Chapter 72

Using all that magic to shut off the portal had wrung me out. My muscles were cramped and if it wasn’t for Dion walking with his arm around my waist, half-carrying me, I would’ve fallen on my face. I was tired and hungry, but I couldn’t rest. Hermes needed me and time sped by faster than a bullet train.

“Paige? Oh my god, what happened to you?” Emily ran across the street with swerving cars honking.

A driver rolled down his window and cussed her out in Greek.

“Are you okay? You look pale.” Emily frowned, then glared at Dion. “What did you give her?”

“Nothing.” He straightened.

“Don’t lie, she looks spaced out and it’s the middle day.” She pushed against his shoulder, stepping in front of me and between us.

I touched her elbow. “Emily, it’s okay, really.”

“Come on, we’ll check you into a hospital and they can figure out what drug he gave you.” She didn’t even look back like she didn’t trust Dion enough to take her gaze off him. “They’ll help you feel better and fix whatever this creep gave you.”

“Enough, Emily, I’m fine. I-I...” I couldn’t tell her the truth. She would not only take me to the hospital, but she would probably ask for a psychiatric evaluation as well. “I got food poisoning and Dion was just bringing me back to the hotel.”

This time she did look over her shoulder at me. “Are you saying that cause he’s here?”

“No.” I shook my head. A wave of nausea crashed into me, and I closed my eyes briefly. “All I need is some sleep.”

“Fine.” She turned around and placed her hand over my shoulder. “Then let’s get you back to the hotel room.”

Dion followed after us.

“You should go to your own home.” Emily kept walking with me in tow. “Paige will call you later if she feels better.”

“I don’t think that’s wise.” Dion matched our strides. “I would know that Paige is okay or not rather than waiting for news.”

“Then you can wait in the hotel lobby because there is no way you’re coming into our room.”

I was too tired to argue with her. “I’m sure I’ll be okay once I’m not standing upright or walking,” I said, trying to keep my tone light.

We made our way back to the hotel and Dion entered the elevator with us.

“You’re not coming inside,” Emily snapped.

“Paige should not be left unprotected.” Dion didn’t budge out of the elevator.

“She won’t be alone! I’ll be with her.” When he didn’t move to leave and the elevator started beeping that the door was open, Emily huffed. “Fine. You can wait out in the hall.”

“No,” I squeezed her arm gently. “He needs to stay with me.” Couldn’t bear to lose Dion again. It was horrible enough to lose Poseidon and now Hermes. And I already missed Heph.

“Paige, are you sure?” But the elevator dinged open, and we made our way to our room.

As soon as I saw the bed I’d slept on whenever I had managed to be here, I fell face forward onto it. Though I knew I couldn’t stay here long. We had to figure out how to save Hermes. I only hoped that Heph and his mom had some idea.

I dozed off for about twenty minutes according to the hotel’s digital clock to find Emily pacing back and forth in the small room.

“Hey,” I sat up, rubbing my eyes. “What’s up?”

“I haven’t heard from Daniel and I’m very worried. We were supposed to meet back here over two hours ago.” She swiped away her tears. “I was looking for him earlier when I ran into you.”

“He’s probably found a local chess game and is playing everyone.” I smiled at Dion. “There’s a park nearby, why don’t you go check it out?”

“And leave you?”

With Dion was implied even though she didn’t say it.

Her cell phone rang, and she nearly tackled me to get to the other side of the bed to reach it off the nightstand.

“Hello?” she said. “Daniel, where have you been?”

Taking advantage of her distraction, Dion slipped past her and sat on the bed next to me.

“How are you doing?” He laced his fingers with mine and I never wanted him to let go.

“Better. Starving though.” I pointed my chin at Emily. “And I can’t concentrate or even talk openly with you as long as she’s here. I feel like she’s my jailer or something and that’s not fair to her at all. She’s only trying to help.”

“I like it that she’s so protective of you. Although I’d rather be alone with you than having to entertain her or listen to her ramblings about her boyfriend.”

“Hang on, me and Paige will meet you there.” Emily gestured for me to go with her.

“No way. Dion and I are going to order some food and hang out.”

“You both can hang out with me and Daniel.” She frowned, still holding the phone to her ear.

“Next time.” I blow her a kiss. “I’ll save you some of my dessert for when you two get back. Okay?”

Emily took one last look at me before giving Dion the evil eye and walking out of the hotel room. “It’s just me. I should be there in five minutes.”

The door closed behind her and I heaved out a sigh of relief.

“Now we can get some work done and figure out our next steps.”

“First, you need to eat something. Even if you don’t feel like it.”

My stomach twisted. “We already lost a full hour of the time to save Hermes and you want me to eat? I can’t.”

“You have to.” He raked a hand through his dark hair. “Showing for Hermes and being too weak from lack of rest and food won’t help you or him.”

I looked away because I was already feeling guilty for falling asleep on the bed for twenty minutes.

Dion pulled out the laminated menu. “What do you want?”

We ordered burgers, then I pulled up the internet, checking to see if anything online could help us. However, locating one god underwater radar wasn’t an option. I lay on my stomach across the hotel bed with Dion on his side next to me.

“Don’t you have any friends you could ask?” I waved my hand out at him.

Dion frowned, shaking his head. “None that would be willing to go up against Zeus and Poseidon except Hephaestus and Hermes who are already on our side.”

