Page 30 of The Rose (The Godwicks 2)

“Shall we?” he asked.

“What? Make bird noises?”

“I’m a son of Zeus,” he said. “They’ll probably think I’ve turned myself into a bird and am ravishing you midair. Or I’ve turned you into a bird. Or we’re both birds. Ah...the stories they’ll tell about us for ages and ages hence. We’ll be legends. Could you hoot like an owl, please?”

“I am not making bird noises,” she said, still laughing. Why did no one ever tell her she would laugh with her husband on her wedding night? All she’d ever heard, all her life, was warnings about how awful and frightening and painful it was. She would get married every night if she could.

“You know you want to,” he said. “Serves them right for listening to a couple on their wedding night.”

“Are you sure they are?” she asked.

“Why wouldn’t they? Here. Let me prove it.”

“Prove it?”

“Moan,” he said. “Moan like you do when the servants rub oil into your feet.”

She stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Go on,” he urged. “Trust me.”

“I have married an unusual man,” she said. But she did as she was told. She lay back on the bed and began to murmur and moan softly as if she were receiving the most decadent delicious foot massage ever given.

Perseus slid off the bed and tiptoed over to the door. He waved his hand at her, indicating she ought to keep moaning. She did. She moaned as she watched him walk silently to the door. He raised a fist and then...

Bam! Bam! Bam!He hit the door so hard she thought it would splinter.

Lia heard screams. Men and women both screaming in shock and right outside the door.

“That’s what you get for eavesdropping,” Perseus called out. “Go away!”

Lia had tears running down her face she was laughing so hard. And then Perseus made it even worse by running to the bed, naked, and leaping on it like she used to do as a girl.

“That was very good,” she said. “You almost flew over the bed.”

“The running bed mount should be an event in the next Olympic games,” he said.

“You are sure to win the laurel crown.”

“Ah, who needs a crown on his head with a prize like this in his bed?”

He touched her face, turned her to kiss him, and she did kiss him then. A kiss of teeth and tongue and deepest gratitude for saving her and the kingdom. And desire, too. She did want him, though she scarcely understood what that meant.

“Are they gone?” she asked.

“I’m sure they are. And if they aren’t, fine, we’ll simply be very quiet.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “Won’t we?”

“Yes, my lord,” she mouthed.

He grinned, pleased with her. And it pleased her to please him.

“I want to do something to you,” he said. He still whispered, and she knew they would whisper all night like this. She felt like a little girl again, hiding with her girl cousins under the covers and telling secrets and ghost tales all night.

“Do anything to me,” she said.

“Put your hands over your head.”

She obeyed.

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