Eris (The Lost Goddesses #4)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

E ris sat at the corner of her favorite bar on the Viale Vaticano and drained her cocktail. She had been coming to Silviano's for the last fifty years, and they still made the best Aperol Spritz cocktails in the city.

She checked her watch. She had been there for almost two hours, and the grip she had on her curse remained strong. She wrote her findings down in the notebook that Isis insisted she use to record her progress. She was determined to help Eris control her curse, and they needed proper data they could use. The control was beginning to feel easier, and a small glimmer of hope that she could one day control the chaos again was starting to bloom. Her social anxiety was another matter.

Eris had been afraid to be around people for so long that she had forgotten how to properly interact with them. The lights, the music, the noise—it became overwhelming if she stayed around all that longer than a few hours.

"Can I get you another?" the bartender asked.

Eris glanced up from her journal at the man and smiled.

"Yes, please," she said and pushed her empty glass towards him.

Eris took the opportunity to check him out. She had seen him working there more than once and wasn't the only person who appreciated his excellent shoulders and dashing smile. He was dressed in a dark red button-down shirt that had the sleeves pushed up to reveal strong forearms. Curling dark hair with a few gray streaks was worn a little longer and matched a beard that suited the cut of his strong jaw.

He seemed oblivious to the way the women's (and some of the men's) eyes followed him. Eris bet that he got amazing tips. He was one of the few people who managed to get more than five words out of her. She wished she had Laverna's easy charm to be able to flirt with him.

The bartender smiled and placed a fresh Spritz down before her. "You've been here a while tonight. Is someone foolishly standing you up?"

Eris shook her head. "No. I just like to be alone around people sometimes, and this place suits me."

"I have seen you here a lot lately. Are you still hunting priests, or have you decided to move up from virgins?" he asked, his hazel eyes dancing with mischief.

"Watching me that close? I don't know if I should be flattered or not," Eris asked, a flicker of attraction burning hot through her. "I also don't know what business it is of yours if I hook up with priests."

"Absolutely none." The bartender set down a new bowl of nuts beside her Spritz. "I am curious to know why priests though. Were you forced to go to a Catholic school or something?"

"My dad ran away with one," Eris said, straight-faced. "It's a way for me to heal my childhood trauma."

"Really? That's one I haven't heard before," he replied and then realized Eris's mouth was twitching. "You're lying. Damn, you had me going there."

Eris sipped her Spritz. "You deserved it."

"I can't help but be curious. You seem to attract men of the cloth. I was merely trying to figure out the appeal on your behalf."

"What are you, a shrink or something?" Eris demanded.

The bartender placed a hand on his chest. "Alas, a failed one, but bartending isn't much different. Satisfy my curiosity and tell me why a woman like you would waste your time with men who don't even take you out on a proper date."

Eris smirked, ready to see a grown man blush. "Why? Are you offering to take me on one?"

"Enzo. And I was about to, but you beat me to it," he said, gracing her with a dazzling, cheeky smile. "Very well. I accept. I'm just closing up. Can you wait?"

Eris's mouth fell open at being so quickly maneuvered. "I didn't ask…"

"Great," Enzo said and hurried away to clear some empty glasses from a nearby table.

Eris blinked. "What just happened?" she whispered under her breath.

She should get up and leave. Her time holding the shields around her curse was already at its limit. She closed her eyes to check them. They were holding fine, but did she want to go on a date? With actual talking involved?

Eris opened her eyes again, and the first thing she saw was Enzo smiling as he held the door open for customers leaving.

Yes, I really want to have a date.

Enzo was handsome but not in a pretty way, and there was something about him that she couldn't quite put her finger on…like he reminded her of someone from long ago, but she couldn't picture who.

Her eternal loneliness niggled at her. What would it hurt to have a drink with him? If he was a dick, it wasn't like she couldn't get up and leave. Unexpected nerves fluttered in her belly. Fates, she couldn't remember the last time she had an actual date.

