soon as I stepped through the door. Kimon was standing there wearing nothing but a towel, and that towel wasn’t meant to cover a minotaur. I knew he was a monster and had the head of a bull, but damn, did the part of him that looked like a man look fucking hot.
My eyes followed a drip of water as it fell all the way down his hard chest, down to his eight pack, to the hard V of his hips, to that towel he was gripping and was barely covering anything. Kimon blew smoke out his nose and grinned at me.
“Like what you see, baby bird?”
Cerberus jumped between us and bared his teeth at Kimon.
“Cut the shit, Kimon. Put some clothes on.”
“My clothes are finally being washed, Cerberus.”
“Then, go sit in your cell!”
Who knew a three-headed dog was such a cockblocker?
“It’s okay, Cerberus. Do you want a sheet, Kimon?”
“No, because I like the way you look at me like this.”
Cerberus let out a little growl.
“Take the sheet, minotaur. I’ll bite your dick off.”
“Cerberus, please. What’s the deal with you two?”
“You’re half human and something from a different realm, River. You could call Earth or that other place home. You have an out in six months to go home. You don’t need to be getting attached to monsters and staying here with everything going on.”
“Cerberus, I can’t leave in six months, even if Hades promised he’d take me home. Kimon and the others will still need me, and we still have to figure out how to beat Demeter. Please, stop threatening Kimon.”
Cerberus stood down and went to flop in front of the fireplace.
“I knew you would say that, and I don’t like it, River.”
“Well, now that the pup isn’t threatening to bite my cock off, may I sit?”
“Sure. Food should be coming soon.”
Kimon practically strutted to the chair, and he turned around before he sat just to show me that his towel totally didn’t cover his ass at all. You could bounce quarters off that ass and crack walnuts with his thighs. There was probably something seriously wrong with me. I was checking out a minotaur in a towel and wishing the towel would just disappear. I wished Hades would have let me stop by my house for clothes and my vibrator before he took me because I had no idea I’d be so attracted to monsters.
“I didn’t want you to see that fight, baby bird. You weren’t here when I got back. Please tell me Hades took you anywhere else.”
“I saw, Kimon. I needed to see. I wasn’t just watching the fight. I was watching the crowd.”
“I didn’t want you to see me like that, baby bird.”
“Did you know him?”
“He used to be an excellent friend of mine. People have refused to fight. They laid down their weapons and just refused. Demeter found some monster dog somewhere that burst into a fire so hot, it melts weapons. It kills anyone who refuses to fight.”
Another tidbit I could use. If regular fire didn’t burn me and phoenix fire didn’t, could I get close enough to that dog to talk it into standing down? If it wasn’t from the Underworld, then maybe he just wanted to go home. I could turn Demeter’s dog against her. I mean, Cerberus was in here cockblocking me instead of being with Hades.
“How can I get close to this dog?”
“You don’t,” Cerberus growled.
“I’m not helping you die, baby bird. I’m keeping you safe until it’s time for you to go back home.”
I placed my hands on my hips and glared at both of them.
“No one knows what I am except Hades and the two witches that just left. You don’t know what I’m capable of. I don’t know everything I’m capable of. I’m staying until we finish this. That dog can’t hurt me.”
“Just because you can talk—”
We were way past the time for secrets. Demos may have reacted badly, but we needed all cards on the table so we could figure this out together.
“I mean, the dog can’t burn me. Fire has never burned me a single day in my life, and a spark off Demos landed on me, and it didn’t burn me either. If regular fire and phoenix fire don’t burn me, then I’m guessing that dog can’t either. Demeter probably kidnapped that poor dog from another realm and is abusing it.”
Kimon leaned forward, and that towel drooped dangerously low.
“Well, well, baby bird. Didn’t you just get a million times more interesting?”
Chapter 15
Pavlina
I
would give