Halfway up the atrium stairs, Hercules set Megara down and hovered over her. "My other house didn't have stairs," he said, planting his arms to frame her where she lay. "What do you think?"
"I… think they're sturdy." Megara propped herself up on her elbows so she could be nose-to-nose with him. "Did you really stop looking for our bedroom so that we can test the atrium staircase?"
"Yes." His way of explaining was to shift her legs to either side of his torso and slide her skirt higher. "Just… as a test. We could see if the stairs are comfortable."
Megara's brows rose. "I can honestly say I hadn't thought of this. Your mind has gotten more devious since we married."
"I ah… started thinking about it when I watched you walking up those stairs this morning. I got an interesting view…"
"Oh! This isn't the way to recreate that."
"Well! I thought…"
Megara eased herself up a few steps with her elbows, carefully monitoring the growing anxiety on his face. When she'd freed her legs, she turned to kneel on the stairs and glanced at him over her shoulder. "See, you'd have to do it this way."
"Uh… oh! I uh… I see…" his voice had taken on a dreamy quality. He traced a hand down her back and hesitated at the curve of her hips.
"Go on, what are you afraid of? It's not like you haven't had your hands all over me before."
"Yeah, I just… Well, now you're my wife, so it feels different." He crawled up behind her and rested against her back. "This feels nice…"
"We can't stop now; we've got plenty of space to cover, and we can't afford to waste the whole night on a staircase."
"No? We're skipping ahead, I think. We didn't even see what Hermes, Dionysus, or Demeter left us."
"There's a messenger bag down there that has the caduceus on it. I bet Demeter left something in our garden, and Dionysus is probably responsible for us having anything in our kitchen."
"Should we… go back downstairs and get something to eat?"
"I'm not hungry right now, at least not for food."
"Then what…? Oh… you mean me?"
"Now you're catching on. Let's go find our bedroom and figure out our food situation later." She started to crawl up the stairs, but Hercules got back up and brought her with him into his arms. "Saves time," he mumbled as an excuse and jogged up the stairs.
On the second floor, the roof shaded the corridor between rooms but was left open to the courtyard. The stars shone down on them as a blessing and gave them enough light to determine where they should go next.
"Do you want to run around until we find the room or take our time and examine everything?" she asked.
"I don't know… you're becoming all I can think of now."
Megara took his hand and dragged it along her curves. "So tell me… what else would you like to do with me?"
"I…" Hercules shook his head. "I don't think I can… words…"
"Then talk to me another way." Megara drew him toward a wall and raised a leg to curl around his thigh. She went up on tiptoe to press herself against him and whispered in his ear, "I'm sure you can figure this out," before she closed her lips around his earlobe.
"Ah…" his sound was nearly pained as she felt him throbbing through their clothes. He brought one hand under her hips to press them close, and the other pinned both of her hands to the wall over her head. He looked down at her then, worried and confused, neither of which were the expected responses.
"Something wrong?" she crooned at him while continuously sliding herself along his length.
Hercules had no response aside from the groans that escaped him as he pressed closer to her.
"Do you need help getting out of your armor?" Megara asked in a soft voice while pressing so firmly to him that she felt him shake.
"Please? My hands won't move…"
"You've got to release mine first," she reminded him.
She knew he wasn't too far gone when he laughed at himself. "Silly me…" He planted his hands on either side of her face against the wall. "You're making me even dumber than usual."
"I think for now I'm all right with that." Her fingers flickered with expert grace across the straps that bound him in his armor and then untied the leather laces at the sides. She let his armor drop off to one side with a crash that seemed to jar Hercules back into sanity.
"Okay…" he panted. "I think I can… we can…" He shook himself, put a hand on her back, and escorted her through the nearest door. "Take a minute? Cool down?"
"Why would you want to do that?"
"I'm really curious about the house and… I don't want to act like a boorish dog on my wedding night. I'd like it to be more romantic, and I've hurt you tonight. I can't afford to slip up again, or I'll ruin everything."
