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  He climbed onto the bed then and hooked his fingers in the waistband of the boxers she was wearing, slowly pulling them down her legs before sliding his hands under the T-shirt, briefly cupping and massaging her breasts while he inched the cotton material higher on her chest. Finally, he scooted the fabric over her head, and they were both as naked as the day they were born.

  “By the gods, you’re beautiful,” he whispered reverently as he began kissing a line from the shell of her ear down to her neck and then lower. The searing heat from his lips and tongue trailed down her chest to her breasts until he circled her nipple with his mouth, nibbling and biting at it while his fingers rolled and pinched the other.

  Her breath came in short panting gasps, and she thought she might have an orgasm just from him playing with her nipples.

  When his knees nudged her legs apart, a nervous but excited quiver ran through her body. She wanted him so badly, wanted to feel his hands on her, his mouth on her, his cock inside her, everything.

  One of his hands ran up the length of her thigh and over her stomach, brushing and caressing her skin as it moved, leaving a trail of fire in its wake. Her whole body was hot for him; she could literally feel heat radiating out of her, and for some reason, she knew it was because of him.

  The same hand that had been caressing her thigh a moment ago moved around to her most sensitive areas. A finger slowly stroked her folds, spreading her wetness around, and when it found her bud of pleasure, it stopped and circled multiple times, ratcheting her desire ever higher.

  Fiona reached her hand between them. It had until that point been holding on to his hair, like it would keep her grounded in reality, but now it sought a greater prize. She paused to slightly play with his nipples, earning her some groans and muffled curse words, before she continued her journey south.

  She skimmed over his stomach, feeling the ridges and the small ticklish hairs that let her know she was on the right track. Finally, she found his cock.

  The thick velvety head pushed against her hand as she rubbed her hand over it and down his shaft. Just as she was starting to get a good rhythm going and she could feel his hips moving, pushing his cock into her hand even further, he changed his tactics.

  The finger that had been gently stroking and circling slipped inside her and began thrusting in and out. She writhed as much as she could with her ribs still hurting. When his thumb joined in, stroking back and forth over her clit, she just about lost it.

  “I want you inside me before I come,” Fiona said in a strangled voice, surprising herself. She didn’t usually ask for what she wanted, and hadn’t expected to say anything during their time together, but she felt so at ease with Ben. He comforted her soul, easing the roughness that Tommy had created. Ben’s touch, his scent, his very presence was a balm on her nerves.

  “Whatever you wish, love,” he grunted as he moved his cock toward her opening.

  The thick head pushed against her folds, teasing her in the most erotic way. Ben eased himself into her fraction by fraction, and she relished the feeling of being filled by him. Once he was fully sheathed within her, he groaned.

  “By the gods, Fi, you feel amazing.”

  “So do you,” she said when she was able to speak again.

  His hand slid between them, and he began wiggling a finger back and forth over her sensitized nub. The orgasm was suddenly right there. She could feel her muscles clenching around his cock as they prepared to spasm.

  “Move,” she whispered.

  “Not until you come,” he growled back.

  She shimmied her hips back and forth as much as she could, making Ben groan in pleasure. As though she had broken the spell, his hips slowly withdrew his cock before thrusting it back into her in one long stroke, which, when combined with the ministrations of his fingers, had her dancing on the edge of an orgasm.

  “Again,” she breathed, her hands clenching the bedsheets.

  Ben moved again. This time, he slowed his fingers while he pulled out, and sped back up when he thrust into her. It was heaven. He seemed to understand exactly what she needed, and as he thrust in long hard strokes, his fingers practically vibrated over her clit.

  She was barely able to take a breath before the wave of pleasure crested over her, making her clench everything so her body didn’t buck too much and hurt her ribs again. The walls of her pussy pulsed around his cock, and she felt him pause.

  “Don’t stop, don’t stop,” she chanted like a prayer.

  Each time he thrust into her, a new wave of pleasure exploded within her. She had never had an orgasm like it before, and knew that without Ben, she would never have one like it again. His thrusts slowly sped up, and as her pleasure continued to spike and recede, she couldn’t focus on anything except the pounding rhythm of his hips smacking against her own.

  She could hear skin slapping against skin and knew she should probably be hurting more than she was, but all she wanted was to give him the same pleasure he had given her. Fiona moved her hips in time with his thrusts and began playing with his nipples again.

  “Fuck, Fi . . . If you do that, I won’t last,” he grunted between thrusts.

  “You don’t need to. We can do this again later,” she said, biting down on his earlobe.

  His hands came away from her body and completely braced his body over hers as he began to pound into her. She slipped her own hand between them and continued to play with her clit, working her way toward another orgasm that she knew would be just as powerful as the first.

  Within moments, her overly sensitive body was on edge. She held off for as long as she could, walking the tightrope of an orgasm and intense pleasure, while she waited for Ben to find his release.

  His grunts were becoming more desperate, and his hands had fisted the sheet on either side of her head. Within seconds, he was growling as his own orgasm overwhelmed him. He thrust into her a few more times as he spilled himself within her, and as her fingers swirled, her own orgasm crested.

