I take his phone and pull up the voicemail. My hands are shaking as I push the Play button. Immediately Aphrodite’s voice permeates the room. For once, she doesn’t sound sweetly poisonous. She’s too furious.
“What part of ‘Bring me her heart’ did you not understand, Eros? Why am I hearing that you’re going to marry the woman?” She draws in a harsh breath. “I thought you could follow simple orders, but apparently even that’s beyond you. It must be that, because I know you’re not trying to play white knight to her damsel in distress. You’re not capable of it.”
I flick a look to Eros, but he’s got his face arranged in an unreadable mask.
On the phone, Aphrodite’s voice is vibrating with rage. “I was willing to do this the nice way, out of respect for you obviously having a soft spot for the girl, but you’ve spit in my face. She’ll pay the price. Your bluff about marrying her isn’t cute, and now she’s going to suffer for it. Before the end, she’ll be scared and alone and in pain, and it will be your fault.”
My chest is too tight. There isn’t enough air in the room. I march to the window, intent on wrestling it open, only to find that it doesn’t open at all. “What the fuck?”
“Psyche.” Eros takes the phone back and then catches my hands, bringing them to his chest. “I won’t let my mother harm you.”
I give a harsh laugh. It hurts my throat—or maybe that’s just the tightness there that isn’t dissipating. “I think we’ve more than established that you can’t control your mother.”
“She won’t harm you,” he repeats. “I promise. After tonight, it will be a moot point. You’ll be beyond her grasp.”
I shouldn’t believe him. All these years surviving in this cutthroat city, and I’ve never had an issue with keeping my emotions in check. The only time I let down my walls is around my sisters, and even then not always entirely. They’re dealing with their own stuff, after all. We’ve taken turns propping one another up when the situation gets tough.
Trusting someone outside that tiny circle is unthinkable.
Eros isn’t promising to prevent his mother from killing me out of the goodness of his heart. It wouldn’t further our mutual goals if she managed to do something to stop the wedding. He’s invested in marrying me, and if I don’t fully understand his reasoning, I can at least trust that it’s what he wants. That knowledge should comfort me, but it rings hollow.
“I believe you.” I clear my throat. “I suppose now’s a good time to tell you that Persephone told my mother about the wedding and she will be attending.”
Eros stares at me a long moment, and then he throws his head back and a laugh booms forth. The sound surprises me so much, I jump, but he’s too busy laughing his ass off to notice. He actually has to wrap an arm around his waist to maintain his upright position.
I cross my arms and wait him out. “By all means, get it out of your system now.”
To his credit, he doesn’t make me wait long. He straightens and shakes his head. “We’re going to have to up our game to stay one step ahead of our mothers. This should be interesting.”
“Interesting. That’s one way to put it.”
Eros moves to the door, but he stops before opening it. “Trust me.”
“In this, I do.” It’s almost the truth. I can’t afford to lean on Eros, can’t afford to assume our endgames match up. But I can trust that he is as invested in getting this marriage off the ground as I am, fake relationship or no.
He gives me a slow smile, heat slipping into his eyes. “And, Psyche? I meant it when I said you look divine. I want to eat you right up. Again.” He slips out the door before I can formulate a response.
What is there to say?
I’ve already established that Eros is a consummate liar and that’s he’s cold down to his very soul. It doesn’t matter how warm his eyes get when they look at me, how intoxicating his smile. I can’t trust it.
It didn’t feel fake when he had his mouth on me earlier, though. When his hands shook as he gripped my thighs and his voice went rough and low. In that moment, it felt like he wanted me just as much as I want him. More, even, because he didn’t seem to be fighting his reaction.
A lie. It has to be a lie. We needed to rip the bandage off, so that’s what we did. If I still desire him, there’s a logical conclusion as to why. Adrenaline and pheromones. A physical response is normal under these less-than-normal conditions. That’s all.
I’ve almost managed to convince myself that it’s the truth by the time I step into the elevator to take me down to the room Eros has claimed for the event. Persephone is at my side, and she’s doing the beaming-sunshine thing she does whenever we have to deal with the Thirteen. I try to draw myself in, to push everything that matters to me down deep and lock it away so that nothing that happens tonight can hurt me.