Page 16 of Gilded Gods

He rolls his eyes. “Jealous much, dickhead?”

Apollo is younger than me by one year and thinks he’s smarter. Maybe he is. The little shit got early acceptance into Yale University and graduated with the highest honors two years ago with a degree in finance.

School wasn’t my strong suit.

I never paid attention.

I was too busy wasting time and fucking girls and a few hot teachers. My face has gotten me far in life. Of my brothers, I’m the best looking and care about what I put into my body.

Apollo is a genius.

Atlas is creative.

I’m the muscle.

We each have a different role to play in this family. I couldn’t figure out the business side of Akropolis, so Apollo agreed to take over the financial shit. I can’t look at a spreadsheet without getting a headache.

Atlas handles the marketing. His brain works differently than Apollo’s, the creative wheels always turning. He’s the reason our fight club has gotten so much attention online.

Still, I’m older than my brothers and don’t need them to advise me, especially not about women. I know what women want.

Me.

“So tell me how you’d win her over,” I say to my brothers, purely out of curiosity.

“She’s insecure about her body,” Apollo tells me.

I roll my eyes at him. “My little dragon isn’t afraid of anything. She’s like Harley Quinn and Daenerys Targaryen rolled into one fine-ass woman.”

“I pay attention.” Apollo leans back on the couch, legs spread as he smirks like he knows more than me. “Reading people is my specialty. Why do you think I fed her dessert? She’s not as indestructible as you think.”

I thought it was odd when Apollo got close to Ophelia at dinner. He hasn’t touched a woman in four years. Not since the night that screwed up all three of our lives.

“You fed her to fuck with my head,” I fire back, annoyed with him always throwing his intelligence in my face. “And to makeheruncomfortable.”

Apollo shakes his head. “I did it to show Ophelia she can eat in front of us. She has a hangup about her weight.”

My eyebrows knit together. “What’s wrong with her weight?”

“I’m surprised you, of all people, haven't noticed,” Atlas interjects. “You’re obsessed with being in shape. At least twice a day, you give us shit about what we eat, and we can lift more than you.”

“No, you can’t,” I say with conviction. “I could bench you and Apollo.”

“Not the point, Ares,” Atlas groans. “You’re always telling us we’ll get fat if we don’t eat organic whatever the fuck. If you do that shit with Ophelia, she’ll probably rip off your balls and keep them in a jar on her nightstand.”

I roll my eyes.

Apollo threads his fingers behind his head and kicks his long legs up on the coffee table. “While you thought Ophelia was pulling down her shirt to give you a better look at her tits, I saw what she was doing.” He glances at Atlas, who seems to follow this conversation better than me. “Trying to hide her stomach.”

I’m still not following his train of thought. Ophelia has big tits and a fat ass I want to sink my teeth into. I can’t wait for her to smother me with her thick thighs as she’s coming on my face and screaming my name. Bonus points if she holds a gun to my head while I’m doing it.

Wouldn’t that be a rush?

“I saw it, too,” Atlas adds. “I couldn’t stop drawing her.”

My brother enjoys finding everyone’s flaws and exposing them on paper. He once told me the world is his canvas.

I’m not that poetic.

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