She melted against him, and with her capitulation, his inner animal howled in victory. Her hands gripped his ass and dug in as she arched, allowing him unlimited access to her br**sts and putting her sex against the ridge of his c**k through the fabric of their clothes. They’d been in this position before, on her bed… but he’d been out of it. This was much better. Much more real.

“Do you like this?” He rocked his erection into her, groaning at the hot friction tempered by the cool breeze around them.

“N-no,” she breathed, rolling her h*ps to increase the sensation.

He licked her neck. “Liar. Remember what I said about that?”

His fingers found the bikini ties around her neck, and in a few nimble twists of his fingers, he had the knot untied, and the top fell off, landing on the ground beside them. He bent to taste her rosy ni**les as Limos’s hands slipped under the waistband of his pants to grip his ass. Her nails scored his skin, and he wished she’d do it harder. Or slide those soft palms around front.

As if she could read his thoughts, she sank her nails deep, and then dragged them around to his hips. A low sound erupted from his throat when her thumbs smoothed the sensitive skin of his pelvis on either side of his shaft, and he held his breath, waiting for her to touch him where he needed it so badly.

When her hands stopped moving, he thought he might die of anticipation. For a long, agonizing moment, she didn’t move. Okay, she was afraid. Maybe he was moving too fast. He could do slow, no matter what his body was telling him.

“I’m scaring you,” he whispered.

“I’m… a Horseman,” she whispered back.

He pressed a lingering kiss into the coconut-scented skin between her breasts. “You’re a woman. A gorgeous woman who has experienced everything except this, and you aren’t sure what to do. You’re not used to that feeling.”

“I hate that.” Her voice was a low, pleasured moan. “I hate how you call me out on things, like you know me better than you do.”

He smiled. “You love it, and you know it. Keeps you on your toes.” He dragged his tongue leisurely under the swell of one breast, and then gave the same treatment to the other. Limos practically purred, but her hand remained tamely frozen. He repeated the action, this time pausing to suck first one nipple deep into his mouth, and then the other. Another moan, but no movement.

He wasn’t experienced with virgins, but he knew how to loosen up a woman, and he kept up the tongue action, licking and suckling her sensitive skin, her sweet gasps mingling with the calls of the jungle birds and the soothing splash of the water around them. She didn’t seem to notice when he unbuttoned her skirt and unwrapped it, leaving her in a yellow bikini bottom.

Jesus, she was exquisite. A one-two punch of deadly and sexy that made his instincts whack out with the need to rip the bottoms off and take her. But he had too much respecoo quit for women and too much military training to let his base desires rule, and he tugged her against him and bent to put his mouth to her ear.

“I’ve dreamed about this,” he growled. “I dreamed of all the things I’d do to you. But in none of my fantasies were you a virgin.” He nipped her earlobe, and she gasped sweetly. “I would have killed anyone who made my sister regret her first time, so yeah… you call the shots here.”

All of a sudden, she tore out of his arms and scrambled away from him, backing up on a grassy bank, panting and eyeing him as if he’d sprouted horns. “I can’t.”

Confused as hell, he eased up to her, slowly, because with every step he took, she breathed harder and looked like she was going to bolt. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.”

She wrapped her arms around herself, covering her breasts. “It’s not that. I want to. You don’t know how badly I want to.”

“Then what?” He cursed as the answer popped into his head. “Your fiancé.”

He’d never been one to poach, but this was different. It wasn’t poaching when the male in question was the evilest scumbag to ever exist. Then again, that was about the best reason not to poach there ever was.

“Sort of.” She swallowed audibly, her throat muscles working hard as her hands went to her bikini. Almost mechanically, she shoved the bottoms down and stepped out of them.

Holy shit. The sight took his breath. Her tan skin was perfect, unmarked. Her h*ps were slim, slightly flared, and the place between her muscular thighs was bare.

