Chapter 52
The Warrior Princess was still trying to learn the layout of the War God's temple. Each day she took a little time when he wasn't around to explore so she could stop getting lost in it every time she wanted to go somewhere. She was getting tired of losing her way around the seemingly identical hallways and having to wait until Ares finally came looking for her to be able to get out of them. She hated seeing that smug look on his face when he showed up, subtly gloating that she had once again gotten herself lost in his temple before he eventually got her irritated with him enough that she didn't want to go anywhere with him anymore. But every time she was ready to walk away from him, having had enough and wanting to prove that she could indeed get around, Ares would pull her back to him and annoyingly wrap his arms around her.
She hated when he did that- encasing her in his arms like that and preventing her from leaving them while she hopelessly tried to get herself free from the War God when he knew perfectly well that she was mad at him. Her struggle would only make that conceited smirk grow more on his face, she could swear that the more she fought the more he enjoyed it and his arms would snake more possessively around her, only managing to make her angrier with him, and then the bastard would steal a quick passionate kiss while she was still too annoyed to realize what he was going to do before vanishing with her while their mouths were still firmly locked together.
She couldn't help but laugh at herself at the thought nevertheless, that was how it always went at some point, with the War God cunningly stealing a kiss in one way or the other after having irritated her beyond words.
The kiss always seemed to melt away all the anger that she was feeling for him. The passion of it, the way his mouth conquered hers- his tongue seeking entrance pass her lips and skillfully making the already hot kiss grow even more passionate while he delicately cradled her head and doused her fury with his lips each time they brushed against hers- an irresistible mixture. By the time that Ares would grant her the ability to breathe again, Xena would greedily seek out his mouth once again and they would end up feverishly sharing one urgent kiss after another, while their mouths hungrily melded together to the point that the thought of why this had started to begin, with was the furthest thing from her mind. It was only after they were both equally committed to having their passionate kisses never end, both eagerly capturing the others lips with their own more fervently to persuade the other from pulling away, that Ares would finally break their sensual interaction and pull back from her with the same smug look on his face and it was only then that she used to realize what he had done. He just thought that he was so clever… well, it wasn't going to work all the time and he needed to think of a new plan.
It had been a few weeks now and Xena was starting to easily remember which corridors led to where and now she could navigate down a few of them without feeling like she had gotten completely turned around like she did the first time she attempted this. She was very pleased with herself that she was able to map out the different hallways that she had explored in her head and now she could successfully make her way to and from her bed chamber without any assistants. As a result, she decided to try a new corridor that she hadn't been to yet and since she was so confident that it would be as simple as the other ones, she went for it.
Xena took her usual route until she came upon the hallway that she had walked by countless times without venturing down it. She started to make her way down the hall, it was darker than the other ones and only had a few torches spread out significantly along the walls. It seemed like no one really went down this corridor much, but then again, who would want to? The little light it did have made it look eerie and would certainly deter anyone away if they weren't sure where it led to. That did not stop the Warrior Princess from continuing her exploring though, on the contrary, this was now her temple and she needed to know what it contained and all the areas that it had whether Ares wanted her to know about them or not. Being his Chosen, she figured it granted her a few privileges and in her mind, whatever his temples hid and whatever belonged to the War God was now also hers. She believed that with their newly formed bond, there was nothing that was off limits to her and she was entitled to everything that he had.
After walking for quite some time, she wondered if she was ever going to stumble upon a door or anything at this point. It just seemed like an endless hallway that went nowhere…what was the point? Then she started to wonder if by any chance, this was not just a trick corridor, some of the other ones she had ventured down had a few small traps set to go off if you didn't know they were there.
About to cut her losses with this one, she had finally come across a single door that stood in the middle of the long hall. Xena looked down both ends of the hall and seeing no sign of life in either direction she refocused her attention to the strangely looking door. Soon, curiosity got the better of her, after all that walking she figured she might as well see what secrets the room behind it held. She reached for the handle and at first the door didn't open- she thought that maybe it was locked and tried it once again and after pushing against it a little it finally opened.
Dust spilled out a little once she opened it some; she guessed that it had been quite some time since someone had opened that door and it had gotten stuck in the doorframe. Considering that it seemed like one had entered that room in quite some time, it was still brightly lit with several torches along the walls and the place was completely clean. Clearly someone had been still using it and she made her way further inside.