"You won't ruin everything. I'll just have to make you close your mouth and take over for a while as punishment for the next stupid thing you say."
"Not this time. I know I can use my mouth in some other way that won't irritate you." He unpinned one shoulder of her over-dress and let it pool on the floor about her feet. "It's not like our real first night when I was lost and confused and intimidated by everything. Now I remember how I reduced you to a wordless mess, and I'm pretty sure I could do it again."
"Well, you're welcome to try, but don't expect that I won't retaliate." She scratched the line of his jaw and smirked up at him. "But it would be interesting to think of this as your chance to be the one impressing me with your skills and expertise. I'll even pretend that I'm the innocent one and let you impress me."
"Oh, you'll let me?" Hercules went in for a little kiss on her cheek. "I'm flattered you don't think I'd fumble through it and make myself so ridiculous you'd lose interest."
"Lose interest in the Mighty Hercules?" Megara gasped dramatically. "When thousands of girls just like me would kill to be with you?"
Hercules shook his head. He lifted her chin so she would meet his gaze. "Meg, there's nobody like you."
"Or you," she returned with equal sincerity. "So we're both fortunate to have one another. I belong to you now. Tell me what you want from me."
"Better just show you." He scooped her into his arms and leaned back against the wall, so she rested against his torso. He let her see the passion in his eyes for another moment before drawing her into his kiss. Despite the intensity he'd shown her, his kiss was slow, warm, and comforting.
A wave of joy passed between them.
Hercules broke the kiss with a deep sigh. "I can't ever stop thanking the Fates that our paths crossed. And you… I have to thank you for breaking through two songs' worth of resistance to accept me."
She pecked the bridge of his nose with a fluttering kiss. "With that in mind… what would you do to help me prepare for your magnificence if I didn't know what to expect?"
"My uh… my what?"
Megara raised a brow at him, dragged her hips lower, and ground on him.
The exclamation of "Oh!" that escaped him could easily have been a response to understanding the oblique reference to his manhood or the stimulation thereof. He wasn't bare to her, as the wedding regalia had an under-tunic, and she still wore a purple gown. But the effect was more noticeable outside his armor. "Theoi, Meg…" he growled. "I thought I was meant to… to do the impressing…"
"Too slow."
"I've never been too slow." He pouted playfully at her.
Megara dipped in and caught his pout between her lips.
He was so startled that all he could do was hold her and tremble. When she pulled back, it was to see a fire in his eyes. "I can't keep letting you get away with that. It's my turn." He gave her no warning before he'd spun them about, so she took his place against the wall. He kept one hand beneath her for support and the other beside her head for balance as he leaned in. "Let's say you don't know what to expect from me yet. Are you nervous?"
"I think I'm too in love to be nervous. I'm already here alone with you, right? I'm not afraid of you."
"Good." He gathered her against his shoulder.
"Have I been with another man before in this scenario?"
He thought for a moment, and his voice deepened. "No. I found you before anyone had the chance to hurt you, and I never will."
It was her chance to shiver. "Thank you. For… saving me. From that specifically."
"You saved me, too, from loneliness. You may think I'm lying, but you're the only girl I've ever met who could really want me as I am. And you're the only one I want." The hand beneath her hips pressed her to him, and he ground against her. "I think if you hadn't had me before, you wouldn't be ready. Even the real first time we… well, you needed help."
"Because you're god-sized, yes. So how will you handle me so I can handle you?"
"I think… We both need to see more skin."
"You'll have to do the honors unless you plan on releasing me."
Hercules kissed her roughly instead. "Not here. I've decided I want it to be somewhere I can get a better look at you." He moved back from the wall, never setting her down, and brought her back outside. "You trust me, right?"
She nodded, though judging by recent experience, she wasn't looking forward to what he had planned.
He set her on the balustrade overlooking the courtyard.
Her hands latched onto his shoulders, and she locked her legs in a loop about his waist. "Why…?" she wheezed at him.
"Because it let me see you the way you were meant to be seen: a goddess gleaming like a pearl in the starlight."
Her eyes widened in shock.
