He seems to take in some of the meaning in my silence. His gaze is filled with scorching blue strength as he leans in, unflinching now. “No matter what she says, no matter what she’s told you or hasn’t, you’re my son. Nothing can change it. I know you. Better than any mortal ever will.”
His declaration—and its implications—hit me harder than possibly anything ever has.
I’m really his son.
His demigod offspring.
The phrase resonates through my senses, turning the moment into something surreal. My nerve endings crackle. My equilibrium is my enemy. I seek out focal points to banish it. The wind along the deck outside. The rhythm of the waves against the sand. The core of my own heartbeat…
Which brings me the answer I need most.
The person I need most.
The single creature in this universe who, in all her half-demon perfection, will restore my humanity better than anything or anyone else right now.
No matter what’s happened in my past, no matter how unbelievable or tragic or strange, Kara’s the future. My future. She’s the one who’s unlocked all of this. She’s turned my curses into something I can live with. Something I can embrace.
And as much as I crave more answers from Z, something tells me he won’t be hard to track down.
“We should head back,” I say.
He sighs loudly. “Good idea. I have a feeling Veronica Valari has big plans for you this week.”
I stifle an answering groan. Barely. “Can’t wait.”
He grins. “If it buys you a lifetime with your little devil, I’d say it’s worth it, wouldn’t you?”
I nod without thinking. I don’t have to for this one. I’ll do anything to have Kara safe. To earn more days with her. To have a lifetime with her… The possibility makes my breath snag painfully in my chest, but it’s a welcome discomfort. I don’t have to ponder how much I already want it. I just know. The way I know it’ll rain. The way I know how incomplete I feel without her by my side. The way I knew, from the moment we touched, that she was going to change me forever.
Chapter Six
Kara
“Where have you been?”
The second the words fly out of my mouth, I cringe at how they sound. Frazzled and desperate and panicked. All things I feel but nothing that Maximus deserves to be on the receiving end of.
He halts, seemingly frozen in the doorway despite the late-afternoon sun beaming in from behind him. His eyes are tired and his hair is wild and windblown. He smells like the ocean, ramping my curiosity higher. At the moment, it’s a welcome break from my worry, allowing me to indulge the gratitude that he’s finally here.
He finally steps inside fully, shutting the front door behind him. “I was with Z. You knew that.”
He comes a few steps closer, and I can feel his exhaustion. It brushes against my own weariness, making it heavier. Making this whole day feel like it’s already been a week. I twist a lock of my hair tightly around my finger, wishing I could roll things back thirty seconds and give him a better hello than this. Except it’s too late.
“You were gone a long time. I was worried, and—”
Before I can explain the nonstop commotion that began the moment my mother started to commandeer our lives this morning, one of her assistants, Natalie, appears from the guest bedroom. Her eyes light up when she spots Maximus.
“Oh, great. You’re here. Perfect timing. The stylist just finished steaming all the new wardrobe pieces.”
Maximus answers with a slow blink. “Stylist…for what?”
“It’s just for dinner tonight,” I rush to explain. “And a few other events that Mom wants us to show up to this week.”
“Okay.” His acquiescence is slow, still unveiling his confusion. “So where are we going for dinner? Is it like black tie or something?”
“No, it’s nothing like that. It’s just…”
“Then what’s wrong with this?” He waves a hand over his current attire—though my hungry gaze hardly needs the prompt to go wandering.
Kell wasn’t wrong. Not by a single syllable. Maximus Kane, my devastating demigod, looks incredible in anything. His department-store T-shirt and well-worn jeans show off his stunning V of a torso and long, chiseled legs. But his seashore-messy allure is definitely not the accidentally-on-purpose, casual-but-expensive look Mom wants. I can already hear her snipping about it in my head, a preview of what she’ll be dishing out tomorrow morning if we step out in the wrong look tonight.
“Nothing.” My voice is high and taut, exposing the little lie. “Just humor me, okay?”
