Page 118 of The Gods Forbid

I could see Persy nod her head out of my peripheral vision, nothing more than a nervous little shake. I let my thumbs trace her fingers, finding every little dip and curve until her hand was practically vibrating in mine.

It was only then, when she let out a particularly pained breath, that I turned my head to her.

She was looking at me with wide, wild eyes, her breaths fighting their way past quivering lips. My gaze snagged on the plump, soft skin of them, unable to tear my eyes away.

I forced my eyes back to hers, finding them bouncing around my face … almost in confusion. Like she didn’t fully understand what was happening.

Well, shit, that made two of us.

After a moment, though, her eyes fluttered closed, her eyebrows pulling together in pain. It was that look, just the little pinch of her skin between her brows that made me remember who I was to her.

What this was.

And I had no right to touch her. No right to even think about kissing her or doing anything with the painful urge to run my hands over every inch of her skin.

So, I did the right thing—for once. I pulled away.

I let go of her hand and stood, leaving her heaving and alone on that piano bench, fleeing from her light.

“I left the door open on purpose.” Her voice stopped me in my tracks, my feet cementing themselves to the floor.

Everything in me was screaming at me to go back to her, to finally abandon my promise not to cross this line. The memory of what happened today stopped me.

I was the one with the fucked up family, who’d been seconds away from killing her brother, and had been haunted by her for years. She might be attracted to me, and I was pretty sure she was, but that didn’t change the fact that this could never happen.

Even though my body hated me, I turned to her, finding her cheeks still flushed. “Thank you for showing me this,” I said, my voice painful as it scraped its way out of my throat. “Hearing you play is a greater honor than you know.”

I made myself ignore Persy’s shocked gasp and left, knowing what I had to do next.

Chapter 25

Persy

We were both ignoring what had happened.

Things were painfully normal between me and Sebastian. There wasn’t a single shift in our routine, apart from the fact that I stopped closing the door when I snuck off to the studio. One day, he’d even come with me, painting something on the other side of the wall while I played.

But nothing had changed. I couldn’t let it change, not when we’d just crossed the line into the last month of his time in Prometheus and I would hate myself if I fucked it up now.

In my darkest moments, I imagined Sebastian felt the same as I did. That he was also hanging onto the moments where it felt like I would be perfectly content if the world burned down around us, if only we were together.

But those were dark, selfish moments that had no basis in reality. Not when I still had responsibilities.

Not when this felt more dangerous than a passing crush.

That was why I forced myself to look at Sebastian and say, “I need to ask you a few questions.”

He was sitting at the kitchen counter, resting in the chair I never used. He looked up slowly from the book he was reading and said, “Of course.”

I nodded past the knot in my throat. It was a good thing I was busying myself in the kitchen making an afternoon cup of tea, or I’d never be able to handle this conversation. As strong as I was, as many uncomfortable situations I dealt with on a daily basis, there was something about this that made me deeply, deeply nervous.

“Do you have an idea of who you’ll instate as heirs?” I asked, needing to get through the worst part of it first.

Sebastian slowly closed his book, leaning back into the stool with his arms crossed. “What makes you think I haven’t chosen already?”

“Have you?”

“No.”