Hailey called from the bathroom that she was ready to get out of the tub. After he dried her hair, he wove the long curly tresses into her overnight braid.
He pulled the blankets back on the bed, waiting for Hailey to pick a book to read. While she studied the selection, he plumped her pillows just the way she liked them. “Hurry up, munchkin.”
Jutting her hip to one side, Hailey shot him an impish grin over her shoulder. “Patience, Unk. I’m deciding between Alice and Ariel.”
Please, please, please, no Disney princesses tonight. He didn’t think he could handle that. Although Ariel’s thick red hair and rocking bod reminded him of Nia. Thomas’s palms itched just imagining running his hands over those lush curves. He shook away his thoughts of what he’d like to do with the sexy woman. Right now, he needed to focus on getting Hailey settled for the night so he could research a new debunking project. He’d been using his filming hiatus to look into new myths he could disprove.
Hailey plucked a book from her shelf, handed it to him, then crawled into her bed. Thank God, no princesses tonight. He settled next to her, leaning against the pillows.
Before he could begin reading, Hailey laid her small hand on his. “Uncle Thomas?” Her voice was hesitant.
Which was her default tone when she wanted to talk about her parents. He drew a deep breath and responded, “Yes, munchkin?”
“Do you miss my daddy?”
Her question tore his heart as it always did. The sting was swift and razor blade sharp. Doug had been two years older than Thomas, but they’d been best friends. Thomas dropped the book to his lap and wrapped his arm around Hailey’s shoulders. He drew his knees up. “I miss him all the time, Hailey. There isn’t a single day that I don’t think of him and your mom. I tell them how proud they’d be of you, and what a great kid you turned out to be.” The sting in his heart relocated to behind his eyes. He blinked. “Except for that one time when you locked us out of the house, you’re okay.”
She rested her head on his chest. “I talk to them, too. Earlier I told them I thought I’d finally found the right woman to help us.”
“What are you talking about? We don’t need no stinkin’ woman to help us. We’re highly capable of helping ourselves.”
“But don’t you want someone to love, like my daddy loved my mommy?”
How could he explain he wasn’t sure he believed in romantic love? His faith in the emotion died the same day his brother and sister-in-law had. Horribly snatched away by a homemade bomb in a shopping mall. Leaving their precious child in his incapable, inept care. “I kind of have my hands full with you, munchkin. Not sure I’d have time for some other dame.”
“I like Ms. Nia. She was really, really nice to me yesterday. When Bridget and her friends were being nasty.”
“They were mean to you again?” Anger churned helplessly in his gut. These days it seemed even kids were exempt from basic human kindness.
Hailey had been having difficulty fitting in with the Campfire Scouts. Originally, Thomas had enrolled her in the activity because she’d expressed an interest. In an unmistakably grown-up manner, the kid refused to quit when the other little monsters had teased her about her lack of real parents. He’d spoken to the troop mothers and asked them to keep an eye on the situation, but they didn’t. They were probably too busy gossiping about who was having an affair with whom.
“Yeah, but Ms. Nia talked to me and teached me about the telescope.”
“Taught you,” he corrected as he smoothed his hand over her head.
“And today she went with us to look at the stars again. Through the big scope instead of one of the smaller ones.”
“She did a very nice thing.”
“And she’s pretty, too. I wish I had red hair like hers. And it’s short. Can I get my hair cut like hers?”
“If you want. But, there’s nothing wrong with your hair, Hailey. It reminds me of your mom’s.”
Hailey slid lower in the bed and yawned. “You don’t have to read to me tonight. I love you, Uncle Thomas.”
“Love you, too, Hailey.” He rose from the bed. The sheet was cool when he pulled it up and tucked it behind her shoulders. He bent and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Light on or off?”
Her gaze flew to the colorful light on the bookshelf across the room. She’d been sleeping with it on since he’d brought her home after the bombing. He knew someday she’d ask him to turn it off…she’d come to grips with the horror of hearing her parents had died. He held his breath as he waited for her answer.
