Page 10 of You Can't Fight Lightning
Of course, a lot of that was gossip. Rumors. Sometimes outright jealousy. All because too many thought I was not faithful to Hera. No one knew of our arrangement. They didn’t realize we’d married for power and protection. And Hera had been a lot more discreet with her private life than I had.
Well, I couldn’t argue that. I’d been anything but discreet.
Kind of like the sassy petite redhead who had brought me my drink. What had Roxy said her name was? Janny? She was pert and attractive, and had I not seen Roxy, there might have been a chance for the lovely Janny.
But not now.
Not when I’d met the most amazing woman.
I took a breath. Part of the reason for coming to the human realm was to find something for ourselves. To stop worrying over humans, or making things right, or helping our favorites. It was time to focus on us.
And according to Hera, I didn’t know how to be alone.
Maybe because I’d married a partner, but not someone who held my heart? No disrespect to Hera. We did what we had to do, and I’m glad she agreed. We were able to live our lives for ourselves at times, and we had some amazing children. They were also amazingly annoying at times, but all the kids were amazing.
But this, this meeting with Roxy, it felt different. Special.
I laughed out loud.
The woman next to me shifted on the bench seat, tossing a teasing glance my way. “Care to share?” Her tone was that of a purr.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.” I put on my let’s-be-good-neighbors-with-good-fences smile. “I was just thinking and my thoughts got away with me.”
“Sounds interesting.” She took this as an invitation to scoot closer.
“It is, but only to me. Cheers.” I lifted my glass in salute to her, and turned my eyes back toward the softball game, which was happening with a lot of shouting and laughing.
I could feel her puzzlement, then her disappointment. With a loud sigh, she shifted back to where she’d been sitting.
Keeping my eyes on the field, I considered the delectable Roxy. I knew nothing about her, nothing about who she was, but did it matter? When I felt like this?
The problem was, I could also feel her resistance. Something within her had recognized her attraction, and shut it down. She’d shut it down hard, if I was reading her right.
This would take more work than I thought. I went through some of the things that had worked for me before. She wouldn’t be bought off with some form of trickery. Or animal form, I thought as I stifled a grin. Magic went a lot further a couple of thousand years ago.
As all these thoughts flew through my mind, I worked to keep my expression neutral, and my eyes on the game. Even though I’d sidestepped the woman next to me, I could feel her watching me, taking small glances at me like she took sips of her drink. It wouldn’t take much to have her scooting back over toward me.
I didn’t want her. I didn’t want Janny.
I wanted Roxy.
And it was clear, she wanted nothing to do with me. Regardless of her reaction to me, her head told her heart no, and the head was in charge.
I would need a plan. I’d need to think ahead. This would take a campaign.
Considering the best way to go about wooing this woman, a thought, evil and insidious as though it had been planted in my head during a sleep by Hera (she did that once) came to me.
What if my wooing wasn’t the right move at all? If she was such a challenge, what would she expect after I successfully wooed her? Because there was no chance of anything other than success. There was no way.
I was Zeus. God of Thunder. God of Lightning. King of Olympus. All trembled before me.
At least, they used to.
I was still a god. Immortal, able to choose my life path. I could even offer immortality if I so chose. While the ambrosia fields of Olympus were gone, I had some.
You never knew when you might need things.
We’d made the change from nectar and ambrosia to human food. It could be done. I enjoyed the food of this realm. At this point, my favorites were sandwiches. You could put so many things on them, and it all tasted wonderful. Avocado and bacon were my usual choices. They didn’t go with everything, but with enough that I had them daily.