She let her curious sapphire eyes scan the place, seeing several books and walls littered with hundreds of scrolls. The Warrior Princess had an idea about what this room was and the excitement within her was starting to slowly build as she made her way over to one of the walls. She looked at the array of scrolls that were in front of her and then she reached out and pulled one from the shelf. Xena unrolled it and read it a bit and quickly confirmed what she had suspected the room to be.
She grabbed another one from the wall and then another one and opened it and it contained something similar to the first one but yet a different scenario in all of them. The room held a vast assortment of different war schemes and battles that had been fought throughout the years. She had heard about this once, about how the War God had a recollection of every single battle that had ever been fought throughout time. This was a gold mine of information just sitting around and she couldn't contain herself the excitement about getting to read about all the different wars that had been fought and the tactics that the generals at the time had used.
Xena swiftly pulled as many scrolls from their racks on the walls as she could carry and walked over to the table and laid them out on it. She engrossed herself in them for the next several hours, she had managed to find a quill and parchment and as she read through some of the war schemes she made little notes to herself, ways that she thought the tactic could be improved a little and ones that she thought were quite nice and wanted to use for herself once she had attained the army that she wanted.
Xena was so immersed in what she had found that she had completely lost track of time. She should have been training while Ares was away but she just couldn't put the scrolls down, each one was as captivating as the next one and in the end she gave up on trying to pull herself away so she could go do what she was supposed to be doing. She figured that the War God wouldn't mind anyway if she had skipped a day of training, after all she was only going to end up doing it by herself since he had told her he had some business to attend to and where was the challenge in that? It was better that she was spending her time learning about all the different schemes she could use , reading about the great many battles that had been fought. She looked around the room for a moment, thinking that it was going to take a long time to go over all of these scrolls and then her eyes landed on one rack that didn't have quite as many as the other ones.
Curiosity got the best of her and she got up from her seat and made her way over to them, they seemed to be specifically kept away from the others. It was like they were special ones and deserved their own space and she wondered what they contained that made the War God have a certain place for them that required them to have their own shelves.
There really weren't that many of them and it seemed that this collection had just been started. She thought that it would be a good idea to begin with the first one. She thus picked up the first scroll and then unrolled it so she could start reading it and her eyes immediately widened in surprise. It was about a battle that she knew well, one that she had actually fought in. It contained the combat of their first encounter with each other on the battlefield, when she had fought against the War God's own men for Athena. She thought it was odd that he would have a scroll depicting a battle that he had actually lost and to someone that he really didn't like all that much but it didn't describe anything about Athena, the only thing that it did mention was how she had managed to defeat his forces.
The Warrior Princess hastily pulled another from the rack and saw that it too contained another battle that she had fought in while she was still with Athena. Why was he keeping a record of the battles that she had been in, every single one of the scrolls that was on this wall held a battle that she was involved in directly, no matter how small it was, they were there.
It surprised her actually, those battles had happened while the War God had been away and she wondered if he had been watching her all of that time. But why would he have an account of several battles that she had been in, she didn't think that they were anything of noteworthy to have earned a place in his huge collection of battles- and in which many of the fights were way better than anything that she had ever been in. That was one of the things that always kept her guessing when it came to the War God, never did he stop surprising her and the fact that he thought she was a good enough warrior to have scrolls written about her battle encounters made a small, fond smile appear on her face.
With that thought in mind, Xena gently placed the scrolls back in their assigned spots and walked back over to the table. It was getting late and she was going to take a few back with her. But just a couple had quickly turned into several small dozens since she couldn't make up her mind on which ones she should take with her and she just filled her arms with as many as she could carry and headed back to her bed chamber. As she got nearer to her room, a few of the scrolls had fallen out of her arms. Damn it… now how was she going to pick those up? She tried to shift as many scrolls into one arm as she could, maybe she should have left some behind she started to think to herself, and then squatted down to try and pick up the ones that had fallen and only managed to drop a few others in her attempt.
The Warrior Princess stood back up and huffed out a breath at her failed plan and then looked to her door, it was only a few feet away not that long of a distance at all. She soon glided the fallen scrolls closer together and started to gradually move them with her foot down the rest of the distance to her bed chamber door, being mindful not to drop anymore as she slowly made her way down the hall.
Having finally reached her door, after several more rogue scrolls decided they didn't want to cooperate with her, Xena fought with trying to open it for several minutes and then the door swung open and she made her way inside her room. Her bed was now besieged with scrolls all over it, and she sat in the very middle of them pouring over the information that she had before her. She tied her hair up messily into a bun and pinned it up with an extra quill that she had and got started on her task. After several pieces of parchment read, she made quite a few of her own notes on them from the scrolls she had taken with her, sometimes rereading one at least two or three times, trying to work out a different scenario that would have ensured the victory of the battle and picturing it in her mind of how it would have gone if they had just done something's differently.
