Page 57 of Desired By Eros

And did she check any of them?

Chapter 10

Eros

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

Eros gripped the edge of the sink so tightly he feared he would crack the porcelain. Glancing up, he observed himself in the mirror. It was the same face that had greeted him every morning for twenty thousand years—same blue-silvery eyes, same lips, same straight nose, not a single new wrinkle or line.

Yet there was a fundamental shift that was there, that only he could detect.

You didn’t say it, he told himself. It doesn’t count.

Who the fuck was he kidding. Psyche had wormed her way under his skin and into his heart from the moment she opened her mouth and spoke about dinosaurs.

Despite his title, God of Love and Desire, Eros had avoided emotional entanglements. He’d seen firsthand how even a goddess could be blinded by love. Not that he ever blamed Aphrodite for the abuse from his biological father. The real culprit was Cyncus, who had masked his true nature so well thateven the goddess of love fell for it. Still, he had carefully guarded his own heart and soul for thousands of years. And now…

Fucking Council of Olympians.

If they hadn’t sent him here, he wouldn’t have met Psyche. And had he forgotten why he was here in the first place? He still had a mission—to restore his immortality. Had he forgotten who he truly was?

He was the god of love and desire, for fuck’s sake. Immortal. Unlimited power. Untouchable. This mortal shell of his body was but a temporary prison, and he would find his way back to his true existence.

Splashing cool water on his face did nothing to soothe him, but he dried himself off with the hand towel and wiped down the sweat from his body. Carefully, he padded out to the bedroom, breathing a sigh of relief that Psyche was already under the covers, back toward him, snoozing soundly. He crawled into bed next to her and lay down, attempting to sleep and quiet the thoughts in his head.

“Do we have everything?” Psyche asked as Eros shut the trunk of their rental.

“Yes, it’s all in there.”

“Good. Are you ready, passenger prince?”

He forced out a laugh. “Yeah, your prince is ready.” But Eros hardly felt like a prince, not with the thoughts swirling around in his head as he continued to act normal.

Truthfully, slipping on his charming mask came naturally. As usual, he charmed Psyche’s parents during breakfast and they fawned over him, just as the guests did last night. Thankfully, her awful sisters weren’t around this morning though they didshow up just now, as they were packing up and bidding the Alpha and Jean goodbye.

Psyche gave her family a final wave as she put the car into gear, and they drove off. The rest of the trip was smooth, and Eros did his best to act normal, though he could tell Psyche was quieter than normal. Once they reached the campsite at around midnight, she simply did her evening routine and went to bed. The next day, when he woke up, she was gone.

He spent the day as he usually did, exploring the area surrounding the dig. However, not even the quiet calm of nature helped the tumultuous thoughts inside him. He could not face Psyche, not after what happened the night of the party. But he couldn’t pretend everything was alright, couldn’t touch her and kiss her and make love to her, not when that would only cause him to further stray from his goals.

His feet were like lead as he trudged back to the dig site, thinking of ways to delay the inevitable.Maybe I can go into town.He could tell Psyche there was something wrong with the car or?—

“Eros!”

Pausing, he looked behind him. “Marge,” he greeted. “Nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

The brunette flashed him a bright smile. “Not my fault, is it? You’ve been occupied.”

“I sure have.” He’d been spending all his time with Psyche, after all. “Where are you off to?”

“The bar.”

“The one in Healy?”

“Oh no,” she chuckled. “So, a couple of us were sitting around the other day, bored out of our minds and just itching to go to a bar, but too lazy to get ourselves to Healy. So, we were shooting the shit, right, and we all came up with this idea to just set up a bar ourselves, here in the camp. Pitch a tent, grab a couple ofkegs, some bottles, and whatnot. Well, one thing led to another, and we actually got management to approve it, so we set up our own bar where we can socialize. We just call it The Bar.”

“That’s brilliant.”

“Isn’t it?” She laughed. “At first, it was just a couple of tables and chairs, but now it’s a whole thing! Like, one of my guys actually built a whole bar, and then when Johnson came up with the supply truck, he had a whole ass pinball machine in there!”

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