Thalos
He’d never seen anything as beautiful as Ariadne coming undone. He pulled his mouth away from her, but he still held her open to his gaze. He stared as she pulsed before him, little aftershocks making her clit jump every now and again.
His dick felt ready to burst, but he wouldn’t do anything else with her. Shouldn’t have done this, not after she’d had champagne for the first time. But she’d only had a glass and a half.
Still, he hoped she wouldn’t regret this in the morning. He’d wanted to give her some pleasure, and he had. Now he wanted to crawl up over her hot body and bury himself within her until he lost himself inside her.
He wouldn’t, though. Instead, he pulled her knickers back into place and kissed her belly, before pulling himself out of the pool and helping her sit up.
“Wow.” She looked at him with shining eyes. “That was… I’ve never… I mean…”
He laughed. “Well, one glass of champagne might lower your inhibitions, but it doesn’t help your vocabulary.”
“And the amber fire drink.”
“Sorry?” He looked at her with narrowed eyes.
“I had two amber fire drinks while you were gone.”
“Amber fire drinks?” What the hell was she talking about?
“The waiter brought two drinks over, while you were in the toilets. I waited a while, but then I tasted one and I loved it. It burned my stomach. Then I wanted more of it, so I drank it. And I drank yours. I put the glasses on the next table.”
She had the grace to blush.
“You drank two brandies?”
“If that’s what the amber fire drink is, then…yes. I’m sorry I had yours, but you took forever.”
“I was chatting to the owner.” Fuck. He pushed down his anger, but Jesus. This put a whole different perspective on what they’d just done.
“You need a coffee and then bed.”
Ariadne went to reach for him, but he pulled away. Her face fell, and he hated how hurt she looked, so he took her face between her hands.
“This isn’t me rejecting you. I want you. You have no idea how much. But you’re drunk, and no way am I taking advantage of that. You need a strong coffee, plenty of water, and bed.”
“You just made me feel beautiful. Made my body feel alive.” She snuggled into him, and something inside him softened.
He held her for a while, all thoughts of fucking her gone as he simply enjoyed having her in his arms.
Finally, he disentangled himself and headed into the kitchen.
Later, after two cups of coffee and a glass of water, Ariadne started to yawn.
“Come on. Bed for you.” He looked at her, and she didn’t seem too much the worse for wear. “You might be lucky and avoid a hangover in the morning.”
She smiled sleepily and let herself be led to bed. Once he’d tucked her in, Thalos headed to his own room, his mind a mess. He couldn’t stop replaying the moment she came apart in front of him. No one else had ever seen her do that. No one else had been allowed a glimpse of Ariadne with all her walls down in such a way, and it meant something to him. Damn it, he might not want it to, but it did.
He’d known the other day the game was changing on him. His plan to seduce her, make her his for the duration of her stay, was in disarray. Because if he did, then he didn’t think he could let her go.
What would the Seer say?
Besides which, would Ariadne even want to stay? He doubted it. Until he’d taken her out on his boat, she’d been wilting here. Her life before had consisted of running in her equine form most days, not cooped up in a house, however palatial. Most likely, he’d fall hard and fast for her because, let’s be honest, it was happening already, and then she’d leave.
Sick of the way his head kept going round and round on the subject, he opened his laptop and did some work. His investments were doing well, and his property portfolio grew nicely. Then Ariadne’s words slammed into him. You could use it to do some good.
Why did he need all this wealth? He couldn’t ever spend it. Crap, she was right. He could do something so much better with it all than simply watch it grow. Tomorrow, he’d put a call in to his current financial manager and tell him to sell off most of the property, keeping only this place, his house in California, and the new place he’d bought on the Italian Riviera. His next likely home.
He clicked on the folder that contained his property around the world and scrolled through it, adding up in his head roughly how much it would be worth. About two-thirds of the way down, he froze. Holy shit!
He stared at the property details and began to smile. He’d bought this place two years ago and forgotten about it. An old farmhouse up in the mountains here on Corfu, it came with about seven acres of land. He’d had some vague idea of turning it into a resort, as there was a lake on the land and it had distant sea views, but then he’d dropped the idea. It wasn’t worth much in its current state, although the house was perfectly livable. However, it was in the mountains. Private, and somewhere Ariadne could run but with views of the villages down to the sea. Similar to the scenery she’d loved so much at the restaurant.
He could take her there. Tomorrow. Let her change form and run. Hell, he could change too. How long had it been since he’d let his horse out to play? Too long by far. Suddenly excited, he shut off the laptop. Yes, tomorrow he’d take her up there, for no other reason than he wanted to do something for her. The thought should terrify him, and partly it did, but it also warmed his chest, and he lay back against his duck-down pillows with a smile.