That was exactly how the War God found her, hovering over all the different scrolls that littered her bed and her sitting in the middle of them looking completely ravishing. A small grin pulled at his lips while he watched her, she was doing her homework and he was proud of her for using any resource that she could to learn something new that she might not have thought of before. His Princess looked undeniably gorgeous by his standards but there was just one thing that was bothering him tremendously as he stood there and watched her. He would have loved to see that raven hair of hers flowing freely around her shoulders, being pinned up like that was keeping him from being able to run his fingers through it and then he wondered when did he become so fond of touching her hair? It was a very recent habit that he had come to enjoy immensely when she was close enough so he could do it.
"Are you just going to stand there all night or are you going to join me?" Xena teased while she peeked up at him for a moment and then focused her attention back to her task.
Ares smiled at her comment, she was certainly making herself quite at home in his temple. He discovered that he had really enjoyed having her there those past few weeks- coming back each day to his temple to feel her presence linger in the area was certainly better than coming back there to only find a few of his priestess' that hovered around him once he arrived. It was a small joy that he started to like more and more each day, knowing that she was going to be there and just seeing her beautiful face would block out all of the days' failures with his generals. Those hypnotizing sky blue eyes of hers held his attention like nothing else could once he caught sight of them.
"To get to lie in a bed with a beautiful woman, how can one resist such an offer?" he sweetly replied and made his way over to the bed and sat down beside her, immediately being engulfed by her alluring aroma that only made him eliminate whatever little space that was keeping them completely apart while he slowly slid his way closer to his Princess
As he took that first deep breath of a scent that he had become incredible addictive to, the War God took note of what she was doing, she had infiltrated his scroll room and had taken it upon herself to rifle through his private collection of some of his favorite battles. His Princess was certainly a mischievous little nymph that didn't take any boundaries into consideration. He laughed lightly to himself, just what else had she been doing while he was away he wondered?
"I see that you have found your way into my private collection and have taken a few things that don't belong to you." he playfully reprimanded her while he gently let his fingers glide up her arm and then let them run smoothly against her bare shoulder.
"Well, if you don't want me to have access to some of the rooms then I suggest you do a better job with keeping me out of them." she impishly responded, casting him a cattish grin for a few seconds before she continued to read the scroll she was holding, "Locking the door would have been a good place to start. Besides, I thought nothing was off limits…" she turned back to look at him with a naughty grin, beginning to lighten up her features, "… being your Chosen and all should bring some sort of liberty, right?"
As the words left her mouth, Xena brought her hand up and let her finger playfully glide along his jaw and slowly made her way down his throat to his chest, where she teasingly let her fingers move against his skin for a moment. Her playful grin widened even more when the War Gods eyes drifted shut for a moment at feeling her caress. The Warrior Princess was becoming rather addicted to the way Ares would react when he was around her, it made her feel like she had a certain power over him. The way he would linger longer into her caresses, greedily trying to make them last for as long as he could when she would start to pull away from him always made a victorious smile form on her face.
He thought she didn't notice but she did, she recognized the signs because she would end up doing the same thing when he would touch her but she too was trying hard not to let the War God on to what she was actually doing. Ever since that time with Argo, Xena was skillfully trying to avoid another situation like that from happening. He certainly didn't make it easy on her over the last few weeks though, constantly tempting her and standing sometimes on purpose directly in her personal space so she would have no choice but to be engulfed by him and the only way she could stop it was if she distanced herself from him on her own.
But she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that he was actually getting to her and so she was decided to hold her ground. Doing her best to play his own little mind games with him and sometimes even turning the tables was a joy. Her touches affected him as much as his did her and she would use that to her advantage, seductively running her hand along his face and chest until she succeeded in luring the War God right into his own trap and left him hang in it before he realized what she had just done.
"Right you are my dear…" he murmured out lowly against her ear, making her shiver a little from the velvety tone of his voice, "… Certain privileges indeed…" he then let his lips lightly brush against the side of her neck, making her inhale a sharp breath from the contact before he placed a small kiss against her skin.
