Page 6 of Loved by Aphrodite (Gods and Beasts #4)

Chapter 6

Hephaestus

I f Hephaestus hadn’t been so angry at Eros for what he did, he would have been so damned proud. Over the last few decades, he’d seen Eros’s proficiency with computers grow, but he didn’t think he could code and program at this level. The combination of technology and magic in Winged’s programming was a thing of beauty.

Aphrodite’s magic had done its job shutting down the main program, but the app actually functioned independently. It needed no updates, no central server, or even any type of manual intervention.

“Did you find out anything else?”

“Huh?” He looked back at the source of the voice. “Aphrodite? You’re still here?” Checking the clock, he saw it had been a few hours since she arrived.

“Of course.” She offered something to him—a steaming cup of tea. “I stuck around to watch you work, but you were so engrossed, I didn’t want to interrupt. However, I thought you might like this.”

The aromatic brew caught his attention. “Thank you.” As he accepted the mug, their fingers brushed. The accidental touch sent gooseflesh up his arm, which was a strange reaction seeing as he already had her in his arms just a few hours ago.

No one ever came to visit him, so when he heard someone in his workshop, he’d acted on instinct, intending to neutralize the intruder. It was only when he felt the soft curves against him and smelled the sweet, rose perfume that he realized who the ‘intruder’ was. Just the memory of it made his cock twitch.

“So, did you, um, change something or do something with your hair?” Aphrodite asked.

“What? Oh.” He raked his fingers through his newly-shorned hair, the length of it still a new sensation to him. “Yeah, um, about that.” He explained how he used the makeover session as a distraction so Artemis wouldn’t probe further into Eros’s activities.

“Oh, I see.” The corner of her mouth tugged up. “Thank you for thinking of Eros, even though he himself didn’t give a single thought to the consequences of his actions.”

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal. Though I think that Roberto guy overdid it.” He rubbed his newly-trimmed beard. “All I wanted was a trim, and I ended up with this.” He gestured to his new haircut. “When he took out the tweezers to pluck my eyebrows, I put my foot down.”

This time, the laugh she’d obviously been holding back bubbled from her lips. “I can imagine. Oh, wait. You have a cowlick.” Reaching forward, she brushed her fingers on his temple as she fixed the lock of stray hair. “There you go.”

“Thanks. Excuse me.” He swiveled the chair back toward the computer so she wouldn’t notice the growing erection in his pants and so he would stop staring at her lush curves through her flowy dress.

Damn, Artemis, insisting on these tight jeans. Not satisfied with the “glow up,” she had insisted on revising his wardrobe too, but if he didn’t control his thoughts, he’d surely embarrass himself.

He let out a slow breath in an attempt to relax his body. Perhaps it had been too long since he’d been with a woman. That’s the only explanation why he was acting like some teenage boy. It wasn’t that he lacked female company, though the sexual act had always been more of a release for him, a one-night arrangement that suited both him and his partner. He’d just been much too busy in the last couple of years, especially with the way technology had progressed and exploded. He found more satisfaction in his work than in anything else.

“Your tea is getting cold,” Aphrodite said.

Without glancing back at her, he took a sip from the cup as he continued to stare at the screen. He punched in more keys, before a large beeping sound rang through the speakers.

“Is everything alright?” Sidling up to him, she leaned down. “What does that all mean? Was it my magic? Did I set off a counter curse?”

The monitor glowed as purple lines of code rushed across the display. “I don’t think so. This is something different. I traced the app’s communications back to the mainframe of the company that owns Winged. It’s a corporation called Philautia, headquartered in Seattle.” The screen on his right lit up to reveal a company webpage.

“That seems like your normal corporate website,” she remarked.

“Yeah.” Clicking on the different links, he scrolled through the various pages detailing Philautia’s background. “All corporate speak BS, doesn’t really say much about what they do except that they’re in technology.”

She perched her hip against the back of his chair. “How can this all help us stop the app?”

The faintest whiff of her sweet perfume distracted him for a moment, though he managed to ignore it. “I think I know how to completely shut down Winged.”

“You do? How?”

“The central mainframe. It’s the only thing that’s keeping the app functioning for now.”

Her eyebrows knitted together. “Oh, so it’s like … I shut off the brain, but this is the heart powering Winged.”

