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Ares

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

NEW YORK - SIN NIGHTCLUB

"Are you sure everything is ready for Serenity's arrival?" I ask my new assistant, sitting across from me at my desk in SIN's office.

"Yes, Mr. Kostanidis. Everything is exactly as ordered."

"And the setting up of her dance studio?"

"Still in progress, but they assured me it will be ready five days before Miss Blanchet lands in New York."

"You’ll put her on one of our planes. I don't want her on a regular flight."

"Regarding that, Mr. Kostanidis, your..." He pauses, as everyone usually does when they speak to me about Serenity. No one knows how to define her in my life, not even my brothers. "Your ward said she prefers a commercial flight."

"No, she will come on my plane."

Two years have passed since I became responsible for her, and during all that time, I have remained relatively at a distance—or at least that's what everyone thinks. Yes, I gave her the freedom to grow, ensuring that Serenity would have everything she needed, but I was never really far away.

From the moment I dropped her off at home after taking her to dinner, that long-ago night in New Orleans, I understood the purest concept of the word “obsession”. That's what she became to me. The more I tried to neutralize it in my bloodstream, the more it seemed to burrow under my skin.

For two years, I watched her grow, blossom. She became what she was destined to be: a successful dancer, and not just any dancer, but one who moves audiences around the world.

During those two years, her relationship with that brat Otis Schulz solidified.

I turned his life upside down and couldn't find anything discreditable about the boy. He comes from a good family, as Serenity herself had already told me, he is even richer than her, and above all, which is the most important thing for me: he seems absolutely devoted to my... protégé .

I feel my jaw tighten, as it always does when I think about this, even though I know I made the right decision in never giving in to my desire for her. I would have destroyed her if I had taken her to bed, and that's what would have happened if I’d stayed around her.

I know myself.

I wanted her before I could even see her face. I wanted her voraciously in that little dressing room at the theater in New Orleans. I fantasized about her perfect body beneath mine, her legs around my waist as I sank inside her.

I forbade myself from having her, however. Serenity was young . . . She still is very young and vulnerable. She deserves someone who’ll lay the world at her feet, and I'm not that person. Just as I believe will be the case with Hades, I don't intend to get married, and it takes just one look at the girl's innocent face to understand that, for her, only the complete package will be good enough.

It doesn't matter that she told me she doesn't intend to get married either—women like Serenity deserve a fairy tale.

I can give her a dirty fuck, make her scream with pleasure riding my dick, but I can't give her anything other than good sex, and in the end, when I got tired of her, which I eventually would, she would be wrecked.

In the twenty-four months since I became her guardian, my family's revenge against the Gordons finally came to fruition. My parents' names were avenged.

Yes, my parents .

Both of them, because nothing we thought we knew about my mother's story was true. Emerson Gordon was never anything but a lying bastard, and in the end he got the punishment he deserved.

Zeus and Dionysus are married now—my older brother to Madison, the former dancer, and Dionysus to the former nanny of Joseph, my nephew.

I think about those couples and wonder if, for us, the Kostanidou, simple will ever be an option. Even though both my brothers are now happy with their wives, they went through hell before reaching the pot of gold at the end of the fucking rainbow.

"And the bodyguards I requested?" I ask.

For the first time since the meeting started, my new assistant, Elmer, looks at me in confusion. He's only been with me for three months, and initially, I thought we wouldn't work well together. He is methodical and lives life like he’s wearing blinders. Anything that deviates even a millimeter from what he’s planned leaves him lost.

I soon realized, however, that he has a greater than normal ability to adapt. He's a geek, certainly, but he's good at what he does, and although I know that plan B takes him out of his comfort zone, he has managed to perform his duties competently.

"I thought Miss Blanchet already had a team to protect her."

"We talked about this last week, Elmer."

He coughs, and I know the reason. I called him by his first name. Fuck me if the kid doesn't think he was born into royalty.

"Yes, I know, but I thought?—"

"Let's get something straight: when it comes to Serenity, don't think. That role is mine . I want her safe, and if you haven't noticed yet, my desire is not a request, it's an order . If it is necessary to hire an entire army to protect her, it will be done."

I hear two knocks on the door, and without the secretary announcing them, Hades and Dionysus enter.

I gesture with my head for Elmer to leave, and once he shuts the door behind him, I stand up to greet my brothers.

Hades has been visiting more often, even though he is still full of secrets, mysterious and dark. Dionysus, on the other hand, only comes when he wants to discuss something serious, as he doesn't want to anger his fiery redhead by coming home late at night. Cici, his wife, seems sweet as a pot of honey, but she has a hell of a temper and is one of the few people I've seen to date with the courage to stand up to my brother.

"A visit?" I ask, directing my question to Dionysus. "Bored with married life?"

He doesn't tell me to fuck off, as he normally would. Dionysus is completely dominated by his wife, crazy about her, and he has no problem in admitting it.

Neither of them says anything, and it only takes a few seconds for me to understand that something is wrong.

"What the hell is happening?" I ask, already standing.

"Your cell phone is turned off."

"No, it—" I pick up the device and see that the battery is dead.

Shit!

"What’s wrong?" I ask, because I know they're not bringing me good news.

"Serenity."

I feel my blood run cold. "What?"

"She’s been hospitalized. We need to go to New Orleans.