Ares: (Gods of Old Book 1) (8 page)

She looked at everything that they had and shook her head, “Actually, I think you have thought of everything. I honestly wouldn’t have thought of even half of this without you.” She smirked and added, “Have you done this often? Wined and dined women who are fascinated by you?” Her tone was teasing, her hand on his arm tightening and leaning into him to show her happiness with being the only one here.

He slid his arm around her and pulled her in close. “I’ve never wined and dined anyone, Ava. I don’t date; I don’t do things like this. But for you, it’s necessary for me to do something amazing for you. I want to spoil you and show you the world. I want you to know that you are the most amazing and special woman to have ever come into my life. Hell, I’m running around grinning like a fool because I love being with you.”

She laughed and hugged him closer to her. “Good. I’m enjoying it as well. I am very, very happy that you are here with me, and you are willing to give me everything that you are giving me. I don’t know what I did to gain your attention, but I’m happy that I did. I want to keep it, and hold it; I need for us to enjoy all of our time together that we possibly can. I think it will be best, don’t you?”

“Most definitely,” he smiled down at her. He leaned in and rested his forehead against hers as they stared into one another's eyes. “We should get moving,” he said after a time. Lifting his head, he led her towards a street off the market.

“Yes, we should.” Ava moved once more to his side, her hand sliding into his. “Are we almost ready to whisk away from here and go to where we can be alone and have our picnic?”

“Almost,” he said. “We’ll go a few more blocks towards a quieter part of the city. Then we’ll duck out of sight, and be on our way.” He was quiet as they walked through the noisy city. It took them maybe fifteen minutes before he stopped, looked around and then indicated an alleyway. He nudged her into the shadows before wrapping an arm around her. He gently pressed a kiss to her lips, and then the noise was gone; she felt a light breeze against her cheek a moment later.

Leaning into him, Ava let out a sigh of pure pleasure from the kiss. She didn’t open her eyes, just licked her lips when he pulled back from her and smiled. “I think I could become very used to this, Ares. You should be careful or you’ll find me hunting you down more often than not.”

“Hunt away,” he told her, his voice husky. “I don’t mind in the least, just be careful you aren’t around others, or camera’s when you decide to hunt me down. It’s a little hard to fix such things to keep others from going all weird and hunting you down.”

“I will make sure that when I come searching for you, I’ll only ever be somewhere secure; like my house.” She would never let the secret out of the bag because then that would cause Ares trouble and that was something she refused to do.

“I thought you didn’t have a home right now? Or did you just run away from it to stay out of your family’s clutches?” he asked softly. He lifted his head and looked around, “Let’s go and sit under that tree. It’s out of the way, partially shielded, and we can lean back against it when we’re done with our meal.”

“You know what I mean, silly. Eventually, I will have to find a home and settle down. I can’t walk the world for the rest of my life. One day I will sadly have to stop and find a place to call home; somewhere to put down roots.”

“Ah, right, sorry,” he smiled at her. He led her towards the spot he’d chosen. Handing her the basket he shook out the blanket and then gave her a hand sitting down. “Don’t rush into anything. Enjoy the fact that you don’t have to decide tomorrow. You have some freedom so you should spread your wings and check out everything you can.”

“Which is what I’m doing. I’m enjoying being able to check out everything; to experience life and to just simply live. And now there is this man.” She grinned up at him. “He’s breathtakingly handsome and funny; though he and I seriously got off on the wrong foot, I’m afraid I have the hots for him, and I think I would follow him to the ends of the Earth and back if he asked me to.”

Ares dropped down next to her and lifted a brow. “Yeah?” he asked with a grin. “You should tell me more about this guy. I need to know whether I should puff up my chest in pride or rip out some poor sucker’s throat and dance in his entrails.”

“Well, he’s got these eyes that I just want to swim in. They’re lethal; truly they are, but when he looks at me, I don’t see the predator that he is. Instead, I see the man that he is inside. He’s tall, dark of complexion and dark of hair. He’s got this laugh that’s like whiskey and cigars. He’s truly spectacular, and he can dance like a dream.”

