Disclaimer: I don't own PJO nor HoO, they are the beautiful children of Rick Riordan.


CHAPTER 4


"You wanted to see me, praetor Reyna..?" a balmy hoarseness resounded in a strange way almost right inside her skull. She didn't answer, didn't even lift her eyes to see who that was, still scribbling something on one of the many official writings that had to be taken care of. First things first. It was pleasantly warm in the office, probably because of the afternoon summer sunbeams that made their way from the window to caress her exposed neck, leaving soft kisses on the sensitive skin.

"Yes. You may come closer" she finally answered, an odd feeling of excitement beginning to grow in the pit of her stomach at the unreadable precognition of what was to come. Faint smell of jelly beans mixed with sharp aroma of oil or fuel or grease, probably a blend of the three, and confident steps pattered on the floor as he approached her desk.

But... Who was that, again..?

She lifted her head fiercely for her eyes to bore into Leo's appealing chocolate-browns. Something throbbed impatiently in her southern region when his well-formed lips curved into a dirty smirk. The tip of his tongue showed itself at the entrance of his mouth and he exhaled, slowly, sensually, the nettlesome sound transforming into a short chuckle when he leisurely walked round the piece of furniture, situating himself astride with his back to the heated glass of the window behind her. Gods, could he make her wait even longer?!

Leo folded his arms on his chest and, almost by accident, she let her stare wander at the curves of his bicipitēs brachiōrum and the way his orange Camp Half-Blood tank top fitted just tight enough for herself to be able to keep track of his diaphragma moving up and down when he took smooth breaths pealing out in her ears like cannon shots. Her own breathing had long lost it's usual rhythm.

"So..." he murmured, barely even unclenching his sharp jaws. Her eyes left his calloused fingers reluctantly to return his intense gaze. But who knew what they were capable of, maybe she would let herself focus on their resolute jiggle just a little bit longer..? "What did you decide?" he asked, tilting his head to the side a bit and making the blood in her veins heat up at the dim thought of just what could be done with those springy black curls of his.

"Well..?" he pressed, though not being able to suppress a half-mouthed grin. She almost rolled her eyes at his stubbornness.

Reyna stood up, adjusting her black, mid-tight pencil skirt and rolling up the sleeves of the slim white shirt she was wearing. Come to think of that, what had even made her wear such clothes to the Principia..?

A quiet, inarticulate groan escaped Leo and everything seemed to had fallen into place in her head immediately. Allowing herself just a small victorious smirk - he absolutely couldn't see that, of course! - she nonchalantly brushed her braid over her shoulder, exposing the silken skin of the side of her neck and letting his sight rove hungrily at the intriguing gap between the material of her shirt that had been made by herself having left a single button undone.

"Ah, yes..." she breathed unhurriedly, turning away from him and to the surface of the desk. Full aware of what she was doing and not even wondering why she was doing that (it was simple, it was natural, it was what had to happen in that moment, in that office), she slowly bent over the wood, reaching for a sheet of white paper she'd left so far away from her chair... On purpose, she remembered with not even a taint of surprise. "I have the protocol right... Here..." she mumbled with a dainty sigh, not being able to suppress a full smile anymore.

The smile widened even more when she felt firm pressure trap her hips greedily and when she straightened, supple squirms to make sure his hands knew full well every curve of the part of her body they possessed, hot, wheezy breath tickled her earlobe. Warm, agile fingers started kneading the flesh gently and it took all the willpower she'd ever managed to gather not to press her whole frame into the heated skin of the man just behind her back... Yet... "I have an idea... Reina..." she shuddered when he poured the words lusciously straight into her ear, into her mind and into her heart, feeling himself decreasing the remaining distance between them as the edge of the desk wasn't the only hard object clinging to her center anymore.

"Mm..?" she hummed, beginning to undo the second button of her shirt, then the third, while his right palm advanced down her tight and the fingers of the left one rubbed small, sluggish circles on the flesh, almost bashfully, until they reached the hem of the white bother and halted, seeming to be waiting for further instructions. Her skin already itched in anticipation her his touches (squeezes, pinches) but she wasn't going to give the dominion he clearly wanted to give over to her a miss... That wouldn't have been like the Roman praetor she was, right..?

"So tell me, my dear Leo..." she turned around, taking her sweet time to feel himself quiver when she nuzzled into his chest, his stomach, even dabbing his loins ever so slightly. Her own eyes glistened at the unconscious look in his misty orbs (darker then ever before) and the way his breathing seemed to had deserted any sensible pattern to settle for erratic sharp inhales and irregular hoarse exhales. "What do you want me to do with you..?" a growl escaped the back of his throat when she murmured the words straight onto his parted lips, the tortures he was going through being the only amends keeping herself from dealing with the growing perturbation of the moisture on the inside of her underwear right on the spot.

