“As for what happened between us…” His voice turned silky smooth with male satisfaction. “We were far better, even with the limitations of these bodies. What was between us was special and far more than casual sex, princess.”
“Hush. Don’t call me that!” She had a worried note to her voice.
“Why not? No one here can hear us.”
“Still, we need to be careful. And I don’t know what you mean about the sex between us being special.”
“Sure you do. Didn’t the universe move for you, my lady, as it did for me?”
“It might have shaken a little,” she admitted slowly. “You are…bigger than I’m used to. And you have some nice moves.”
“Nice moves?” he exploded. “That was world-class sex, woman! Just because I didn’t go down on you…”
“Oh, very well. Yes, it was very nice. You are a very good lover, Aster.”
“Don’t call me that,” he growled. “I’m not a flower.”
“It’s close enough to your real name and we need to be careful,” she warned. “We don’t want to give ourselves away too soon.”
“How long must we stay like this?”
“Until the right time. What’s the matter, do you find my company difficult?”
The male sighed. “You know how I’ve wanted to be with you, although being made of stone isn’t much fun. It’s hard to stay still when others are free to move about and enjoy themselves. I’m glad they moved out of sight. I don’t think I could stand watching those two rut any longer.”
“Patience. We must discover the secret of turning to flesh for ourselves. We lack both the knowledge and the power it takes. Unless we can control the process it will be difficult for us to act. Until then, we must behave like the innocent statues we appear to be. Just learn the nymph’s lines and act out her scenes.”
He laughed. “Her scenes are fun,” he admitted. “And the acting is interesting. As assignments go, this is better than I could have anticipated.” His voice grew tentative. “Besides, I do enjoy your company, princess.”
“I’m…finding I rather like yours as well.” She sounded surprised. “It would be best if we continue the charade of fighting, though. It will keep them off balance.”
“If only we weren’t made of stone…”
“…we won’t be forever.” Her voice sounded wistful. “And someday we’ll be free. Free to pursue our interests anywhere we want.”
“Freedom is worth any price,” he agreed solemnly.
Chapter Eight
The screenplay was going great, even better than Nina could have predicted. After a month of working with Pan and her captive thespians, she’d finished all but the last scene, where the sultan realizes what a treasure he has in Scheherazade and grants her permanent immunity from his death sentence.
She couldn’t be happier with what she had so far. The potential she’d seen in the story was playing out perfectly with the help of her two actors. The statues had done a fabulous job acting out her suggestions, to the point where Nina was seriously thinking of trying to use them in the final version of her film. It would mean transporting them to Earth and she’d have to get them human birth certificates and social security cards, but those weren’t that hard to come by and it would be worth it. She might even get them into the Screen Actors Guild since they showed talents that went far beyond the bed as far as acting was concerned.
The pair of them were the best actress and actor she’d had the pleasure to work with in decades. Plus they really seemed to work well with each other, even if they spent their time not in character arguing with each other about one thing or another.
Nina had spent too much time in Hollywood to take these kinds of fights seriously. It was her experience that the bigger the fight between two people, the more likely the pair was screwing each other’s brains out in private.
In this case, the screwing was happening in Pan’s garden and only private in the sense that she was usually the only one watching. Whatever problems Aster and Dawn had, they disappeared as soon as the pair was given a script and a horizontal surface to work with. Then they demonstrated a real professionalism when it came to the art of love.
Or, Nina considered, it was possible that through their lovemaking they showed how they really felt about each other. It was rather hard to tell which, but she was beginning to lean on the side of the pair falling in love.
With a snort, Nina shook her head. When did she become such a romantic? Sure Aster and Dawn seemed compatible, but that didn’t mean they were soul mates. After all, they were merely statues that came alive occasionally. It wasn’t like the pair had souls.
Or did they?
Pan had assured her the statues were nothing more than stone made ambulatory flesh, but she wasn’t so sure. Several times she’d caught Aster watching her with a cunning look that seemed to belie his supposed mineral origin. He didn’t act like he had gravel in his guts.
Dawn wasn’t exactly what she was supposed to be either. The woman had a royal presence beyond her beauty and youth, and her intelligence was anything but that of a woman with rocks in her head. Her companion had noticed it too. Aster watched her with awe as well as desire, particularly when he didn’t think Nina was watching.
A princess and a warrior. If she didn’t know better, that’s what she’d have expected them to be.
But then again, Nina realized, she wasn’t exactly what she was supposed to be either. She was Nemesis, the embodiment of opposition, vengeance, and retribution…or at least that’s what she’d been before Pan had come into her life.
She gave a glance around her now familiar surroundings. Look at what she’d become…living in a garden with a god of the forests and fields, and barely thinking beyond her next opportunity to bed him. Like Pan she coaxed nature to do her bidding, not demanding it obey her. She couldn’t remember the last act of revenge she’d been involved in.
Even her sex life had changed. Centuries ago she’d entered the world of adult entertainment as a way of getting control over men. Now her own sexual needs controlled her. All Pan had to do was wiggle his finger—or wiggle his cock—in her direction and she came running to do whatever he wanted.