I take his hand and lead him to the other room. Before I can explain any more, Natalie tugs him toward the stylist who’s already sliding garments back and forth along a hanging rack.
I check my watch. “We have ten minutes before the car gets here.”
Maximus pivots toward me with a wide-eyed look. “The car?”
“I figured we’d get a driver for tonight.” I force a smile, hoping it looks genuine.
“I can take us in my truck—”
“No, that’s okay. It’ll be easier this way.”
“Why?”
His voice carries a slight bite. The man isn’t slow. It’s one of the reasons I’ve fallen so fast for him. But it’s also why tension creeps deeper through my veins, rising along with his. He’s starting to get it. “Just dinner” isn’t going to be just dinner.
But there’s no time to give him a full primer. Natalie and the stylist are already buzzing around him, plucking at his hair and thwicking measuring tapes along his body. For the first time today, I have a welcome distraction from my anxiety. But I also know I’ve been saved from further inquisition, so I wave off his query and take the opportunity to escape.
I find my purse in the kitchen and am in the middle of texting the driver when Kell saunters by in her favorite stilettos. She’s dressed to kill in a skintight cream bandage dress. My jaw falls.
“You’re meeting Arden in that?”
She smirks. “I can’t have him thinking he got stuck with the ugly duckling, can I?”
I get her point, but I’m not reassured. Not by a long shot. “You’re sure this is the right strategy? After everything I’ve told you about him?”
“No, but you said he’ll see right through my tricks. So I figured why not turn the volume up instead?”
I answer with a half shrug, half nod, wondering how much extra volume Kell will have to deliver to throw Arden off and give her some power to manage this new relationship with him.
Who knows? Maybe she’s onto something.
She leans her hip against the counter and looks me over. “How about you? You sure the professor is ready for the real storm?”
I shake my head. “Not even sure I am. But it’s only a week, right? We can survive a week.”
Her stare is flat. Her normally expressive nose gives nothing away. “A week, huh?”
“Sure. That should be enough time…”
Unless it’s not. Unless this turns into our new reality. Our normal.
The sound of shoes scuffing across the floor pulls me from that particularly worrisome thought. When I turn, Maximus appears—six feet, seven inches of dangerously good-looking demigod in crisp new threads. Slacks that hug every important part of his legs. A heather-gray long-sleeved tee that looks spun just for him out of angel sighs.
I know how they feel.
I mean, I would sigh…if there was any air left in my lungs. Or oxygen in my blood. Or awareness in my senses…beyond acknowledging the sensory miracle of him.
“What?” he says, responding to my plummeting jaw as if sound has emerged. Remarkably, it does. At least one word.
“Wow,” I stammer.
“Oooh,” Kell coos, crossing the room and then circling him. “Don’t you look the part?” She trails her finger over the shoulders of the blond wool topcoat he’s now sporting atop the T-shirt.
He shifts restlessly, his anxiety radiating t
hrough the room in hot, angry pulses. The subtle twitch of Kell’s nostrils tells me she knows it too.
“Kell,” I warn.
She answers with a short hum and says, “Have a good night, lovebirds.” Then she removes her touch and saunters out of sight toward her room.
Maximus fixes his gaze on me. His jaw is tight, like maybe he’s keeping all his present thoughts strapped down for the moment. I should ask him if he’s all right or how his day with Z was, but I worry if I do, we might never get out of here.
The doorbell chimes, saving me just in time. I force another smile. “That’s the driver. Time to go.”
Seconds later, we’re ushered into the back of a black SUV and on our way. With the privacy divider raised, it’s already the most calm I’ve had all day. I rest back against the headrest and release a weighty sigh.
As we head up Mulholland Drive and through the hills toward Hollywood Heights, Maximus mutters a curse while wrestling his coat off. He tosses it into the row of seats behind us. As he twists back around, our gazes tangle again. His is surprisingly apologetic, as if he’s been caught in an honest moment.