“Exactly. If I can get in and disassemble it, we may be able to fully shut it down.”

“Get in? Like you would have to be there physically?”

“Yes.”

“Can’t you just…I don’t know, hack your way into the mainframe?”

“That’s not quite how it works. See, at first, I was able to access Winged’s system on the cloud—that’s what you shut down. But this is different because we’re talking about hardware. I’ve been trying to get in, but it keeps shutting me out. I can’t be sure, but I think there’s something there keeping me out. Might be an extra piece of hardware that’s not connected to the network and needs a physical key. But I won’t know until I see it.”

“I see. We need to go to their headquarters to disable it then. Seattle, right?”

He rose from his chair. “You don’t have to go with me. Why don’t you stay here or go home? I’ll call you once I’m done.”

She placed her hands on her hips. “And why would I not come with you? It’s not like it’s dangerous or anything. We’re gods, we can go in and out undetected, and even if they did catch us, what would they do? We could just disappear before they arrest us.”

“It’s not that.” He searched for an excuse, because the truth was, being around her was too much. Memories and emotions he’d long buried were threatening to resurface, and he could not deal with that right now. “But I don’t want you to be bored. This could take a while. Why don’t you go home and attend to your duties?”

“This is my duty,” she retorted. “I’m the goddess of love, and this problem is within my realm, therefore, I need to fix it. Besides, what if you need my love magic again?”

Well, she had him there. “I suppose that makes sense. Give me a sec to gather my stuff, and we’ll go.” He grabbed his laptop and a couple of cables, then stuffed them into a backpack. “Ready? You know the address?” She nodded and he teleported them out of his workshop.

They appeared outside a glass and steel building in busy downtown Seattle. The corporate headquarters of Philautia rose up like a spire into the sky, the sun glinting off the shiny mirrored surface.

Hephaestus shaded his eyes with his hand as he glanced up. “Let’s head inside.”

Their magic allowed them to remain invisible as they entered the lobby. He stopped in the middle and held up a hand. The world around him quieted as he called on his powers, seeking for the hum of technology around him.

“Sixth…no, seventh floor.”

They transported themselves to the seventh floor, just outside the elevator lobby.

There was a single door on the floor, locked behind an electronic lock, which of course, did nothing to stop them from simply reappearing on the other side.

“This must be—what the fuck?” Hephaestus cursed.

Aphrodite gasped. “I don’t understand…what is that?”

The large room looked like any corporate IT mainframe server room—climate-controlled, filled with racks of servers that blinked and hummed intermittently. However, snake-like vines climbed and twisted amongst the servers. Bright purple flowers bloomed along the vines, filling the air with a strong perfume.

“Whatever it is, the humans must not be able to see it.” There was definitely strong magic coming from the vines.

She reached out and touched the flower closest to her. “I know this…” She took a sniff. “ ‘It fell upon a little western flower. Before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, And maidens call it ‘love-in-idleness.’ ”

“I beg your pardon?”

“It’s a quote from A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare,” she began. “In the play, the nectar from the flower makes the characters fall in love with the first person they see. Not many humans know about it as it only grows in Mount Olympus.” She flashed him a sheepish smile. “I may have, er, inspired the bard to write about it.”

“You what?”

“I adore Shakespeare, saw every one of his plays,” she said. “But Will was having a bad case of writer’s block, and I was so impatient waiting for his next work. So, I kind of visited him in a dream and told him about the flower.” Her brow furrowed. “This must be what’s making the current users fall in love.”

“Possibly. A combination of organic magic and technology.” It was brilliant, really, if it had been used for good instead of causing chaos.

“So, can you shut it all down?”

“Let me take a look first.” He approached the mainframe, taking his laptop out of his bag. Plugging it in, he opened it and began to type. “Hmm….”

She sidled up next to him. “What is it?”

“I can’t even access it. I think my earlier theory might be true—there is some kind of hardware block.”

“Where is it? Hidden behind the vines?”

“Or it is the vines.” It was difficult to explain, but he could feel how the magic emanating from the plant, particularly the flowers, formed a shield around the servers. “It’s powering the app and protecting it at the same time.” He grabbed the vine closest to him and yanked on it, breaking it off. However, seconds later, the limb grew back, thicker and stronger. “We can forget about literally hacking away at them.”

