Chapter Six
The arrow is light in my hands, and cool to the touch. I shiver when I remember how Eros used this on me. Tortured my skin with both pleasure and pain. I couldn’t figure out what it was before, but now it all makes sense, and doesn’t at the same time.
I look up into his eyes and he’s observing me cautiously. As if he’s afraid I’ll run. Which is valid since that is what I was going to do a moment ago.
I hold up the shaft, swallowing the lump that’s formed in my throat. “Who are you really, and why the hell do you have an arrow in your hotel room?”
Eros takes a small step toward me in all his naked glory. He holds up his hands in the gesture that says he means no harm, the corner of his mouth lifting into an impish half smile.
“I didn’t lie when I said my name is Eros.
” He stops moving when he’s close enough I can smell his rich floral, spice and vanilla scent.
It’s dizzying, and automatically I want to close the rest of the distance between us.
To kiss him and let him fuck me again, to give myself to him in all ways possible.
I step back automatically to try and lessen all the feelings swirling in my body, but I don’t have much space between me and the wall.
Eros looks confused by my need to get away, and I point the sharp end of the arrow at him in warning.
“Theo,” he says softly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I want to believe that. But I’m confused, and everything my brain is implying about the man before me doesn’t make sense.
His name is Eros, he’s a matchmaker, he has an arrow in his hotel room, and not only looks like a god, but fucks like one too.
There is also his glowing skin, his overly handsome looks and I remember thinking it was odd he kept saying “gods” instead of “god.” That’s not a usual thing for someone to cry out.
But for him to actually be a god? The one and only Eros. The Roman cupid—it’s absolutely wild to believe it to be true. And if he is, why in the hell would he be in a Grove City hotel, of all places, fucking me on Valentine’s Day?
A light touch to my cheek refocuses my gaze to Eros.
I was so lost in thought I didn’t register that he had moved.
Or that he now holds the arrow in his hand.
I tell my feet to move, to run, but my heart won’t let me.
It’s like I’m stuck in his energy field, and nothing in the world could take me away.
“You’re putting the pieces together.” He strokes his thumb over my cheek.
“Am I dreaming?” Because honestly, that’s the only logical explanation. Eros isn’t real. He can’t be.
“You’re not dreaming, Theo. Everything that happened tonight has been real.”
I wet my lips, eyes dropping to the arrow in his hand. “It’s impossible.”
“Is it?” Eros lifts the arrow for me to see. “This is in fact an arrow.” He presses his finger to the tip of it, his shoulders rolling back and his lungs filling with air like it just gave him power.
“Touch it,” he says.
I don’t know why I listen, but I do. Pleasure zips through my body and if my cock wasn’t so used, I swear it would come back to life again.
I pull my finger away and hold it in my other hand. “What was that?”
“This arrow’s magic is unique in that it heightens one’s senses.”
“And you have more than this?”
He nods. “I have one to draw humans together when their souls are destined and they need a little shove. Others to break toxic love, and even one to cause friendly chaos.”
I stare at the golden arrow as his words really sink in. Humans. Souls. Destiny…
He’s admitting that he’s a god. That he’s really Eros, and he uses magic arrows to help people fall in love...among other things. My insides twist, and my eyes sharpen at the arrow.
“Did you do something to me with one of those? Is that how you got me here?”
His gaze turns serious and she shakes his head. “Does it feel like I did that to you?”
I think of the moment we met. I was drawn to him, sure, but I didn’t feel like a magical force made me be here. I wanted to be here with him, to have a fun night with a beautiful man after what I’d been through.
“Then why tell me all this? Why not let me leave, thinking this was the best sex of my life with a stranger? You didn’t even have to tell me your full name. I would have kept calling you E.”
Eros takes my hand and pulls me to the bed. The arrow he was holding is gone now, and I’d ask him where it went if he wasn’t dragging my eyes to look into his. His thumb presses into my chin.
“Because you’re mine.”
“W-what?
“You’re mine, Theo. You’ve always been mine, and there was no need for one of my arrows to bring us together. Destiny did it for us.”
I gape at him, attempting to process what he’s saying.
He doesn’t blink, doesn’t move, and laughter explodes from my lips a moment later.
Eros doesn’t laugh, but I can’t stop myself.
It rolls out of me, one wave after the other.
