I was almost running down the corridor by the time I made it from the west to the east wing. When I made it to Apollo’s room, I barged in without knocking, and would have laughed if Ella hadn’t been in apparent pain.
Apollo spun around from his stance by the window where he’d been looking out onto the lake bare-assed naked.
Ella moaned. “Sweet Jesus. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I’d take a photo.”
I snickered then hushed when she moaned again, like the sound of my amusement or the vibration of my chest was too much for her to endure.
Though guilt pricked me, I carefully carried her the last few steps to the overlarge bed and set her atop Apollo’s still-warm, ruffled sheets.
“Oh God, this smells so good. Whose sheets smell this good?”
“Mine?” Apollo countered, and while he sounded amused, concern creased his brow. “What is it?”
“She’s had a headache since you transferred the truth to her yesterday.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, ó glykýtaton.” His words dripped with self-loathing, and the sound had my eyebrows hitting my hairline. “You should have come to me. I’d have eased your discomfort.”
She hissed when he pressed his fingers to her temples, and the tight clutch of the muscles in her brow had me biting my lip until the glow appeared in his digits as he channeled ET, and the crinkle slowly unfurled as the pain went with it.
As I watched, the tension in her body slowly dispersed, until she was no longer curled into a taut ball, and could lay out in more comfort.
When the glow abated, she opened her eyes and stared up at Apollo. There was confusion and heat and wonder in her eyes, but what concerned me the most was the panic there too. That wouldn’t be as easily combated as the pain in her head.
“It is gone?” he asked softly.
“Yes,” she breathed. “That feels so much better.”
“I’m glad. I am always here for you, Ella. Whatever you need.”
She blinked. “My own personal ibuprofen, huh?”
He grinned. “More like your own personal heroin. I’ve been told I’m addictive.”
When Ella laughed, and even though it wasn’t my joke, I wanted to run a victory lap. Jesus, making her laugh had just gone to the top of my day’s to-do list.
“I’m sure, champ, I’m sure.” She reached up and gently touched his finger where he was still connected to her temple. “Thank you.”
“You’re more than welcome.” For a second, he hesitated, then he murmured, “It is fortunate that you’re ours.”
While she stiffened, I could sense she was more intrigued than agitated. “What do you mean?”
I watched as he ran the digit down the side of her head. “You had an aneurysm.”
The shock had her freezing on the bed. “Had?” she asked quietly.
“Yes. Of course. I healed it.” He pulled a face. “Well, I will tomorrow. It’s far smaller than it was yesterday, so one more treatment should help.”
“Can’t you get rid of it now?”
He shook his head. “I would if I could. It was large, I’d prefer for your brain to accustom itself to its loss gradually.”
I nudged him in the side. “They don’t do that in hospitals.”
He snorted. “My gift isn’t like what the doctors do. I’m draining it without causing any other damage.”
Her hand gripped his wrist. “You saved my life.”
Another miracle happened—Apollo blushed. “Well, a little.”
“A little?” she squeaked. “I don’t think life works that way. You’re either a little alive or a lot dead. Trust me, I’d know.”
I snickered at that. “She’s right, Pol.”
“Pol?” She tilted her head to the side.
“Yep. Castor shortens to Tor. Achilles to Chill, and I’m usually Lux.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I think I like that.” Then, she giggled. Fuck me, she giggled and it was the cutest shit I’d ever heard in my life. Bar none. “Achill! I just got it!” The rehab center was definitely a tongue-in-cheek joke.
We both grinned at her, and I knew we looked totally whipped. I wasn’t even ashamed at that. I mean, it wasn’t every day that the King of the Gods told you you’d found your wife. And when he was talking about a wife, I had no doubt that it wasn’t the crap like humans had. Like we’d had during our first life, or like what we’d had since—we’d all been married a few times. We were too old not to have been.
But Ella?
She’d live forever.
Even with an aneurysm.