“I run hot,” he says, pushing up the sleeves of his shirt. “Not to mention, this is LA. Who the hell needs a wool coat?”
I can’t help the smile that forms or the laugh that bubbles up from my chest. A much-needed break in the tension of the day. He returns the smile, also seeming to relax as he does.
“Sorry,” he says, collecting my hand tenderly in the warmth of his. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I just wasn’t expecting half of this.”
“Believe me, neither was I. And I’m sorry too. I didn’t mean to snap the second you got back. My head’s been spinning all day.”
“Something tells me when Veronica Valari lands on your doorstep at sunrise, that’s to be expected.”
I sigh again, relieved that he’s being as understanding as he is. “It is, but you’re not used to all this yet.”
“Not exactly, but I’ll do whatever I need to do.” He turns my hand over and presses a gentle kiss to my knuckles. “You’re beyond worth it.”
My pulse races. Or skips a bunch of beats. I’m not sure which, and I don’t care. It’s not the first time he’s whispered the promise, so heartfelt and soul-deep. Though, in this moment, it’s a stab. Not so much a comfort to me as a glaring reminder that he doesn’t really get what he’s signed up for with all this.
I just need to prepare him for the rest. No better time than with him captive in the car.
“You should know that tonight is a little more than dinner.”
I carefully study him for a reaction. He’s nothing but quiet calm, waiting for me to go on.
“This is about being seen in public.”
“I know that already, beautiful,” he assures me.
“It won’t be like at the bookstore. Things are probably going to be a little more up close and personal, especially since being photographed is the point. Otherwise there’d be ways to get inside unnoticed.”
He threads our fingers fully together now and draws his thumb back and forth over the top of my hand. “All right. I can handle that.”
I hope he can. I hope the second he steps out of the car in front of Yamashiro, he doesn’t regret this whole plan. I hope he doesn’t regret me and the chaos that being with me has brought into his world.
He draws his brows together tightly, as if he can read the worry running endless loops through my brain.
“Kara, listen to me. I don’t care what kind of circus your mother has planned. I’m sure it’s going to test me in ways I can’t even imagine, and that’s fine. I just need to know it’s still us under it all, no matter what kind of show we’re putting on for the cameras.”
“It will be, I promise. You don’t have to act any differently around me. The whole point really is for the world to know we’re—” I stop myself from finishing that thought, pretending to readjust my balance as the driver turns the car onto the steep hill up to the restaurant. The world needs to believe we’re in love, but I’m not brave enough to voice those words yet. I take a deep breath, collecting myself. “We’re telling the world that we’re in a relationship now. We’re still us, just in different clothes, showing up at strategic places in a very public fashion, with a driver who will be able to help us part the sea of photographers everywhere we go. But under all that”—I take another deep breath, partly to reassure myself—“it’s still just you and me, Maximus.”
“And the coat.” He winks my way, clearly proud of his droll charm, while swooping the jacket back into his lap. “We can’t forget our stylish third wheel, can we?”
I break into a giggle as the driver slows the car and takes the turn up the steep hill that leads to the restaurant. My laughter’s short-lived, because I am not missing the chance to watch this beautiful man slipping back into the luxurious, if sweltering, garment.
The car slows as we near the final, sharp right that’ll bring us to Yamashiro’s ornate front gate. Straight ahead, the city is a glamorous array of bright buildings against a movie-worthy sunset. I hear the snaps and rush of voices before I glimpse the swarm of photographers through the tinted windows. Mother came through on her promise to tip them off, that’s for certain. As if I had any doubt.
As we roll to a full stop on the painfully narrow drive, I tighten my grasp on Maximus’s hand. Ready or not, it’s time to introduce him to the world. At least we have the advantage of knowing when and how, which gives me the smallest comfort.