Xena started to move her hand away from his chest, he was sometimes, no actually, he was completely overwhelming to her all the time when he was this close. The way his eyes would bore into hers, it was like he was searching for some type of answer within them, patiently waiting for her to provide the response that he was desperately seeking from her and she would get lost in his auburn eyes for a while, his scent filling her senses and making her linger longer then she should have into his touch and thinking that he had somehow gained some more ground behind that wall that she was constantly trying to keep between them. But Ares, feeling her anxiety grow knew that now she was going to start to try and distance herself from him, and he quickly caught her hand in his own and brought it up and placed a tender kiss on the back of it, letting his thumb run softly over her knuckles. He then reached up and pulled the quill out of her raven tresses and they cascaded softly down around her shoulders.
"That is so much better." he stated while he started to run his fingers through her hair, taking extreme pleasure at feeling her silky locks moving freely through his fingers.
Xena just cast him an annoyed look for having done that and then moved her hair off to one side of her shoulder. Never one to pass up an opportunity at being able to taste her delicious flesh, especially when it was being offered so freely to him like that, Ares leaned in closer to her and then placed a small kiss against her neck, breathing her in for a moment before he placed another more tender kiss against her skin. He slowly began to run his fingertips along her arm again and then teasingly back down while he placed a few more strategic kisses against the side of her neck. He nuzzled his head against hers, completely enthralled by the sight of his Princess just sitting there beside him and then she abruptly turned to look at him. Xena was beginning to not be able to take what he was doing anymore and she was going to be adamant about making him behave himself. But his face was closer to hers then than she had realized when she turned to look at him and their lips almost brushed against each other's.
They were locked together like that, blue staring intently into brown while their breaths slowly mixed together. Keeping his eyes locked with his Princess', Ares reached up and smoothed back her hair once again, letting his fingers then glide down her cheek and then outlining her sweet lips that he just wanted to devour. Xena found herself doing the exact same movements, the only difference was that she was staring at his chest, softly moving her hand against his skin and working her way up his neck and following the contours of his jaw before she traced his mouth with the lightest touch of her fingertips. Their mouths moved closer together, teasingly dancing around the other, wanting to meld against one another and taste what they had been longing for but never fusing together. They desperately wanted each other, to come together and make love that it was beginning to be an unbearable need that urgently needed to be fulfilled but all they ended up doing was nuzzling their heads together- each one just seeming to lose themselves even more in their alluring poisonous scents that made them crave the other a little more, longing to be able to touch one another but denying themselves constantly.
After a few more moments of falling under each other's spell a little more, Ares was the first to come to his senses, what was he doing? Why was he always so enchanted when she was around, how was it that she managed to get inside his head the way she did all the time, he didn't understand it or the things that would start to stir in him when she was close. And had he kissed her at that very moment, there was no doubt in his mind about it, he would have devoured her, there was no one that he wanted more than her and it alarmed him a little at the depth of that want. He had desired women before, but with Xena it was something else entirely, he didn't just want her, he needed her and he didn't really know what that meant. The War God just couldn't get her out of his head and when he closed his eyes his lovely Princess was still there, those sapphire eyes of hers haunting him relentlessly. He constantly craved her presence and her touch, no matter how insignificant the contact made between them was.
The thoughts of the two of them together used to whirl in his head constantly, driving him to the point of near insanity and he had to restrain himself several times, on more than one occasion from just forcing himself upon her. He didn't want her like that and he wanted her to be a willing participant when they finally made love and he knew that they were going to engage in that act together at some point. He desperately hoped that it was going to be very soon, he didn't know how much longer he was going to be able to stop himself and keep his urge from just taking her under control.
The War God wanted so badly to touch his Princess but he couldn't touch her, not the way that he really wanted to and it frustrated him beyond words at being able to have her so close but yet at the same time so far and it puzzled him even more that he was actually letting her set the pace. If it had been anyone else, he would have fucked them by now and moved on without ever giving it a second thought but with his Princess, she made him think about every little move he made while he tried to get close to her and every inch she allowed him to gain before she attempted to try and keep him out again, was a step closer to something that he wanted very much with Xena.
Being transfixed with her sweet lips for a few moments more, Ares started to pull away from her, he wasn't thinking straight. Having her this close was definitely clouding his judgment and all he wanted to do was crash his lips against hers and just possess her savagely until she knew exactly who she belonged to. He needed to figure out what this was, and what exactly was going on with himself where his Princess was concerned and he started to slowly dematerialize from the room without giving her a reason for his sudden departure. Usually he stayed with her, never passing up the chance at being able to just run his fingertips over her silky skin while she slept in his arms but he was so completely confused by his own actions when he was around her, that he just had to get out of there before he did something that he would regret but this time, Xena soon stopped him with a small touch on his arm. That gesture was enough to make the War God rethink leaving. He craved her touch so much and every little contact was like a power surge for him, and he softly picked her hand up and placed another kiss against it before he laced his fingers with hers.
