Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(35)

Venus was going to the masquerade as herself. He, too, would go as himself. He'd simply wear a mask and be careful to stay away from Venus. He would be the last person, mortal or immortal, she would expect to see. As long as he didn't draw attention to his limp, there was really no way she would recognize him at all. He'd just stay in the background...blend with the crowd...and perhaps find a way to spirit Pea away.

"I feel like a damn fool," Griffin said to his friend and station lieutenant, Robert Thomas.

"Hey, come on. Ya look fine."

"That's easy for you to say. Your costume isn't so short it's showing your ass."

Robert laughed. "This is one of the times being short works for me." He adjusted a section of his toga. "I don't know why the chief decided we had to be dressed in a theme."

"Yeah, ancient Rome. He's been watching way too much History Channel. But even that wouldn't have been so bad if he hadn't gotten the bright idea that I needed to be God of Fire."

Looking down at his name tag, which read, Hello, my name is: THE GOD OF FIRE, Griffin snorted and shook his head. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"He was thinking that as our captain, and fearless leader, it makes sense that you get the best costume."

"Hey, you can have it." Griffin gestured at the breastplate with built-in muscles and the short, pleated tunic that ended a couple inches above his knees. "If I go outside to get away from this crowd, I'll freeze my ass off."

"Nah, Lola has those propane heaters set up all down the sidewalk. People are dancing their asses off out there, not freezing them off. You'll be fine, Captain."

Griffin snorted again and reminded himself not to spread his legs as he leaned back in his barstool. He hated this kind of crap. Not that fundraising for the station was crap, but the schmoozing and politicking that went with it was absolute bullshit. It was the only thing he didn't like about his promotion to captain. He wished the Powers-That-Be would just leave him the hell alone and let him do his job. And his job was not dressing up in a skirt and being paraded around in public. He'd had enough of that with that stupid calendar cover shoot. He would have never done it if it hadn't been for his sisters' excitement. They loved the thought of their big brother being on the cover of the national firefighter's calendar. Women...His sigh was deep and long suffering. They drove him crazy. Sure, he liked them, and because he'd been raised with four sisters he even kinda understood them. Sometimes. Hell, being raised with four sisters was the biggest reason he was still single, although he'd never tell Alicia, Kathy, Stephanie or Sherry that. They'd go nuts and bug him even more than they did now about settling down and getting married. No thanks. He'd watched three of the four of them go through hellish divorces, and he secretly thought it was only a matter of time before Alicia, the youngest and newly married, dumped Mike. The guy was a controlling dickhead. Nope. Until he saw more evidence of at least a decent statistical probability of love lasting, he was just fine being single.

"Well, slap me and call me Santa Claus. I do believe I'm in love." Robert thumped him on his breastplate, almost causing him to spill his beer.

"What the hell's wrong with you?"

Robert pointed at the crowded entrance to the restaurant and Griffin felt his mouth go dry.

"Fucking goddesses!" Robert sputtered.

Two women had stopped to pay the cover charge for the fundraiser and were filling out their name tags. Robert had been right. They were goddesses. Familiar goddesses. Not that it was really possible to tell who anyone was for sure in the damn masks they all had on. But...His eyes were automatically drawn to the taller of the two women, and he felt the jolt of recognition all the way down in his groin. It was the woman from the bar - the woman who had been in that little Pea girl's car the day before. He couldn't see her violet eyes through the mask from across the room, but that hair! No way could he mistake that hair. It was an unusually light shade of blond, long and thick, hanging well past her shoulders. God, he loved her hair. It made him want to fist his hands in it and move it out of the way so that he could taste that soft, sweet place where her shoulder met neck and then -

His cell phone rang, jarring him out of his fantasy.

"What?" he growled.

"Griffin, don't sound so grumpy."

"Alicia, I'm kinda busy here at the fundraiser."

"I know, but I wanted to remind you that you promised to change the oil in my car," his sister said.

"Alicia, can't your husband take over this little chore? I mean, you've been married for a year now."

"You know Michael is totally useless when it comes to cars. And I didn't think you minded all that much."

Griffin wanted to say that Michael was totally useless when it came to just about anything, and he definitely wasn't good enough for his baby sister. Instead the hurt tone in her voice had him saying, "I don't mind, Alicia. How about I come over right after my next shift? I'll bring the pizza."

"Cool! I'll have the beer. You won't forget?"

"Only if you keep bugging the crap outta me."

"Okay, Mr. Grump. I'll see you in a couple days. Bye bye."

Griffin grunted in the phone and snapped it shut.

"One of your sisters?" Robert asked.