Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 449(@200wpm)___ 359(@250wpm)___ 299(@300wpm)
I lick my lips without meaning to. “Is it done?”
“Ariadne.” His voice is just as scarred as his body, rough and jagged. He takes one slow, stalking step toward me and then another, eating up the distance between us with long strides until he can lean down and plant his hands on the arms of the chair to either side of me. I’m not a small woman; what my body lacks in height, it makes up for in plentiful curves. I’ll never be the delicate little doll my father wishes for, but I’ve never felt anything less than desirable when staring into Asterion’s eyes.
He’s so close. I can see the sweat dampening his skin and making his dark shirt press firmly against his carved torso. Gods help me, but I inhale deeply, chasing the scent that is him and him alone. “Answer my question,” I whisper.
“I let her get away.” He releases the chair with one hand to clasp it loosely around my throat. “For you. I will weather your father’s rage. For you.”
I can’t catch my breath, and it has nothing to do with him restricting my airflow. He’s not. But in all the years we’ve known each other, he’s been incredibly careful never to touch me. Not like this. Not with intent and…possession. “You can’t talk like that.”
“Can’t I?” He leans closer yet, until he blocks out the very sky. Until his cheek brushes mine as he speaks directly into my ear. “Now we’ve both betrayed him.”
He knows.
But that’s impossible. There’s no way he could know that I left information for Apollo to find. Now is the time to push him away, to demand he remember his place. To retreat to a safe distance with the reminder that I will never be his.
I don’t move. I don’t speak. I can barely seem to breathe at all. Because he’s right. I have betrayed my father at this party. I will likely do it again and again in the coming conflict if I think it can mitigate the loss of life. But betraying him now? Like this? It’s nothing less than selfish.
I don’t know that I care.
“Tell me no, Ariadne.”
“What?”
“Tell. Me. No.”
I don’t realize his other hand has released the chair until he grips the front of my dress. His rough knuckles press against the delicate skin of my breasts, sending a jolt of pure need through me.
Understanding dawns, bringing with it conflicting emotions of fear and desire. “We shouldn’t.” I’m protesting for the sake of protesting, but it’s the truth.
My father may look the other way when it comes to how Asterion watches me, the strange almost friendship that has cropped up between us, the way we seem to gravitate toward each other again and again. But he won’t forgive this. If we cross this line, he’ll slit Asterion’s throat. I’m afraid to think of what he might do to punish me. “We can’t,” I force myself to say.
“We can. What’s one more betrayal?”
“Asterion—”
“Tell me no.” The rumble of his voice makes me press my thighs together. “Or I’m going to rip this dress off you.”
Now’s the time to do exactly that. If I say no, he’ll stop. Asterion may be a monster in so many ways, but not with me. Not like this.
What’s one more betrayal?
I don’t tell him no.
He pauses for one beat, and then another. I expect him to rip my dress down the center, to send the line of vintage buttons flying. Instead, he thumbs open the top one. And then the next. And then the next. Exposing me, inch by agonizing inch. All without moving away or putting any distance between us. It’s just as well; if either of us had a chance to think this through, surely common sense would reassert itself. We would remember who we owe everything to. Me by blood, him by circumstance.
By the time he bares me to the waist, I’m shaking so hard that I rattle the metal chair against the gravel. Asterion drags his knuckles up the center of my body to catch my chin. He still has ahold of my throat, still not doing more with his grip than claiming me. Now, finally, he moves back so that he can capture my gaze. “You’ve been mine from the moment I saw you. Your father might have been dangling you in front of the Olympians like a particularly tempting fruit, but we both know the truth. You are mine, Ariadne.”
My stomach flips and I want to hate what he’s saying, to reject yet another man claiming to own me. I’ve never belonged to myself, not from the moment I was born. I never had a chance. No matter what else is true, being claimed by Asterion will change everything. “You’re wrong.”
He drags his thumb roughly over my bottom lip. “I’m not.” He reaches down without breaking my gaze and shoves up the bottom half of my dress. “But if I am, then tell me no.” He slips his fingers beneath the band of my panties and wraps his fist around the fabric. “Because if you don’t tell me no right now, I’m going to take what we both know is mine.”