Page 7 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

Apollo’s face went hard. He knew that look. “Don’t think I won’t do it, Cameron. I have so much money tied up in this...”

“And it is everything I have, so don’t you think I care even more?”

“You don’t need anything. You sit in that moldering wreck day in and day out. You have no need of money. You might as well redistribute your wealth.”

“Careful,” Cameron said, his tone dry. “You’re beginning to sound like a radical.”

Apollo laughed. “Once upon a time we were both quite radical.”

“No,” Cameron growled. “Once upon a time we were a pair of selfish assholes. Once upon a time we left a swath of destruction so great that it was bound to turn into a reckoning. And it did. Perhaps not for you. Your jaw is as sharp as ever, your smile as winning. So perhaps, you should do as I say and spearhead this endeavor.”

“You are grim, Cameron, and I find I have no stomach for it.”

“Tired of looking at my face?”

“You never even show me the whole of it. You sit there, shrouded in darkness.”

So he did. Cameron had gotten used to moving about in darkness. There was not a single mirror in the castle. It was by design. He did not need the reminder. Not ever.

And now... She was here.

She was so beautiful. It was nearly painful to look directly at her.

Athena.

Goddess of war.

And he had felt that war ignite inside of him from the moment that he had set eyes on her. Liquid dark eyes, hair black and shiny. Her lips were full, her curves generous.

He could remember what he might’ve done, Once upon a time. How quickly he could’ve seduced a woman so clearly and thoroughly built for sin.

He could have had her underneath him in minutes, crying out for release.

And so what had he done? Kept her captive. For now he had to do it with locked doors, so terrifying was his visage.

Not that she had seen him.

Had she seen him, she would have fought much harder.

Since moving onto these grounds he’d started a collection of beautiful things. What came to him here, remained.

She had come to him, and she was beautiful, so he had taken her.

There was a part of him, somewhere, in the back of his mind that recognized that as...insane.

There was also a part of him that wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t insane, so why fight it?

Either way, she was here with him now.

He’d always felt that when he found something, it was fate in some small way. And he had not thought it wise to deny fate, so he kept the thing to see if he ever needed use of it.

Athena was no different.

“The truth is,” he said, “Apollo, you do not know the extent of my life. What I choose to share or not share with you is my concern.”

“Well, you could make it my concern, considering I’m bound to you professionally.”

“That is exactly why you don’t know.”

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