Goddess of Love (Goddess Summoning #5)(49)

Pea sniffed. "His name tag said God of Fire."

Venus felt a sickening jolt. "By Cupid's bright pink ass, that does it!" The curse exploded from the goddess. "Griffin performed cunnilingus on you?"

"Griffin? No, I said his name tag said God of Fire, not Griffin. I only wish it had been Griffin. At least I know him."

"Darling, I'm confused. You're telling me that you allowed a man, whose name tag read God of Fire, but whom you don't know, not even his name, to perform o**l s*x upon you?"

Pea bit her lip, nodded, and started to cry, all the while throwing furtive looks over her back at the crowd still streaming out of Lola's. With a sob, she said, "I told him to meet me out here, and now I don't know what I was thinking. I imagined this big connection between the two of us."

Pea paused, pulled off her mask and wiped at her face. "But I don't even know his name, so how

'connected' could we have been? And he was definitely a fireman. What if Griffin finds out I let a stranger do that to me in the ladies' room? He'll never, ever even look at me," Pea said with a wail.

Venus blanched. It was more likely that Pea would never ever speak to her again if she found out that while she'd been having sex with a stranger, her friend and mentor had been fornicating under a tree with the man with whom Pea was obsessed. By the genitalia of all the gods, how had she made such a total mess out of this night?

"Let's get out of here," Venus said, grabbing Pea's arm and beginning to steer her toward the parking lot.

Neither of them saw Griffin rush out of the restaurant and stand, hands on hips, scanning the crowd until he, too, was finally pulled reluctantly aboard one of the fire engines just moments before it drove away.

"Darling, drink your hot chocolate," Venus told Pea. "And wipe your face. You're done crying now."

"That's right, sluts probably don't ever cry over their...their..." Pea struggled with the vocabulary. "...their numerous nasty illicit encounters."

Venus tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile. "Pea, having one sexual encounter with a stranger does not make you promiscuous. And besides that, it's worse than archaic to believe that women can't take their pleasure as they will. It's restrictive and smacks of double standards. Doesn't the modern world allow women more freedom than that?"

"I suppose," Pea muttered into her mug. Then she glanced up at Venus. "I just feel like a fool."

"Why?"

Pea sighed. "I imagined this huge connection between him and me, and I got really, really intimate with him. But the truth is I don't know him at all. I mean, I was there to try to connect with Griffin, the man I've been thinking about for over a year, but I end up with another man's face between my legs."

"Tell me why you felt you had such a connection with the man," Venus said hastily, purposefully sliding the conversation away from Pea's Griffin infatuation.

"It's going to sound silly and romantic," Pea said.

"Which means I'll be able to understand perfectly. Tell me," Venus coaxed.

"Well, I just felt this incredible connection with him. It was like I could look into those amazing dark eyes of his and see his soul. And, somehow, it seemed like he and I were the same. It sounds stupid now, but then it felt like we had things in common - important things like not usually fitting in."

Venus raised a brow at that. "Really? How did you two meet?"

"He just appeared all of a sudden. It really was sweet. He thought he needed to rescue me from this jerk who didn't want to take no for an answer." Pea smiled for the first time since she'd left the restaurant. "He asked if he could buy me a drink, and I said okay. Then we talked and talked. He was sensitive and romantic and sexy. One thing led to another, and we were suddenly alone, and all I could think about was how amazing he felt and how much I wanted him." Pea finished in a rush, blushing furiously.

"Darling, you did nothing wrong. Well, except not learning his name," Venus said.

"But what about Griffin and - "

"Griffin wasn't the one who pursued you, this man was," Venus said slowly, studying Pea. Was now the right time to tell her that her supposed beloved Griffin had fornicated with and then discarded the Goddess of Love herself?

"I know, and I know it's probably wrong, but I can't help but still feel this thing for Griffin."

Pea's eyes started to shimmer with tears again, and Venus realized that now was definitely not the right time to tell her.

"Is this thing you feel actually for Griffin or for the idea of what Griffin represents to you?"

Venus asked gently.

"I don't know," Pea said.

"You are interested in the man you met tonight, aren't you?" Venus redirected the conversation again.

Pea nodded. "But I don't even know who he is."

The goddess smiled. "Of course you do. You said he's a fireman."

"Yeah, but there are like a zillion firemen in Tulsa."

"Well, darling, then we had better get to work." Venus sat up straighter, the seeds of a plan beginning to grow. Perhaps all Pea needed was to see this mystery man again, especially if she could compare his obvious interest in her with Griffin's obvious disinterest. Unless the rogue pretended interest in Pea so that he could use her and cast her aside, too. Then Venus knew what she'd do with him, and it wouldn't be pretty.