Nina muttered gloomily to herself. She ran to him, forgetting who she was supposed to be. If she hadn’t been so disgustingly happy she’d be disgusted with herself. As it was… She was a little disturbed by it.
With a sigh, Nina returned to her computer. She was working on the last scene of the screenplay, or what she was hoping would be the last scene. It was unclear because she wasn’t sure just how to end the story. In the book she was using as a reference, many years had passed and Scheherazade had borne the sultan three sons. She had begged for her life for their sakes and the sultan agreed to pardon her. Afterward there had been a big wedding where she’d been installed as sultana and her sister married to the sultan’s brother.
It was an okay ending for the book, suitable for the times in which it had been written, but Nina decided she needed something more modern. For one thing, she couldn’t see Dawn begging anyone for anything, and the statue and her attitudes had become ingrained in Nina’s perception of Scheherazade. In general she liked the idea of the wedding as an ending, but it was rare to put a wedding into a porn movie.
Instead she’d have to end with a sex scene and make it a real love scene for the characters. It was really the only good way to finalize the story. Something new would have to be introduced…perhaps Scheherazade was pregnant?
Nina blinked. Where had that thought come from? Scheherazade, pregnant—that wasn’t bad at all! With sudden enthusiasm, she attacked the keyboard of the laptop, needing to type her idea into the computer before it slipped away from her.
Engrossed, she missed it when Pan returned, well after the Olympian sky had darkened and the stars were high.
He looked over Nina’s shoulder at screen of her laptop and read aloud the first few lines that talked about the book ending of A Thousand and O
ne Arabian Nights. “A wedding?” Mischief blossomed inside him. “That would be interesting.”
Nina looked up at him in disgust. “I’m not ending an adult film with a wedding, Pan. Besides they are already married and it would be confusing to the audience to have a second ceremony.”
Pan hid his disappointment. He didn’t think it hurt to have official acknowledgement of a relationship but she was the film expert. “Perhaps you’re right. So how will you end it?”
“I thought with her announcing her pregnancy, although that too is odd for an adult movie. Then they make love again.”
“How are you going to make that different?” He thought for a minute then grinned. “I suppose you could add a ménage.”
Nina favored him with a penetrating look. “That would hardly convey the message of true love, Pan, if they need a third person involved. In another scene that might work, but not this one.” She shook her head. “I think it would be better if they made love again, only this time it would really be making love. He’d call her his perfect woman, or something like that.”
Pan nodded, pleased beyond what he’d expected. So Nina didn’t think having more than one body in a bed was needed. Secretly he agreed with her…he felt no need for anyone besides his little nymph.
“I like that, Nina.” He leaned in closer and smelled her special scent. It had changed since being with him. In the past there had been a kind of spice to her smell, not completely pleasant, a trace of something almost like vinegar.
That was gone now, lost in the smell of flowers and growing things, a reflection of her position in the world he lived in.
Nina belonged in his garden now. He could look around and see the evidence of her presence, the soft moss-topped seating near the large bathing pool and modern human-styled kitchen in the corner. They were all changes she’d wrought in what had been his home…changes that made it her home as well.
He couldn’t be more pleased at the result. Every day he felt like he grew closer to his goal of keeping Nina with him forever regardless of whether the spell they’d both experienced faded and failed. He didn’t want to lose her, not now, not ever.
Perhaps he might ease into the subject of their continued relationship. Pan leaned over her to touch the keyboard. “It’s getting late. Perhaps you could finish this tomorrow. Hep and I were working out in his shop and I could use a bath. If you come with me, I could use someone to scrub my back…amongst other things.”
Nina smiled at the obvious invitation in his voice, but then nodded her head at the statues, who’d gone to stone overlooking the pool. “What should we do about them?”
His heart seemed to freeze in his chest. Was now the time she wanted to invite these others to join in their lovemaking? It had been over four weeks since he’d brought them here and in all that time she’d not said a word about having a ménage. He’d hoped she’d forgotten about it.
But it had been his suggestion and he wouldn’t back out now, not if that’s what it took to keep her happy. Pan tried not to let his disappointment show in his voice. “Did you want them to join us this time?”
Nina closed up the laptop and turned to him. “I meant that they could see and hear us in the bathing area. And no,” she said firmly. “I don’t want them to join us. I never want them to join us, not the way you mean.”
Her jaw set and Nina stared into his eyes. “Pan, I’m tired of you asking that. I never wanted them to have sex with us in the first place.”
“You didn’t?” Surprise filled him. “But I thought you said…about variety…”
“Not in lovers, Pan. I’ve been there and done that and am not interested in going there again. You’re the only lover I want.”
Pan’s heart felt like it would leap from his chest. “Then what shall we do with them?”
Nina looked over at the statues. “For now they are good at acting the screenplay out. When that’s done—well, we’ll see. All I know is that eventually I want them out of the garden. Having them here…it’s almost like having an audience to everything we do.”
She took a deep breath. “I don’t want an audience, or other lovers, Pan. When I talked about variety…I meant other things. Things we haven’t done.”
