For The Love Of A God Rosanna Leo (best novels in english txt) 📖

lights, and got into bed. And the whole time, she was conscious Eric was out there, sleeping on her couch, wearing God knew what.

"Maybe he sleeps in the nude,” she mused, as her eyes started to close. “I'll never wash those slip covers again."

With that thought, she drifted off toward oblivion.

She was dreaming again. Only this time, she wasn't Maia Douglas. She was another woman named Chloe. A beautiful priestess wearing flowing Grecian robes.

Instinctively, she knew she was the high priestess of the temple of Eryx.

Priestess Chloe knelt before the life-size statue of the god which formed the centerpiece of the temple. Her swollen eyes filled with tears. For the fourth time that day, she used her dark braided hair to brush away any dirt from the statue's feet. She'd organized the offerings to the god of love, placed flowers all around the base of the statue, and prayed. Her knees hurt, she'd prayed so much.

And still Eryx hadn't come to her. Where was he?

She dared to look up at his handsome face, the face hewn from cold, white marble. “What have I done to offend you, great Eryx? Do I not serve you well?"

When her parents first told her she would be given as a priestess to the temple of Eryx, she'd gone willingly, such was her devotion to the god. She'd given her life to him, never leaving the temple, never associating with anyone else. And somehow, Chloe had always known her devotion would be rewarded.

But when the day had come, she'd barely been able to believe her eyes.

It had been a normal day a year ago. She'd been offering up her prayers when she heard a noise coming from his statue. She'd looked up and there he was.

Eryx. She'd watched as the statue slowly took on color. His curls, frozen in marble, loosened and became the color of honey. His pale, hard skin began to glow with the sheen of healthy, living flesh. He'd turned his flashing green eyes upon her. And then he simply walked off his pedestal.

Chloe had been paralyzed with fear, but also sweet anticipation. The god approached her, his nude body already showing its own appreciation for the nubile priestess. Her eyes had fallen to the muscles in his thighs as he walked, and then she'd dared to look at his eager sex. It was almost horrifying to behold. She'd never seen a naked man so close, certainly not a god in all his glory.

"Chloe, my beloved one,” Eryx had breathed as he cupped her face. “Let me show you my gratitude for your dedication to me.” He touched the fasteners at her shoulders, and her white woolen peplos fell from her body.

He'd loved her for months on end, worshipping her body as she'd worshipped him. He'd stroked her face, calling her his little wife, and plunged his godly length into her delicious mortal heat.

He'd promised to make her a goddess.

And then, just a few short days ago, he'd disappeared from the temple. And now, Chloe didn't know what to do. So, she waited and waited, but he did not come. No matter how often her reddened eyes pleaded with his marble statue.

The god of love had made love to her. Yet as empty as Chloe felt, she knew the gods were a fickle lot. No doubt Eryx was bored with her. Disappointed in her. And probably frolicking with some nymph.

There was a noise behind her, and she turned quickly, hoping to see him. What she saw instead shook her to her core. It was a woman. A beautiful dark-haired woman with golden robes and azure eyes.

"I am Nemesis,” she spoke in her velvety voice. “Goddess of vengeance."

"I know who you are,” Chloe replied, trembling. “Why are you here, great Nemesis?"

"I am curious,” the goddess said, “about this infatuation you have for my cousin Eryx."

"I love him."

"And do you know where he is right now? I have seen him with my own eyes, reveling at one of Dionysus's orgies. Eryx was drunk and copulating with a steady stream of willing virgins."

Chloe lowered her head, pain shooting through her like a spear being thrust up under her ribcage.

"He has used you, little one.” Nemesis slid over to the priestess and offered her a comforting arm. “But I can take your pain away. We can make him suffer."

Chloe looked up, only to see Nemesis clutching a large knife. The kind they used for animal sacrifices.

The goddess smiled. “I can help you forget. I can offer you sweet, sweet darkness."

When Eryx did return to his temple much later, sated but still reeling from the wine of Dionysus, the first thing he did was look for his priestess. He wouldn't have believed it, but the revels and their numerous, anonymous naked limbs just left him numb and hollow. And now he craved Chloe's touch again.

He loved how she looked at him, loved how she cried his name as he took her. Loved that no other man had ever touched her sweet body.

He loved ... her?

But when he found her long-dead form, collapsed at the foot of his statue and covered in blood, he cried with a pain he'd never known before. “No,” he shouted, for all the heavens to hear. He gathered her broken body to him and cradled her.

And tried desperately to ignore the womanly laughter surrounding him.

Maia screamed as she woke, and then her breath seemed to catch in her throat. Her sheets were pooled at her knees, where she'd kicked at them. And her hands were shaking. So much so she had trouble grasping the switch on her bedside lamp.

Even as the dim light brightened the room, the images from her dream flooded her brain. Her muscles were clenched and aching. She'd felt the pain as Chloe's body was shredded by Nemesis's vengeful knife. Had felt sure she would die from it. She'd felt grief, too. Grief at being deserted by Eryx.

That hadn't happened in any of her other dreams. Her other dreams had