Page 104 of The Gods Forbid

And then Rose started laughing. She bent over at the stomach, giggling uncontrollably.

“Sweetheart,” Dominic warned, reaching over to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.

Then Daphne started laughing too, and then Reyna joined in. The three of them were exchanging looks that I wouldn’t even begin to decipher if I had all the time in the world.

Not when I was telling myself that it would be a very bad idea to follow Persy outside. If I did, I was going to maul her. Pick her up and kiss the living daylights out of her until the storm in my chest calmed down.

Something needed to be done about the silence at the table, because Rose, Daphne, and Reyna’s giggles were dying down. I couldn’t even give Persy’s words enough attention, lest I risk exploding, but the fact that she defended me gave me the kick in the ass I needed to look at Adrian and say, “If I have not apologized yet, I am now. I am sorry for the harm I have caused you,” I looked to Reyna, “And you.” Addressing the whole table, I continued, “We may all be adults now, but we were children once. I understand that it may take time to believe that I have no intention of restarting this,” I said, shoving the sleeves of shirt up to reveal my forearms. “But, I hope that we might all get back to the friendship we had growing up. Now,” I said, my body finally deciding it needed to be within inches of Persy, immediately, “If you’ll excuse me.”

Throwing my napkin down on the table and ignoring the gaping stares, I walked out the back door in pursuit of Persy. I found her immediately, standing on the banks of the bay that Dominic and Rose’s home backed up to.

She had her arms crossed over her chest, staring out over the water. She didn’t show any sign of hearing me approach.

“Love…” I said, trying to carefully grab her attention away from her own thoughts.

Persy whipped around, giving me a small, devastating smile. “I’m sorry for yelling, okay?”

Before I knew what I was doing, I stepped in front of her, tucking a stray hair behind her ear. “If I’m going to accept an apology from you, it’s going to be for defending me.”

Persy’s lips fell open in a gasp, her eyes going wide with shock. “You want me to say sorry for that?”

I nodded, attempting to force my hand away from her face. “I don’t deserve it.”

“Ugh!” she said, twisting away from my touch. “Yes you do! How many times do I have to tell you that you deserve kindness and forgiveness before you get it through your thick head!”

I couldn’t tell her that the frustrated blush on her cheeks only made her eyes glow brighter. That would surely not do me any favors, but it was tempting. “You may have gotten me to believe that much, love. But I was referring to defending me in front of friends I betrayed. They have a right to take it out on me.”

Persy shook her head resolutely. “No. They may have a right to tease you about it when the time comes, but Adrian was being intentionally combative.”

Persy crossed her arms over her chest, curling in slightly on herself as if her heart was beating too fast for her body to contain. I was standing mere inches away from her before I could stop myself, our chests all but pressing together. My hand lifted on its own accord, hovering over her neck. “When was the last time you yelled at someone?”

“You, about ten seconds ago,” Persy said, looking down at my hand for a few, heavy seconds then up to meet my eyes.

I chuckled lightly. “Fair enough. Though an entire table is quite new for you.”

“What do you want me to say?” she asked, smiling bashfully. That grin was dangerous, enough to make my filter weaken and words better kept inside went spilling out. “You just bring it out of me.”

“That is not the way I would have preferred to make you scream.”

Persy’s eyes blew wide in shock, her mouth opening on a gasp. I felt like launching myself into the bay in hopes a spirit would drown me. I had no right to say that to her, no matter the truth of that statement.

“Forget, um,” I stumbled over my words, a true feat for the god of poetry. “Forget I said that.”

Persy breathed in, and I tried not to focus on the way her breasts pressed against the line of her shirt. “Why?”

“Love, that was a joke too far,” I said, trying to dig myself out of the whole I jumped in. “You’d do well to forget it.” I needed to forget it before my mind got confused and I tried to make that image a reality.

➸

Persy

For a moment there, I forgot about my asshat brother and the pain in my chest, because I thought Sebastian was finally admitting that he shared a bit of what I was feeling.

My silly, hopeful heart had burst, sending all the heat and blood it hoarded down to my stomach when Sebastian had said he wanted to make me scream. But, of course, it was nothing more than a joke. A light tease fit for his personality instead of a promise for me.

“I do have a sense of humor, Sebastian,” I said, deciding that it was fine to let myself stand this close to him. “You can make jokes like that. It won’t scare me.”

I would actually probably collect them, but I was trying to keep it together.