“Ialwayssay yes to you.” She finishes righting her clothing and wipes at her smudged lipstick. I can actually see her putting herself together, piece by piece. “Get that look off your face, Zeus. You didn’t force anything. I wanted it. I always want it, even if I loathe you all the more by the end.”
I hate that she sees right through me. I hate even more how I exhale in slow relief. “Then what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” She scoffs. “Someday, you’ll get tired of humiliating me like this. Do you know how much I hate that I want you?”
“About as much asIhate wantingyou.” Fuck, I didn’t mean to say that. It doesn’t matter how much I tell myself to keep control. She snipes at me, and I rise to the bait. Every. Single. Time.
All my stress and anger and, yeah, fear comes rushing back,eliminating the short escape we just fled to. I slide out from behind the booth and straighten my clothes. I can see the outline of Ixion’s broad shoulders through the window in the door, and it just pisses me off all the more. Is he her only lover? Or are all three of her precious guardians taking turns giving my wife the pleasure that she only reluctantly accepts from me?
I spin to face her. “Be home for dinner tonight.”
“But—”
“No fucking excuses.” I start for the door. I’m done playing her games and wondering what my wife is up to. “If you’re not there, then I’m going to hunt you down and I’ll fuck you wherever I find you—no matter who’s there to witness it.”
9
Hera
What am Idoing? Zeus’s words ring through me like the clearest bell. Not just his words. His touch. His taste. The feel of him inside me. I should have said no the moment I realized where our argument was heading, but with fear riding me so hard, I let myself be selfish, let myself sink into the pleasure I find at his hands.
Even if he’s the enemy. Even if I have active plans to see him dead.
Instead, I just rode his cock in the middle of the damned bar. I just fucked my husband while my sisters’ and mother’s lives are in danger. I stand there, feeling more lost than I’ve ever felt, and watch him walk away from me. I should be grateful for the reprieve, but instead it’s one blow too many.
“I can’t do this.” I am calm, collected, and occasionally violent, but I haveneverlet fear get the best of me. There’s always a way out. I just need tothink, except I can’t even do that right. I’m barely showing other symptoms of my pregnancy, but it increasingly feels like my thoughts are wrapped in cotton.
My husband stops and looks at me, his strong brows pulling together. “Hera?”
“I can’t do this,” I say again, sharper. “What the fuck am I doing?” My voice gains a shrill edge, but I can’t stop it.Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Zeus crosses the distance between us in three large steps and catches my elbows. “Look at me.”
I don’t want to, but I’m helpless to do anything but open to the deep, soothing command in his voice. His blue eyes contain so much, and I can’t read any of it. I choke out an exhale. “I hate you.”
“I know. Now, breathe for me. Slowly in and out through your nose.” He mirrors my breathing, guiding me through it until my thoughts start to settle. “That’s it, Hera.”
My hard-won calm slips through my fingers. I jerk my elbows out of his grasp. “My name isCallisto.”
Instead of snarling at me, Zeus’s expression goes contemplative. He searches my expression. “Callisto,” he says slowly, as if savoring it on his tongue. The same way he savoredmejust a short time ago.
It roots me in place. I can’t tell if I’m breathing. I can’t do anything but stare at Zeus…at… “Perseus.”
He closes his eyes and shivers—actuallyshivers. I don’t know if I take a step forward or if he does. All I know is that the new distance between us disappears as if it’d never been there to begin with. My husband reaches up slowly as if to cup my cheek.
His phone rings before he can make contact.
Something like regret blooms in his pale eyes. “I have to take that.”
“Okay.” I don’t move, though. I just whisper, “I have to go. I have things to do.”
“I know.” He takes one slow step back, and then another, and digs his phone out of his pocket.
The moment is over. Maybe it was never there to begin with. Psyche and Eurydice were always so careful about who they slept with, claiming that sex made them fall for someone so much faster. It’s never been a problem I’ve had, but I’ve also never slept with the same person for more than a couple months—and I’veneverlived with a partner.
People view us as stepping stones to power. We are Demeter’s daughters, after all. Even our mother looks at us that way, though I suppose she’s also concerned withourhaving power, not just consolidating it for her. As my mother has gotten fond of saying in the last month or so, she’s not going to be around forever; at least she can die knowing her girls are taken care of. As if she’s not in her midfifties and thriving, war or no.
I watch my husband walk out the door, his phone to his ear, and call myself seven different kinds of fool for the small sliver of loss that cuts through me when he disappears from view.
