Goddess of Light (Goddess Summoning #3)(55)

Again, she answered him with total frankness. "I'll try to trust you, but I can't promise you anything yet."

He lifted her hand to his lips again. "Then I'll settle for your honesty and the opportunity to win your trust."

"Can you tell me why you're leaving?"

"Would you mind very much if we talked about it over dinner? I have something rather special planned for you tonight."

"Oh, okay," Pamela felt a flush of pleasure that she wished she could control better. "I am hungry." She stood up, very aware that Phoebus still held her hand, but unwilling to pull it from his warm grasp. "Where are we going?"

"Mount Olympus," he said, eyes shinning.

"That sounds like a restaurant that would fit right in around here, but I don't remember seeing it while I was walking around The Forum. Is it in Caesars Palace?"

"It can be entered through Caesars Palace, but it is very exclusive. Few people know of it."

"Just the gods, right?" Pamela kidded.

"Just the gods," Apollo agreed, grinning at her.

They strolled hand in hand through The Forum towards the casino. Their arms brushed together intimately, and Pamela remembered how wonderful it had felt to be wrapped in his arms, pressed against his naked chest. She could smell his unique scent. It wasn't some trendy, oh-so-manly department store cologne smell. Phoebus' scent was clean and natural and male. It made her want to inhale him.

"Did you finish the sketch of the baths?" Apollo asked.

"Yes, I did," she said, jerking her thoughts away from remembrances of his naked skin. "And I like it, too. I've never designed anything similar to it. It's exciting to do something totally new. Well, that is, it will be if I can talk Eddie into it."

"I think you'll persuade him."

"I really hope so, I - OHMYGOD!" Pamela stopped as if she'd run into an invisible wall. She was staring at a glittering display of purses that sat on a marble pillar inside a locked glass case in front of a sassy little accessory store. "I can not believe how perfect it is!"

Transfixed, Pamela dropped Phoebus' hand and approached the display case. Three jeweled purses were placed on small crystal boxes. One purse looked just like a child's piggy bank, another was a lovely dragonfly, and the third - the third was the one she gravitated to. It was an exact replica of one of Dorothy's ruby slippers. It winked and glistened with red beads and semiprecious stones under the display spotlight, looking magical and familiar and very, very Wizard of Oz.

"I have to have it." Pamela crooked her finger at an attentive salesman within the store.

Apollo watched as Pamela, completely entranced by the purse that looked like a red slipper perched on one of the daggerlike heels she was so fond of, waited impatiently for the servant to unlock the case and carefully lift out the shoe purse. Pamela handled it reverently. She flipped over the gold-embossed tag that hung from the clasp. And her face paled.

"Let me be sure that I'm reading this correctly. Does it say four thousand dollars and not four hundred dollars?" she asked the clerk.

"Yes madam, you are correct. The purse is a Judith Leiber original." His tone said that was explanation enough for the price.

"It's beautiful." Reluctantly, Pamela returned the purse to the clerk, who placed it back in the case.

"May I show you anything else, madam?"

"No, thank you."

The employee closed and locked the case. "Just call if I can be of further assistance." He executed an abrupt about-face and returned to the posh interior of the boutique.

"Are you not going to purchase it?" Apollo asked, hating the forlorn look on Pamela's face.

"Are you kidding? It's four thousand dollars. I can't spend that kind of money on a purse."

"But you said that it was perfect."

"It is! Four thousand dollars worth of perfect." She sighed and slid her arm through his, steering him away from the front of the store. "Let's go before I cry."

"You don't have four thousand dollars?" Apollo asked as they walked.

"Yeah, I have four grand. But I don't have four extra grand - or at least not extra enough that I can justify spending it on an extravagance like a jeweled purse. Even if it is a ruby slipper jeweled purse. Oh, well," she said wistfully. "Maybe someday."

Apollo thought about the roll of currency he carried in his pocket. He couldn't remember exactly how much he'd brought with him. He'd just skimmed some off the top of the pile of bills Zeus had commanded Bacchus leave in a golden bowl near the portal. He did a quick mental calculation, and was pretty sure it wouldn't add up to four thousand dollars. Pamela seemed to consider it a great deal of money anyway, probably more than she would accept as a gift. He glanced down at his gold coin that nestled just above the valley of her br**sts. She almost hadn't accepted that from him, and she had had no idea of even a fraction of its worth. No, Pamela definitely would not allow him to gift her with the purse.

The faux stone floor gave way to an opulent carpet as they left The Forum Shops and entered Caesars Palace.

"It's this way," Apollo said, turning to their right and winding past several rows of busily blinking slot machines... and his steps slowed and then stopped.