“Not to mention she’s always eavesdropping. Let’s just say I wanted my brothers to be happy, and I had the feeling you’d make them happy.” Artemis’ face softened into a smile, which gave Fiona a glimpse of the incredible beauty she’d have in her true goddess form. “I like to see them happy. They’re so cranky, otherwise.”
“That’s true,” Pol agreed.
Artemis brushed off the back of her tunic. “You three go on now. I think I’ll completely destroy this temple.” She glanced at the vulgar paintings on the ceiling. “A temple to a demon demigoddess. What a waste. Humans need more to do.”
Cas had already risen. Casually, he leaned over and pulled on his jeans, his thighs moving invitingly. “I’m happy to leave this place behind.” He slanted a smile at Fiona. “I know this nice little inn near Mount Olympus.”
Fiona blushed, remembering what had happened at the nice little inn near Mount Olympus.
Pol grinned. “I say we go.”
Cas zipped and buttoned his jeans. He left off the t-shirt, because Fiona was wearing it. “I don’t know if we can fit three on the bike.”
“Or if it will even work after you dumped it in the ditch,” Pol said.
“That was Selena’s doing.”
“Sure, blame a dead demon. You and I ride, Fiona. We’ll make Cas walk.”
Cas’ dark eyes were warm as he smiled at Fiona. “We’ll all get there. I promise.”
Fiona dragged her gaze from the enticing Cas standing with hands on slim hips, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, and noticed that Artemis had disappeared.
Pol hurriedly pulled on his clothes. “Time to go. If Artemis says she’ll destroy this temple, she will, and it won’t be pretty.”
They went quickly up the stairs, Pol leading, Cas behind Fiona to help her up the slippery steps. Fiona had nothing to wear on her feet and she viewed the rock-strewn slopes in dismay, wishing Artemis could have conjured her some hiking boots.
Cas solved the problem by lifting her in his arms and carrying her across the slab of slippery marble and down to the ditch where they’d left the motorcycle.
Behind them, a small earthquake began. The three of them hunched behind an outcrop of rock while the temple collapsed on itself with a rumble, clouds of dust shooting skyward.
Fiona coughed as the dust came down. She peeped around the rock and saw nothing but a mound of crushed rock and dirt, ground too fine for an anyone to piece together again.
The archaeologist in her mourned the loss of the artifacts within the temple, but another part of her knew that some things were best left undisturbed.
The motorcycle was too small for three. Once Cas righted it and untangled ivy from it, Pol boosted Fiona onto it and handed her his helmet. “You two go,” he said. “I’ll meet you there.”
Fiona snaked her arm around his neck and kissed him. “Thank you.”
He slanted his mouth across hers, letting the kiss turn interesting, and finished by rubbing his palm across her breast. “I’ll be there,” he said. “Soon.”
“Take your time,” Cas answered.
Pol laughed as Cas started the bike. Fiona settled herself behind him and pulled on her helmet. She wrapped her arms around Cas’ warm body, very happy to be going anywhere he took her.
And when Pol got there, he would be welcome too.
* * * * *
They spent two days at the inn with Mount Olympus rearing in the background. Fiona insisted she buy herself clothes, over Cas’ and Pol’s protests that she looked fine naked. She indulged herself in an embroidered cotton blouse and colorful skirt and a pair of new sandals. The outfit was very unlike her work clothes, and she felt pretty in them.
Besides, she could hardly go to cafés and tavernas in nothing but Hans’ t-shirt. Cas and Pol insisted that they could stay in the bedroom constantly—no need to go out, but Fiona reminded them that humans got hungry.
The only slight worry in the orgy of delights that Cas and Pol gave her was what would happen next. Cas and Pol were immortal. She was not. The slight powers that the ritual had borrowed from Cas and Pol and put in Fiona were gone, and she reasoned that briefly sharing their power would not make her immortal as well.
She would have to return to her job and her life and they might not want to come with her, let alone watch her age and die.
Cas and Pol seemed untroubled by this dilemma. They lived for the day, never minding about tomorrow. They taught her so much in those two days, how to arouse them and herself and how draw out the pleasure until they drowned in it.
Fiona never dreamed she’d beg two men to tie her hands behind her back and let her bring them to readiness with her mouth alone. She never dreamed she’d let a man bend her over a windowsill and fuck her from behind. Thankfully the street had remained deserted, but the possibility that someone could walk around the corner and see her and Cas at any time had excited her quickly into climax.
After breakfast on the third day, Cas announced that he was going to journey up Mount Olympus again.
“Come with me, Fiona?”
Pol snorted and set down his coffee. “What do you want to go all the way up there for?”
“To find answers to a few questions.” Cas drank his coffee, his throat moving with his swallow.
Pol lost his smile. “I was avoiding the questions.”
“We cannot avoid them forever. Fiona?”
Fiona nodded, thinking she knew what Cas was going to do.
Later, she and Cas rode the motorcycle up the main roads to the mountain then left it behind in a parking lot and proceeded on foot. Pol met them at the trailhead. The secret of him getting around so fast wasn’t much of a secret—he charmed his way into hitching rides with people.
They began the trek with other hikers, walking slowly. Fiona held both twins’ hands, not wanting to let either go.
As before when she walked this mountain, she began to feel dizzy, then a fog descended over her and she closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, the three of them stood in the meadow high on the mountainside, and a stag was just coming to a stream to drink. They waited, still hand in hand, while the stag finished satisfying its thirst.
It raised its head and began to walk toward them, morphing as he did so into the man-shape in which Dionysus had presented himself to Fiona before.
“Immortals in love with a mortal woman,” he said. “It’s always a problem.”