The Warrior Princess knew that he was going to leave, possibly some battle or general that he needed to attend to, but deep down she really didn't want him to go and did the only thing that she could think of to make him stay. He had been gone for the whole day and although she was not going to voice it out loud, she had missed him while he was gone. Lately, over the last few weeks, he had been staying with her throughout the night, just holding her while she slept and she didn't know why but tonight she really wanted that. She was irritated with herself for wanting him with her, but just like she had mentioned earlier, she was entitled to certain liberties where the War God was concerned and she firmly believed that staying there with her now and holding her in his arms trumped having to go and deal with whatever it was that needed to be done and leave his Chosen alone when she wanted him there with her. She wasn't going to tell him right out that he should stay with her instead of leaving and so she did the next best thing, she avoided the truth and went for a diversion.
"There was something that I wasn't too sure about on one of these tactics here." Xena held up the scroll in question, not even bothering to see if it was one that actually contained something about what she was talking about, "Before you leave and go deal with another sorry excuse for a general, that your tactful mind picked by the way…" she just couldn't help but scorn him, he made it so easy sometimes, "… you think you could elaborate a little more about it?"
Ares laughed lightly at her words, she was such a mischievous little nymph, Gods it just made him want her even more with the way she would smile that naughty little grin while she defied him every chance she could get and he was certain that she enjoyed it every single time she did it.
He casually reached out for the scroll and took it from her so he could see what it was that his Princess was talking about. The moment he let his eyes run over what was written down on it the only thing he saw was the description of a battle, nothing about any type of scheme that she might not have understood. He shifted his eyes to her for a moment, seeing that she was eagerly waiting for an explanation on something that she thought she had handed him, shifting a little nervously while she waited for his answer. He smiled. She looked so delectable when she was nervous, fidgeting anxiously with the bed sheet while a small needy look formed in her sapphire eyes and it finally hit him that his Princess didn't really have a question about any plan, she just didn't want him to leave and was too stubborn to ask him to stay directly.
If anyone else had asked such a ridiculous thing, he would have probably laughed and maybe killed them but it shocked him tremendously when he realized that if Xena had done so, then he would have done what she wished, no second thoughts. Denying her anything was something that he found that he had a hard time doing. He looked back at the scroll, reading it over once more and then graced his gorgeous Princess with a response.
"What is it specifically that you don't understand about this?" he asked, looking back up into her eyes.
The Warrior Princess was caught off guard for a moment with his question, she didn't even know what that scroll contained. Damn it, she should have looked at it first and now she was stuck because she was only attempting to buy herself some more time with him. She felt like such an idiot, and now she was mad at herself for having been so foolish to begin with and acting like a school girl with an enormous crush and she mentally chastised herself for her senselessness. But she wasn't going to let him see that she had completely no idea what it was that the scroll he held in his hands contained.
"Well, it was the part about…" she began to answer but was swiftly cut off.
"This one can be quite hard to pull off, if the pieces to the strategy are not followed then the desired effect will leave you defenseless. A similar approach was used in this battle here…" he said and then made another scroll appear in his hand, "... now this one was a glorious battle and one that I still reflect upon fondly but…" he gave her a way out of her little failed attempt of a plan without ever showing her what was in the scroll she had originally given him, he didn't want to humiliate her even more than she already was for not thinking her plan all the way through. He could feel the tension that came into her body the moment he had asked her his question, she had no idea what she had handed him in the first place.
They ended up going over numerous different scrolls for the next several hours, each one giving and offering different types of ideas and soon they even managed to come up with a few new schemes as well.
"But one of my favorite tactics is being able to lure your prey into the desired position you want them in without giving away the fact that you really have a hidden meaning behind your motives…. Seduction…" he whispered out, running lightly his fingers against her silky skin.
"Doesn't sound too hard…" Xena murmured out, rolling her eyes a little at his arrogance for something that seemed so simple to her.
