Page 66 of Odette's Vow

“You are back to using and discarding people as you see fit, I see.”

“You dare …” My grip slid down to her neck and tightened on her, but Odette didn’t so much as wince. “I have treated you with respect, and yes, I have grown to care for you. I place a careful shield around you, to protect you from what others would have me do to you. Yet, at every opportunity, you seek to break it.”

Odette tried to let out a laugh, but with my hand on her windpipe, it came out garbled. “Nothing you do is to protect me, Odysseus. It is to protect yourself. You use me as a confidant when it suits you, and when I scratch too close below the surface that it alarms you, you like to remind me that I am a captive.”

Rage roared through me and it took everything in my control to only let a drop more strength squeeze her throat before I released her.

She didn’t even rub where I had held her when I set her free.

Stubborn woman. Gods, I …

“Aeolus will help us get home,” I said, cutting off that other – that horrifying – thought. “And once we arrive in Ithaca, you will become one of Penelope’s maids. You will serve her faithfully, and you will not breathe a word of what has happened between us.”

I couldn’t lose Odette, not now that I knew what this feeling was. And I was most certainly not going to jeopardise my marriage to Penelope.

Odette’s eyes held a mixture of shock and anger. “You could let me go,” she countered, her voice trembling with suppressed fury. “If you cared for me, truly, you would not keep me in bondage.”

I shook my head. “You know too much. It would be too dangerous to set you free,” I reasoned.

“Liar,” she seethed.

And damn me to the Underworld if she wasn’t right.

Before she could pull away, my lips crashed into hers, a fierce and desperate kiss that held all the anger that it had to be thisway. My hands tangled in her hair, pulling her closer until her warm body was pressed against mine, as if I could erase all the boundaries between us. The heat of her mouth, the taste of salt and longing, it ignited something primal in me.

Only Odette had ever managed to do that.

She responded in kind, matching my intensity. My hands roamed over her back, down her bum, squeezing, pulling her impossibly closer until we could both feel my hard erection against the softness of her. There was only here, only now, only the raw connection between us as our breaths mingled, as her heartbeat became mine. For a brief, blinding instant, nothing else mattered.

Then the reality of our situation clawed its way back into my mind, tearing through the haze of desire. My body shuddered as I broke the kiss, my arms still holding her close, my forehead resting against hers.

She pulled away from me. My arms tensed in resistance, but that only made her more determined. “You are a coward, Odysseus. Afraid of a woman who has nothing left to lose.”

I let her go after that, a cold, steely resolve dousing the flame of desire. “Call it what you will, but my decision stands. You will serve in Ithaca, and you will keep your silence.”

I turned away from her, signaling the end of our conversation. As I heard her footsteps retreat, I felt a pang of something akin to regret. The weight of my choices pressed heavily on me, but I couldn't afford to show weakness. Not now. Not ever.

I waited in my quarters until I could get myself under control. Rearranging myself –composingmyself – I made my way to the front of the ship, taking my place at the prow. I watched the shoreline draw closer and the island of Aeolia grow larger, its jagged cliffs adorned in greenery rising majesticallyamidst the relentless expanse of the Aegean Sea as my men rowed, rowed,rowed.

As we drew closer, the scent of salt dissipated and the air became clean, rich, earthy – like the earth after it had just stopped raining. It was a tantalising promise of respite that urged the men to row harder until we hit the shore.

Aeolus was there to greet us as we disembarked. “Odysseus!” he called, his arms open wide, the sleeves of his robes billowing in the winds he conjured. “There was word on the winds of your arrival.”

“Aeolus,” I replied in greeting, hugging the other king briefly before drawing back. “I’m sure your winds told you why we are here.”

“Ah, my friend, there is plenty of time for that. Why don’t your men settle here and I’ll have my servants come and bring them a fresh kill to cook, replenishments, pots to heat the wash water, and scrubs. You and I can go to my home, and when you too are refreshed, we can talk about what it is you seek.”

I looked around at the men, my eyes once again catching on Odette, always finding her. I couldn’t help it. At this point on our journey, it was becoming a bad reflex.

“You can bring the woman,” Aeolus noted.

I grunted, gesturing with my head for Odette to follow us, and together, Aeolus and I turned towards the great paved walk up towards his house on the cliffs. Sand gave way to smooth stones and then to a decorative pathway, the borders sculpted by a delicate hand. Almost as delicate as the footsteps behind me that told me Odette had followed.

The house was by no means a palace, but certainly grand with its high ceilings, terracotta columns, and detailed architraves that matched the path that led us here. Aeolus swept us through to a guest suite where one kline bed?1 draped in a gauzy canopy sat in the centre of a room that separated offinto two different bathing chambers. His servants were already drawing baths, the fragrant aromas of the dried flowers and oils so potent they made my eyes water.

Once upon a time I was used to such smells, but after so long at sea, the closest thing to them that I remembered was the salt scrub and warmed oil Odette would leave out for me. Then I remembered the sand crabs and had to stop myself from barking with laughter at the woman who now stood at my shoulder.

“We will leave you two to wash and rest. Just follow the hallway to the great home when you are ready for food,” Aeolus said, before bowing his head in good will and turning back the way he came.

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