He stepped into her so they were skin on skin, her plump br**sts pressing into his abs. Breathing deeply, he took in the heady scent of her desire as he bent his head slightly to put his mouth level with her sex. A delicious sting urged him closer as her fingernails dug into the backs of his thighs and her hot breath fanned over his shaft and balls.

Two could play at that game. Though he scarcely had the patience to tease, he took the time to blow on her damp curls as he spread the lips of her sex with his thumbs. The sight of her slick, pink flesh, open and exposed to him, almost made him weak in the knees.

Swimming in need, he licked her from her cl*t to her core, loving the way she squirmed helplessly against him as he did it again. And again.

Almost vengefully, she dragged her lips up his shaft and closed her mouth over the head of him. His c*ck kicked, pulsing as her wet heat sucked him deep. She wasn’t gentle as she worked him, using her teeth to pinch his flesh and her fingernails to score it. Her tongue lashed at him and her lips rasped over sensitive spots, and the blend of sensations had him pumping his hips, f**king her mouth.

But he didn’t forget what he was doing. Pushing his tongue fully inside her, he began a thrusting motion in time with his pelvic action. The peaches-and-cream taste of her, mingled with the salty essence of the sea, drove him harder, and her sweet moans buzzed through him, vibrating his c*ck and spreading through every nerve ending.

He slid his thumbs inward to massage her cl*t between them as he tongued her. Her juices flooded his mouth, and he groaned, swallowing her hungrily.

“Ares.” She gasped his name around the cap of his penis, and damn, he loved feeling her lips move like that, turning his name into an erotic caress.

Sensing the orgasm coiling within her, he doubled his efforts, rolling her swollen nub with the pads of his thumbs and whirling his tongue inside her. Faster and faster, he circled the rim of her opening and then buried his tongue deep. Cara bucked and thrashed, and this time when she called his name, it was in the throes of ecstasy.

He tasted her cl**ax, an extra zing of sweetness on his lips. As she panted through the waning pleasure, he dragged his tongue back to feather it over her quivering clit, and she went off again, her hands gripping his buttocks so hard he knew he’d be bruised, even if only for a few minutes.

“Need… you… now,” he said hoarsely.

Spurred on by pain, passion, and the elemental need to mate, he lifted her, unhooking her legs from the branch. In one smooth move, he flipped her, planting her on her hands and knees on the sandy ground. Pure animal desire compelled him now, and he went to his knees behind her, gripped her hips, and drove his c*ck inside her. He gave her what she’d asked for, sparing her nothing. He pounded into her with everything he had, scooting them both forward and leaving deep grooves in the ground.

“Yes,” she rasped, reaching one hand behind her to gouge his thigh with her nails. “More.”

He hissed, the pleasure-pain building another layer onto his ecstasy, her demand fueling his lust. Growling like something straight out of Sheoul, he snared her wrist, tucked it under her as he grabbed her other arm so she fell forward. Even though the sex haze engulfed him, he was aware that this was his mate, his treasure, and he popped his forearm out so her cheek rested on it instead of the ground.

She thanked him for his courtesy by biting him.

Ah, damn, he loved her. Roughly, he gripped both her wrists in one of his hands and held them prisoner against her flat belly so her ass was in the air and he was covering her. In this position, she was totally at his mercy, completely dominated, and as her moans mingled with the slap of his thighs against her butt, she was also completely lost to pleasure.

His cl**ax boiled in his balls, tingled at the base of his spine, and as it erupted, he sank his teeth into her shoulder, and she shouted in her own release. Pain shot through him as she bit down again on his arm, and f**k that was good, propelling him to another orgasm that hitch-hiked onto the first, the most intense, soul-shattering sexual experience of his life.

Her core squeezed around him, dragging out the pleasurable spasms as they waned. They were both panting, damp with sweat, and every one of Ares’s muscles was quivering. So. Damn. Good.

It took several minutes for his senses to reboot, and then he realized he was crushing Cara, his teeth still buried in her skin, and he scrambled off her. “Shit… Cara… are you okay?”

A lazy smile curved her mouth as she rolled, catlike, onto her back and stretched, exposing her long, beautiful body to him. “That,” she purred, “was what I’ve been wanting all along.”

He swept her into his arms, amazed at his good fortune. “Any time, sweetheart.”

“Good.” She licked his throat, a lingering, hot stroke that jumpstarted him again. “Remember all those things you said to me in the shower?”

