Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(60)

Eurydice had clapped her hands together like the bossy headmistress of an al girls school and hastily shooed the maidservants from the balcony, announcing that Persephone required privacy. And then, to Lina's surprise, Eurydice had actual y fol owed the servants from the chamber, saying that she had an appointment with Iapis to go over her preliminary sketches of the palace, but she promised to bring by what she completed for the Goddess's approval in the morning. Iapis and Eurydice again. Lina tugged at a lock of long hair and twirled it around her finger. If she wasn't mistaken the daimon's interest in Eurydice was more than friendly. Maybe she should speak to Hades about it.

Hades... thinking of the God brought the restlessness that was simmering just below her skin to the surface. She poured herself another glass of ambrosia. What was up with him? Why had he suddenly disappeared? He'd told her very clearly that he was interested in her, then he'd kissed her. Kissed her, hel ! He'd pinned her against the wal and ravished her thoroughly. Remembering his passion made her shiver. Hades was the personification of dark and dangerous - a living, breathing Batman. She licked her lips and swore she could stil taste him, or maybe that was just the ambrosia? Both were certainly delicious.

Lina closed her eyes, letting her fingers trail from her throat down, brushing over her already aroused ni**les. She breathed a moan. Merda! Persephone's body was young and responsive and...

Lina's eyes snapped open. "And very, very horny," she said in a frustrated voice. "Or maybe it's more me than her. Or a combination of what happens when a forty-three-year-old woman who hasn't had sex in" - she stopped and counted back in her mind - "who hasn't had sex in almost three years is put into the body of a nubile young Goddess and then is tempted by a handsome, Batman look-alike. Up! Tune to get up and walk it off."

She stood, too fast, and felt al bubbly and slack-kneed. The ambrosia had definitely gone to her head... as well as to other sensitive spots. Her lips twisted in chagrin and a pretty pink flush heated her cheeks. Jeesh, she had it bad.

Wel , she'd tried the cold shower, and it definitely hadn't worked the way she'd planned. She sighed and trailed her finger across the smooth marble railing of the balcony, thinking of Eurydice's idea of a shower. It had been a heavenly experience. But it had done nothing to dispel her fantasies about Hades. Actual y, it had accomplished the opposite. Her body had been bathed and massaged, pampered and preened. She felt like a royal concubine who had been prepared for her sultan.

So where the hel was her sultan? Pun definitely intended.

Lina shook her head and rol ed her eyes. "You've had entirely too much ambrosia." With finality she set her half-empty glass on the flat top of the railing and started purposeful y, if a little wobbly, for the circular staircase that wrapped down to the palace grounds. She'd take a nice brisk walk in the garden. That would clear her head and make her sleepy enough that she would remember that bed was a place in which one slept more often than one had hot, sweaty sex with a dark, handsome god.

In an ambrosial mist, Lina fol owed her private path to the first tier of the palace gardens. When she reached the entrance she stood very stil , soaking in the magical view of the torch lit grounds. The Underworld was such an incredibly lovely place. The sky had continued to darken, but it was not black, as was the night sky in the world above. Instead, it was slate gray, il uminated by several bril iantly lit stars, each haloed with iridescent color that reminded Lina of the pearlized bel y of a seashel . The unusual sky caused everything to be bathed in soft darkness, as if this part of the Underworld was a sweet dream.

"Those stars are the most beautiful things I have ever seen," Lina said to the silent sky.

"They are the Hyades."

Hades seemed to materialize from the shadows of the garden.

Lina's hand flew to her throat. She could feel her heart pounding there. "You scared me!"

"I did not mean to startle you, but I was just thinking of you and when I heard your voice I wanted very much to join you."

Lina bit her bottom lip and tried to clear her wine-fogged mind. He was wearing that damn cape again. And, even more dangerously, he had traded in the voluminous length of material he usual y wrapped around his body for a much more revealing outfit. He had again chosen to wear black, but that night it was in the form of a short, black learner chiton that appeared to have been molded to his chest. It ended in panels just over his hips. Beneath, he wore a fine, pleated tunic, the color of thunderclouds, which left almost al of his muscular legs exposed. Lina wrenched her eyes up to meet his. He was watching her with a dark intensity she felt tingle through her blood.

"You've been on my mind, too. I'm glad you're here," she said, and reminded herself to breathe as he moved with feral intensity closer to her.

His body was like a furnace; she could feel the heat that radiated from him. Hades took her hand and raised it slowly to his mouth. His lips seemed to burn a brand into her skin. He didn't release her hand. Instead, he traced a circular path across it with his thumb. The cooling wind brought his scent to her. He smel ed of the night and of leather mingled with man. It was an erotic, dangerous scent that made her stomach tighten and shiver. It made her think of sweat-slicked, naked skin. Without conscious thought, she breathed more deeply and leaned toward him. His eyes flashed and the teasing breeze caught his cape so that it rose behind him like wings. She was submerged within the intensity of his gaze. She could feel his passion ignite. This Hades was not the smart, sexy God she had been getting to know. Once again he was the being who had possessed her in the forge. He loomed before her, an infinitely powerful immortal - seductive, al uring, overwhelming, and a little frightening. She stil wanted him. His presence was magnetic, but her mortal soul was struggling to maintain some semblance of control. Lina forced her mind to work, grasping at something, anything she could say to him.