Page 55 of The Gods Forbid

Even though part of me wanted to run away from Sebastian until my heart rate calmed down, a large part flared in response to his challenge.

Stay. The voice that spoke inside my head seemed confident. Might as well listen to it.

“Alright,” I said, carefully taking the book out of Sebastian’s hands and making sure our hands didn’t touch. Unfortunately, the same phenomenon as the envelope happened, and I could have sworn I felt the heat of his skin through over four hundred pages of parchment.

Sebastian grinned, relishing in his victory. I was too enthralled to tease him about it. The only thing my body seemed capable of doing was to crack open the book where I’d marked it with a necklace I’d taken off the night before and find my place.

My heart was beating like I was about to give a speech in front of thousands of people. I’d never done that, but I imagined this is what it felt like. After a deep breath to make sure I didn’t keel over and fall into the stove, I started reading.

It donned on me far too late, as in multiple paragraphs in, that I was reading to the literal god of poetry.

I stumbled over my words, cutting myself off.

Almost immediately, Sebastian said, “Why did you stop?”

If I wasn’t so nervous, I would have noted that he sounded like a child who had their favorite toy ripped from them.

And he was doing that thing where he stared at me so intently, it was like he physically ripped the truth out of me. “You’re the god of poetry,” I said by way of explanation.

“And?”

Goodness, he was going to make me say it. “Maybe you’re used to … experts reading to you or something.”

There was a moment where Sebastian looked at me like rainbows had decided to sprout out of my head and dance around.

Then he laughed. As in head tilted back, full-bodied, chest-rumbling laugh.

It made me feel like rainbows might start shooting from my head.

Fuck.

The curse felt clunky in my own thoughts, but appropriate. I’d never seen Sebastian laugh like that, even in the moments where I’d observed him in his element at the balls or galas I’d been dragged to by my brother or another god.

“I’m serious,” I said, feeling my lips pull into a frown.

Sebastian sobered, his eyes bouncing over my face. “You were doing well, love.” He nodded down at the book, and the motion almost felt like a physical nudge. “Keep going.”

I did, picking up right where I left off. The story was just building, the drama and tension coming together slowly. I focused on the pages, trying to keep track of all the different characters in this story, which only reminded me that there was a scene later on between two characters that would have me blushing to my hairline if I had to read it to Sebastian.

Despite that punch of nerves, my mind got away from me, lulled and calmed by the words and the smell of Sebastian’s food and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

The night had gotten away from me. I had walked in, intending to try to talk to Sebastian about his motivations. That could come while we ate, I promised myself, selfishly holding on to this moment.

I just hoped that when I did address it, it didn’t shatter this precious moment.

Chapter 12

Sebastian

There were a lot of things wrong with me.

Morally, that was. Other than that, I had my shit together.

I’d gotten lucky and avoided developing a pesky little moral code, spending most of my life doing exactly what I wanted.

So tell me why I felt guilty for Persy reading to me.

The guilt raging through my chest was only appropriate for someone who had just knowingly betrayed their closest confidante.