My stomach hurts and my eyes are watering by the time I finally stop, but still Eros hasn’t joined in.
I swallow and wipe my eyes, pinching my arm a moment later. Eros swats my hand away to stop me.
“Theo, what are you doing?”
“I had to check if this was a dream.”
“You’re not dreaming.”
The man—or should I say god—seated before me takes my face in his hands, and grips my cheeks.
“Theo,” he exhales, and presses his forehead to mine. “None of this is a joke. Please, take a moment and look into your heart. You know what I’m saying is true, you wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.”
“Eros,” I mutter, but I don’t pull away.
“Please,” one of his hands drops from my cheek, and he lays it over my heart. It thumps under his palm, and I close my eyes, breathing in his scent.
I think again about what brought me here.
I’ve never been to this hotel before, yet I ended up here and I just happened to share a booth with him at the bar.
I think of how easy he was to talk to, how my heart should have felt broken after Ricky, but didn’t.
How saying yes to spending the night with him felt effortless, and trusting him felt like second nature.
Eros has done things to my body I would have never let a stranger do before.
I let him use me, and he let me use him.
My heart pounds in my ears, and the butterflies that have been there since the moment we met flutter like frantic hummingbird wings in my stomach, each beat pulling me closer to him—like our bodies already remember how perfectly they fit together.
Eros strokes his thumb against my cheek in slow and loving strokes. I exhale and open my eyes, pulling back so I can see him.
He looks frightened, no longer the self-assured, confident god from before—just a man afraid of what I’ll say next.
The sight hits me in the gut, and all I want is to take that fear away.
But to be fair, this is not something I was expecting to happen tonight.
And I can’t forget this man is not really a man at all.
He’s telling me he’s a god. A god I thought was a myth.
“This is a lot for me to take in,” I speak honestly.
“I understand. It is for me as well.”
I cock my head to the side in question. “What do you mean?”
He brushes my cheek with this thumb once more, before holding both my hands in his. I should probably pull away to have this conversation, but his touch is grounding, and the idea of pulling away makes me feel ill. A thought that should be concerning, but I can’t find it in me to care.
“I’ve been around for a long time, Theo.”
“How long?” The question is ridiculous, but I need to know.
“Does it matter?”
“I don’t know,” I say honestly. “But I’m asking you, so please tell me.”
“I don’t know.”
“Eros…”
He squeezes my hands almost desperately. “I don’t know, because my age transcends time. I’m a god, I’ve been around since the dawn of creation, therefore I can’t give you an age. But I’m old, Theo. Older than even I can comprehend.”
“And you’re asking me to believe that in all that time, you’ve never found a lover, or whatever I am.”
Eros stares down at our joined hands before his eyes return to mine, looking anguished.
“I’d be a liar if I said I’ve not taken lovers—but they were not the other half of my soul. They were not you. They were not mine.”
His anguished eyes transform, leaving no doubt that what he’s saying is true. He drags one of our joined hands until it’s resting over his heart this time. I feel it beating as my human one does.
“I know you may question it, but I’ll spend the rest of eternity convincing you that we belong together. That my heart was made to beat for you, and you alone.”
“I won’t live for eternity.”
“But you will, Theo. If you choose me, choose to be mine like I have chosen you, you will.”
I want to laugh again, or pinch myself again, but the steady beating of Eros’s heart under my palm, and the breath in my lungs tells me this is real. And so does my gut. Despite it being unbelievable.
“Why me?” I ask.
“Why not you?”
“I’m a human. One who just got out of a shit relationship. A florist of all things! How can I be destined for you? And is destiny the only reason you went after me tonight?”
“I think you know that’s not true.”
“Do I?”
The question feels ridiculous, but self-doubt still creeps in. I think of every failed relationship, Ricky included, and all the men who saw me as the “just for now” guy, instead of the forever one. And now I’m supposed to believe I’m fated to a god?
“First of all, you’re more than a human florist. You’re smart, funny, and handsome.
You know how to grow plants, and help them flourish.
Not to mention, you know your wines.” I smile at him softly before he continues.
“You’ve limited yourself, and those around you have contributed to the thoughts in your mind that have kept you small.
But you’re capable of whatever you put your mind to, Theo. ”
Warmth spreads through my chest, and I find myself blinking away emotion from his observations. “And you know that, how?”