The next morning at breakfast, Ariadne seemed fine. He’d been expecting awkwardness or at least for her to have a hangover. But she seemed the same as any previous morning. As they ate their toast and drank coffee, he began to speak.
“How would you like to change into your horse and go for a run?”
She looked at him, and her eyes widened as a huge smile spread across her face. “I’d love it. So much! Where can we do it? Do you know somewhere?”
“It so happens, I do. We could go there for a couple of days, and you can run as much as you’d like.”
“Just us two?” And there it was, a flash of uncertainty.
“Yes, unless…you know, after last night…you’d rather Marina came with us. But rest assured, nothing like that will happen again. I should never have let it happen and won’t in future. I’m sorry.”
She frowned but nodded. “It’s okay. Just the two of us sounds…nice.”
“Okay, then. Why don’t you pack a bag after we’re done here?”
Once they’d finished eating and both packed, he went in search of Marina to tell her they’d be gone for a couple of days. His phone was a satellite one, so they’d have a signal even up in the mountains.
He’d packed up some food for a few days into a freezer bag and grabbed some bedding from the linen closet. He also put in some cleaning products because the place might be a bit dusty and musty. He’d hired a cleaning crew to go through the house when he’d bought it. At the time, he’d also picked out some basic furniture, mostly thinking a work crew might be living there if they were building the hotel and apartments he’d been planning.
The drive took about forty minutes, and he sensed Ariadne’s building excitement. “Do you miss it so much? Being in your horse form?”
She nodded. “It’s how I’ve lived most of my life. I’ll be honest, though, these last few days, the things I’ve enjoyed in my human form, it’s made me see how having a mix of both can be good. I don’t think I want to go back to living in my horse form twenty-four seven, but I’ll always need to change regularly, I think.”
He nodded and understood. When he’d been much younger, he used to want to shift a lot. These days, he hardly ever did. Just another thing he’d grown bored of.
They pulled up outside the rambling old farmhouse, and he looked beyond it to the fields and the mountainside that formed part of the land and smiled. He never did make Ariadne her favorite dish of horta, and now he could.
Once inside the house, he looked around with satisfaction. It wasn’t too bad. Open a few windows and wipe down the surfaces, and it would be okay for a few days. “I’m sorry it’s so basic. I bought it a while ago, intending to build a hotel here.”
She gave a cry of dismay, and he whipped around to look at her. “What’s wrong?”
“You were going to build a hotel? Here? On this land?”
“Erm, yes.”
“Oh, no. You mustn’t. It’s about the most perfect place I’ve ever seen. A gorgeous mix of isolated and yet near enough to see villages below and the sea. Why would you ruin it by putting a hotel here? Bringing tourists here.”
“I’m not going to anymore.”
Her shoulders relaxed.
“I’m going to sell it now, but I thought we could come here for a few days.”
“You’re going to sell it?” Once more, the dismay crept into her voice.
Why did he feel like he kept failing some sort of test? “Yes. I mean, if I’m not going to develop it, I can sell it to someone who will use it. I’ve decided you were right the other day. I do have too much. Too much money and too much property. I’m going to offload a lot of it and give it to charity.”
He thought that might win him some brownie points and make her smile, but she kept looking crestfallen. “Don’t sell this place, Thalos. It’s special.”
“What’s it to you? You won’t be here for much longer.” He couldn’t help the words. He didn’t want to argue with her. He’d brought her here to make her happy, but it was true. She intended to leave and go find some herd she could live with, so why did she care? She’d be gone, and he’d have to go back to his life as it was before she came into it. Safe. Easy. Boring.
Her face fell further, and she began to busy herself with unpacking the cleaning supplies.
“I don’t mean to cause a row. Only…we both know you won’t be staying with me. You think I’m immoral. My whole way of life is wrong.”
She turned to him, those golden-brown eyes of hers almost flooring him with the expression in them. “I didn’t even know staying was an option.”
Then she walked out of the room, and he heard her head upstairs. He let her go, not sure what the hell to do now. He’d pushed things this far. Did he want it to be an option? He didn’t want her to go. Not yet, but could he commit to the long term? And if he couldn’t, would it be fair to keep her here? All this time, he’d been assuming she’d leave once somewhere had been found for her to go. Now the idea she might also be wanting something more, to stay here for longer, both exhilarated him and made him want to run out the door and get on the first plane going halfway around the world.
And say she did want to stay. As what? His mate? Whoa, just…no. He didn’t do mates. Did he? And she would not be his fuckbuddy. Or his friend with benefits. No way would Ariadne settle for something along those lines.
