3. Girl talk
GIRL TALK
DAPHNE
The first time Noelle asked me about it, I made a face.
It was only the second encounter I had with her, and I still couldn’t get past how this tiny, dark-haired woman with the pale skin and the silver eyes was Alex’s twin sister.
I’ve gotten a better handle on how the relationships work here in the Other—like how Zeus is considered Alex’s dad, and Eros’s mom is a pink-haired goddess who I haven’t met yet—so I accept that she’s his sister, but that just made her curiosity when it came to our sex life a little weird.
We get together every couple of weeks. Alex always moans when there’s another invite, but he never refuses to see Noelle.
He just bitches because he can’t stand Hunter, but I call bullshit on that, too.
I think part of him is happy for his sister and her husband—though, if you ask me, it’s only because he finally has something similar to what they have.
He sure does love to show me off. In Delphi or around his friends—well, subordinates—he can’t keep from slinging his arm around my waist, tucking me close, and telling the whole fucking Other that I’m his soulmate.
His nymph.
His Daphne.
But will he fuck me? He hasn’t yet—and not for a lack of trying on my part.
I’ve been good, though. I don’t want to screw up what we have so it’s not like I can just yank off my dress, point to my pussy, and tell him that I’m waiting.
And, I mean, the idea has a certain merit to it—when I had little time and was horny as hell with some of my previous dates, I might’ve done something just like that—but I’m not looking for a one-night stand.
In the Other, forever means something. If he’s not ready, then we’re not ready, and I get that.
Does it make it any easier to admit when Noelle impishly asks if we sealed the deal just yet?
Not even a little.
Alex’s sister is a Jersey girl. She might’ve grown up in the suburbs instead of the city like me and Willow, but we see things the same.
Plus, she’s only been in the Other for a couple of seasons.
Alex might not get along willingly with Hunter, but I don’t mind hanging out with Noelle.
It’s not like she’s a perv, either. She’s just looking out for her brother.
Looking out for family. I can respect that.
After checking to make sure that Alex and Hunter aren’t near enough to hear our conversation, I shake my head. The words want to stick, but I manage to spit them out. “Not yet. Anytime I try to make it clear that I’m ready, Alex backs off.”
“Really? That’s not like him.”
She’s not wrong. When it comes to almost everything else, Alex is the type of guy to push.
It’s the self-confident side of him, coupled with the arrogant god, I guess.
He goes for what he wants—but he’s being careful, too.
As if he’s afraid that, if he pushes too hard, I might say ‘fuck it’ and go searching for a portal.
Silly Alex. As if he’ll get rid of me that easily. Once I picked him, that was it for me. I’m like fucking velcro. Ask Willow. I’m the spiky side that sticks to the fuzzy bit, and I’m not going anywhere.
I would’ve thought he figured it out by now. Especially since he’s the one who believes in the soulmate crap, that we’re meant for each other.
I shrug. The glass of water that I drank with my dinner is still sitting on the tabletop in front of me.
I swallow the last sip, waving away Noelle’s offer of more.
“It is what it is. If Alex wants to wait ‘til he’s comfortable, I’m fine with it.
” Horny, sure, but I’m not the one who spent the last four decades celibate.
If Alex can keep it in his pants, I can wait until he’s ready to fuck me.
“Now, don’t take this the wrong way,” Noelle begins in that high-pitched voice of hers, “but are you sure that he… you know. Is into girls? Because I told you about my book, right?”
Before I tell her my opinion on Alex’s sexuality, I want to see where she’s going with this. “‘Mythology for Dummies’, yeah. I remember.”
“Exactly. I read it cover to cover, plus I did some research when I went back mirrorside the first time to get my Dud. Some of the stories I read… Apollo is a switch-hitter, if you catch my drift.”
I know. When your soulmate is holding off on putting out for some reason, and there’s no television or internet in the Other, there’s not much to do but talk.
I’ve learned all about Alex Harcourt—the man, and the life he had in Nevada before he found his way to the Other—as well as interesting tidbits about the sun god, Apollo.
From what Alex told me, there isn’t a hole that Apollo wouldn’t stick his dick into.
Not Alex. He’s not a virgin by any means—neither am I—though he hasn’t gotten laid since he crossed over into the Other. When he was still in the human world, though, he was strictly into women only.