The driver steps out and opens my door, removing the only barrier between us and the shutters and shouts, not to mention the full sensory assault of the throng’s frenzy. I tense and turn my body to step out, bracing myself for the impact of the crowd. When I do, Maximus uses our connection to reel me back the small distance. The resistance throws more panic into the tornado of my senses.
I whip my stare back, preparing to convince Maximus that venturing into the crowd under these circumstances isn’t total insanity. But who am I trying to kid? It definitely is.
But it’s what we have to do. And somehow, I’ve got to let him know that I’m here. That I won’t let go. That we’re in this together.
My train of thought derails when Maximus shocks me with a soft smile. With one hand on my cheek, he draws me close, suspending time and drowning out the chaos outside with his proximity. Then his lips are on mine, his fingertips twisting in my hair, holding me in the moment. As if I’d ever want to escape his embrace, unexpected as it may be.
When he swipes his tongue into my mouth, a fervent heat skitters across my skin, making me feel wild enough to forget the audience impatiently waiting a few feet away. I twist my hand into his shirt, holding on to him as tightly as he is to me. I don’t know how long we stay that way, sharing breath and essence and a sliver of peace in the contact. But it’s long enough to calm me down and wind me up all at once.
He’s the one to pull away first, giving me a moment to catch my breath. Rapid flashes reflect in his gorgeous blues.
I smile. “You sure know how to put on a show,” I whisper so only he can hear.
He touches his nose to mine, gifting me with a sexy smile that melts the last of whatever was stressing me out moments ago. “That wasn’t a show. That was me kissing the hell out of you because I needed to.”
The bustle outside seems to grow the longer we delay, probably caused by all the people who aren’t getting the shot. Maximus doesn’t seem to care.
After another unhurried brush of his lips across mine, he nods toward the door. “Now let me take you to dinner.”
Chapter Seven
Maximus
Our server, who’s checked in at least a hundred times during the meal, now appears at the table with dessert menus and a sugary smile to match. If there was anything normal about this dinner out, I wouldn’t mind extending the evening. But Veronica’s been texting Kara nonstop, and the two paparazzi who sneaked into Yamashiro’s bar are about as subtle as the ta
ble of women beside us who have been snapping enough selfies-that-aren’t-selfies with Kara and me in the background.
“Hmm, what looks good?” She leans into me.
I take a quick glance at the fancy parchment. “Apple tart,” I supply quickly.
She lifts her smile to the server. “Make it two.”
I lift my finger before he darts off. “To go.”
She lifts a brow and reaches for my hand. “In a hurry, are we?”
My attention snags back to the bar as I let her fingers curl against mine. “How’d they get in?” I mutter. “There’s a security gauntlet outside.”
“All hail the mighty hand of Veronica Valari. Where there’s the will of a demon, there’s a way.”
I pull her fingertips to my lips. I’m not oblivious to the flurry of activity that causes. The swift whip of cell phones around the room.
But none of it really matters. None of it comes close to the real focal point of my attention. The exquisite expressiveness of this woman’s face. The way her eyes get smoky as I linger my mouth over the sweet curves of her knuckles.
“Don’t I know it.” I thread the sentiment with a low growl against her cinnamon-scented skin.
Kara responds with a stare that nearly melts the world away.
I lean in, drawn even closer when she adds some sexy tinder of her own, biting the inside of her lip so only I can see. But the next moment, she’s stretching out her arms and pulling away with elusive grace, providing an even better shot for every camera lens in this place. I grit through a smile. She looks like we’re at home and getting ready to cuddle on the couch.
The image makes me chuckle.
“What?” She returns a smile.
“Nothing. You just amaze me, is all. How have you had a lifetime of nights like this, yet have managed to stay so…” I’m at a loss for words now. I finally surrender to the first thing that jumps to mind. “So you,” I finally blurt, inserting an awkward laugh. “I mean, your fortitude is already something else—but there are more depths to it than I ever imagined.”
Heart of Fire: (Blood of Zeus: Book Two) Page 5