Desperate Housewives of Olympus (28 page)

“Oh, no. We’re grateful. We’re beyond grateful. Thank you, Thalia.” When Hades didn’t say anything she elbowed him. “Aren’t you thankful?”

He still looked like a kid whose mom had asked if he had anything he needed to tell her and his brain was filing through the catalogue of fuck ups and he was deciding what to tell her that would get him in the least trouble if it wasn’t the thing she already knew about.

He snapped out of it. “Very thankful.”

“Yeah, you better be. You and your brother have been the biggest pain in my ass since I took the job. I’m glad to be done with you. Him, I don’t know if I’ll ever get there.”

“I guess the job is pretty stressful. You never used to speak so harshly.”

“Trying to manage spoiled petulant gods will do that to you. Nothing tarnishes a muse faster than being smacked with the banality dick.”

Hera giggled. “Sorry. I wasn’t difficult was I?”

“Oh no, you even asked for my help, which I was happy to provide. Listen, let’s do lunch later this…century, probably is when I’ll be free. But I have to run.”

“Great. Maybe you’ll stop in to Jean Pierre’s. It sounds like you need a girl’s day.”

Thalia sighed, “I do.” Then she looked at Hera again. “Sorry about the whole, well, naked.”

“It’s good. Really. Nothing could spoil this.”

“Are you sure?” She raised a brow. “Sorry again. The nature of Fate again.”

“See! I knew I shouldn’t…” Looks from both women quelled him and he closed his mouth.

Thalia disappeared.

“I’m still not saying it.”

“You don’t have to.”

“I don’t want you to say it.”

“What?”

“It was weak of me to want to hear it, it’s better than ambrosia on your lips. But don’t say it.”

“Fine. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. I don’t love you. What about that? Can I say that?”

“I don’t love you either, Hera. Not until the universe itself goes dark and quiet. Forever.”

Who knew saying I don’t love you could be so romantic?

“Forever,” she echoed.

He was quiet again before he asked, “Stay?”

“Yes.”

“For always?”

“Always.”

“You don’t need any time to yourself to find out who you are?”

“Have you been reading my Cosmo?” She looked up at him.

“Maybe.”

“Do you want me to take time away?” After all they’d been through, did he really want her to go gallivanting off on some quest to find herself when what she wanted was right here?

“Never.” His reply was fierce and strong. “I don’t want you to feel trapped or…I don’t want to be the rebound.”

“Oh please. Zeus and I may have just gotten divorced, but our marriage has been dead for centuries. I know who I am. I know what I want and it’s ‘not loving’ you and being with you for all eternity.”

“Do you want a proper wedding?” Hades asked softly.

“You didn’t ask me to be your wife,” she teased.

Oh gods! Did she want the wedding? Hera was getting her happily ever after and suddenly, she was afraid if she closed her hands around it, she’d fuck it up. She hadn’t planned on what to do after I love you. Or don’t love you, as the case happened to be.

“And I don’t have to either. You already said you were mine. Mine involves…” he paused as if he didn’t have a good explanation. “Being mine. You can choose the flowers and the cake, but we’re doing this.”

She’d rather he’d pressed the anal sex issue than demand a wedding. Her mother had taken a century to plan her wedding to Zeus. A CENTURY. Why couldn’t they just keep being together the way they were? Shit, if she kept thinking this way, she was going to have to turn in her Chick Card.

“How about something small?” she conceded.

“How about not? Don’t you want to be the princess and do the carriage and whatever else females like to have at these things?”

She couldn’t believe he was serious. “There’s no point in having the whole shebang unless it’s a coronation ceremony too.”

“Whatever you want, Hera.”
Damn. She’d thought that would put him off. It didn’t matter, Hera realized. Hades was her forever and she’d deny him nothing. If he wanted her to be a fairy princess in a white dress on their wedding day, she would be. This didn’t matter. She didn’t need a ceremony to tell her where her heart lay.

“Okay, Hades. I’ll wear the dress and we’ll have a grand ball.”

“Make sure you give me enough time to prepare for war with my brother before you send your invitations. He won’t take this coronation thing lightly.”

