Chapter Fourteen
Payton jumped up the instant they left. “I can’t just sit here like a lump on a log, El. I’ll go insane in under an hour.”
“Did you not hear anything we just discussed?” Elara set aside her sandwich and sighed. “You are giving in to panic again. Besides, if you go anywhere, you’ll be running the gauntlet of horney men and women, all vying for your attention.”
“Shit!”
In all her angst over Dailey, she’d forgotten she was a pork chop to hungry dogs everywhere.
Elara gave her a sickly smile. “On the bright side, at least you aren’t causing earthquakes and volcanic explosions.”
“Oh, and rocks burning up the atmosphere are so much better? We need Hermes,” she concluded with a grimace.
“We do,” her sister agreed. “Or at the very least, Tripp’s mom, Brelenia.”
“Why her?”
“Based on a conversation I overheard between Hermes and Tripp. I believe she’s heavily involved in matchmaking.”
“Why would she do this to me, though?” Payton asked. She couldn’t recall meeting the woman.
“Do the deities ever need a reason to twist a person’s life into a pretzel?”
Elara had a point. Likely, they rolled the dice and gambled on the outcome for fun, leaving the helpless humans to pick up the wreckage of their lives.
“Okay, go get—”
Hermes stepped through the door wearing a roguish grin.
“I really hate him,” she muttered.
“It might help if he looked like a troll instead of a, well, god.”
She did a double-take to make sure it was still her sister standing beside her and not Rowan. “Elara Elizabeth Hawthorne!” she hissed. “What would your new fian?e have to say?”
“My beauties signaled your need, love,” Hermes said as he approached them. “What is it you’d request of me?”
“Oh, I don’t know, let me think. Oh yeah, how about you get these damn things off my feet and—”
He pressed a finger to her lips, but it turned into the lightest of caresses. A frown tugged his brows together, and when his eyes met hers, there was confusion in the depths. It was as if his action disconcerted him.
She knocked his hand away. “What the hell, dude?”
“That shouldn’t have happened,” he said softly, his concern made evident by the way he backed away from her and stared at his hand.
“What? What happened?” she and Elara asked together.
“You must find a way to boost your self-confidence, Payton. If you don’t, the boots will double down on the wanton enchantment. No one will be safe from the effects soon.”
“What does that even mean?” she cried. Her trepidation was growing exponentially. “Are you saying you felt the pull just now?”
“Yes. And it’s dangerous for a god to be attracted to a Titan.”
“What about Tripp?” Elara asked, with a squeak high enough to summon mice.
“He’s a demigod, not quite at full strength. But he, too, will succumb.”
“But he and Elara… They… He can’t…” Payton began dumbly. She faced her sister, who looked as horrified as she felt. “What do I do? Aren’t we stronger together? Can we use our power to counteract all this BS?”
Ignoring her questions, Elara addressed him. “When this enchantment grows, and I sense it already has, the attraction won’t just stop at her, will it? It will expand to everyone in every setting, suddenly feeling randy.”
“It’s possible.”
“Possible or probable,” Payton asked sharply.
“Probable.” His expression was grim, and for once, he wasn’t pretending or covering up his mischievous tendency. “The wantonness will spread, and every living thing will succumb, uncaring of commitments or connections. The need to procreate will consume everything.”
“Get these off my feet, Hermes! Right now!”
“I can’t, Payton. I want to, truly, but they have to run their course before they can be removed.” He sought support from Elara. “Tell her. You know. You wore them in many lifetimes.”
“Yes, and they caused an insane amount of grief. Last year, Tripp and I were on the verge of taking out half of America.” She rushed him and shoved his chest, sending him into the wall.
“It was irresponsible of you and Brelenia to pull this stunt again. How many lives will you wreck with your stupid games, Hermes?”
Payton plopped into the chair, shaken to her core.
“Is the same thing in store for Dailey and me? This destroying each other and the world over many lifetimes until we get it right? What if these increase his ability, and he creates a global event?” She met Hermes’s regretful stare.
“People will hump to death or die from a planet-extinction asteroid.”
“Worrying about the future isn’t dealing with the here and now,” he said firmly.
“Focus! Begin listing all the wonderful things about yourself, and repeat it as a mantra until you feel it. If you can’t find it within you, have Dailey and Elara help.
But trust them to tell you the truth, Payton.
Believe in yourself. Believe people truly want you, and not in a mongrel-hump-your-leg way. ”
His desperation, combined with his words, struck her funny bone. She giggled. Then gave in to her amusement at his and Elara’s shock. Madness numbed her mind to anything but their horrified expressions, and she doubled over, scarcely able to breathe, as tears streamed down her cheeks.
