Page 150 of Crown of Olympus
“Velira says we need a shower,” she explained, a short laugh breaking through her defences.
My lips tugged upwards involuntarily as a sweet, golden burst of amusement trickled down our bond. Could she feel the thread too? Did she know the emotions washing down through it weren’t hers — but mine?
Or was it an effect on my end only, since I was the one who’d created it?
Nyssa rose slowly, stretching her neck and rolling her shoulders. Apparently, wehadbeen sitting for quite some time. She extended a hand. I scowled at her gilded fingers, and rage ignited like a furnace deep within me.
Ineverwanted to see her skin tainted that colour again.
Gold. Proof of our divinity, but also evidence of her pain. Pain I had felt as if it were my own. Pain caused by her father,her secret, and most of all — my mother. A mother who had tried to strike me down with a Titan blade, before Nyssa ingeniously ripped the pendant of protection from her dainty neck. A mother who had never been one in any of the ways that mattered.
I supposed Nyssa and I had that in common.
I grasped her outstretched hand and unpeeled myself from her favourite chair. We stood so close her nose brushed my sternum as she looked up at me. I wished I knew what she was thinking. She held her emotions so tightly in that moment, I had trouble deciphering the look in her twinkling green eyes.
She took a deep breath and led me up the stairs to her bathroom — a room that had recently become my sanctuary.
“Bath or shower?” she asked hesitantly.
As much as I longed to soak in the clawfoot tub, with her back pressed against my chest and my arms wrapped around her middle, I knew the overhead stream would better wash away our blood — and our sins. At least until tomorrow bled them anew.
“Shower.”
She nodded, walking into the wide recess, and fiddled with the handles to get the temperature just right. Finally satisfied, she called me over and tugged me into the space alongside her. A copper blush crept over her cheeks, and a sensation that was both warm and icy travelled down the bond.
The Queen of the Underworld was nervous.
Because of me.
“Um,” she stuttered. “You can go first… I’ll just go grab some towels and?—”
“No.”
I caught her firmly around the waist and pulled us both under the steady stream of uncomfortably hot water. The stream ran gold, our blood mixing and washing down thedrain. I reached to brush a lock of ebony hair from her face and accidentally knocked the tap to cold.
Ice water poured down my back. I inhaled sharply through my teeth, causing Nyssa to bite down on her lips in an effort to stifle a laugh.
“Sorry,” she sputtered, brows and lips twitching, both losing the war against her amusement.
A wicked smirk drifted across my face as I leaned in close. “You will be.”
She sobered instantly. I watched as her pretty lips parted, as those striking eyes widened. Her throat bobbed as she swallowed roughly.
The mouthwatering scent of vanilla and raspberries filtered through the air — and all at once I wasstarving.
I crowded her against the wall. Our chests rose and fell rapidly, heartbeats racing in tandem. She wriggled, brushing against my solid length, and froze as a groan escaped me.
Fuck me. I am so entwined in this woman. I know how much she aches for me, even if she shouldn’t.
“Tell me to stop,” I breathed. “Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll walk away right now.”
Nyssa’s brows furrowed, but she remained silent.
“For the love of fuck, Nightshade,” I whispered. “I need to hear you say the words. Either you want this as much as I do — or you don’t, and I’ll go.”
I tried not to beg. Tried not to let my insane longing sway her. I wasn’t entirely sure I succeeded — and then she spoke.
“Just for tonight,” she said softly. “I need time to understand what you did and why you did it.” She gestured between us, to where the tug of the thread bound us together. “But I can ignore it. Just for tonight.”
