Chapter Three

My braid swings against my back and the breeze chills my sweat slick skin, causing goosebumps to raise on my arms. My lungs pump and my music thrums in my ears as I round a corner.

Arms wrap around me and panic seizes me. I kick back and my earbuds fall from my ears and a raspy voice caresses my ear. "Aphrodite it's me, relax."

My heart pounds and my breath comes out in pants, Ares lets me go and I turn to face him, my heart stuttering. "Hi," I say, my voice wavering.

His alarmingly kind eyes soften and he gestures to the rumbling motorcycle ten feet away. "Max is at my place, I thought we could go somewhere."

I calm my breathing, digging my nails into my palms, glancing around my surroundings. When my heart soothes, I muster up the smooth confidence I usually have around him and cock my hip to the side, flicking my braid back over my shoulder.

"And why do you think you are worth my time God of War?" A smirk easily slips onto my lips and I let my eyes swipe up and down his form.

For the longest time he looks at me with concern, brown eyes searching my face, hands slack at his sides as though he doesn't know how to put aside my reaction to him grabbing me. "Love, I will not be taking no for an answer. I am determined to get to know you. You're an anomaly, I crave to know how you tick." His voice is a low growl.

I act as though I consider this, tapping a finger against my bottom lip, letting his eyes fall to my lips, seeing a small hunger brew there. "I suppose I can entertain this notion of you getting to know me."

He leads the short way to his bike and he slides gracefully onto his bike, his lean, thick frame quite suitable for a motorcycle. A leather jacket clings to the muscles in his arms, and on the back is  a skeleton head with wings attached to the sides, the words framing the top and the bottom "Rebel Angels" . I roll my eyes at the name.

"You're in a gang?" I ask, standing next to the bike.

Ares looks back at me, looking comfortable and at ease on the bike, almost as if the piece of machinery is one with him. "Yes."

"So what? You are going to take me back to your club house and, what? Gang bang me? Have me take off my top and dance on the bar?" I raise a brow.

He rips the keys from the ignition, stalking towards me as though he were a predator and me the prey. I bump into a nearby building and he cages me in with his body. "Let's get some things straight, Aphrodite. I don't like to share my woman, especially not one as special as you," his knuckles brush along my cheek, causing my skin to pucker and raise. Anticipation runs through me and I close my eyes. "I may be in the club, but I do not participate in their debauchery. I'm just there to make them look cool. So Aphrodite, it seems you are the one who needs to keep an open mind about me."

When I look up at him, I realize, he's right. He has been attempting to get to know me, but aren't all Gods the same? Thinking they can take what they want... who they want, whenever? Yet, here he is, pleading with me in his own way to give him a chance. He opened up to me the other night about what he does, not creating wars... but helping. Would a bad man do that? I'll give him a chance.

"I'm not your woman," I whisper, the bravado escaping me with his close proximity, the scent of clean cucumber tickling my lungs.

He smirks, brushing the pad of his thumb over my lower lip, tugging on it gently. "Not yet."

Abruptly he moves away from me, swinging onto his bike, leaving me cold and hot and very bothered. My chest heaves and I glare at him, fighting the smirk that quivers on my lips. With a bit more confidence and control, I saunter over to the bike, sliding my hand over the muscles in his shoulders and slip onto the back of his bike, the rumble vibrating into my body and giving me a spark of giddy adrenaline.

Here goes nothing.

-~-

The wind rips through my hair, ripping it from my braid, stinging my face, tangling in each other. I press against his back, clinging to him and press my hands into his strong chest. My heart pounds into his back and I giggle as the scenery flies by. The greenery runs by and Ares weaves in and out of traffic until we hit a long stretch of open road.

Cautiously, I let go of Ares, arching my back, I throw my arms out and close my eyes. The wind presses around my body, attempting to move me this way and that, my legs press in around his waist and my body feels like it's flying, soaring through the sky at breakneck speed. I let out a loud noise, shaking my hair in the air, and laughing before holding back onto Ares, pressing my cheek against his back.

