Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Only for a few more days.
The reminder hurts. It always hurts, but the bite feels particularly vicious and jagged now. We’ve been here for hours and not a single person has come to check on Apollo. Oh, his family won’t know what happened unless he decides to tell them, but not even Zeus has checked in. He’ll have already had a preliminary report from Ares about the situation and Apollo’s injuries. Apparently that doesn’t even warrant a call.
I want to beg him to come with me, to leave behind this city that doesn’t care about him before it hurts him in a way he can’t recover from. The loss of one Apollo might barely be a blip for Olympus, but it would be everything to me.
He won’t leave, though. This is his world—it has been since birth—and he feels a responsibility for everyone in this city. His genuine care is part of the reason I love him, but I can’t help the worry that wraps around me and squeezes tight.
I don’t know who moves first. I shift against him, or he pulls me closer. Maybe both. But I tilt my head back and then Apollo’s mouth is on mine.
This time, there’s no finesse. No kinky games. No power dynamics. Just a deep heat that burns away everything but the need to get closer. He starts to push me onto my back and winces. That’s all I need to shift away. “You’re too hurt for this.”
“Cassandra.” He digs a hand into my hair and pulls me in for a searing kiss. “I need you.” When I still hesitate, he curses. “I promise to tell you if anything hurts too badly.”
It’s a bullshit promise and we both know it, but my thoughts aren’t orderly enough to navigate past the desire to reassure myself that we’re both here, both alive, both safe. For the time being. I swallow hard. “Okay.”
He tries to kiss me again, but I’m already moving down his body. He tightens his grip on my hair. “You don’t have to.”
“Apollo.” I hold his gaze. “When have I ever given you any indication that I’m going to do something—sexual or otherwise—that I’m not fully on board with?” I don’t give him a chance to answer, dipping down to kiss his chest. This part of him, at least, is bruise-free.
“Never.” He says it almost hesitantly.
Gods, I love this man. I love him so much, part of me wants to dig that emotion out of my chest and set it on fire. To exorcise it because it’s complicated and messy and the implications are more than I can bear to think about right now. I flick his nipple with my tongue. “I’ve been dying to suck your cock again. Please let me.”
His chuckle is strained and raspy. “By all means, love. Don’t let me hold you back.”
I’m careful to bypass his ribs. In the fading light of the evening, his bruises look even worse than they did earlier in the shower. If he’s able to move at all tomorrow, it will be a small miracle.
He widens his legs so I can kneel between them. I take a moment to memorize every detail of this. This man, who has exasperated me, confused me, and lifted me up for years. One of the very group of people I should hate beyond all others. The kindest person I’ve ever met.
The one who holds my heart in his gentle, battered hands.
“I love you.” I said it earlier, but it feels different this time. It changes nothing. It can’t change anything. But I need him to know it’s true, that this isn’t something as mundane as sex for me. “I think I’ve loved you for a very long time, even if I would have thrown myself from Dodona Tower before admitting it to anyone, let alone myself.”
He gives a bittersweet smile. “I realized I loved you that day with the printer.”
I instantly know exactly what he’s talking about. It wasn’t a good day. It was the anniversary of my parents’ death, and my sister and I had a fight that afternoon when I’d taken her out to lunch. My emotions had been riding too close to the surface, boiling and ugly and awful. When the ancient printer went haywire, I’d lost control completely. But that means… “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Apollo, that was four years ago.” I stare. “You can’t have loved me that long.”
“You were my employee, and you’d made your thoughts on the Thirteen and Olympus very clear from the start.” He shrugs and winces a little. “I wasn’t going to be just another selfish person in your life putting my needs and desires above yours.”
Against everything, tears prickle at the edges of my eyes. “I took an office chair to the printer that day. Anyone else would have fired me.”