This was intriguing. Was it possible he’d missed something? “What kinds of sex haven’t we done?”
“Well…” A deep blush crossed her face, something Pan had never seen before, and it fired his passion. What could Nina be thinking of that would cause her embarrassment?
“When you brought a man into things,” she told him her voice hesitant. “There was something I thought you might like.”
This had to be good…no, this had to be great if it was making Nina uncomfortable. Pan hid his anticipatory grin and simply nodded, keeping his expression as stoic as possible.
“So…what do you want me to do?”
She actually squirmed. “Well, maybe it would be better if you started that bath without me. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Pan stared after her as she strode purposefully toward the bower. Heading for the bathing area, he pulled off his loincloth, leaving it on one of the benches. He waved a hand at a pair of widely spaced tall tapers and they lit up with a soft glow, illuminating the bathing area with a romantic light that reflected off the dark water. Pan smiled at the effect. Perfect.
He stepped into the water, onto the low steps in the heated end of the pool. With a thought he turned up the temperature in the pool so it was steaming by the time he was chest deep. Mist rose off the surface and into the air, obscuring the surroundings so he could barely make out the candle flames. If he couldn’t see out, then others couldn’t see in and that should put to rest his suddenly shy nymph’s concern about being watched.
Pan chuckled to himself. Imagine that. Here Nina was used to performing sex in front of millions of people through her cable television program but now she was uncomfortable having a stone statue observe them as they made love.
Making love. Pan sighed and looked through the haze to the barely visible stars above. That’s what he wanted to do with Nina tonight. She might not remember it but it was six months to the day that he’d jumped in front of an arrow, attempting to save her life. It had been the most impulsive act of his life and it turned out to the best move he’d ever made. He didn’t want to wait to see what was real between them anymore. This love he had for her had to be real, as real as it got.
Tonight he’d make it more than real. He’d make it permanent. After tonight there would be no more guessing as to how long Nina would stay, or when she would leave. If he had his way, the answer would be forever and never, in that order.
Pan was on the cusp of a great decision. He intended to take a certain sexy, exasperating, and mouthy nymph to be his wife. The bulk of Olympian society might be shocked at his choice to give up his never-the-same-woman ways, but he knew what was important to him. He wanted Nina, now and always, and he’d do anything to keep her…including the commitment of marriage. He wanted her committed to him with the same bonds he felt for her.
Nina’s voice came from the shadows beyond the candlelight. “Pan? Are you in there?”
He floated back into the relaxing hot water. “Here, Nina. Are you coming in?”
“In a moment.” She wandered closer and he could see she was wearing a robe. Again there was that strange hesitancy in her voice. “I’d rather you not see me until I get in the water.”
Oh really? Pan’s eyebrows nearly met the bottom of his horns. What was his little nymph up to? He tried to keep the eagerness out of his voice. “Should I turn my back?”
“If you don’t mind.”
Whatever it was, it had to be something very unusual. She had something sexual on her mind, and it wasn’t something Nina had done with just anyone. If it had been she wouldn’t be acting so strange.
This was something very different, even for her. Pan grinned. He couldn’t wait to find out what.
“Very well. I’ll look the other way.�
�
“Promise you won’t peek?”
A hard thing to promise given how curious he was, but what the Hades. He’d do anything to keep his Nemesis happy. Resolutely Pan turned in the direction of the garden wall, away from Nina’s approach. “I promise, Nina.”
He could hear her steps on the grass, then the fall of her robe onto the bench where he’d left his loincloth. A short gasp escaped her as she entered the water, then there was a long sigh as the warmth soaked into her skin. “That feels so good.”
He couldn’t help his satisfaction in her pleasure. “It’s meant to feel good, Nina. All things between us should feel good.”
Her laugh sounded short and, to his ears, insincere. “We do feel good together, Pan. But feelings can be just that. Not real but an interpretation of reality.”
She couldn’t be more wrong in this case. “I know what I feel, Nina. I want you, and I know you want me. There is nothing left to interpretation between us.”
Nina moved closer to him, her body hidden by the dark water of the pool. Her hair had grown to her shoulders since coming to live with him and she’d pulled it up off her neck into an unruly pile. Candlelight glinted in the depths of her dark eyes. Pan read uncertainty there, but something else as well. Was it possible Nina really cared about him?
That’s what he thought he read in her eyes. Love…
Surprise widened her eyes and he realized he must have said the word aloud. He repeated it, putting more emphasis on it.
Nina shook her head. “Not really love. It’s just lust, Pan. Arrow-enhanced, but nothing more.”
There was more to how he felt about Nina than lust. He knew lust, had known it for thousands of years with any number of women. Lust came and went, was hard to control, but it left your heart alone.
Nina brought out in him something he’d never expected to feel, honest emotions that sometimes scared him at their intensity. Just the thought of her leaving gave him an anxious feeling in the pit of his stomach, something he’d never expected to feel about a woman. There were times he felt as if he would rather die than lose her.
Divine Interventions: Nemesis of the Garden Page 10