Besides, Alex is cocky. Me? I’m vain. My red hair is striking, and there are times he has full conversations with my tits as if he forgets there’s more to me than my cleavage.
He tells me I’m gorgeous all the time, and even if we haven’t had penetrative sex yet, neither one of us are nuns.
Our kissing has progressed to a little more…
exploring lately, though we always stop before we go all the way.
In the beginning, I was the one who pulled back. Lately, though, I’ve been following his lead. Too bad he always leaves me wanting.
“I know I turn him on. When he’s wearing that toga things of his—”
“His chiton?”
I guess. “Looks like a skirt, right? Whatever it is, when he gets hard, you can’t miss it. I mean, I haven’t seen him completely naked yet, but that bulge is fucking huge. Definitely draws the eye, if you know what I mean.”
Noelle wrinkles her nose. “Can we just file that under things that I never needed to hear about my brother?”
I’m sorry, but it’s still so weird to me.
Not even the way she reacts to hearing about his dick when she’s the one who brought up our sex life.
It’s just… like, logically I know that Noelle and Alex aren’t really twins.
For one thing, they look nothing like each other.
For another, they were born decades apart, to two different sets of parents, and are only “related” because one is the reborn Artemis and the other is Apollo.
But they both refer to each other as brother and sister, and her reaction is just like what I’d expect if he was her true twin.
“Sorry.” Maybe gesturing with my hands so she got an idea how big his dick is was pushing it too far.
Oops. “But you get what I’m saying, right?
He tells me he loves me all the time. He can’t deny his body is attracted to me.
I’ve made it clear that I’m ready to take our relationship to the next step, but he always finds some excuse to end our make-out sessions before the clothes start flying. ”
“Alex and his excuses.” Noelle’s pretty face turns thoughtful. “Still, if I know my brother at all, then he has some noble if ridiculous reason why he’s doing that.”
Maybe. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“It wouldn’t. Not to anyone but Alex.”
“We’ve got a good thing going.” It’s only been a couple of months, but it seems like I’ve always known him. “I don’t want to fuck it up because I’m dying to get laid. And it’s not just sex. It’s feeling like we’re together, but not all the way committed. You get me?”
That’s my problem. For all his talk of forever and soulmates and me being his…
it almost seems that he’s keeping his options open.
I know how fond Apollo is of his nymphs.
Is it only because I’m the most recent one to show up in the Other?
Alex told me he’s never slept with any of the nymphs in his household—but he hasn’t slept with me, either.
I don’t know. I just… I don’t know.
And I fucking hate not knowing.
Noelle perches her dainty little chin in her palm, looking me up and down. She has a speculative look in her mirror-like gaze. “Question. Would it weird you out if I talk about my sex life with Hunter instead of badgering you about yours?”
I’m not Alex. The first time I met Noelle and Hunter, I knew they went at it like bunnies, but it doesn’t bother me.
Why would it? She’s not my sister, and what two consenting adults do together isn’t my business.
But if she wants to share… if she wants to give me some tips so that me and Alex can start going at it like bunnies, too, I’m willing to listen.
“Not at all,” I tell her. With a little bit of a tease, I add, “So, the cloak… you gonna tell me what he’s packing under there?”
She giggles. “You wouldn’t believe me if I did, but no. That wasn’t what I meant.”
Shame. I’ve seen her husband with his hood down—and he’s gorgeous, just not as gorgeous as Alex—but he’s never removed his cloak while I was around. You can’t fault a girl for being curious. “Okay. What did you mean?”
“I made it three days before I jumped him. I barely knew anything about magic and the Other, but I knew I wanted Hunter. He knew that I was his soulmate. It took a little… persuading since Hunter was a virgin when I met him—”
“What?” It just blurts out of me. “He was?”
She nods. “Surprised me, too. But you have to remember something. Hunter was in the Other for a long time. Longer than Alex. Like, the Great Depression long. He didn’t have a wife before he arrived here, and then he was told that he’d have a soulmate one day.
He waited for me. I… I couldn’t wait for him, but after almost a century, he didn’t seem to mind that much. ”
I can imagine. “Alex isn’t a virgin.” We already had that talk, mainly because I brought it up.
