Page 25 of Achille's Earth Angel
Ange walked over and took a carton of eggs out of the refrigerator. Taking two eggs out of the carton, she held them up. “So, if you wanted eggs for breakfast, how would you prepare them?”
“As a god, you wouldn’t need a refrigerator or the eggs. You simply imagine the scrambled eggs you prepared yesterday and they would be steaming hot on your table, ready to eat, in seconds,” he replied with a twinkle in his eyes.
“And as an immortal?”
“I just wait until Hercules comes over and he whips them up for me.” He chuckled. “I see what you mean though. Life here in the mortal world will be very different than what I’m used to. But...” he held up his forefinger to stave off her next question, “I haven’t always been an immortal. So, I know having a means to buy the refrigerator and the utensils to prepare eggs would be important. Not to mention a way to procure the eggs, either by purchase from someone else or to have the chickens who can lay them for you.”
Ange threw her head back and laughed. “You are right, I’d forgotten you were raised a mortal. Here I was thinking I would have to train you from the beginning,” she teased.
He got up and walked over to her, took the eggs from her hands, and placed them back in the carton. “I’m willing to learn anything you want to teach me,” he said with a smile that lit up his eyes. He kissed the palm of each of her hands, his lips lingering on her skin, leaving it tingling. “I want to know everything about you, Angel.”
“I’m not near as interesting as you,” she replied shyly, her eyes dropping to his chest.
“And what do you find so interesting about me?” He lifted her chin with his fingers.
Ange searched his face, looking for signs of duplicity, but there weren’t any. “I have to admit I overheard part of your conversation last night, Achilles,” she replied, flushing slightly. “I woke up and found you gone, and then realized you were with Hercules outside.”
He ran his large thumb over her lips. “What did you hear?”
“I know you plan to give up your immortality for me,” she replied honestly. If we work out, that is. But what if I can’t have children? Or ten years down the road, you feel like you made a mistake? I don’t want you to ruin your life, basically, because Zeus is forcing you to make a change you might regret.” She ran her palm down the side of the face she was quickly growing attached to. “I-I do like you, Achilles, very much. And I know I’m incredibly attracted to you physically, but is that enough? I mean, we could just live together...”
He took her palm and kissed the tips of her fingers. “So, you heard the part about immortality only ceasing when we marry,” he said, his brow furrowing. “I want you to ignore it. Even if you thought you could be happy like that, I won’t allow it. It’s degrading to you.”
“No, it’s not,” she protested. “Men and women live together all the time these days.”
He shook his head and took her to the chair where he could sit with her on his lap. “Even if I were to agree with that, which I don’t, then I would still have to watch you and any children we might have, die. I’ve been through that before, Angel, and I won’t do it again.” He hugged her in close. “If you can’t have children then I’m fine with that. It’s Zeus who is hyped up about lineage. That’s more for young men who’ve never lived or loved yet, or had a wife. I’ve had wives and a child, so it’s not a priority for me. I’d like to give you children, if that’s what you want, but for me it’s not a necessity. I just want to be with you.”
Ange knew what she had to do in spite of his avowals. This was just too important to be trifled with and she wouldn’t allow him to throw his immortality away so carelessly. The love he shared with his eternal friends and family was very important. She could not, in good conscious, take that from him based on a ceremony.
“I have a proposal for you.”
“Angel, I said no...”
“Shush,” she ordered, putting her forefinger on his lips. “This is my life too, and I have a say in it!”
He nodded and sighed, his breath warming her finger until she moved it, but he didn’t say anything.
“I will live with you, Achilles, for one year. When that year is up, if we are really in love, then I will marry you, children or not.”
His eyes went dark with warning. “Angel...”
Ange was adamant as she faced him down, her expression fierce. “This is not up for negotiation, Achilles. If you don’t want to make love to me during that year, that is up to you. You don’t even have to live with me if you don’t want to, but I’m not marrying you for one year. And you cannot just spank me into saying yes, because I will not change my mind, no matter what. Those are my terms, take them or leave them.”
She stood up and gazed down into his frowning face. “Take all the time you want to consider it, but in the meantime, let’s just get to know one another. Unless you’re ready to throw in the towel already and run back to Daddy Zeus,” she teased.
Hearing the words he’d used against Hercules made him soften and chuckle. “All right, my little earth Angel, I will take some time and consider your counter offer, just to make you happy,” he replied, standing up and drawing her into his arms. “But I already know what I want and that won’t change.”
“Thank you,” Ange replied, her heart beating fast as she dodged his kiss. If they started kissing, she’d forget all about cooking. “Now, I take it you don’t cook at all?”
“You’re forgetting, I used...”
Ange interrupted. “I remember, you used to be mortal, she finished with a laugh. “I didn’t think people who lived in palaces did their own cooking,” she teased.
“I can kill a goat, skin it, and roast it over an open fire with the best of them,” he replied with a wicked grin. “And I know my way around a stone oven but I don’t know anything about these modern things you call stoves,” he admitted.
Ange shuddered. “We won’t be killing any goats, or any other animal for that matter. We can buy what we need to cook at the market.”
Achilles held her chin in his hand as he stole a kiss that left her shaky and breathless. “That’s better,” he murmured softly, a wicked glint in his eyes. “Avoiding my kisses will only get you kissed more.”