His mouth went dry. He remembered. He’d been an ass, describing things he knew she hadn’t done. But they’d just crossed two of them off the list. “Yeah,” he croaked.

“Well, I want to do the rest. Today. So I hope you have candles, honey, a riding crop, and a whole lot of stamina.”

Oh, he had all of those things.

God, he loved this woman.

Twenty-eight

Ares stood in the sand near the sea’s edge, a warm breeze caressing his face. The secluded cove was several hundred yards from his house, at the base of a trail Cara would be trekking down right now. He’d told her he wanted to have a picnic to celebrate their month anniversary, so he’d come ahead of her, had laid out a blanket and a basket containing chocolate, fruit, and champagne. In his hand, he clutched a box with a white-knuckled grip.

He heard Cara’s soft footfalls behind him, and he smiled when she wound her arm around his waist and leaned against his back. “Where’s your mutt? I half expected him to come with you.”

“He made it about a third of the way before he took off after a rabbit.”

“Damned thing is supposed to be hunting rats,” he muttered, but his gruffness was feigned. With the exception of one accident when Hal played a little too rough and nipped Ares, freezing him up for about fifteen minutes, they got along well. They both understood that Cara’s safety and happiness were paramount, and that was perfect common ground.

Ares did get a little nervous when too many other hellhounds roamed the island, however. On the plus side, Pestilence hadn’t returned. The presence of so many of the beasts was a huge deterrent. Especially since he’d made mortal enemies of them by putting a bounty on their heads.

Bad move, brother. One hellhound hating you sucked enough, and Ares knew that for a fact. Having them all hate you? Yeah, Ares wouldn’t want to be in Pestilence’s boots right now.

Ares turned around, devouring the sight of his little hellhound queen. Though he could probably call her a horse queen, given how Battle, Styx, and even Bones worshipped her, and definitely a Ramreel queen.

While Cara was feeding Rath, whom they’d brought into their home, they’d discovered that Cara’s gift worked on animal-based demons. The Ramreels were all over that, and he suspected some of them were intentionally banging themselves up just so Cara would heal them.

She looked down and curled her toes in the sand. “I love being barefoot.”

“Limos must be rubbing off on you.”

Cara grinned. “She gave me this dress, too.”

“Her taste is questionable sometimes, but you look damned fine in ancient Greek fashion.” He trailed his finger over the curve of her one bare shoulder. “Like a goddess.” Unable to resist, he bent and kissed her there, tasting the tang of salt air and the warmth of the sun.

“Mmm… you can keep doing that.”

He smiled against her skin. “Oh, I plan to.”

“So, what were you doing staring out into the sea?”

“Thinking about how lucky I am.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” He lifted his head, feeling nervous and weird and flustered. Definitely not like him, but since meeting Cara, he’d felt a lot of things he wasn’t used to. “This has been the best month of my life.” Even though they were still seeking Limos’s agimortus while putting out Pestilence’s fires all over the globe, he and Cara had made this island their paradise, their sanctuary.

And Cara had turned his life upside down in the best way possible.

“I’ve never been this happy,” Cara murmured.

“Good. Because I have something to ask you.” His mouth was so dry he barely got that last part out. Before she could say anything, he dropped to one knee. “I always thought this was a stupid custom, but I want to do it. I want to honor your time and traditions.”

Her hand came up to her mouth, and her eyes glistened, and he hoped to hell it wasn’t because she was horrified or upset.

He flipped the box open with his thumb. “Will you marry me?”

Cara’s sharp breath filled him with terror. Absolute, mind-numbing terror. He’d rather be bitten by one of her hellhounds than have her say no.

“Ares… oh, that’s a beautiful ring.”

It was a three-carat diamond set into the only thing he had of his human mother’s—a bronze band he’d had coated in platinum to strengthen it while keeping the original, uneven character. “I can get a different setting, or a bigger stone—”

“No.” She sank to her knees to face him. “It’s perfect.”

He swallowed. “Is that a yes?”

She threw her arms around him and planted a big one on his lips. “Yes. Absolutely yes!”

“Thank you, God,” he breathed, as she pulled back just enough to allow him to take the ring from the box and slip it onto her finger. It fit perfectly and looked right on her. So right.

Cara wiggled her fingers, admiring the diamond as it glinted in the golden sunlight. Then she gave him a smile infused with sinfulness. “How secluded is this cove?”

“Very.”

“Then make love to me.”

“So demanding,” he murmured, but he pushed aside her shoulder strap and licked her there, intending to work his way down.