"You don't talk very much. I noticed it earlier, but I don't know. I felt the need to bring it up now."
I shrugged. "Not a lot to say."
I had never been much of a talker. I didn’t understand why people felt the need to fill the peaceful, quiet void with useless small talk. Though, Atalanta was female, and most of them had always seemed prone to talking needlessly.
“So, do you think that with helping you, you’ll finally tell me that secret?”
Not that I completely minded her constant chatter. Her voice was lyrical, similar to a few of the others in town despite her being human. I found myself enjoying it.
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
Regardless of not knowing her very well, I liked her, and as if she were a planet, I felt drawn towards her. But this was a secret I kept close to my chest. Humans couldn’t know about my abilities, and I had only agreed to tell her once I had gotten to know her better as an excuse. She was a curious person, and if I had something she wanted to know, it would keep her interested in seeking out my company.
At least for a while.
Suddenly I could feel her sadness like a heavy blanket laid on my shoulders, and before I could stop myself, I asked, "Why are you upset?”
"You mean besides almost getting my head cut off?” she teased.
I simply nodded, suppressing the need to roll my eyes. I was worried that my not telling her had been what upset her.
She shrugged. "I just get sad sometimes…do I look that upset to you?"
I studied her. She looked strong and confident, out in the woods with a virtual stranger who had just thrown an axe at her.
But I said “Yes.” anyway.
She looked down at the ground in front of her. “Oh.”
She stayed silent after that, and for once I felt the need to be the one to fill that silence. But I didn’t, I just kept trucking along through the forest until we reached my cabin.
It was large, having built it myself many, many, years ago. It had everything I needed. A wide porch, a good bed, and plenty of space for my work.
I placed the hunk of wood down and dusted off the wood splinters and bark off my shirt.
Without a word, Atalanta ran her hands up and down my back to clear away the areas I couldn’t reach. Although the contact was brief, her hands felt good on me. Warm, sending tingles down my spine.
“Whoa, what do you have under that shirt? Armor or something?” She asked, brimming with curiosity.
My eyes widened and my insides dropped as I felt her tug at the hem of my black t-shirt. Quickly, I retracted my scales just as she lifted the back of my shirt. Standing stalk still, I let her inspect my back, praying to the Gods she hadn’t seen anything.
I internally relaxed when she murmured. "That’s strange, I could have sworn I felt something hard under your shirt.”
I shrugged, hoping she would play it off as just my muscle density or something. It wasn’t like I was a small man by any means. Thanks to long hours of heavy labor, I easily rivaled those guys who spent hours at the gym.
When I felt her fingers gently stroke the muscles of my back, I also felt a stirring in my cock that I hadn’t felt at another person's touch in a long time. Spinning around, I grabbed her hand and pulled her close to me.
“You shouldn’t touch a man like that.”
“You mean like how you shouldn’t be pulling a woman up against a growing hard-on?” She challenged me.
I didn’t like backing down from a challenge.
“Yes, but this is exactly why you shouldn’t touch a man like that. They could take advantage.”
She grinned, confidence rolling off of her. “I’m not scared of you, Ajax. You’re a fluffy teddy bear.”
I was not a teddy bear!
I growled. "You should be.”
She tilted her head back and let out a snort. "That is such a cliché line to say! Like you’re some big scary vampire lord from a romance novel? What’s next? Are you going to tell me that falling for a man like you could be dangerous? That my poor virgin soul will be devoured by your tainted body?”
My brows scrunched as she laughed hysterically. She was a strange human. As I watched her continue to poke fun at my words, my initial intentions were lost. I didn't know if I was just trying to be sexy, like she said, or warn her to stay away from me. Yet I saw no point in trying to warn her. She could handle herself, if not physically then she could confuse an attacker into letting her go.
Chapter Seventeen
Atalanta
“Wait! And then he said what?” Cal exclaimed, as we sat in our blanket fort by the fire.
Our dad was passed out in his room. The poor guy was tuckered out, and even though Cal insisted he go to bed, saying she would stay up and wait for me to get back, he was sitting on the porch pretending he wasn’t super relieved when I came home. Acting all nonchalant, sketching in his sketchbook like it was normal to want to sit out in three-degree weather.
“Like I said, his voice got all dark and ominous and then he goes ‘you should be’.”
Cal rolled around, laughing. “That’s like straight out of some gothic romance or something!”
I popped a grape into my mouth. “That's basically what I said.”
“I swear, Atty. I leave you alone to go traipsing through the woods at night and you not only get an axe thrown at you but a giant hunk of gorgeous, being all 18th-century vampire on your butt. What kind of messed up harem are you living in right now?”
“Harem?”
“You know, when a bunch of girls are with one man? You’ve got that, but reversed.”
“I am not living in a harem.”
“Oh, really? Let’s see,” she sat up and began to count off on her fingers. “You’ve got Hip, the cute golden one with the mischievous smile, Jason, who you totally macked out with today, Percy, who you said devoured you like a man starved, that cute guy Thesis who looks at you like a pining puppy dog, and now dark and giant Ajax? You said that was his name, right?”
I nodded.
“Yep, so now you got a giant bear of a man Ajax who’s going all Edward Cullen on your butt. And if I had to guess, you like all of them right back.” Her grin was so wide, she looked like the Cheshire Cat.
If you had asked me several weeks ago if you could melt ice cream purely from the heat rushing to your cheeks alone, I would have said you were crazy. Yet, here I sat with a spoonful of melted rocky road and cheeks as hot as the sun.
I opened and closed my mouth several times. I honestly didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t wrong. All five of these men had shown interest in me, and while I went on a date with Jason, I still felt something for the other four. And I didn’t feel the need to become fully exclusive with Jason.
That wasn’t normal, was it? Being interested in so many men, not feeling the need to settle with one?
How would they feel when they learned this? Percy seemed okay knowing I had gone on a date with Jason, but there had been this tension between Hip and Jason all week. It didn’t look like they hated each other, but there was a general discomfort. And the weird thing with Theseus and Percy? That’s not even including Ajax.
My head was spinning.
“What do I do?” I groaned and flopped backward onto the pillows.
Cal laughed. “Well the first step is always admitting that you have a…well it’s not really a problem, per se. But at least you’re acknowledging that something’s going on. You should talk to them about it. Who knows, maybe they won't care about sharing you.”