Page 21 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

“Instinct. Just like sex, I suppose.”

“For you, maybe. This is our change. You don’t want to earn money like we do now for the rest of your life. What’s sadder than a whore, Cam? An old whore.”

He’d laughed at that because it was true enough.

Apollo had always been the marketer. The master at getting them the meetings. Getting them into the rooms they needed to be in. He was also the one who knew how to dress. A wealthy lover of Apollo’s had provided them with custom suits back in the day. They had been nineteen, maybe, ready for their first product pitch. Apollo had been the one that said they must dress at the level with which they wished to achieve someday.

Thankfully, Apollo’s lover had agreed.

It was Cameron who had been the inventor. Always. Had he not looked as he did, he might have been called the computer geek. But no one could ever accuse him of such standing as he did at six foot five and with the face of a fallen angel.

Of course, his face had been a casualty of his excess.

He was still a hulking brute. In fact, only more so now. He had nothing to do beyond care for his fitness. His body was no longer decorative in any regard. All that mattered was that it was able to accomplish exactly what he wanted. His mind had to function more sharply than it ever had, and he prized his physical strength and agility. His endurance. Because those things he could control.

And that, he felt was the real issue with this present moment.

He could not control the way that Athena reacted to seeing him. There had been a time when he had known precisely how his every social interaction would go.

His masculine beauty had been an asset that he had not appreciated at the time.

And now...

Likely, he would frighten her.

He did not mind being frightening, but he preferred it to be because of something he had done, and not simply because he had walked into a room.

One of his security cameras flagged that Athena had come back into the castle. She was wearing the cloak that she had arrived in, her cheeks flushed, stained a glorious rose. She had been riding, he could tell. She had that look of joy that she had when she was out galloping on the back of the horse, and he recognized it, for it was the same sensation that he felt when he did the same.

“Did you have a good afternoon?” he asked.

She did not even react to the sound of his voice. Hearing from him in this way did not seem to shock her anymore. “Yes. Thank you.”

“There are scones. In the kitchen.”

A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Have you been baking in the middle of the night?”

“Perhaps.”

“Well, I thank you. Your hobby has benefited me greatly.”

“Is this the sort of thing you expected living in your father’s house?”

She had a thoughtful look on her face as she moved from the entry down the hall into the kitchen. He followed her every movement on the cameras. “It sounds strange to hear him called that. Though I don’t know what else to call him.”

“My apologies.”

“None necessary. But he did not care for me. And I do not think he ever saw me as a daughter. My mother did.” Though there was something hollow in her voice then, as if even that had not been simple. “I will continue to think of her that way.” She sounded resolved then, determined. “I believe that she loves me, in a fashion. I also believe that she is firmly underneath the thumb of my father, and she does not possess the wherewithal to seek her freedom.” She shook her head. “That isn’t fair. As you pointed out, poverty is not something a person should readily race toward. She would have no way to take care of herself.”

“Have you learned so much lounging about my castle?”

“I have beenthinking. And while this is not a wholly different existence than the one I had before, it is also entirely separate in many ways. I do not feel so much a decoration around here. And it is... Wild. Gloriously so. It makes me feel the same.”

“Good.”

He found that he meant that.

He was fascinated by her. By his opportunity to observe such a beautiful creature without inserting himself in her path directly. Without his face impacting their interaction.

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