Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107826 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
And the one man I swore by all Olympus I would destroy.
Aphrodite has never flinched at getting her perfectly manicured hands dirty, and she's not about to start now—even if that means marrying Olympus's enemy number one, the new Hephaestus. She has a wicked plan to keep her deadly new husband off-balance, seducing the one person he seems to care about most in this world: Pandora, a woman as beautiful as she is sweet.
Two can play the seduction game, however, and Hephaestus is all too happy to put his new wife in her place. Her ex, Adonis, seems like he'll do the trick. It doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous in the way of fallen angels, either.
The only problem with using seduction as a weapon? Hearts are all too quick to get involved. With Hephaestus and Aphrodite trading venomous strikes that feel a whole lot like foreplay, lines become blurred and emotions entangled. But a broken heart may be the least of their worries. With unrest in Olympus reaching new heights, these bedroom games may have deadly consequences for themselves, their city, and everyone they've come to love.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
APHRODITE
Even as a child, I knew I wouldn’t marry for love. Love is a fairy tale, a fantasy built on lies as fine as gossamer wings. Normal people marry for love. They settle down, do the white-picket-fence thing, have two-point-five children and a dog named Spot. Maybe they’re happy in the end. Maybe they’re not.
That isn’t my path.
I’m marrying for power. For duty. For Olympus.
I tighten the tie of my silk robe and fight the urge to pace around the bridal suite. Just fifteen minutes before, it was filled to the brim with bridesmaids and hair and makeup people, but I sent them away to give myself time to breathe. Two weeks is nowhere near long enough to pull together a wedding worthy of my title, but desperate times call for desperate measures.
My new husband is an enemy to the city that I love. A murderer, who killed the last Hephaestus to gain his title. He and his family are a danger unlike this city has ever known, and with the barrier around Olympus failing, the stakes have never been higher.
Even if I have no doubts about taking this course of action, that doesn’t mean it’s without cost.
I press my hand to the spot on my hip where a small tattoo is hidden, the skin still tender from the fresh inking yesterday. An anemone flower. I’m not normally so sentimental, but the physical pain alleviates the ache in my chest a little. Or at least that’s what I tell myself as I turn to the window overlooking the courtyard where I’ll walk down the aisle and sign my life away to Olympus’s new Hephaestus.
The rows of seats are half-filled with all the important people in this city. My family is nowhere in evidence; likely they’re having some kind of hushed meeting right about now to ensure my groom doesn’t attempt to leave me at the altar.
He didn’t choose this marriage, after all.
I smile. I don’t know what Theseus Vitalis thought he’d accomplish by taking the Hephaestus title by force, but he’s a small fish in a big pond here, even if he is now one of the Thirteen. He tried to argue against the marriage, but with the rest of the Thirteen in agreement on this course of action, he was essentially out-voted.
I chose this. I will continue to choose this. Growing up as the daughter of one Zeus—and now the sister to another—there was never any question that my marriage would be one of politics.
It also means I’m no stranger to violence and death. And if Minos’s people decide they’re better off trying to take my title by making him a widower…
I ignore the frisson of something almost like fear slithering down my spine. Ruling Olympus means we’re all swimming in blood up to our necks, even if some of my peers pretend otherwise. I’ve never had the luxury of a soft fantasy, and I’m not about to start now.
I’ll do anything to keep this city safe.
Even this. Especially this. I was made for this.
A knock on my door has me turning from the window. I tighten my belt again, pause to ensure my makeup is pristine, and walk to the door. “I said I need some time. Why are you—” I stop short when I see who’s on the other side. I thought the ache in my chest was inconvenient earlier. It’s nothing compared to the pure agony that flares as I look up into Adonis’s dark eyes.
He looks good. Of course he looks good. He always does, even when he’s obviously been missing sleep. His dark-brown skin is warm in the early afternoon light, but there are exhaustion lines around his eyes. He doesn’t smile. It’s fine. I don’t deserve his smiles any longer, but I still mourn the loss. “Adonis,” I say softly. “What are you doing here?”
“I was invited.” I belatedly register that he’s wearing a perfectly tailored pale-gray suit. He always dresses well, but this is clearly event clothing.
I didn’t invite him. I have plenty of capacity for cruelty, but I don’t level it at those I care about. At those I…love. I swallow past the awful sensation in my throat. “You shouldn’t have come.”
He doesn’t deny it. Instead, he seems to drink in the sight of me. “It should have been me, Eris.”
He’s the only person outside my family who uses the name I was born with instead of my title. It used to feel like a secret just between us, but now he might as well have pulled out a knife and stabbed me. Gods, why does this hurt so much? “It was never going to be you.” Pain makes my voice harsh. “My brother never would have allowed it.” Except that’s a cop-out. Zeus didn’t force me to marry Hephaestus. I decided on this course of action. I square my shoulders. “I never would have allowed it.”