He burst out with a laugh, “I don’t know about most of that but the last bit, not so much. I know I’m less than spectacular on the dance floor. I’m relatively competent but really, avoiding toes is pretty much as far as it stretches.” Ares pulled her into his lap and hugged her close, pressing kisses over her cheek and neck. “I adore you, Ava; I want to have you in my life as long as you’ll allow me to be in yours.”

“Good. Then I think that you and I are going to be spending a great deal of time together. In fact, I’m going to demand it. I adore you, a great deal, and I want as much time with you as I can get. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, as long as we are together in doing it. Deal?”

“Then stay with me,” he told her quietly. “At my place, I mean. It’s big enough that we can have space if we need or want it. It will also allow us to see where this might be going. If you want to, that is. I don’t want to push you into anything of course, but the option is there.”

“Are you sure about that? It would be a big deal, me moving in with you so fast, wouldn’t it? Not that I’m saying no, because I’m not, but how would the others ... where you live ... feel about the sudden slum craze that I would bring about?” Her being human and all.

“Who cares?” he frowned at her. “If you don’t want to stay there we can live in my home on Earth. It’s not nearly as fancy as the place on Olympus, but I quite like it. It’s in Italy, on the coast. The beach is close, and the weather is warm and beautiful. It’s on a vineyard, and we have a couple of pretty good wines each year that come of it.”

That had Ava smiling. “I think that I would like to see that home as well.” She moved so that she was closer to him, his scent and strength wrapping around her. “Where do you feel safest? Which home would be the one that you would choose, if you had to, Ares?”

“I like the house in Italy; it’s warm and inviting. I have the same protections there as I do on Olympus, so it’s equally safe. As long as there aren’t any earthquakes, of course,” he smiled. Cupping her face, he tipped her back and kissed her gently. “We can go back and forth between the two, Ava. Nothing says we need to live in only one place.”

“I think I rather like that idea. That way we don’t have to stop our wandering and we can enjoy ourselves as much as we want to. We will always have a place to call home, no matter where we are, right?”

“Absolutely,” he smiled. “And no need for a passport ever again. When traveling Greek God’s Air, you get where you need to go with a minimum of fuss.” He kissed her once more before sitting her upright again. “Let’s eat before everything gets chilled or, in some cases, warm and icky.”

“Sounds good.” She reached for the first plate of cheeses and inhaled the scents of the various slices and felt her belly grumble. “These smell so good. I hope that the goat is good too or else you are going to be popping me in some KFC from somewhere in the deep South of America,” she teased.

“It’s good,” he said rolling his eyes at her. He moved her onto the blanket and began to pull everything out of the bags. He dug out the wine and pulled the cork with a flick of his wrist. Another flick of his wrist brought two wine glasses into his hand, and he poured. “Here you are,” he passed her one of the glasses as he set the bottle to the side.

“You are good,” Ava said with delighted glee. “I happen to love that about you. You are smooth, and you make me smile. Both are very good things in my own humble opinion,” she said happily. “For now, though, we should toast. What do you want to toast to, Ares?”

He frowned and chewed on his lip for a moment before looking to her. Smiling he shrugged, “It has been said that the universe works and moves in mysterious ways. To this, I can truly attest; for if it had not, I may not have been where I was when I was to meet you. To the universe and all the machinations behind the scenes that put us where we are meant to be. And to us. I am truly blessed to have met you, Ava VonMaur,” he said softly.

That had Ava smiling. She couldn’t agree more. She felt the exact same way. “I agree, fully and completely, I agree,” she said softly. “So whoever it was that led you my way and me yours, I am very thankful.” She tapped her glass to his and simply smiled happily. She was happy.

“Cheers,” he tipped his glass slightly. Lifting it, he took a slow drink and watched her over the rim. Setting his glass aside he flicked his wrist again and got plates, napkins, and cutlery. “Alright, time to eat.” Handing over a plate and accessories, Ares pulled off lids and spread everything out so they both could reach the dishes.

She looked at the food in question after taking a sip of her wine and nodded, “It looks delicious. I really hope that it tastes just as good.” She was worried that the goat wouldn’t be nearly as good as what he was making it out to be. She was very hopeful that it was, though. Very.

