CHAPTER 70
NERO ZANTHOS
“So the witch thre—”
“All right, I’m hanging up on you now,” I say, picking up the phone that was resting on a small side table.
“Hey, but we’re not done telling the story yet!” Apollo protests on the video call.
“Yeah, but Kael is. He’s been out cold for almost an hour.” I turn the camera toward my son, fast asleep in bed.
“He’s jealous because he got replaced as the official bedtime storyteller,” Drako mocks, and I narrow my eyes.
Three days ago, when my son asked if we could do a video call so his uncles could tell him a story, I understood. After all, after months of being fully integrated into Kael’s routine, my brothers had to return to Greece and resume their own lives. They said their mission here was complete.
It’s natural that my son would miss them and look for ways to keep them present, to show that this is what he wants. But I won’t deny that I felt jealous, yes, about losing my role as bedtime storyteller. Especially when Kael’s request was repeated yesterday and today.
“There—look at his sulky face, Drako!” Apollo is literally pointing at me, and I’m done. I hang up on them mid-sentence. I huff.
I move closer to the bed and crouch beside it. Kael went wild with all the space. Used to moving only between the two duplexes he knew as home—first his mother’s, then mine—his introduction to the lake house was a succession of “Oh’s,” “Ah’s,” and “Wow’s.”
After a full day running, jumping, and learning how to float in the lake, my son asked if we could come back here again, with his grandma and his uncles. The second part of his guest list made me roll my eyes, but I told him we’d come back many times.
Nina looked at me suspiciously and, at the first opportunity, asked how exactly I could guarantee that. The owner could decide to stop renting the house, for example.
I shrugged and said it wouldn’t be a problem.
Watching disbelief take over her face was delightful.
“You bought the house, didn’t you?” she accused when she realized it.
“He liked it,” I defended myself, but that didn’t seem like a good enough justification for my son’s mother, who left me alone in the kitchen and walked away muttering complaints.
I never thought feeling weak would lead me to the moment when I feel strongest in my entire life.
The panic attack that sent me to the hospital weeks ago put everything into perspective.
And after the conversation that changed everything between Nina and me, for the first time in a long while, perspective wasn’t something that scared me.
I kiss the top of Kael’s head and breathe in his baby scent.
I admire him for several minutes, in silence.
He’s my greatest gift. I’ll always mourn what I lost. But what I gained?
What I keep gaining? It feels like there’s no room left inside me for this much happiness.
It just keeps spilling over. That said, there is room for one very specific piece.
I give my son one last kiss and leave his room. I close the door, and when I turn around, I freeze at the sight of the wonderful woman stepping out of the bathroom at the end of the hallway.
Nina looks like she stepped straight out of one of the many erotic dreams I’ve been having about her.
She was wearing nothing but a robe—and by nothing, I mean nothing at all.
I can see the outline of her nipples beneath the thin fabric, and every minimal movement, the small slit at the front gives me a glimpse of the inside of her thighs.
She’s holding a small toiletry bag and has a towel wrapped around her head.
And if that didn’t tell me she just came out of the shower, her flushed skin would.
Beautiful. Spectacularly beautiful. She finally turns her head, realizing my presence, and that forces me to stop devouring her with my eyes.
I walk toward her, and Nina looks down at herself, opening and closing her mouth several times.
“There’s only a bathtub in my room. I really needed a shower,” she explains, sounding embarrassed. I nod.
“The house is yours, Little Fae,” I say, and fuck—how good the words taste in my mouth.
Every single one of them. Her letting me call her Little Fae again was my second greatest victory, right after earning the right to be part of my son’s life.
At least until Nina fully lets me back into hers.
All of it. “We can install showers in all the bedrooms if you want.”
“There are twelve bedrooms, Nero! And we’re still going to talk about this strange spending habit of yours.” I smile.
“My ears are all yours. And anything else you want too.” I repeat the words that have become an inside joke between us over the past few weeks.
“Did Kael fall asleep? I didn’t think I took that long in the shower,” she says—and great. Now I have to fight the images of Nina, naked under the shower, that flood my mind. I exhale slowly and lock my expression so she won’t notice.
