Page 107 of Ungodly Rich

“I can barely see you,” Hera murmured in reply.

Zeus flicked a hand toward the lamp on the bedside table, and its bulb lit up. “Better?”

“Much better.” She closed her eyes, relishing the way they lay side by side, their naked bodies brushing in so many places. Hera sometimes thought she even loved this better than sex: the languorous intimacy that followed, her head pressed to her husband’s chest, hearing the steady beat of his immortal heart. Knowing that he was here, andhers.

Zeus had come to find her earlier, in the hotel’s lounge areadownstairs, where most of the guests had gathered to wait out the storm. They clustered around the lamps and candles that Nicole had placed on the coffee tables, staring down at the board games she had brought out without opening their boxes. Well, at least in the lounge there was light, and alcohol (wisely, Nicole had opened the bar). The guest rooms were eerily dark without electricity.

That is, for everyone whowasn’tmarried to the god of lightning.

Zeus had found Hera where she sat in an armchair, listening to Nicole offer useless updates from her emergency radio. He’d made up some story about “checking on something” in their room. The whole way upstairs he’d held tight to her hand, their fingers laced, as if he was afraid she might change her mind and flee.

How little he knew her, if he thought she would ever run from him.

“Hera,” he prompted again. “You’re responsible for all this, aren’t you?”

“For all of what?” she asked innocently.

Zeus stood and walked over to the window, then threw it open. Hera let out a yelp of surprise as raindrops hurled angrily into the room, drenching the carpet. Yet there was something refreshing about it, too, the way the scents of rain and ocean flooded in to mix with the heady, musky scent of their lovemaking.

“This is what you’ve been scheming, isn’t it? You’ve been plotting to ruin Ares’s wedding?” He didn’t sound angry, just confused.

Hera sighed. “Shut the window. You’re ruining this carpet, and it’s a Turkish antique.” When Zeus had done as she asked, she shifted on the bed, and he rejoined her, falling back onto the pillows with his hands laced behind his head. Fully naked in all his godly glory.

“I did it,” Hera confessed. “I don’t want Ares marrying that woman.”

Zeus frowned. “What is it about her that you dislike so much?”

“She isn’t right for Ares! I am his mother, I know what’s best!” Hera burst out. It was part of the truth, at least.

Zeus shifted to face her, blue eyes dancing with amusement. “How could I forget? You always know what’s best for everyone.” The words weren’t spoken mockingly, but affectionately.

Hera caught herself mirroring his smile. “Of course I do,” sheagreed. “That’s part of being a mother: knowing what’s best for your children, even when they don’t know it themselves.”

“And I would never presume to challenge your decisions as a mother. If you say that Julia is wrong for Ares, then by all means, get rid of her. You have my blessing, not that you need it.” A thunderclap echoed his words, and Zeus lifted an eyebrow. “Though I must say, did you really need to summon such a storm? Surely there were less drastic means of scaring off a mere mortal.”

Except that Julia wasn’t just any mortal. She was under the protection of the Aegis, though Zeus still had no idea.

“I started with less drastic methods, but they proved unsuccessful, so I switched to bigger ammunition,” Hera said crisply.

At that, Zeus barked out a laugh. “One of the things I love most about you.”

Love,he’d said. It had been so long since that word echoed between them.

“How ruthless I am?”

“I love that you’re a force to be reckoned with.” He hesitated, then added, “I do wonder, though. Why didn’t you ask for my help?”

“Against a mortal woman? You have better things to do,” Hera reminded him.

“You wanted to call up a storm to ruin their wedding weekend, and you didn’t think to ask your husband, the bearer of lightning?”

“Poseidon was able to handle it, since we’re on an island.”

“You didn’t even come to me to shut off the electricity,” Zeus went on. “What did you do, go out there and sabotage the generator yourself?”

“I asked Notus.” The moodiest and most unpredictable of the wind gods. “He was happy to shatter some tree branches into the side of the generator.”

“Notus does love destruction.” Zeus chuckled.