Page 54 of You Can't Fight Lightning
Shit.
“What about Hera?” I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
“What?” He’d obviously not been expecting this.
We stood along a cliff side path, the Aegean sea blue and vibrant below us. It was one of the most romantic views I’d ever been in front of with someone I liked, and here I was talking about his wife.
“Hera. Your wife.”
“She’s my wife. She’s my sister.”
I dropped his hand. Eww.
“It’s not like that. We have children, but they were conceived with… magic is the best way to describe it.”
“You’re not just telling me what you think I want to hear?”
“No. She’s my sister. She is the biggest headache I’ve ever had. For all that, she made my life hell. Mostly because I wasn’t discreet when I—”
“Stepped out on her?”
“That will work. She and I, we’ve caused each other harm, said and done hurtful things. But we’re past that.”
“Maybe because you’re not having kids all over the place.” I didn’t look away from him. “Why did you marry her, then?”
“Power. We needed it to stay alive, to defeat the Titans.” His expression didn’t change, but suddenly, I saw the centuries on him. What it had cost him. What it cost him still.
“Okay. We can talk about that later?”
“There’s going to be a later?” His careworn expression was gone like it had never been there.
“Perhaps. But you need to take me back now.” I needed to think about this. About him. All he’d told me. I wasn’t going to be bowled over by a fancy god trip, no matter how damn fabulous it was.
“Take my hand.” His words were gentle. Soft.
I did.
“Close your eyes.
I did that, too.
Then with a whirring of wind all around me where my hair wrapped around my head—that was sexy—the sun faded from my skin. I opened my eyes to see that we were back in the parking lot of my apartment, the sky dark, with thunder rolling in the night clouds.
It felt like rain.
Z turned to me, taking my other hand in his. “I don’t want to be a stalker. I’ve done that before, I know that now. You tell me that we’re done, and we’re done. But I wanted to show you that this, that I was real. That this is possible.”
“I need time to think.”
He nodded. “Of course. I understand. I just want to tell you one more thing.”
“What?”
“Everything I told you, it was true. I was being honest. Once I started reading those books, I knew that I had to get better, be better, if I wanted a chance with you. So that’s what I did. Tried to be a better man. And I’m sorry I pushed into your life. When I heard you weren’t available—” he shrugged. “I tried to resist finding out from someone other than you, but when the opportunity to know presented itself, I couldn’t say no. I’m sorry.” He looked down at me, his blue eyes unfathomable.
I tried to speak, and I couldn’t. My mind and heart were full. Of my past loves as well as Z.
“You’re not cursed. You’re not carrying a curse. I’m in a position to know—” his tone took on one I didn’t recognize.
