Chapter 17

Chapter

Seventeen

PERSEUS

My gut twists as I look Heph in the eye and lie to him. I’ve never lied to him before, but I have to. I can’t admit that the night in the pool, having her in my arms moaning my name, watching her come apart beneath me, has done something to me. I didn’t know about Paris and Eros, and part of me wants to rip them to shreds. Not because they betrayed me, but because they get to touch her, and to connect with her.

I tell myself over and over that it’s nothing. It’s only because she left me wanting more. Craving. So desirous that my mind can’t focus on anything other than her. I should be plotting her demise, but what I really want to do is plunge my cock into her body again and again. Especially knowing that no man has had a taste of what I have.

She was a virgin.

But now that virginity is mine.

I simply took what I wanted.

I don’t know why knowing she was a virgin makes me hard, but it does.

Since the pool, I have avoided her like she has the fucking plague. I stopped bringing women home. Though I haven’t touched another woman since the pool, I haven’t wanted to. I know they will never compare to how Athena’s body squeezed my dick like a goddamn vise. I obsess over that woman like no one I have ever had before .

Sitting at a local bar with a beer in my hands, I am thinking about her again. Not playing pool, taking money off some of the regulars here, or flirting with the woman three stools down who is trying to eye fuck me.

Eros and Paris both sit down on either side of me.

“You wanted to talk to us out of the mansion?” Eros says.

“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you two about her.” I can’t even bring myself to say her name.

“Okay…” Paris says, waving down the bartender for a beer.

“She’s getting in my head,” I admit. “I didn’t want to say that in front of Heph with him being so mad.”

“Getting in your pants, too,” Eros says with a snicker. “Have to be honest. I’m a tad jealous. I may have to rectify that.”

Jealousy burns in my core. “See, that shouldn’t piss me off, and oddly… I think it does.”

Paris chuckles. “Suddenly stingy? Can’t share?”

“It’s not that. You know there isn’t anything of mine I wouldn’t share. I just have never felt this way about a chick before. Ever. Like I said. She’s fucking with my mind.”

“There’s something about her,” Paris agrees. “I’ll give you that.”

“How do you touch her and not crave her every single moment?” I don’t mean for those words to come out of my mouth, but they do.

“What makes you think we don’t crave her?” Eros asks. “That woman is sexy as fuck, kinky as hell, and she has this fire that is?—”

“She is beautiful, smart, so fucking sweet, and responsive,” Paris cuts in. “Of course, we crave her. There is no one else like her, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean shit.”

“What?” I turn to look at him, confused.

“You need to get the fuck over yourself,” he says, “and figure out what you want.”

“I know what I want,” I say.

“Do you?” Eros asks. “You don’t get to pine after her like a teenager that saw his first tit and try to destroy her. You need to pick one. This emo shit has got to go.”

“It’s not that simple,” I argue.

“It is,” Paris says. “If you want to fuck her, fine, go and get her. I’m looking forward to watching her knock you on your ass. If you want to destroy her, we have a plan. Work the plan. But if you want to love her, then you have some decisions to make. ”

“You can’t cherish and protect her and still be the one who is trying to take her down,” Eros adds.

“You two are.” I’m definitely not pouting.

“No, we are enjoying her company, but that changes nothing. We have made our choice, and we are loyal to you first.” Eros sounds offended.

“Right now, we can be loyal to our friendship and bond, or her. We both really like her, but the four of us are our family. We aren’t willing to give that up for some girl, no matter how sweet her kiss is,” Paris adds, before draining his beer.

They’re right. I need to get my shit together. These guys are my family. Not this girl who just came in to take everything from me.

She is the enemy.

But then why don’t I hate her the way I should?

All I have to do is avoid Athena and start acting like myself again. The weird feeling I have will fade. It has to. In the meantime, I’ll just fake it until I make it.

I play pool, have a few more drinks, and even half-heartedly flirt with the girl at the bar then let her go down on me in the bar’s back alley. I even lie and tell myself that I didn’t wish the girl in front of me on her knees worshiping my cock was Athena. Telling myself not to close my eyes and picture her rich-brown locks slipping between my fingers while her lush red lips wrap around me. When I pull this random chick up and push her against the cold brick wall, I don’t think about what it would be like to push inside Athena’s tight, innocent body again. And again. And then once again.

I fuck this nameless woman hard into the wall, punishing her with my cock for not being the woman I want.

