Ares (5 page)

“I appreciate your restraint, a great deal.” She moved closer to him and wrapped her arm into his. “Thank you, Ares. You didn’t have to do that but I thank you for, well, everything.”

“You’re welcome,” he said softly. Looking down at her he shrugged, “Nothing any other decent person wouldn’t do.” Stopping before the door to her room, he stepped aside so she could open it. “If anyone else even thinks it I’ll break them into little pieces very slowly.”

Ava just smiled. Looking up at him she moved to hug him before they walked out of the elevator. “Thank you,” she said happily. “Now, I want to know more about where we are going. I would like to know what I should change into please.”

“Whatever you want to change into is fine. As long as you are comfortable that’s all that matters. I can control the temperature around me so you won’t be cold or hot.” He wasn’t helping her to decide in the least. “I’m going to borrow your bathroom for a second while you decide, and get changed myself.”

“Sounds good.” She waited for him to leave the room and then began to get out of the dress. Laying it carefully on the bed, she touched it and smiled. “Simply stunning,” she whispered and walked to her closet. Pulling on jeans and a t-shirt, she grabbed a hoodie as well and then slipped on a pair of comfortable slippers. Undoing her hair, she pulled it back into a ponytail and simply sat to wait for Ares. “I’m done by the way. If you are waiting that is.”

“I was, figured you’d be getting changed. So I sat on the vanity and waited,” he explained as he stepped out in jeans, a t-shirt and runners. He went to the bed and lifted the dress up, “Good Gods, this thing is heavy. How the hell were you able to move around in it?”

“It’s actually not that bad,” she admitted. “I don’t know why but it really wasn’t that heavy on me. It’s stunning though isn’t it? I felt like a princess in it, not something I’ve ever felt in my life. So for that I should thank Dion. Later. Much later. For now I just want to spend time with you.”

“You looked better than any princess I ever met or saw. I’ll stash this at my place for now. No one but me can get in there so it’ll be safe. Do you want to come along and check it out while I put it away?” he asked, folding the dress over his arm as he turned to look at her.

“Are you sure?” she asked with a smile. “I would love that if you don’t mind having someone other than yourself in there. I would love to see what you actually call home instead of what the Romans seemed to think was your home.”

“Well, technically I have two homes. One here in this realm and the other is up on Olympus. That’s where we’re going with the dress. It’ll be safest there since none can enter my space without my permission. If they tried they’d either be seriously hurt or set off the alarms and end up seriously dead when I arrive and beat them into a bloody pulp.” He walked to her and held out a hand, “You may want to close your eyes for the next part. It tends to make people throw up the first few times it’s done if they are looking around while I move us through time and space.”

She moved to him and placed her hand in his. “Are you sure you want me to go to that space with you? I want to, but only if you are very sure I won’t be upsetting the balance in your home in anyway or something like that,” she was babbling, again. She was worried that maybe she was pushing too hard, wanting too much and that bugged her, like mad.

Ares pulled her in close to his body, “Stop talking, Ava. I wouldn’t have offered if I didn’t want you there. So close your eyes, hold on tight, and we’ll be there in a moment.” He slid his arm around her waist and pulled her in close to him, real close to him.

Ava wrapped her arms around his waist, pressed her face to his shoulder and closed her eyes. Breathing in the scent of the man, she sighed and relaxed, felt at complete and utter peace for the first time in far too long and let him take her away.

“You can open your eyes now, we’re here.” Ares’s voice was right next to her ear, his lips just touching the curve. “Come on, Ava, eyes open and then you can check out the place while I tuck your gown away.” His hand was sliding up and down her back, slow and so very warm.

Ava was loathe to leave his arms. It felt far more wonderful to be wrapped up close to him like this than she could possibly explain to anyone, herself included. "What if I tell you I need another moment to open my eyes to this completely and fully life changing event? Because I have a feeling when I do open my eyes, I won't ever want to leave and then what will you do?"

“You can take all the time you need, we’re not on any schedule. As for leaving.” She felt his chest move, likely shrugging. “You are more than welcome here, Ava. I’ll make it all official if you want, you’d be the first person, besides myself of course, allowed through the wards. I can even modify the necklace I gave you so you can come and go if you’d like.”

“You would do that for me?” she asked, pulling back to look up at him. “Truly? That’s outstanding,” she murmured. “I would like that, but only if you are sure you wouldn’t mind me coming and visiting you at any given time. Keep in mind I might drop in on you at the most inconvenient of times.”

"Define inconvenient," he said with a grin. "'Cause I don't ever have visitors, not including Dion or Apollo from time to time. There wouldn't be anything to walk into except maybe if I'm wandering around in the buff. Guess you could just cover your eyes when you arrive. Probably would be the safest stand to take."

“Or I could just ask that you tell me when you are walking around in the buff so I could come and stare at you for a good long time. Silly I know but goodness you are truly an amazingly handsome man and I would very much love to see you naked.” Life was far too short to not give in to the things she wanted, and she wanted him with a passion.