Cas slid his arm around Fiona’s waist. It felt so natural to have him there beside her, warm and strong, a man who loved her.
Cas said, “If you’re about to offer me a big choice—if you’re about to say Cas, would you give up your immortality for her? my answer is yes. It’s an easy question.”
“Pretty easy for me as well,” Pol said. “If Cas and Fiona are mortal, I will be too.”
“Wait a minute,” Fiona broke in. “You can’t give up immortality. It’s not the same thing as giving up—I don’t know, the motorcycle.”
“Oh, I’m keeping the motorcycle,” Cas said. “I’m buying it from Hans.”
Fiona faced him, exasperated. “Screw the motorcycle. Giving up immortality means growing old and dying. No more partying with the gods or floating around the constellations. It means working and hurting and having your strength fade. It means no more magic.”
“It also means loneliness,” Pol said.
Cas touched her face. “I would rather be mortal with you and do mundane things like work and eat and sleep than live forever without you. I want to be part of your life, not watch your life go by. And I wouldn’t want to go on without you.”
Fiona glanced at Pol, who nodded. “What Cas said.”
“Fine,” Dionysus interrupted.
Fiona raised her hands. “Wait. You can’t take away their immortality. Not for me. The sacrifice is too much.”
Dionysus gave her a patient look. “Is that what you truly wish?”
“Of course it is. I don’t want them dying because of
me.”
“But we are alive because of you,” Cas said. “You brought us back from the jar.”
“I know I did. And I want you to go on being the demigods of good times. Always.”
“What a sweetheart,” Dionysus chuckled. “No more arguing. I’ve made my decision.”
“What decision?” Fiona asked in suspicion.
“My decision. It would break my big god heart to see any of you pining for each other. The three of you will live out a mortal lifespan and when you die, you will all return to Mount Olympus to rejoin the Pantheon. All right?”
“We’ll be mortal?” Pol asked.
“For a while. Starting right now.”
Cas waited then frowned. “That is all? I do not feel any different.”
“You will. But in about fifty years, you’ll return to me and be demigods again. Castor and Pollux and their sexy demigoddess Fiona.”
Pol cupped Fiona’s backside. “Sexy demigoddess. I like it.”
“I’ll even fix it so you can both live as her life mates without the humans thinking there’s anything odd,” Dionysus said.
“Thank you,” Fiona breathed. She twined her hand with Cas’, her heart lightening. She would not have to lose them or make them choose between her and their own world.
“Hey, this is the fun part about being a god.” Dionysus’ eyes took on a wicked twinkle. “The other fun part is the orgies.”
* * * * *
Back at the Agora a few days later, Hans Jorgensen pointed happily to a mostly intact jar he’d unearthed. “I thought you’d want to see this, Fiona.”
The painting on the jar depicted a portion of a woman in a short tunic, her blonde hair wildly curling, running with her hunting bow. She seemed to be chasing an overly voluptuous female demon dressed all in black. The fragment of inscription that the potter had painted said, “Artemis pursues…”
Fiona chuckled. Hans glanced at her in surprise. “What is funny?”
“Nothing. Thank you, Hans. When it’s ready, I’ll move it to the pottery room.”
She walked away from the stoa with a light heart. Somewhere Artemis was enjoying herself.
When she walked into her bedroom, she felt slightly uneasy, though she saw no one there.
Then the door slammed behind her. Before she could turn around, strong hands pinned her arms and a blindfold slid over her eyes.
“No,” she protested. “I have to go back to work.”
Hands unbuttoned her shorts and pushed them down. “Not without clothes, you don’t,” Pol whispered in her ear.
She started to laugh with dismay. She felt Pol’s fingers at the waistband of her underwear, tugging it from her hips. “I think these should stay off.”
“I agree,” Cas said behind her. She felt his warmth, the length of his tall, unclothed body at her back, the rigid press of his cock.
“We played a blindfold game before,” Pol breathed in her ear. “Remember? You had to tell us who you touched. This time, you get to tell us who is touching you.”
“Oh.” Fiona shivered in excitement, cream pooling in her quim, and the game began.
About the Author
Allyson James is yet one more name for a woman who has racked up four pseudonyms in the first two years of her career. She often cannot remember what her real name is and has to be tapped on the shoulder when spoken to.
Allyson began writing at age eight (a five-page story that actually contained goal, motivation, and conflict). She learned the trick of standing her math book up on her desk so she could write stories behind it. She wrote love stories before she knew what romances were, dreaming of the day when her books would appear at libraries and bookstores. At age thirty, she decided to stop dreaming and do it for real. She published the first short story she ever submitted in a national print magazine, which gave her the false illusion that getting published was easy.
After a long struggle and inevitable rejections, she at last sold a romance novel, then, to her surprise, sold several mystery novels, more romances, and then Romantica™ to Ellora’s Cave. She has been nominated for two Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice awards and has had starred reviews in Booklist and Top Pick reviews in Romantic Times.
Allyson met her soulmate in fencing class (the kind with swords, not posts-and-rails). She looked down the length of his long, throbbing rapier and fell madly in love.
Allyson welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
Also by Allyson James
Christmas Cowboy
Ellora’s Cavemen: Dreams of the Oasis I anthology
Tales of the Shareem: Maia and Rylan
Tales of the Shareem: Rees
Tales of the Shareem: Rio
Discover for yourself why readers can’t get enough of the multiple award-winning publisher Ellora’s Cave. Whether you prefer e-books or paperbacks, be sure to visit EC on the web at www.ellorascave.com for an erotic reading experience that will leave you breathless.
www.ellorascave.com
Planetary Passions 6: Double Trouble (Gemini) Page 17