He’d really go through with it. For her. Hera knew she couldn’t ask him to do that now. Not over something that didn’t matter so much to either of them. “I know you don’t want it and you don’t want to fight with him. What about if I quit my job and ‘stayed home’?” She smiled against his shoulder.

“Abdicate your crown? To who?”

“Abstinence.”

“You love being queen.” He pushed her hair behind her ear and continued to touch her hair.

“I think I’ve had enough of it, actually. I’ve been thinking on it since Abstinence told Zeus that a crown didn’t make him who he was. And she was right. I only want to be with you. That’s my job now.”

“Now and forever,” he reiterated as if he still couldn’t believe this had happened.

Hera couldn’t either, but she wasn’t going to question Fate.

ABSTINENCE

Her first instinct had proven to be the winning horse right out of the gate. She immediately regretted rescinding her demand that Zeus leave her in peace. He wasn’t even trying to make her fail and just looking at him was enough to make her yearn for things she knew could never be hers. He would never truly love her. He might think he did, but Zeus was too selfish to love anyone as deeply or completely as he loved himself. Making love with him without the returned emotion would definitely be indulging herself. It would be fucking, not making love.

Then she’d be back up shit creek with half a paddle and a hole in her boat. Or maybe just a capsized kayak? Either way, it would stink.

Right now, he seemed content to cook with her. Which was just weird. The King of the Gods was in her bare kitchen whipping up lasagna. When he’d asked to cook, she thought for sure he would try to make something in truffle oil, oysters or something else associated with sex. Lasagna pretty tame compared to what she was expecting. For which she was eternally thankful. Oysters made her want to blow chunks. She’d never had them prepared in any way that tasted like anything other than slimy vomit.

He was also humming
La Donna E Mobile
. Damn if that wasn’t sexy as hell watching his hands work the dough. Yeah, he even made his own noodles. That made her knees weak and her thighs quiver like nothing else. Worse? Her mouth was watering. She felt like a slobbering bulldog.

She didn’t know how well this boded for her previously
slender
figure. Abstinence had been eating like a pig. Well, it was piggery for her. Probably normal for everyone else. Zeus always loaded her plate up like it was for a starving family of seven so she could eat her fill and there would still be more than half left on the plate.

Abstinence wondered how long that could be considered abstaining and if she were cheating Fate. She knew no matter what she thought she was getting away with now, if she were cheating, it would come and take a big bite out of her ass sooner or later.

Truthfully, she hoped she was doing the right thing. Abstinence loved the taste of food, but she wouldn’t make herself ill for it. So far, there’d been no repercussions, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. Part of her said she should abstain from ingesting food completely, but he loved to cook and she loved to eat.

It was probably a good thing she’d gotten this gig or she’d be a million pounds and they’d have to roll her out of her house. Or cut out a wall. She licked her lips in anticipation as he dropped the noodles into the boiling pot. Her favorite part of the lasagna was actually the cheese. The more cheese the better. Actually, if there wasn’t enough cheese to stop an elephant’s heart, she didn’t want any. The same with pizza. She especially loved the hard, crusty bits of cheese that crisped on the edges. Yeah, that was nowhere near abstaining because she could eat that stuff with a steam shovel instead of a fork.

Zeus poured another glass of wine and handed this one to her. “So, have you thought any more about what I said?”

Not this again. “We’ve been over this before. Let’s not ruin a nice evening, okay? I like spending this time with you, but if you’re going to pressure me, I don’t think we can see each other,” Abstinence snapped. She knew it had been too good to be true, he would never leave it alone. For self-preservation, Abstinence was going to have to break her promise to him. Every time he asked her, she was a little bit closer to breaking. He almost had her convinced she wouldn’t die. He could sell a litter box to a dog.

“Abi, this isn’t about sex.”

“Everything with you is about sex.” She looked at him pointedly.

“I have stayed on my own side of the kitchen all night. Not to mention slaving like a dog over this meal for you.”

“If it’s not to be mentioned, why mention it?” She raised a brow.

“You argue more than Hera ever did. I don’t know why I’m even interested.” Zeus tested the noodles and finding them ready, laid them out in the pan.

