Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(31)

Apollo watched her. She looked bedraggled and sodden. Her hair was a limp mess. Her clothes were wet. She only had on one shoe - and that one was leaking bright dye colors onto the ivory comforter. His heart lurched. He had never been so attracted to a woman, mortal or goddess, in his life.

"I should leave," he said abruptly.

Pamela peeked up through a fold in the towel. "Oh?" She looked at her soaked watch. (Thank God it was waterproof.) It was past 4:00 a.m.! "I didn't realize it was so late." She reminded herself that he was a strange man and that, although the chances of him being a ra**st or a serial killer were slim, especially in light of the fact that he'd "rescued" her, he was still a man alone with her in her hotel room way past midnight. The situation had the makings of a Lifetime Movie of the Week, and they never ended well.

"Yes, it is late." He definitely didn't want to leave, which was why his conscience was telling him firmly he must go.

"I suppose your sister will be wondering what happened to you."

Apollo paled. "You have no idea."

His expression made Pamela smile. "Oh, but I do. My brother would be pacing back and forth while he waited up to yell at me for staying out so late and worrying him."

His lips quirked. "She will definitely want to know what has taken me so long."

Pamela cocked her head to the side in a gesture that had already become familiar and endearing to Apollo.

"And what will you tell her?" she asked.

"I will tell her that I was detained by an unexpected accident." He walked to her and with one graceful movement knelt at the side of her bed. His hand touched her ankle gently. Then he stroked it, letting his fingers travel a short way up her calf. He felt more than saw the slow intake of her breath. "A lovely, unexpected accident."

She could hardly breathe when he looked at her and touched her like that. She wanted to beg him not to leave, to ask him to stay the night with her... Pamela's stomach clenched. She shouldn't want him so much and so soon; he was a stranger. A handsome, sexy, wonderful, stranger...

Apollo watched the shifting emotions that were so clearly written on her face. That she desired him was obvious. He saw the soft, liquid wanting in her eyes. He could have her - he could take her in his arms and complete the seduction. That was what he was supposed to do. It was what Artemis expected and what he had planned. Pamela hadn't said that she wanted to be made love to when she had spoken aloud the desire of her heart and completed the invocation, but her need had been transparent in her words. He'd seen it, as had Artemis. So, in order to fulfill the invocation, he needed to make love to her.

And then what? A sudden thought blew through his mind like an unexpected winter storm. Perhaps the invocation had cast some kind of spell over her, and the desire he saw in her eyes was only a result of the powerful magic the nymphs had worked. If that were true, then once he made love to her, the spell would be broken. She would no longer desire him. She would no longer gaze at him with those intelligent, expressive eyes that turned the rich color of honey when he aroused her earthy passion. The thought left him feeling lost and sick. Abruptly he stood.

"I must go," he said. "No," he motioned for her to stay in bed when she moved to get up. "You should rest your ankle. Sleep with it elevated tonight. Tomorrow it will be as if the accident never happened."

Pamela's stomach dropped as he turned to the door. He'd said he would explain her to his sister as an accident. Was he saying that this was it? That after this one night they wouldn't see each other again?

"And tomorrow will it be like the accident never happened to you, too?"

She only realized she'd spoken her thought aloud when her words stopped him. He turned, and his brilliant blue eyes seemed to glow. He lifted the hand that had so recently caressed her ankle and presented it to her, palm open.

"Tomorrow I will still feel your skin against mine. Tomorrow I will still taste the silk of your mouth. Tomorrow the breeze will still carry your scent to me. How could I possibly forget you?"

"Then I will see you again?" she asked breathlessly.

"I would not stay away from you, even if I wished it. And I do not wish it. I will be at our cafe again tomorrow evening at the same moment we met this night. Until then, my sweet Pamela, I will think of you."

When he left the room, Pamela felt as if the sun had suddenly fallen from the sky. She looked at the clock and began counting the hours until she would see him again.

Artemis waited in the obscure Railway that branched from an unadorned delivery entrance to Caesars Palace. She stood beside a door, which opened to an incongruous-looking closet that held a portal leading to another world. She crossed her arms and sighed. She had told Apollo that she would wait for him in Olympus, but as the night had waned she had become increasingly restless. It was late - almost dawn - and still she felt the chains that yoked her to the mortal woman. What could possibly be taking the God of Light so long to seduce her?

A tall man dressed in sodden clothes turned a corner and approached her. With hardly a thought she lifted her finger to force him to turn away and use a different exit.

The man surprised her by laughing.

"Your tricks do not work so well upon me, Sister," Apollo said.

Artemis' eyes widened in recognition. "Apollo? By Zeus' beard! What has happened to you?"