"Don't be modest, it's the truth, and don't worry about Aphrodite, she gave me a pass." He was already unpinning her under-dress while never withdrawing the support that kept her from falling.
"Talk about confident," she murmured, though it was all she could do to force the words out while a voice in her mind screamed at her for being up so high that falling could kill her."
"Focus on me," Hercules instructed in a voice as solid and reliable as his arms. His reassuring smile silenced the screams in her mind while he peeled away her dress and left her in the twist of fabric knotted over her chest while the rest of her dress pooled about her waist at the girdle. Hercules's eyes narrowed in on her chest, and he growled in his throat.
"I…" she began, but he didn't wait for her to suggest she could remove that herself.
"Are you ready to let me see them?" The tension in his voice mirrored the mounting pace of the pulse she felt between her thighs.
"Yes," she whispered.
Rather than withdraw the hand supporting her, he looped both behind her and bowed his head to her chest. All Megara could do was stare at the russet curls wreathed in gold laurels as his teeth toyed with the knot tucked into the wrappings that secured her decency.
"Wonder Boy," she whispered, "where'd you get an idea like this?"
With a firm tug, Hercules unbound the knot and raised his head to unwind her chest. The linen bindings hung from his mouth. He let it drop to her lap and asked, "How's that for confidence?" He allowed a note of smugness into his tone that made her blood spark with fresh desire.
"Stellar. I'll need you to start doing that all the time now."
"If you make that face every time, nothing can stop me." He tossed the linen band into the fountain below.
Watching it flutter down into the courtyard made Megara dizzy all over again as she realized if she fell, she would die.
Hercules guided her back around to face him with a light touch to her jaw. "I've still got you," he reminded her in that honey-sweet voice that melted all reservations. "Before we can do anything, both of us have to get rid of everything. So I'll need you to let go for a moment."
"Let go?" Her mind crackled with vivid warnings of how she'd look toppling to her death in her new house on her wedding night.
Hercules stroked her back with featherlight fingertips. "You're going to be all right. I promise."
"I've heard that before."
"And you were. Eventually. Because I promised. But if you need convincing…" he bowed his head against her chest once more, this time meeting no barriers to her bare flesh.
Megara gasped. Her hands clutched at his hair as he explored her with his mouth. His caresses were well-practiced and worshipful, unhurried despite the heat rolling off him like it had when he was first deified in the Stygian depths. A worsening ache begged for him within her, but the only voice she gave it was a plaintive whimper.
"I know," he answered her patiently. "But to give you what you want, we have to get these clothes off. Will you let me?"
She might have demanded that they leave the balustrade first, but her meek voice only replied with, "Yes."
"Good." He gave her a final peck of approval to her brow, then returned to his full height. Sometimes, his gentle eyes and honeyed tongue made her forget he was a god among men who, with another temperament, could have forced her into submission hours ago. Instead, his sweetness had charmed her into feeling as if she were innocent of a man's touch. He'd imprinted herself in her blood. Nothing could ever alter that condition.
Hercules carefully massaged from her hips down her thighs until he'd unlocked her legs and moved back from her.
"Ugh!" she exclaimed at the separation.
"Yeah, but don't worry, I won't leave you like that." With his hand still propping her in place, he untied her girdle and unwrapped her skirt, then pulled the linen wrappings about her waist free as well. "There you are…" he sighed, "my perfect goddess."
She had no time to object or fear divine retribution.
He'd freed himself, as well, and left her with only one all-consuming thought. "Not sure if you're ready yet," he mused.
"I've been ready for hours…" she whined.
"I'd rather err on the side of not harming you." He moved close to rest against her, flesh to flesh. "Mm… you feel almost ready."
"How can you tell?" She pressed more firmly against him.
"Because…" He paused to relish the shiver of pleasure that overcame him. "You're… calling me."
"Glad you can hear that, too. I feel like I'm screaming."
"I'd never leave you screaming like that." Hercules lifted the necklace she wore bearing his likeness and the symbol of his bloodline, kissed it once, and then let it fall back between her breasts. "Now that you're my wife, there are just two things you need to know."
