“I don’t know how that happened,” he apologized. “I am so sorry! Let me see it real quick.” He grabbed my hand and another shock went through me.
“Cut it out!” I laughed, my eyes watering a little. That one really hurt. It felt like what I imagined getting struck by lightning would, but on a smaller scale.
“Sorry . . .” Confused, he stared at his hand. “I didn’t shock you earlier when I touched you, did I?”
“No, but you were touching my clothes,” I said, thinking back. “It’s no big deal, really. You just have a shocking personality.” I raised my eyebrows, with a goofy smile.
Great. A pun. I was turning into him.
“Right,” he said slowly. He looked away from his hand and into my eyes, as if hunting for something there. Suddenly, he jumped up into the air, doing some weird split kick and pumping his fist.
“What are you doing?” I laughed nervously.
He broke out into the biggest grin I’d ever seen him wear and grabbed me, spinning around and pulling me into a bear hug.
“Nothing. I’m happy to be here, that’s all.”
“Zeus, I can’t breathe,” I choked out.
“Oh, sorry!” he said, releasing me immediately. “I’m sorry I shocked you too, I won’t do it again, promise.”
“Okay, weirdo,” I laughed. “Because you can actually control it!”
“Hey,” he said as we picked up the things I’d dropped, careful not to cut ourselves on the broken plate. “Do you want to go for a walk with me after the dishes are done?” He smiled, touching my hand softly as I reached for the plate in front of him.
“Sure.” I smiled, my heart seeming to flutter.
“What did you say to win my dad over? I’ve got to know. Every other guy he’s talked with has run for the hills.”
We were walking down the street, holding hands. A storm was blowing in, which was weird because the forecast had called for a clear weekend. Dark clouds gathered on the horizon, and a cold breeze whispered through the houses. I’d donned a light hoodie sweater, as had Zeus.
“I told him the truth. Every single shred of it—the good and the bad.” He smiled. “At first he was quite appalled. I thought he was going to send me packing for sure. But then I told him how strong you had been, how you’d made me want to change who I was. You make me a better person. He seemed to like that.”
“I bet you laid the charm on super thick too,” I laughed.
“Maybe,” he grinned. “Then he asked me about my job and how things work. He seemed really interested in stuff.”
“Well he likes you. That’s for sure.”
“Good, I’m glad,” he laughed again. “Thank you for inviting me. I’ve had a really great time.”
“I’m happy you came,” I said softly. We’d made our way back to the house, and I stopped in front of the door. “Zeus, I—“
“Hey you two!” Violet and her family were leaving and Ashley was on her way out behind them.
I swallowed what I’d been about to admit and hugged each of them as they exited, as did Zeus. The boys made plans for their next battle, making him promise to come play again. We waved goodbye with my parents as they all drove away, going inside as it started to sprinkle.
“I’m beat,” Dad announced. “I think Mom and I are going to head to bed. You two have a nice night.”
He must have really trusted Zeus if he wasn’t going to sit up and make sure we went into separate rooms like he did last night.
They headed off to their side of the house, and we walked down the hall to our rooms.
“I guess this is goodnight.” I smiled, turning to face him. I leaned one shoulder against the wall, still holding his hand.
“I guess it is,” he said, his eyes smoldering.
His other hand found my waist as he stepped closer, filling the gap between us and pulling me from the wall. I closed my eyes and relished the heat between us as his lips found mine. He kissed me slowly and softly, with enough force to melt my heart completely. I let go of his hand and wrapped my arms around his neck. With both hands on my hips now, he pulled me a little closer and deepened the kiss, exploring my mouth for a second longer.
He pulled away all too soon, an affection I couldn’t quite understand glowing in his eyes.
“Sleep well,” he murmured, reaching past me and opening my door for me.
“You too.” I smiled and walked backwards through the threshold. I didn’t take my eyes off him until the door was closed all the way.
I didn’t know how long I’d been asleep. The rain was tapping on my window, but that wasn’t what had woken me. I could hear voices outside my room. Who was up talking?
I rubbed my eyes and yawned, trying to ward off sleepiness. It wasn’t working. I wanted to find out who was up, so I pulled myself from the bed.
The mumbling became clearer as I cracked open my door, causing me to come into the conversation mid-sentence.
“. . . need to tell her right now, you can’t wait any longer!”
I recognized the voice but couldn’t put a name to it in my haziness.
“I can’t. Now is not the time. You have to understand.” Zeus sounded a little panicked.
“We need you now. If you wait any longer, everything will be lost. Everything you’ve done won’t matter at all!”
I was jolted completely awake as I realized who the voice belonged to. It was Jessie.
“I can’t tell her, not now! It would ruin everything.”
“Everything is ruined if you wait. Either you tell her, or I will.”
I picked up my hoodie and slipped it on over my tank top and long pajama pants. I needed to know what was going on. Taking a deep breath, I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out into the hall.
“Tell me what?”
Chapter Nineteen
“Tell me what?” I repeated.
Jessie was standing on the front porch, just out of the rain’s reach. Zeus stood next to the open door, looking like a kid who’d been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
“Karly,” he said hesitantly. “I thought you were sleeping.”
