32
APHRODITE
I wish I could say I have a plan to bring my husband around. I don’t. I have the possibility of a plan, but that’s hardly the same thing. Everything rides on me—on us—being able to convince him that he’s best suited to switch sides against the man he thinks saved him. Some good fucking and a little bit of infatuation isn’t going to be enough to combat that. I don’t know what will be enough…
But Pandora will know.
Her knowledge isn’t what has my heart racing as Achilles drives us into my parking garage and pulls up in front of the elevator door, though. He turns, bracing one arm across the back of the passenger seat so he can look at me. “Two of my people will do a quick walk-through of your place and then you can go up.”
“That’s not necessary.”
He doesn’t blink. “We’ve been through this. Your sister put me in charge of your security and—”
“And you take it very seriously, which I deeply appreciate.” It takes more effort than I want to admit to keep my tone light and my frustration nowhere in evidence. Achilles is doing his job, and as loath as I am to admit it, he’s quite good at it. Holding it against him just because his presence is necessary is shitty.
I’m not sure I care, though.
“There is no one in my apartment. The security in this building is top-notch.” And if Pandora beat me here, I don’t want Achilles’s people to scare the shit out of her. I reach for the door. “Thank you for today, but I’m leaving now.”
“Aphrodite.” He waits for me to look at him. “If you don’t want us to sweep the place first, then I’m going up with you now.”
“But—”
“Those are your only options. If you don’t pick, I’m going to pick for you.” He speaks just as reasonably as I do, which is why it takes my tired brain a few seconds to catch up.
I narrow my eyes. I know exactly what he’ll pick, and I don’t like it one bit. “I don’t know why my sister puts up with you,” I snarl.
“My charm and good looks,” he fires right back. “Plus, I’m tall enough to reach the high shelf without her having to climb up onto the counter.”
Helen is not that short. “And here I thought it was because you’re so good in bed.”
He grins. “A gentleman never kisses and tells.”
Gods, but I like him even when he’s being stubborn. I do see what my sister likes about him. I prefer my partners with a little less…everything…but Achilles does have a certain charm about him. When he’s not being a pain in the ass. “You may accompany me up to my apartment to assure yourself that there are no boogeymen hiding under my bed.”
He glances at the other two guards in the car. “Stay here.” He doesn’t speak again until we’re in the elevator heading up, but then he turns to me with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. “We’re being overprotective, but it’s for a good reason. You can’t trust anyone, Aphrodite. Not when anyone and everyone could be an enemy.”
My stomach drops out. “I’m aware of the risk.”
“Then stop fighting and let me do my job.” A weighted pause. “For your sister’s sake.”
Damn it, but he’s got a trump card with that and he knows it. No matter how little I like the extra security, I would have agreed to it because Helen insisted. I would have agreed regardless—I’m not a fool, and I was just attacked yesterday—but I would have put up more of a fight if someone else suggested their security team.
I sigh. “You’re in the elevator, aren’t you? I’m not going to wait for you to leave and then take off on my own.”
“You know, I wasn’t worried about you doing exactly that until you said something.” He grins. “But Patroclus was worried about it, so he suggested I leave two of my team watching the exits.”
“Yeah, yeah.” I roll my eyes, even as my chest gives a little pang. Achilles and Patroclus are nothing like my actual brothers—they’re not cold and reserved like Perseus or naive and idealistic like Hercules—but in the last two months they’ve both fallen into a strange sort of fraternal role that I enjoy despite myself.
It doesn’t hurt that they look at my sister like the sun rises and sets with her.
It takes Achilles a few minutes to do a thorough sweep of the place and even as he walks to the door, he’s got a look on his face like he’s not happy. “I’d feel better if you had someone in here with you.”
“No.” I smile as I say it, though. “I promise to let your people know if plans change and I need to leave.”
He shakes his head. “I guess that’s what they call compromise.”
“Never heard of her.”
He grins. “Me either. But we’ll make it work.” He opens the door. “See you tomorrow, Aphrodite.”
“See you tomorrow.” I don’t bother to point out that he has much more important things to do than play babysitter for me. He’s not my personal detail because there’s no one else capable of doing it; he’s here because it makes Helen feel better. I can’t fault him for that.
I’ve only had time enough to pick a bottle of wine and pull down two glasses when my door opens and Pandora walks through. I pause, drinking in the sight of her. “Did you dress up for me?”
She looks down at herself, dressed in another body-con dress similar to the one from the other night. It’s black, cut low on her breasts and high on her thighs, and it hugs her generous body like a second skin.
I want to peel it off with my teeth.
Pandora gives me a pretty smile. “I might have.”
“Thank you for lunch.” I set the wine bottle down and cross the room to her. “It was really thoughtful of you to do that.”
“You don’t take care of yourself,” she says softly. She slides her hands up my arms as I take her hips. “I figured even if one of the guys got the same idea, better two lunches than none. And let’s not pretend you were going to remember to eat on your own.”
“I’m very busy.” I flush, but I’m not entirely sure if it’s with embarrassment or pleasure. There’s a little bit of both in there. “Thank you for…taking care of me.”
“Mm-hmm.” She steps closer, pressing against me. Her expression is soft and open. “I like to take care of the people I care about. It’s important to me.”
I need to talk to her about Hephaestus, but the words freeze on my tongue. We’ve had such little time alone together. I don’t want to waste it talking about plans and fear and the future. Maybe that’s selfish, but I don’t give a fuck. “I care about you, too.” I release her hip to brush a strand of her hair back and let my hand linger on her throat. “I won’t pretend this didn’t start a particular way, but I’m drawn to you like I’ve never been drawn to anyone else before.”
“Not even Adonis?” She says it with a playful tone.
I should allow her to tease this into a joke, but I can’t quite manage it. “It’s different.” I trace her jaw with my thumb. “Everything’s different with you.”
“Eris.” She bites her bottom lip and meets my gaze. “We don’t have much time before the guys get here.”
“We have enough.” I lean down. My emotions might be tangled when it comes to my husband, when it comes to Adonis, but it feels so damn clear with Pandora. “Let me keep you.”
“I already told you.” She smiles. “I’m not the type of person who’s meant to be kept.”
“Then let me…” Why does this feel so incredibly vulnerable? My instincts demand I retreat, throw up shields between us, but if I do that, I’ll lose her. I recognize that, acknowledge this moment is hung in the balance. Pandora might not be for keeping, but I want her in my life.
No matter what else happens.
I kiss the corner of her mouth. “Then let me share time with you. However that looks. I don’t want to let this go, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that none of us were meant for…a traditional relationship.”
“Are you sure?” She searches my face. “It’s bound to get messy from time to time.”
I laugh a little. “Messier than me marrying your best friend and him seducing my ex?”
“Well… Probably not messier than that.”
“Then we can handle it.” I hope to the gods I’m not lying to her. I want to handle it.
She kisses me before we can talk ourselves out of this. Maybe that would be the smart thing to do because this is so damned complicated. If I was honest with myself, I’d admit I don’t see a way through without crashing and burning.
I pull her close and kiss her hard. We only have a short time and I’m not about to waste it. She tastes of peppermint and feels like a dream in my arms. I want…
I want everything.
I always was greedy like that.
It takes effort to draw away enough to say, “I know I said no sex but—”
She digs her hands into my hair. “Don’t you go noble on me now.”
“Gods forbid.” I smile. “Bedroom or closer?”
“Closer,” she whispers against my lips.
Perfect.
I move back toward my living room, taking her with me. It’s an awkward dance of short steps and bumping into each other, but I don’t want to add even an inch of distance between us. So much about my seduction of Pandora has been calculated—at least in part—but there’s nothing calculated in this. I’m fumbling like a teenager as I reach for the hem of her dress and work it up over her hips.
We tumble onto the couch in a mess of questing hands and greedy lips. Pandora yanks my shirt over my head and my arms get tangled. I curse and have to move off her to free myself. I take the opportunity to divest myself of my pants as well. “Get that fucking dress off.”
“So bossy.” She’s grinning as she pulls her dress over her head and tosses it away. Pandora doesn’t wait for me to say anything to do the same with her bra. There are no panties to speak of.
I have to stop for a moment and just look at her.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” I murmur. Her lush body is a present I’ve been dying to unwrap and now that we’re here, I don’t know where to start. Her wide hips with their scattering of stretch marks? Her soft belly that looks so damn kissable?
My gaze falls to the tops of her thighs. No. That’s where I’m starting. I was thinking about her pussy even before she rubbed herself to orgasm against my thigh. “Spread your legs, love.” I shiver a little as I hear the echo of my husband’s voice in the words, remember how he told me to do the same thing last night. It’s different with Pandora, though. The whole dynamic is different and yet no less necessary. I want to fill my senses with her, to get drunk off the sight and smell and touch and taste of her.
She spreads her thighs slowly, teasingly. “Like this?”
“Yeah.” I lick my lips. “Just like that.” I sink to my knees before her. I don’t know if I believe in an afterlife, but surely paradise is this moment, Pandora’s soft thighs and pretty pussy. Perhaps I’m finding religion right here, right now.