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I barked a low laugh. “We’re in casual company. I figured I could do without.”

I also didn’t need Dominic and Lukas regressing to how we were as shithead teenagers, constantly teasing each other and giving me shit about always wearing a suit.

Reyna ran her thumb over the edge of the shirt, right over the tattoo of a trident hidden beneath. My thighs tensed, moving them an inch closer to her hips. “I couldn’t convince you to pull your sleeves up, could I?”

“Not today.” Not without risking my body moving before my mind could stop me and me throwing her down on my desk and finally figuring out how she kissed. What her full bottom lip felt like pulled between my teeth. “I’m already telling you one secret. Let’s save that one for another day.”

“I’m taking that as a promise,” Reyna said with aninterested smile. Making me notice, not for the first time, how perfectly we were aligned. Her hips right at the cradle of mine. Her lips the same height as mine.

Right as I was considering doing something stupid, Emre reappeared with Persy in tow. The second my little sister saw Reyna, she pushed past Emre and ran towards her.

Reyna turned in the cradle of my legs and my eyes dropped on their own accord. Right to where her ass was nestled against the desk.

The second she stepped away from me and closer to my sister, I let out the groan I restrained, running my hand over my jaw in hopes it would clear the fog from my head. The storm outside rumbled, laughing at my desperate grasp for control.

Persy wrapped Reyna in a tight hug, rocking her back and forth with force. “It’s so good to see you,” she said through a bright smile.

I knew they’d been friends for a few years, their work bringing them in the same circles. But something odd stirred in my chest when I was confronted with it. Finally forced to acknowledge how well our lives already fit together.

“It’s been too long,” Reyna returned, pulling back to smile brightly at my sister, I was sure. I pushed off the desk, catching the last licks of her smile right as it dropped from her face.

“Persy knows,” I said, leaning down to speak closer to her ear.

Reyna looked up at me easily. She’d stopped tensing every time our faces got this close, like she was growing comfortable with me. And damn if that didn’t send pride tightening my stomach. “I figured.”

Then she turned to Persy, “I hope you gave him hell for this idea.”

Persy laughed brightly. “Oh, trust me. I believe my exact words wereoh, you are so dumb.”

“Good,” Reyna returned with a laugh. “Even though it has been working spectacularly.”

“Your father already said something?” I asked. I knew he’d be disgruntled but if he saidanythingto her other than expressing mild disappointment—no, even that felt too far.

Reyna shook her head. “The paper,” she quietly reminded me. “Although, I’m sure my father will have words quite soon.”

I needed to figure out a way to find out exactly what words those would be, if only to start planning how seriously I would injure him.

“Your father can—politely and with all respect to you—fuck off,” Persy said, walking over to plop down on one of my couches, stretching out long. I even had to laugh at that. For all my sister’s obvious light and bright energy, she had little tolerance for people she didn’t like.

Reyna laughed again, and standing this close I could feel it, vibrating through her and into me.

Thank the Fates she was looking at Persy. I wasn’t sure what my face looked like, but I knew whatever it was, it was the opposite of control.

“You have visitors,” Emre said, pushing through the door with a brutal efficiency that matches the clean shave of his hair.

And with that—the rays of sun that broke through were cut in half by dark clouds, shoving them away.

Chapter 9

Reyna

I didn’t have even a second to think about how absolutely insane this whole thing was. Sure, I’d spent years as Daphne’s friend. But gossiping in libraries was a veryDaphnething.

Even at her wedding, we’d celebrated as old friends. She was never Lady Athena, now Poseidon, to me.

But she might be more likely to blend in with her fellow gods, retreating into the strength of a deity than to make me feel any less singled out as the only human in the room.

As if summoned by the thoughts, Emre, Adrian’s head guard who’d introduced himself to me when he showed up on my doorstep, nodded at me before taking a place at the far end of the room. Again, clearly to listen, not to offer support.