Mesmerized by the sight, she watched as lash after lash rained down on his back. Never once did he cry out or beg for mercy. The most he would do was gasp or curse them and their parentage.
When it was over, the guards freed him. His face ashen, Acheron picked his chiton up from the ground where the guards had thrown it but didn't have time to dress before they dragged him back to his room and threw him inside. The doors rattled as the guards slammed them shut with an echoing clatter.
Artemis walked through the locked doors to find Acheron lying on the floor where he'd landed. His bloodied blond hair was tangled and fanned out behind him while blood seeped from the wounds on his back. He made no move to cover himself or to cry. He merely lay there staring into space.
"Acheron?"
He didn't speak to her.
She materialized in front of him, then knelt by his side. "Why were you beaten?"
He drew a ragged breath as he tightened his grip on the wadded up chiton. "Stop asking me questions I don't feel like answering."
Her heart hammering, she reached out to one of the bleeding welts that curved over his right shoulder. He hissed in response to her touch. Withdrawing her hand, she frowned. His warm, sticky blood coated her fingertips. She drew back, staring at his naked body. For the first time, she felt a wave of guilt stir in her breast.
His punishment was her fault. Had she not taken him out of his room, they wouldn't have done this to him. Part of her was even angry that he'd been injured.
"I don't like you like this," she whispered.
"Just please leave me alone."
But she couldn't. Wanting to comfort him, she placed her hand on his shoulder and closed her eyes before she healed him.
Acheron panted as a searing pain tore through his battered body. A second later, all the pain was gone. He tensed, expecting it to return.
It didn't.
"Is that better?"
He stared at the goddess in disbelief. "What did you do?"
"I'm a goddess of healing so I healed you."
Rolling onto his back, he was amazed that the pain didn't return. For the last three days, he'd been beaten at various intervals because he'd dared walk to the temple with Ryssa. Honestly, he'd begun to fear that his skin would never heal completely.
But Artemis had helped him. "Thank you."
The goddess smiled at him as she brushed his hair back from his face. "I didn't mean for you to get hurt."
Acheron covered her hand with his before he kissed her palm that tasted like roses and honey. To his complete shock, he felt his body stirring. For that alone, he expected Artemis to jump on top of him.
Instead she watched his cock as he hardened even more. "Does it always do that?"
"No." He rarely got hard unless it was required of him or he was drugged.
Her brow drew tight as she touched his chest. He was used to people being curious about him. Since the assumption went that he was the son of a god, everyone wanted to touch him, to explore his body.
Yet she was hesitant. Her hand drifted over his abdomen lightly as if she were afraid to touch the part of him she was staring at.
"I won't do anything you don't want me to," he told her quietly.
Her eyes flashed. "Of course not. I'd kill you if you did."
No one had been quite so blunt before, but that threat had always hung over his head. He'd had plenty of clients after leaving Atlantis who'd threatened him for numerous reasons. Mostly political or possessive. They were afraid he'd tell on them for what they wanted to do to their Prince Styxx or they didn't want to share him with anyone else.
Three times he'd almost been killed.
He didn't know why people reacted to him the way they did. He'd never understood it. Artemis, even with her divinity, didn't seem any different than anyone else.
Except her touch set him on fire.
Acheron closed his eyes as her hand lightly brushed the tip of his cock. The need inside him for her was unexpected and shocking. He should be angry at her for what she'd done to him and yet he couldn't find any anger inside himself right now. Only a desire to please her that he didn't comprehend.
A noise sounded out in the hallway.
Artemis pulled back with a sharp intake of breath. "We could be seen."
The next thing he knew, they were inside a bright, white marble bedroom. Acheron shot to his feet as he turned around slowly, trying to understand where he was.
There was an incredibly large bed against one wall. The sheets and curtains were as white as everything else. The only color to be found was gold trim.
"Where am I?"
"Mount Olympus."
His jaw went slack. "How?"
"I brought you to my temple. Don't worry. No one ever enters my bedchambers. These are sacred to me."
Artemis approached him with a smile on her face. She rubbed her cheek against his an instant before a red chiton appeared on his body. "We can be alone here."
Acheron couldn't even form a coherent thought as he looked at the splendor surrounding him. The ceiling over his head was solid gold and carved with brilliant forest scenes. How could this be? How could a whore be in the bedroom of a goddess renowned for her virginity? The mere thought was laughable.
Yet here he stood . . .
Artemis took him by the hand and led him toward her balcony that let out onto a garden resplendent with flowers. The riot of color was almost as beautiful as the goddess beside him.
"What do you think of it?" Artemis asked.
"It's wondrous."
She smiled. "I thought you'd like it."
He frowned at her. "How could you be bored here?"
She looked away and swallowed. A deep sadness darkened her green eyes. "It gets lonely. There's seldom anyone who wants to talk to me. Sometimes I walk in the woods and the deer come to me, but they don't really have much to say."
He let out an awed breath at the incredible scene. "I could happily lose myself in those woods and never speak to a soul again as long as I live."
"But you'll only live a few more years. You've no idea what eternity feels like. Time has no meaning. It merely stretches out and hangs on ever the same."