Bo’s eyes drifted down the hallway as if hearing my thoughts and narrowed slightly.
“What’s in there?” he asked cautiously, jerking his chin toward the closed door.
“None of your business,” I replied automatically, even as a tired smile tugged at my mouth at the sound of his annoyed huff. So, to make it up to him, I ordered yet another pizza, knowing that after the day we just had, it was more like therapy at this point.
We ate straight from the box, legs stretched out, ice cream containers sweating onto coasters I had no care to move. The sheer normalcy of it all made my head spin, as if my brain was still struggling to catch up with my body.
But stranger still was the comfort I found in not being alone. Bo’s presence seemed to settle within me, like I was getting used to him. Of course, I knew he didn’t belong here, and that was still a problem. One I knew I would have to face on my own, as there was no way I was putting him at the mercy of that man.
That terrifying, masterful being that I knew had the power to destroy me without even laying a hand on me. But of course,he had touched me, hadn’t he? A devastatingly soft caress of my cheek that still, hours later, had my stomach in knots.
I couldn’t stop thinking about him, and not in the way that I should. Not in the way that told me he could kill me, but instead in the way that…
Ignited me.
My mind was in a torrent of turbulent thoughts, and it was enough to make me jump when my phone buzzed. I answered without looking, my sister’s voice instantly cutting through the haze. The conversation shared was between mouthfuls of melting ice cream as I reassured her that I was fine, and I promised I’d explain everything properly soon. Not tonight. Tonight, I was too tired to unpack any of it.
So, when I finally stood and stretched, a heavy weariness settled into my bones.
“I’m going to bed,” I announced.
“Good, I’m exhausted.” Bo yawned.
He started down the hall after me, and I stopped abruptly, blocking the doorway to my room with my body.
“Absolutely not.”
He peered past me, eyes widening.
“Are those frogs?”
I shoved the door shut and pointed firmly back toward the living room.
“Couch,” I ordered, making him scowl.
“Terrible hospitality,” he grumbled, making me fold my arms and look down at him like I was scolding a child.
“I don’t see you paying for the pizza,” I shot back, earning a muttered curse as he shuffled away.
I lingered in the hallway for a moment longer, my hand resting against the door, my thoughts circling back to the club and to the man I’d left behind.
To the way he’d looked at me, the way he’d said that name as if it belonged to me.
“Bo,” I called softly.
“Yeah?”
I hesitated, then asked the question that had been gnawing at me since the moment he’d spoken it.
“What does Inanna mean?”
There was a brief pause before he answered, his tone different now, more serious. As if he himself couldn’t understand why the lord had called me that either. Because, despite Bo being physically absent throughout all that had happened in the club, it didn’t mean he had missed it all. But instead of asking him how he knew, I waited with bated breath for another answer.
“It’s Sumerian,” he finally said, and before I could press him on its meaning once more, he shocked me to my core when he told me…
“It means Goddess of Beauty.”
11
