he fell all the way into the ocean this time. I didn’t throw him quite far enough. I’ve always said, if you don’t have a volatile relationship with your first mate, what’s the point? He’s good in high seas, anyway, and doesn’t mention the argument we just had that ended in him going feet-first out over the water.
He watches me take the call with open suspicion, as he should. The phone is a recent development. It’s my usual custom to force anyone who wants to talk to me to go through several layers of whoever’s below deck, which is always a rotating cast. Better that way.
But now, Zeus is busy claiming that in order to repay me for my services he needs what he calls “a reliable method of communication.” Fine, I said. But only because he owes me. This phone will probably go straight to the bottom of the sea when all that’s done.
The voice on the other end of the line has news. A baby girl, born healthy. To Hades, of all the motherfuckers in the world. Whoever would let him near a baby has issues of their own. Hearing this, even from thousands of miles away with no land in sight, makes my gut twist for a reason I refuse to explore. I’m mainly shocked that Persephone had the stones to call me.
She sounds just like Demeter did when she was younger. It takes more concentration than you’d think to stop my skin from crawling. But unlike her mother, Persephone doesn’t say anything psychotic or taunting or stinging. Maybe she’ll escape her mother’s curse. Jury’s still out.
“—wanted you to know,” she’s saying.
“Copy that,” I snap. Then I hang up.
Nicholas tracks me as I shove the phone back into my pocket. The sun breaks out from the clouds, staining the ocean a deep, glittering blue. I resist the urge to tip myself overboard.
“Was that the shipment?” He steps over leaving more than an arm’s length between us.
“No. It was my niece. Seven pounds, twelve ounces.” The word tastes strange on my tongue, but what else am I going to call her without making it complicated? The last thing anyone needs now is to get drawn into a lengthy explanation of my fucked-up family tree.
Nicholas squints at me. “I didn’t know you had a family.”
I rub a hand over the bristle on my jaw. For a long time, I didn’t have a family. Not in any typical sense of the word.
I guess I do now.
Nicholas didn’t ask a direct question, so I peer out at the endless blue and ignore him.
In the far distance, a shadow appears on the horizon. The sight of it heats my blood, dumping a shot of adrenaline directly into my veins. Nicholas doesn’t see it yet, but I do.
And I know what’s coming.
I put my thumb and index finger in my mouth and whistle, the sound floating off all over the wind, and answering shouts are buffeted by the breeze all the way back to me. The sun smiles down on us, the waves are tame, and the ship is sturdy.
“You’re fucking terrifying when you grin like that,” Nicholas says, but I don’t bother wiping it off my face. Not out here. Not when there’s so much fun to be had.
I slap him on the shoulder and he stumbles. “Let’s go to work, boys.”
Thank you so much for reading Darker Than Night! I hope you loved the sexy and romantic ride that Zeus and Brigit went on to find their happily ever after. But somewhere in the ocean, Poseidon waits for his own…
A modern-day pirate. An heiress lost at sea. And the treasure of a lifetime. The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea is a dangerously sexy contemporary romance that will blow you out of the water.
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Find out what happens when innocent Persephone makes a deal with lethally dangerous billionaire Hades in KING OF SHADOWS!
This contemporary retelling of the Hades & Persephone story will keep you up all night.
"Breathtaking, intense, and scorching hot, KING OF SHADOWS is the modern myth I've been waiting for." –New York Times Bestselling Author Skye Warren
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Need another forbidden romance right this instant? Try my epic best friend’s little sister romance with a scorching military hero in BEFORE SHE WAS MINE!
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Connect with Amelia
Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.
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© 2020 Amelia Wilde
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means whatsoever without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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For more books by Amelia Wilde, visit her online at www.awilderomance.com