“I was.” I folded my arms and walked to them. This was so peculiar.
“I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he stammered. “Please go back to bed. We can talk in the morning.”
“No, you can’t!” Jessie glared at him before turning to me. “There’s something you need to know, right now. Zeus is—“
“Shut up,” he growled at her in a deadly whisper.
Something was very wrong.
“I mean it. You tell her or I will.”
He slammed the door in her face, grabbed my hand, and pulled me down the hall to his room.
“Zeus, you’re hurting me,” I said softly. He released his iron grip, and I sat down on the bed. “What’s going on?”
“This wasn’t supposed to happen now,” he said mostly to himself, pacing in front of me.
“Just tell me,” I said, exasperated. “You’re scaring me.”
He stopped moving and stood right in front of me, still dressed in his clothes from earlier. The only difference was the look on his face—like he was ready to be sick.
“Kronos,” he started.
“Your uncle!” I said in alarm.
“No, my dad.”
There was silence. Why would he tell me his dad was his uncle? And what was their family’s obsession with Greek Gods?
“He’s attacked. Everything has fallen. I wasn’t there to help. We would have won if I was there, like last time.” His eyes never left mine.
“So . . . I’m confused. He took over the resort?”
“No. He took over Mount Olympus.”
“He took over the fake mountain in the middle of the casino?” I said slowly. He was talking crazy though his exterior was calm. His eyes displayed plain desperation, though.
“No! Why is this so hard to say?” He started pacing again, running his hands through his hair.
�
��I’m not who I said I was,” he started again.
“What?!” I stood up so fast I almost fell over. A sinking feeling filled me. “Are you still married?” I whispered.
“No, I’m not! This is coming out wrong. I need you to understand, though.” He walked over to me and grabbed my shoulders, pulling me into a hug I didn’t return.
“Who are you then?” He pushed me back and held my gaze. I fought the tears begging to be released. Everything I’d realized today was crumbling if he wasn’t the person I thought he was.
“I’m Zeus.” He hesitated before continuing. “I’m your boyfriend, the owner of Tartarus, divorced, and . . . King.”
Whatever I’d been expecting him to say, that was not it.
“King of what?” I asked incredulously.
“King of the Gods.” He didn’t smile like he usually did when he was joking. His face was a complete mask of honesty, but the lie burned into me like a brand.
I couldn’t help it—the tears I’d been holding back started to fall. How could he be so cruel? What did he gain by playing a joke like this on me? This was not the man I’d fallen for. If anything, he was the jerk I’d first met.
“Please don’t cry, Karly,” he said, trying to hug me again.
“Don’t touch me!” I pushed him away and quickly put the bed between us. “What kind of joke is this? I’m not finding it very funny!”
“It’s not a joke!” He looked shocked.
“First you tell me your uncle is trying to take over your precious resort and that your friend has gone missing. I worry with you over all of your problems, stand by your side in every decision you make, and now you’re saying that wasn’t the truth? Now you’re a Greek God and your uncle is your dad? What about Niki? Your uncle—er, uh, your dad— still has her? I don’t think she’d think this was funny! Or is she even real?” I was angry. Nothing he said was making sense. The way he was saying it wasn’t making sense either. I could tell when he was joking, and this was not one of those times. The words coming out of his mouth couldn’t be true—he must be losing his mind.
“Karly please, you have to believe me!” He reached out for me, taking a step in my direction.
“Stay where you are!” I yelled, backing away and running my hands through my hair. What was he doing?
“Why should I believe you?” I demanded.
“I can’t go home until you do,” he pleaded. “Please, I’m telling the truth.”
“I’m pretty sure you can go back to Vegas whenever you want, Zeus,” I declared.
“No, home to Mount Olympus!”
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered. “Why won’t you just let this go? It’s not funny, okay! I’m not amused by your attempts to confuse me and pull me into this little fantasy land you’ve cooked up!”
“I was married to Hera,” he said quickly.
“Good grief!”
“She tried to start another uprising against me,” he continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “It wasn’t the first time, and I was angry so I declared us divorced. I thought I could get away with it, being King and all, but I broke a vow that had been made over the River Styx. I was banished for nine years, lost my powers, and told that I couldn’t come home until I truly fell in love. In order for me to get my powers back and return, the girl had to love me as well.”
He was pushing the knife deeper. I didn’t know what he expected to gain from making all this up.
“My nine years ended, but I hadn’t fallen in love,” he continued. “The other gods couldn’t talk to me during that time—I had no idea what was going on. As soon as the time was up, however, some of them contacted me, saying that a huge war had been going on. My father, Kronos, had heard of my banishment, broke out of prison, and was trying to take back what he thought should be his. I needed help and fast.
“I had been hitting on every girl I saw, trying to find the right one. I thought if we slept together, then she would want to stay.”
“That’s cocky of you,” I said smugly. He rolled his eyes.
