“Then perhaps you’ll allow me a boon, if you enjoyed it so.”
She found herself smiling. “Really? What sort of boon?”
“The pleasure of your company again. We’ll go swimming, out there.” He pointed toward the top of the dome. At her expression, he grinned and added, “Bikini tops permitted.”
The idea of exploring the seas with him excited her. Maybe some time with Poseidon was really what she needed. Not just getting laid, but having a real friendship first with a god who wasn’t Ares. It wasn’t as if Ares could intimidate him, either.
“I’d like that.”
He looked down at her and for a single second, she thought he was going to kiss her. She didn’t know if she’d let him, or not. There was no denying he was hot, and his blue-green skin set him apart from the other gods and she found his hands fascinating.
She decided she’d quite like it if he took her hand again.
The moment stretched between them, and finally, he said, “I should get you back to my brother. We’ll be doing Aphrodite a favor. I’m sure they’re fighting like dogs in there.” Poseidon shook his head. “He can be so thick-headed.”
Aphrodite again. Everyone was always worried about her. Morrigan didn’t understand why. Love was no easy thing, no weak thing. Love hurt, but it made you stronger. Better. Aphrodite wasn’t like the petal of some exotic flower. She was soil in which the flowers could grow. She was more. It was infuriating to see everyone treating her like a porcelain doll.
Morrigan could admit that she was slightly jealous. All of the gods in her life were always on about poor Aphrodite. Even Morrigan’s ex, Aeron. They’d hooked up on Avalon, or so she’d heard.
She realized she hadn’t answered him. “Yeah, he can.”
Morrigan hated that she sounded petulant. She tried to cover with a smile.
“Hey, if you want to stay here with me, I won’t complain. But Aphrodite told me something about—”
“I swear to Brighid, if you say that she told you Ares and I were meant to be together, I’m going to smite your face. Our relationship isn’t like that. We’re just friends. Aphrodite has been on about this bullshit forever. We spend too much time together, blah blah and now this crap about how we’re soulmates. No. I refuse. I put my foot down. Enough is enough.”
Poseidon looked thoughtful, then concerned. “What does smiting my face consist of? Mainly, will I like it?”
She scowled. “It depends on how much of masochist you are.”
Then he laughed and she found that she couldn’t be angry.
“I wonder how many times you’ve smote Ares’s face?”
“One or two, but he really hates that. It takes forever to heal and you know how vain he is.”
“As he should be. The gods in my family have great bone structure,” he teased.
“I’ve decided that I’ll accept a gift after all.”
Poseidon gave her a warm look. “What shall you have?”
“A pair of the abalone and green seed pearl combs for my hair.”
“Will you allow me?” He held up the beautiful combs as he asked.
She turned and nodded.
His hands slid into her hair, and all of her senses were on fire. This had escalated all too quickly. Morrigan took a deep breath and allowed herself to bask in the moment, in the sensation for as long as it lasted.
Poseidon’s fingers grazed her cheek and she turned her face toward his.
“Lovelier than anything under the sea,” he said, his other hand still in her hair.
“A thousand pardons, Lord Poseidon,” a voice echoed from the door.
Morrigan turned to see one of the bartenders, a sailor who’d seemed to have been frozen in 1940. Not at all a bad look.
“You said you wanted to know if your brother or Aphrodite left.” He nodded to the door. “They left together five minutes ago.”
Morrigan clenched her teeth and grumbled, “Asshole.”
The bartender was unaffected and knew she meant Ares and not him. Poseidon dismissed him with a wave of his arm. “Thank you.”
“I knew it. I just knew it. I knew he’d leave me here, even after he promised.”
“The company’s not so bad.” Poseidon shrugged.
Her shoulders sagged. “It’s not you. It’s Ares, not keeping another promise. That’s not friendship. I mean, I get Aphrodite is important to him.” She sighed. “I guess I understand that I have to be second place to her. That’s how it should be, but the dick could’ve said, “Hey, I’m leaving with Aphrodite.’ He never does, no matter if it’s a flavor of the week or his one true love. I’m so done with him. I’ll let Corvinus peck his eyes out.”
“He’d have it coming.” Poseidon agreed easily. “But I’m pretty sure he didn’t ditch you. He probably took her home because this isn’t really Aphrodite’s kind of hangout. Especially since this is Ares’ hunting ground, so to speak.”
“That’s all well and fine, but I’m tired of being an afterthought. He does this to me every time we come here.” Especially when he’d promised. When would she get it through her head that Aphrodite would always take precedence over everything else? Even her. “And I’m tired of him telling me what I can or can’t do. He’s not my boyfriend, he’s not my father, and right now, he’s not even my friend.”
He put his arm around her shoulders, but she turned into the embrace, leaning her cheek against his shoulder. “Have you told Ares how it makes you feel when he does this?”
“A million times. He just doesn’t listen, or he doesn’t care.” That’s exactly what Aphrodite’s complaint had been. That he didn’t ever really listen to her.
“His loss, then.”
She looked up at him, hating how vulnerable she felt. “Is it?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he kissed her.
