Page 101 of The Gods Forbid

Sebastian shrugged, the move traveling down his arm and making his hand brush against my thigh. A rough bolt of energy shot up my leg, making me realize that I’d widened my position quite a bit. My legs were practically bracing his hips, and my calves started buzzing with the desire to hook them around his waist.

I wet my lips to try to distract, but all it did was draw Sebastian’s attention and make his next words land far too close to my mouth. “You could argue I did all that out of self-preservation.”

“Did you?” I challenged. All I got in return was a small smirk from Sebastian, but that told me everything I needed to know. “They know you’ve been helpful,” I tried to assure him, but didn’t want to undermine his nervousness.

Sebastian’s smirk split, revealing a bit of a smile. “That isn’t my concern. I’ll be damned if I let my desire to strangle one of them make you look bad.”

Oh, wait. He was worried about how I’d look? Oh, he needed to back away from me right this second or I was kissing him. Feeling panicked and jumpy, I adjusted my hair behind my ears and forced myself to say, “That is very kind.” It also made me want to maul him, but that part needed to stay a secret. “How about this?” I said, jumping down from the counter and landing so close to Sebastian I almost stepped on his feet. I had to be quick, or this wasn’t going to work. “You change and I’ll—” The second I made a move for the sink and the dirty dishes stacked there, Sebastian caught me around the waist and spun me away from it.

“Sebastian!” I said, swatting his forearms where they were banded around my waist.

“As you can see,” he said, though I really couldn’t see him when he was holding me like this. “I’m already dressed. You, on the other hand, need to hurry or we’ll be late.”

At that moment a couple things became crystal clear. One, I was in silk pajamas that might as well been air for all they separated Sebastian’s skin and mine. Two, every hard plane of Sebastian’s body was burning into my skin.

While a large part of me wanted to stay right there, burrowing into his warmth, I knew I had to walk away from him. Sebastian seemed to have the same idea, because he released me very suddenly, pulling his hips, then chest, then arms away from me. His hands were the last to go, dragging behind the rest of his body.

As I stepped away from him, a laugh falling from my lips, his hand tapped once on my hip, ushering me along. My laugh grew, though my skin set off like a wildfire, and I turned over my shoulder to look at Sebastian.

His face was a little more serious than I would have expected, but when his eyes settled on my smile, his lips pulled into one of his own.

I changed into a light sundress fit for the late spring weather in a daze. The only thought that passed through my head other than the burning mark of Sebastian’s hand on my hip, was a small bout of disappointment that I needed to dress for warmer weather.

Warmth meant summer and summer meant the end of Sebastian’s time here. Four months already down the drain.

Shaking off the thought, I walked back out to find Sebastian weighing two bottles of wine in his hands. I knew he was in contact with some of the other gods, and about a month ago, Jason Dionysus had shown up on my doorstep with a dozen cases of wine behind him.

Sebastian had simply hauled them inside and started pairing them with meals he cooked. I certainly wasn’t complaining about that.

“I think they’ll like the red better,” I said, my lips pulling into an easy smile. I wasn’t going to tease him about a housewarming gift. Unless he’d honed his housewarming-gift-skills by meeting former girlfriends’ families, then I’d—

I tucked that thought away to the very dangerous place it came from.

Sebastian nodded in agreement, setting the other bottle on the counter. “I like this one better, anyway,” he said, nodding to the bottle he was leaving behind. “We’ll drink it tonight?”

I nodded, my cheeks feeling warm. Dinner was something I looked forward to every day. Sitting in the kitchen with him, talking or reading or just … spending time with him. “Ready?” I asked to distract from my blush.

Sebastian nodded, motioning for me to gather a portal. I often did around him, and he always walked through behind me with a hand hovering over my back. We stepped out into Rose and Dominic’s entryway, immediately assaulted by loud voices and laughter.

Sebastian straightened slightly, but otherwise went forward without hesitation.

For a second, my feet felt glued to the floor. I’d been in awe of him many times over the last few months, but it really struck me how much it took for him to do this. To set aside the shame and guilt and act like he was walking into brunch with old friends instead of people he’d harmed.

Eventually, my legs started moving and I followed him around the corner into Rose and Dominic’s kitchen. The second we appeared, the room went dead silent, all the chatter and laughter grinding to a halt.

The only movement in the room was the steam rising from the stove Rose stood in front of, while everyone else gaped like fish.

Irritation started to rise in my throat. I’d asked them to—

“Careful not to burn the pancakes,” Sebastian drawled, looking pointedly at the stove.

“Do you want to be the one to cook?” Rose shot back, a hand planted on her hip.

“Oh, absolutely not,” Sebastian said through a chuckle. With that, everyone seemed to remember their place and snapped to attention.

Dominic walked up to Sebastian first, clapping him on the shoulder while he took the wine out of his hand. The nod he gave Sebastian was as close to a thank you as he was willing to give. Dominic would be getting a smacking kiss on the cheek for being the first to treat Sebastian with some kind of forgiveness, though he would likely hate the affection. Unfortunately for him, it was just as fun to needle him as it was my brother.

Rose switched places with Dominic so that she could come up and gave Sebastian a quick hug. I could tell in the set of Sebastian’s shoulders he was restraining a comment about Dominic flipping pancakes. I kind of wished he would just say it, especially if that was what their dynamic was, but I understood wading in.