Page 97 of For the Gods' Sake

Chapter 22

Reyna

We were standing in front of a beautiful home, nestled into the countryside of Olympus, on the outskirts of a mining town that thrived off rare metals and jewels.

We were incredibly late for whatever Adrian had planned. We walked through the town so that Adrian could give me a tour and stop to pick up a bouquet of flowers, which turned out to be a terrible idea.

No one seemed to care much about our relationship, the small town too focused on their trade to pay any mind to romantic gossip. But people stopped Adrian at every turn to pepper him with questions about the mines and the winter and everything under the sun.

Adrian answered each one with ease, equally informative and assuaging. Everyone seemed to respect him, taking in his words like they were as precious as the gems they mined. I was happy to slow down, to let Adrian do his job as ruler of Olympus.

All of it had the unfortunate side effect of making mefall a little bit in love with him, then making me forgive him for it.

But then Adrian said the one thing that could make me throw that contentment off the impressive peak we were standing on. “This is my parents’ home.”

He tried to pull me towards the house, but I dug the heels of my boots into the ground. “You are taking me to meet yourparents? Are you insane?”

My refusal to move seemed to be amusing enough to break through the dark cloud of Adrian’s stoicness and pull a grin to his face. “They aren’t scary, I promise. If you can deal with me, their power won’t phase you.”

And that’s when I realized that the thought of meeting two of the most powerful gods to ever grace humanity wasn’t the scary part.

I was nervous to meet my boyfriend’sparents.

I had managed to keep my cool for most of the morning, wrapped in a warm haze after a night of setting aside all pretense and acting like I’d always wanted with Adrian.

There was also a healthy dose of that calmness dedicated to the fact that sex with Adrian was…I was fighting off a blush just thinking about it. We seemed to be perfectly matched in our desires and preferences, him easily dominant and me more than happy to succumb to it.

Despite getting next to no sleep, I’d felt wired and high-strung all day, counting the minutes until it was acceptable to find him again.

The calm exterior was just my protection mechanism, faking confidence to hide the fact that I was, quite frankly, freaking out internally. The mature thing to do would be to talk to Adrian, to address thefact that things didn’t feel quite so fake anymore. And that the introduction of anything physical had actually comeafterthings had taken a turn for the real.

But I was being selfish. If this turned real, it might end. Adrian might push me away to try to protect me. So I’d act like this change didn’t wreck me as thoroughly as it did. Especially if it meant that Adrian would keep touching me with casual kisses and intimate caresses.

I had a feeling I wouldn’t be leaving Olympus again until morning.

A tug on my arm brought me back down to reality, realizing that I was still very much resisting Adrian’s attempt to bring me into his parent’s home. “Adrian, I don’t have a welcome gift. Not evenflowers.”

Adrian nodded to the bouquet he stopped to grab in town. “Why do you think I picked this up?”

Fuck, he was perfect. I crossed my hands over my chest with a stubborn frown, nerves to meet his parents still festering.

Adrian looked at me under heavy eyebrows. “Don’t make me throw you over my shoulder.”

I reached over and snatched the bouquet from Adrian’s hands. “Great, then I can meet your parents with my ass in the air.” That would just be perfect really. Meeting my future mother-in-law ass first.

Woah. What the hell?

Adrian’s persistent teases that he was going to marry me were clearly turning me insane.

“You could meet them standing,” Adrian said, stepping towards me with an outstretched hand. “But you have tomove.”

I stood my ground, giving him my best grumbly frown to make it clear that I didnotenjoy that hesprung this on me. At least I’d put together a good outfit, with a sweater that was high enough to hide the smattering of love bites over my chest. Courtesy of my lovely, considerate, not-at-all-frustrating boyfriend.

“Fuck, you’re stubborn,” Adrian said, not an ounce of bite behind the statement.

I leveled him with a glare. “You like it.”

Adrian barked a laugh. “I didn’t say I didn’t.” Then he got a glint in his eyes that made it clear he was seconds away from following through on his promise to throw me over his shoulder.

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