The expression on his face let me know he was debating what to do next.
A few seconds passed before he said, “I would prefer to keep these on, I wouldn’t want to scare you with the sheer monstrosity of my… what did you call it?Basic anatomy.”
I snorted. “Is that a 40,000-year-old book about the rise and fall of the Tinathian King in your trousers, or are you just happy to see me?”
He bellowed with laughter, sinking against the bookcase. Tears pricked my eyes, and he rubbed at his cheeks, still chuckling.
“My face hurts from laughing so much,” he gasped, “but we should be going to bed.”
I glanced at him, a smile still tugging at my lips, unwilling to let the moment fade.
“Goodnight, God of Wisdom,” I said softly.
“Goodnight, wordsmith,” he said with a smirk.
I waited for him to move and leave the room because he was closest to the door, but he stayed right where he was.
“I need you to leave first, Mae. I am going to need a few minutes to… calm down… before I can go anywhere,” he supplied.
It took everything in me not to look down at where I assumed his hard cock was straining against his trousersand dramatically rolled my eyes in ecstasy.
With one last glance back, I left the room and closed the door behind me.
I could hear him releasing a long breath.
“This is going to be torture.”
And I had to agree with him on that.
* * *
In the days following our heated exchange, things seemed to have calmed down on the mortal continent. There were no new reports of the Heralds appearing in the larger cities and there was still no sign of Ignara. It was a deceptive silence, almost too good to be true, but there was nothing we could do. Lydia had left for the capital, so I had to make up my own training schedule. All the sexual tension I had felt ever since that night at Theo’s office was still making me ache. The best way to get it out of my system was to push myself to my bodily limits.
I went jogging twice a day now and lifted heavy weights in our gym in the attic of the Lodge. Lydia had installed a punching bag and when the thoughts of Theo taking off his shirt for me got too much, I put on my boxing gloves and started hitting the bag like there was no tomorrow. A few times I happened to run into Theo, either on one of my runs in the woods or in the gym. I suspected that he too was looking for ways to distract his body and mind.
It was Caelan who noticed the change in our routines.
“Did something happen that I’m not aware of?” he asked one morning over breakfast, eyeing the two of us as Theo and I returned from yet another pair of grueling trainingsessions.
“What do you mean?” Theo asked.
Caelan hummed thoughtfully, then leaned back in his chair.
“Well,” he said, pursing his lips, “Ignara, he nodded at me, “have been going on an impressive number of runs lately. And you,” he added, pointing at Theo with his fork, “have developed what I can only describe as an emotionally committed relationship with the weights.”
I snorted, rolling my eyes. “I see nothing wrong with that.”
“Of course you don’t,” Caelan said mildly. “I just thought it curious that neither of you seems capable of sitting still anymore. Or,” he added, eyes flicking between us, “standing too close to each other.”
“We had a rather unpleasant encounter with a goddess,” I said smoothly. “Speaking only for myself, I don’t ever want to feel that helpless again. So forgive me for trying to get into shape before the next immortal tries to murder me.”
Caelan studied me for a long moment, then nodded. “Ah,” he said. “Trauma-driven fitness. Very healthy. Very inconspicuous.”
That smug bastard.
“What’s on the agenda for today?” Auretheos asked, popping a generous piece of bacon into his mouth and licking his fingers afterward.
My own mouth watered—and it had very little to do with breakfast.