He rolled his eyes at her and reached for the container of goat. He stuck in his fork and then held it out, a bite-sized piece on the tines. “Try it, and if you hate it, I will happily eat it all myself. This is really good, it will melt in your mouth and, while it’s spicy, it won’t take your head off. I got some rice too that you can put this on so that you can have some of the sauce with it.”

She looked at the fork that he held and opened her mouth, “Come on,” she said with a grin. “Give me a bite if you would please.” She grinned as she waited. “From you, though, only you please.”

“You’d better not be eating from any other man’s fork.” He grinned and moved the morsel into her mouth. “Bite,” he ordered. Ares pulled back and then sat watching her as she slowly chewed. “Well, is it as good as I said it was?”

She took her time and then finally licked her lips. “Very good.” She watched him and licked her lips again. “That’s very good. And don’t worry, yours is the only fork I will eat off of. You are the one that I want. Not anyone else. Just you.” She leaned in closer to him and touched her hands to his. “Perfect. Thank you for suggesting this instead of lamb.”

“You are most welcome,” he smiled. He grabbed up another container that revealed rice when he pulled the lid off. He began to plate up the food and even gave her some naan to go with it all. “Here you go,” he handed her a plate. “Eat up, darling; we have a very long wall to walk.”

She took the bites that he offered her; there was something that was purely erotic about eating from his fork, letting him feed her. “I enjoy this, a great deal. Having you feed me. I like it. A lot.”

Ares shuffled in closer to her with a grin and shrugged. “I just like the way your lips wrap around the fork as you watch me. The flick of your tongue the second before you close your lips. The way you savor the food, rolling it on your tongue. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ve got a bit of an oral fixation where you’re concerned.”

“Yeah, you aren’t the only one,” she said with a grin. “I happen to have one with you as well.” She licked her lips and leaned into him. “I suggest that you kiss me anytime that you start to fixate on my mouth.”

“You’ll never breathe again at that rate,” he informed her with a chuckle. “I happen to focus on your mouth a lot, darling.” Leaning into her he kissed her; something clattered, and his hands were on her face to hold her still. He sucked on her tongue, teasing her slowly and with true dedication.

Moving closer to him, Ava climbed into his lap and wrapped her hands around his neck. She pulled him closer, need consuming her. Without hesitation or pausing, she rubbed her body against his and demanded more.

Growling he wrapped her up close and turned their bodies, laying them on the blanket. His weight settled between her legs, his jean clad cock rubbing against her. “Gods, woman,” he whispered as he pulled up for a breath. Then he attacked her mouth again.

“You’re right, so good,” she moaned. “I think that you should get rid of the food and our clothes. I want you.” She felt her body readying for him as she wrapped her legs tighter around his hips and rubbed hard against the heavy erection that he was sporting.

“I don’t want to rush into anything, Ava,” he whispered against her lips. “I want you desperately but our first time shouldn’t be in front of a family of four on their first holiday. And most definitely not on the ground. I want you in my bed, where we can laze for days, and I can touch you, kiss you, and bury my face in your sweet pussy until you scream for mercy.”

“Crap; good point,” she whispered. “There’s no way that we can flash out of here, is there? I want to go home to your bed; I want to be able to be with you. Not rushing; it’s meant to be. You know that as well as I do,” she whispered softly.

“No, we can’t flash out just yet,” he said quietly. “We’ve attracted a bit of attention so we should probably sit, eat and when it cools off, we’ll duck out of here. But I still don’t want to rush you, Ava. We only make love if it’s what you want. What you truly want. I’m possessive, and I don’t just run around screwing everything with legs and breasts. You’re important to me, sweetheart, and I want this to be perfect.”

“You’re important to me too,” she said softly. “You mean more to me than I can possibly tell you. I’ve never, ever felt this way; for anyone. Alright, we should sit, we should eat, and then later maybe we will go and finish what was started?”

“Maybe,” he grinned down at her. He looked around again and, heaving a sigh, moved off her. Holding out his hands he pulled her up to a sitting position; then he passed her the plate he’d been feeding her from. “Eat up so that you have energy to burn should it be necessary.”