Shit. Why did things have to be so complicated? He finally met someone who lit up his drab world, and she might as well be an alien for all they had in common. How would they find middle ground?
Her herd spent their lives on the same forsaken lump of land. Never moving, never traveling. Such an existence would drive him insane. Yes, he could stay put for a decade or so, but then he got itchy feet. And he needed to be near to human life. He couldn’t, say, live out here in the hills forever, never venturing into towns or cities.
Maybe, possibly, he could live here if he had plenty of visits elsewhere. It wouldn’t be so bad if the place were spruced up some. And it was only forty minutes to Corfu Town. It could be a base of sorts. And he wouldn’t need to leave as no one lived close by to witness his non-aging situation.
He ought to go and talk to Ariadne because he needed to be honest with her if nothing else. Trudging up the stairs, dreading this, because he did the whole let’s talk thing so badly, he almost laughed at himself. He hadn’t given a shit about anyone else’s feelings for centuries, and now he kept getting himself all worked up about this female.
She stood in one of the rooms, looking out over the view to the sea. And he had to admit, it was stunning.
She turned to him and raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to speak. He loved it when her imperious side came out to play. She began to turn away, and he cleared his throat.
“Look, I want to be honest with you. I like you. I mean…a lot. I’m not good at this stuff because I’m not used to it. I don’t know if asking you to stay is on the table. I want it to be, but I’m not sure I know how to do this. And I’m convinced we want different things from life. But all I know is since you walked through my door nearly three weeks ago now, you’ve changed me. Challenged me. You’ve made me think. And no one has done so in the longest time. I want you, physically, I’ll admit as much. But it’s deeper than that. Problem is, we go there, and our hearts get involved. I can see one or both of us being hurt.”
“So…what you’re saying, essentially, is you don’t know what the hell you want?”
He shrugged and braced himself for her anger, but it didn’t come. Instead, she smiled. “Ditto. I’m the same, Thalos. I’m a mess. And I don’t know what I want either. Half of me is praying for the Seer to come tell me she’s found a nice cozy herd for me to fit in to. The other half is dreading it.”
“Well, at least we’re on the same page. Look, do you want to forget all this for a while? Go for a run. Change?”
She grinned at him. A huge, fucking gorgeous grin and his own mouth twitched up in response. “I’d love it.”
He wondered how she changed. For some shifters, it was almost instant. Others, like the dragons, took more time. For him, the shift was instantaneous, but his was more due to magic than any innate biological reason. He hadn’t been born able to shift, and he and the few other remaining Centaurs could only do so due to the powerful magic bestowed upon them.
They headed down the stairs and outside. There’d be no one around for miles. The land lay far from any other settlements and was still mostly surrounded by tall fences. They could strip off their clothes and change without worrying about being seen. But she might want privacy from his gaze. He cleared his throat. “Do you want me to go around the other side of the house while you change?”
She shook her head. “I think we’re beyond that, don’t you?”
As she undressed, he made himself look away and focus on taking off his own clothes. He willed himself not to get hard, and miraculously, his dick behaved. Once fully nude, he straightened and was shocked as shit to find Ariadne still in her bra and panties, staring at him. She flushed as she looked, but she didn’t avert her gaze. Instead, she swept it down his body and back up.
She lingered on his dick, and the fucking thing started to respond. He cleared his throat, and it broke the spell. She dragged her stare back to his face and gave a tiny shake of her head, as if clearing it of impure thoughts or something. Then she pushed her own panties down and took off her bra.
“How do you do it?” he asked. “The change, I mean.”
“It takes a few moments. I focus on my horse form, and she comes to me. Because we don’t do it often, we can take longer than some.”
She struck him as embarrassed by it, so he turned away and let himself change. One moment, he was human, the next, he was in his horse form. A huge black stallion, and damn intimidating if he did say so himself. In his Centaur form, which he could still take if he so chose, his horse half was dark brown but much bigger. He also could move faster, and he could wield his bow and arrow at the same time as he ran. Deadly accurate, and with the hearing of an owl and the scent capabilities of a bear, he was a fearsome hunter. Not that he’d hunted for years, but it put him firmly on the opposite side of things to Ariadne, who ultimately, was a prey animal.
As a Centaur, truthfully, he fit better with the wolf and big cat shifters than he would with the horse shifters. Or, even more accurately, with the dragons and other supposedly mythical beasts. Gods, humans would have a shit fit if they knew what lived among them.
He turned and pawed at the ground, getting used to his horse, and he stopped and stared. Ariadne stood before him, a stunning gray mare. Her horse form was absolutely beautiful, and her almost white body contrasted with a darker mane and tail. She swished her tail, reared up, and set off at a run.
