Page 27 of Love Defies Us

I don’t want to put a damper on our mood but I want to ask him about Mae. “You met Mae in high school?”

His demeanor changes from sad to angry. “Yeah. We were high school sweethearts, but she didn’t go to my high school, she went to another one. Her family was dirt poor.”

“I have to go pick up my dress tomorrow for the wedding, and it’s rose color so if you want to wear a matching tie, you can.”

“Rose color?”

“I’ll send you a pic of it.”

“OK.”

“Were you going to show my diary to my father?”

He shakes his head. “I would find another way to fuck you.”

I don’t know what to say to that, but even if he didn’t blackmail me, I would have eventually given in to his advances.

“I wish I got tired of you.” His tone is filled with disdain. “You’re like blood in my veins, and you can’t live without blood. But I can’t keep you, Sadie. Sometimes I wish I’d never met you. You make me have thoughts of being with you. You make me feel things that I should have felt with Mae. You make me have a burning need to keep you.”

I should pump the brakes in this relationship. My starved heart wants his attention. My neglectful heart wants his love. My treacherous heart is selfish and it’s a leech feeding off his presence.

He just admitted to me that he wants me but doesn’t want to want me.

What sense does it make for me to want to stick around? Little to none.

“You’re a god, Felix. A broken god. There is no amount of glue that can fix what Mae did to your heart.”

He nods slightly. “What happens when a mortal asks a god to reveal their true selves to them?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know.”

“The moral gets burned alive.” His tone is shaped than jagged glass.

“I’ll burn you, Sadie.” His words crush my chest like two heavy boulders.

But this is not a myth, this is real life. He’s a rock god and I’m a mortal, and gods burn mortals with their bright lights. Gods and mortals don’t fall in love. And if they did fall in love, it would end in tragedy.

Sadie

Izip up my Louis Vuitton bag and roll it to the door. I made sure I packed enough clothes and shoes to last me a lifetime on this trip to Key West. I haven’t been to Florida since I was eight years old for a family reunion on my dad’s side.

Nervousness bubbles in my chest, I’m not ready for this trip. I’ve never been on a trip with a guy. Even though this not a real vacation, it feels like one. Felix and I are there to show Mae that he doesn’t care that she’s marrying his uncle and that he moved on with his life.

The doorbell rings and I rush to the front door and open it. My mother stands there wearing a floppy white hat with a matching tight dress hugging her small frame. Her charcoal hair cascades down her shoulders. I see why men are so intrigued with her beauty. Even at fifty-three, she’s drop-dead gorgeous. She works out every other day and she takes Botox injections in her face to look younger.

“Are you going to just stand there? Invite me in.” Her tone sounds high and overzealous. She’s never so eager to see me unless someone died, or she wants to deliver some news from her gossipy friends. In case you haven’t gotten the memo, my mother doesn’t play nice with others.

I step to the side and she waltzes inside, removing her hat and hanging it on the rack next to the door.

“Hello, Mother. What can I do for you?” I try to keep the irritation out of my voice. But right now, I don’t want to deal with her melodrama.

“Be a dear and get me a glass of sweet tea with a lemon in it.”

My shoulders stiffen. Here we go with this shit.

Where the hell does she thinks she is? A five-star restaurant? Bitch, please.

“We don’t have tea, we have bottled water and orange juice.”

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