Page 33 of For the Love of the Gods

I placed a hand on his jaw reflexively. “It was an accident.” And it was to anyone who looked on. I hardly ever got physical assaults, but I’d just gotten married to their perfect god. Maybe people were getting bold.

Dominic tampered something close to skepticism, but only repositioned me on his right. I started walking again, hoping to slow my racing heart.

Dominic slid his right hand up to the base of my neck as we made our way through the mass of people. I imagine he meant it to be silently chastising me for my clumsiness

Iexpectedit to be a grating hold. But while Dominic was exchanging respectful glances with shop owners, the feeling of his hand on my neck was doing nothing to slow my heart, it was making it beat twice as fast.

There was a voice in the back of my head that reminded me that I normally turned to my right at this point to buy…something. Something, but I just couldn’t remember what. My thoughts had abandoned me, my mind centering so intensely on the back of my neck that I couldn’t even make out the items being displayed at each stand.

Not when his hand was filling the entire width of my neck, resting right at the spot where it connected to my spine. His palm was on fire, hot enough to brand my skin and send a bolt of sensation right down my back. With every slight shift of his hand, his scars and calluses brushed up against my skin, causing every hair on my body to stand at attention.

I had to physically restrain myself from shivering, especially as his thumb began moving slowly over my shoulder in barely-there caresses. I was sure he wasn't consciously doing it, just absently moving that maddening finger over my skin, sending fire sprinting down into every corner of my being and turning me into a molten mess.

My vision kicked back in at the sight of a gradient of red, yellow, and green. I blinked a few times, clarity returning so that I could see the display of bell peppers on one of the last stands in the morning market.

I normally went to another patron, one who smiled, but I must have missed him in my Dominic’s-hand-induced haze.

I stopped, earning a slight squeeze on either side of my neck.

“Can we stop here?” I asked Dominic.

“Yes,” he grumbled, dragging his hand off my skin and leaving goosebumps in his wake. I prayed he didn’t notice the effect he had on me.

I walked up to the stand, offering a greeting that garnered no response.

“I’ll take two of each, please.”

The older man had a mass of muscle, and I went to ask him how long he’d been farming, but his stony expression stopped me in my tracks. Instead, I gave him a closed lipped smile as he reached for the peppers, almost eclipsing them in his large hand.

“Rose!” Dominic barked from behind me, tearing my attention away from the stand.

I turned to find him gesturing between two bottles of wine. One red, one white. I nodded toward the white. Better for what I had planned to cook that week.

“Lady Pluto,” the man said irritably. I turned to see him shaking the back impatiently, holding out a hand for payment in the other. I dropped enough coin into it, then softly grabbed it.

Walking over to where Dominic was hauling a 12-bottle case of wine onto his shoulder—surely given for free—I asked, “All done?”

Dominic nodded. We walked to the open archway at the end of the market, leading to a cobblestone path that would wrap back around the road to our palace.

As we walked through, I opened the paper bag to inspect my new peppers and consequently let out a shriek. The bag dropped to the ground, one of the green peppers rolling out onto the stone. Along with an impressively sized spider.

The next sound I registered was the rattle of wine bottles as the case slammed to the ground. And then, “Go get new ones.”

“No,” I argued. “I’ll just wash them at home.”

“Like hell you will,” Dominic snapped, bending to pick up the bag. “Stay here.”

“Dominic.” It sounded like I was begging.

“Stayhere, you little flight risk.” And then he was stomping off towards the stand. I could still see it from where I was, and my cheeks colored with embarrassment when I saw Dominic shove the paper bag towards the man.

My peppers were replaced faster than I could blink and Dominic was in front of me barely seconds later.

“Let’s go,” he said, striding off towards the gates like he couldn’t wait to get out of my presence.

We made it through, still at least half a mile away from our home when I broke the silence.

“Well, I would consider that successful,” I said, trying to diffuse some of the tension. “Everyone seemed to be proceeding as normal.”

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