Page 48 of Desired By Eros

“So, no sushi for you?”

“Ick, no.”

He chuckled again as he worked, and after a moment, she glanced at the counter. “Oh, we can have a salad with it!” she declared, heading over to grab the ingredients.

“Salad works,” he agreed, focusing on his task as she began chopping vegetables. Every so often, she glanced his way, her nose wrinkling when he dealt with something particularly slimy, but she didn’t say anything else about it.

“I saw Bob earlier,” he glanced over at her as she chopped lettuce for the salad. “He mentioned there’s a birthday party tonight.”

“Oh, right. Amber’s,” Psyche said, not looking up from her task.

“Are you planning to go?”

“Not really,” she said, setting the knife down. “It’ll probably be loud. Plus, I already gave her a present earlier.”

“Okay,” he said, nodding. “That’s nice of you. She’s not expecting you to go?”

“No, Amber’s cool. She knows I’m not really into that kind of thing,” Psyche said, picking up the cutting board and sliding the lettuce into a bowl. “We usually have a coffee break together during work, though.”

“That’s good,” he said, leaning against the counter. “It’s nice you have someone like that at the site.”

“Yeah, she’s easy to talk to. She’s been really understanding about…everything.” She glanced at him briefly, her expression softening before she turned back to the bowl to mix the salad.

He watched her, noting the ease with which she spoke about Amber. It was one of those moments where she seemed relaxed, unguarded, and it made him wonder how long it had taken her to trust someone like that. Psyche didn’t open up easily, and the fact that she had a friend like Amber made him feel oddly relieved.

“Well, guess it’s just us tonight, then.”

“Yeah,” she said, a small smile tugging at her lips. “I think I prefer that anyway.”

He smirked, grabbing the prepared fish. “Can’t say I mind it either.”

They went outside to set up the bonfire, and when the fire crackled, he adjusted the grill over the flames. Psyche watched him from her seat, a thoughtful expression on her face.

“So,” she began, “why did you lose your powers?”

Eros sighed, flipping a piece of fish onto the grill. “The Council of Olympians stripped me of them as punishment for what happened with Winged.”

Psyche tilted her head. “The matchmaking app you created?”

“Yeah.” He gave a wry smile. “They wanted to strip me of all my powers and make me mortal. Hephaestus stepped in and suggested something less permanent.”

“What did he suggest?” she asked, leaning forward.

“That I could earn my powers back—if I learned empathy and stopped being so reckless. You know,fix myself.” He laughed bitterly. “This is the way I am. But if they’d made me mortal, it would’ve been worse.”

“Why?”

He paused, turning the fish as the edges sizzled. “Because of my wings. I’m part geryon. Without my powers, I wouldn’t be able to retract them. I’d have to live in Vale Crossing.”

“Vale Crossing?”

“It’s a place where monsters who can’t shift or glamor live,” he explained, his voice quieter now. “A hidden place. It’s…not a place I can go back to now.”

He hesitated, then glanced at her. “My father was the leader of the geryons. His name was Cyncus, and he fell in love with Aphrodite, but he was…” Eros frowned, the words catching in his throat. “Abusive. After I was born, he put a blood spell on me, trapping me in Vale Crossing. I couldn’t leave.”

Psyche’s breath hitched. “That’s awful. How did you get out?”

“By the time I was ten, Zeus arranged for Aphrodite to marry Hephaestus. Hephaestus noticed the bruises on her. He helped her figure out how to take me away.”

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