Page 99 of The Gods Forbid

“Try rational.” Somehow, I’d reversed the step I’d taken to put distance between us and was back within mere inches of his rock hard chest. “You’re the god of archery.”

Sebastian smirked. “Doesn’t mean I can’t make mistakes.”

I chose not to comment on the fact he was admitting to something other than perfection for the first time since I’d known him. “You’re saying that so that I owe you a favor.”

Sebastian bent down, his eyes narrowing. “Come on, love. It won’t hurt.”

It would, very much.

Even with that warning, I straightened and let my smile speak for itself. I backed up and notched an arrow, firing it off to the furthest target I could spy once my elbow felt that click of balance.

Sebastian’s booming laugh made the sun feel ten times warmer on my skin. With a strength and ease that made me feel very unfocused, he shot his own arrow, landing right next to mine on the bullseye, making my arrow quiver with the force of it.

For the next four rounds, we alternated picking a target and matching each other’s shots, until one where I’d split Sebastian’s arrow and he laughed again, his smile bright and honest.

It was my turn to go first again, and that smile haunted me from the moment I placed the arrow to the second the bowstring snapped out of my fingers. My shot wasn’t bad, still landing on the bullseye, but it had felt much harder than the previous ones.

I could … ask him for help.

I shut that idea down the second it popped into my sweet, stupid brain.

Don’t do it. Don’t. That is so wrong, I chastised myself.

But I still felt like I had something ripped away from me when I didn’t get to kiss him. I wanted—needed—something to grab onto. Besides, I was bound to lose this game anyway.

“I think I lost the balance. That one wasn’t as good.” Persy, oh my goodness. I’d only messed that one up because I was thinking about Sebastian’s stupid lips and his stupid face and now I was lying to him.

Great.

“What’s wrong, love?” he asked, immediately stopping what he was doing and coming up to me.

“It feels weird now.” STOP, I yelled at myself. My mind politely told me to go shove it because she was having too much fun.

Sebastian came up behind me, his head floating over my shoulder. “What do you mean?”

Well, I had to make something up now. “I think it’s my shoulder.”

I’d never shot an arrow a day in my life before this, I didn’t know anything about shoulders and arrows but that didn’t matter when Sebastian was turning towards my ear and saying, “Pull up the arrow.”

I listened, bringing the bow up to the proper stance. I tweaked it slightly, bringing my elbow up too high and putting more stress on my shoulder.

“Your elbow is too high,” Sebastian said, heat pouring into my elbow as his hand hovered over the joint.

I pulled it too low, my body taking over. It was practically begging me to make him touch me, the feeling so intense I felt like I’d start shaking.

My heart damn near started doing joyful back flips when Sebastian settled his palm under my elbow and lifted it back up to the proper alignment. “How does that feel?”

“Right, I think.” I croaked out.

“Try it out,” he said, the words so close to my ear I was sure his face was almost pressing into my hair. I simply released my fingers, doing nothing to drop my elbow from its resting place in his palm.

Of course, the arrow shot in a perfectly straight line into the center of a target.

“There you go, love.”

Heat pooled in my stomach. Oh, no. This was very bad.

“One more.” Relief burst through my chest at Sebastian’s words. I leaned forward slightly, bending to reach for another arrow. When I straightened, Sebastian was still close but it felt like he’d shifted slightly back.