The next few days go by in a blur. I avoid Athena the best I can, and I think it might be working. If I don’t have to see her, I don’t have to face her, then I can continue trying to destroy her. It’s going well until I hear a loud explosion and a scream from outside. I run outside to see her standing next to her Porsche, shaking. The car has smoke streaming out from the back, and I run over and pull her away from the car in case it catches fire. She whirls around, and her hand slams into my face.

“Which one of you did it?” she screams .

“Did what?” Paris asks as he and the others come up beside me.

“Tampered with my car to try to kill me?”

Paris and Eros both go pale, eyes wide open.

Heph just stares, mouth slack.

“None of us,” I say.

“Bullshit. I am calling a mechanic to figure out what the fuck happened, then I am going to make whoever did this pay!” Athena is so shaken, her face is bright red, and tears are streaming down her cheeks.

She swipes at her tears. “You assholes think you are the first to attack me?” She huffs. “Think again, motherfuckers. I’ve played nice up until now. But no more. You just unleashed the viper from her den.”

Paris reaches out to comfort her, and she pushes him away and storms inside, making calls.

“Did one of you do this?” I ask.

They all shake their heads no.

“Fuck no,” Eros says, his eyes darkening and his jaw locking, “but I’ll kill anyone who did.”

The mechanic arrives in a few hours, and I’m sitting in the living room on my phone, waiting to eavesdrop to find out what the fuck happened. He tells her there is something wrong with her car’s mechanical controls. Athena asks if it looks like someone tampered with it. He says he honestly doesn’t know but will have the car towed and let her know if they find anything.

The second the door closes, she turns on me again.

“Why?”

“Why what?” I cross my arms over my chest.

“I get you hate me, but is murder really the way you and your little band of psychopaths want to go? Do my mother’s last wishes mean so little to you?”

“We didn’t do this.” I grit my teeth as she glares at me.

“I don’t believe you. I think you did.”

“Then you don’t know shit about me or how I work.”

“Really? Let’s look at the facts, shall we?” She starts pacing in front of the couch I’m sitting on and lists her points with her fingers. “One, you want me gone. Two, the will says you can’t hurt me, but if it’s a freak accident with my car, the lawyer will give you everything. Three, it wasn’t Paris or Eros.”

“Oh, because you think your little flirtation is enough to turn them against me?” I sneer.

“No, because if Paris was going to do me harm, it would be through some sort of hacking. And an explosion in my car is too fast for Eros. He likes to take his time, and he would make it personal. And after the texts last night, I’m confident in saying he wouldn’t kill me before he got his hands on me again. He’d make sure he at least gets to fuck me before he’d kill me.”

I ignore the jealousy that burns through me and the idea of Eros touching her. She should be mine, and only mine. I laid claim.

“It’s either Heph or you. And since Heph doesn’t do anything without your approval, it was you.”

“You don’t know what the fuck you are talking about.” I stand and tower over her, expecting her to cower, but she doesn’t. “And if you ever fucking slap me again, I will make you wish you were in that fucking car.”

“The second I have proof of what you did, I will have your balls in my fucking hands. The last man who truly fucked with me is dead. Just know I will make you pay for this. This violates the will, and you will be out on your ass!” she screams in my face, then marches away, slamming doors behind her.

I send out a text. “All of you, the billiards room now.”

It takes less than five minutes to get all of us in a room.

“Who did it?” I ask.

Silence.

“Who fucked with her car?”

“No one,” Heph says. “Wasn’t part of the plan.”

“Really?” I turn on him. “You would know how, and you are the only one who?—”

“Who what?” Heph stands and squares off against me. “Who isn’t trying to fuck her? Who remembers what the fuck we are supposed to be doing and how it had nothing to do with getting our dick wet? Yeah, I am. I am not a killer, and her car is a fucking German import. I don’t know shit about German cars, I only work on American. So fuck you and your accusations.”

He stomps out and I feel like an asshole. Eros and Paris are both looking at me, hostility pouring from them. They don’t say anything; they just walk out.

Heph and I have fought before, but he has never yelled at me like that. He has never gotten so defensive, and Eros and Paris… I don’t know .

Sitting on the couch, I put my head in my hands and think. Is this my fault?

Are they telling me the truth? Did I make them think this was what we needed to do?

For the first time since the four of us came together, I’m not sure if I can trust the men I call my family.