Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92659 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 463(@200wpm)___ 371(@250wpm)___ 309(@300wpm)
With Charon.
I pick a direction at random and start walking. Maybe I’ll just wander around until businesses start opening up and go from there. If I see someone before then, I’ll ask them. As far as plans go, it leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s the best I have.
I almost don’t pay attention to the parked car as I approach. It’s a black sedan that looks identical to the ones the Thirteen and legacy families use to travel around, which means it’s nondescript but high-end. That gives me pause enough to slow down. I see the fogged windows and grimace. “Not my business,” I mutter and start to pick up my pace.
Then I hear the moan.
I would know that moan in my sleep. High and breathy and with just a hint of desperation that says she’s close to coming. Eurydice.
Impossible.
Even as I think it, I approach the car. This is a mistake. I’m mistaken, and I’m about to make an ass out of myself playing Peeping Tom. But I don’t stop. Not until I’m right next to the car.
The lone streetlight overhead gives off barely enough light to see through the fogged windows to the bodies moving within. Even with the slight distortion, I recognize them. Eurydice is on Charon’s lap, her back to his chest, riding him with her legs spread wide. He kisses her neck and has one hand cupping her pussy, stroking her clit in the exact motion that will get her off, while the other plays with her tits.
He’s got a big cock. It’s a strange thing to notice, but even from here, I can see the way he spreads her. It makes my stomach flip and my skin go tight. Jealousy. Anger. Even desire. It’s all there, but I can barely feel those emotions.
Not when the pit of loss opens beneath me, sucking them down, sweeping away everything. I really am a fool. I hadn’t realized I’d started to hope, even as I told myself not to.
That hope is gone now.
Eurydice comes, making that sound I know so damn well. Charon grabs her hips, holding her firm as he drives up into her, chasing his own orgasm. I need to stop watching. They haven’t noticed I’m here, too wrapped up in each other to realize they’re no longer alone. But I don’t move away.
Apparently she didn’t need me to make the journey here, after all. She’s moved on with him on her own strength, and even as it feels like someone is dicing my heart to pieces, I experience…relief. My shitty actions didn’t ruin her chance at happiness. How arrogant that I thought they could in the first place.
I’m still standing there, staring like a fool, when Eurydice looks up and screams. Things happen quickly after that. A blink and the car door flies open. Another blink and a naked Charon has me pinned to the car with a gun pressed under my chin.
We really are nearly the same height.
The thought is so absurd, I almost laugh.
Charon’s eyes go wide. “Orpheus?”
“You’re still hard.” I don’t know why I say it. It doesn’t matter that I can feel his cock pressed against me. It’s the gun I should be more worried about. It’s like the events of the last hour or so have broken me, taking what little self-preservation I still had.
“Orpheus?”
“Get back in the car,” Charon barks.
Eurydice ignores him. She climbs out of the car barefoot without any pants on. She’s stopped to shrug into his shirt, but that’s it. She pushes her hair back from her face, a frown pulling her brows together. “What are you doing here?”
“Eurydice.”
I ignore the warning in his voice and answer. “I came to apologize.” Each word causes the gun to dig into my jaw. Maybe he really will kill me. The threat of death should worry me, but it’s as if my brain broke. Shock, maybe, though I thought shock only came from traumatic events.
This fits the bill.
“Charon,” she snaps, tone harder than I’ve ever heard her speak. “You are not going to murder my ex-boyfriend. Put the gun away.”
He hesitates long enough that I think he might shoot me and be done with it, but he finally shoves away from me with a curse. Honestly, it’s not better. Because now I can see him…can see them. I don’t miss the fact that Charon steps between me and Eurydice. He seems completely unbothered that he’s naked standing on the street, but then why would he be? Hades rules the lower city, and Charon is his right-hand man. There isn’t a single person on this side of the River Styx who would touch him.
I shouldn’t look. Not at her and not him, but apparently I’m a glutton for misery. When I came across the river, looking to make things right, somehow I never expected to find this.