Page 36 of The Deeper Game
“Odin has dibs on pulling out his guts like fishing rope, though,” I said.
Odin grinned.
Zeus frowned.
“I have total faith in you,” I said softly.
Zeus growled.
“When we enter his home, we’ll figure it out. We’ll inspect his shit, and we’ll know,” Odin said.
Which seemed like the last thing Zeus was capable of at the moment, on account of his fugue state of protectiveness. I could see that Odin, for one, didn’t like it. I suddenly wished very much that we weren’t speeding down a wet, rainy highway with me strapped into the backseat and Zeus strapped into the driver’s seat. I wanted to feel him, to feel his fire, and to soothe him. I leaned forward and rubbed his shoulder.
Zeus shot a glance at me in the rearview mirror, gaze hooded, like he felt my desire. He gusted out a breath. “…just don’t want you scared.”
Odin looked at Zeus, then back at me. “Isis. Come up here,” he said. “You need to sit in the middle of us.”
“We’re on the highway,” I said.
Odin tilted his head and gave me an eagle-eye look.
“Never mind,” Zeus said. “I’m driving.”
Odin eyed me again. “Zeus needs to feel you and know that you are okay.”
Zeus grunted in protest. “I’m driving.”
“She’s going to sit next to you, not suck your cock,” Odin said.
I specifically didn’t look over at Thor, who was a big fan of orgasms while driving. Or at least he had been, when he was on his recklessness jag before he got the clinic job.
“You’d want that, right?” Odin asked Zeus. “You want her up here?”
Zeus seethed out the windshield, like he could see Ingvey’s face on the road in front of us. “Yeah,” he grated.
Odin and I locked gazes. He didn’t need to say anything more. Odin wanted me to help calm down Zeus. He thought that my touch would calm him. Like Zeus was this large and highly distressed beast, which I supposed he was.
I unbuckled my seatbelt and crawled up between them. Zeus hissed out a sigh of relief as I settled in next to him and pressed flush to him. He grabbed the back of my hair and pulled me closer. I wrapped my arms around his meaty chest as Odin buckled me in.
Zeus started talking about how they were going to keep me safe, and I trusted him on that. His fury hadn’t kept him from brilliantly assessing every last clue inside Bolo’s trashed rooms.
Odin leaned over to me and whispered in my ear, “Touch his skin. You need to touch his skin.”
“What are you saying to her? Because I’m talking,” Zeus barked.
“Sorry.” Odin sat back and directed his attention out the passenger-side window.
I snaked my hand under Zeus’s shirt and touched his firm, lightly furred belly, pressing my hand into his warm skin.
“Baby,” Zeus breathed into my hair. His breathing seemed to calm and even out, just from my touch.
Odin put a hand on my leg, squeezed once. It was so weirdly observant of Odin to know that would happen.
I wedged my other hand a little ways in between the seat and Zeus’s back. He kissed my head and moved his non-driving hand to my neck. “You feel so good,” he breathed, sliding his hand down over my shoulder, cupping it. “You feel so good, and you smell so good,” he said.
“Thank you.” I snuggled into him, keeping my hand splayed over his firm belly, feeling the hard ridges of his muscles and the light, springy hairs.
We drove on into the night toward Ingvey in Tivendale Heights. Would he be our guy? Odin apparently had his doubts.
