Page 12 of Pandora's Pain
I turned back to the mirror and fluffed up my hair. I looked good, even I had to admit it. The dress fit in all the right places, as if made for me. Which was pretty impressive given that I’d just picked it up in a store. The credit cards and suspicious stack of cash the gods had provided was both helpful and alarming. Shopping in today’s world was nothing like using a tailor had been. I simultaneously loathed and loved it.
“Are you ready?” I asked Alex when there were just five minutes left before I had to meet Ashton and Zavier. I would make them wait. I probably should make them wait. But I wanted this over with.
“I’m not coming,” he protested.
“Of course you are,” I replied. “You’re not getting out of this whole protector business.” And if I was honest with myself, if he didn’t come, then there’d be next to no chance I’d actually go through with it all.
“But—”
“No buts. Get your ass down to the bar and order yourself a drink,” I demanded, already worrying that he wouldn’t listen, and I’d have to do this alone.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “But you better be down there soon.”
“Oh, I plan to be,” I replied, trying to keep the annoyance out of my voice. Why was he having to make things so damned difficult. It wasn’t like I had an easy road ahead of me, and this asshole god was making things worse.
I shouldn’t have expected any different. For some reason, assholeness seemed to come along with divinity. I’d yet to meet one god who wasn’t at least a little bit of a dick. And the goddesses…well, they were even worse. All that stuff about Artemis being as sweet as can be? Complete lies. She wasn’t a virgin either. But her father ruled the gods, so he hid the truth for her. I wasn’t even sure why it mattered. Sex was just sex.
Other than when someone was using it to lure someone back into a box...
Maybe I’d be changing my stance on it soon.
I checked the clock again, and discovered it was time to make my way down to the bar as the corresponding nerves fluttered away in my stomach. This wasn’t going to go well if I didn’t get them under control.
The walk down to the bar was torture. The clack of my heels against the floor sounded far louder than it should, and it felt like everyone was staring.
Maybe that was because of how hot I looked. Even if there was a little voice in the back of my mind trying to tell me it was because they all knew who and what I was. And more importantly, what I was planning to do.
Which was ridiculous. I knew that. There was no way for them to know. None of their myths even knew what I properly looked like. Neither did they do any justice to the real events of my story. I wasn’t about to correct anyone though. It was better they didn’t learn how twisted the gods could be.
Walking through the archway into the bar, I was surprised by just how busy it was. There were people everywhere. And I did mean everywhere. But there was no structure. Some were sat on tall chairs next to the bar itself. Others were crowded around tables strewn with empty glasses.
And the noise…
I hadn’t heard anything like this since… ever. Most of the events in my past life had been open air, which had made them a lot quieter.
“You actually came then,” a voice said from behind me.
I turned, coming face to face with a pair of smoldering eyes. The kind that really could, and probably would, set a girl alight.
But I couldn’t let him get to me. I was here to seduce him, not the other way around. Pulling on all of my reserves, I looked up at him, letting my gaze trail over his face.
He really was too perfect.
“Didn’t you think I would?” My voice came out a lot huskier than I’d anticipated, but I’d roll with it. He’d take it as attraction while I lied to myself over that being what it was.
“Not all women do.”
I laughed. “I find that hard to believe,” I purred.
A smug and satisfied smile covered Ashton’s face. No. He didn’t believe any woman would stand him up. Was this the power of being a rockstar?
“You’re right, but that’s hardly the thing to admit to a woman,” he replied, his gaze drifting down to my lips.
“Maybe not, so why did you?” I kept my voice low and sultry, but I was also genuinely interested. I had the basic knowledge in my brain of what the world was like, but that didn’t mean I understood the ins and outs of motives. Learning to recognize and understand them was going to be my main task here. Only then would I be able to find and capture the sins I needed.
“There’s something about you, Hope.”
My legs almost buckled as he said my fake name. I needed to pull myself together.
