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“Yeah, about that…” He toyed nervously with his coffee mug. His big body looked incredibly out of place on the small chair, like he was an adult at a child’s tea party. I’d thought Cade was a big guy, but Leo would make him seem average-sized at best.
We were seated across from each other at a small green metal table at Café du Monde, the air around us abuzz with friendly conversation. Tourists snapped photos of the famous patisserie, and pigeons wove their way under the tables hoping for bits of dropped dough. Judging by their round, feathered bodies they must have done well for themselves on a nightly basis.
I waited for Leo to finish his thought. The last time I’d offered him any information he’d threatened to toss me off a balcony. Maybe that was the godly half of his temperament flaring up, or maybe he was just a shitty dude. Either way I didn’t feel like pushing his buttons again for the time being.
“You said you were on the night road.” He drank slowly and met my eyes. His expression was imploring and needy, but I wasn’t sure what it was he was hoping to get from me. The truth was all I had to offer.
“I did.”
“Were you being metaphorical?”
“No. Hecate told me she’d show me where you were, and she did me one better, it seems, by dropping me right into your bedroom. Sorry about that, by the way. And for all the puking.”
He lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. “If I had a dollar for every time a girl threw up after seeing me naked…”
I snorted into my coffee, bubbles of hot chicory water spraying up my nose, making me cough in an incredibly unladylike manner.
As if any woman in her right mind had ever turned him down.
If someone told me his father was Eros instead of Seth, I wouldn’t second-guess them for a second. The man was a brick wall of stud muffin, and if it turned out my first impression of him was the right one, he might actually be a nice guy too.
Deadly combination.
I hoped Seth wouldn’t ruin him.
“You were telling me about the night road,” he reminded me.
Had I been staring? Drooling? Either was possible, but if it was the latter, I could play it off like I was still hungry since he already thought I was a human vacuum cleaner.
“Hecate told me about you. About your time there, if that’s what you’re worried about.” I realized as soon as I said the words that I could have been a bit more delicate about the reveal. Social interactions weren’t my strong suit, and that wasn’t altogether my fault. But I could have played those cards a bit closer to the chest, I suppose.
“Ah.”
“She was impressed with you.” Like this would boost his mood. Hey, you tried to kill yourself, but at least the goddess of ghosts thought you were a pretty neat guy.
I really never wondered why I was single.
“Anyway…it’s not the point of all this. She isn’t interested in you, just in me. Getting me here was an efficient way to get what she wanted from me.”
“Which is?” His attention was temporarily distracted by a group of middle-aged women at the table next to us. One of them laughed boisterously, and the purse balanced on the back of her chair fell on the ground. Leo darted in quickly, picking it up and dusting it off. He tapped her on the shoulder and handed it to her.
The look on her face when she saw him was priceless. She thanked him about a hundred times, touching his arm for emphasis.
“It was nothing,” he assured her, blushing sweetly.
When he turned back to me, I saw the woman look at her friends and make a fanning gesture.
I also saw Leo slip a credit card into the breast pocket of his button-down shirt. Smooth like butter. He must have realized he’d been made because he winked and held one finger to his lips in the universal symbol for shhhh.
Perhaps I should have cared and made him give the card back. But the woman was probably traveling. She likely had insurance. How much harm could he do? Besides which, if I had my way, he wouldn’t get a chance to use the card before I got him back to the temple. Seth or Sido could deal with his little kleptomaniac routine. I wasn’t here to be the guy’s caseworker. My only job was keeping him alive.
“That what landed you in prison?” I kept my voice quiet, but he heard me just fine.
Leo bristled. “Is there anything you don’t know about me? Seems like you know more about me than I do at this point.”
“I know what I need to know.” I stuck my finger in the mounds of leftover sugar on my plate, my gaze locked on him. “Anything else doesn’t matter.”
“I went to prison for forging checks, if you must know.”
