Page 59 of Bitter Desire
“Like a visit?” I blurted out.
She chuckled, eyes still forward, feet still walking in that even and steady way she had that made her look like she was floating. “That’s right, Honey. You’re going to meet Zeus.”
“But why?” I asked, even as Law made a sound in his throat that told me he wanted me to cut it out with the questions. Yes, I was nervous, but to hell with that. I wanted to know what was going on and Connie was saying we were going to meet the most mysterious man I’d ever heard about. Zeus was a myth, not a man, and were going to meet him?
She stopped then and looked back at us. “He’s decided it’s time,” she said as if that explained it all. Connie gestured at a black door in front of us. It was ornate, intricate metal work scrolling the whole of it and making my head swim when I tried to take a closer look. It looked like vines, or at least I thought so. Vines wrapping and twirling in on themselves, making the door seem like a living thing in the dim golden light of the hallway. “Your room is here.”
“When are we meeting Zeus?” Law asked, voice gruff. His back was stiff, and I knew he was scanning the hallway for anyone and anything that might be a threat to us. He was holding my hand tight, though I knew he was doing it for me and not him. I was glad for the pressure. It was comforting. Grounding a way that made everything that was happening around us seem smaller.
If I had him then I could do this.
“An hour,” Connie said, taking a step back from us and down the hallway. It seemed she had other business to attend to, and she raised a hand in farewell. “You two make yourselves at home. I’ll have your bags brought up in a few moments.”
Law nodded his head at her, already turning towards the door, the heavy key he held sliding home, but I kept watching Connie. She seemed...off. There was normally a light to Connie that drew you closer to her. Made you want to be in her presence, an energy that fed off of anyone in her sphere, even as it made them seek her out.
That light seemed dimmer somehow. I didn’t know how or why, but it just did.
The door swung open and Law pulled me in behind him but not before I caught another glimpse of Connie. Her shoulders were slumped, and I watched her walk with a little less grace than I was used to seeing. I frowned, following behind Law and the second the door was closed, I spoke.
“Something is wrong with Connie.”
“Glad you saw it too. She’s tired.”
“So you,” I pointed a finger at the door, “do you think this has something to do with us visiting Zeus?” I came closer to him, lowering my voice even though we were alone in the room. “What the hell is going on around here?”
Law’s hands came to rest on my shoulders and he gave them a gentle squeeze. “Nothing good. At least I’m not betting on it. Zeus pulling us so quickly has me twitchy.” He turned away from me and glanced around the room. “This room is...over the top.”
He was right. The room was fucking awesome.
“I love it,” I said. The room was different than the hallway, different than the room we’d met Connie in, and it was nothing like the suites and guest rooms I’d stayed in before. The walls were not walls at all, but windows, windows that overlooked the city in all directions. It looked more like the tippy top of a lighthouse than anything else, and if I pretended I wasn’t in New York City, I could easily imagine myself on a coastline looking out into the night while waves crashed on the rocks below. “Oh, holy shit,” I whispered, walking towards the center of the windows. Because they weren’t just windows—there was a door there. A glass door inlaid with gold, the metal glinting brightly in the light of the room. I pushed the door open and saw there was another room, this one smaller, much smaller than the main bedroom, but it was just as impressive. There was a glass bottomed infinity pool here and I swallowed hard staring at the crystalline waters. The pool was lit up courtesy of the lights inset in the glass pool edge. From where I was standing it looked as if you could just swim forever, right into the familiar outline of the city and never look back. I looked down and saw the city lights below, the streets and people and cars all flashing by in their familiar dance.
It all seemed so far away. So small from where I stood and I let out the breath I’d been holding from the second we’d hit the club doors. Here in this room, so high above the everyday, it seemed almost impossible for anything to touch us.
How had we gotten this high up?
I swayed, my body suddenly feeling topsy turvy. I had to get back to the main room if I was going to make any sense of what was happening tonight. I turned, walking towards a window, my heels sounding on the marble floors of the room.
I cleared my throat and took in a steadying breath. “It’s beautiful,” I told him when I was at the window taking in the city skyline. “It’s justso beautiful. Like a dream.” I turned, looking behind my back and saw lights glittering into the distance. I’d never seen the city like this. God, it made me forget that I was supposed to be scared and worried about who might be after us, about what I might hear or learn today.
We had an audience with Zeus, and this room had swept me off my feet.
There was a bed at the center of the room, a massive thing that made Law’s California King look like a twin. It was a poster bed with gauzy material winding across and trailing down the metal posts of the bed. When I came closer, I saw there were leaves and branches that matched the room’s black door wrought into the iron posts of the bed. The leaves looked as at home as they would be swaying in the breeze of any forest, even though I knew they were metal, immovable, and unaffected by the passage of time. Delicate and lush, the metal was alive in the light of the room and I smiled, trailing a finger along the broadside of a leaf.
Absolutely beautiful.
I didn’t spy a kitchen or dining space, but I figured this room wasn’t really meant to be eaten in. It was meant to be experienced. Enjoyed, and of course, the bed was the best place to do it. Well, that or the infinity pool. There was a single door to the left of the one we’d entered, and I suspected there was a bathroom through there. The door had the same vine motif as the black door and bed, vines and leaves beautifully etched into its surface, but save that door there was little else of decoration in the room.
“I love it.”
I heard Law make a non-committal sound in the back of his throat and I looked his way. He was surveying the room, but his back was to the impressive view, the glowing infinity pool casting shadows against his back. He turned his face and I didn’t like that I couldn't see his eyes, they were most likely hard or narrowed, scanning the room even if there was nothing new to see.
“What is it?” I asked when he didn’t say anything.
“Thinking about how much this room will cost.”
I jerked back as if slapped, my face flushing, and I opened my mouth to speak but the words got caught in my throat all wrong. I’d been delighted by this room, but all Law had seen was a price tag, and it was a price tag I didn’t have a prayer of being able to help with...unless...unless…
“The money you transferred me,” I blurted out, taking a step towards him. “We could use that. And I have some extra from what I saved before-”
