Page 46 of Falling for the Devil

A heated blush crept up Diana’s neck. In hindsight, she marveled at her own adventurist spirit and brazen actions. Never in her wildest dreams would she have dared believe that sex... making love... could be so life-altering. There really wasn’t a word to describe what she’d experienced. Even the memory of it now seemed so far less than the true reality.

If it hadn’t been the best, hottest, wettest dream of her existence, then where was Lucifer now?

Light played across the high ceiling where icicles of solid white rock made eerie shadows dance. Diana pushed herself up and walked to the water’s edge for a handful of cool, refreshing water. It soothed her parched throat—sore from all the screaming, she assumed—but left an unfamiliar bitter aftertaste on her tongue.

“Lucifer,” she called, her voice echoing until it faded to nothing.

It wasn’t like he could just walk out of the cavern and leave her. The only way out seemed to be the way they’d come in. Perhaps Lucifer could swim back out. Being an angel had certain benefits. If he didn’t have to breathe when in space, flying among the stars, then perhaps he didn’t need to do so in order to swim out.

But he’d trouble when they’d been sucked under the water... hadn’t he?

She threw her hands up in defeat. Trying to figure out what an angel could and couldn’t do was an impossible task.

It was obvious that he wasn’t close by. Otherwise, he would’ve heard her call. But the only answer she’d received had been the plip and plop of water from the stalactites above. Other than that, the cavern was silent.

I’m sure he’ll be back... Right?

What if Lucifer regretted what they’d done? She recalled hearing that angels were not allowed carnal relations. Which was quite a shame considering how joyous it was. No one should be denied such pleasure!

The peaks of her nipples pebbled at the memory of his tongue flicking over them, sucking them into his mouth, and nipping them with his teeth just enough to elicit a confusing mixture of pleasure and pain.

Virgin goddess for centuries! Ha! Now a shameless wanton woman!

My, how things change quickly!

Need built up inside her core again, a spark of fear pierced through her thoughts. What if he was horrified, ashamed of what they’d done? What if that was why he’d abandoned her here? What if what they’d shared hadn’t meant as much to him as it had to her?

“Stop it!” she chided herself out loud. “You’re a goddess, for love of the heavens! Not some pathetic excuse for a woman pining for love! After all”—a smile spread over her face—“you’re not that simpleton, Echo!”

A smidgen of guilt erased her grin. Poor Echo hadn’t asked to be cursed, even if she’d brought it upon herself for cavorting with Zeus.

Diana contemplated staying where she was and waiting for Lucifer to come back. He would return. Where else would he go? But impatience won out over reason. Hastily pulling on her ripped, barely-there tunic, she stormed around the cavern looking for clues. Further away from the water’s edge, the ground was solid rock, not sand, so no footprints were found.

A warm breeze tussled strands of her hair, stopping her mutterings.

She pivoted in the direction of the gentle draft to a dark corner of the cave. Drawing closer, Diana noticed a craggy hole in the wall that had been concealed by a large boulder of the blackest metamorphic rock. It had thin, scraggly white lines running through it. Against the backdrop of pristine white limestone and crystal, it stood out. How had she not noticed it before?

Climbing over the boulder, she peered into the hole. Without the light playing against the white crystals in the cavern, it was pitch-black. A tremor worked up her spine. Her nerves sparked with warning signals. Diana stepped away from the entrance, intending to march back to the shoreline and wait for Lucifer to return, until a low groan reached her ears.

Without allowing a thought to restrain her back inside the safety of the cave, she hopped over the rock and into the darkened hole. If that was Lucifer, perhaps he was in trouble. Nothing would stop her from getting to him. Nothing.

Unable to see anything, Diana relied on her other senses to make up for the loss. Hands splayed out against the rough sides of the tunnel; her feet shuffled forward on rocks that were warmer than in the cavern; and getting warmer with each step. She scrunched up her nose—the air smelled like rotten pheasant eggs left out in the heat after a lavish party on Mount Olympus.

The grunts and groans she’d heard earlier grew louder but were overwhelmed by the rising intensity of the air billowing around her.

There must be an opening up ahead. There was no other reason for the wind.

What if Lucifer had found an escape and he’d left her there?

“Stop it!” she mumbled.

How had she gone from a self-confident goddess to a sniveling little girl with abandonment issues in such a short time? Hades would freeze over before she’d allow herself to fall into that sad state.

Besides, so what if he had left her? She was a strong, resourceful woman who had spent her entire life trying to get others to see her as self-sufficient and just as capable as any man. Her first experience with sex wasn’t going to diminish her spirit or her abilities!

... Was it?

“Lucifer,” she called.

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