Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(25)

"Homework?"

"Well, you're at home, but I scarcely think pleasuring yourself would qualify as work."

Pea giggled.

"Pay attention. When you pleasure yourself tonight I want you to think about Griffin."

"Okay, I can do that."

"Good. I want you to fantasize."

Pea frowned.

Venus sighed. "Imagine how it would feel to have his hard, masterful hands on your body, and his clever tongue exploring the wet cleft between your legs, licking and teasing your pleasure center until you can bear it no longer, and then imagine him impaling you with his throbbing phallus and stroking and stroking until you're both shuddering with the force of your mutual orgasms."

"I can do that," Pea said breathlessly. "Well, good night!" She started to hurry a little unsteadily out of the room.

"Darling?"

Pea stopped and smiled back at her goddess.

"While this room is, indeed, comfortable and lovely, it doesn't appear to have a bed."

"Oopsie!" Pea giggled. "Come right this way." She tried to gesture grandly, but ended up looking so unsteady that Venus had to grasp her arm to keep her completely upright.

"I need to remember to water the ambrosia next time," she said under her breath as she supported a still giggling Pea down a short hallway.

"This is the guest room," Pea said, managing to draw herself up and slur only slightly. "The bathroom is through the other door. Make yourself at home. There's a bathrobe in the armoire. We'll take care of your clothes and stuff tomorrow."

Venus gazed around the tidy, comfortable room decorated in different shades of white, eggshell and champagne, with antique-looking, lacy white dresses adorning one wall like three dimensional art, and a large framed picture of a wildflower-filled meadow decorating the other. The bed was white wrought iron and heaped with a thick comforter and pillows made of creamcolored vintage lace.

"Thank you, Pea. This is another lovely room."

"Okey-dokey then. I'm off to do my homework." And, giggling, she tottered away. Smiling, Venus watched her go. She really was a delightful young woman. Fulfilling her desire for happiness and ecstasy couldn't be that complicated.

Vulcan told himself that he was checking on Venus. He knew she hadn't returned to Olympus, even though Persephone had. And he was, after all, supposed to be paying attention to the men she met - keeping in mind that perhaps one of them would have the potential to take his place. He was curious about the little mortal he'd watched in the restaurant, and yes, he'd been thinking of her. But that certainly wasn't the only reason he called open the thread of fire and gazed into his window to the modern world.

"I don't masturbate very often."

Vulcan felt the jolt of Pea's unexpected comment down through his loins. Venus was there - in Pea's home - and, as usual, she was preoccupied with someone else's sex life! But why was she there? He continued to listen, intrigued by the sweet, shy mortal. Apparently, the Goddess of Love was there to give Pea guidance and help her find happiness and ecstasy.

"It's just like Venus to meddle in a mortal's personal life," he said with a growl. But the more Vulcan listened, the more he understood that Pea had asked for Venus's aid - that the little mortal wanted to change who she was - to become more, which was something the Fire God understood perfectly. He studied Pea. Yes, she was rather plain and dressed in an unflattering manner, but Vulcan could see through the dowdy charade to the compassionate woman beneath. He could also see that most people wouldn't bother to look below her surface -

just as the immortals didn't look below his surface.

Pea spoke of a handsome man from the restaurant. Vulcan glowered, remembering how the mortals had laughed at her embarrassment. A man like that didn't deserve a rare creature like Pea! It wasn't that he was jealous. (How could he be?) It was just that he was concerned. He, too, was compassionate, though no one seemed to understand that about him. His fierce expression changed to unaccustomed laughter as the ambrosia worked its magic on Pea. Surprised, he saw that Venus was going to stay the night in Pea's home. How odd! And then his surprise multiplied tenfold when the thread, which should have stayed with Venus, split, allowing him to move invisibly with Pea as she swayed happily down the hall to her bedroom. His vision followed Pea into her comfortable bedroom, and he watched, filled with curiosity as she turned on soft, slow music and then began to light the candles that rested on her nightstand. Humming to herself, she pulled down her thick bed linens, and turned out the bright overhead light, leaving only the candles to illuminate the room. Obviously she was getting ready for sleep, but she didn't appear to be tired. Then Vulcan's eyes widened as Pea began to dance. Slowly, sensuously, she raised her arms over her head, rounding them gracefully as she moved to the music. Vulcan was amazed. Until then she'd given no evidence of such exquisite grace or, he admitted, such beauty. When she danced it seemed she cast off the skin of her awkward shyness and became an entirely new person. Hypnotized, he hardly breathed when she peeled out of the shapeless, one piece sleepwear and continued her dance, turning, dipping and stretching elegantly in only a pair of snug fitting, unadorned panties.

The thought passed through his heated mind that he shouldn't be watching her - that it was not entirely honorable to spy on so intimate a scene. But he could not stop his compulsion to watch her. Vulcan ignored his mind and, for once in his life, allowed his desire and his heart to rule him instead.