He muttered something that sounded an awful lot like “I thought that was my line,” but then she didn’t care, because he was sliding into the water and she was focused on making sure his legs didn’t go out from under him.
He hissed in a sharp breath, let it out slowly. She kept a hold of him as they slid in deeper and the water rose up to their shoulders. His breathing slowed and he closed his eyes, but he didn’t make any attempt to push away, and she figured he either knew he needed her help right now or he was oblivious to the fact she was still holding him.
The water made him virtually weightless and easy to maneuver. Slowly she walked them to the side of the pool, where the rocks were smoother and more comfortable to lean against. Bracing his back against one very flat rock, she continued to keep her body tight against his so he wouldn’t slide under and drown.
Steam rose around them. The tips of her wet hair slapped against her shoulders. With a groan he rested his head back on the rocks behind him. Beads of sweat popped out on his forehead, so she lifted a hand from the water, shook the droplets from her skin and wiped his brow.
“Hmm,” he said as her fingers ran across his skin. “That feels good.”
A half smile curled her mouth before she could stop it. He’d always loved it when she massaged his forehead and ran her fingers through his hair. “Better?”
“Way better.”
“I told you you were cold.”
“Not anymore. I think I feel my toes again.”
Her smile widened. That was definitely good news. She continued to rub his forehead, his temples, trail her finger down the bridge of his nose and up again. Had he broken it at one point? She didn’t remember the small lump there in that spot. She glanced at his throat, at the long jagged scar he’d gotten in some fight. This one she remembered well. Remembered running her fingers and tongue over it as they’d made…
Dangerous, a little voice warned. If you don’t stop touching him, you’ll cross the healer-patient line…
She frowned. She was part human, wasn’t she? Didn’t she deserve a few minutes of downtime herself? After the last few hours—days, for that matter—she deserved more than a few minutes. Hell, after the last ten years she deserved a lifetime of peace. Why couldn’t she relax and enjoy these few stolen moments with Zander, free from the animosity and anger that had ruled them both for so long? Was it too much to ask for just a handful of minutes to remember why she’d fallen for him in the first place?
Yes. Definitely yes. Getting close will only end badly.
As she sat there stroking him, arguing with herself and feeling guilty, she found she wanted this moment to last. Needed it to. For reasons even she didn’t understand.
Almost as if he heard the voices in her head, his eyes popped open, shattering the serenity. She stilled when she realized he was completely focused on her, the blue-gray pools of his irises as clear as she’d ever seen them. “What?” she asked hesitantly.
“Why did you come?”
“I…” Okay, yeah. Damn those superhero healing properties. He was definitely lucid now. “Because Titus asked me to.”
“You could have said no.”
True. And she’d considered it. For all of two seconds. But like a fool, she’d never been able to turn her back on him. “I made a vow to help those in need.”
“Even me.”
It wasn’t a question. They both heard it. Instantly she remembered all too well how he could turn a blind eye to those in need. And just like that the peaceful moment passed.
She dropped her hand back into the water and focused on that scar on his throat to avoid his gaze. Water droplets glistened on his naturally tanned skin, ran over the puckered surface.
“Even you.”
Silence settled between them. His breathing and the lap of water against rock was all she heard.
“Where did you go?” he finally asked. “After?”
Shock registered. That he was asking. That he even cared. After all this time, did it even matter anymore? She thought about not answering then figured, why not? “I…I needed some time. I stayed where I was. In Greece.”
He nodded. And she couldn’t help wondering whether he’d known where she was all along. “I heard a rumor you went to a human medical school.”
He had? News flash to her. Why would he even care? She could ask. She wanted to. But ultimately decided against it. She didn’t want him becoming agitated in his state, and if he was trying to satisfy some morbid curiosity, then she’d just let him. For now. “I did. I studied at the Aristotle University of Thessaloníki.”
He lifted a hand from the water to scratch his stubbly jaw. “Weren’t you afraid? In the human realm, alone? Argoleans are prime targets for daemons.”
She shrugged, stared at a droplet of water that ran from his cheek, down across his strong, square jaw and under, to trail down his scar. “At first, a little. But Thessaloníki is a big city. I made sure I was never really alone. Daemons don’t like to make a scene in front of humans if they can avoid it.”
“They used to avoid it,” he said quietly. “Things are different now.”
Yeah, they were, weren’t they? Now that Atalanta was mortal again her daemons didn’t care who got in their way. She’d been so lucky the day…
Her stomach churned, but she forced the memory back. “My father was also with me for a while. That made it easier at the start.”
“Oh, right,” he said with very clear disdain. “Your father. Why does that not surprise me?”
She lifted her eyes to his and saw in his chiseled features that the contempt he’d had for her father was very much alive and kicking today, though why it mattered to him now she’d never know. He’d once accused her of letting her father rule her life. And for a long time, she had. But when it came down to the most important decision, she’d gone against what her father wanted. And paid dearly.
She looked back at the water curling softly around Zander’s skin and tried not to remember the pain. But it never really went away. “Do you really want to talk about my father?”
“No.”
His immediate answer was no real surprise. So why did the blunt word make her chest ache?
“I just want to know one thing,” he said. “Why did you come back? If the human world was so great, why return to Argolea at all?”
What answer could she give that would make sense? She didn’t want to tell him her father had begged her to return. Or that the increase in daemon activity in the area had scared her enough to make her consider returning to a world that devalued its females. And she definitely didn’t want him to know about the daemon she’d run into one night walking home from class. That had definitely been a sobering experience, especially after the way the creature had stared at her like he recognized her. She’d been lucky the group of humans had come by when they had and she’d escaped unscathed. But she definitely didn’t want to tell Zander about it now or see his I-told-you-so smug expression.
So instead she shrugged and simply said, “It was just the right time to come back.”
He studied her with intense eyes, as if he knew she was omitting the truth. She averted her gaze and stared at his throat again, but her adrenaline pulsed, and her heart rate kicked up under that ruthless stare.
At some point during their conversation she’d let go of him, but he seemed to be supporting his own weight just fine now, and the conversation was already too intimate for her liking. She didn’t need to add physical proximity to the mix.
Just about the time she was going to tell him he was being rude and ask him to stop staring, he shrugged. His features relaxed as he slid farther into the water. “Must be nice having an in with the Council so you can come and go as you please. Most Argoleans aren’t so lucky.”