Page 61 of For the Love of the Gods

The line deepened. Dominic looked at me, eyes bouncing all over my face like a slingshot. “Do you?”

“What?”

“Have a hard time ignoring them.”

I laughed bitterly, a retort breaking through the fog in my head, pushing it out of the way. “That answer is reserved for people I actually like.”

“So you do, then,” Dominic said. “Because if you didn’t, you’d just admit it.”

I blinked, forcefully shoving any remaining clouds from my mind. “I’d like to ignore you.”

“You couldn’t ignore me if you tried, sweetheart,” Dominic said, pushing me a little further into the column. How had we ended up like this again?

“That’s a bold claim coming from someone whose pants were a little too tight not ten minutes ago.”

Dominic laughed, low and rumbly. “You’re seeing things. But just fortryingI’ll get you back for that.”

I squirmed under his hold, not liking how the attention grated against my skin and made my clothes feel uncomfortable.

“Can’t you just leave me alone like a normal husband?”

“Can’t do that, Rose,” Dominic said. “I have promises to keep.”

Yeah, like promising to never stop bothering me. Cute.

“Good luck with that,” I said, and then fled like a scared little bird. Because even though the reasons why I felt tense and a little sad weren’t precisely on top of mind after finding myself between a stone column and Dominic’s stone chest, I wanted out of that room.

Gathering a portal, I stepped through and went straight to the training room, refusing to give any weight to Dominic’s laugh or Max’s knowing gaze.

Chapter 17

Rose

Another two weeks passed, and I skirted around Dominic like avoidance was within my godly responsibilities. I couldn’t fully escape his presence, not when we were forced to cross paths in the bathroom and over meals—I continued to cook for him and others, I wasn’t that cruel—but for the most part, we kept necessary, wanted distance from each other.

If only it felt that way.

The tension was thick between us, not even a molten knife could cut through it. But neither of us made a move to reduce it, either through talking or anything else.

I dreamt of him three times, I couldn’t even escape him then. Two of those times, I woke up sweaty and overheated. And I’d sneak glances at him over dinner or in the bathroom or in the hallway in between our offices, hoping the jolt that went through my body when we made eye contact went away.

It didn’t.

It was a lonely stretch of time, if I was being honest with myself. Thea was away staying with Jason—they finally figured their shit out and were properly dating. Max and Marcus were busy trying to covertly address the dress issue and still fulfill their existing responsibilities. I just wanted it done, off my docket, then they would finally stop pestering me about someone breaking into my room.

It was one of Dominic’s staff who disapproved of me, it had to be. Who else?

Yes, it was the most aggressive act anyone had ever committed. But my father’s home was a graveyard, with only people I trusted living in it. Having people I didn’t know, who didn’t know me, living under the same roof was probably just the catalyst to get bold.

I spent most of my days handling mind-numbing administrative tasks that came along with running a realm, and pouring over the details at least three times. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something would go wrong with our power lines combining, the lack of issues doing nothing to quell my fears.

Normally, a time full of reading and solitude wouldn’t bother me, but the feeling that Ihadto be alone because the alternative was to spar with Dominic and ignore the way he spun my stomach into knots was taking a toll.

I would try to find an excuse to leave the room when it was just the two of us, but on an afternoon in our bathroom, with a slight hair emergency, I didn’t have a choice. I had been clipping and unclipping my hair all morning, forming a particularly nasty knot in the bottom of my hair and needed my hairbrush.

Who knew what Dominic was doing. Probably staring at himself in the mirror and repeatingI am better than everyone elseover and over in his head.

“Rose,” Dominic said as I walked into the bathroom, making a show of raking his gaze down my body and the dress covering it.

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