The Darkest Kiss by Gena Showalter Read Free Book Online Page B

Dysnomia.”
    â€œDysnomia?” He worried two fingers over his jaw. “I do not remember her.”
    â€œShe is the goddess of Lawlessness and the most reviled immortal among the Greeks. She slept with everything male, no matter if he was wed or not. No one even knows who Anya’s father is.”
    â€œNo suspicions?”
    â€œHow could there be when the mother in question had several different lovers each and every day?”
    The thought of Anya following her mother’s path and taking multiple men to her bed infuriated Lucien. He hadn’t wanted to want her, but want her—desperately—he had. Did. Truly, he’d tried to resist her. And would have, until he’d realized who she was and rationalized that she was immortal. He’d thought, She cannot die. Unlike a mortal, she cannot be taken from me if I indulge in her. I will never have to take her soul.
    What a fool he’d been. He should have known better. He was Death. Anyone could be taken. Himself, his friends. A goddess. He saw more loss in a single day than most endured in a lifetime.
    â€œSurprised me,” Reyes said, “that such a woman could produce a daughter who looks so much like an angel. Hard to believe pretty Anya is actually wicked.”
    Her kiss had been sinful. Delightfully so. But the woman he’d held in his arms had not seemed evil. Sweet, yes. Amusing, absolutely. And, shockingly enough, vulnerable and wonderfully needy. Of him.
    Why had she kissed him? he wondered yet again. The question and its lack of answer plagued him. Why had she even danced for him? With him? Had she wanted something from him? Or had he merely been a challenge to her? Someone to seduce and enslave, then abandon for someone more attractive, laughing at the ugly man’s gullibility all the while?
    Lucien’s blood chilled at the very idea. Do not think like that. You’ll only torture yourself. What was he supposed to think about, then? Her death? Gods, he wasn’t sure he could do it.
    Because she had aided him all those weeks ago, he now owed her a favor. How could he kill a woman he was indebted to? How could he kill a woman he’d tasted? Again? He gripped his knees, squeezing, trying to subdue the sudden rush of darkness flowing through him.
    â€œWhat else do you know of her? Surely there is something more.”
    Reyes gave another of those negligent shrugs. “Anya is cursed in some way, but there was no hint as to what kind of curse.”
    Cursed? The revelation shocked and angered him. Did she suffer because of it? And why did he care? “Any mention of who was responsible for cursing her?”
    â€œThemis, the goddess of Justice. She is a Titan, though she betrayed them to aid the Greeks when they claimed the heavenly throne.”
    Lucien recalled the goddess, though the image inside his head was fuzzy. Tall, dark-headed and slender. An aristocratic face and fine-boned hands that fluttered as she spoke. Some days she’d been gentle, others unbearably harsh. “What do you remember of Themis?”
    â€œOnly that she was wife to Tartarus, the prison guard.”
    Lucien frowned. “Perhaps she cursed Anya to punish her for hurting Tartarus in order to escape?”
    Reyes shook his head. “If the scroll’s timeline was correct, the curse came before Anya’s imprisonment.” He clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth. “Perhaps Anya is exactly like her mother. Perhaps she slept with Tartarus and infuriated the goddess. Isn’t that why most women wish ill upon other females?”
    The suspicion did not settle well with Lucien. He scrubbed a hand over his face, the scars so puckered they abraded his palm. Had they scratched Anya? he suddenly wondered. Beneath the damaged tissue, his cheeks heated in mortification. She was probably used to smooth perfection from her men, and would remember him as the ugly warrior who had irritated her pretty