"Actually, that can be quite tricky my sweet…" Ares said, moving closer to her and placing the scroll he had been looking at, back down on the bed, "… if one is not careful, and doesn't maintain the necessary façade…" he reached out and softly ran his fingers down her cheek, gently gliding them down her throat where he teasingly smoothed his fingers down to her chest, causing her breasts to now rise and fall a little more rapidly from his touch, "… then the intended target would be able to pick up on the ruse..." he moved his face closer to hers, keeping his eyes locked with her own and then moving to her ear, inhaling against her neck before he buried his face in her hair for a moment, "… Thus, leaving the one…" he moved his hand back up her body, provocatively playing with the strap of her shift, "… who had intended to seduce…" he slowly slipped her strap from her shoulder and then placed a hot wet kiss against her exposed flesh while Xena inhaled a sharp breath from the contact, "… being the one who got seduced instead." he whispered out while he placed a few more kisses along her collar bone, slowly making his way up the side of her neck and nibbling against her skin.
The Warrior Princess was completely enthralled with his ministrations, her head falling back instinctively when he started to kiss against her throat more passionately. Every time his lips touched against her skin she felt it ignite like a wild fire and she moaned out lowly from his pleasing touches. She unconsciously arched into him more when his hand began to roam against her waist, teasing her beyond words while he softly ran his fingertips along her body. She just wanted to be close to him, to make any kind of skin contact that she could with Ares. But her little bubble of sweet torture came to an abrupt halt the moment his velvety voice reached her ears.
"Tell me, are you completely seduced right now Xena?" Ares whispered against her ear and then pulled back from her slightly.
Xena opened her eyes and took notice of how close they were, somehow she had managed to straddle him, when did she even move? Both straps to her shift were hanging off of her shoulders and her hands were gripping the edges of his vest like a life line. She was both entirely shocked and annoyed with her traitorous body. She hastily pulled the straps to her shift back up and sheepishly slid off of his lap and sat next to him, completely mortified and angry with herself.
Ares could pick up on the self-loathing his Princess had for herself for her actions. It was completely natural for her body to have responded the way that it did, in fact if she hadn't responded the way she did then he would have thought that he was losing his edge when it came to tempting the fairer sex. But it also let him know that she wasn't as resistant to him as she was trying to make it seem and that was what his Princess was really upset with herself about. There was so much that she still needed to learn and he then softly ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek and she pulled away from him a little, trying to gain back the ground she had just lost, and he took a hold of her chin and turned her face towards his own.
She looked at him irritated, more with herself for having done what she did then at the War God for making her do it. Sometimes she thought that he was using the feelings she had for him against her, the ones that she believed that she had kept hidden from him and herself for that matter but when they were close like this she couldn't deny that she felt something for Ares and to think that he was only toying with her to prove a point, hurt. The War God could see the self-doubt that was shining in her sapphire eyes and how she was starting to try and block him out, she was simply stunning and his Princess had the ability to lure even the most hardened warlord with just a mere glance of those piercing blues of hers.
He let his fingers softly glide over her cheek, this time savoring the feel of her skin while he slowly made his way down her throat. He unhurriedly let his eyes wander over her incredibly sexy body for a few seconds, feasting on the mere sight of her. Her powers of seduction were truly something else since just having his Princess sitting there, looking at him like that and feeling her tempting flesh beneath his fingers was driving him out of his mind and he casually let his hand roam over her body more greedily.
As his hand roamed against her body, Xena shivered a small amount while she tried to fight against it. She absolutely loved it when he touched her, but at the same time she completely hated it. Never had something so simple seem so exhilarating before, the way he moved his fingers against her skin always sent her nerves into a frenzy and it just made her want to feel it every second of the day. When his fingers had tenderly run down her cheek, her eyes drifted shut for a moment and then she slowly opened them again to meet his warm auburn ones.
That look shining in Ares' eyes- she had seen that same look quite a few times before from him when he would look at her and she just didn't understand it. It was as if he were in some type of wonder, the way his eyes would appreciatively take their time to go over every inch of her body that he could see, and his hand- that wandered gently over her skin with the most delicate caress as if this was some type of dream to him and he needed to touch her just to make sure that she was actually real. It was at times like these that her stomach would get that unusual feeling again and it would make her become a little nervous around the War God and she had never felt more vulnerable than when his gaze was upon her. She really didn't know why, but when Ares was around everything just made sense, even when he was pissing her off.
"You are absolutely ravishing my dear and no man… or God…" he let his words linger for a moment, bringing his eyes back up and staring into her gorgeous sapphire eyes while he gently ran his fingers through her raven tresses, "… would be able to resist you when you decide to play the temptress…" he told her and then leaned forward and captured her lips in a soft, tender kiss that was meant to show her just how enticingly seductive she really was but was more for himself because he was just dying to kiss her already and he couldn't stand to wait another second to taste her.