Not wanting to be left behind, he gave chase. It took him a while to catch up to her, though. While he was in command when in his human skin, his horse took some getting used to. Ariadne, though? She was grace personified as she galloped across the land. Soon he found his rhythm, and he wondered why the hell he’d been so long without this. The freedom he sensed exhilarated every molecule of his body as his blood sang. He picked up the pace, wanting to go faster. They were running at speeds no horse could keep up with now, and if anyone saw them, they’d be flabbergasted.
They soon reached the lake, and Ariadne turned and looked at him with a whinny. He tossed his head in what he hoped looked like a nod, and she waded in until she began to swim. He followed her. They swam across the lake and back and pulled themselves out onto shore.
As they clambered up the bank, Ariadne slipped and stumbled, going down as she went over a rear hoof, landing heavily on her side. In a panic, he changed form immediately and ran to her. Shit. She could have broken a leg or something.
“Ariadne, can you change?” Changing should help her heal some, he hoped, but maybe that was just legend. Gods, he didn’t know enough about the ways of true shifters.
She changed slowly in front of him, crying out in pain as she finally snapped into her human body.
“It’s the same leg I hurt on the boat. Still a bit sore and weak so I went over on it again. It’s okay, but it’s throbbing. I won’t be able to run back. Do you mind if we take it slow?”
He shook his head, but then a thought struck him. “Or we could take it fast.” He grinned at her, and she frowned back. “Let me change, and you can ride me back.”
“I’m naked. And I haven’t ridden a horse before.”
“You’re shitting me? A horse shifter who hasn’t ridden a horse?”
She nodded. “We’re not like those shifters out on ranches and in Britain who see horses as lesser than those who can change. We see them as our equals, so we would never ride them.”
He shrugged. “I’m offering. And I’m not a normal horse or a shifter. I’ll change into my Centaur form, so long as you promise not to freak out. You can wrap your arms around my waist that way, and I’ll hold on to you too. You can grab on to my mane, and I promise to make it a smooth ride.”
“I’m naked!” she repeated her point.
“I know.” He grinned. “It will be like having my own Lady Godiva.”
She shot him an exasperated look, but as she went to stand, she winced. “It’s not serious. But if I put a strain on it now walking all that way back, it might hurt.”
“I’ll change, and then you climb on up.” He flashed into his Centaur form and watched as she took a step back.
If she rejected him in this form, she’d be rejecting his very essence.
“Gods, you are so big.”
He nodded at her and beckoned for her to come to him. He hoped she didn’t find him ugly this way. Lower body of a horse, all four legs and all, and then his human half growing out of where the horse’s neck would begin. Strong and powerful. The same as his usual body but with more muscle.
She came to him, biting her lip.
“Climb on,” he said.
She did, with remarkable ease given that she’d never ridden before. She shuffled forward until near his body, but he noticed she held herself far enough back that she didn’t come into contact with the human skin on his back.
“Sweetheart, you need to lean in and wrap your arms around me, as if you’re riding a bike.”
She sighed but did as he said. Once he felt her breasts against his back and her arms around his front, he reached his own arms up and took hold of her hands, keeping her secure.
“Ready?”
“Yes.”
She sounded anything but, and he bit back a laugh. He set off at a smooth canter at first, but once he sensed she’d grown used to moving with him, he upped the speed and broke into a gallop. He could go fast in this form. Way faster than any horse shifter. And at one point, she gave a little cry of excitement as he cleared a small pool of water in one big bound.
He reached the farmhouse and came to a stop, bending his front legs toward the ground to let Ariadne climb off him more easily. She slid to the ground, and he flashed back to his human form.
“Oh my gods!” She seemed to forget her nudity as she flung her arms out to the sides. “That was amazing. I felt as if I were flying! You can go so fast. Much faster than I realized.”
She ran to him and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly. And damn him, he responded to the feel of her naked in his arms. He tried to maneuver his lower body away from her, but she pressed in closer, and then her lips rested against his neck. Not daring to move, he stood still and waited to see what she would do.
At first, she breathed against him, her damp breath against his neck making all the little hairs at his nape stand on end. But then Ariadne moved her mouth and began to place soft kisses against his skin. She took a deep breath in and sighed. “You smell of clean sweat and sun and male.”
He laughed. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Good,” she murmured. “Very good.”
“Ariadne.” He pulled her away from him and held her at arm’s length. “Not that this isn’t enjoyable, because it is, but we need to stop because I want you. Badly. And I don’t want this to head somewhere you’re not comfortable.”
“I want you too.”
She smiled at him. Unsure, but beautiful. He could sense her nerves, but also her desire, which was evident in her dark eyes and her peaked nipples.
“I want you more than chocolate.” She bit her lip.
He was done being the good guy.