Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(34)

Last night... kisses in the rain... Phoebus... Her eyes snapped open. Oh. Shit. How could she have forgotten? She was meeting him tonight at 8:00. She looked at the bedside clock and sat straight up. It was almost noon! She was a morning person, and she'd slept until noon?

Well, she was also a woman who had avoided men and romance for the past several years, and last night she distinctly remembered melting into a practical stranger's arms. Pamela hugged her knees to her chest, feeling her heart beat with excitement. She wasn't a dried up old hag - she was young and alive. She'd taken a chance, and it had paid off. Big time. A delicious shiver ran through her body as she thought about how it had felt to be wrapped within Phoebus' arms. And his mouth! His kiss had seared from her lips to her toes. If he was that good at kissing, she could only imagine what else he could do with that fabulous mouth -

Her phone rang, jarring her out of the erotic daydream.

"Hello, V," she said without looking at the caller ID number.

"Are you alone?" V asked, using her best stage whisper.

"Yes," Pamela bit her lip and added, "unfortunately."

"Oh, nuh-uh! Listen to you, doll!"

"V, I feel alive again. It's like I'd become a desert, and he's a warm spring rain. And let me tell you, I'm ready to lap him up." She sighed happily.

"You're be-friggen-sotted."

"You're right! You're right! I am besotted - in lust - giddy! And holy shit, it feels good! Oh, let me just get this out of the way right now. Aloud and without coercion, I admit readily that you were right," she chanted joyfully.

"Wait, I'm pinching myself. Yes, it hurts. No, I'm not dreaming. Damn right I was right! You aren't still drunk, are you?"

Pamela laughed. "I was never drunk; I was just tipsy enough to do what you told me to do. And, oit was wonderful!"

"Gory details, please. Tell me everything."

"We went to the Bellagio fountains. First they played some insanely romantic song from an opera, which Phoebus - "

"Phoebus?" V broke in.

"That's his name. It's Greek. Or Roman. Or Latin. Or something. Hey - did you know that Pamela means 'all that is sweet' in Greek?"

"Pammy, you're losing focus. Again. Snap back. His name is Phoebus and..."

"Oh yeah. So first they play the song from the opera. He knew the words. God, it was romantic..." She sighed.

"You already said that. Fast forward."

"Then it started to rain and we ran under a tree. And you won't believe this part - we're standing there and - V, did I mention how gorgeous he is?"

"Focus, please."

"Sorry. Anyway, we're standing there, and the fountain comes on again - and it's Faith Hill singing 'This Kiss.'"

"You've got to be kidding," V said.

"Seriously. And then we did it."

"You copulated right there on the street?"

"No! It was on the sidewalk, and we didn't do it; we kissed."

"Then you went back to your room and copulated like naughty heterosexual bunnies?"

"Again, no!" Pamela cleared her throat and had the insane urge to whisper the rest of the story. "But he did carry me up to my room."

"You mean like Rhett and scrumptious Scarlett?"

"Exactly like that. Only I'd twisted my ankle, and it was raining."

"So you fell off your stilettos..."

"Which shows how distracted this guy makes me, because, as you know, I can jog over a sheet of ice in three-inch heels," Pamela said smugly.

"He played a knight in shining armor - a cliche I know you straight girls adore, by the by, and you still didn't copulate with the poor tripod?"

"Not yet," Pamela said breathlessly.

"Yet? Give up the rest of the story."

"We have a date. Tonight. Ta da!" she finished with a verbal flourish.

"Ya don't say?"

"I do say."

"Okay. What's the plan?" V, the consummate date-aholic, got straight to business.

"Well, I thought we might go to dinner," Pamela said.

"Pammy, you're in Vegas. You can do better than that."

"Please don't tell me we should gamble."

V's sigh was long-suffering. "Of course not. Vegas is a Mecca for fabulous shows. Go see one, a sexy one."

"That's a good idea, except... well... shouldn't I wait to see what he has planned?"

"Pammy, you know I'm your friend, so please don't take this the wrong way, but do you really want another relationship where you let the man always take the lead?" she asked gently.

"No!" The word came out in a flash of anger. "I don't want anything like what Duane and I had. I'm not that silly young girl he married anymore."

"You weren't silly, Pamela. You were just young and in love. You made a mistake. It happens to the best of us."

"Well, it's not going to happen to me again," Pamela said firmly.

"Which part? Being in love or being young?"

Pamela opened her mouth to say both, but then she remembered the soft blue of Phoebus' eyes and the way he looked at her with equal parts of interest and desire. And she remembered something else that she was almost sure she had recognized within his eyes and his voice and the way he touched her - a familiar searching that tugged at her heart as well as her soul. Soul mates... the thought wafted like the fragrance of spring flowers through her mind.