“What about dolphins or heck, even mermaids or the Kraken? Couldn’t we use magic to have them help us locate Hermes?”

“Kraken?” He laughed. “I’m afraid Perseus with Medusa’s head has you beat on that one.”

“Oh.” I picked at the hotel bedspread where a loose thread looped around one of the purple lilies. The thread broke off in my fingers and I glanced up at Dion as he lay on his side, leaning on his elbow, watching me. “What about Medusa’s head? Couldn’t we use that against the sharks at least? Maybe even Zeus himself?”

“Not a bad idea.” He reached out and pushed my hair off my cheek. “Except Medusa’s head was lost at sea and I’m afraid it would be harder to find than even Hermes.”

“Shit. Why do we keep running into dead ends?” I swallowed, hating how I said something that might be considered a pun with Hermes missing and Poseidon wanting to kill me.

The knock on the door startled me and Dion leapt off the bed, his magic glowing across his palms.

“Room service.”

I let out a breath and pushed up, my stomach grumbling.

Dion’s magic faded and he opened the door, accepting the tray and bringing it into the room. I flipped on a superhero movie on the TV, and we binged on cheeseburgers, fries, and homemade chocolate shakes.

“How do you feel?” Dion asked.

“Like I could use twenty-four hours of sleep. But we’re no closer than we were before.”

“Hopefully Heph has better news than us.” Dion whipped his hands on the cloth napkin before picking up all of our plates and replacing them on the tray. When he set the tray outside the door, I tilted my head to the side in thought.

“You’ve stayed in hotels before?”

“Sure? Why? Did you think I slept outside on rocks or in a vineyard?”

I fidgeted with the edge of my shirt. “Well, no. But I thought you’d have a place way up in Olympus or penthouse or something.”

He laughed softly. “Afraid I don’t like the politics of Olympus and am happy just to be a regular person down here. Especially since I found you.”

“I’m glad I found you too.”

“You know,” a ghost of a smile whispered across his lips, “if you’re still tired, making love can rejuvenate your magic and it’s faster than sleeping.”

“Be right back,” I said in a breathless voice because I really wanted to kiss him, but I hadn’t brushed my teeth since I couldn’t remember when. In the bathroom, I scrubbed my teeth twice before brushing my hair and then shaving.

Then I figured I might as well take a quick shower cause who knew when I’d be back here at the hotel. This might be my only chance before facing Poseidon. Just the thought of him had my stomach doing flips.

I dried off and realized I hadn’t brought a change of clothes into the bathroom with me. There were three robes folded up along with a set of towels on the shelf. I took one and put it on, wrapping the belt around my waist.

Exiting the bathroom, I expected Dion to be waiting for me to come and kiss him. Instead, he was intently watching the superhero movie like he hadn’t even noticed I was gone.

“Hey,” I paused the movie. “Are you going to get cleaned up? I’m all done.”

His gaze took me in up and down before a heat prickled across my skin.

With a snap of his fingers, his hair was damp like he’d taken a shower and he wore an identical robe to mine. Part of me wanted to run and see if it was one from the bathroom, but his robe was partially open, revealing his muscled chest and I was frozen in place.

Well, not really frozen because it felt super-hot in here.

I licked my lips, and his eyes followed the movement. “That’s a neat trick. You’ll have to teach that to me.”

“Of course.” He took a step toward me. “Though I like the one for getting completely naked better.”

Mesmerized, I watched as he trailed a hand across the belt of my robe. His lips brushed across mine, tasting like honeyed wine. I trembled from his touch and wanted more.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, and he deepened the kiss.

His warm hands skimmed down the front of my robe before untying my belt. If I wasn’t holding on to him, I was pretty sure I’d have swooned.

The cool air hit my skin as he opened my robe. Goosebumps danced along my arms and legs. When he pushed the robe off my shoulders and it pooled at my feet, I broke the kiss briefly.

“What about you?” I asked. “You are still dressed.”

“I promised to show you how to use magic to remove your clothes, remember?” His voice was sultry and damn sexy.

Nope, I’d rather rip his robe off and touch him everywhere and have him touch me.

“You’ll need to imagine the clothes off me.” He trailed kisses along my collarbone.

“That’s not too hard,” I said in a husky voice.

But when I moved my hands from around his neck and down his shoulders, the terrycloth material was still there. I squeezed my eyes shut, imagining touching his skin underneath and the robe was gone.

No luck. “I-I can’t do this with you distracting me,” I half-teased. Though I didn’t want him to stop.

“You have to be able to use magic at a moment’s notice no matter what is happening around you.”

“Maybe I’m worried about Emily and Daniel coming back any second.” The super downside to sharing a room.

Dion lowered his head, his breath fanning across my breast and my nipples hardened. “Guess it’s good that I hung up the Do Not Disturb Sign when you were in the shower then.”

“You didn’t.” I gasped. As soon as they saw that, they’d know exactly what we were doing in here.

Then Dion flicked his tongue over my nipple and all thoughts except his mouth on me fled. I forgot how to breathe as he licked and sucked on my nipple. Dizziness consumed me and my legs buckled. Dion swooped me into his arms, keeping me next to him.

He moved to the other breast, and I clawed at the stupid robe still keeping his body covered.

His chuckle puffed out air across my breast. Liquid heat pooled between my legs, and I pulled him with me to the bed.

I kissed him, yanking down the robe, no longer caring about how to use magic.