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Olivia smashed her thumb on the -1 button, and then hugged herself.
He’d left her there, kneeling naked on his bed, wet and aching for him, so he could talk to whoever that woman on the phone was. Megale. Olivia knew enough Greek to recognize the word for big guy, and by the lilt in the woman’s voice, she didn’t mean Hyperion’s height.
Hot tears ran down Olivia’s cheeks, as the doors slid shut. She’d believed him, God damn it. When he’d said he was in love with her, she’d believed him. His eyes had been so honest, and that catch in his throat? Nice touch. Really sold it.
She wiped furiously at her eyes. Worst part? She was ready to say it back, when he left the room to whisper sweet nothings to his other mistress, while his cock was still drenched in Olivia’s juices. Yes, after only forty-eight hours, she was in love with the big oaf. It was hard to believe she could fall so fast, but her body was in tune to his every move, without him even touching her, and when he looked at her with those big, gorgeous eyes of his, her heart melted. His voice felt like a caress, soothing her and making her feel safe.
She snorted. Safe. She’d worried about his superhuman strength, but it hadn’t been his hands that broke her heart.
A sob wound around her lungs and slipped out of her lips. He’d left her, mid-sex. She’d been so humiliated, and yet she’d actually considered staying where she was and waiting for him to come back and finish what he’d started. Where was her self-respect?
Something jostled her. The floor trembled under her feet. She was dizzy. She hadn’t eaten since last night, and the vigorous workout had left her weak.
“Olivia.”
Was he speaking in her head? But she wasn’t hot for him now. Or rather, she was blazing hot, but with anger, not lust.
“Olivia, we need to get out of here.”
She spun on her heel and saw him standing there, still naked. “How did you—?”
He cut her off with an impatient wave of his hand. “I’ll explain later. Need to get you to safety first.” He held out both arms, like he meant to hug her.
Olivia took a step back. “No. I told you, you’re never touching me again.”
“You’re in danger, woman.”
The elevator shook, and she stumbled back but righted herself with a hand on the polished-wood wall. “Are you doing this?” she whispered.
Hyperion threw his head back and squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t mean to. I’m trying to stop, but we have to get you out of here.” When he looked at her again, there was nothing human in his eyes. They were pure liquid gold. He reached for her, and she batted away his hand.
“I’ll be fine if you leave.” She didn’t believe it, but her self-preservation instinct seemed more worried about his proximity than about being stuck in here during an earthquake.
The mirror on the wall behind him rattled and shattered in a million shards.
Seven years bad luck.
Snap.
And the countdown started now.
The car lurched, and then pivoted downward.
Olivia screamed, before logic kicked in. They’d be okay. Elevators had emergency brakes, for this kind of situation. It was compulsory.
Except, maybe they didn’t work in cases of Titan-induced shaking, because their descent never slowed.
Time seemed to creep to a halt, as Hyperion closed the distance between them and wrapped an arm around her waist. The tendons in his neck stood out, and the muscles in his jaws bulged with effort. Was he going to fly them up? Up to where?
“Chaos.” It took a moment for Olivia to realize this was an exclamation, and not a description of their situation. “I can’t blink us out of here,” he said through clenched teeth.
The lights in the cabin flickered, as it picked up speed.
God, he’d come to save her. The world rocked and rolled, and Hyperion cared about saving her. He did love her, and now they were going to die, and she hadn’t told him she loved him.
No. She was going to die, and he’d never know how she felt.
“Hyperion—”
She was silenced by his fist going through the wall beside her head. A loud screeching sound made her wince. Sparks came out of the hole he’d created.
He was using his hand as a brake, to slow their fall. The bit about being super strong hadn’t been an exaggeration.
Olivia threw her arms around his neck and clung to him. If this didn’t work, if she was going to die, she’d make the most of her final moments. “I love you,” she said.
The car stopped, and Hyperion let go of her to wedge open the doors with his free hand. They were suspended between floors. “Go,” he said.
She pressed her lips to his, and he responded with such ferocity, he destroyed any lingering doubt about his feelings.
“Go,” he repeated when he broke the kiss.
“What about you?”
“I’ll be okay. I’m immortal, remember?” He held the doors open while she climbed out.
Olivia turned to meet his gaze. The earthquake was over. They’d be okay.
His sad smile made her heart stutter. It wasn’t the look of a man who just had his feelings reciprocated. “Hyperion,” she cried out, as the doors slid shut between them. “No.”
A deafening sound rocked the bowels of the building.
The elevator had crashed.
She ran to the staircase and took it all the way down, two steps at a time. People scurried around, but other than plaster chaffing off the walls at points, she saw no damage.
Because the epicenter of the earthquake had been in the elevator. With her.
She made it to the bottom, and part of her didn’t want to look. What if she saw Hyperion’s body, broken and bloodied?
The elevator doors on the basement level were folded outward, the metal bent in places by what could be two giant sets of knuckles, like someone huge and powerful and timeless had punched his way out.
Hyperion wasn’t here. He had to be okay.
Her breath came out in bursts, and her heart hammered in her chest as she took the stairs again, this time up. Her legs felt as sturdy as boiled spaghetti, but her heart soared. He’d be in the suite, and she’d run to him and tell him she was his until the end of her mortal life.
The lights were out on the top floor, but she made her way to the suite in the fading sunlight that made it through the window at the end of the corridor. The door stood ajar, and Olivia nudged her way in, searching the wall for the light switch. She found it and flicked it on, and a sole unbroken lamp came on. Pieces of the ceiling had landed on the furniture and smashed the coffee table. The flat-screen TV hung lopsided on the wall, and there was no vase or glass standing upright.
“Hyperion?” But she already knew he wasn’t here.
A new bout of terror squeezed her insides as she went to his room, to find more devastation. Broken glass crunched underfoot, but amid the chaos, she saw his cell phone.
Maybe he’d gone to save that other woman...
Olivia squashed the pang of jealousy that threatened to rip through her insides and scrolled to last calls. She’d only check if the woman had heard from him. It was concern for his wellbeing, really.
She chose the top incoming call—Circe—pressed Call, and the same female voice from before picked up on the first ring, with, “Ola kala?” Everything okay, in Greek.
“Do you know where Hyperion is?” Olivia tried to keep her voice calm.
“You’re her,” the woman said.
He’d talked to her about Olivia?
“Yes.” Olivia didn’t know what she agreed to. “There was an earthquake. He was in the elevator when it crashed. I can’t find him.” A shrill edge crept into her words. “Is he with you?”
“No.”
Then where was he?
His words from earlier came back to Olivia. My favorite place... Why hadn’t she let him say more about it, like where the hell it was? “There’s a secluded beach he used to love. Caves and volcanic rock.”
“Aspes,” the woman said. “I know the place. Stay where you are. I’m sending someone to get you.”
Why did this woman know Hyperion’s favorite place? A fresh wave of jealousy washed over Olivia, threatening to take her under. She resisted. “I can have a friend drive m—”
The line went dead. Awesome. Vangelis would take her there, if he wasn’t off with Hyperion. If Aspes was in Chania, he’d know the place. Or they could look it up on a map.
A spot of blinding white light twirled in the air before her, gathering mass with every turn. Limbs elongated from it, and then a tall, gorgeous man about her age smiled down at her, his blue eyes sparkling. “Ready?” he asked.
“For what?”
He clasped her wrist, and the room dissolved around her.