He catches me before I hit the floor. Of course he does. Eros scoops me up and takes me into the bedroom that’s become ours. Only then does he sit me on the bed and crouch before me. The ice is still present in his eyes, but the way he holds my hands is soft and sweet. “Breathe, Psyche.”
“I am breathing.” Except my voice is too high and thready. And I can’t stop shaking. “What’s wrong with me?”
“Adrenaline letdown.” He rubs my hands gently. “It will pass.”
Of course he would know. He’s been in dangerous situations over and over again. I’ve only done it twice, and the feeling bubbling up inside me after the assassination attempt in the parking lot was nothing compared to this.
My throat is too tight, but I have to get the words out. “I’m sorry.”
He frowns. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry. You told me to stay here and I couldn’t. I couldn’t let you bear the burden of hurting her. She’s your mother.”
“She’s a monster.”
“That doesn’t mean you don’t love her.”
He sighs and moves to join me on the bed. “No, that doesn’t mean I don’t love her, if you can call it that. I…” He curses. “I’m fucking furious with you. You put yourself in danger. You didn’t fucking talk to me. I thought I was going to show up and find you dead. I can’t… Psyche, I don’t care what burdens I have to bear; they’re more than worth it if you’re safe.”
I reach out tentatively and sink my fingers into his curls. “I had things under control.”
“In hindsight, I’m aware of that, but there were so many variables.” He shakes his head, the move tugging on my hold a little. “You were faking it, weren’t you? Being that scared.”
I shudder to think back to the moment I was crouching on the ground, staring down the barrel of a gun. “Only partly.” I swallow hard. “She needed to think she’d won. She’s too vain not to say all the ugly stuff out loud, and I needed that on the video.”
Eros stares at me. “You’re terrifying. Do you know that? Absolutely terrifying.”
“I can’t tell if that’s a compliment or not.”
“Neither can I.” He leans down and presses his forehead to mine, a grounding touch that eases some of the tension in my chest. “So. A month left.”
Just like that, it’s back. “That’s what Zeus said. I expect he doesn’t want anything to detract from the narrative he’s going to spin, and once he announces the engagement with Callisto—” I break off. “I can’t believe she did this.”
“Really? I can.” He carefully extracts my hands from his hair and links his fingers through mine. “Your sister is going to be Hera.”
“It seems that way.” I can barely comprehend what that will look like. The last Zeus went through three Heras over his time with the title. Rumor is that he killed at least two of them, but no charges were ever leveled at him. As a result, the title of Hera has become something of an empty one. It technically still has duties and an area to rule like all the other Thirteen, but the last three people to hold it were overshadowed by Zeus. I don’t know what my sister will do with the title, but I can guarantee she won’t be the easy, biddable wife that this Zeus is no doubt hoping for.
But I don’t want to talk about Callisto.
I take a slow breath and stare at our linked hands. “So much of this has been pretend. From the very start, we’ve been lying to the public.”
“I’ll give you a divorce.”
That stops me short. I lift my head and blink at him. “What?”
“A divorce.” The winter night outside the window is warmer than Eros’s voice. “You married me to keep safe from my mother. She’s no longer a threat, and I know this isn’t what you would have chosen for yourself. When the month is up, I’ll get the divorce papers written up. You can have whatever you want. You’ve more than earned it.”
I have to take my hands back from him to avoid doing something I’ll regret. “Eros.”
“Yeah?”
“Will you let me finish before you sprint to leap on your own sword to save me from big, bad you?”
Now it’s his turn to blink. “I’m as much a monster as my mother. That’s empirical fact.”
“Did you mean what you said to your mother? Do you love me?”
“I don’t see how that matters.”
Gods, this man. I grab his face and bring it down to mine, nearly close enough to kiss. “Answer the question.”
His huffed breath ghosts against my lips. “Yes, I meant it. I love you. But that’s not a good enough reason to keep you chained to me. I’m a selfish bastard and I thought I could do it, but I can’t bear the thought of you trapped. Not even by me.”
I close my eyes. It’s that or start crying all over him, which he’ll misinterpret. “You might be a monster, Eros, but you’re my monster. I love you, too. I don’t want a godsdamned divorce. I just want you.”
He’s silent for so long, I open my eyes to find him staring at me. He reaches up and cups my jaw with a hand that trembles. “If you’re serious—”
“I’m serious.”
“Be sure, Psyche. If you really mean it, be sure. I can’t… I don’t have the strength to let you go twice.”
I turn my head and kiss his palm. “You don’t have to let me go at all.”
“Thank fuck.” He yanks me into his arms and holds me tightly. The same tremors that shook his hand work their way through his entire body.
I kiss his throat, his jaw, the corner of his mouth. “I’m here. I’ll always be here.” And then I’m kissing him properly. He hugs me tighter, as if he can’t get close enough to me, and I feel the same way. Things could have gone so wrong today. They didn’t, but that doesn’t change the way I need this man. Right now. Tonight. Forever. I break the kiss long enough to say, “Eros.”
He’s already moving, pushing to his feet and yanking off his clothes. “I need you.”
“Yes.” I let him pull my dress over my head and toss it aside. Then he’s there, bearing me back onto the mattress, his hands moving over my body as if to reassure himself that I’m whole, that I’m here. I push on his shoulders, and he lets me roll him onto his back and climb up to straddle his waist.
Gods, the way this man looks at me.
He grips my hips, devouring me with those fiery blue eyes. “You’re enough to make me want to get into photography.”
That surprises a laugh out me. “Eros, surely you’re not suggesting taking dirty pictures of me.”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting.” He cups my breasts and leans up to lavish kisses over them. “Just for us. Only ever just for us.”
It strikes me all over again that we have time. We can act out every fantasy, explore every nuance of the thing that’s flared to life between us. I roll my hips, rubbing myself along his length. “One condition.”
“Name it.”
I grin down at him, so happy I feel downright buoyant. “Take me in front of every mirror in this house, Husband. Let’s put them to good use.”
He pulls me down into a devastating kiss. “That will take years, Wife.”
“Good.”
He smiles against my lips. “That’s my girl.” Eros reaches between us, and I lift my hips so he can notch his cock at my entrance. I keep kissing him as I work myself down his length, guided along by his hands on my hips.
It’s only when he’s seated fully inside me that I sit up and brace my hands on his chest. “I love you.”
His smile is wide and happy and free of any shadows. “Say it again.”
I ride him slowly, reassuring both of us with touch and pleasure that this is real, that it’s not going anywhere. “I love you.”
Eros slides a hand down to press to my clit, so that every stroke winds my pleasure tighter, hotter. “Again, Wife.”
“Again? Really?” I moan and pick up the pace.
“I’ll never get tired of hearing you say it.” He tightens his grip on my hip, urging me to move a little faster, chasing the orgasm I can already feel building deep inside me. “I love you, too. Psyche. So fucking much.”