“Fuck, I transported on the beach right when a damned wave came out of nowhere! Took me forever to come back to shore. Can you do something about that?” Ares hooked his thumb behind him and strode in. He flopped onto the opposite couch and sat, his wet body dampening the fabric. “We gotta make this quick because Mariah could wake up at any moment, and I’ll miss my chance to get some pussy.”
“What are you doing here?” Aphrodite screeched.
Ares gripped his fingers into the arms of the chair. “Aphrodite.”
The stare off continued until Zeus broke the silence. “They used to date. The breakup didn’t end well,” he told me.
“If I had known she was in a relationship with Vulcan, I would have never started anything!” Ares threw his hands up. “Like that hurt, not just Vulcan, but me, too.” He put a hand on his heart.
Aphrodite stood, gathering the black boa slung over a chair. “You’re right, Ares. It was terrible of me. I am sorry about that. I’ve told Vulcan over and over how sorry I am. I hope you can forgive me, too.”
“Is this a joke?” Ares narrowed his eyes. Ares could be a dense, but the way Aphrodite was cryptic with words, I could see why he would ask.
Aphrodite shook her head, her gaze falling to the floor. “No, it isn’t. I was wrong. I’ve done a lot of things that were wrong.” Aphrodite looked to Zeus, and he nodded for her to continue.
“I’m sorry.” She bit her lip.
Ares pointed at Aphrodite. “Are you seeing Athena, too? Are we all getting therapy now?”
The entire room nodded.
“Nice!” Ares threw his hands up and leaned back into the couch. “You’re forgiven then. Boy! I feel fucking better now. Like a complete burden lifted. Now, I bet you are wondering why am I here?”
Ares sat back on the chair, leaned on his legs with his forearms. “I’m here to give you your sex talk and…” Ares conjured a computer and opened it up to put it on the coffee table. “And I made a PowerPoint.”
Chapter Eighteen
Poseidon
“Idon’tthinkthisis necessary,” Aphrodite said as she closed the laptop with her long clawed finger. “Lani is very much in tune to Poseidon’s needs. She will not be deterred if he doesn’t know every little thing about the female body.”
I nodded in appreciation and felt the hard cover of the notebook against my chest. I wanted to know how to make my mate feel good, but I believed researching on my own would be for the best. I could be embarrassed in my room instead of being subject to an entire audience telling me how to sate my mate.
“Nonsense.” Ares waved his hand in dismissal. He willed on grey sweatpants instead of the soaked tight black jeans and t-shirt he’d arrived in. His usual dark messy hair was now dry.
Mariah, his mate, was due in a month or so with their first child—a child they had wanted for well over two decades. They had fertility issues, which was unheard of in the god realm, but it was because Ares was afraid he wouldn’t be a good father. He feared his past transgressions.
Uriel, the Goddess of grace and innocence, calmed Ares’s inner demons. She removed the darkness that hovered in his heart, rendering him able to forgive himself.
Ares was now a new god since he found out about his mate’s pregnancy months ago at Uriel and Lucifer’s bonding ceremony. The God of War was now, dare I say, the new generation of father figures?
“Right, so let’s get started. When Mariah wakes up, I need to feed her some steak. She’s low on iron. My fault on that because the child she carries is going to be a strong one.” He continued to drone on about his mate, setting up his laptop while Aphrodite and Zeus made themselves comfortable.
Fates, please tell me they are going to stop him…
“Just let it happen,” Zeus said, putting his arm around my shoulders. “Who knows? You might learn something. I’m actually quite fascinated by how he protects this position so highly.”
I groaned, holding the notebook to my chest. I had enough information in this book to help my mate know I cared for her. Surely, she could overlook some qualities that I lacked.
But I couldn’t be sure.
Ares once upon a time took over Athena’s sex education talk to Uriel, the Goddess of Innocence because Athena wasutterly boring, as Ares put it.
The whole ordeal ended up causing chaos in the Underworld and the poor virgin goddess was even more terrified.
“This is a dick.” Ares pointed.
And this was why.