Perhaps she could keep this sinful man all to herself, locked in the caverns of her bedroom for all eternity. It certainly didn’t seem like a terrible idea, and she surmised he would not object to such imprisonment.
Stay with me.
She wanted to say the words, but they were on the tip of her tongue, soon dissolved into thin air when the startlingly loud ringtone from her cell phone made her blood chill. Her entire body stiffened, and she half wanted to leave it go, to let it go to her voicemail, but the dutiful, responsible part of her knew she should not let such things go.
It wasn’t likehecalled her often, if at all.
“I’m sorry, I have to get this,” she said with remorse.
Brian nipped at her lips once more, nodding his head.
“I understand. I’ll be here when you get back.” His words were like a promise she hadn’t known she wished for.
Athena vacated the bed, grabbing her phone from the nightstand as she padded down the hallway toward the kitchen. The cool air of her home chilled her naked skin, causing goosebumps to form.
When she was certain she was alone, she answered, her voice the epitome of calm and unaffected.
“Hello, Father, long time no talk.”
CHAPTER6
“Athena,it’s good to hear your voice.” Her father’s voice was full of life, as if they talked often and with sweetness, not as if she hadn’t heard it in practically centuries.
She’d never really paid attention to the years that droned past after Zeus left Olympus. After all, she herself hadn’t been back in ages. It just wasn’t the same anymore.
Instead, she’d left the kingdom of luxury in the sky and put roots down on Earth, trying to find a semblance of wholeness again after she’d been long forgotten as well. The fact she hadn’t heard from her father or her brother since had no effect on her, or so she told herself.
After all, Zeus pretty much invented the concept of family drama...
“Uh huh,” she breathed, wanting nothing more than to get off the phone and back to the man waiting for her in her bedroom.
“I will not bore you with small talk, as I can tell you are in a mood.”
“I am most certainlynotin a mood,” Athena said, her temperature rising. How dare he call her and start arguing barely ten seconds in...
True to his selfish habits, Zeus careened over her words without a care.
“Your brother is in trouble, baby bird,” he said calmly. Too calmly, for her liking.
The man she remembered as her father was a tad bit more... animated. And usually his blood pressure rose along with his voice when he mentioned his son.
Athena sucked in a breath, cursing underneath it.
She’d often wondered what had become of her brother, Mars.
Had he mellowed out over the years?
Gone to find himself in the hills of the farthest reaches in the universe?
Perhaps he was taking an extended underworld vacation for a few centuries...
Though the last would have been highly unlikely; after all, Orion would have informed her if he’d heardanythingabout her brother who did not want to be found.
She stuffed the memories of her ex in the same place she buried the memories of her family, in a dark place where she longed to forget them.
And quite frankly, she was loathe to find Mars as it was. Her father had always said they were too much alike, she and her brother; both gladiators and children of war.
Something that should have bonded them in spirit, but only seemed to bring out the worst in one another.