And around her h*ps was the most amazing piece of jewelry, a delicate gold and pearl chain that fit like string thong underwear. How he’d love to run his tongue over every pearl, following the chain to the one pearl that mattered. After he made her come with his mouth, he’d move the chain aside and enter her… God, he could practically feel those smooth little jewels caressing his shaft as he pumped into her.

“You’re gorgeous,” he managed, noticed he’d moved closer.

“Don’t touch,” she said, stepped back and bumped into a tree. “This—” she hooked her thumbs under the chain at each hip—“is a chastity belt. Only my husband can remove it.”

He frowned. “How is it a chastity belt?”

“If any male touches it with bare skin, it turns into something like razor wire. It severs toes, fingers… cocks.”

Well, if that didn’t just shrivel him up and make his balls crawl up inside his body. “What about you?”

“It hurts.” She shrugged like it was no big deal, but given how the thing was placed… yeah, no wonder she didn’t want males to get close.

He reached for her, careful to keep his lower body away from that beautifully deceptive bit of jewelry, but she lashed out, shoving him away.

“Don’t! Don’t you get it? You can’t touch me.”

“Dammit, Horseman, I didn’t get tossed into Sheoul for nothing. We’ll find a way to work around this.”

Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Are you saying I owe you? You want me to work off all your torture?”

“What? No. Jesus, you’re cynical. I’m saying that I’m a stubborn son of a bitch, and I’m not going to let those skin-peeling, razor-slicing, ass-raping bastards win. I wanted you then, and I want you now. You saved my life and you nursed me back to health. I can’t be angry anymore.”

Don’t,” she rasped. “Don’t make me better than I am.”

What the hell did that mean? He was about to ask, when twin flashes lit up the area. Instinctively, he wheeled in front of Limos as two huge, armored males popped out of summoned Harrowgates. Ares and Thanatos looked at him, looked at Limos, and sized up the situation in less time than it took an M-16 bullet to strike a target at thirty yards.

In all the time Arik was in the torture chamber, he suspected he’d die.

This time, he knew he was dead.

Fifteen

Ares and Thanatos moved before Limos could blink. In a coordinated swoop, Thanatos grabbed Arik while Ares blocked her. She couldn’t see beyond Ares’s broad shoulders, but she heard growls, grunts, and then a splash.

“Dammit!” Swiping her fingers over her throat, she armored up, covering her na**dness, and slammed Ares out of the way. He grabbed her, but she kneed him hard enough in the groin for him to loosen his grip. She used the split second advantage to lunge for Thanatos, who held a struggling, splashing Arik under water.

“Stop it!” she screamed. “You’re killing him.”

Than’s eyes glowed with golden death. “Yes.”

Shit. Once Than went into killing mode, he was nearly unstoppable. There was no time to reason with him, so she tackled him, grabbing him around the waist and knocking him off balance. It was enough for Arik to get his head above water for a deep, choked breath, but then Thanatos was back at his task, brushing off Limos as if she were no more than a pesky fly.

Ares came at her, and she was done being nice. In an instant, she drew her sword and swung it in a broad arc. Her aim was perfect, and the reverberation from the impact of metal meeting the flesh and bone in Than’s neck jolted her arms. Blood sprayed, coating the sword, turning the water around them red. Thanatos yelped, releasing Arik to slap his hands over the gushing wound.

She ignored his curses and Ares’s shouts of “What the hell, Limos?” and hauled Arik up from the water. He surfaced, gasping for air, relief and furyhe alternating in his expression.

“You jackasses!” she snapped, and then found herself holding Arik back from trying to take a piece out of Than as her brother fought to keep from bleeding out. Oh, her strike wouldn’t kill Than even if he did bleed out, but it would take a good day for him to regenerate. “Arik can’t be allowed to die. You know that!”

Ares snarled, his hand poised over his sword, his furious gaze fixed on Arik. “What was he doing to you?”

“Nothing I didn’t want.” Ares’s hand dropped to the hilt, and Limos, who never panicked… panicked.

