"You're a real pain in the ass," I tell Kassam. "You know that?"
He just laughs. "Can I help it if hedonism is the most pleasurable of all flaws?"
"CAN you help it? Can you rein this shit in, even a little?" I find a Park and Pay and steer my car inside, slapping the ticket onto the dashboard with practiced ease.
Kassam shakes his head. "Would that I could. Even hedonism grows tiresome over the years. I would prefer to be cursed with it more than anything else, but it does not mean I do not wish for normalcy. I would like to be able to stop thinking with my cock. I would like to be able to put on human clothes and not get lost in the feel of the fabric against my skin. I would like to watch humans eat and not feel the need to taste everything myself." His lip curls, just a little. "I do not even think the gods are supposed to eat, yet I stuff my gullet every chance I get."
I don't know if I feel bad for him. He seems miserable, but of all curses, it doesn't seem like such a shitty one. "Yeah, well, feel bad for me. I'm the one stuck with you."
His smile broadens. "I am glad you are," he says softly. "And I am sorry if I am a burden to you." He pauses. "Actually, I am not sorry. So far I have found you to be a very enjoyable companion." He reaches out and strokes my arm, fingers sliding over my skin in a sensual way that leaves no doubt in my head that he's Hedonism.
"You're thinking with your dick again, aren't you?" I murmur.
"Very much so." Kassam licks his lips and regards me. "We have enough room in this cart. You could straddle me. It would not take long." His sexy eyes grow hooded with desire. "And I would make you feel very, very good."
God, I have no doubt about that. But I also have enough mental control at the moment that I'm not about to get freaky in a parking lot near my mom's store. "They have cameras recording everything we do here," I tell him, and resist the urge to rub my crystals. Focus, focus, focus. "We're not doing anything here."
"Somewhere else, then?"
"Later," I tell him, and a tiny part of me is disappointed that I'm so responsible. "We need answers before we get all distracted, okay? I don't know if these crystals stop working after a while and I need to do what I can before my brain fogs just from being around you."
"Why does it matter?" he asks, his hand gliding down my arm to take my hand. "What is your plan? To send me home? That will come at the cost of your life, and I am not ready to see that yet, my light. If I have to stay here for a time, I shall." He shrugs. "Time is all a god seems to have. Endless, endless amounts of time."
"I don't want to die," I say. "And if there's a way around it, I want to find it. I also want to find a way to shut this"—I wave a hand at him—"hedonism off."
"Why?"
"So you can make your own decisions instead of being led by your cock? So we can think clearly and figure out what exactly has happened between us and why you're here? Are you supposed to be accomplishing something in my world? Is that why you're here and not in yours?"
Kassam sighs and leans back against the headrest. "I think what I am hearing is that you are not all that interested in straddling me."
"Not right now!"
He takes our joined hands and guides mine to his cock. It's rigid underneath his sweatpants, so big and delicious that I don't snatch my hand away immediately. "But I want you."
"Is this Hedonism speaking?"
Kassam chuckles, the sound slightly weary. "Always."
"Just come on," I say, and get out of the car.
He must be starting to get a hang of door handles, because Kassam is able to exit the vehicle on his own. He moves to my side, his hand automatically seeking mine. I take his without thinking, and the moment I do, I stagger on the sidewalk with the force of the orgasm that rolls through me.
"Goddamn it, Kassam," I whimper, clinging to his arm as all my muscles lock up in pleasurable distress. "You don't play fair."
"I do not. Remember…I am a naughty god."
I wrench my hand from his. "Can you behave for just five minutes?"
He shrugs. "If I must, but I will not enjoy it."
"You don't have to enjoy something every moment of every day," I grumble, but when he just arches a brow at me, I realize how stupid that sounds. Right. Of course he does. According to him, he's Hedonism.