Page 10 of Carry Your Debt

Which is why I can’t let this get any more intimate than it already has. Not even with a kiss.

“A girl’s got to have dreams—” I start, aiming for deflection, only to have Zeus cut me off with another angry huff.

“Stop, Sabe. Juststop,” he snaps out, his frustration a palpable thing that settles in the pit of my stomach like a foreign object. My jaw grinds, and for once, I don't know what I should say to try and tease him back from the ledge. This is also not the first flicker of unease I’ve felt since coming home to find him waiting in the dark.

The image of Hermes’s crestfallen face surfaces, unbidden.

Perhaps not even the first timetoday.

I almost jerk back when I feel Dio’s warmth press in alongside me as he settles back against the counter. I look down at where his hot, damp skin meets mine. The simple show of affection isn’t a characteristic one for either of us, and I find it oddly comforting.

I glance back up in time to catch Zeus’s frown deepening. He’s focused on the place our forearms touch. “Just me then,” he observes, tonelessly.

“What?”

When his gaze returns to my face, all the heat that was simmering there just a moment ago is completely gone. His expression’s no less fierce—it’s just more of a cold burn instead. “I was the only one being used to check off your little sex list, then.”

Alright, who in the actual hell body-snatched myeternally indomitable, weather-all-storms, control freakof a Crew Lead Grayson—because I have no fucking idea who this man is, with his hair all wild and crystal blue eyes flashing with possession.

Or why I seem to be sucking up all of the emotion leaking from that cracked composure of his like some kind of secondhand smoke.

I mean, that’s got to be the only explanation for all the twisting snakes in my stomach right now…right?

Hey Google: can feelings be contagious?

“C’mon, Daddy Z, seriously? She’s been mooning over you since she was sixteen,” Dionysus cuts in with uncharacteristic annoyance, effectively shattering the kitchen’s awkward silence.

My head instantly rears back.

“Dio, you better make your last will and testament known because you’re officially about tobecomevery fucking dead to me,” I hiss.

The fucking traitor doesn’t even bother feigning innocence. “Nah,babygirl,” he drawls as he shrugs a massive tattooed shoulder at us both, “I guess your pussy’s not the magical cure for blindness after all—because hestillcan’t see what’s right in front of his fucking face.”

I don’t know whose eyes go wider in response to that—mine or Zeus’s. But apparently, D's not finished with his assault.

“I’m done watching the two of you silently pining for each other,” he forges on, pointing an accusing finger in his best friend’s stunned face for emphasis. “Youknow she has a hardtime processing any kind of intimacy. You can’t just ask her shit like that and not expect her to go on the defensive.”

Then he turns to me, and I suck in a breath, bracing myself.The gloves are off, it seems.

“It was never going to be just a quick fuck for him, not when Zeus’s feelings for you border on DSM-5 levels of obsession.”

At that, my left temple begins to throb and I’m forced to keep my lips pressed tightly together in order to stave off the sudden mirth bubbling up my throat.

Because surely this is all a dream. One I’m about to wake up from—back to the harsh reality whereJax fucking Graysononly cares about me in the capacity ofwardandasset.

Any second now.

And then I get my next surprise. Instead of an expression full of anger or guilt, our Team Lead only looks…exasperated.

“Okay, seriously, why thefuckdo you keep calling me Zeus? Or…” His eyes darken as he presses the tip of his tongue against the corner of his lips, “…Daddy?”

This time I can’t help barking out a laugh. It’s the considering look on his face as he rolls the word around his mouth. I totally called it—he’swaytoo dominant and enjoys reigning in my bratwaytoo much.

Dio’s brat, too, apparently.

Fingers crossedthatleads to yet another entry being marked off the List.

“Uh, short story: I wanted to further protect our off-book surveillance of the Rox Boys by assigning them new aliases. I gave each of them a Greek god.”

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