“He passed out. Didn’t even hear the whole story. At least it gave me the satisfaction of hanging up on Apollo, Drako, and Atlas,” I comment, and Nina throws her head back.
“You’re dying of jealousy, aren’t you?” she asks, teasing, and I cross my arms over my chest. “Well, welcome to the land of replaced storytellers.”
“I wasn’t replaced,” I protest, and she moistens her lips, looking at me with that bold expression I’ve always loved.
I’d huff if it didn’t make her so undeniably beautiful. She can tease me all she wants, whenever she wants, if it gives me the chance to see that expression on her face.
“Have a glass of wine with me? Then you can tell me whatever you want about my extravagant tendencies,” I invite, and Nina raises her eyebrows.
“Wine?”
“One glass. Or maybe two.” She thinks for a moment before nodding.
“One glass,” she agrees. “Just let me put some clothes on.”
A terrible choice of words, because it reminds me she’s completely naked under the silk robe.
I can’t stop my eyes from roaming over Nina’s body again, even though I’m painfully aware she’ll track every inch my gaze travels.
Now, up close, every detail that was just a glimpse before becomes a show of its own. Her exposed collarbone, the curves of her breasts—rounder and fuller than when we separated—the nipples hardening under my attentive gaze, her moist, parted lips, her shining eyes. She’s a fucking vision.
I step closer, just leaning in, close enough to leave us dangerously near while still respecting a boundary. I kiss her cheek slowly and drag my lips along her skin until I reach the corner of her mouth. Nina sighs and doesn’t push me away.
“I’ll wait for you downstairs.”
***
I’m nervous.
Fucking nervous.
The wine glasses are in my hands, the bottle is on the coffee table, the fireplace is lit, and I picked soft music to carry our conversation. I know exactly what I want to do—and I have no idea what I’m going to do.
The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs makes me look up, and I find Nina, barefoot, wearing a loose little dress that’s just as much of a temptation as the robe from before. If I’m being honest, I’ll have to admit that whatever she wears is always a temptation to me.
Her eyes sweep the room—finding the wine on the table first, then the lit fireplace, and finally me.
“This house is excessive,” she says before anything else, stepping closer to me, in front of the panoramic windows from which I’d been admiring the moonlit lake.
“We can choose a smaller one if you want.”
“I thought you said you bought this one.”
“I did,” I shrug. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t buy another.” She rolls her eyes at me. I love when she does that—and Nina does it a lot.
“You can’t just go around buying everything!” she exclaims, stopping beside me.
“And why not?”
“Because it’s not right!”
“Kael loved the house.”
“Kael loves a lot of things. You can’t buy everything he loves, Nero.”
“And the things he needs? Can we buy those?” She narrows her eyes at me, certain the question is a trap.
“We can,” she concedes, as always, turning the we I use into you. Nina doesn’t bother complaining anymore, because every time she does, my answer is the same: everything that’s mine is ours.
“Then I argue that he needed this house. The boy needs to learn how to swim at some point, after all.” Nina blinks, as if checking that she understood me correctly, then throws her head back in laughter.
“For the sake of your business interests, it’s better if you always leave legal matters to Atlas and Apollo, all right?” she says, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. I twist my lips, feigning offense, and hand her the wine glass.
“Thank you,” she says, looking outside. Nina spends some time watching the view before speaking again. “It’s beautiful. The view here is beautiful.”
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” I murmur—and Little Fae turns to me, catching me as I never once looked away from her. I can’t resist. I lift my free hand and run my thumb along her cheek.
Within the limits Nina allowed, I’ve spent the last few weeks stealing every touch and every kiss on the cheek I could—but it wasn’t enough. Not even close to enough. Missing Nina’s body feels like a rope around my lungs, making it hard to breathe.
My eyes drop to her lips before returning to her eyes.
We hold each other’s gaze for a moment while the shift in the air around us settles, and I honestly don’t know who moves first—but in the next instant, my mouth crashes into Nina’s, and I moan immediately, unable to handle the pleasure of tasting her in silence.
It’s a kiss that’s slow and desperate at the same time. It starts with my tongue gliding softly over both of her lips, then turns into a light bite on her lower lip. Only then does my tongue slide into her mouth—and when it meets hers, fuck, I don’t moan—I growl in satisfaction.