She blinked and suddenly he was gone, though the confusion didn't manage to take her over completely as she quickly found his new placement out - kneeling in front of her, his long fingers tickling the back of her knees and his mouth... "Oh gods..." she moaned quietly when his hot tongue stroked a sensitive spot on the inside of her tight. Too low, too soft..! Although... "Leo..!" she wheezed in warning when his rough hands disappeared behind her skirt, looking out for a way to take it off. She still didn't want to give in to him!

The only reaction was that distinctive crooked smirk of his (feisty, impertinent, annoying) but... Merda! She pursed her lips to muffle a gasp, her eyelids falling shut when his digitus medius brushed dangerously near her entrance only through the slim material of her underwear, as he'd already taken care of the skirt (disobeying her!). His other fingers pressed into the delicate tissue of her groin, leaving burning marks of insufficiency wherever they roamed, and his tongue accompanied them in whichever available spot it found... It was certainly true what they told about his limbs' slickness so... Was there really anything to be angry about..?

Subconsciously, she arched into the source of the tender touch... Still too sweet, for her taste. "Leo..!" she growled quietly, frustration growing inside of her like a well-fueled flame. Why didn't he advance? Why was he trying to drive her nuts with the amount of waiting? Why couldn't he just fuck her rough on that stupid desk like he'd have probably done with any other girl? What was with the damn teas-

"Ouch!" her eyes snapped open wide and blood froze in all her vessels when a jolt of pain pierced her left tight. "Have you just..?" she panted out, her features twisted in disbelief when her eyes shot down to look at Leo innocently lipping characteristic crimson red fluid off her tight, just below the edge of the knickers. He took a particularly long, relishing lick up her skin and smiled as blamelessly as the untrustworthy, unpredictable, untamed Graecus only could, batting his thick black eyelashes and causing small crinkles to appear in the tissue of his cheeks.

"I just wanted you to punish me..." he whispered sweetly, his warm breath ghosting over the pulsating mess that had become of her crotch. Èste cabròn and his fucking charm... She swallowed through the tight, dry slit of a throat she'd got to have because of him, feeling her cheeks getting even hotter then before and her mind clouding from the lousy amount of air her fevered lungs provided to her. And then it got to her.

It was sick, she was losing it, depriving herself of the only constant in her life - the ascendancy over her own godsdamn emotions! She had to withdraw, to put an end to the idiocy of that ridiculous situation! She wouldn't fall to the level of the soldiers she'd reprobated, she wouldn't-!

Leo kissed the roseate bite softly, looking up straight into her eyes, and though it was nothing more then just a few seconds of getting each others' images imprinted into their retinas... It felt like so much more...

Her heart slowly remembering its crazy pace from earlier, she leant on the desk, keeping her chin high and her eyes away from his sight. "Surgete, civis" she ordered in the most imperative tone she'd ever managed to make her voice have, effectively sending him onto his feet before she could even blink. His eyes widened slightly when one of her palms brushed over his neck, herself drinking in the feeling of the one-day stubble under the tips of the other's fingers. She clasped her hands on his nape and pulled him close gently, overwhelmed by the heat of his body, his ubiquitous smell teasing her nostrils, his strong arms brushing along her skin when he returned the embrace with unusual care... No doubt, Reyna was utterly infatuated with him.

"We'll do it my way" she smiled at the man holding her in his arms, adoring every second of just how much affection his beautiful, deep, enchanting eyes returned her gaze with and how much warm she felt nestled against his chest - not only physically, but mentally and emotionally, something she hadn't felt in a time too long for it to be anyhow fair or just. She had never been the Fates' favorite, now had she?

Her heart skipped a beat when Leo returned the smile, sincere happiness that made her feel extraordinarily light, as if it hadn't been for his limbs around her waist, she would have left the Earth for sure, meeting with the sun and clouds when she'd have been only halfway done. "Consensio, mea regina" he whispered softly, leaning in for a proper kiss and, when it came to her, the first kiss. Never before had she been kissed and he seemed to sense it was a special moment. Reyna's eyelids subsided lazily and even though an almost noiseless whisper in the back of her head kept saying that she should probably have been terrified, she hadn't felt so at peace since... Since ever.

