The Warrior God (The Ares Trials #1) - Eliza Raine Page 0,19

my sex-starved brain served me an image of him, under the metal. And I mean under all of the metal. Huge, hulking, and naked. I couldn’t stop the heat spreading across my cheeks and blinked the image away quickly. Weirdly, naked Ares in my head still had the helmet on. It seemed it was easier for my imagination to conjure up a naked body than to invent the god’s face. Bet a shrink would have fun with that one.

When I did indeed keep my mouth shut, Ares huffed an angry breath, and turned his back to me, taking a few long strides and putting a decent distance between us. I almost made a quip about him being a drama queen and clamped my jaw shut tightly to stop the words escaping.

But geez, the man was over-dramatic. What was he hiding under there? An image of Shrek popped into my head and I bit back a snort of laughter slightly too late. Ares tossed me an angry glare over his shoulder, then gripped the bottom of his helmet.

Anticipation skittered through me, unbidden. Why did I care what he looked like? He lifted his hands, pulling the helmet clear from his head. A mass of warm brown, slightly wavy hair fell down his back, and my eyebrows shot up in surprise. It was streaked through with white and reached well past his massive shoulders. I watched wide-eyed as he dropped the helmet onto the sand and began to tie it back into a tail with a leather strap. I really would not have guessed him as a long-hair-kinda-guy. In fact, I would have staked money on him being an angry-buzz-cut-kinda-guy.

When he finally turned to me, it took every ounce of willpower I possessed to keep my jaw from dropping.

Fuck me sideways, Ares was hot. Hot enough that this was the most evidence I had had so far that he wasn’t actually human. No human looked like that.

Those chocolate brown eyes that stormed with fire were set in a face that could not have blended stern and sexy any better. His hard, angular cheekbones and jawline were offset by full soft lips, and his short, dark beard somehow made his wavy hair look intensely more masculine. He was perfect. Simply perfect.

“Well, I guess you won’t need a paper bag,” I breathed.

He frowned, dark eyebrows drawing together. “Why would anyone need a bag made of paper?”

Seeing his mouth move as he spoke for the first time gave me an inexorable desire to feel his soft lips, and I screwed my face up. He was a god. Of course he would be hot. That didn’t mean he wasn’t still an asshole! Focus!

“It’s just an expression from my world,” I said, shaking my head. “What are you going to do with that?” I asked, pointing to his helmet in the sand.

“I will hide it, along with this.” He banged a fist on his massive chest-plate, and my cheeks burned as though someone was holding a flame to them. Great. The hottest asshole I’d ever met was about to undress.

I tried to distract myself by sitting and doodling in the sand, whilst Ares clanged about, removing his armor. Joshua. This was about saving Joshua, I told myself repeatedly, drawing a large spiral with my finger. I needed to stop delaying Ares and get a move on. As soon as he was ready to go, I’d start behaving myself; rein in the attitude, and focus.

“Let’s go,” Ares grunted, snapping me out of my self-scolding. I leaped to my feet, pulling my bag with me, then stumbled as I turned to the god. He was wearing simple black linen pants, and no freaking shirt.

“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?” I fixed my gaze on his face, his outrageously sculpted pecs burning into my lower peripheral vision.

“People in Erimos do not wear shirts,” he answered simply.

“The women better wear damned shirts,” I said, alarmed. I wasn’t walking into an alien city with my boobs out. Not a chance.

Ares gave me a look as though I was ten years old. “It is clear you are a tourist. You may stay dressed as you are.” Across his forehead was a gold band, the same material as his shining helmet. I pointed to it.

“Is that your armor? In disguise?” He nodded. “Neat trick,” I said, impressed. “But you do look a little... regal.”

He rolled his eyes and turned his back to me, striding through the sand. It was entirely impossible not to look