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“I’ve tried my best all week not to think about your slow hand, thank you, my Heart. You’re not making it easy for me to be magnanimous about your integrity.”
“My integrity is for you, Little Red,” he said, pulling her close to rest his mouth on her hairline. “I have a reason. Hit me when I was out there, when I’m sick of it and ready to jack the lot in… I have something to do it all for. You’re the something I want to keep safe. Now I train to be ready when you need me… You’re what it’s all for.”
The idea that she was so important to him seemed to thrill him. Tess wasn’t so ecstatic. Raising her chin to look into his eyes, her expression of doubt didn’t match his of satisfaction.
“You have to do it for you,” she said. “Or else you’ll blame me for missing the life we could’ve had together… or you’ll get yourself killed.”
He frowned, but before he could respond to her, his brow twitched, and his eyes moved. Like he heard something she didn’t. He took a step away and turned just as Harry appeared around the fireplace.
“Ares.”
“Sir,” Daire said, no trace of the playful, aroused man who’d just been touching her.
“You’re supposed to be hydrating.”
“Sir,” Daire said and started to go the way the other men had.
“No,” Harry said, stalling his ward. “No time for that now. Something’s happening, you’re needed at the top.”
Daire went after Harry when he returned in the direction he’d come. Tess had known something was going on. Garrick had said it. But it wasn’t Olympus business that put a frown on her face. Tess had told Daire not to choose; she’d made the choice so he didn’t have to.
They couldn’t be together. No matter what. Not just because the country needed his expertise. Not because she trusted him more than anyone else on earth to keep the population safe. And not because his skill and dedication would save lives.
Tess couldn’t distract him. As long as he hoped they could be together or that she’d be there for him, his head wasn’t where it needed to be. They couldn’t be together because Tess would never forgive herself if she was the reason he wasn’t concentrating at a crucial moment.
Daire needed to keep strangers safe. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them. Tess’s only concern was him. Her job was to keep him safe, and that meant ensuring his head was in the game and nowhere near her panties… or her heart.
THIRTY-NINE
DINNER WENT BY IN ALMOST silence. Garrick, Harry, and Daire were so lost in their own thoughts that their scowls became contagious. The men who’d been in such high spirits on their return from their afternoon desert run were stoic and mute.
Everyone ate and afterward, as usual, everyone went to complete their tasks as assigned on a schedule she’d never seen. Harry, Garrick, and Daire went out to sit on the patio. Instead of sitting around waiting to see if something would change or someone would explain the somber mood, Tess left the table.
She should go upstairs to her room. If she was playing by usual rules, she should retire for the evening and read something in the tub. If Tess was the dutiful team player, that was what she’d do. Except she wasn’t being treated as an equal to everyone else in the building.
Daire was the first to notice her step onto the patio. Tess didn’t plan to put him in the awkward position of having to silence whatever was being said and kept her distance.
“I need a minute, Harry.”
He didn’t even bother to turn around. “Later. We’re busy.”
“Not later,” she asserted. “Now.”
It was unlikely anyone expected her to be so forceful with the man who made so many of the rules. He twisted in his seat to look at her for just a second before standing up. Tess went back into the house to head across the dining area. Although the doorway was glass and one wall a full height fish tank, she went into the wine cellar and waited for him. After he was inside, she closed the door.
“Tess, you can’t—”
“My mother chose her life,” she said. “She chose to love you. Chose to have me. Chose to agree to the accord that allowed her and me to leave Olympus. She chose to write to you. Chose to keep your letters.”
“How do you know—”
“I’m not a child, Harry. Yes, everyone keeps telling me I’m your daughter, but blood isn’t enough.” Some of his obvious anger ebbed to confusion. “You can’t issue orders, tell me to sit and stay like a good little soldier, because I am not one of your soldiers.” She stepped closer. “You know nothing about me. Nothing other than we share blood. That’s enough for you, it’s not enough for me.”
“Tess,” he said. On an exhale, he rubbed his forehead. “This is not the time for petulance.”
“Is that what it is? I told you that if I didn’t get a say, I would leave. Remember that conversation?”
“You’re safe here. We’re keeping you safe.”
