Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(63)

But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t still use tonight to learn all she could and to seek allies and opportunity.

So later, she smiled sweetly at the stylist who nodded at Marcus, obviously intimidated if not outright afraid, and gestured toward the master bathroom. “If you come this way, we can get started.”

Three hours later, she was made up, her hair teased and curled and sprayed into a sleek updo with curls cascading over one shoulder.

Marcus had chosen a red dress, far more daring than anything she would have ever chosen for herself. The front was modest, but it draped daringly over her shoulder, exposing her back so that the stylist had to use tape to make sure none of her derrière would be exposed.

She stared at herself in the full-length mirror, even more bewildered feeling than when she’d looked at herself on her wedding day.

She looked sophisticated and worldly. Far more than she felt. She was a farm girl from Kansas.

She shook her head. No, that wasn’t true. Not anymore. She wasn’t the wide-eyed girl who’d first ridden the bus into the city three months ago. Not after Marcus.

Still, she wasn’t… She turned and looked at the daring dip of the back of the dress in the mirror, and saw Marcus coming up behind her.

Her breath caught at the sight of him.

Marcus in a tux was… Terrifying. Formidable. Drop dead gorgeous.

He came right up behind her. She gasped when his hands came swiftly to her neck and watched with bated breath in the mirror as he used the small, oddly shaped key to unlock the collar around her neck.

She could only guess at what the stylist had thought of it. The clunky stainless steel had obviously not gone with the elegant look but as per Marcus’s instructions, the stylist hadn’t said a word.

Marcus tossed the collar to the bed behind him and produced a large, square velvet box from his suit coat jacket. He sat it on the dresser beside the mirror and opened it, still silent.

What was he—?

“Are those dia—”

“Yes.”

Cora’s eyes went wide as he lifted the delicate diamond studded choker to her neck. Chill bumps raced down her body as he lifted her hair. His fingertips graced her skin as he fastened it at the back of her neck.

The one-inch thick interlaced diamond necklace sparkled, even in the dim light of the room. It was made of what looked like hundreds of smaller diamonds along with larger diamond studded in a central pattern.

It must cost a fortune.

Cora couldn’t help her hand lifting to touch the spectacular piece of jewelry but she stopped herself at the last second from actually making contact, dropping her hand again. She swallowed hard and the diamonds glittered with the movement.

“Why?”

“So everyone will know you are mine.”

Cora nodded. Finally an answer that made sense.

“What if I lose it somehow? Or the clasp breaks and I don’t notice it fall off, or—”

“It won’t fall off. Now, I trust you won’t manage to lose this again, either.”

He pulled out another box, this one smaller and familiar, and opened it.

It was her engagement ring and her wedding ring that she’d thrown across the room that first night. Had it only been two weeks ago? It felt like a century.

Her eyes flew to Marcus’s in the mirror but his face was stone. Impassive.

She took the rings out of the box and slid them on the fourth finger of her left hand.

After she had, Marcus put his large, cool hands on her bare shoulders, eyes meeting hers in the mirror.

“You will not embarrass me tonight. You will act like a proper wife.”

“Because gods forbid anything sully your sterling reputation?” The barb was out of her mouth before she could help it.

Marcus was not amused.

He slid his hand from her bare shoulder over to her throat and for the first time all day, she saw a fire stoked in his eyes.

He put no pressure on her throat around the choker, but kept his hand there.

And in demonstration of how much Cora was not the simple farm girl from Kansas anymore, the sight in the mirror and the feel of his commanding hand there had her tingling in all sorts of ways, none of which were fearful.

She might not be an innocent anymore, but she was assuredly just as foolish. Because her heart squeezed at his touch, too.

She turned away from the mirror and strode for the door. “I assume our chariot awaits.”





So yes, the stylist and the dress and the necklace should have tipped her off. But Cora still wasn’t prepared when Sharo let them off in front of a red carpet. It was a gala with an Actual. Red. Carpet.

It was a charity gala, Cora would learn over the course of the next hour as Marcus took her arm and she was blinded by camera flashes as they walked the aforementioned red carpet into the Elysium hotel ballroom, the only hotel in New Olympus fancier than the Crown.

Cora tried to keep her eyes from bugging out of her head when she saw famous actors, actresses, musicians, and politicians mingling all around them.

Marcus strode through the crowd without batting an eye and Cora did her best to keep up with him. He’d stop occasionally and make small talk. And he was charming. Charismatic even. He introduced her around, his hand always at the small of her back.

Cora had officially entered the twilight zone. Marcus was smiling. It was obviously a show he could put on at will, but still, she’d forgotten what his full smile looked like. The dimple. She’d forgotten about the devastating dimple.