“Maybe I can do it.” She held her hand over one section of the vines and closed her eyes. The vine directly under her palm twitched, but settled back in place. “Ack!” She clucked her tongue. “I thought I could do it since it is a kind of love magic, but not the same as mine. It’s part organic, so I don’t have full control of it.”

Damned Eros. He really was too smart for his own good. “So, we’re back to square one.”

“Wait.” She tapped a finger on her chin. “You said this was a type of hardware lock, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Then shouldn’t a lock have a key?”

“That’s not how it works.” He paused. “But then again, it’s not like the things I’ve seen the past few days have been ordinary. I suppose it’s worth a try to find somewhere a key might fit.”

She gestured to her right. “I’ll look over here, you go there.”

Nodding, he put his laptop away and began to search through the tangle of vines and flowers. The sweet, heady scent of the love-in-idleness tickled his nose as he scrutinized the server trays behind it and he was glad that as a god, he was immune to its magic. He could only imagine how potent it was for humans.

“Have you found anything?” Aphrodite called out.

“Not yet. You?”

“No. But let’s keep looking.”

He wasn’t even sure what they were looking for, but he kept his mouth shut. If anything, not finding anything would at least disprove the lock and key theory, and they could move on and find another solution. Then—“Huh?” He stopped as he noticed one of the vines emitted a faint purple glow. It hadn’t been so obvious before, but as he reached the rear of the rack where the lightbulb had burned out overhead, the glow pulsed in the darkness.

Hmm.

With a snap of his fingers, all the lights in the room turned off.

There.

“Hephaestus? What’s going on?”

“I think I have something.” Soft footsteps indicated she was behind him. “See?”

“What—oh.” She gasped, her eyes roaming over the vines. “I don’t think I’ve seen it do that before.”

“You haven’t?”

“No, and…” She glanced around her. “Look, the glow is coming from somewhere.”

Sure enough, the glowing vines did seemingly branch out from a central spot in the mainframe. Following the trail, they traced it to a corner in the back of the racks. The light pulsed brighter there, beating with a regular rhythm. The vines wrapped around one particular spot on a lower rack, swirling in a circle like a bullseye on a target. When Hephaestus reached out to push the vines aside, they slowly retracted back to reveal a small compartment inside.

“Is that it?” Aphrodite said in an excited tone.

“Could be.” He peered inside. “There’s something in there.” The soft glow bathed in the compartment in a purple light. It reminded him of a security keypad, but there were no numbers, letters, or symbols to press. Instead, there was an indentation in the middle, shaped like a?—

No.

It couldn’t be.

He wouldn’t.

“What is it?” Aphrodite asked. “Did you find a lock?”

He supposed it could be a kind of lock. But there was only one key. “I…” He didn’t know what to say as his chest tightened. Why the hell would Eros do this? Was this a sick game to him?

“Hephaestus, say something.” Impatient, she pushed him aside and peered inside. “I don’t see a lock.” Her nose wrinkled. “But it kind of looks like…”

“A shell,” he finished. But it wasn’t just any shell. He knew the exact shape and size of this particular shell well. He’d held it enough times to know that it would fit exactly inside that alarm pad.

“Are you sure,” she said. “Why would Eros use a shell? That’s my symbol, not his.”

His mouth went dry as his stomach tied into a tight knot.

“I mean, I have a few shells I keep at home,” she continued. “But I don’t think any of them would fit in there. Do you think he would have the key hidden somewhere? Where should we start looking?”

Should he tell her he knew exactly where the key was? Or maybe he should just feign ignorance.

“Hephaestus?”

He looked at her, down at her beautiful face and mesmerizing silvery-blue eyes. He opened his mouth in an attempt to lie to her, but the words of denial refused to leave his mouth. “I know where the key is.”

“You do?”

“Wait here.” In a flash, he was back in his workshop. His feet were like lead as he trudged toward his desk, to the drawer on the right side. Opening it, he took out the single item inside—a pink and white seashell that was smaller than his palm. He stared at it for a moment, then mentally shook his head. He couldn’t waste any more time. Besides, it had been thousands of years since that day.

Maybe she won’t even remember it.

Transporting himself back to the server room, he reappeared in the same spot.

“Where have you been?” she asked.