After all the nasty looks I got from the other nymphs, I had to ask.
Alex assured me that while he’d had his fair share of relationships mirrorside, he hadn’t had any since he arrived in the Other.
“I’m not sloppy seconds to the other nymphs or anything, but it’s not like I’d be his first.”
Noelle winces a little—probably at the visual of Alex having sex with anyone—before she says, “I’m not surprised.
That happens a lot in the Other, especially for the Twelve.
When there’s the promise of a true soulmate, casual sex doesn’t really hit the same.
I know Alex. If he was waiting for you… if he was waiting for his story to play out…
he wouldn’t entertain himself with nymphs. ”
“That’s my point. If he did wait four decades for me like he says he did, what’s stopping him from making his move now?”
I’m frustrated. In so many ways, I am. Sexually.
Emotionally. Ugh. And I get what she’s saying.
I’ve been coming onto him, but I never actually said, “Hey, Alex. Let’s fuck.
” Mirrorside Daphne had when she found someone up to her standards, but I didn’t want to mess things up with Alex by getting intimate too early.
Is that what he’s doing?
“I was getting there,” Noelle says. “Remember how I just told you that I waited three days to seduce Orion? It’s because I had my own silly rules.
Never sleep with someone before I’ve known them for at least three days.
From the minute I met him, though, I knew it was inevitable.
And when I did? There was no going back.
He’s my soulmate. My husband. But he’s more than that.
He’s my forever, and as soon as we fucked that first time, there was no denying it. ”
Hang on—
“Wait. So you’re telling me that, if me and Alex sleep together, that’s it. The magic in this weirdo place decides that we’re… what? Tied together forever or something?”
“I call Hunter my husband because he is. He gave me a ring and his promise to always love me. But we don’t really have weddings here in the Other.
Well,” she adds, “some of the people in the villages do, but it’s not a common thing.
Why would it be? If the magic pairs you up, you’re paired.
You can leave the Other, you can live a new life, but you’ll never love anyone other than your soulmate.
Sex… the intimacy that comes with it… it just makes it permanent. ”
Let me get this straight. I’m a straight shooter, and so is Noelle. No dancing around the subject… I have to make sure. “If I fuck Alex, he’s mine. Forever?”
Noelle nods. “That’s how I understand it. And you gotta remember, in the Other, forever really means forever. I love Hunter. I can’t imagine him not being there. It’s why I decided to stay in this world. I couldn’t leave him, so now I don’t have to. If Alex is just an itch you want to scratch—”
“He’s not.” I say that as firmly as I can. Part of my brain is still whirling with everything Noelle just told me, but that much is true. “I might not want to have jumped into bed with him when I was still trying to figure out my place here, but you’re right. It’s with Alex.”
She quirks her eyebrows. “You’re sure it’s not only because you’ve got family in the Other?”
“I’m not gonna lie and say that I’m not happy that my cousin is here.
I came here to keep her safe, but there’s no one in either world better at the task than that creepy husband of hers.
She found love and stayed. Even if she could leave, I know Will.
She wouldn’t because of her Aiden. It’s the same for me and Alex.
I think you got it wrong when I asked if he’d be mine forever.
I want that. Lord help me, but I want that arrogant bastard more than I’ve wanted anything in my life.
And I’m a possessive bitch. I won’t share him. ”
Noelle grins. Over the last few months I’ve learned you can never predict how one of the Twelve will react. The way I just snapped at her, I expect Alex’s twin to take at least a little offense to my tone—but she doesn’t. She just grins.
“I’m glad to hear that. And, if you really mean it, I think I might be able to help.”
Now, I’m pretty sure I can figure out how to seduce Alex on my own. I didn’t before because I figured he had his own hesitations, but if this is all about his uncertainty that I’d choose him to be my forever soulmate? Fuck that. I’m all aboard the “convince Alex to hop into bed with me” train.
Then again, there’s something about Noelle’s grin that has me cocking my head slightly to the side as I take in her impish appearance. “Really? How?”
Leaning over, Noelle reaches for the bow and quiver she never is out of reach of. She shrugs the quiver over her head before slinging the bow over her shoulder. “You’ll see.” Her silver eyes sparkle. “Besides, I owe him one.”