If that had exploded, it wouldn’t have killed her. But I didn’t blame Apollo for not sharing that tidbit. I was A-Okay with him taking the credit for that if he could make Ella grin and giggle again.
As she fell quiet, I watched her gaze drift around the room. After a few seconds, she whispered, “Wow.”
“It’s cool, isn’t it?” I asked her.
None of us were mad that Apollo had taken the biggest room for his own. He was the reason we were alive, after all. And the dude was a God. We knew he needed somewhere large to store his ego, and this fit the bill.
It was the size of an average person’s one-bedroom apartment. There was a California king bed that was covered in white sheets. In fact, everything was white. From the sheets, to the curtains shielding the large picture windows that looked directly onto the lake. Right in front of those, and the reason he’d been standing over there naked, was a bath. A rolltop tub that me and the others gave him a heap of shit over because Apollo was a fan of bubble baths.
There was a large fireplace because he was fond of fire, and even when one wasn’t technically required because it was temperate out, he usually had a small one lit—the same with candles. In many ways, this room was perfect for a chick. It looked like some artsy-fartsy socialite’s bedroom. I could see some deb from the Upper East Side jonesing after this place, with its low white leather sofa the size of a bed, and the bookcases that were adorned with all his favorites, as well as first editions of books he adored.
Despite my grousing, I liked this place too, to be honest. It was quite restful, and whenever I woke up in here, it was after a deep night’s sleep.
“Would you like to get into the tub?” Apollo invited, making her cheeks blush.
“Wh-What?” She grabbed her pendant, drawing my attention to the rough crystalline edges as she twiddled it between her fingers.
He shrugged away her embarrassment. “It’s a big bath.”
Her eyes widened a second before her gaze darted over to the bath itself. I could see the longing in her eyes, could see how badly she wanted to say yes. The bath was not only big, but from this angle, there were rose petals on the surface, and it was in a pool of sunlight that made me want to get into it and the last time I’d been in a fucking bath was when my mother had dumped Castor and I in one after we’d accidentally fallen into a huge pile of horse shit—when I said accidentally, I meant I’d pushed Castor into it, and he’d dragged me down with him.
Hiding a grin at the memory, I murmured, “Go on. You know you want to.”
When she swallowed, it was clearly visible. “That’s just it. I do, and I really shouldn’t.”
Chapter Four
Ella
The water was like silk, which was just plain wrong. I wasn’t an expert on the Greek Gods by any means, but who the hell didn’t know that Poseidon was the God of Water, right? That meant Apollo shouldn’t be able to change up H20 and make it feel like liquid, molten silk.
“What is it?”
I jerked, surprised at Lux’s question. “Nothing.”
“Why are you scowling at the water, Ella?” he insisted, apparently not letting me get away with not answering. Sure, it was irritating, but I liked that he didn’t let me hold back.
“It’s like silk.”
Apollo snorted. “You make that sound like an accusation.”
“It’s the perfect temperature too, but from you running it, then
healing me and having a nice chat,” I imbued that word with all the mockery I was capable of, “it should have grown cold.”
“Ah,” Apollo hummed as he looked at me from across the room—I’d agreed to climb into the bath only if they kept their distance.
Now that I thought about it, that was pretty fucking stupid of me.
I’d stripped off to my bra and panties, thankful they were not only matching but a dark maroon to maintain some modesty, and had slipped under the cosseting folds of the water.
Apollo hadn’t made a move to cover himself, so I could see his hard-on from over here—and even if he’d been at the opposite side of the house, I’d have seen that. Dude was huge. I didn’t think Cindy was a virgin, but I hadn’t exactly gone exploring down there. Either way, virgin or not, the woman who took all of him was going to ache the next day—and according to, ya know, Zeus, the bitch who was going to walk like she’d been riding a horse was lucky ole me.
In turn, Pollux was watching me from the bed. He was on his belly, arms folded under him as he propped himself up, getting a good eyeful of me during bath time.
