Chapter 149 Another Man Crazy About Athena
In the penthouse suite of a downtown hotel, clothes were strewn carelessly across the large round bed.
Erik shoved the woman in his arms aside and got up abruptly, striding into the bathroom without a word.
The sound of cold water splashing against the tiles soon filled the air.
He stood there under the stream, hands braced against the wall, jaw clenched. The icy water rolled down his back, but it did nothing to cool the fire raging inside him.
What haunted him wasn’t the woman outside, but Athena.
Her scornful eyes. Her sneering voice. The look of contempt she didn’t even try to hide.
He had replayed it in his head all night.
Who the hell does she think she is to look down on me? he thought angrily. She’s Byron’s kept woman, nothing more.
“Damn it,” Erik growled through clenched teeth.
Frustration simmered inside him like boiling acid.
She was the first woman he couldn’t conquer—and that was driving him mad.
He felt like something inside him had snapped.
Even when he was with someone else, even in bed, he couldn’t stop thinking about Athena. Her curves. Her voice. Her defiance.
Everywhere he looked, he saw her—reflected in the glass, imagined in the mirror. A ghost haunting him in the most intimate moments.
What did she do to me?
His hands trembled from the rage and confusion.
He slammed his fist hard against the tiled wall, his knuckles turning red on impact.
“Athena! What the hell did you do to me?!” he shouted in his mind, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
He couldn’t take it anymore.
He needed her.
Even just once.
Or else this torment would drive him insane.
A few minutes later, the woman outside the bathroom called to him.
Erik took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. He straightened up, masking the madness in his eyes, and walked out like nothing had happened.
Ten minutes later, while he was still in bed, his phone buzzed.
Heather was calling.
The moment he saw her name, his expression turned cold.
If it weren’t for her, he thought bitterly, I would’ve never even noticed Athena… and I wouldn’t be suffering like this.
“Brother Erik,” Heather’s anxious voice rang out as soon as he picked up, “I might need your help with something.”
Erik didn’t answer immediately. Heather was his half-sister—he was the illegitimate one, a fact neither of them ever mentioned aloud.
“What is it?” he asked bluntly.
Just as Heather was about to explain, a voice came from beside him.
“Is that Athena?”
The woman on the bed pouted, her tone accusing.
Erik’s mood darkened further. “No!” he snapped.
Heather sighed on the other end of the call. “Didn’t you promise to deal with Athena and bring her to LA? This isn’t the time to be fooling around.”
“What do you want?” he said irritably.
He wasn’t about to admit that he had already tried—and failed.
Humiliated, even.
Heather lowered her voice. “Rose seems to have picked a potential heir. The surname is Newton… and it’s a woman.”
“Newton?” Erik’s nerves tightened. “Same as Athena?”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t catch it clearly,” Heather replied, her tone cautious.
“I’ll look into it,” Erik said through gritted teeth.
“And you’d better move fast,” Heather added. “Byron’s behavior is getting more and more erratic.”
She had just received a report that Byron was secretly renovating a luxury villa in Lakin. He had also sent his winter wardrobe to a high-end apartment complex. He wasn’t planning to return home anytime soon.
Heather didn’t even need to investigate—she already knew who lived in that apartment.
“Got it,” Erik muttered, then hung up the call with a scowl.
The woman beside him leaned in and playfully asked, “Honey… who’s Athena? You were calling her name all night.”
Erik gave her a cold smile.
“She’s just a stupid woman who doesn’t know her place.”