“The… visual…” she gasped. “People… humping others’… legs!”
Elara was the first to break, and a giggle erupted from between her lips, followed by laughter until she, too, was bent in half, clutching her ribs.
Dailey entered to find the women hysterical and Hermes looking like he’d eaten a lime. His puckered expression seemed to send Elara and Payton further over the edge.
“What did we miss?” Tripp asked, delight in his tone as he watched them. There was a man who truly appreciated his woman enjoying herself, especially if it was at Hermes’s expense.
Dailey had been like him once. Whenever he and Payton had gone out and she let loose, he’d sit back, relax, and relish the show.
The pleasure he’d gained from knowing how much she enjoyed herself was immeasurable.
Where had that couple gone? When had he begun putting the wants of the town and his mother above theirs?
A stone lit on her boots, and he was the only one to notice.
There was no denying what it represented—his recognizing he’d put her last when she should’ve been his number one priority.
Crossing to her, he squatted and clasped her hand. “Hey.”
She sobered, watching him warily.
“I owe you the biggest fucking apology ever,” he began. “I—”
Her lips parted, and her tongue darted out to wet them, distracting him.
What was he saying? Something about an apology…
Her cheeks grew flushed, and her curious gaze dropped to his mouth. Once again, she licked her lips, the moisture causing them to glisten.
He craved a taste.
Just one, and then he’d remember what he’d been about to say.
Leaning forward, she met him halfway. They were inches from connecting when Hermes shouted. The words were unintelligible, irksome in their garbled delivery, and Dailey was too focused on Payton to care.
Hands grabbed him, rough and unrelenting, dragging him from his objective. He fought like a madman to get back to her. The need to be with her consumed him.
“Knock him the fuck out, Tripp!” Hermes shouted. “He’s either going to bring down the heavens, or he’s going to curse us all forever by partaking of the forbidden fruit!”
The mention of the latter snapped Dailey out of the bewitchment consuming him.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he asked, still half dazed.
The sisters were staring at his crotch in wide-eyed wonder. He dared a downward glance, then groaned his embarrassment.
What the actual fuck was happening? How had the promise of a stolen kiss sent him into such a state of arousal that he’d forgotten others were present?
“It’s not you,” Tripp said, as if reading his mind. “Her draw is stronger, I can feel it tugging at me. Hermes?”
“Yes. It’s morphing into a whole other animal. Soon enough, we’ll all be walking around with stiffies or hiding behind the shed to rub one out,” Hermes replied grimly.
Never mind the fact that an ancient God used the term “rub one out,” the added visual was as disturbing as it was funny. Apparently Payton and Elara thought so, too, because they dissolved into laughter.
“I don’t understand what this is all about, but you can let me go now.” The instant they did, his attention was caught by the golden gleam of Payton’s hair, positioned temptingly over her shoulder. Her come-hither smile beckoned him, and he was determined to fulfill her wishes.
He was unaware of moving until rough hands dragged him backward again.
“What the hell?” he snapped, ready to curse them to perdition.
“Stay calm,” Tripp warned. “And please hear me when I say, you must leave this place. Payton’s hold over you is growing, and it’s taking all our magic to restrain you.”
“She’s always had a hold over me,” he retorted. Seeing her concern, he smiled his adoration, no longer afraid to reveal how much he cared. “I love you.”
“Although I believe you do, what you’re experiencing in this moment is obsession, Cobb,” Hermes stated in a low voice for his ears alone.
Outraged, Dailey renewed his struggle. “No! It’s not obsess—”
The God clapped a hand over Dailey’s mouth and shot a panicked glance Payton’s way.
Following this sightline, Dailey witnessed her expression crumple into dejection. He licked Hermes’s palm, hoping to ick him into uncovering his mouth.
It worked.
“Payton,” Dailey cried, his anguish at her pain hitting an all-time high. Fighting the two holding him, he strove to get to her. Sweat pooled at his armpits, and he became fevered with the need to comfort her. “It’s okay, Wildfire, it will all be all right. I promise, my love.”
But the more he spoke, the worse her upset became, until it forced him to shut up.
Elara wrapped her in a tight hug, rubbing a hand along her back. “He’s high on magic, Pay. But he does love you. It’s magnifying, remember?”
High? Yes, it was precisely how he was feeling. His mind was fuzzy, and a strange lethargy flowed through him, as if he’d been drugged. Yet he hadn’t consumed anything since breakfast.
Which meant Payton was the source!
They stared at each other in horror, recognizing the problem at once. If he couldn’t get close to her without succumbing to her seductive charms, they couldn’t resolve their problems. And without that resolution, those boots weren’t going anywhere until their world, quite literally, exploded.