The way their gazes were intent on me was almost enough to make me snicker, except Apollo had just started to say, “You can thank Achilles for that.”
“How come?”
“The water from the lake is where salt and freshwater converge,” Lux explained—and I had no idea when I’d started to shorten their names in my head, except that I already had and I preferred it that way. “Achilles’ mom was a sea Goddess.”
I gaped at him. “No way.”
“Yes way,” he replied, but he smirked and fuck me, if I didn’t want to kiss that smirk off his chops.
“So, what? He’s enchanted the water or something?”
Apollo pointed to some bottles that ran along the windowsill and were hidden by gauzy, white curtains. “That isn’t soap, it’s seawater.”
I blinked at him. “And that makes the water silky?”
“Yep.” Lux’s legs began to sway from side to side and a memory hit me—me lying on the floor, surrounded with books, and a girl lying on the bed, doing the exact same thing. Her legs kicking out as we talked about everything and nothing.
But the Ella doing the talking wasn’t the woman here today. She was shorter and rounder, with a white-blonde, tumbled bob that was all around her face.
It hit home mostly because the first thing I’d done when I’d left the hospital was attack my hair with some scissors and dye it blond. Dolly had bemoaned the loss of my long black hair, but I’d just wanted to stake a claim on this body.
Now that I saw the old me?
It made sense.
I hadn’t just been claiming this form, but I’d wanted to look like the Ella of before. Even in some small way. I’d been paying for it ever since too. My hair was still a mess and would be until the bottle blonde disappeared.
Clearing my throat to dispel the memory, I enquired, “How does it make it silky, though? Shouldn’t it make it briny?”
“Well, she enchants it for him. Not all the Gods were made to scatter,” Lux informed me. “Just the ones who lived on Mount Olympus. They were getting too big for their britches. Too much power centered in one place was never going to go down well for any humans living nearby, and that’s why Zeus started—”
“Ella? What is it?” Apollo’s interruption had me swinging my gaze to him.
“Nothing.”
Pollux snorted, seemingly unoffended that he’d been interrupted. “That didn’t work before, so why would it work now?”
“I just… I had a memory of before. Before I was this.”
Apollo sighed. “I’m sorry, Ella.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“This could be the aftermath of my healing.” He reached up and rubbed at his temples. “This is one of the reasons why I try not to heal. It can cause other issues that are impossible to predict.”
Because he looked so upset, so riled by the notion that he’d triggered this memory, I murmured, “Hey. Don’t worry about it. You just saved me from an aneurysm. I think that gives you some leeway.”
“You wouldn’t have died from it,” he said, blowing me the hell away.
“I wouldn’t?”
“No. Well, you would have if you were human, but you’re not.”
“What am I then? Fish food?”
His lips curved. “No. You’re special.”
I rolled my eyes. “That word isn’t as nice as you think it is.”
A laugh escaped him, and it warmed me right through. I had the feeling he didn’t laugh much, didn’t often smile either, which was a shame because those eyes were made for twinkling and those lips? They were born to smile.
“Perhaps not. Zeus brought you back for a reason. You’re ours,” he said softly. “And as we’ll live for a very long time, you will too.”
“That would suck if I knew the people in my life. Leaving them behind would really blow.”
“Gaining and losing people becomes a part of the ebb and flow of life, Ella,” he informed me, the words formal and, I thought, forced. Like he was making himself sound blasé about it when, even from this distance, I saw his eyes were back to looking wounded, the twinkle having disappeared. Oh, and that epic hard-on had melted too.
For shame.
I wasn’t sure why I did it, wasn’t sure at all, but that sadness in his eyes? It touched me. Maybe it touched me into madness, but I murmured, “I know this bath was for you. Do you want to join me?”
He blinked. “It’s for you now.” His generosity didn’t come as a surprise to me, but I saw Pollux shoot him a look.
