Acheron

Three times he'd almost been killed.

He didn't know why people reacted to him the way they did. He'd never understood it. Artemis, even with her divinity, didn't seem any different than anyone else.

Except her touch set him on fire.

Acheron closed his eyes as her hand lightly brushed the tip of his cock. The need inside him for her was unexpected and shocking. He should be angry at her for what she'd done to him and yet he couldn't find any anger inside himself right now. Only a desire to please her that he didn't comprehend.

A noise sounded out in the hallway.

Artemis pulled back with a sharp intake of breath. "We could be seen."

The next thing he knew, they were inside a bright, white marble bedroom. Acheron shot to his feet as he turned around slowly, trying to understand where he was.

There was an incredibly large bed against one wall. The sheets and curtains were as white as everything else. The only color to be found was gold trim.

"Where am I?"

"Mount Olympus."

His jaw went slack. "How?"

"I brought you to my temple. Don't worry. No one ever enters my bedchambers. These are sacred to me."

Artemis approached him with a smile on her face. She rubbed her cheek against his an instant before a red chiton appeared on his body. "We can be alone here."

Acheron couldn't even form a coherent thought as he looked at the splendor surrounding him. The ceiling over his head was solid gold and carved with brilliant forest scenes. How could this be? How could a whore be in the bedroom of a goddess renowned for her virginity? The mere thought was laughable.

Yet here he stood…

Artemis took him by the hand and led him toward her balcony that let out onto a garden resplendent with flowers. The riot of color was almost as beautiful as the goddess beside him.

"What do you think of it?" Artemis asked.

"It's wondrous."

She smiled. "I thought you'd like it."

He frowned at her. "How could you be bored here?"

She looked away and swallowed. A deep sadness darkened her green eyes. "It gets lonely. There's seldom anyone who wants to talk to me. Sometimes I walk in the woods and the deer come to me, but they don't really have much to say."

He let out an awed breath at the incredible scene. "I could happily lose myself in those woods and never speak to a soul again as long as I live."

"But you'll only live a few more years. You've no idea what eternity feels like. Time has no meaning. It merely stretches out and hangs on ever the same."

"I don't know. I think I should like forever… If I could live it on my own terms."

She smiled at him. "I could see you as you are now a thousand years in the future." Her eyes lit up. "Oh wait, there's something I have to share with you."

Acheron cocked his head in consternation as she snapped her fingers and a peculiar brown package appeared in her palm. She held it out to him.

"What is it?"

"Chocolate," she said breathlessly. "Hershey's. You must try it."

He took it from her and held it to his nose. It smelled sweet, but he wasn't sure about the taste. As he started to take a bite, Artemis jerked it out of his hand.

"You have to unwrap it first, silly." Laughing, she tore the brown paper and an odd silver material from it before she broke a piece off and gave it to him.

Gingerly, Acheron took a bite. The minute it melted on his tongue, he was in heaven. "This is delicious."

She handed him the bar again. "I know. It comes from the future-we're not supposed to go there, but I can't help it. There are just some things I can't wait for and chocolate is one of them."

He licked the brown smear from his fingertips. "Could you take me to the future?"

She shook her head quickly. "My father would kill me if I took a mortal there."

"One god can't kill another."

"Yes, they can. Believe me. They're not supposed to, but it doesn't always stop them."

Acheron took another bite as he considered her words. He would love to travel away from this time. To a place where no one knew him or his brother. Where he was free of his past and able to make a life without everyone trying to possess him.

That would be perfection. But he'd learned the hard way that such a place didn't exist.

Artemis took the bar from him and bit off a piece. A bit of it melted on her chin.

Acheron reached out to wipe it away.

"How do you do that?" she asked him.

"Do what?"

"Touch me without fear? All humans tremble before the gods, but not you. Why is that?"

He shrugged. "Probably because I'm not afraid of dying."

"You're not?"

"No. I'm afraid of reliving my past. At least with death, I'd know that it's all behind me. It would be a relief, I think."

She shook her head. "You're a strange man, Acheron. Unlike any I've ever known." Walking backwards, she took his hand and pulled him into her bedroom.

Acheron went willingly.

Artemis didn't speak as she knelt on the bed, then turned to face him. She gathered him into her arms for an incredibly hot kiss.

Closing his eyes, Acheron breathed her in as her tongue danced with his. How odd… when he held her, he didn't feel like a whore. Maybe because she wasn't asking for anything more than his company. No one was being paid. Neither of them wanted anything except a respite from their solitude.

Was this what it felt like to be normal? He'd always wondered.

Artemis pulled back to stare up at him. "Promise me you'll never betray me, Acheron."

"I would never do anything to hurt you."

Her smile blinded him before she pulled him onto the bed and rolled him over onto his back. She straddled his hips before she brushed the hair away from his neck.

"You are so handsome," she whispered.

Acheron didn't comment. She hypnotized him with those flashing green eyes and skin so smooth and soft it haunted him. At least until he saw a flash of fang.

An instant later a blinding pain tore through his neck. He tried to move, but he couldn't. Not a single muscle.

His heart pounded until the pain gave way to an unimaginable pleasure. Only when the pleasure replaced the pain could he move. He cupped her head to his neck as she continued to suck and lick until his body exploded into the most intense orgasm he'd ever known.

No sooner had he felt it than his eyelids sank down as if lead weights were pulling them. He tried to fight the darkness, but he couldn't.

Artemis moved back and licked the blood from her lips as she felt Acheron pass out. She'd never tasted human blood before… it was incredible. No wonder her brother sought it out so often. There was a vitality to it that immortals lacked. It was so intoxicating that it took all her strength not to drink more. But that might kill him.

It was the last thing she wanted. Acheron fascinated her. He didn't flinch or fawn. Even though he was a mortal, he met her as an equal.

Delighted with her newest pet, she lay down by his side and snuggled up against him.

This was definitely the begi