Page 82 of The Gods Forbid

When she didn’t respond, I moved my hands up to her face, carefully tracing the perimeter. I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that she leaned ever so slightly into my touch or if it was because I was a selfish bastard to my core, but before I knew it, my hands were cradling the back of her head and stinging from the feeling of her hair slipping over my skin.

I used my thumb to nudge her chin up, making her look at me. It was only then that Persy nodded, though it was really just a small dip of her chin. “Okay.”

“How are you—” The rest of my sentence was lost in my throat, because Persy was touching me.

She’d wrapped her hands around my wrists, her fingertips pressing down on either side of the tendon running down the middle of my forearm.

And it was burning. Fuck, was it burning. Hotter than the sun.

I clamped down on the desire to move and focused back on what was important. This was just the start of a long practice in self-restraint around her. I couldn’t stop how violently her touch affected me, but I could control whether or not she knew it.

I swallowed roughly, clearing my throat. Persy’s eyes moved back down, tracking the movement. “Are you okay?”

The only reason I felt Persy shake her head no was because I was still holding her. Shit, I didn’t think I’d ever seen her like this. Completely out of her body.

My thumb made a pass over her cheek before I could stop it. “A bath will make you feel better.”

Persy’s eyelashes fluttered, her eyebrows pinching together. Whether or not she was actually in pain didn’t matter. My chest was already cracking open at that expression.

“Tell me how to help.” It was a rough command, the words scraping my throat.

Persy shook her head again, harder this time, her cheeks pressing into my palms. “I’m just…” she breathed in, the crease between her brows growing deeper. You have no right to smooth that line, I had to forcefully remind myself. “Tired,” she finished on a heavy exhale.

“Alright.” She didn’t need to explain further. It didn’t take a genius to know that she was shouldering heavy responsibility and was still figuring out how and when to ask for help.

Fucking hell, therapy was rubbing off on me.

I lifted one of my hands off the face of the little devil who’d come up with that brand of torture and leaned close to feel the water temperature. Warm, but not hot.

Flicking off the water then dragging my hand down my face, I rocked back on my heels to stand. “The water’s warm, love. Take a bath. I can make you food.”

I never made it past a low crouch. Persy’s hands tightened on my wrists, holding me in place.

She didn’t think … she couldn’t want me to— “Persephone…”

Her answer broke off in her throat on a whimper. Shit.

“You shouldn’t ask me to stay,” I said, feeling my hand tighten around the back of her head as I spoke.

“Please.” The word was so small whatever was left of my heart snapped in half. “I can’t—”

She cut herself off, but if she hadn’t, I would have stopped her myself. Against my better judgment, I couldn’t bear to see her in pain like that.

“Fine,” I half cursed. This would be a fucking mess, but I had the distinct feeling I’d do anything she asked if it brought the life back into her eyes. “I’m gonna lift you up,” I told her as I stood into a half-crouch so that I could lift her into the tub.

She held on tight as I did, even though I’d walk myself right into Tartarus before I ever dropped her. She just didn’t know it.

I spent several minutes trying to figure out a way to get her clean with her clothes on. I would lose my goddamn mind if I was in the same room as her while she was naked. It was bad enough knowing she was on the other side of a wall, changing in her closet or undressing to shower.

Fuck.

The reminder of that fact just made this situation so much more wrong. I was the villain in her world and she’d placed her trust in my hands.

Those very hands moved up to the handle of the shower head. The second the spray moved over the bottom of Persy’s skirt and the wet fabric plastered onto her legs, she shrunk away with a low, “Stop.”

I froze.

And then I was freezing for an entirely different reason, because Persy was taking off her clothes.