Page 64 of For the Gods' Sake

I blinked, remembering that he was supposed to be helping me anger my father. “Just be your normal, perfect self. My father will hate it. Be careful of my mother, though. She might start planning our wedding.”

“I have a few ideas to share with her, then,” Adrian said, and I couldn’t figure out whether it was a jokeor not. Not when he was pulling me back around the corner and back into the view of other people. He leaned close. “Am I forgiven?”

No. I would never get over the way he’d completely disrupted my life. But for what he meant, yes, he was. “Yes, you are. But under two conditions.”

Adrian raised a brow. “Yes?”

“Get me a glass of wine andnevertell anyone I doodle your name in hearts ever again.”

Adrian laughed loud enough to draw the attention of everyone around us. “Deal.” And as he pulled me towards the bar, he added, “Does the wine count as my gift for the day or do I need to sneak out to a jewelry store?”

And with the laugh that fell from my lips at that, the tear that had been plaguing my chest sealed.

Chapter 15

Adrian

I had few regrets in life.

I moved through it so carefully, with such intention that any choice I made was thought through so well that it removed the opportunity for regret.

But nothing felt as bad as knowing that I’d disappointed Reyna.

I knew that I’d fucked up. I kept myself busy over four days, resisting the urge to go to her and apologize.

But those four days had been filled with meetings and planning and trying not to light the world on fire.

Whoever was behind this was thorough, making sure that they left no trace. Guards were knocked out. Or they weren’t speaking. They didn’t have a tattoo, either. Not that the presence of them would be much help. They would have killed their owner before I could get them to speak.

I checked regardless, even though the invasion of privacy and the reason that it was necessary in the first place sent shame so hot through my limbs that I hadto spend five hours straight letting my anger out on a distant peak of Olympus. The same one I’d used since this became a problem.

I thought I had it leashed. Enough that when I saw Reyna again I was prepared to apologize and beg for her forgiveness if need be. Yes, she was getting something out of this arrangement, too. But it still felt like I was gaining more. I’d gainedher.

And when she looked at me with a cold, emotionless stare when I’d entered her home, I almost broke. If she noticed that I had my hands clasped behind my back, she probably didn’t know why.

Lightning was shooting between my hands, pushed out by my anger and my rage.

If I looked at her like she was looking at me, I was a fucking asshole.

Seeing her look at me like I was a stranger made me so angry, rationally or otherwise, that I had played her little game. Falling prey to the banter and the temptation.

I didn’t fall prey to shit. There was quite literally nothing on this planet stronger than I was.

Or so I thought.

The apology I did issue seemed to bring her back to me. No, I forcefully reminded myself.

It just smoothed things over. Enough that she was freely smiling at me again and touching me like it was natural.

Fuck.

I took a sip of my wine. Any hope I had for control was lost. Stolen by Reyna’s perfect fingers and her full lips. Held under the hem of that dress. One meant to test my patience.

“Reyna, darling!” A bright, but mature voice called from the other side of the room.

Reyna straightened under my hand, cutting off mid-sentence. I forgot what we were even talking about, the conversation flowing that naturally. A large part of my distraction may have been dedicated to trying not to pay too much attention to her mouth, still taunting me from just that one short press of our lips.

Who was I kidding? It had been all I could think about since she used it as a distraction in that street.

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