"Come back to me, Julian of Macedon, Julian of Macedon, Julian of Macedon!" She repeated it over and over again as she begged for his appearance.
Nothing happened. Nothing at all.
"No! Please, no!"
Her heart broken, Grace returned inside her house. "Why? Why?" she sobbed as she sank to her knees and rocked back and forth.
"Oh, Julian!" she whispered brokenly as memories assailed her. Julian laughing with her, holding her, or just sitting quietly in thought. The feel of his heart as it beat in rapid time to hers.
She wanted him back.
She needed him back.
"I don't want to live without you," she breathed against the book. "Didn't you understand that, Julian? I can't live without you."
Suddenly, there was a flash of light in the room.
Gasping, Grace looked up, expecting it to be Julian returned to her.
But it wasn't Julian. It was Aphrodite.
"Give me the book," Aphrodite said, reaching for it.
Grace pulled it back. "Why would you do this to him?" she demanded. "Hasn't he suffered enough for you? I wouldn't have kept him. I would rather he be with you than trapped like this."
Grace brushed away her tears. "He's alone in there. Alone in the darkness," she whispered. "Please don't leave him that way. Send me into the book with him, please. Please!"
Aphrodite dropped her hand. "You would do that for him?"
"I would do anything for him."
Aphrodite's gaze narrowed. "Give me the book."
Blinded by her tears, Grace handed it over, praying Aphrodite would help her join him.
Aphrodite took a deep breath and opened the book. "I'm going to catch serious hell over this."
Suddenly, another light flashed, making Grace's eyes sting. Her head spun in a dizzying blur that made her feel sick to her stomach. Everything around her swirled.
Was this what Julian went through every time someone summoned him? She didn't know, but this alone was sheer torture, and terrifying.
Then suddenly, everything went eerily black.
Grace fell into a deep hole where the darkness pressed in on her, stinging her lungs, making her eyes burn like fire.
She reached out to stop herself from falling and felt a peculiar softness beneath her.
The lights came back and she found herself lying on her bed, with Julian on top of her.
He looked around as if dazed. "How-"
"You two better not screw this one up," Aphrodite said from the doorway. "If I try this again, there's no telling what the powers that be might do to me."
She vanished.
Julian looked from the doorway back to her. "Grace, I-"
"Shut up, Julian," she said before he wasted any more time, "and show me how the gods meant for a woman to know a man."
Then, she pulled his head down to hers and gave him a hot, penetrating kiss.
He kissed her fiercely, and with one, strong masterful stroke, he drove himself deep inside her.
Julian threw his head back and growled at the warm, sleek heat of her body welcoming his. The feel of it shook him so profoundly that even his bottom lip quivered. Dear gods, she felt even better than he had imagined.
And he remembered what she had said to him.
"/ don't want to live without you. Didn't you understand that, Julian? I can't live without you."
His breathing ragged, he looked down at her face as he felt her body so warm and tight around his shaft. He ran his hand down her arm to capture her hand in his grip and hold it tight. "Am I hurting you?"
"No," she said, her eyes warm and sincere as she brought his hand up to her lips and kissed it. "You could never hurt me by being with me."
"If I do, tell me and I'll stop."
She wrapped her arms and legs about him. "You leave me before dawn and I will hunt you down through eternity and beat you."
Julian laughed, not doubting it for an instant.
Grace ran her tongue along the column of his throat, delighting in the way he shuddered in her arms.
He pulled his hips back ever so slowly, torturing her with his fullness, and then drove himself so deep into her body she felt the stroke all the way to her toes.
She sucked her breath in at the incredible sensation of him filling her. Of the lithe, agile power of his body thrusting against hers.
Closing her eyes, she savored his muscles flexing against the entire length of her body. She wrapped her legs around his, delighting in the way the hair on his legs tickled hers.
Never had she thought to feel anything like this. She could only breathe as she felt her love for him flow through her. He was hers. Even if he left her afterward, she would enjoy this one moment of pure bliss with him.
Reveling in the powerful feel of him, she ran her hands over his back, down to his hips where she urged him on.