the bench and rests his hand on the letters.
I sit down next to him, and he folds me into his arm. It’s cold now, but it wouldn’t be so bad next to the fireplace. A bird hops from the tree next to us to one of the tilled flower beds. It’s only possible to get the occasional glimpse of the building that’s all around us.
An escape from an escape.
The wind rustles at the season’s last leaves, and next to me, Zeus breathes in deep. He takes his hand from the carving. I touch his face. His eyes are sad, but his cheeks are dry. This grief is firmly in the past now. He’s built a new foundation on top of it.
“Zeus, this is incredible.”
He gives me a small smile. “It’s all you, sweetheart.”
I make an incredulous sound. “What are you talking about? I’ve been hard at work napping and doing nothing else.” The pregnancy is taking its toll on my body. My hair and nails look more vibrant than ever, but I need to sleep late and take naps to make it through the day.
“You’re the one who convinced me to build this. The women deserve more than a pile of rubble and a dark memory. They deserve a place they can always be safe.”
A fist clenches my heart. “I knew you were a hero.”
“Faith enough for both of us,” he murmurs, leaning down to kiss me.
I pull him down farther, deepening the kiss. He makes a rough sound in his throat. There’s another change this pregnancy has wrought. I’m hungry for sex all the time. Always wet, always ready. Even more than before. It’s a benefit that Zeus has definitely enjoyed.
“Let’s go,” he says, heat suffusing his low voice.
“I want to look around some more,” I protest.
“Later. I need to get you into the limo in the next ten seconds. Either that or you’ll find yourself on your back, skirt around your waist, my cock inside that sweet cunt right here in front of all the workers.”
It makes me laugh even as I blush. Then I see his expression. He’s dead serious. And I know he’ll actually do it. I walk fast around the side of the building, heading for the limo, hearing him growl as he follows on my heels.
“Ten,” he mutters. “Nine. Eight.”
It’s outrageous, but then that’s the man I love. We make it into the back of the limo with only a few seconds to spare. Then he’s inside me, around me, consuming me.
“Drive us around the city,” he says to the driver through the speaker before turning off the connection. This is a man who’s built a new legacy, a man determined to protect women. A man who is nothing like his father. But he’s still wicked. Still dirty. The things he does to me make me moan and blush. They make me scream my pleasure over the sound of tires on pavement. He keeps going until it borders on pain, but it’s a sweet kind of hurt.
“Please,” I beg him. “Enough. I can’t take anymore.”
Only then does he relent, dragging my body onto his lap. He’s still hard beneath me. He can keep going for hours. For days. For a lifetime. His hand rests on my belly, where it often rests these days. He seems fascinated with every change in my body, but especially that one. He marvels over the way I grow. “I love you,” he says on a long sigh. It’s a lifetime of shame and regret released in that one breath. Taking over his father’s business, even with the changes he made, wasn’t enough. Only now is he redeemed in his own eyes.
“I love you, too,” I say, pressing my face to the muscles in his chest, breathing him in, the masculine scent of safety. He can save every woman in the city, but he still belongs to me.
22
Zeus
Springtime on the mountain is like every other season on the mountain—that much is clear. The two-story window set into thick rock looks out over the green valley where once upon a time I almost realized my lifelong dream of killing Hades. The scene out there changes. In here, it’s always the same. Hades, the sly fucker, has his own small hospital wing here. I suppose I should have realized it—he’s too far from the city in case of emergencies, and I’d put my money on him being the cause of most of them. This wing has three rooms, a small operating theater,