The Daughter of Zeus novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Terrace Night

He was sitting on the edge of the terrace with his back to me.

The roof over my room still had a hole in it where my lightning had gone through.

Hermes had thrown a tarp over the gap and left a note that said, in huge letters, DO NOT DO THAT AGAIN.

I had washed the mud off.

I had eaten everything on the tray, twice.

I could not make myself lie down.

The cloak he had given me was still around my shoulders.

It smelled like cedar smoke and iron, and I'd been breathing it for an hour.

I walked out barefoot across the cold marble.

"You're not supposed to be out here," Alekos said, without turning.

"You'll catch a chill."

"You gave up the door."

"I gave up the post.

I never gave up the terrace."

I stood beside him and looked out at the clouds.

There was a moon, a huge one, and the whole world below us was silver.

"Is it always this beautiful?" I asked.

"No," he said. "Some nights it's worse."

I laughed, and the sound was a little cracked.

Then I said it, because if I waited I would lose my nerve.

"I haven't touched anyone since the funeral."

He went very still.

"Walt died in April," I said.

"I held his hand for three weeks in the hospice, and then I held his ashes.

I haven't wanted anyone since, not once, not in any way.

Today I walked out of that maze and you put your cloak on me, and I want you so badly I can't think."

"Indy."

It was the first time he had said my name.

He said it.

"Nobody here gets to give me anything," I said.

"I can't leave, and I won't kneel to a queen.

I won't be told what to feel by a man in a tunic, either.

But I can walk over here by myself.

That part's mine."

"It's yours," he said.

"So I'm taking it."

I put my hands on his shoulders and swung one leg over.

I was sitting in his lap with my knees on the cold stone.

He sucked in a breath through his teeth.

His hands came up and then stopped in the air, a half inch from my hips.

"You can touch me," I said.

"I'm telling you to."

His palms settled on my waist, slowly, and they were so big that his fingers nearly met across my back.

I kissed him.

It wasn't polite.

I took his bottom lip between my teeth, and he made a low sound in his chest that I felt right down to my knees.

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