His eyebrows went up toward his hairline. "Okay, uh, I'll give you a schedule or something." He appeared a little flustered and slightly wary.
Hmm, maybe she'd gone too far
? "I probably shouldn't admit this but, since you're being so very open I will. I've been trying, rather desperately, to imagine you fully naked. Especially since over the last couple thousand years I've been behaving myself and not peeking at what I want."

That made Ava smile. He was so charming and sweet. She was deeply affected by him. Far more than she cared to admit. "I would like that. Typically I am not this brash or forward. I guess you bring it out in me and don't you dare apologize for it. I like being able to fully speak my mind with you. I like you. So not at this moment but maybe soon we can show each other our birthday suits?" she offered brazenly.

Ares smiled, "I'd like that, Ava." Leaning in he brushed a light kiss to her cheek. "Now go and look around. Just don't go out that," he pointed, "door. It leads right out to the main thoroughfare of Olympus and will expose you to the others. No going out there without me, but if you want to go through any of the other doors, feel free. The rest is shielded from prying, conniving, vicious eyes." It was clear in his eyes that if anyone other than him saw her out there and touched her he would raze Olympus to the ground without hesitation.

“Right, no going out there. I have a feeling that if I did the Gods would zap me deader than dead before I could blink.” Ava looked to him and smiled. “Go, do what you need to do. I will go ahead and look around. Will I be able to look out of the windows without others seeing me?”

“Of course,” he nodded. “You can even go out into the yard if you wish. It has a wall surrounding it that provides more than enough protection. It’s shielded fully as well so even if another God was sitting up on the top, he, or she, would never see you. I won’t be long,” he said and started away. He stopped though and turned with a snap of his fingers. “Don’t drink or eat anything. It’s not exactly human friendly around here right now, but, I will fix that because I want you to feel at home here when you come to visit.” Smiling slightly, he headed off once more down a long, wide hallway.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile and moved from where they had been standing and walked outside. “Wow.” She breathed out softly and took in the sheer and utter beauty of the place and its surroundings.

Stepping out of one of the many doors in the grotto, Ava then stepped back quickly, realizing she had stepped out of the home that Ares had shielded as his own. A low whistle sounded, which was followed by a male voice calling out to her. Not by name, but by '
hey pretty mortal
'
.
She was terrified, she wouldn’t and couldn’t lie.

After she closed the door once more she could no longer hear the voice and hoped that Ares didn’t notice she had gone through a door that lead to Olympus proper. If she were lucky.

After shaking off her dread and fear, she moved through the beautifully manicured gardens that were a part of Ares’s home. “This is utterly incredible,” she whispered and walked to a tree that was a study in perfection, flawed perfection, and beauty. Reaching up she touched her finger to a leaf and whispered, “Amazing.”

“That tree has been here since I built the place. It was a gift from a friend, long since having left the world,” Ares told her. He was close, really close behind her. “So be gentle with it. It’s very, very old.” He moved so she could see him at her side. Ares kept his anger stamped down, he was more than pissed off that someone had seen his Ava. Without blinking, without breaking the eye contact he had with this beautiful little human, he sent a zap of pure anger to Perseus, the ass who thought to call out to
his
Ava as if she were a being for the taking. She wasn’t. She was
his
,
and that in itself worried Ares, a lot.

“It’s stunning, Ares,” she whispered and turned to look at him with a smile. “You have an amazingly beautiful home. It’s incredible. Your home is amazing in ways I can’t even begin to explain. I’ve never…” she stopped talking suddenly. She was going to tell him she had never felt more at peace, more at home, than she did right then and that was not a good thing to tell someone you had just met.

His attention was on her fully, “You’ve never what, Ava?” he asked. His voice was a low rumbling purr. He’d lifted an eyebrow and impossibly, he was closer. “I’m trying to behave around you and stay out of your head but then you go and drop a line like that, with an expression that makes me want to kiss you and you clam up. That is really, completely and truly unfair sweet.”

“Honestly?” she asked softly. At his nod she licked her lower lip and looked up at him. “Never in my life have I felt more at peace, more at home than I do right now in this space. It’s truly surreal to me that I feel this peace.”

“I’m glad,” he said. Backing off slightly as he smiled. “Come, you wanted to go and see one of my favorite places, so let’s go. We can come back here later if you’d like. I’ll even ensure a stop someplace so we can get takeout.”

“That sounds good to me.” She reached out, touched the leaf of the tree one more time, and felt that peace once more. “All right, show me one of your favorite places. Why wouldn’t I be able to eat the food you have here? Why do we have to go and get take out? I saw all kinds of fruits on the table, so what’s up with that?” Her curiosity was clear in the number of rapid-fire questions she shot at him.

“They and everything else here, are all products of Olympus. They are meant for the Gods and only the Gods. If a human ate anything here they would grow ill and die. That’s why I’m going to clean it all out and ensure that anything that comes in here is safe for you to eat so you don’t ever have to worry and neither do I.”

“Ah yes, very good idea,” she said with a nod. “Thank you for thinking of me on that one,” she said with a smile. “Because I don’t want to come here to see you, eat a grape and die. That would just be bad all around. I happen to want to be able to spend as much time with you as possible.” Damn! What was with her spilling her every single thought to this man?!