Morrigan hadn’t been kissed like that in a long time. His lips made her forget they were in Atlantis, made her forget that Ares had hurt her, made her forget everything but the sensation of his lips on hers.
Instead of meeting him head on, returning every caress with one of her own, she leaned into him, let him take the lead. For once, she didn’t have to prove herself, didn’t have to be in charge.
His kiss made her feel beautiful, wanted, and precious. Like more than an old slipper Ares liked to put on lounging around his temple watching Netflix.
They broke apart, both breathing heavy, the space between them the confines of their own world.
Then it shattered. “I shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re angry at my brother. When you kiss me next, it’ll be because it’s what you want.”
“As if you could or would kiss me if it wasn’t what I wanted.”
“You know what I mean.”
She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
Because she had the strangest feeling that she’d just betrayed Ares somehow.
5
ARES
When he got back to Atlantis, he couldn’t find Morri anywhere.
If Poseidon had banged her amongst the Pearl Gardens, Ares was going to… He was going to what?
“Yeah, what are you going to do about it?” he said out loud to himself.
There was really nothing he could do, except throw a really gross and child-like tantrum. Morrigan was her own goddess and she could do as she pleased.
But that didn’t mean he had to like it.
He motioned at the bartender to hit him with another bottle of Ambrosia. He was going to get shit-faced. He needed something to numb his mind, and yeah, even his heart.
“You came back.”
Ares looked over to see his brother standing next to him casually sipping an Ambrosia whiskey.
“Of course I came back. I said I wouldn’t leave her—fuck.” Ares just realized where he’d screwed up. “I came back,” he repeated dumbly.
“Yeah, well she thought you’d just left her again
and I don’t blame her. Gods, but for someone you say is your best friend, you treat her like an afterthought.”
“I don’t need advice on how to treat my best friend from you. You barely know her.”
“And yet, I know where she went. It didn’t take me ten minutes to figure out why, either.” Poseidon shook his head. “For being such a manwhore, you know nothing about how to treat women.”
“I don’t need a lecture.” He downed another gulp of Ambrosia.
Poseidon gave a heavy, put upon sigh. “What you need is to pull your war hammer out of your ass, but I don’t see that happening. Let’s stop and think for a minute. You’re a war god. You’re getting shit-faced because you can’t deal with your feels.”
“Feels? Who are you?” Ares wondered when Poseidon had gotten with the new century and learned slang.
“Whatever.” His brother waved it off. “Back to the part where you’re in my club and spoiling for a fight.”
“Are you kicking me out?” Ares was incredulous.
“Of course not. It would give you the fight you’re spoiling for, but mark me.” Poseidon leaned in close. “Those feelings you don’t want are still going to be there after I kick your ass.”
Ares laughed. “It’s cute you think you can.”
“Oh, I know we’re evenly matched, but you’re drunk. I’m not.” Poseidon leaned back, smiling. “And I’m telling you now, I plan on pursuing Morrigan.”
The bottle shattered in his hand. “No.”
“What do you mean, no?” Poseidon laughed. “That’s not how it works. I get you want to make sure no one does her wrong, but… or is it something more?” Poseidon studied him intently.
“She’s mine,” he growled.
“Ares, women aren’t property.”
“She. Is. Mine.” He reiterated.
“Does she know that? Does she consent to be yours? Because that’s not how I read the situation when she was kissing me in the Pearl Gardens.”
His fist connected with his brother’s gut.
But Poseidon just laughed. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
Ares struck again and he laughed again. “Okay, okay… to be fair, I guess I didn’t have to drop it on you like that. But you’re acting like a dick. You left her here after you promised not to.”
“I came right back.” Why wasn’t anyone listening to him? He came back.
He nodded. “But she didn’t know you were coming back.”
“I forget that she’s a woman and she needs…” He shrugged.
“No, that’s bullshit. She’s a person and she needs common fucking courtesy, brother mine. I’d be pissed as hell if you treated me the way you treat her.”
Ares had a sinking feeling in his gut. Both from the lie he told about forgetting she was a woman—Morrigan was all woman in all the best ways—and knowing he needed to apologize to her. He’d promised not to leave her and he’d broken that promise.
He guessed it didn’t matter that he came back. How was she to know he would when every other night he’d left her, it had been without a second thought. It’s just… she was so capable. She didn’t need him. Ares didn’t know how to deal with someone who didn’t need him.
A cute little water nymph with an adorable tail and clamshell bra came up to him. “Does War want to play?”
War always wanted to play.
But as delectable as the little nymph was, he had to make things right with Morri. “Sorry, sweetheart. I’ve got to go.”
“Are you sure?” Poseidon asked. “Morri’s already angry with you. What’s a few more minutes?” Only his tone was mocking. These were the words he’d uttered after breakups with Aphrodite—his excuses.
Ares had to say that he didn’t care for this mirror being thrust in his face. He liked himself less and less.
Even worse, why was it acceptable behavior with who he thought was the love of his life, but when it came to Morri, it was glaringly clear that he was wrong.
