I eventually looked at him. “Love?” I asked.
“And desire,” he told me proudly.
Grayson stood close by, looking at me curiously. When he turned to look at his brother, his expression was furious.
“I’m sorry for what happened,” Erik said to me gently, sounding like he actually cared. “You shouldn’t let it stop you from opening your heart. You have a lot of love to give, Quentin.”
Blinking a few times, I let the uncomfortable feeling settle over me. I felt violated. This God had just witnessed many of my personal memories. Memories that I kept under lock and key and buried into the furthest recesses of my mind. Memories I hoped would one day become vague fragments and threads that would stop tripping me up with the smallest trigger.
I went to open my mouth, but Grayson stepped towards Erik, grabbed him by the arm and marched him back to the table where Hunter sat with two women.
“Scott, are you okay?” Matt asked, making his way towards me.
I looked at him for a moment before I said, “You know what, I need to go.”
“Why?” He looked over to the table that Grayson and Erik had joined. “What happened? I’ll come with you.”
“No!” I said and then cleared my throat and regained composure. “No. Stay and enjoy yourself.” I forced a smile. “Keep an eye on Grayson. I just want an early night.”
With that, I weaved my way out of the bar and took the long walk home.
Saturday morning, I sat up in bed with an uncomfortable knot in the centre of my chest. It’d been there ever since Erik took my hand and I assumed that an early night would ease it, but apparently, I’d been wrong. Considering rest hadn’t been the key, I decided that the next option was to knock it out of me at the gym.
When I walked into the kitchen thirty minutes later, Grayson was already at the table, lazily stirring some sugar into his black coffee. He looked at me as I entered the room and raised an eyebrow.
“Where are you going dressed like that?” he asked, eyes roaming down my body and taking in my outfit.
My vividly coloured leggings were a little tight around my thighs and I’d thrown on a black tank top to disguise the little extra weight around my middle. But his gaze made me heat right through to my core.
As I finished braiding my hair, securing it with a hair tie, I plucked an apple from the fruit bowl and shrugged. “Gym. I guess you can come along, if you want.”
It was half-hearted at best and more to do with obligation to work rather than a desire to spend time with the arrogant deity.
“Where to?” Matt asked, walking into the kitchen.
I suppressed a sigh. He was undeserving of my short temper.
For two years I’d lived alone and enjoyed the solitary peace. Living with people again felt unnatural, and even more so, when I considered one of those people was Matt.
“Gym,” I answered him shortly, unable to curb the irritation entirely.
Matt stretched, t-shirt rising to give a flash of his toned stomach as he nodded. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll join you.”
“Well,” Grayson said, putting his empty mug on the table. “I have nothing better to do so I guess I could grace you with my presence.”
I rolled my eyes at the comment. “Hurry up. Both of you.”
Waiting outside the house, I leaned against the bonnet of my car and scrolled aimlessly through Instagram until I heard the front door open. When I looked up, I realised that asking Grayson to join me at the gym may have been a mistake.
So far, I’d only encountered Grayson in shirts and trousers and had struggled to keep my thoughts PG rated. Then he’d stripped his shirt off in the lab, and I despised my sleep cycle for bringing his perfectly tanned and toned body into my dreams.
Seeing him in casual clothing stirred something in me that I couldn’t bat away so easily. In the vest he’d chosen, I could appreciate his muscular arms that led up to broad shoulders. Shorts showed off strong calves, covered in dark hair that travelled up to powerful thighs. A baseball cap covered his hair, placed backwards on the crown of his head. For someone who hated mortals, he’d done well to blend in. Grayson looked every part the gym goer, with bronzed skin and taut muscles. I had to shake myself to stop staring.
By the time he reached me, the smirk on his face alerted me to the fact he’d read every single one of my thoughts.
“Don’t worry, Scott,” Grayson said, stopping in front of me. “You can work out all that frustration at the gym.”
Grayson wouldn’t give me an inch of space as I huffed and pushed myself away from the car. There must have been a foot difference in height, but any time he crowded my space this way, I felt like I’d shrunk.