Ares smiled slowly, “I really like it when you speak your mind. No, I didn’t read that, kind of caught the tail end of your thought process there since you were projecting. Now, let’s go,” he pulled her in close to him again. “Eyes closed, hold tight and when I tell you to open your eyes, don’t freak out?”

“As long as you are holding me I will try,” Ava assured him with a grin. “I promise, I will try but that’s all that I can give you,” she teased him. Wrapping her arms around him again, she pressed her cheek to his chest and breathed in the scent of leather and man. She sighed, as her eyes slid closed and thought,
this is my new favorite scent of all scents.

'
That one I heard
.'
She heard his voice in her head. His arms were around her in the next moment holding her close. A small tingle later and there was a gust of wind tugging at her clothing.

“You can open your eyes now if you want, little one.” His arms moved down to her waist, “Look at the view but don’t move.”

“How about you first tell me where we are so I don’t freak out and jerk away from you without thinking about it?” She felt the wind tugging at her hair and clothing and tightened her arms around him. “Wherever we are it feels marvelous, I’m just afraid of how I will react when I open my eyes.” Licking her lips she added, "How did you talk back to me in my mind?” Duh! she thought suddenly,
because he’s a God
.

Chuckling he gave her a squeeze, “That’s right, I’m a God, Ava, and we are in New Zealand, on top of one of their many magnificent waterfalls. By the top, I mean we have a view that goes down a very, very long way. We are on an outcropping where no one can see us, which means we have a terrific view of the water tumbling down the rocks, a view of the landscape and we’re in a place very few people will ever get to stand.”

She opened her eyes and looked up at him. She didn’t say a word to him, just looked at him. “Hold tight, okay?” she asked softly with a grin and then looked around them. Turning in his arms she took in the breathtaking view and sighed. Leaning back against him, she was truly amazed. “Wow,” she whispered softly with wide eyes. “I can’t believe just how amazing this is. No one has ever been up here?” she asked softly. It was barely a ledge if it was one at all. She was very, very thankful he was holding onto her as it were.

“A few crazy humans with a death wish have climbed this rock wall,” he told her. “Other than that, not a soul. It’s a very difficult spot to reach and even if they did, they’d never be able to stand here. I’m keeping us tethered with my abilities. A small use of power, but it’s keeping you safe and giving you a sight that I happen to enjoy a great deal.”

“It’s utterly breathtaking. I can see why you like it here so much.” She took in the sights all around them. She looked from left to right and back again. It was completely unique and wonderful. She never dreamed she would be in such a place. “It’s as if you can see the true beauty of the world as it should be, instead of what mankind has done to ruin it.”

“One of the reasons I come here,” he said. “That and the water down in the pool is very warm. If you want we could go down and have a swim before I take you to the next spot. Or, if you’d prefer, we’ll continue the tour and come back later.”

“Only issue with a swim, which sounds amazing by the way, is I don’t have a suit. I would love to, but not in the nude. Sorry, but I don’t swim naked,” she said with a laugh. “I think this is my most favorite place. I don’t know how I will be able to come here without you so you might just have to bring me back here time and again.”

“While I’m extremely disappointed on a hormonal level,” he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. “I also understand and darling, I am a God, I can get you a suit with a thought. Give me the parameters and allow me a tiny bit of creative license,” he was really grinning now. “And you will be appropriately clad for the water, but we can also make that call later if you want to go see some other places.”

“How about you cover the goodie bits and we go for a swim now. Later we will figure out what to do next? I mean more than dental floss please.” She added when she saw the gleam in his eyes, “I mean it. A bikini is fine, but not a string bikini please.”

“Hmm,” he nodded. “Hold on,” he warned next to her ear. In the next moment they were standing on the ground next to the pool. She was in a bikini, a self-respectable sort that was flirty with bits of mesh strategically placed amongst the solid material all in black. The mesh itself was dark enough to hide pretty much everything should something shift. He was in a pair of swim trunks and setting towels down on a rock next to them. “Dive on in. Like I mentioned, the water is warm.”

Ava looked at him and grinned, “Thanks, I think I will.” She looked at the perfectly clear water and jumped right in without a hesitation. If he had said it was safe, she trusted him completely.

Surprisingly the water was warm, very warm. When she surfaced she pushed her hair out of her face and grinned, “You weren’t kidding. This is perfect.” Treading water, she watched him. “Well, come on, Ares, get in here with me, mister.”

“Oh, I’m coming,” he said with a grin. Walking toward her, he slowly waded into the water. Stopping when he was in front of her, treading water. “I’m glad you’re here,” he told her softly.

“I’m glad you asked me to be here,” Ava admitted softly. “I’ve never really been one to just simply jump at something but with you, I couldn’t help myself. I needed you. I wanted to see what made you tick. I’m glad that I did too. I happen to like you, Ares, and that’s another first for me. I’ve never instantly liked someone before in my life, but you, you are unique.”

“Yeah, that I’ve heard before,” his voice said it wasn’t ever a compliment. “I happen to like you too, Ava. Didn’t know for sure that I would, but I find I truly do. You’re an amazing woman, special beyond all belief and I’m still trying to comprehend how I got you to forgive me.”