“Shut up,” he grumbled back at Poseidon. “I’ll deal with you later.”
“See you then, brother.” Poseidon grinned and offered the nymph his arm.
He willed himself to Morrigan’s temple and he found the large, gnarled arms of the trees that enclosed her house closed to him.
For the first time in…in forever. They’d never been closed to him. Other people, sometimes the world, but not him.
He’d really screwed up.
“Morri,” he called out, unsure of what to say next.
The guardian branches didn’t even bristle.
He ran through all the gifts he could possibly give her to soothe her rage. Aphrodite liked wine and chocolate and a good round of orgasms. He couldn’t exactly give those to Morri.
Even as his traitorous brain and cock both agreed it could be a good time to start, his better sense shut those thoughts right down.
She’d asked him for a pearl necklace earlier. Maybe that would work. Then he reconsidered. No, that wasn’t quite right. She’d said that he never saw her as a woman. How could he prove to her that he saw her for who she was?
And most importantly, how sorry he was and how much she meant to him?
“Come on, Morri. At least come out and punch me in the face. I know I screwed up.”
Still nothing from her or the guardian trees.
“In the dick?” He voice was slightly higher pitched.
The branches rumbled.
“Man.” He shook his head. “If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll let you. Just come out. I can’t stand it when you don’t talk to me.”
“You know what I can’t stand?” Her voice thundered across the space and rattled the ground he stood on.
The panic that had been rising in his throat settled. The idea that she could just shut him out sparked feelings in him he wasn’t prepared to deal with.
“Being left at Atlantis?”
Thunder struck next to his foot.
“I said I was sorry.”
“No, no you didn’t. You implied you were sorry. You implied you understood what you did wrong, but you never asked for my forgiveness.”
“I am sorry. Come on, let me in.”
“I should let Corvinus peck your eyes out and eat your face. I should make you walk around ugly for penance.”
He looked around, waiting for the bird to strike. That little asshole was just looking for a reason…
“He’s on a date with two of Odin’s ravens.” Her voice was less thunderous.
“Morri, let me in. Make me grovel at your feet in person.” He flashed his best manwhore grin.
“Your charms don’t work on me.”
“Yes, they do. The same way it works on me when you make your eyes all big and guileless and talk me into schemes I have no interest in. Like the Geneva Conventions.”
The twisted wooden arms spread open and the gate behind them creaked open for him. He always liked her temple. It was a long way from Ambrosia Lane, but he rather enjoyed the fairytale feel of the castle-like architecture.
Morri opened the door for him.
Her emotions were scrawled plainly on her face. He’d hurt her.
He’d always thought of Morri like… well, he forgot that she had feelings and he could hurt them. They were usually so in sync that it was never an issue. They had the same sense of humor and Morri wasn’t big on talking about her feelings.
Another proof that he’d really stepped in it.
He put his arms around her and she gut punched him so hard he almost puked, but then she put her arms around his waist and leaned into him.
“I’m sorry.”
“You should be. You’re a dick.”
“Will you let me explain?”
She broke the embrace and he felt strangely bereft without the sweet weight of her body against him. Cold.
“You don’t need to explain. I know better.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
She sighed. “It’s just I know how things
work. I know who you are.”
Ares didn’t like that. Not one bit. “Look, I know I have my challenges, but—”
“Challenges?” Both of her brows crawled up into her hairline. “You’re an inconsiderate manwhore. The woman you’re supposed to love more than anything gets the short end of the stick all time. I shouldn’t expect any better from you. Yet, I do. And I continue to be disappointed.”
Ares kind of wished she’d punched him in the dick like he offered. It might have been less painful than Morrigan’s words. The idea that he was a disappointment to her too… the same as his father. It was too much because he knew he’d earned it.
“I get it,” she continued. “I understand that Aphrodite is first. But godsdamnit, why couldn’t you just have told me you were leaving? It would’ve been really simple.”
“I don’t know.” He found it hard to meet her eyes and he felt like such a gigantic pussy that he couldn’t even look at her. His failure turned his stomach.
“I do. You didn’t think about me in the moment. You never do.”
He tried to put his arms around her again and she stepped away. “Please, Morri. I know I’m shit. I know I don’t deserve you. But don’t push me away, not now.”
She exhaled heavily. “For fuck’s sake.” Morri let him embrace her and slowly her arms came around him. “For the record, I’m pissed at you that I can’t stay pissed at you.”
He tightened his arms around her and she tightened her grip to match.
“Are we playing Mercy now?” He teased.
She gripped him tighter, so tight, he knew she was bruising him. But he’d never felt more whole, or real.
“I’ll win if we are.”
“Yeah, because I’ll let you.” All was right with his world now. He could handle anything with Morri by his side.
He didn’t stop to think what that meant.
“Whatever. Keep telling yourself that.” She turned her face into neck. “We’re okay, Ares, I know things are weird with you and Aphrodite now. You can go back to her. She needs you.”
“I only saw her home. I left her on the steps to her temple. She made it very clear she doesn’t need me.”
Ambrosia Lane 1-3: Saranna DeWylde Page 51