Eris subtly checked her makeup in a small hand mirror and then felt ridiculous. She shut the mirror with a snap and wrote in her journal: Experiment - Date .

If nothing else, she could use it as an opportunity to test her limits. If things started to fray, then at least no one would be around to see the moment he started trying to fight with her because her chaos was leaking out of her.

Enzo cleared off the rest of the tables, and the last of the customers left. Once he waved the last one out, he locked the door and flipped the sign to CLOSED.

"Still here? You must want a date after all," he teased and turned the music down. "I don't suppose you will tell me your name now?"

"Eris," she replied, closing her journal. "So how did you fail at being a shrink?"

"Straight to it," Enzo said with a grin. He came back around the side of the bar and poured himself a glass of red wine. "If you must know, I didn't fail so much as retire. This is the family bar, and someone needed to run it. There's also less of a chance of me being attacked or stalked as a bartender. What about you? What do you do?"

"I'm between things at the moment. Trying to figure out what I want to do next with my life," she said because no one had ever asked her that question before. She fumbled to find something else to tell him. "I'm used to selling and appraising antiques for people. I have friends here in Rome, so I am back for a visit."

Enzo's expression brightened. "I think I have seen someone with you. Short, slight, very pretty."

"That's Lavena. Though I should warn you, she has a very big, overprotective partner," Eris said. The fact that Laverna and Rom were finally together was another strange and recent miracle.

"That's fine. She's not my type anyway," Enzo replied and sipped his wine.

''And I am?"

Enzo shrugged. "I don't know yet. Don't get me wrong, you are very beautiful, but that's not why I wanted to have a drink with you."

"And what is the reason?" Eris asked. No man had ever been interested in her personality, that was for sure.

Enzo studied her for a moment. "You seem lonely, and I know what that's like."

Eris swallowed hard. She didn't know if this had been a good idea at all, so she opened her mouth and ruined it. "Here I thought you wanted to fuck me out the back."

"It would be a lot more satisfying for you than fucking another priest, but I wanted to get to know you first," Enzo replied, surprising her yet again. "I was raised to be a gentleman that way."

"I'll have you know that priests are some of the kinkiest people alive, so it's a bold claim that you could satisfy me better than they do," Eris said, and her pulse leaped as he moved around to her side of the bar. She didn't move back when he leaned into her personal space.

Enzo trailed a finger over the curve of her cheek, leaving fire on her skin. "Bold of you to assume that I can't, bella ."

It had been a long time since Eris had felt a flutter of anticipation in her stomach. She leaned in to kiss him when a phone rang loudly. Enzo swore and took the phone from his back pocket. The screen flashed with a picture of a pretty woman. His expression shifted from annoyance to worry.

"Sorry, I have to go," he said.

Eris blinked. "Are... Are you serious right now?"

"Unfortunately. It's my nonna. She's old and?—"

"Your nonna. Sure ." Eris grabbed her bag and journal, an embarrassed bubble of laughter rising inside her. Of course he had another woman. She was such an idiot. She unlocked the front door of the bar and opened it.

Enzo had the balls to call out, "Raincheck?"

Eris did laugh then. "Absolutely not. Go home to your wife or whoever is really calling you."

The door to the bar slammed behind her, and she didn't look back. She had barely taken three steps when all the car alarms in the street started to go off, her chaos and annoyance lashing out.

With an irritated sigh, Eris went to find her own car. She turned off the alarm and sat in the driver's seat, trying to breathe and put the shields back up. She should have known better. She didn't attempt dates for a reason. It was just her luck that the first man she liked had a wife.

Eris swore and rested her head against the steering wheel. Loneliness was a chasm inside her, the rejection tearing fresh wounds over old scars. She should be used to it by now, but for some inexplicable reason, the whole horrible scene with Enzo hurt. It wasn't like she had any kind of moral high ground to judge him.

"Fuck him. He's just a bartender," she told herself and drove out of the city as fast as she could.