Page 8

Castor waved away the waiter who’d wheeled in a cart of food with a gruff “thanks” and fiddled with the placement of what he’d ordered, setting the items up on the coffee table before moving the cart out of the way.

Stupid to feel edgy. He was the son of Zeus, a successful and very rich man with a mostly fulfilling life. And he was about to make a romantic gesture.

Nerves strung tight through him, making him as edgy as a nymph at one of Dionysus’s orgies.

Leia had been in that bath for ages. Damn tempting to join her but making a move on her tonight would be the worst possible timing. Yes that kiss had given him hope—until she’d stated it was a ruse at least—but with everything she was dealing with, all because of him, only an asshole would try something.

This was about Leia.

She’d looked so fragile, her pale skin practically translucent, only emphasizing dark circles under her eyes, as she’d gone into the bathroom. Trying so hard to be brave, but werewolves were fucking unpredictable and dangerous because of it, and this one clearly had it in for her.

To have to face him…

Castor shook his head and tweaked one of the dishes into a better position. He hoped. Aesthetics for an airplane were more his thing than arranging a relaxing meal.

“What’s this?”

He turned and his nerves settled at the sight of her. Dry, wrapped in a white terry cloth bathrobe, something black and silky peeking out the bottom, and damn appealing, her blond hair a cloud around her face.

“How do you do that?” he asked.

Now he was turning into her with the non sequiturs.

“Do what?”

“Come out dry and…perfect.” He couldn’t stop his voice from dropping on the last word.

Her cheeks turned red, which only made her more appealing, but she also smiled. “It’s a nymph thing. Part of our…magic…I guess you could say.”

“Handy.”

“Very.”

He shifted. “This is for you.”

Her eyebrows went up, but curiosity had her coming closer to inspect what he had. After a second, she bit her lip. “You got me all things to hydrate?”

He shrugged. “Yes.”

“That’s just…” She shook her head as she trailed off.

Just what? Adorable? Creepy? Concerning? Not part of their relationship as boss and employee? What was she thinking? He honestly couldn’t tell. “Sit down.”

At her small smile, he realized that he’d basically barked an order. But he felt foolish enough at this point, no way was he taking it back.

Besides. She sat. “Herbal tea. A cucumber salad. Coconut water. Several kinds of juice. And noodle soup.” Again with the small smile. “You’ve thought of everything.”

He eyed the assemblage of items. “It’s what I could get on short notice. I guess it is a bit of an odd mix.”

“It’s lovely.”

Two words guaranteed to make him feel like more than a demigod in her eyes. “I thought about starting the fire but wasn’t sure if that went with the theme or would counteract the hydrating.”

“Actually, a fire would be nice,” she said, sitting down. She poured herself some of the herbal tea and sat back, wiggling her bare feet up onto the couch with a sigh.

He picked up the remote and clicked a button. “Modern humans have taken away displays of manliness,” he commented.

That got a full laugh from her. By Olympus, he loved that sound. Clear and sweet, like bells, or the gurgle of a brook.

“You should laugh more,” he said, before he could stop himself.

Leia sobered. “I haven’t had much reason to.”

“I get that.” He glanced at the seating. He knew what he should do. He should take the armchair and give her space. This was about taking a moment for her.

He just couldn’t quite make himself do it. Instead he grabbed her by the ankles and lifted, gently so she didn’t spill her tea, and sat down with her feet across his lap. “Do you have a thing with feet?”

She frowned over her cup. “With feet?”

He shrugged. “Some people don’t like their feet touched.”

She lowered the cup to look at him sideways. “I guess that depends, Castor. What are you planning to do to my feet?”

“Nothing weird.” He leaned over to pick up a tube marked “soothing gel.” “They told me at the spa that this was…great.” Actually, the lady’s word was orgasmic, but he wasn’t saying that. Tonight wasn’t a seduction, dammit.

“Oh.” Leia blinked. “That sounds nice, but I tell you what. How about you do my feet and I’ll do yours.”

“No thanks.”

“I feel bad being the only one getting the full treatment here.” She waved at the goodies. “It’s only fair.”

“I’d rather not.”

Leia studied him with narrowed eyes. “ You don’t like people touching your feet. Do you?”

“Do you want the goo, or not?” He shook the tube at her.

Shoulders shaking in silent laughter, she nodded. “Please.”

Luckily, her feet were already clean and bare, her toes neatly trimmed and painted a soft pink. Castor squished some of the gel into his palm, smoothed it over the bottom of her foot and, trying to be gentle, worked it into the skin, giving her a foot massage at the same time.

“Oh, wow.” Her moan went straight to his dick.

This was a bad fucking idea. He should’ve got her the hydrating things and left the room, because now all he wanted to do was make her moan again.

“Has anyone ever told you you have magic hands?”

Castor opened his mouth to answer, only her hand shot up. “If you say something like only in the bedroom, I might kick you,” she said.

He huffed a tight laugh. “Actually, I was going to say that my wife liked foot rubs.”

The words left his mouth and he waited again for that sharp lance of pain, but none came. Just a pleasant warmth with the memory.

Meanwhile, Leia looked at him with a hundred questions in her eyes. And Castor found himself wanting to share this part of himself that only his brother knew.

“Pollux and I captured our wives and stole them from our cousins, who they were promised to. Hilaera was a priestess of Artemis, and we’d grown up together. Hers was an arranged marriage and he did not love her.”

“But you did?” Leia asked softly.

Castor nodded. “Since we’d been children. I was young and stupid and arrogant as most demigods can be. It’s hard to be taught humility when you have the strength of the gods running through your veins and are surrounded by puny humans who adore you. The things Pollux and I did to our mother…” He shook his head.

“I can just picture it. That poor, poor woman.”

He snorted a laugh. “Don’t you believe it. She was a juggernaut and we loved her the most until the day she died.”

The curse of immortality and loving humans.

“Anyway, Hilaera and I ran and had one spectacular year together and she became pregnant with my child. But the goddess Artemis—my half sister by technicalities—was angry that I’d taken one of her priestesses and told my cousin where to find us. I was out hunting when he attacked.”

Castor broke off and closed his eyes, concentrating on the motions of his hands as he worked on her feet. “She and my unborn child were both burned to death in our home.”

“I’m so sorry,” Leia said softly.

Many had said the words before, but somehow with her they struck true, like Eros’s arrows, and the pain of the memory that had coiled around his heart like a hydra, squeezing the joy and life from his life for ages, melted away.

Was it possible for a demigod to find happiness? Most of his bastard cousins, spawned by various gods, had only found misery.

Still, immortality meant that with time all things were possible.

“Me too,” he said.

“If you did things like this for her, she was a lucky woman.” Leia wiggled her feet. “Heck, if you did this for me regularly, I might sell you my soul.”

She was trying to lighten things up for him. After watching her with the employees they helped through his secret giving, he knew her generous heart hated to see anything in pain. It didn’t mean she cared for him, just that he was in pain and she wanted to help.

But Castor sent up a prayer to his father, something he hadn’t done in a thousand years. If she gifted me her heart, I would cherish it. Always.