Page 88 of Ungodly Rich

Ares suspected his sister was thinking of all the mortal men she’d revealed herself to over the centuries, from Byron to James Joyce to Churchill. Many of whom had referenced her in their writing, if obliquely.

“I know I need to tell her. It’s just…” Ares hesitated before admitting, “I’m afraid.”

Because this wasJulia.She was sharp and observant and wry and thoughtful. And beneath it all, vulnerable. Ares couldn’t bear to see her hurt.

Especially when he was the cause of it.

Athena sighed. “Maybe you should take Julia out of the city, away from all of this, so it’s just the two of you. The truth…It’s a lot for a mortal to handle.”

“Ourfamilyis a lot to handle.”

“Oh, so you’ve met Mother?” Athena had quipped, and they both laughed.

“This is delicious,” Julia declared, scraping the last bite of scrambled eggs from her plate. She caught Ares’s eye across the campfire and grinned. “I should have known you would cook us breakfast for dinner. I’ve never seen you make anything but eggs or pancakes.”

Ares chuckled. “My culinary talents are not my best quality.”

“Trust me, I’m not complaining,” she assured him. “This is so much better than a gourmet meal at some Upper East Side restaurant.”

He watched as she pushed back the sleeves of his sweatshirt, an old Yankees one that he’d thrown into the backpack at the last minute, which hung too loose over her athletic frame. “Sorry I forgot to pack a sweatshirt for you. That was a complete oversight.”

“As long as you don’t mind, I’m not complaining. I love this sweatshirt.” Julia snuggled deeper into it, smiling. “It’s so soft. You must have worn it and washed it a thousand times.”

It was more vintage than she realized, but Ares didn’t mention that. His gaze traveled hungrily over Julia—her bright eyes, her hair still damp around her head, her legs in their black spandex tucked against the log where she sat. Damn if the sight of her in his clothes didn’t spark some primeval territorial impulse. He wanted to march straight through the fire, which wouldn’t burn him, and take her in his arms.

“Harry…,” she began hesitantly. “I was hoping we could make some changes after we get married.”

Ares’s stomach plummeted. This was the whole reason he’d brought her here, yet he wasn’t ready to talk about his family. Then he would be forced to tell her the truth, to see the expression on her face when she realized just how colossal a secret he’d been keeping.

“If you mean that we should get a dog, I totally agree,” he replied in an attempt to deflect. “But only a proper dog, like a Great Dane or a Bernese mountain dog. None of these tiny breeds that women carry in their purses.”

“I would love a dog,” Julia agreed, smiling. Then she shook her head. “But I was talking about something else. After the wedding, I want to establish a little more space from your family. To set some boundaries.”

“Boundaries?” Ares repeated.

“I can’t be like Valentine and Hector,” Julia said helplessly, “living a few blocks from your parents, always stopping by the penthouse for dinner or brunch. I mean, don’t your brother and your father share a car to work every morning?”

“We live in the West Village,” he protested, still dodging the issue.

Julia sighed. “We’ve seen your parents a lot this year. I get it, we’replanning a wedding, which they are very generously paying for. Of course that involves a lot of meetings. But I’m hoping that once we’re married, we can carve out our own space. That we won’t become…” She hesitated, searching for the right word. “Absorbed into their family unit. I want us to build our own lives.”

Smoke curled up from the campfire between them. Ares let out a breath. “I’ll say it again, we can cancel the whole wedding.”

“No, I don’t want to,” Julia assured him. “I just want to make sure that afterward, we are the most important people in each other’s lives. Thatourfamily comes first, before anything else.”

Ares braced a hand on the log where he sat, letting the bark dig into his palms. Here he was, worrying about Julia’s physical safety, when she’d been feeling cornered and threatened enough to ask forboundaries.Of course, it hadn’t been easy on her, learning about his family’s money, realizing the scope of what she was signing on for.

And she didn’t know a fraction of it.

“Julia, you are the most important person in the world to me,” he said softly. “I promise to spend forever proving it to you.”

“Forever is a very long time,” she pointed out.

Here it was, his opening. Ares was supposed to come sit next to her, take her hand, and say,Speaking of forever, there’s something I need to tell you.

He couldn’t form the words.

“Harry,” Julia said softly, “when did you know that you wanted to marry me?”