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I turn to look up at Atlas and poke him in the chest. "You'd better mean it, when you say you're keeping me," I say fiercely.
He can't offer me a family and take it away. I won't survive that.
"My brother never says anything he doesn't mean." Zeus doesn't add that's what has him worried, but it's in his tone.
I'm worried about this thing between Atlas and me too. It's fast and incredibly intense. There's the whole what-happens-when-I-don't-get-pregnant thing too.
If he dumps me, I will hunt him down and shoot him in the knee. Too bad for him, my father taught me to shoot when I was ten, right alongside my brother, who was only eight at the time.
I take Atlas's hand and tug. "You said you'd show me around this place."
"It will have to wait," Zeus says. "Gina made dinner and it's ready now."
"Who is Gina?" I ask Atlas as he starts walking down a hallway off the left of the foyer.
"Our housekeeper."
"She has to clean this placeandcook for you all? When does she sleep?" I ask, "I'm pretty sure there are labor laws against hours like those."
Atlas smiles and shakes his head. "She has two people working for her."
I look down the long hallways with several doors off of it. "Not sure that's enough. Especially if they're picking up after you all and not just doing the deep cleaning."
"You're inordinately interested in our domestic staff arrangements," Orion says. "Did you do work as a maid?"
"I was married. Same difference." I had a service that came in weekly to do the deep cleaning, but I did all the cooking for the Revello family. "It was a traditional household."
"Where is your ex-husband?" Zeus asks, his tone dark.
"That's the first question Atlas asked too."
"And your answer was?"
"In a cemetery."
Zeus nods, like that's good.
I roll my eyes this time. "You do know that the customary response to learning someone is a widow is to say you are sorry for her loss, not look like you're pleased by the death of another human being."
"Was it a loss?" Orion asks way too perceptively.
"I loved my husband." It's the truth, if not all of it.
"Do you love Atlas?"
Chapter 20
LUCIA
I ignore Orion's question as we walk into the dining room.
Not merely because it is ridiculously intrusive, but also because I don't know the answer. I mean, I think Idoknow the answer, but my brain rebels against me feeling something so deep for Atlas after a matter of days. It's not possible. Love builds over time.
At least that's how it was between me and Tino. We always knew we were going to get married, and I knew him as well as I knew my own family. It was natural to love him. Tino was a charismatic, smooth guy.
Atlas is not smooth. The more time we spend together, the more I realize he is more caveman than charisma. I guess I like cavemen, because I'm falling into the deep end of my emotions.
The sound of chairs scraping across the dark hardwood floor brings my attention back to where I am. The dining room is huge, with a table that would easily seat twenty.
