Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
I make it a grand total of four steps before a hand presses to my stomach, stopping me easily and pinning me against a hard body at my back. Charon’s body. In my heels, we’re the same height, so he has no problem speaking directly into my ear. “Fine, Eurydice. You want to have this conversation? Then we’ll have it. Right here. Right now.”
2
CHARON
I should stop. It was never supposed to get this far. My feelings for this woman have been complicated since the first time I saw her, left sobbing and bloody on the wrong side of the River Styx, a lure Hades couldn’t resist. She was the weapon the last Zeus used, to start what could have become a war that claimed the people I care most about in this world. For that reason alone, I should have hated her.
Growing up in the lower city, you learn quickly that people from the upper city aren’t to be trusted. Their values are not our values, and the entire history of Olympus is proof that when push comes to shove, those in the lower city are the first to be offered up as collateral damage. At first glance, she was exactly like the rest of them, dressed to the nines and playing games that would get other people killed.
But all it took was one conversation for me to make my peace with the fact that no one could hate Eurydice. It’s not just that she’s beautiful, though she is. She’s tall and lean to the point of being delicate, with long wavy dark hair, big dark eyes, and smooth light-brown skin. But it’s more than that. Her beauty goes soul deep. I didn’t intend to set myself up as her personal protector, as her confidant, as her…friend. It just happened. I value her friendship.
How I’m touching her right now is not friendly in the least.
Even as I tell myself to let her go, to step back and put the careful distance between us that I always maintain, I…don’t. I can’t when her words are ricocheting around inside my skull.
Unless you plan on fucking me, get out of my way.
I haven’t stopped to think from the moment I got the text from Hypnos informing me that Eurydice had arrived at the club without me—a clear violation of our agreement. Even as I came down here, taking the route through the big house owned by Hades and Persephone, I had half convinced myself that she just wandered in out of curiosity. She’s a curious woman, and if she’s been more tentative expressing it in the past, it was a good thing that she was taking this step on her own without me as her security blanket. Even if I like being that security blanket.
Then I saw her with Thanatos.
Saw him kiss her. Saw him stroke her breast with the backs of his fingers. Saw the intention written in every line of their bodies.
That was my cue to turn around and leave. I might have become Eurydice’s unofficial protector, but she’s an adult, and like she said, she’s more than capable of choosing her own bedmates. When it comes to that sort of thing, Thanatos isn’t a bad candidate. He’s kind and thoughtful, and he loves to spoil his partners. He wouldn’t hurt her or scare her. He’s a solid choice to rebound from that mess with Orpheus.
I know that. But it was like some demon took over my body. I didn’t make a choice to interrupt them. Just like I didn’t make a choice to pin her against my chest like this. It just…happened.
Now is the time to retreat, to make our individual excuses and let this moment, pregnant with the possibility of changing things between us forever, go.
I don’t.
Instead, I wait for her answer.
Eurydice is so tense, she’s practically a statue in my arms. Just when reason has kicked in enough to tell me to release her, she relaxes against me. It feels so good to have her in my arms, to be holding her, that my brain actually shorts out. I can’t move. I can barely breathe. I want this and I don’t, and my shit is so twisted up that I don’t know what I’m doing.
“We can’t do this.” Her voice is barely loud enough to be heard above the music, but I’m so attuned to her right now, I’d bet she could whisper and I’d still pick up the words.
She’s right. It’s a mistake. I care about this woman too much to fuck this up, and releasing the permanent choke hold I keep on my desire will ruin things. She’s stronger than anyone gives her credit for, but that doesn’t mean I won’t crush her by accident. I’ve been very careful to keep myself leashed.
Until now.
“That’s your choice.” I barely speak loud enough to be heard over the throbbing music. “It’s always been your choice.”