Page 88 of For the Love of the Gods

But protectiveness had been building with Rose for a while.

This comfortability, this settled feeling in her presence, far more candle than bonfire, was dangerous. Comfortability meant trust, it meant forgiveness, it meant companionship.

Not a single one of those words should be associated with Rose.

They shouldn’t. But shouldn’t wasn’t real while she was napping on me. Or while I was falling asleep alongside her.

Chapter 24

Rose

“You two need to get out of the house,” Raiden said, waking me from the nap I was apparently taking.OnDominic, it seemed.

Raiden was looking down at the scene of the two of us, my weight pushing Dominic into the crease of his couch, his arm slung around my shoulders and pulling my body into his. The afternoon sun had descended into a pleasant gray dusk, small streaks of purple and indigo still dancing across the sky. I mustn't have slept long, but I felt surprisingly well-rested.

Dominic rustled awake then, his muscles bunching slightly. He was always in survival mode, as if he was expecting to roll off the bed right into a fight.

The fact that Iknewthat was disturbing in its own right. We had only slept in the same bed once, but it wasn’t just after sleep. Every time he seemed relaxed and then someone would come barging in, he’d revert to some battle-ready version of himself, shoulders taut and jaw hard.

“I just left the house yesterday,” I told Raiden, pushing up into a better sitting position. I went to lunch with Corrina which included some Ares-level interrogation on the state of Dominic and I’s relationship.

Apparently Corrina, Sabina, Jason, and the rest of the Council were of the same opinion—that Dominic looked at me like Jason looked at a new batch of wine from his best grapes.

“So did I,” Dominic added, the sleep slowly fading out of his voice. He told me he was at Adrian’s house (come to think of it, maybe that was when he got the jam) but I didn’t have the chance to ask any more questions before he pulled me over him on the couch, mumbling something aboutten hours.

“If you both weren’t napping,” Raiden said the word with mild disgust, as if he didn’t know the meaning of the word. Probably didn’t, he was too well-dressed to risk creasing from a nap, “You’d have heard me say that you need to leave the house for a specific reason.”

“That would be?” Dominic asked, dropping his elbows to his knees.

“My contact at the Thanatos society is historically Greek. Doesn’t care too much anymore, but I guess his mom owns a restaurant in Athens.”

“Was his name Andrew?” I asked, sitting up a little straighter.

Raiden looked at me like I was whittling down his patience every second. “Yes.”

“Ah, yes, I know his mother. She’s a doll.” Maria was the closest thing to a grandmother I had in my life.

“Well, she’s a doll who is the matriarch of one of the oldest families in Greece and has been complaining to her son that hasn’t seen you in a year. And quite recently, added that she lost you to the Romans.”

I gasped, offended. “I would never abandon Maria like that.”

“Not even for me?” Dominic asked, mocking my reaction.

“Not even for you, baby,” I said, trailing a finger down his jaw, relishing in the feel of his stubble.

He didn’t squirm like I wanted him to, just threw his hand across his chest, grabbing his heart. “It’s like you’re trying to hurt me.”

“You try her baklava and then come back.”

“That’s exactly what you both will be doing,” Raiden said.

My eyes lit up. “You have some?”

“No, calm down, for the love of Jupiter,” Raiden said, judging my excited response with his even mannered stare. I could imagine him shooting Belen this look every day. “You should go to her restaurant. Include the whole thing about not abandoning her for Dominic’s pretty face.”

Dominic leaned in close to whisper in my ear, his nose brushing against my hair. “Did you hear that? He thinks I’m pretty.”

I laughed as quietly as I could, but to no avail. Raiden looked like he’d just lost his appetite for the evening. “Stop giggling like school children and get dressed.”

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