Their breaths mixing at the entrance to her mouth was enough to make her stomach make a double backward flip. She shuddered a bit when he captivated her cheek with his wiry hand, the thumb fondling the heated skin when he gently guided her lips to meet his, at last. "Esne prompta, dulcis?" he murmured, making her heart scream in tension.

"Just kiss me" she whined quietly without a thought, surprised by the impatience in her own voice. He seemed to have heard that note too, as a short chuckle reached her ears, effectively kindling a ball of heat in her gut. Her fingers mixed with his hair with maybe a little bit too much force and she felt a frown making its (so damn unwanted) way onto her face. Another snicker escaped him and she felt the hand on her hip pull her in even closer, her body pressing against his, absorbing his burning heat.

"My, my, praetor, why so serious..?" he mumbled and she was just going to backtalk in a way that wouldn't have been polite or diplomatic in any way, but then he finally did it. Leo Valdez kissed her. It was nothing particularly mind-blowing, at first - just the feeling of his soft, het up lips on her own. It was clumsy and awkward, quite the opposite of what all girly books, movies and magazines claimed it to be. It was pleasant, generating a warm wave in her insides and her mind but... Was that what she really wanted? A reserved peck? Because, Venus damn her if she was wrong, but that wasn't even a decent smoo-!

Oh gods.

The sensation changed immediately when he tilted his head to the side a bit and deepened the kiss, his mouth oppressing hers with the regular movements steadily increasing in speed and harshness, igniting the most fervid fire in her bones. So that was what it really felt like to be kissed? She felt his hand travel from her cheek to cup the back of her head greedily, getting their heads closer with every nanosecond until there was no choice left but to let his wild, moist, hot, hot, hot tongue savage hers in a brutal dance of a fight for absolute dominance. How did one even stand such occupation? How did one breathe, find the right rhythm, return the caress in a way that made the other see white? Relying merely on instinct was not what she favored. She hated the doubt of just maybe not being enough.

"Nn-!" she panted out desperately in one of the rare breaks for a breath, the sound muffled by his mouth already back on hers, her mind blank, her body clinging to his and her womanhood dying from the anticipation. His hand grabbed the curve of her ass but she didn't mind, quite the opposite, actually. Her slim fingers wandered over his oh-so-appetizing (what would she have denied it for anymore?) body wherever they could reach, groping and squeezing and almost wounding it with her fingernails, causing a low growl to escape him that made the corner of her busy mouth twitch in satisfaction when they passed the ticklish tract of his abdominal hair and crossed the border of the waistband of his boxers...

And suddenly he was over her, her back meeting the heated wood of her desk and his eyes boring hungrily into hers. His breathing had become desperate and hoarse but it was herself who was a hopeless panting mess under his body's abnormal heat. He'd better have made the disgrace worth it... Her sight jumped from his soft dark orbs to his parted lips when he murmured exactly three words. Only that many and so quiet she could have thought she had misheard. Three words that made her freeze in place, not moving, not breathing, not even thinking at all.

The remains of her common-sense (what was that, again..?) yelled in alarm when he leant over to catch her lips with his again, but it was too mousy, too unimportant when compared to the words that still filled her body and soul like an echo. She didn't even mind when Leo made no pauses, gave her no chances to take a solid breath, at least. His weight was crushing her painfully into the flat surface, his hands were wandering over (squeezing, pinching) the curves of her body, his mouth was claiming its irrefutable property (since when did she think of herself as of his..?)... The heat was obtrusive, the brutal pressure left bruises, the lack of air made her suffocate...

But wasn't that what she really wanted, in the first place..?

(His tongue giving one exceptionally long, luscious stroke to hers...)

She was drifting away into the darkness but she didn't mind...

(The bliss of the sensual rubbing of his fingers between her tights...)

He'd flamed the fire in her heart she'd craved for way too long, fire she'd almost stopped believing she could ever feel...

(A discontent growl when her weak, so weak, hands disentangled themselves from his hair and dropped to the desk with a silent tap...)

If she stopped existing right there and then because of him, she wouldn't mind. He was there, he was close. What more could she ask for..?

(The world went black with the last breath she managed to give into him...)

(One last memory...)

I love you...


ZJeM, 18.04-15.12.14


From author:

Latin is so damn sexy, don't you agree? ;) (Don't mind like a million mistakes I probably made. ;p)

A chapter of confusion, isn't it..? I'm well aware, lovely readers... *evil giggle*

This is one of my favorite things I've ever written. Like it? Don't like it? It's always so nice to hear from you guys! :3

THANKS FOR READING!