Cruel Seduction (Dark Olympus, #5) (88)

Worry worms its way through my stomach. I’m not a fighter. I run from danger, preferring to let flight be my response to fear. The only people I fight with are those I trust. Realization rolls through me in a slow wave. Guess we shot right past the falling stage and into fallen.

I swallow hard. “I don’t know how much help I’ll be, but I’ll try.”

Her smile is terrifyingly fragile. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” I rise unsteadily to my feet and grab my dress. “We might as well get some food ordered. Gods know, if Adonis is anything like Theseus, he’ll be starving by the time dinner rolls around.”

“Pandora.” Eris waits for me to look at her to continue, more tentative than I’ve ever heard her, as if feeling her way through each word. “I don’t know what the future brings or what it will look like for the…four…of us, but I’m glad you’re here.”

I’m glad I’m here, too. I don’t know where we end up or what it looks like, either, but I’m caught in the tide of Eris and Theseus and even Adonis. Maybe it’s naive to think that the only way through this is together, but I can’t shake the belief. I shimmy into my dress as Eris pulls on her clothes.

She hesitates and glances at my dress. “Would you like something more comfortable? I expect this won’t be a short night.” When I start to frown, she blushes. “I might have ordered in some clothes for you. Um, you know, just in case you wanted to sleep over at some point. I wanted you to be comfortable, and while I deeply appreciate the sexy dresses you wear, I know all too well that they’re not for lounging around the house.”

“You bought me clothes,” I say slowly. My stomach dips. It’s a sweet gesture, but Eris and I aren’t remotely the same size and if she misjudged, that’s going to feel…really bad.

Some of her embarrassment seems to flick away. “If you’ve got that look on your face because I overstepped, then that’s one thing, but if you’re underestimating me and thinking that I was ham-handed in this gift, then have a little faith.”

My throat feels tight. “I’m sure it’s a nice gesture, but—”

“Have a little faith,” she repeats. Eris slips her hand into mine before I can decide if I want to argue. She tows me down the hall, and I’m both surprised and strangely pleased when she turns to the door before her bedroom. She catches my look and gives a sheepish smile. “I do listen when you talk, you know. I want you in my life, but I’m not going to tie you down or shove you into a role that doesn’t feel good. I get the feeling you don’t want to play wife to me, and that’s okay. I’m happy to give you your space.” She pauses. “But I would like at least some of that space to be in proximity to me, no matter how you choose to utilize it.”

I don’t know what to say. I haven’t tried to date much up to this point. People either get the wrong idea about what I want in a relationship, or they have a significant problem with Theseus’s role in my life, which really just categorizes them under the first umbrella. There was a lovely person before we left Aeaea who seemed like they might be a good fit, at least in part, but then we left before I could fully realize that.

Eris opens the door and tugs me into the room. It’s decorated in similar vibes to the rest of the place, expensive and sensual. The comforter is a deep cerulean and there are a wide variety of pillows on the bed in white and varying shades of blue. Thick curtains hang over the large windows overlooking the city.

She walks to a doorway leading into a large closet. It’s mostly empty, but a handful of obviously new clothes hang near the front of it.

That sick feeling in my stomach rises again, but I try to do as she asked and have faith. I cross to the clothes and frown. These certainly aren’t Eris’s size. A quick look at the nearest tag has my brows rising. “These are my size.” I check another two, finding the same thing.

“Of course they are.” She sounds a little smug, but I don’t hold it against her. Not when she’s grinning widely with happiness lighting her dark eyes. “Do you like them?”

As promised, they’re comfortable lounge clothing. Expensive, yes, but nothing so overt that it would give me the excuse to refuse the gift. I almost laugh. As if I would. Maybe there are people out there who value their pride more than fancy gifts, but the latter are few and far between in my world and I’m not about to turn them down.

I cross back to her and go up on my toes to kiss her. “Thank you. They’re lovely.”

A sound from the entrance of her penthouse has her lifting her head. Her frown clears when a deep voice calls her name. “Oh, that’s Adonis.” She presses another quick kiss to my lips. “Why don’t you get changed and I’ll get that food ordered?”

“Okay.” I turn back to the clothes as she slips out of the room. Impossible not to take this evening as a sign that we could really work. Oh, my rose-tinted glasses aren’t so thick that I don’t see the wide variety of pitfalls awaiting us, but Eris is one of the most formidable people I’ve ever met. If anyone can make a nontraditional romantic situation work and keep herself and Theseus alive in the process, it’s her.

I get the feeling that Adonis will go where she—and where Theseus—goes. Which leaves us with the last potential wrench in this tangled situation. Theseus. I don’t know what he’ll do. He’s surprised me a few times since he married Eris, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to counteract more than a decade’s worth of loyalty to Minos.