Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83786 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 419(@200wpm)___ 335(@250wpm)___ 279(@300wpm)
“I will keep my extracurricular activities outside the penthouse,” I finally manage. It’s a good idea to leave it there, but I can’t quite help myself. I grab his shoulders and pull him down until I can feel his harsh breathing against my lips. “And you will give me the same courtesy. I don’t want to find someone else’s underwear in our bedroom.”
Zeus is silent for a beat. Then he thrusts into me, his cock already hardening again. We don’t do this. We don’t have sex more than once a night. I open my mouth to remind him of that, but he kisses me before I can get the words out. He nips my bottom lip. “Are you jealous, Hera?”
“No.” And I’m not. It’s about respect, not about wanting him all for myself. I don’t want him at all. The words feel a little insubstantial, so I shove at his shoulders. “We’ve met our requirement for the night.”
Instantly, he retreats. I tell myself that there’s no regret in my traitorous body as I sit up and scoot toward the edge of the bed. “Now you got me all sweaty. I need another shower.” The words are harsh with recrimination, but I’m not sure if I’m more pissed at him…or myself.
Shutting the bathroom door between us doesn’t offer any clarity. Strategically, it makes sense to keep having sex with him. He doesn’t know I’m pregnant, and I have no intention of telling him. My parasite is the path forward into the future. One where I’m set up as regent of the Zeus title until the kid comes of age. There’s no space in that future for this Zeus. If he knew what I intended, he’d stop me. It’s best he suspects nothing.
The logic is solid enough. It’s the smart move. If I also get extreme levels of pleasure out of the bargain? Well, Zeus is a giant pain in my ass and being his wife is downright torturous most days. We essentially have a business partnership with a side of fucking, except neither one of us would have chosen the other if there were any other option.
He didn’t choose me. He was in negotiations with my mother for Psyche’s hand in marriage when that shit with Eros and Aphrodite hit the fan—two Aphrodites ago, which defies belief when titles usually shift once a generation. My sister married Eros in a truly reckless effort to live, and that left only me and Eurydice as candidates for our mother’s ambition. I couldn’t let Eurydice take that hit, so I stepped forward to do it instead. Zeus needed Demeter—and her allies—at his back, so he wasn’t in a position to refuse my offer.
I turn on the shower and step in before the water has a chance to warm up. The shock of cold clears my thoughts and shatters the strange spell Zeus wove around me in the bedroom. I duck under the spray and make myself hold that position until the persistent desire to go another round disappears. It takes longer than I want to admit.
I don’t rush through drying off and braiding my hair back. With any luck, he’ll have fallen asleep by the time I return to the bed. As the racing of my heart finally slows to something more normal, I can’t help wondering at what happened tonight to cause him to break our silent rules.
He’s been coming home later and later in the evening, and even with Ixion and the others doing their best to keep track of his whereabouts, he slips away every time. Either he’s meeting with a lover—multiple lovers, even—or he’s up to something in relation to Olympus. Possibly both. Probably both.
But I don’t know what, and so I can’t bargain that information to Circe in return for my family’s safety. I’m not even certain where she is right now, if she’s still on that ship in the bay or if she’d already moved forward with whatever her plans are. I deeply resent not knowing.
Exhaustion rolls over me in a wave. Before the parasite, I could operate on little sleep for weeks on end without issue. Now, I need to be in bed by midnight or I’m weaving on my feet. I’m well past that time tonight…or this morning, more accurately. I should have sent Ixion away and tried to get some sleep, but I can’t stand the thought of being in that big bed and being surprised by Zeus coming home unexpectedly. That’s all.
I scrub my hands over my face, apply my lotion, and pad out to the perfect darkness of our bedroom. Or near-perfect. Dawn is making itself known in between the cracks of the curtains. Really, I should skip sleeping entirely and go about my day, but my body has other ideas.
The sheets are cool against my skin, the heat from Zeus’s sleeping body not reaching my side of the bed. I settle into place, moving gingerly to avoid waking him and potentially starting another conversation I don’t have capacity to deal with right now. Or ever.