“Didn’t Than tell you?” She turned to Than, who still looked murderous. “You know we can’t kill him, you fool.”

“Why not?” Ares asked.

“Yeah,” Arik rasped. “Why not? Not that I’m complaining.”

Than settled down as logic finally wrestled his death haze into compliance. “Pestilence fouled him.”

Well, that was a groaner. Thanatos had never had a knack for diplomacy or tact.

“What?” Arik climbed onto the shore, where he sat, arms across his raised knees. “What do you mean, Pestilence fouled me?”

Limos braced herself for his reaction. “He drank your blood,” she said. “And he made you drink his.”

“I don’t remember any of that. How do you know?”

“He told me. After I found you.”

“Okay, that’s gross and I want to puke, maybe right after I cut his f**king head off, but what does this have to do with not killing me?”

Thanatos peeled his hand away from his throat, which had partially healed and was oozing now instead of spurting. “Pestilence bound your soul to him.”

Arik leaped to his feet. “He what?”

“When you die,” Limos explained, “your soul will belong to him.” Hopefully, it would be a long time before that happened. She just wished she could figure out why Pestilence was holding off. Reseph had never been the patient kind, and turning evil had only made him even more of an instant-gratification sort of guy.

“Son of a—” He broke off to peg her with a hard stare. “Why didn’t you tell me this earlier?”

“When should I have told you?” She huffed, her temper suddenly caustic, the result, she was sure, of a bitter blend of sexual frustration, her brothers’ overprotective idiocy, and Arik’s suspicious tone. “Maybe when you were already hating me for getting you thrown into Sheoul? Or how about when you didn’t believe anything I said was real? Or while you were eating something decent for the first time?” She snapped her fingers. “Oh, I know, telling you my evil brother owns your soul would have been awesome sexy talk while you were trying to get into my bikiniint0em".”

There was another low, menacing growl from Than, which she ignored.

She gathered her bikini and wraparound. “It was for your own good.”

She could feel Arik’s anger practically blistering her skin, but it faded quickly, and he offered her a respectful nod of apology or, perhaps, acknowledgment that what she’d said made sense. In her experience, few men were so quick to admit mistakes, but he definitely didn’t seem the type to be ruled by irrational or defensive anger. She shot him a small smile of thanks before turning to Thanatos.

“Why are you here?”

“Because Reaver still hasn’t shown up. I’ve tried to summon both him and Harvester several times. And now The Aegis is playing some kind of game with us.” Thanatos’s hands fisted at his sides. “I want to know if our Watchers know anything about it.”

“What kind of game?”

“They sent an Elder to live with me.”

Talk about an unwanted house guest. “You’re kidding.”

Than splashed water over his throat and then shook droplets out of his hair like a great cat. “Do I look like I’m kidding? Because you know what a practical joker I am.”

A pall fell over them for a second, because Reseph had been a huge lover of practical jokes, and their lives had become decidedly less fun since he turned ghastbat-shit insane.

She cleared her throat to break the tension. “Who did they send?”

Ares flicked his finger over the crescent-shaped scar on his neck, and his armor melted away. “It always seems so wrong to wear armor on a tropical island,” he muttered. “They sent a female named Regan.”

“Regan?” Arik snorted. “Good luck with her. Why don’t you just say no?”

“Because it’s a good idea,” Ares said. “We’ve been out of touch with The Aegis for a long time. This is our chance to catch up on what they’ve learned over the centuries. And she may be able to help us find Limos’s agimortus with her gift.”

“That’s good news.” Arik said, wiping beads of water from his brow. “We know it’s a small cup, but we don’t have its history. Maybe you can shed some light on that?”

“The Aegis and R-XR knows what it needs to know,” Than said.

Arik rolled his eyes. “You arrogant asses. Your stale grudge against The Aegis is blinding you.”

“Human,” Than barked, “you don’t talk to us like that.”