Ignoring her, he reached into the compartment and placed the shell into the indentation. A perfect fit.

“What did you—” she gasped. “I think it’s working!”

Sure enough, the vines began to retract, the flowers withering as they pulled away from the mainframe, the pulsing glow fading as they disappeared.

“It worked!” Aphrodite clapped her hands together. “How did you find a key?”

How was he going to explain this? “Aphrodite, I—wait!”

Before he could stop her, she peered into the compartment. The knots in his stomach tightened as she reached inside, a line forming between her eyebrows.

“Why, this looks like one of mine.” She held the shell up on her palm, peering at it. “But why would you…” Her mouth parted, and she slowly looked up to meet his gaze. “Hephaestus? Is this?—”

A noise from the outside mercifully interrupted her. “The humans must have figured out we shut everything down.” He seized her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”

Without another thought, he transported them back to his workshop. “Well, I’m?—”

“Hephaestus.” She stood there, one hand on her hip, the other holding up the shell. “Why do you have this?”

He pressed his lips together, unable to answer.

“This is the shell I wore to our wedding, right?”

Since their wedding had been an official function, all the gods in attendance—including the bride and groom—had to wear their symbol. Hephaestus has chosen a medallion he fashioned himself, with an anvil and hammer design in the center. Aphrodite, on the other hand, had worn the seashell like a hairpin, holding up her veil. During their wedding feast, it had come loose, and she had placed it on the table next to her. As the night wore on, she had seemingly forgotten about it, and so he took it without her knowledge.

She never once searched for it or asked him if he had seen it, so he didn’t say anything. Instead, he had kept it with him, keeping it tucked away in that drawer. Over the millennia, he kept telling himself he’d eventually toss it out but found that he couldn’t part with it.

“Hephaestus? Answer me.”

“We shut down the mainframe,” he began, then turned to walk toward his computer desk. “You should go and check?—”

“No.” She caught up to him, blocking his way. “Tell me why you have the shell.”

“Are you sure you didn’t leave it here?

Crossing her arms under her breasts, she remained rooted to the spot. “I know all my jewelry, and our wedding was the only time I wore this particular shell. I thought I’d lost it. But you had it all this time? Why?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Now, if you’ll excuse me…” He sidestepped her, but she gripped his forearm, her warm palm like a brand. “Aphrodite, I have work to do.”

“No, nuh-uh.” Her hold on him tightened. “Look at me.”

He refused, keeping his eyes ahead.

“Hephaestus, tell me why you have this. I demand an explanation.”

“Why do you think, Aphrodite?” His head whipped back toward her, meeting her accusing silvery-blue gaze. “Why do you think I would keep it?”

“Oh no, no, no,” she said with a sardonic laugh. “You don’t get to deflect, not this time. Why do you have this?”

The maelstrom of emotions swirling inside him exploded like an overflowing dam. “You want to know the real reason why I kept it?” he snarled. “Because it was yours.” Her eyes grew to the size of saucers. “Is that what you wanted to hear? It was the only thing I had left of you, and I wanted it close to me, all these thousands of years. I couldn’t let it go, couldn’t throw it away, no matter how hard I tried. I just wanted to keep some part of you because, for fifteen years, I never got to have what I wanted most.” His voice turned raspy as a thousand razor blades wrapped around his throat. “Is this the admission you want? Does this answer satisfy you?”

All the blood had seemingly drained from her face, and he feared she would faint from shock, or worse, run away after his heated and obviously unwanted confession. But to his surprise, she didn’t do either of that. Instead, she leapt up at him and pulled him down for a kiss.

The initial shock of her warm lips on his made him freeze. However, he soon responded, wrapping his arms around her waist to pull her close. As her soft body pressed against him, he half-sighed, half-moaned into her mouth from the pure pleasure of it all as the pent-up longing from over millennia was finally released.

She opened her lips to him, coaxing him to taste her. He didn’t need any further arm-twisting as he plunged his tongue inside her mouth. She tasted sweeter than he’d imagined all these millennia, a hundred times better than in his imagination. His hands remained frozen on her waist, unsure what to do, but when hers began to roam over his body—running up his chest, down his shoulders, and down to his waist to pull his shirt out of his pants—he, too, explored her soft curves. His palm slid down her waist to cup her full buttocks, pulling her to him so she could feel his growing erection.

