Page 113 of Surrendering Hope (The Hope Legacy)

“You damn well will, you promised, and I have the perfect night planned.”

I groan, stopping a goddess on a party mission seems impossible. “Fine.”

She jumps up and down and squeals. Little shards of pain dance over my skull. I grimace. “Less enthusiasm please, it’s hurting my brain.”

“Remember all those times you played loud music at the crack of dawn after we’d drank the night away at HQ?” Zee says.

I peel an eye open and glare at him. He grins. “Payback’s a bitch.”

He saunters out. I groan as Pink’s “Get The Party Started” blasts from his room.

* * *

I run a hand over my stomach, a little uneasy at the ‘outfit’ Emi has squeezed me into. I glance at myself in the mirror.

“Sexy or slutty?” I ask myself.

“Are you asking your reflection for fashion advice?” Duncan says, sauntering into my room. I side eye him. Dark formal trousers clad his long legs, paired with a formal emerald green shirt, he’s got the first few buttons undone.

“Why is it I look like a stripper, and you look like a millionaire?”

He shrugs. “You don’t look like a stripper, your skirt is too long.”

I step forward, allowing the silk to part up to my hip. Zee walks in and wolf whistles. I slam my hands over my ears. “Silver is your color. You look stunning, Natia.”

“I look like a stripper,” I say, smoothing my hands over the corset. Strategically placed lace disguises my nipples.

“A high class, expensive stripper,” Zee says, grinning.

I roll my eyes as Jed comes around the corner, no doubt to investigate the fuss. He fans himself with his hand. “It’s getting hot in here.” Don’t break into Nelly, please, I beg the heavens.

Jed launches into the song, Zee joins in grinding in a way I never want to witness again. I shake my head as Emi appears in a bundle of tulle and satin. She smirks at Jed and Zee. “Are we starting this party in Natia’s bedroom?” she asks, bopping to Jed’s singing.

“No,” Zee says, wiggling his eyebrows, “but that’s where I hope it ends.”

“Out!” I shout, ushering them into the living area. Aaden is suited and booted to the nines. His eyes widen when he sees Emi, his throat bobbing at the sight of her in a tight satin corset, booty shorts and a matching transparent pink tulle coat that only makes her outfit seem more obscene.

She twirls over to him. “Ready, baby?”

“I’m not,” I mutter, rubbing my pounding temples.

“Oh, for goddess’s sake, come here,” she says, wiggling her fingers.

I come to a stand in front of her, frowning. She runs her hands over my temples; the headache disappearing in an instant. “How?”

She shrugs. “We all have a little healing ability. I sucked the remnants of the drugs from your cells.”

“Thank you,” I tell her. “Wait, why didn’t you do that earlier?”

She shrugs. “You needed to learn a lesson.”

I raise my hand with my index finger and thumb an inch apart. “Wow, you’re a little evil.”

She grins. “No, Natia, I am justice, and sometimes it hurts.”

I mumble about self-entitled gods and goddesses thinking they know better than the rest of mortals, or almost mortals. Duncan teleports me to avoid arriving in a state of undress, although in this outfit I feel more exposed than I would naked.

Emi, Aaden, and Zee hitch a ride with Jed.

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