Read Online Lesson in Love (Olympians, 2) by Marie Medina - Free Book Online Page B

just so
amazing. I know I’m not perfect, but you’re good for me. I knew you
cared about me. We can work this out.”
    “ Eros, please
listen.”
    “ Okay. What is it?” Surely
she wouldn’t tell him she loved him then ask him to leave her
alone. They’d just gotten together. They couldn’t be breaking up
already. He tried but somehow he couldn’t fight the fear that
gripped him.
    “ I’ve loved you for years.
That’s why they picked me. It’s like they decided to give you to me
as a present.”
    “ You were already in love
with me?” His heart beat faster, and he found it very hard to
breathe. “You’ve loved me this whole time?”
    She nodded.
    “ But that’s wonderful.
Iris, please listen to me now. I am not under a spell. No one has
said anything to me to make me love you. I can guarantee you no one
could give me to anyone as a present, no matter how powerful they
were. And most importantly, I am not saying I love you because of
the sex. That’s just an amazing bonus. It simply took those
intimate moments to force me to face my emotions.”
    Tears still rolled down her cheeks,
but she seemed calmer. “Give me time to think.”
    “ How much time?” He didn’t
want to leave her side at all, let alone spend several days without
her.
    “ Until I call
you.”
    He reached up to touch her face, but
instead he took her hand and kissed it. “I promise I’ll leave you
alone, but I won’t be able to stop thinking about you.”
    She looked relieved. “Thank you. It
means a lot that you’ll do this.”
    He stood up and nodded. “I’m gonna go
then.” He turned and fled without looking back. He couldn’t make
himself turn around and say good-bye. If he looked at her he
wouldn’t be able to leave at all.
    * * * *
    Iris sat on the couch in Hera’s study
with her face buried in her hands. She had finally stopped crying.
She felt Hera’s hand on her head. She wanted to push it away, but
she hardly had the energy.
    “ Sweetie,” Aphrodite said.
“I think you’ve overreacted. Based on what you said, Eros doesn’t
care. He’s not mad at any of us. I don’t see what the problem
is.”
    She wiped away the last of her tears
and looked up at them. “You tricked him into paying attention to
me, and then I seduced him. He doesn’t love me.”
    “ How do you know that?”
Hera asked.
    “ He hardly knows
me.”
    Aphrodite sat down. “You hardly knew
him. You were so critical of him that before he thought you hated
him. Why don’t we ask the Fates? They’ll have to answer if Hera
makes the request.”
    “ I don’t want
to.”
    Hera sat back. “Are you afraid they’ll
say this was never meant to happen, or that he doesn’t really love
you?”
    “ Yes.”
    Both goddesses fell silent, and Iris
knew they were having a conversation in their minds. Aphrodite
spoke up. “Let’s take a walk, Iris. Just you and me.”
    Iris nodded. “Okay. Fine.” She knew
better than to disobey. Aphrodite didn’t have a bad temper like
Zeus or Hera, but she tended to become mischievous when she didn’t
get her way. Iris didn’t need more complications. She stood up and
they were no longer in Hera’s study. They stood in Aphrodite’s
garden at the entrance to the lovers’ maze.
    Aphrodite took her hand and started
walking. “I’m not sure I understand. Are you saying you still don’t
trust my son? I’ll admit I wouldn’t blame you.”
    “ He’s tricked himself into
thinking he loves me.”
    “ How has he tricked
himself? By convincing himself that you’re pretty or clever? By
making you into something you’re not?”
    “ No.”
    “ I think he knows you very
well. You keep to yourself. No one could have coached him on how to
understand you or given him some magical secret. He’s fallen in
love all on his own.”
    “ He saw me as a challenge.
Now I’m a prize, a prize that’s good in bed.”
    “ This is because you had
sex? You’re having doubts because of that?”
    She could hardly keep her own