“I know. It is now. But,” I said, pausing to lick my lips, “there’s more than enough room for the two of us.”
There was a hesitancy about him that had me purring with approval as he headed toward me. His cock was back to standing at attention—which I liked even if I didn’t intend on acting on what his arousal represented—but I could sense that he was allowing me to be in control of this situation.
The notion was intriguing enough to make me dip down under the water level so I could hide my smile. Or, at least, shield it somewhat.
“How come I don’t get to join in the bath time, play time?” Lux groused, his lips forming a pout.
“Because there’s only room for two?” I replied, shooting him a smirk that rivaled the one he’d sent me earlier.
He narrowed his eyes. “You don’t play fair.”
“Don’t get upset with me. Blame Pol. He’s the one who didn’t make the bath big enough.”
“I already got enough shit from my guardians over this tub. A bigger one would have just had them griping at me even more,” Apollo informed me as he dipped into the water, sighing as he sank under the surface.
I watched his golden hair float and his eyelashes turn into pointy spikes before he emerged from the water.
“You’re not a Pol.” Mere seconds before, I’d liked it, but now? No. It didn’t fit him.
He cocked a brow at my outburst. “What am I then?”
“Ollie.”
“Ollie?” Lux hooted. “That’s what you call a five-year-old or a Maltese with incontinence issues.”
I tilted my head to the side. “That’s remarkably precise.”
Apollo covered his mouth to hide his amusement. “An ex had one.”
Figured. I smirked at him. “Called Ollie?”
Lux sniffed. “Maybe.”
I studied him in all his ease and tried to imagine him with the kind of woman who owned a Maltese lapdog. “You don’t look the type.”
He rolled onto his back and wafted his arms wide. “What you see before you is not the way I always look.”
“What does that mean?” I shot Pol a look, because even if I thought Ollie suited him more, I wasn’t about to remind Pollux of his frickin’ ex every time I uttered the name.
“My guardians take turns to be on duty with me.”
There was a tension in his voi
ce that I heard, but I don’t think Lux did. “Okay. Why?”
“So, they can lead their lives too. My world is centered in the city.”
“Because you make it that way,” Lux groused. “You prefer it out here. You know you do. You’re just too damn pigheaded to admit it.”
“My work is in the city,” Pol said tiredly, and he closed his eyes and pressed his head to the side of the bath.
“Because you want it to be.” There wasn’t a shadow of doubt in Pollux’s voice. He believed what he said — one hundred percent. “You could run that office remotely and have everyone come here when necessary. Which, I know, isn’t that often.” Lux shot me a look, like he expected me to join in with him, to step into the fray.
It hit me then just how odd this was.
How comfortable I was with two strangers. I mean, I was taking a bath with one of them while the other looked on, for Christ’s sake. And Lux fully expected me to help convince Pol to transfer his office to the boonies because Lux said so.
Overwhelmed didn’t begin to describe how I was feeling at that moment. It was like I couldn’t breathe, like the air was building up in my lungs, leaving me airless and both overfull of oxygen too.
Before I could panic further, before I could jump out of the bath and streak out of the room, I felt Pol’s hand on my ankle. He made no move on me, just rested his fingers on the bony joint.
A shaky breath finally escaped me, rattling from my lungs as he eased whatever pressure had made it feel like my chest was about to implode.
Then, his fingers began to trace shapes on my skin, and I shuddered, relaxing as he had, resting my head on the lip of the tub and sinking until my chin kissed the surface of the blessed water.
Was I legit sitting in holy water?
It was another heady thought.
Biting my bottom lip, I realized Lux had stayed quiet, hadn’t carried on talking about how Pol should relocate to this house, and when I cast him a look, I noticed he was studying me. Not with curiosity, not with irritation, but with concern.
He knew something was wrong with me.
The Sun Revolves Around Apollo (The Gods Are Back In Town Book 2) Page 10