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“A debt?”

“An old man pulled us from the sea and led me to this cottage. In exchange, I agreed to kill a cyclops.”

He was pretty sure the old man was a god, but who exactly he did not know.

Ariadne’s eyes widened. “Why?”

He answered honestly. “Because I was willing to do anything to keep you alive.”

A heavy silence stretched between them as he crossed to the hearth where he had laid her clothes to dry. They weren’t in the best condition, but they were better than nothing. He gathered them and brought them to her.

“Get dressed,” he said.

“Why?”

“You’re more than welcome to stay naked,” he said. “I will surely enjoy watching you traipse across this island.”

She glared, and he was relieved that the tension that had been building between them suddenly felt familiar again.

“What if I don’t want to watch you kill a cyclops?”

“Then you can close your eyes,” he said. “But you aren’t staying here.”

“I can—”

“Don’t tell me you can take care of yourself,” he snapped. “We’re on an island we know nothing about in the middle of Poseidon’s territory. He was willing to rape you in front of me. He threatened to tear you to pieces and feed you to me. I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

She did not argue, and to his surprise, she did not wait for him to turn away. She pushed the blankets away and stood completely naked and changed. He watched, transfixed, eyes scouring her perfect body. She was beautiful, and his mouth watered at the thought of tasting her.

She didn’t even seem to notice he was staring. He was certain if she had, she would have snapped at him or turned away. As it happened, he managed to tear his gaze away and focus instead on deflating his growing erection while he packed food and water.

His efforts were in vain, however, and he only became more aware of his thickening arousal as they left the old man’s cottage and began their search for sheep.

“Where are we going?” Ariadne asked.

They had been walking at a steady incline for about an hour, and she was lagging.

“Up,” he replied.

Her silence worried him, and he paused to look behind him in time to see a fig flying toward his face.

Dionysus caught it and narrowed his eyes. “It’s not nice to throw things.”

“I wasn’t trying to be nice,” she hissed.

He sighed and then descended to her. He drew the water skin from around his neck and handed it to her.

“We need the height so we can see where we’re at,” he said as she took a drink from the bottle.

“You want to go all the way up this mountain just to see where we’re at?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Yes. How about we just stay on flat land?”

Dionysus stared. “Are you afraid of heights?”

“No,” she snapped.