Eros takes my hand and pulls me to the bed. The arrow he was holding is gone now, and I’d ask him where it went if he wasn’tdragging my eyes to look into his. His thumb presses into my chin.
“Because you’re mine.”
“W-what?
“You’re mine, Theo. You’ve always been mine, and there was no need for one of my arrows to bring us together. Destiny did it for us.”
I gape at him, attempting to process what he’s saying. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t move, and laughter explodes from my lips a moment later. Eros doesn’t laugh, but I can’t stop myself. It rolls out of me, one wave after the other. My stomach hurts and my eyes are watering by the time I finally stop, but still Eros hasn’t joined in.
I swallow and wipe my eyes, pinching my arm a moment later. Eros swats my hand away to stop me.
“Theo, what are you doing?”
“I had to check if this was a dream.”
“You’re not dreaming.”
The man—or should I say god—seated before me takes my face in his hands, and grips my cheeks.
“Theo,” he exhales, and presses his forehead to mine. “None of this is a joke. Please, take a moment and look into your heart. You know what I’m saying is true, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”
“Eros,” I mutter, but I don’t pull away.
“Please,” one of his hands drops from my cheek, and he lays it over my heart. It thumps under his palm, and I close my eyes, breathing in his scent.
I think again about what brought me here. I’ve never been to this hotel before, yet I ended up here and I just happened to share a booth with him at the bar. I think of how easy he was to talk to, how my heart should have felt broken after Ricky, but didn’t. How saying yes to spending the night with him felteffortless, and trusting him felt like second nature. Eros has done things to my body I would have never let a stranger do before. I let him use me, and he let me use him.
My heart pounds in my ears, and the butterflies that have been there since the moment we met flutter like frantic hummingbird wings in my stomach, each beat pulling me closer to him—like our bodies already remember how perfectly they fit together.
Eros strokes his thumb against my cheek in slow and loving strokes. I exhale and open my eyes, pulling back so I can see him.
He looks frightened, no longer the self-assured, confident god from before—just a man afraid of what I’ll say next. The sight hits me in the gut, and all I want is to take that fear away. But to be fair, this is not something I was expecting to happen tonight. And I can’t forget this man is not really a man at all. He’s telling me he’s a god. A god I thought was a myth.
“This is a lot for me to take in,” I speak honestly.
“I understand. It is for me as well.”
I cock my head to the side in question. “What do you mean?”
He brushes my cheek with this thumb once more, before holding both my hands in his. I should probably pull away to have this conversation, but his touch is grounding, and the idea of pulling away makes me feel ill. A thought that should be concerning, but I can’t find it in me to care.
“I’ve been around for a long time, Theo.”
“How long?” The question is ridiculous, but I need to know.
“Does it matter?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But I’m asking you, so please tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Eros…”
He squeezes my hands almost desperately. “I don’t know, because my age transcends time. I’m a god, I’ve been aroundsince the dawn of creation, therefore I can’t give you an age. But I’m old, Theo. Older than even I can comprehend.”
“And you’re asking me to believe that in all that time, you’ve never found a lover, or whatever I am.”
Eros stares down at our joined hands before his eyes return to mine, looking anguished.
