Ares

Chapter 28 || But I just can't let go.

• COMMENTS = QUICKER UPDATES •

"You get me high like cocaine, make my heart race. You got me hooked so I can need you more the next day. Got me addicted my head and heart conflicted."

Can't Let Go - VALNTN feat. Emilia Ali.

The number sixteen stared heavily back at him from the door but Ares already felt a hundred pounds lighter. No more hiding a relationship he wanted to tell the entire world about. His gaze lowered to the slight tan line where his wedding ring had been. He tried rubbing it away, wondering what Zeus would do when he found out Ares had already left his daughter. He compressed his lips, cursing himself for going to Olympus in the first place. What had he been thinking? Daisy-Chains flashed through his mind, jumping flames burning it to the ground. Caleb was next to whisk past, his family living in a small apartment with one bathroom on the seedy part of town. Grace opened the door with a frown claiming every inch of her face and Ares swiftly pushed inside and shut the door before taking her into his arms.

"W-What are you doing here?"

"It's over. No one is ever going to take you away from me again."

"But what happened?"

He kissed her on the lips, breathing her in like air he would surely die without, the world shrinking around them. Ares broke the kiss to look her in the eyes, caressing her cheek. "I am so sorry for putting you through this."

She opened her mouth and he pressed a finger to her lips.

"Aphrodite is never going to tell her father she wants a divorce."

Grace stared at him without blinking. "I knew it," she whispered.

"And I can't stay in that house for another minute. I don't know what's going to happen and I'm sorry, but I'm done."

She nodded faintly, her heart swelling with a sweet and salty mixture of joy and trepidation. "But what about...?"

"For now," he said, cutting her off, "we pretend like none of this ever happened and have one normal night like everyone else," he said, sliding her t-shirt over her head.

*****

Light jazz spilled from the speakers in the ceiling, bathing the kitchen in a relaxed air Grace desperately needed. Sydney cut off some stems of the rose in her hand and looked up. "What's got you in such a good mood?"

Grace stopped humming and shrugged as she scooped their growth formula from a giant pot. "No reason."

Adrian arched an eyebrow that disappeared beneath the rim of his ball cap. "You find my stash or something?"

There was a loud bang as Grace deposited the pot into the sink. "Yeah, Adrian, I found your stash and smoked it all, and now I'm super baked." She hit the sprayer, sending water blasting off the pot's curved insides.

"Bummer," he said blankly, experimenting with a new drink at the island table. Bottles of rum, vodka, tequila, chocolate liqueur and grenadine littered the table in front of him like bowling pins. He dipped the rim of a tall, curvy glass into a sponge saturated with Bacardi 151 before dipping the glass in sugar. "I was kind of saving that for the new Paranormal Activity flick tomorrow."

Grace stopped the sprayer and laughed. "Lucky you, Sydney!"

"It's his turn to pick," she said dully, working the scissors like a pro.