“Anyway, I spent every year—except the two it took to get the resort designed and built—getting girls to come back to my room with me. You were the first one who ever told me no. I was furious. I saw your roommates leaving behind you, and I realized what was going on. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
“The loony bin?” I sneered, the tears having stopped for a moment.
“Nice,” he said smugly. “They are the Fates. They were the ones who banished me! I thought I recognized them when they were there before, but I wasn’t sure. When I saw you with them, I knew they were bringing you to me. You were the one I was going to fall in love with.”
“Hold on a second,” I said suddenly, the puzzle falling together. “You’re saying that Jessie was part of this too?”
“Yes!” He said triumphantly.
“I know exactly what’s going on.” The tears started falling again, and I felt my heart break completely in two.
“You all planned this somehow. A big joke on the naive girl from out of town. I get it. They’ve been to your club before, and you’re all friends. They got me to come to you and you started this prank to get revenge after I turned you down. Well congratulations, it worked.” I turned and headed for the door.
“Karly, no! That’s not it, I swear,” he pleaded, blocking my path.
“Get out of the way,” I said softly.
“I know you love me, Karly. I can feel it.” He dared to look hurt after everything he’d said to me. I shuddered when he placed his hands on my shoulders, his eyes pleading with me.
“The shock in the dining room today, that was my powers coming back. You fell completely in love with me today, we both know it!”
“You’re wrong,” I whispered. Tears fell with new force, a confirmation to myself that I couldn’t possibly be in love. I focused on the floor, unable to meet his gaze. “I don’t love you. I couldn’t love someone who lied to me like this—someone who has never been honest with me.”
He jerked his hands from me like he’d been burned, disbelief plainly displayed.
“Karly, don’t do that. Please, we can talk about this. I swear, I’m telling the truth.” I didn’t know if I imagined his eyes were shining. Truthfully, I couldn’t see through my own tears.
“Sure,” I hiccupped. “We’ll talk about it, later.”
“Okay,” he said. Relief rolled off him. “It’s late. Do you want to talk tomorrow, after you’ve slept some?”
“Sure.”
I felt numb. A nagging voice scolded me for lying to him, but I didn’t care.
He kissed me on the forehead and moved out of my way, opening the door for me.
“It’s going to be okay, you’ll see,” he said. “I’m not lying.”
I didn’t look back as I left, walking straight to my room and closing the door behind me. I leaned against it, holding my breath until I heard his shut. Tremors wracked my body as I slid to the floor, covering my mouth to keep the sobs that were clawing their way up my silent throat.
My roommates had seemed so nice. They didn’t appear capable of treachery like this. Seeing Jessie in the doorway, though, I knew something had been going on, something they hadn’t told me about. The people I’d trusted most in this new step of my life had done this to me. And why? I’d been nothing but nice and in no way deserved this! I was a good person—what kind of a person would want to break me like this?
I should have known Zeus would always be a jerk. My first impression had been right, and I’d tossed it away like it was nothing. Letting myself get too close was a mistake. There were warning signs, things I simply wrote off.
I didn’t love him, not anymore. It was sad to have loved so much for so little a time, but I couldn’t feel the same way about him anymore. What if every single thing he’d ever said to me was a lie? Maybe he’d never been married before. It was possible that he could have taken the casino from Kronos—whoever the heck he was—in t
he first place. Maybe . . . . There were so many maybes I didn’t even know what to think. I did know I never wanted to see Zeus again.
With this realization, my tears ceased and I stood, my feelings finally quiet. My parents weren’t going to be happy when they woke in the morning, but it would be okay. Zeus could tell them how he was a liar.
I pulled my suitcase from the closet and laid it on the messy bed. Slowly, my things were gathered from every corner of the room and packed away. Zipping it up, I heaved it off the bed and set it on the floor next to the door, my heart in my throat.
There were no sounds other than the rain, slapping every surface in reach—everyone seemed to be asleep. Quietly, I slipped through the door, heaving my bag up behind me. I inched passed Zeus’s room, holding my breath until I was safely past and hurried down the hall out the front door.
Within a few seconds I was soaked through. I was grateful for the rain. The storm masked the opening and closing of my trunk, as well as my shoes squelching to the driver’s side. I was sure no one heard me get into the car and drive away.
Chapter Twenty
I drove out of town, my need to escape pulling me down the highway at breakneck speeds. Going back to Vegas stung like a slap in the face, so I went the opposite direction, taking the exit for Sacramento. San Francisco called out for me like a siren, the once place that had always felt right for me.
After several hours on the road, my cheeks were tight with dried, salty tears that fell intermittently. The drive was a lot longer than going back to Vegas would have been but, thankfully, I had extra money on me. I’d planned on going shopping, like everyone else in the country would be on Black Friday, but not anymore.
Each piece of Zeus’s confession seemed to stab at me, drawing blood with each jab. I thought the girls were my friends. It was true I hadn’t spent much time with them once Zeus and I started dating, but it had still felt like we were close. When I’d seen Jessie in the doorway, I’d worried something bad had happened. Now I knew the truth—she was merely out to get me. I wished I’d screamed at her too. Nobody should have to feel the way I did.
Zeus (Book One of The God Chronicles) Page 13