She moaned and pushed up against him, undulating her hips invitingly. Taking his hands into hers, she moved them to cup her breasts through her clothes. Of course, he’d spent a lot of time looking at those breasts—what else was he supposed to do when they were around each other twenty-four-seven on the island—wondering how they would feel. They were much larger than they looked, but fit his hands perfectly. She gasped when he gave them a firm squeeze, but didn’t seem to mind as she continued to kiss him. In fact, she lowered her hands to his waist and slipped her hands under his shirt to run her fingers over his abs before pulling the fabric up.

They broke apart for a moment as the henley shirt went over his head, and he gave her a quick kiss before moving lower, tracing her jaw with his mouth then nuzzling at her neck. Her skin there was soft and smooth too, and her perfume teased his senses. She gasped when he licked at the spot behind her ear and melted against him, her fingers digging into his shoulders. He grazed her skin lightly with his teeth and continued to taste her.

“Bedroom,” she moaned. “Now.”

He assumed that she was asking, but no. In a split second, they were transported to his bedroom on the second floor. Thankfully it was clean, but that wouldn’t have been an issue because he rarely slept there, preferring to collapse in the cot in the small room next to his workshop.

Aphrodite pushed him toward the bed, and he didn’t resist. However, once the back of his knees hit the mattress, he flipped their positions around and pushed her down on the bed.

She let out a whoop of surprise, then giggled as he fell on top of her, covering her lips with his. He deepened the kiss, invading her mouth. She matched his fervor, their tongues tangling in a wild dance. Her body wriggling up at him was too much, and he had to have a taste of her now .

He bunched up the skirt of her dress and tugged up at it. Smart woman that she was, she immediately knew what he wanted and helped him, lifting her hips so he could slip it up her body and over her head. He groaned aloud as her naked breasts popped out from under the fabric. She’d been braless the whole time and he didn’t even realize it. He cupped them with his hands, testing their weight before dipping his head so he could take one hard nipple in his mouth.

Her fingers raked into the hair at the nape of his neck, tugging at the strands with desperation as he sucked on the bud. He teased her with his tongue, brushing the flat, rough side against her sensitive nipple. Her legs wrapped around his waist, and she rubbed herself against the bulge under his tight jeans. The friction sent pleasure down the back of his spine.

“Hephaestus,” she moaned. “Please…”

He slipped his hand between them, his finger rubbing the front of her panties, rubbing at the already damp seam. She trembled at the contact and he continued his slow teasing of her sex until she was squirming under his touch. Hooking his thumb over the waistband, he pushed them down to her thighs. Moving lower, he kissed a path from her breasts, over her soft belly, to the curls between her legs. In one motion, he pulled her panties off and set them aside.

Returning between her knees, he pushed them apart. He planted kisses on her inner thighs, all the way to the valley of her sex. Slowly, he licked up her crevice, making her shiver. He hooked her legs over his shoulders and plunged in, growling as he licked at her again before plunging his tongue inside her.

She cried out and pushed her hips up at him. Her delicious womanly scent filled his nostrils, and his cock throbbed. He sealed his mouth over her clit, using a combination of pressure and rubbing to tease at her nub. When he felt her hips give a shudder, he continued relentlessly, until her entire body started to shake. But he wasn’t done yet. He plunged a finger inside her, hooking it to find her G-spot. She screamed out, her thighs pressing hard around his head and ears as he went deaf for a moment.

“H-Hephaestus,” she said weakly. “That was—oh!”

He didn’t let her rest as he went right back to eating her delicious pussy. This time, he switched his hand and his mouth, so that his mouth was at her slick entrance while his fingers rubbed at her clit. He stroked and licked her to another orgasm, barely letting her rest before he started again. His cock now painfully strained against the seam of his jeans, and no amount of rubbing at the mattress could ease it. Lifting his hips up, he unbuttoned the fly and eased his cock out. The pressure of his fist around his shaft eased the pain, and he began to move his hand up and down. Noticing that Aphrodite was nearing another orgasm, he moved his tongue over her clit with the same rhythm as his hand.

“Hephaestus!” Her fingers dug into his hair once more and gripped it so hard he thought she’d rip it from his scalp. That was enough to keep his own orgasm at bay, as he didn’t want to come yet. For now, he wanted to make sure she was satisfied.