For hours we ride and I can see why he enjoys his bike and why he says it's one of the cooler things on Earth. Slowly we come to a stop and he pulls us into a fast food place. He slides off the bike and helps me off as well.

A smile plasters itself to me face as we stand face to face, I feel myself bouncing on my toes. "That was so much fun! It was amazing, I can see why you would want to do that all the time."

He smiles down at me, smoothing the tangled strands of hair back from my face. "You're a bird." Ares watches me, no not watches, he gazes at me.

"A bird?" I make a face.

"You're free like a bird, Aphrodite."

His words hit me in a place that I have buried deep inside me, soothing the jagged, harmful edges. I am free. Isn't that what I felt on the back of his bike? Free and wild and I could fly. Smiling, I take the hand he offers and walk with him inside the fast food restaurant. We place our orders and we sit in a corner booth, him sitting against the wall to survey the room and exit and me across from him.

"Where are we?" I ask, looking around.

It's a cozy little restaurant and the afternoon light blares through the blinds, lighting up the outside greenery. It's beautiful and comfortable. "A small town just outside of Indianapolis. This is where I landed when I came from Olympus, it has always held a homey feel to me. I stayed in a motel about thirty minutes away."

The sun from behind him, lights him up, illuminating his dark hair and high lighting the undertones of red in his brown eyes. He leans back in the booth, crossing his arms over his chest. I lean forward, resting my chin in my palm. "How did you get involved in a gang?" I ask.

Ares pops his neck to the side and leans forward, leaning against his forearms, his tan skin peppered with small scars. "It was something to do."

I scoff. "It was something to do, really? Come on, tell me the real reason."

"Question for a question. I'll answer this question and you answer one of mine."

I stare at him, he is tantalizing information right in front of me, trying to get information from me by giving information about him to me. Furrowing my brow, I frown. "Fine."

He smiles, satisfied. "I joined a gang because the first friend I made here did. Jez, he..." Ares shifts uncomfortably, clearing his throat. "He is a good guy but he just fell into some bad stuff. His wife was killed by the Crimson Phantoms. She was brutalized, it was obvious she had suffered and when we found her, he was devastated. So he found the Rebel Angels, who hate the Crimson Phantoms, he joined and..." he shakes his head. "I had to watch out for him."

I sit back into the squishy plastic of the booth and smooth a hand over my hair. "Wow, that's I am sorry. Did he..."

"He killed all ten of the men who harmed his wife and yes, I helped him." His eyes show no guilt, but they do hold pain, pain for his friend and pain for the wife of his friend.

With no hesitation I reach across the table and twine my fingers through his, sliding my thumb over his hand in a comforting gesture.

"I don't feel remorse, Aphrodite. Jez loved her. I couldn't even imagine the pain, but I saw it, I saw what it did to him and I can't imagine what it would feel like if that had been a woman I had committed myself to."

"You don't have to," I assure him, keeping eye contact so he knows I mean it.

He squeezes my hand and the waitress comes with the food and we pull away, thanking the young lady and start digging into our food. I dig into my burger, taking off the onions and shoving the juicy meat into my mouth, and letting the juice fill my mouth and flood my taste buds. I chew slowly and Ares watches me with a smile.

"You can eat."

Swallowing, I giggle. "I like to eat, and this burger? Fuck, that's good," I say, taking another bite.

For a while all we do is eat in silence and when we finish we walk back out to the motorcycle and we just stand by the bike, staring at the scenery in front of us, the afternoon light starting to set. The breeze is warm and humid. "Come back to my place?" his voice is distant as if talking about Jez and his wife took a lot out of him.

My immediate reaction is to say hell no, but didn't I say I was giving him a chance? "Okay," I say.

With that we are back on his motorcycle and driving back to his home, where he is going to collect the question that is owed to him, and I can only hope it won't tear me apart to answer it.