"I'll do anything for you." She hadn't even thought about it, but she was certain it was true. After all, she'd let him seat her on a railing and had stopped complaining about it. There was likely a great deal more she could talk her into.
"I'm grateful." He rested his brow against hers and feathered kisses across her eyes. "So here's the two things. I'm territorial, so nobody gets to mess with you, and you'll always be safe from any guy who doesn't deserve to be near you. If that ever includes me, I'll grovel until it doesn't."
"And the other thing?"
Hercules latched onto her earlobe with a warm, gentle kiss that made her whimper even before he slid himself inside her. "This. I'm going to do this every day unless you're too sick to have me." he kissed her then and nudged her lips apart with his tongue. As he held her firmly to him, he pressed deeper, both into her mouth and between her thighs. He supported her at the waist and behind her neck, angling her further off the balustrade so she was leaning halfway over the courtyard.
She didn't even care anymore.
Just as her mind was slipping beyond sanity, Hercules pulled her back. She no longer sat on the railing. Instead, the only things supporting her were his arms and their connection.
She gasped at him. "Where are we going?"
"If it's not the bedroom Aphrodite chose for us, I'll let you decide what we'll use this room for." He backed her against a wall and ground against her as he worked the door handle. He then carried her into an empty room whose window overlooked the sea. I the distance, they could see the island where stood the neighboring kingdom of King Lykos. There was a hearth against one wall and enough space to house a few beds.
"I think this could be a nursery for all our children," she blurted out.
Hercules hummed thoughtfully. "How many?" he pressed deeper in, stealing her thoughts.
"Five, at least," was her last remaining thought, and once she spoke it, it was gone. "Or more," she said as a quick flash of consciousness returned to her.
"More," Hercules decided. "Think we'll have to hire someone to help us?" He'd settled into a lazy rhythm that made her crave more.
"No," she clenched so fiercely on him it made them both gasp, and he had to stop. "You don't like to share, and neither do I."
In the dim lighting of the room that would become their nursery, she saw him blush. "All right, then." He slid out of her and rearranged her in his arms.
"Hey! I wasn't done with that!"
"No, you're right. But I'd like to make this last. Remember how nice that can be?"
"Not when I'm pretending this is our first time!"
Hercules chuckled, then carried her out of the room. "Then pretend I'm giving you some much-needed endurance training." He carried her from the room and through the next door. There, they found the last destination of the evening.
Draped in celestial blue and royal purple, this was their room. A window wide enough for them both to sit in held the same view as the nursery next door, but this had a long, cushioned bench built into it so that someone could sit there and gaze over the sea. There was a vanity table covered in perfumes and cosmetics, and the bed was strewn with rose petals from three shades of rose that ranged from dark burgundy through scarlet into pink. This bed was even larger than the one they'd left behind, canopied over with translucent silk.
"Perfect," Hercules said. He crossed the room and settled her at the center of the bed against the pillows, then lifted one of her legs so she was open to him. "Think you're ready to have me back?"
"I'm ready to go insane if I don't!"
He rested at her entrance rather than return himself to her. He pressed a lingering kiss to the base of her throat, then dragged it lower to her chest. Only when he had her arching and writhing did he give her what she wanted.
They both growled at the long-anticipated relief and soon settled into a conversation of animalistic noises that didn't require translation.
Megara sought his eyes, expecting it to be over soon.
He sent back a hazy-eyed smirk and withdrew before either of them could reach completion. All the complaint she could raise was a whimper. She was too stunned when he flipped her over to continue whining at him, nor did she have any shame when he lifted her hips back against him.
When next he drove into her, the impact echoed throughout her already passion-muddled body. Each subsequent thrust drove her deeper past the brink until they both collapsed into sighs and light giggles.
Neither had words, but Megara understood what he meant when he pulled her into the crook of his arm and rested a hand atop her head. He nuzzled against her as he held her close, and then Hercules was asleep. She soon followed him, still disbelieving what she'd set loose into the world but utterly grateful her belief was not required.