Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(80)

“Oh, sorry,” Cora said, dropping the little bronze binoculars and holding them out to him. “Did you want to look?”

“Everything I want to look at I see just fine,” he murmured, taking another slow perusal of her body up and down.

Her cheeks flushed such a pretty pink in contrast to the pale of the rest of her face. She was so young and fresh, like an unplucked petal.

“What am I going to do with you?”

Her eyebrows wrinkled the tiniest bit and Marcus could have sworn he saw a quiver to her lip. Her features were full of unchecked emotion and vulnerability. As if a word from him could make or break her.

Foolish girl. Foolish, foolish girl.

But how could he berate her for it when it was what he lo—

He shook his head—when it was what he appreciated about her most?

But he was disturbed enough by his almost mental slip up to turn away from her. Luckily the lights around the theater began to dim at the same time.

“The show is about to start,” he said unnecessarily, lifting a hand and running it through the back of his hair.

He was glad when darkness settled completely over the box and lights focused down on the stage.

The play was a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Marcus had sat through it before but not paid much attention to the narrative. The theater was a nice, respectable place to meet up with contacts who didn’t feel comfortable coming to visit the Underworld.

He couldn’t say he was getting much more out of the show this time around, either. It was much more fascinating to watch the play of emotions on Cora’s face instead.

Her hands clutched the wooden railing of the box seat as she bent over, mesmerized for the entire production. At the end, copious tears poured down her cheeks and she jumped to her feet, clapping furiously.

She wasn’t shy about sharing her thoughts, either. As soon as the lights came back up, she was talking a mile a minute.

“If she’d just woken up a minute sooner,” she gushed, tears still wet on her cheeks. “Or if he hadn’t been so stupid and rash in killing himself like that. And nobody should rely on a stupid bike messenger when it’s about life and death! What were they thinking?!”

Marcus nodded to his Shades as they exited the theater, putting his hand to the small of Cora’s back and leading her to the car that was waiting at the curb.

“How did you not even tear up?” Cora exclaimed, pausing on the sidewalk. “Did you not just watch the same play that I did?”

Did she know how kissable she looked when she was in a pique?

Marcus smiled down at her. “In the car,” was all he said.

Cora shook her head at him but scooted into the car after he held open the door for her.

He got in and instructed the driver, “Take us back to the Estate.” The driver’s head dipped, formal as always with his round chauffeur’s cap firmly in place.

“I mean Juliet was so sweet and smart, Romeo should’ve known she would’ve found another way to be with him. If only he would’ve trusted her—”

Marcus silenced her with a kiss. He’d wanted to do it since midway through the first act when she’d begun biting that luscious bottom lip in anxiety over the lovers on stage.

He sucked her bottom lip into his mouth and nipped at it with his teeth until a petite little groan escaped her throat. Fuck, yes. It was so easy to lose himself in her. In the feel of her soft body molded to his as he laid her down across the backseat. In the taste of her on his lips.

She was so innocent. Good. Pure…

Except for the ways he alone could defile her. No other man would ever hear those little breathy aroused noises she made. No one else would ever revel in her delighted giggle as they ran their stubbled cheek along her neck.

He would never let her go. She was his, for always.

She’d come into his life like the sun bursting through the clouds after a long, frozen winter. He’d tried to deny it. He hadn’t wanted to admit how precious she was to him. He’d been so blinded by his agenda and his thirst for revenge but now…

He looked down at the face that brought him so much… He shook his head as he pulled back and brushed a wisp of hair behind her ear.

“Cora, these last couple of months with you… I never thought that I…”

Her eyes searched back and forth between his. “You never thought that you…?”

She looked like her life depended on what he was about to say next.

But something had caught his eye out the window—First Athens Bank? Why were they on Athena Boulevard? They were supposed to be heading east out of the city to get back to the Estate.

Marcus frowned and looked in the rearview to try to catch the driver’s eye. As if feeling his gaze, the driver glanced back at him.

The eyes were feminine and he didn’t have any female Shades.

Shi—

It all happened so fast. The driver stomped on the brakes and the car wheels screeched, Marcus barely had time to wrap his arms around Cora, and they were both thrown forward against the seat in front of them. At least Cora always put her seatbelt on and the driver’s seat stopped Marcus from flying too far forward, although it hurt like a son of a bitch when he rammed into it. Cora’s terrified scream filled the car.

Marcus didn’t bother shouting. There was no time. He had to focus. He had to get Cora out of there. As soon as the car stopped—