  This time, there was no controlling her body. It bucked and stretched while her inner muscles milked his cock, pulsing around him as he made a whole new set of noises that were somewhere between a groan and a prayer.

  Eventually, when both of their bodies had stopped spasming, Fiona was able to see and actually focus on the man who had just given her the most amazing orgasm ever. His reddish-brown eyes were dazed but watching her.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  She shook her head.

  Ben eased himself out, and she instantly missed his cock’s presence within her. As he rolled to one side, he said, “That was amazing.”

  “Yeah, it was.” She pushed a breath out as the world slowly began to settle into place around her once again.

  They both lay in silence for a while, completely exhausted by the pleasure they had just felt. Ben’s arm came around and pulled her into him. Even though her ribs prevented her from lying on her side and putting her head on his chest like she wanted to, just being close and touching was enough, at least for now.

  Her heart thudded painfully in her chest. She didn’t want to leave him, not this amazing man whom she had confessed her life story to without feeling overly self-conscious. It didn’t hurt that he had just given her the best orgasm of her life, either.

  A loud noise in the other room made her heart stop, and a sickening feeling spread over her body. Tommy had found them; she just knew it.

  Chapter 11

  A loud crash sounded in the living room, and Ben shot to his feet, barely getting boxers on before heading out of the bedroom door. Tommy filled the door to the apartment, and Ben silently cursed. Not only had the bastard found them, but he’d just lost him his security deposit.

  “Did you think I wouldn’t track you down?” the other man growled as he took a step forward.

  Ben heard Fiona gasp from the bedroom as she heard Tommy’s voice, and judging by the rage contorting the man’s face, so had he.

  “She in there? Was she a good lay
for you? Did she suck you off? Do that little trick with her tongue? Fucking slut. Should have known she couldn’t keep her legs together. You weren’t about to turn your nose up at her, either, were you? Didn’t matter that she belonged to someone else, did it?” Each sentence only seemed to ratchet his anger higher.

  When Fiona came out of the bedroom wrapped in nothing but a sheet, Ben wanted to throw his hands in the air and give up. It was the last thing he needed—the sight of her, post sex, to really set Tommy’s anger off.

  “Can’t even get dressed? I suppose there’s no point if you’re just going to open your legs for anyone interested.”

  “I am not a slut, you fucking asshole!” she screamed at him while tears streamed down her face.

  Ben stepped in front of her, shielding her and blocking her from Tommy’s line of sight. “You need to leave.”

  “Fat fucking chance of that happening.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you unnecessarily.”

  He burst out laughing. “I want to hurt you, though, and I’m going to.”

  Ben stepped forward and used the extra speed and strength he had even without being a full fury to throw a punch that should have knocked the other man out. When Tommy staggered back but didn’t fall, trepidation crawled up his spine.

  Tommy spit a mouthful of blood out onto the carpet. “You can use your super moves and super speed on me all you want, but once I get an opening, you’ll be begging for me to lay off.”

  “How the hell did you find me? How do you find me over and over again?” Fiona shouted from the kitchen area, clearly trying to distract their attacker.

  “I found you because this one is dumb enough to wear the T-shirt of his workplace around town when he gets in fights and such things. Not to mention your dumb-as-rocks coworkers who gave you up time and again after the slightest amount of pressure.” The other man grinned, and Ben wanted to throttle himself. He hadn’t even thought about the fact that he was wearing one of his work T-shirts.

  Ben rushed him, tackling him to the floor at the expense of his coffee table, which shattered under the combined weight of the two of them. If he’d gone straight down, then Ben was sure Tommy would’ve had the wind knocked out of him, but the table softened the blow. He rolled as soon as he hit the ground, forcing Ben down and pinning him with his weight.

  “Does she know what you are?” Tommy hissed, spittle landing on Ben’s face.

  Panic clenched Ben’s heart. There was no way this crazed stalker could have figured out what he was.

  “Thought so.”

  “You don’t know shit,” Ben said, pushing against him and levering the other man off.

  “You just told me everything I needed to know.”

  Rage flashed through Ben, bringing his fury even closer to the surface. As though it could sense the fight, smell the blood that had been spilled already, its power surged through him, and he pushed Tommy so hard that the other man went flying into the air, only to land back against the small table he had in the kitchen.

  This time, the wind was knocked out of him, but by the time Ben had gotten to his feet and made it over there, the other man was already getting up as well.

  “Did he tell you what he is?” Tommy asked, glancing at Fiona before lunging forward and swinging at Ben, who ducked as though it was the most natural thing in the world.

  He risked a glance at Fiona, only to find the seed of doubt planted within her at Tommy’s words. If she was going to question him, then he figured he might as well give the fight everything he had. His fist came up and connected with Tommy’s gut hard enough that he heard the crack of the man’s ribs. As he punched him again and again, Ben let the floodgates of his anger open. The fury inside relished the unusual opportunity to seek vengeance and justice for a crime that had gone unpunished. Finally, he pushed Tommy toward the door, trying to get him as far away from Fiona as possible, knowing that if he didn’t get a handle on himself soon, he’d kill the other man, and he didn’t have permission for that yet.

