Page 2

Or even Daphne, who carried both the Athena and Poseidon name. She had no idea how staggering her brilliance was. Or how water started to react to her the same way it did Lukas.

And Lord Jupiter…actually he probably knew how powerful he was. Electricity hummed around him, lights flickering in his presence. Adrian seemed to be acutely aware of his divinity and the powers under his moniker.

You’d think avoiding me was part of those godly powers.

He was good, I’d give him that. He managed it well.

Every time I told someone that I hadn’ttechnicallymet our infamous Lord Jupiter, they looked at me like I was surely mistaken. Because it was impossible that I hadn’t met the king of the gods.

To give myself some credit, it was also damn near impossible that he hadn’t metme.

My father and his mother and her father before her and a hundred ancestors down the line had made sure that the Romulus name was cemented in infamy. That the entire Mediterranean looked to us in awe for our money, our power, our influence.

We’d stopped playing politics years ago, but our support was as good an endorsement as any.

My father made sure I knew that.

Our relationship was complicated. He wanted me to take over, I wanted to do it on my own terms, and strife ensued. Especially when it came to his not-so-hidden complex that no matter how much money he made, it would never seem to be enough. I'd always assumed it was because he knew he’d never be more powerful than the gods.

Most people accepted that fact. It was hard not to when you watched Lukas Poseidon push a ton of water back into the sea and barely break a sweat.

Not that I would tell him, or Daphne, that I’d seen that little incident. They fixed whatever caused it.

And Adrian—he was another person whose power seemed like it was barely contained beneath the stitching of his ridiculously expensive suit.

There was a potency to him that was hard to ignore,like if you got too close a lightning bolt would break free and hit you square in the chest. It was particularly hard to ignore when he was striding towards me with champagne in hand, looking like he was finally ready to confront me.

I could feel stares tracking us. But I couldn’t tear myself away from his storm-gray eyes as he stopped in front of me. I was half expecting him to walk past. That I’d been making the whole thing up.

But nope, he was standing in front of me. He was a lot taller this close than he was from afar, and my head had to tip back, my hair grazing my lower back.

He was quite hard to look at. Not an insult, it was just thatpotencyagain. His hair was a black so pure it tinged blue in the soft light coming through the water outside. His features—that hard jaw, the sharp cut of his nose, the curve of his lip—looked like they were cut from marble.

I stayed silent as he passed me a glass of champagne. As he lifted my free hand, I felt a very serious, very real spark shoot up my arm when his lips descended to my knuckles and placed a chaste kiss on my skin.

My jaw clenched, lest it fall to the floor, as I watched him rise to his full height again.

“Reyna.” For the love of Jupiter, his voice was deep. Combined with the grin he was currently sporting, it was almost criminal. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

That snapped me out of my stupor. “Am I supposed to believe our lack of introduction has been a coincidence?” I asked, cocking my head to the side.

Adrian laughed low, the sound skating over my shoulders. “Oh, no. I wouldn’t dare underestimate yourintelligence. The fact remains, though. It is a pleasure.”

“Likewise,” I said through a perfect smile. There were people watching us, some subtle and a whole host more obvious. I wasn’t going to let the static radiating off his skin distract me. “Though I’m curious what broke your three decade long streak of avoiding me.”

Adrian threw a hand over his chest, dramatically grabbing his pectoral. “You age me. I’m still a year shy of thirty. And seeing as you are five years shy yourself, your math might be a little off.”

My eyes narrowed. “Let’s say I was rounding up.” His charm would have anyone else flat on their ass, willing to do whatever he asked, but I’d grown up around charm. It took a lot more to topple me. “Still doesn’t answer my question.”

Adrian flashed me a smile, full of straight, white teeth. “Which was?”

Oh, it was clear he knew exactly how charming he was. And how to leverage it. “Why you’ve avoided me.”

Adrian took a long sip of his champagne and his strong throat bobbed, the tanned skin pulling across the muscle. He kept heavy eye contact with me the entire time, looking at me thoughtfully before asking, “Would you acceptyou’re so beautiful, I was scared to talk to youas an answer?”

I couldn’t help the grin that broke across my face. “Say it with a little more feeling, and I might.”

“Reyna—wait, what’s your middle name?”