Page 56 of You Can't Fight Lightning
If I didn’t hear from her by the end of tomorrow, I was going to leave. I’d leave a note for her at Big Pete’s, and then I’d leave.
I’d also make sure she found the love of her life, even if it wasn’t me.
Even though I was pretty sure she could have been the love of mine.
Showered, and feeling like I might still have a purpose, I left my room. I needed to. Gods, I’d refused any of the housekeeping the last two days. The place was beginning to look like the week after a celebration in Olympus. I hung the housekeeping sign on my door after leaving a hundred-dollar bill on the dresser with a note.
Now out of my room, I waited for the elevator. That was something I’d found that I liked more than I thought I would—as a god, I didn’t wait for anything. Not even for traveling from one end of Olympus to the other. But living as a human, I had to slow down.
Which gave me a lot of time to think.
I hadn’t been a good man. I hadn’t been good to my lovers. To those I loved. Thoughts of Io still gave me a pang. Or my children. I was the king of the gods, but those around me hadn’t benefited as they should.
I needed to make amends.
But how?
The elevator doors slid open. I walked in, lost in the thought of how to fix thousands of years of carelessness, of selfish indulgence.
“Z!”
I looked up to see Roxy. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you.” Her face flushed, and her voice was higher than normal and breathy at the same time.
It was the sexiest thing I’d ever heard.
“You want to come back to—oh, shit.” I frowned as the elevator doors closed.
Neither of us pushed any of the buttons.
“Come back to where?” Her eyes drilled into me, down to my essence. My soul, if you will.
“I would say my room, but it’s a mess.”
“I don’t care.”
“No, it’s a mess.” I ran a hand through my hair, not wanting to admit the truth. But I had do. “This is the first time I’ve left the room since I saw you.”
“So?”
“It’s a mess.” My words didn’t invite discussion.
She looked at me for what felt like a damn eternity.
I could feel my impatience rise up like the clouds that rolled through Olympus in the spring, ready to encompass everything in their path.
Easy, I told myself. Easy.
“Then come home with me.”
“Why?”
“What?”
“Why do you want me to come home with you?” My voice sounded ragged, hoarse. Human.
Roxy took a step closer to me, snugging her body against mine.
