I shake my head, but Hermes levels me with a dark glare.
“I saw you dance once. The Colonel had given us tickets, and we had a plan: a ballerina so enchanting she’d bring Vladik to the party. But I saw my twin’s face as he watched you on that stage. I knew the second he saw you his dick was hard, and he was itching to have you on your knees. Even if only for a little while. What I didn’t realize, is that I lost him that night . . . to you.”
“That’s why he let me go? Because he didn’t think Athena was alive.”
“That, and because if he couldn’t have you, he didn’t want anyone else to either. My brother has only ever thought of himself.”
I look into eyes so foreign and yet so familiar. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you . . .” He pokes my chest, right between my breasts. “You have a heart. You’ll sacrifice yourself to save a complete stranger, and maybe you’ll find a way to save yourself from my brother or maybe you won’t, but you’ll bring Athena back to me, or I will murder you in your sleep.”
I search his gaze, and I see the truth in his words. “You’ll try. Ares won’t let you within three feet of me.”
“You know, it’s not hard to see why my brother likes to punish you. You’re such a fucking spoiled little brat.”
“Says the man smoking pot in his multi-million-dollar mansion.”
“You know he’s never going to agree to this, don’t you?”
I nod, and stare down into the rippling water. “I know.”
“He’s going to beat your ass bloody for even suggesting it.”
“I know that too.”
“Then I hope he lets me watch.”
I rise, my head feeling buzzier than I expected, and I almost trip and fall into the pool, but Hermes grabs hold of both my legs. His face is pressed to my thighs, and he rubs his jaw along my skin. It scratches. I rest my hand on the soft curls, so much like Ares’. He presses his nose to my thigh, and breathes deeply.
I don’t know how to respond, so I just stand there, with a man I hate wrapped around me as if I’m his salvation. He’s my Master’s brother. He’s a monster, but just like my Master, at his core, he’s a man too. One who lost everything. One who’s relying on me to get her back.
I shift away, out of his embrace, and his arms fall to his lap. “I need to get back. Sir will be waiting.”
He laughs, but it’s without humor. “You better pray he’s not, little mouse, or you’ll pay in a pound of flesh.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN