Empire of Lust (Gods of Olympus Book 2) Page 4

  I hadn’t thought of that. “Maybe I accidently touched the stove. I wasn’t thinking.” I could pull that off. I was lying about everything else, what was one more thing? I felt bad for bringing Laird into my lies, but it couldn’t be helped. Lying was necessary sometimes.

  “That’s a good one.” He tied off the bandage. “And we’re all done here.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  We stood and there was a moment when neither of us moved. It seemed like Laird was going to say something, but then he didn’t. All I could think about was how close we were and how I could feel the crackle of lightning in the air surrounding us.

  Why couldn’t he feel it too?

  “I should start cleaning,” I said to break the silence. I wondered what was on Laird’s mind and why he decided to keep his words to himself.

  “I’ll help you.”

  “Oh, you don’t need to do that. It’s my mess.”

  “And we’ll get it done sooner together. Plus, you’ve only got one hand, so it’s going to take twice as long if you do it all on your own.”

  He had a point, and I wasn’t going to kick him out of the house. I got the feeling I would never want to kick him out of the house. He could stay as long as he liked. Hell, he could move in if he wanted to.

  I thanked him again, and we went downstairs to the scene of the crime. It wasn’t as bad as I remembered it. Black smoke and ash covered half the counter and some of the wall. It hadn’t been high enough to reach the ceiling. The stove needed a good clean, but there was no saving the curtains or the pan.

  We started cleaning and I found a large trash bag to dispose of the ruined items. “Can I purchase these curtains at the mall?” I asked. Surely they had to come from somewhere. I couldn’t imagine Willa having the time to make them herself.

  “I haven’t seen these particular ones anywhere I’ve been before,” Laird replied. “But you could buy better ones and tell her the old ones looked a bit worn.”

  “Would she be okay with that?”

  “Maybe.” He shrugged his shoulders and grimaced at the same time. “But you don’t really have any other choice.”

  “Can I ask you another favor?” I bit down on my lip and did my best to look pathetic. Normally I didn’t have to beg men for favors. Normally they threw themselves at me to help.

  “You want me to help you shop for them?” he guessed. Correctly, I might add.

  “Do you mind?”

  “I’ve got to go to the mall anyway. We can pick up some curtains and a pan at the same time.”

  A wide smile crept across my face. He wasn’t exactly falling at my feet, but at least I didn’t feel the hostility rolling from him anymore. Perhaps burning my hand had been a blessing in disguise.

  After we returned the kitchen back its former state, Laird drove me to the same mall that Willa and I had visited the previous day. I was happy that I remembered where Sears was and could find my way around without getting lost.

  I found some curtains that were far nicer than Willa’s previous ones and a pan that looked similar to the one I ruined. There was no good reason for why I would replace her pan, so I hoped she didn’t notice the difference.

  Laird was in the art supply store when I caught up with him. “You need all these tools to sculpt?” I asked, my gaze sliding over the long aisle of tools on display.

  “Not really. Sometimes I just use my hands. Other times, I prefer to use a spatula. They like to sell all these things, so it makes it seem really complicated.”

  “It is complicated, isn’t it?” The artists back home were revered for their skills. It was a talent that could only be borne within someone. Everyone respected the sculptors in Olympus.

  Laird cocked his head to one side while he thought about his answer. “Yes and no. Sometimes it’s really easy, and it’s like I need to free the statue from the clay. Other times, it takes me a while to get into it.”

  “Your muse must speak with you often.”

  “Yeah, it would be nice if it was more often. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so behind for this next exhibition.” He picked a sharp tool and we walked to the serving area. “I thought I had plenty of time, and now it’s all gone.”

  “How exciting, though, to be able to show off your wares to other people. I’ve never been artistic like that.” Even though I had been friends with Muse since I was little, she never graced me with any talent. I had always admired people that had been blessed by her.

  “It’s a blessing and a curse,” Laird said before he paid for his tool. I didn’t really understand what he meant, but it felt foolish to ask him to clarify for me.

  When Laird talked about his art, he lit up like there was a flame burning within him. He didn’t need to tell me it was an absolute passion for me to see it. Every word he spoke, every part of his body language, explained it to me.

  There was something supremely alluring about a man who had found his passion and purpose in life. I had a sudden and overwhelming desire to kiss him. Those lips that had just spoken now beckoned me closer.

  I took a step closer to Laird, feeling drawn toward him. But Laird just smiled and stepped around me so he could keep walking.

  My face burned with embarrassment as I fought to hide my thoughts. He probably thought I was crazy, throwing myself at him at random times. I just wasn’t used to men backing away from me. Normally it was me that had to dodge their advances.

  “The mall is very large,” I said as I tried to cover my mistake. It was impossible to bear any kind of silence right now. My cheeks were hot as I willed them to cool down and stop making it worse.

  “It is quite large, yes.”

  The further we walked, the more comfortable it grew. By the time we reached Laird’s car, it was almost back to normal between us. I made a mental note to stop thinking about Laird that way. He didn’t want me, so I shouldn’t want him either.

  A girl had her pride, after all.

  Laird helped me hang the curtains and get them as perfect as possible so Willa would be pleased instead of annoyed. I fixed us both a sandwich as a snack—it required no cooking or sharp knives.

  We sat on the balcony in the afternoon sun drinking cold lemonade. It had been a stressful day with the fire and the cleanup. Spending it with Laird made it that much more tolerable while my father’s words still lingered fresh in my mind.

  He talked about his art which seemed like a safe subject. I was happy to listen to him as long as he wanted to speak. His voice was like toffee as it wrapped around me.

  If he were in Olympus, he would be very popular. Not only as an artist but as an orator. People would pay vast amounts of money to hear him tell stories of the old and the brave.

  It was when the conversation turned to me that I started to panic. “So what brings you to Ocean Rise?” The question was so simple, but it could so easily unravel my lies.

  “I thought it would be a good place to have a fresh start,” I replied, praying he wouldn’t delve any further into the subject. We were supposed to be talking about him.

  “Sounds like you left something behind.”

  “Escaped something, more like it.” A marriage. An unhappy future. A scandal. An angry father. Escaping was definitely a better way to put it.

  He paused as if he wanted to ask more but wasn’t sure if he should. “What are your plans here? I hope your aspirations go beyond burning down a kitchen.” He had the most gorgeous smile.

  “I… I don’t really have any yet. I thought I would see how things go.” My plans had involved waiting for the exile to end. However, my father’s letter made me think I shouldn’t hold my breath. I would need to start thinking of something longer term.

  “You’re lucky to have that freedom.”

  It didn’t feel like freedom. I was a goddess trapped on earth. I had none of my true powers and couldn’t let anyone know who I was. If I thought about it too long, all the air would start to go from my lungs.

  The conversation was drifting toward dangerous territory. I had to do something to stop it. “Would you like to stay for dinner? Willa might be home soon so we can all eat together. It’s the least I can do for your help today.”

  Just as I finished speaking, Willa appeared through the back door from inside. “Here you are. Oh, and Laird too. Hi, guys.”

  We turned around to face her, grateful for the interruption. I stood and brushed the dirt from my skirt. “Hey, Willa. We were just talking about dinner.”

  “I have some frozen lasagna in the freezer I was going to cook up with some salad. There’s enough for everyone,” Willa offered. Relief was palpable. I thought I was going to have to attempt cooking again. I couldn’t face burning down the kitchen twice in one day.

  “Sounds wonderful. Laird?”

  He stood. “Are you sure you don’t mind me staying?”

  Willa threw out her arms. “The more, the merrier. After the day I’ve had, I think I’ll open up a bottle of wine too. I can’t drink alone anymore, that’s just sad.”

  “In that case, how can I say no?”

  As it turned out, it was in my capabilities to take something from the freezer and place it in the oven to be heated. No fire at all was involved, and the kitchen remained unscathed by the end of it.

  The three of us ate on the back verandah in the warm summer evening. The twilight night lingered for a long time and highlighted all the stars that were about to start twinkling in the distance. It was difficult to think it was the same sky we shared in Olympus.

  Somewhere out there, very far away, was my home and everyone I loved.

  How long would it be before I made it back there again? What would my life be like when I did? Everything would have changed, including me.

&
nbsp; “I propose a toast,” Willa said as she held up her wine glass and stood with wobbly legs. She had drunk most of the bottle herself by that point. “To friendships. Both new and old.”

  Laird and I held up our glasses, and we all clinked them together. “To friendships.”

  Willa took a long gulp and finished off her wine. She’d explained that a patient had died on her shift today, hence the need to drink and forget. She seemed to care very deeply about her job and the people she looked after. It’s what made her such a good person.

  I could learn a lot from Willa.

  She inhaled deeply as she sat down again. “Does anyone else smell smoke?”

  Laird and I looked at each other. He smirked while I tried to stave off the approaching heart attack. His features turned into that of confusion as he replied, “No, I don’t. But I think I heard something about a controlled backburning fire somewhere around here today. That’s probably it.”

  “Yeah, I heard about that too,” I added. As if just by two people agreeing to something must make it true. Hopefully, Willa would buy it. Maybe drunk Willa was more gullible than sober Willa.

  She shrugged. “I need more wine.”

  I glanced over at Laird, and he grinned with triumph. We could keep our secret for a little while longer. I was grateful he was covering for me and my stupid lack of ability.

  Maybe he didn’t hate me after all.

  6

  No matter how long I laid in bed and tried to think of a plan for my life in Ocean Rise, none ever came. I didn’t know enough about living in this town to picture myself settling here. It was a waiting place and nothing more. Everything was only temporary until I could go home.

  But no matter how long I remained, I would still need to feed myself. Shuffling down to the kitchen, I couldn’t bear thinking about cooking yet. Eggs would have been delicious, but not if I had to wrangle with the stove again.

  Willa was still out of Froot Loops, so I spread some honey on the last slice of bread in the pantry. It was clear I hadn’t purchased enough food when we went to the market a few days earlier. I had no idea what I was doing then and only a little more knowledgeable now.

  I needed to get to the market, but Willa wasn’t there to drive me. I couldn’t rely on her to get me around. It was time I worked it out on my own. There was no way I could be stuck in the house for the duration of my exile.

  I’d seen buses going up and down the street. If they passed by the house, they would have to stop nearby somewhere too. If I could work out if any of them went to the market, all I would have to do was hop on board.

  I could do that.

  Dressing in my red dress for luck, I took my purse and went outside. It wasn’t long before one of the large buses roared by. I stuck out my arm to wave, but it didn’t stop. The driver didn’t even look at me.

  I watched it go with annoyance. It stopped at the end of the street where people filed on. What made them so special? Trudging down the street in my new sandals, the bus was gone by the time I got there. A little hut with a seat was on the corner.

  A schedule was posted on a stick near the edge of the sidewalk. I flicked through it, trying to decipher what all the numbers meant. There were route numbers, times, and stops. So much information and none of it useful to me.

  I didn’t know where the market was.

  I would have to find it on a map. Right now, the schedule was just gibberish. I could jump on any bus and have no idea where it would take me.

  I trudged back up the street.

  Laird was checking his mailbox when I went past. “Morning, Dita. Everything alright?”

  Perhaps I looked as pathetic as I felt. “I need to go to the food market, and I don’t know how to get there. The buses are so confusing.”

  “Public transport sucks around here. The city treats the schedule as more of a suggestion. I have a scooter if you want to borrow it. I haven’t used it for ages.”

  “A scooter?”

  “Yeah, come and have a look.” He held open the white picket gate for me and waited for me to follow him up to his garage.

  He opened the roller door and showed me to a sheet covering something. Pulling it off with a flick of his wrist, it revealed a red scooter covered in a thin layer of dust. “It matches your dress,” he commented.

  I looked down at the colors and they did indeed match. I’d been so confident when I put it on that morning and was already defeated by a bus schedule. “Does it work?”

  “Of course it does. It might be forty years old but they really knew how to make them back then. You have a driver’s license, right?”

  I guessed that was something required in order to drive something like this. “Yes, I do.” It couldn’t be too hard, right? It couldn’t be too different from riding a horse. And that was something I excelled at.

  “Good, good. Ever driven a scooter before?”

  “Um, no. Is it hard?”

  “Not at all. I’ll show you how.” I liked the sound of that. Any time spent with Laird was wonderful, and if it was something that would help me in Ocean Rise, then it was even better.

  He pushed the scooter down the driveway, and I held the gate open for him while he took it out onto the road. Laird went back to the garage to fetch two helmets and handed me one—it was red too.

  We secured the helmets and I waited for Laird to start the lesson. “Hop on,” he instructed.

  Wearing a dress probably wasn’t a good idea for this kind of thing. I held it tightly around my legs while I awkwardly hobbled onto the scooter. My feet sat primly on the metal space in front of the seat. A moment later Laird hopped on behind me. His legs fell either side of me. I could feel the warmth of his body against my back.

  Heat started to rise in my cheeks at the thought of him so close to me. It would have been very scandalous in Olympus for us to be so brazenly near to one another in public. A male and female were not supposed to be so intimate with one another—even with a chaperone watching on.

  Being Aphrodite, my boundaries were quite fuzzy when it came to being with a man. But still, I had to be careful about who saw.

  “This side is the throttle,” Laird explained. His breath whispered in my ear and sent a shiver down my spine. It was difficult concentrating on his instructions with his hard chest pressed against me. “Squeeze it like this, and it goes faster.”

  We jolted forward suddenly and I gave a yelp of surprise. I hadn’t been expecting the scooter to be so powerful. “How do you make it stop?”

  “With this hand.” He tapped my other hand and showed me where to move to make it slow down. We jumped a few paces before the engine cut off.

  “I don’t think learning this thing is as easy as you think it is,” I said. It was a bad idea agreeing to the scooter. I would probably get myself killed before my exile was over. That would teach my father a lesson.

  “You’ll work it out,” Laird soothed. “Hang on and we’ll go for a ride so you can get used to it. The maximum speed is only forty miles per hour so don’t worry about anything.”

  It took a lot of trust to nod my head and allow Laird to take off down the street. The wind flew against us, and I quickly forgot about the imminent danger. It felt like I was flying. I could only get this fast on my horse when we were at full gallop.

  I started to giggle uncontrollably as we rounded a corner. For a moment I thought we were going to crash to the ground, but we kept going unscathed. Riding on the scooter felt like freedom. Like we could go anywhere and do anything.

  The wind whipped at my hair poking from the helmet. Laird let go of the controls and moved his hands to my waist. I was in charge of the machine and could make it go as fast or as slow as I wanted.

  I loved it.

  Having Laird’s arms around me helped. He was there, warm and reassuring that nothing could happen. Cars roared by, so close I could feel their wake. We dodged between them, getting to the front of any lines and taking off first when the lights changed.

  Eventually, we had to return home. Laird showed me a different way to go that meant we had to pass by the marketplace. All I had to do was remember the route and I would be able to find my way back after I dropped him off.

  Which is exactly what I did.