Page 31 of Laverna

It was a conversation that had to wait for another time. Now she had to deal with thieves operating in her city without paying the proper homage to her, and she was angry.

"Roberto, I need you to find out who these thieves are, and where they are staying," she said from her perch on the counter.

"I've already put the word out, Laverna. Do you think it could be related to Canidia and the witches?" he asked.

"It has to be. The black stone is where Rom did his grand exit," Laverna said with a teasing grin.

Romulus leaned back on the counter beside her. "You thought it was grand?"

"I thought it was a garish and ridiculous piece of showmanship, and I can't believe all those dumb plebs fell for it," Laverna corrected.

Roberto looked between them. "Um, what are you two talking about?"

"Tell him, Rom," Laverna said, nudging him with her shoulder.

Romulus's lips twitched at the corners, and she really wanted to kiss him. If he had smiled more often over the centuries, she probably wouldn't have wanted to annoy him so much.

"I had to fake my own death and pass the crown onto someone else," Romulus began. "The problem was that I couldn't leave Rome for a few hundred years and then return as someone else, so I had to come up with a plan. If people recognized me on the streets, they needed to not think it was strange."

"It was definitely still strange, Rom. Like you could have just changed your hairstyle and beard instead of the theatrics," Laverna teased, and he nudged her back so their sides were touching. She didn't move away, and neither did he.

Romulus looked back at Roberto. "I deified myself. I was already immortal because of my blood from Mars, but I needed people to really believe it. I created a storm, and in front of a large crowd, I had clouds come and cover me, and then I dropped down to become a part of the city and disappeared. They thought I had been snatched away to sit with the gods."

"So dramatic," Laverna whispered and then said louder, "I thought the other story of you being hacked to death by senators was more believable."

Romulus snorted. "You would have missed fighting with me too much if I had died that way."

Roberto scratched his head. "Okay, so I get the stories of your death, but how does the black stone fit in?"

"They made a temple at the place I disappeared. The black stone was an onyx tablet that was carved with the story of my ascension. The archaeologists hadn't dug deep enough to find it, which means only people who had lived back then and visited the temple would have known it existed at all," Romulus explained. He grinned at Laverna. "If I hadn't spent the night with you, I would have thought you were the one who had stolen it."

Claudius and Roberto exchanged suspicious and slightly grossed-out looks. Claudius was the first to break. "Can you two flirt on your own time? It's disturbing."

"I would have no motive to steal your stone," Laverna pointed out, ignoring the minions' antics. She bit into another strawberry and mumbled. "May have already peed on it a few times."

"Oh, dear gods, I'm going to follow up on things with the police. Roberto is coming to help me," Claudius said, pulling the other man out of the kitchen by the back of his coat.

Romulus turned to face her. "You peed on my monument?"

"Only when you annoyed me," Laverna said unapologetically.

Romulus pushed his way between her legs, forcing her to widen them. "You know that's the wolf equivalent of marking your territory," he purred, and she knew she was in trouble.

"Look, Rom, I'm very open-minded, but I'm not going to pee on you. Golden showers are Zeus's thing, not mine," she said seriously. "I knew you would be a freak, but I'm not that kinky."

"Fates save me. Make her stop," Romulus prayed and let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not into being peed on, Laverna. You did mark your territory with the monument, though. How many other of my statues did you pee on?"

"Probably all of them, to be honest," she said, still laughing when he kissed her. He tasted of coffee and sweet grapes, and she didn't even try to resist him. She bit his bottom lip. "Knew it turned you on. Total freak. Still not peeing on you."

Romulus only shook his head in despair. "The nonsense you spout, I swear."

"Made you smile, though, didn't it?" Laverna said and waggled her brows.

Romulus was still smiling when he kissed her between them and stepped back from her until he was on the other side of the kitchen. "If I stay there, I'll end up fucking you, and I'm struggling enough with that as it is."

"Good plan. I don't need you distracted by all my feminine charms," Laverna said and pulled out her phone.

"Oh, you are charm itself," Rom quipped.

---