  The other man wheeled around and charged him again. Ben braced and let Tommy hit before shoving him back with enough force that he sent the man sailing through the air again, only to smack into the drywall next to the remains of his front door. Yeah, there was no way he was going to be able to explain this to Fiona or his landlord.

  When Tommy didn’t immediately stir, he took the opportunity to check on the woman whose life he was trying to save. She’d backed up against the small counter in the kitchen, just by the knife block that sat on the counter. Pride swelled within him at the idea of her being thoughtful enough to look for a weapon even though she’d been antagonizing Tommy.

  “You okay?” he asked, gently cupping her face.

  She nodded, but her eyes were still full of fear. What killed him was he didn’t know if the fear was of Tommy or of him or both.

  “Why don’t we get you dressed and get out of here?”

  She just nodded again, and worry seeped in. Was she really scared of him? He had just thrown her ex around the room a couple times, but he’d been doing it to protect her.

  “Neither of you are going anywhere,” Tommy’s voice croaked from behind them.

  When Fiona’s eyes widened with terror, Ben went to turn to see what new threat Tommy posed, but a crack sounded behind him, followed by a burst of pain over his chest. His hand immediately went up to the pain, only to find blood coming out of a hole in his chest. The tile backsplash from the counter had shattered, and he hadn’t even noticed. Before shock could completely set in, he pulled a knife from the block, turned, and threw it with enough force that it buried itself up to the hilt in Tommy’s chest, directly over his heart.

  The other man fell back against the wall and clutched at the weapon, pulling it from his chest like an idiot. If he had wanted to live, he should have left it where it was so it could stem the bleeding. The fury within him rejoiced in the fact that he’d destroyed the threat and delivered vengeance to someone who had so clearly deserved it.

  When the fog surrounding his brain cleared slightly, he heard Fiona screaming and realized he was on the floor. He must have fallen after he threw the knife. As he glanced over at Tommy and the massive red stain spreading out over his shirt, Ben saw the leg on the other man’s pants was lifted, revealing the ankle holster that had held the gun. Suddenly, faces of his neighbors were in the doorway, fear distorting their normally cheerful expressions. Fiona was by his side then, crouched on the floor, turning his head to face her.

  “I’ve called nine-one-one. Just hold on, okay?” She held his own phone up to show him as though it would convince him to stay alive. He didn’t even know where she’d retrieved it from. His pants in the other room? Had he left it on the table? It was a mystery.

  “Fiona . . .”

  “Shh, save your strength,” she said through the tears now streaming down her face.

  “If I die, then it’s okay, because I saved you. Don’t worry. I know what’s waiting for me.”

  “You’re not allowed to die, not when I only just found you.”

  He smiled and could already feel his body growing cold as he bled out. It didn’t matter how much pressure she applied to his chest or how quickly the ambulance arrived, he was as sure as he’d ever been about anything that this was his time. He was just glad he’d been able to save her life in the process. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he wheezed as breathing became more challenging.

  “Shut up. You need to stop talking and live,” she begged him. Her voice pleaded with him to stay, as did her eyes, but it wasn’t going to do any good.

  “I could have . . . fallen in love with you . . . so easily. You’re perfect,” he gasped, only able to get a few words out at a time.

  “I could have loved you too,” she sobbed.

  He watched her hazel orbs for as long as he could, memorizing the flecks of gold and brown that mixed with the green. The tears in her eyes made the colors dance and shimmer until that was all he could see.
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  Chapter 12

  Ben opened his eyes to find himself sitting on the red sofa in the fury’s area of the Underworld and his aunt Megaera staring at him, with his mother, Tisiphone, standing behind her to the left and his other aunt, Alecto, standing to the right. Behind all three of them was Hades.

  There were other faces off to the side. Evander and the twins Daphne and Phoebe. They were his cousins and already controlled their fury forms. All of them watched him with wide eyes since he was only the second one to go through the transition by dying. His cousins were more fury than anything else, so they had never had to die to control their fury side.

  They hadn’t expected it with Cin. Plus, when she died, her murderer was still alive, so her vengeance ran strong within her when she first woke up.

  His heart galloped in his chest. He couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t ready, not now that he’d met Fiona. All those times he’d wished for death, taking unnecessary risks, all because he wanted access to what everyone else in his family had. He regretted them now, and would take them all back if it meant he could stay with Fiona.

  “Be calm, Nephew. You are among family,” Megaera said, her red silk dress flowing around her in a breeze only she felt.

  He tried, but anger flowed through him like lava.

  “Benjamin. Lord Hades is here to speak with you. You need to conduct yourself accordingly,” his mother said, her ebony gown extending behind her as she approached him. Tisiphone’s eyes blazed with the fury of her vengeance as she tried to compel him with a stern gaze to behave as expected. The problem was, he hadn’t grown up fearing that gaze, so it rolled off his back.

  “Is he dead?” he asked, looking directly into his mother’s black eyes.

  She didn’t so much as blink. Hades’ voice broke their staring contest. “He is. If you want, I can give him a room in Tartarus for a bit? You can practice your control over your abilities on him.”