Chapter 14 Chapter Fourteen - Jartre
“Jartre?”
My head snaps up and every cosmic molecule in my body begins to light up.
“What is it?” Ezillus asks curiously, noticing my reaction.
I’ve barely gotten to know that voice and yet I would know it even if it were just a whisper drowned out in a crowd of millions. She’s calling to me! There is uncertainty in her voice, but there’s no mistake that she’s calling for me. I had expected it to take her days, maybe even weeks to reach out to me, if at all, but it’s only been hours.
I don’t give Ezillus another thought. I reach out through the universe, feeling my pull to Gabriella and immediately transport myself to her side. I appear back in her tiny loft – minuscule compared to my estate – to find her sitting on the sofa and the sight of her makes my mouth swim with saliva. Her long golden hair is semi-wet from a recent shower, looking sexy and tussled around her gorgeous face. Her full lips are open forming a perfect O shape, calling out to be equally worshipped and devoured, while her dainty rounded chin and high cheekbones showcase how she has the most symmetrical face I have ever seen. Her sexy, curvaceous frame teases me from underneath a mid-thigh length grey sweater dress that hangs off the right shoulder like the temptress she is with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows while her perfect, perky nipples form stiff peaks through the fabric, just begging to be tweaked by me again. She looks like a dish I wish to dine on for all eternity, and yet, as alluring as I find her, even in the most simple of attires, it’s those eyes that stun me. The perfect and most unique shade of glacial mint green that are looking at me wide full of shock and wonder. I crave to lose myself in those eyes, to never be found again.
“Holy shit that worked,” she says in surprise.
I smirk at the adorable, shocked look on her face. “I’m surprised you called for me so soon. Or were you just testing to see if it would work?” I ask, quirking a curious brow. I know she told me not to, but I just can’t help myself, I’m dying to know what she’s thinking.
“Fuck me, even with his hair up in a ponytail he looks fine as hell! Definitely love the hair down more though, means something I can grab onto,” she muses to herself. Now this is a train of thought I greatly enjoy and hope to one day put into action.
She straightens up,, pours two large glasses of wine and picks up a notepad off the coffee table, my eyes following her every move with obsessive accuracy.
“I have decided that there are too many things I don’t know or understand, and before I can make any type of decision about you there are questions I need answered,” she says firmly.
Curious to see where this is going, I take a seat on the opposite end of the sofa, “What kind of questions?”
“Well, you claim to be a God.”
“It’s not a claim, it’s a fact,” I correct her.
She rolls her stunning eyes at me, “Fine, you’re a God, but you mentioned another God, so how many Gods are there?”
“Living?” I clarify.
Her eyes open so wide they look ready to explode from the sockets, “Gods can die?!” she exclaims.
“We are living beings just as you are. Though we are blessed with immortality, it does not mean we are unkillable, so yes, Gods can die,” I answer matter-of-factly.
“Wow… Okay, so then how many are living?” she says, lifting both glasses and offering me one. She quickly pulls back her hand looking contrite, “Sorry, I should have checked if you like red,” she says apologetically.
I smile and reach out taking the second glass from her, “Red is fine, and do Demi-Gods count?”
“Don’t tell me all those Greek and Roman myths are true and you’ve got bastard kids all over the place,” she says, wrinkling her nose in distaste.
I let out a loud and boisterous laugh, unable to remember the last time I laughed like that. Had someone said that to me a week ago, I would have erased them from existence, but from her sweet lips, it’s pure comedy.
“Myths took more inspiration from our abilities and sometimes appearance, but that is all, I assure you,” I smile in amusement, taking a sip from the glass. Human alcohol has absolutely no effect on me whatsoever, but I can still appreciate the taste, and based on this glass, so can she.
“Thank God,” she says, before looking at me mortified, “I mean… Fuck. This is really going to ruin all my default remarks,” she says in frustration.
I chuckle and sit back throwing my arm over the back of the sofa and resting one ankle over my knee, “In the meantime, I get to enjoy seeing you get flustered,” I tease.
She narrows her gorgeous eyes at me, “For argument’s sake, let’s say they count.”
“Then the answer is seven.”
“So which one of you made the universe?”
“None of us. Not technically anyway. One of us can create planets, but the universe has always existed.”
She takes a slow sip of her drink, “Did one of you make this planet?”
“Unintentionally, yes.”
“Oh, so creation was just an accident,” she says flippantly.
“It’s very complicated. Are you sure you want to start with the birth of the Gods and creation? Surely you would want to start smaller,” I suggest, not remotely having expected to give a rundown on existence.
“There’s a God in my living room. Who wouldn’t want to ask those questions?” she asks like it’s obvious.
I sigh and run my fingers through my hair, “You’ll be sorely disappointed. We just… came into being. There’s a realm, in the far expanses of the galaxy made up of colours you can’t even imagine, and that is where we began. We don’t know how, and we don’t know why, we just are. We know how to live and exist, much like how a baby instinctively knows how to crawl and walk even if left alone.”
“So then how old are you exactly?” she asks curiously.
“Somewhere in the billions,” I shrug. The shock on her face is so profound I swear her feeble brain is about to short-circuit.
“…Okay, that has to be illegal in some universe because that would make this,” she says gesturing between us, “The most fucked up age gap in history.”
“I think it’s the only age gap of its kind,” I smirk, “Do you have an aversion to older men?” I ask, softly reaching out and flipping her hair over her shoulder.
She snorts, trying not to look fazed by my proximity. “Despite what your hair might say, there’s nothing old about you.”
“Just my soul, or essram as we call it.”
“Essram?”
“Humans have souls, but Gods are made from the cosmos and possess something much stronger that we call essrams,” I explain, surprised by how organic it feels to share this with her. My every impulse is craving to pull her to me and hold her close, but I continue to practice restraint. Never have I bothered until now.
She nods taking it in, “So, I have a soul and you have an essram and yet I am your soulmate or… what was the word you used?”
“Animai.”
“Yes, that. There are six other Gods, why would you be saddled with a human?” she asks in confusion.
“Another question I can’t answer, but I can tell you this.” I put my glass down, scoot over to her, and place my hand to her cheek. Her lips part, her breathing hitches and my palm burns like the heat of the sun. “I have not been saddled with you, Gabriella. I am the last God who should deserve the gift of an animai and yet here you sit before me. I don’t know why Zarseti put us together, and as cynical as I am I know that she has never wished misery of any kind upon anyone. I have to believe she gave you to me for a reason,” I say as I stare deep into eyes that remind me of rain clouds in my realm.
“What am I, a free gift with purchase?” she says mockingly.
I quirk my eyebrow as I run the pad of my thumb along her bottom lip, listening to the way her frail human heart beats erratically, betraying her impressive and amusing bravado. “Your mouth has a talented way with words. I wonder what other talents it possesses,” I whisper, leaning in until my lips are just a breath away from hers. How I want to consume those lips.
Her heart begins to beat faster, and my keen ears listen as she takes an aroused breath. She can’t deny she’s aroused by me; I can smell her arousal as it clouds my senses with her naturally sweet perfume. Yet, a sly smile creeps upon her face, and there’s something about it that tells me not to underestimate my sweet little human.
“Play your cards right and you might just find out,” she says, tucking her finger into the collar of my sweat hoodie and tugging at it, “But first I have more questions,” she says, sitting back.
I inhale deeply through my nose, breathing in her intoxicating scent as I feel my cock twitch in anticipation at her words. Once again, I must summon every ounce of restraint possible to stop myself from grabbing her and ravishing her body the way I yearn to. I manage to sit back and put a little space between us. “As you wish.”