“I don’t either.” Abstinence shrugged.

“I just want to fall asleep with you in my arms. Why does that make me the bad guy?” he asked in a sincere tone.

“Stop it!” she cried.

“Stop what?” He seemed genuinely confused.

“This. Acting like you care. That you want something more from me than what you’ve been told you can’t have.” Tears gathered in her eyes, but she’d be damned if she’d cry.

“Abi,” he said quietly and leaned across the island to tilt her face up to his. “I don’t want to hurt you. I want to be with you in whatever ways are allowed to us. I wouldn’t trade all of this for the momentary relief for my cock.”

“Why not? You wouldn’t have thought twice about doing it to Hera and you were married to her for eons. Me? I’m just a new piece of ass on the Lane.” Abstinence knew her words were harsh, but she had to either get through to him, or make him leave. “Don’t try to say you have feelings for me, because even if you do, this can never work between us. You have to eat and I won’t tolerate infidelity. Shitty of me, I know, when I can’t fill that need. But that’s just how I feel.”

“I don’t simply
have feelings
for you. I love you.”

“You’re cruel.” The tears slipped down her cheeks one at a time, even they were not to be indulged in.

He moved around the island and took her into his arms. “Don’t cry. Please don’t cry.”

She pushed him away. “Don’t touch me softly, or say these things to me. I almost believe you and we both know how this will end.”

“I won’t deny there are some challenges, Abi.”

“My name is
Merry
.”

“Merry,” he tested it on his tongue and smiled. “You know you love me too. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have tried to teach me those lessons.”

“You read too much into me doing my job.” She turned away from him, from his warmth and the promise of his embrace. It was all she could ever have and he was offering it to her for the taking. Such pretty lies and poison promises.

“I still felt your desire for me even when I was fat, selfish, and disgusting.”

“Because I desire your body doesn’t mean I want you as a man.” She hated how he brought her dirty secrets to light. Abstinence would rather he didn’t know these things, let alone speak of them.

“Good thing too, I’m a god. Not a man.”

“You’re a sex junkie.”

“I am,” he admitted as he stepped closer to her and ghosted his fingertips down the side of her cheek. “But I don’t want my hit from any other goddess.”

“And how long will that last, if I agree? A few pretty days and then I’ll cave, I’ll ask you to make love to me, because I’ll believe everything you say. But you won’t make love to me, you’ll fuck me and that will be end of both us and me.”

Zeus sagged against her with sorrow. “What do I have to do to earn your trust? Give me your gift, Abstinence. Not the one between your thighs, but the kiss of your power again on my brow.”

She spun to face him and found herself in his arms, just as she’d feared. They were so strong, so sure and the earnest need in his eyes made her want to believe anything he said to her. His wicked tongue painted pictures of her deepest desires and then told her they were within reach.

He descended as if he were going to kiss her, her eyes fluttered closed and Abstinence knew fear, but she couldn’t stop this now if she tried. But moments passed and the deadly brush of his mouth on hers never came. She opened her eyes and his lips were only the breath of a secret away from hers.

Electric lust shot through her and she twined her arms around his neck. His touch at her waist burned through her shirt and scalded her skin. His irises darkened as he sensed her lust and it fed him. The intimacy of the energy exchange was like dumping gasoline on an open flame.

“This is enough for me. I don’t need anything else but what’s in this space of breath between us. Do you feel it? Can you taste it, Merry?”

Hearing her name, her true name, from his lips was like a forbidden caress. Everything he said, everything he did, it was as if it had all been designed to make her lust. Perhaps it had been a survival tool given to the god at inception.

“This is what I need. Will you give it freely?” he asked her.

She could almost taste the wine on his lips and she wanted him to kiss her now more than she wanted anything else. Even her next breath. Abstinence thought of her sister and her children and the selfish part of her thought that maybe, just maybe, her sister had had enough of the bounty of the universe. Why should it always be Merry who sacrifices? She rose up on tiptoe to close that space, but Zeus retreated as far as she advanced. He held her still.

“No, I won’t let you do that. Not until you believe what I feel for you is real.”

“Why? I know you didn’t simply wake up a new god having learned your lesson.”