere in the middle. He let her handle her own issues, but if she asked for help—which was a rare occurence—he swooped in and struck fast, hard, and decisively.

They were all so cute and cuddly.

She wanted Reseph back, dammit.

They squeezed through an opening so narrow that Than nearly got stuck, and came out in a chamber where they found the fallen angel pinned to the cave floor, his struggles against the spirits failing.

Zhreziel snarled up at Limos—for some reason, he seemed to dislike her more than he disliked Thanatos—and called her a dozen or so unflattering names.

“Tsk-tsk,” she admonished. “You’re going to piss off my big bro—”

She didn’t even have time to finish, because, as predicted, Thanatos went psycho on Z-boy’s ass. It was all a bit unnecessary, but hey, the fallen angel really was a douche. How could any angel with a desire to earn his way back into Heaven not want the honor of bearing Ares’s agimortus?

Dude was selfish.

Than bound Zhreziel’s hands and feet, and then threw open a Harrowgate. “Time to go do your duty and save a human’s life.”