As she lay on the mattress, recovering from her orgasm, he slid up behind her, pulling her limp body against his. “Are you all good?”

She gave a weak laugh. “Good doesn’t begin to describe it.” She shimmied around to face him, her cheeks flushed and eyes glazed over as a slow smile spread across her mouth. “Now it’s your turn.” Her palm wrapped around his cock.

“Aphrodite, you don’t—uh!” Every stroke sent shivers down his spine, straight down to his balls. The pressure, the speed, even the softness of her skin was perfect. If she didn’t stop, he was going to come all over her hands. “It’s too much. Just…slow down.”

Instead of slowing or stopping, however, she slid downward and without missing a beat, wrapped her mouth around the bulbous tip.

“What—oh…fffuuuck.”

Her mouth was warm and wet and everything he dreamed of. Her tongue swirled around the tip, teasing the slit and the head with soft licks before plunging him in farther into her mouth.

“Damn…oh!” Unable to help himself, he wrapped her brown locks around his fist as he gently thrust against her mouth. “I…oh, fuck, stop or I’m gonna come.”

She let him slide from her lips, but continued to pump him with her hand. “Please, Hephaestus. I need you.”

Something in his brain short-circuited at her words, because at that moment, all he could think about was getting inside her. “Lie back,” he ordered.

Their eyes remained locked together, even as he stood up and removed his jeans and she scrambled backward to the center of the mattress. The longing that had built inside him threatened to burst, and he was surprised he didn’t expire right there. After thousands of years of dreaming of this moment, it was finally here. He had no doubt this would be better than he imagined; he only hoped it could be good for her. She was the goddess of love, after all.

“Come.” She held out her hand to him, and he had no choice but to obey, crawling over toward her. Sprawled on the bed, naked body on display, he could only focus on her gorgeous face, silvery-blue eyes, and how hard his heart thumped against his chest. He couldn’t find the words to describe how beautiful she was right this moment.

Hovering over her, he leaned down to sip from her lips, drinking her in, committing the memory to his brain for the rest of eternity. She deepened the kiss, pulling his entire body down as she parted her thighs. He pointed the tip of his cock against her slick entrance, pushing in slowly, filling her slowly until he was fully inside. They both let out a sigh of relief against each other’s mouths.

“You feel so good.” Her fingernails traced down his back, making him shiver and convulse. “Hephaestus…I’ve waited forever to have you in me.”

Fuck, he was going to come right then and there. After a few deep breaths, he gave a thrust.

“Oh!” Her eyes rolled back, and she bit her lower lip. “More.” She squeezed around him. “Don’t…hold back.”

Despite her encouragement, he moved slow at first, not for her but for him. He’d been wanting this for so long, he feared it would be over too soon. He wanted to make it last. She was, however, not making it easy. Her tight, slick walls squeezed him with each thrust, her hips lifting to meet his every time.

He changed the angle of his thrusts to better hit that spot inside her that had driven her crazy earlier. When her moans turned to needy whimpers, he kept going at it, keeping his rhythm steady until she was begging him to go harder. He did, tucking his face into her neck so he could suck at the skin behind her ear. Her body froze, then began to convulse, her pussy spasming around him as she came. He thought having her come on his fingers and mouth had been amazing, but now as she orgasmed on his cock, it sent his own pleasure into the stratosphere.

“Hephaestus. Oh, yes. Hephaestus!”

It was all over at that point. The dam holding back the lust and longing for thousands of years finally shattered, and he spilled his seed inside her. She murmured encouraging words as he reached the heights of pleasure, her pussy pulsing and milking him, sending him soaring farther. He wasn’t even sure when he was done because time had seemingly lost all meaning and his brain had stopped processing anything outside of the two of them.

Even when the sensation returned to his limbs, he couldn’t think. Thankfully, Aphrodite had the presence of mind to gently push him off and roll him onto his back. He attempted to speak, but nothing came out.

Her soft curves pressed against him, and she lay an arm over his chest. She whispered something that sounded like “sleep” and then kissed his shoulder. It seemed like a good idea at the moment, so he shifted to his side, slid an arm under to pull her to him, and crushed her to him before he closed his eyes.