Page 24 of Zeus's Ruin

I hold Zeus close.“I should get back.Scorpio will be wondering what happened to me.”?

“You smell like me.You smell like cum.You best clean up in the bathroom before you head back.”?

“You’re not coming to party tonight?”?

“No.I don’t feel much like celebrating these days.”He tries to take a step back, but I lock my ankles around his hips and draw him to me.?

“Zeus—”?

He raises his head to meet my gaze.“Can’t keep doin’ this, darlin’.I can’t keep betraying my brother.”

“I know.I don’t want to hurt him, and I don’t want us to hurt either.”

He tucks my hair behind my ears and cups my cheeks.“That’s all love is, right?A world of hurt.”

“It?doesn’t have to.”

“Jesus, Sugar.”Zeus drops his hands from my face as if he’s been burned and takes a step back.“There’s no happy ending here for you and me.You married my brother, my Prez, and he’d rather see us both dead than be humiliated in front of the whole club.We made this bed, nothin’ left to do now but lie in it.”

And just like that, he walks away, back to the other side of the garage with the bourbon bottle in his hand.I clean up in the bathroom, dry my eyes and smudge my mascara a little more, so the mess looks deliberate and smoky, and then I leave the garage without a backward glance at Zeus.I go back to the party as if my whole world didn’t just implode in my face.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN?

Zeus?

Acommotion on my porchstairs pulls me from my spot on the couch in front of the idiot box.I get up and walk to the front door because Skip, the prospect I’m sponsoring said he was coming back with beer and pizza.The kid talks a lot, but he’s crazier about engines and American Muscle than I am, so he’s alright.A little soft for the MC, but he’s scrappy and comes from the same kind of shitty parentage I do.These days, I don’t mind the company.It’s entirely too quiet since Sugar moved out of my rental and into my brother’s house in Chalmette.I haven’t been able to rent it out to anyone since, just in case she ever wants to come home.Fucking stupid really, her home is with my brother now.Something I need to remember the next time her tempting little ass sashays into Saint’s Garage.

“Took you fucking long—” My front porch is bathed in light, but it’s not Skip standing before me.“Sugar?What the fuck are you doin’ out here at this time of night?”?

“I ...I don’t know.”Her voice is choked with sadness and her eyes are puffy and red, as if she’s been crying for hours.?

“Bullshit.What’s wrong?”?

“What’s right?”She shakes her head, and her lip trembles.Wretched tears spill down her flushed cheeks and I wanna murder every motherfucking asshole on the planet who ever made her shed a single one.?

“Prez know you’re here?”?If my brother did this, if he hurt her, laid a hand on her, I’ll fucking kill him.Or I’ll die trying.

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