“On.”
He eased out a sigh. Today wasn’t that day.
Returning the book to the shelf, he toggled the switch on the lamp. Muted rose and purple splotches appeared on the ceiling above the light. Before he exited the room, he flicked the switch on the wall by the door, turning off the Hello Kitty light on the bedside table. He let his gaze linger on Hailey. The picture of innocence, her dusky eyelashes lay on her cheek. She’d curled one hand under her chin; the other clutched the sheet to her ear. Her narrow chest rose and fell steadily.
Thomas’s heart thumped against his breastbone as he watched the little girl fall asleep. As far as he was concerned, the sun rose and set on the child. He eased the door closed, leaving it ajar so he could hear her should she cry out in the night. The nightmares didn’t come as often now, but every once in a while, a really bad one popped up like a wicked jack-in-the-box.
On her first night in his home, he’d made a mistake and watched the news reports of the bombing after he’d thought she’d gone to sleep. Hailey’s screams had catapulted him from a restless sleep. He’d held her as sobs wracked her tiny body. After that, he’d unplugged the television. And hadn’t plugged it in since. He relied solely on his smart phone, tablet and laptop as sources of information about what was going on in the world.
At the moment, none of those devices seemed to be working well. When he tried to place a call to his producer regarding his filming schedule, he got nothing but static. He couldn’t connect to the Internet from either his Mac or his iPad.
Opening the refrigerator, Thomas grabbed a beer, then made his way to the front porch. He dropped down on the top step and sipped the cold brew, holding that first drink on his tongue, before letting the cool liquid slide down his gullet. He gazed at the sky, where stars winked and danced. The moon rode low on the horizon, barely visible over the housetops across the street. He recalled Hailey’s words about how she thought she’d seen her parents in the stars. God, he missed Doug and his adorable wife, Cindy. Probably nearly as much as Hailey missed them. A single tear leaked from the corner of his eye, and he wiped it away impatiently.
Pity party, table for none.
Taking a hasty swallow of his beer, he shoved the loneliness aside. There had to be something better to focus on rather than whether he was doing a good job raising a child who’d been robbed of her parents.
He let his thoughts wander back to Nia. His dick jumped to life as he contemplated her sexy smile. Even the ire crackling in her eyes intrigued him when he accused her of calling Peggy a cow. He dragged his thumb over the label on the bottle, wondering if she’d say yes if he asked her on a date.
There was only one way to find out. He’d call her at work next week. Or, better yet, drop by looking for information that required an expert astronomer.
He had a little time to come up with the perfect question.
Chapter 8
Sunday passed in a bit of a blur for Nia. She’d got on her Netflix account and located the Doubting Thomas program. The first pot of coffee she brewed lasted through two episodes. Then she ran on her treadmill while viewing the third on her tablet. Having burned off enough calories, she munched her way through a fourth show with a large blue glass bowl filled with popcorn on her lap.
The subject matter of each show was fascinating. The scientific manner in which Thomas went about exposing the myth as, well, myth was entertaining. Nia found herself entranced by the host hi
mself. He resembled a surfer, with his shaggy sun-kissed hair and golden skin. His muscular body didn’t appear to have an ounce of extra flesh on it anywhere. She knew in his case the camera hadn’t added ten pounds.
In one shot, he’d raised his arms to pull himself onto a ledge on a cliff in Arizona. The T-shirt he wore rose as well, revealing a taut abdomen. Her mouth watered at the sight of deep cuts of muscle on his hips.
She was completely hooked by the fifth episode. In order to debunk the myth of the moment, he’d had to scuba dive in the Sea of Cortez in a skin-tight wetsuit that left little to the imagination. Late in the show, the suit ended up bunched around his waist, exposing a mile-wide expanse of shoulder, ridged abs, and a thatch of red-gold hair on his muscular chest. Tingles burst to life between her legs, roaming down her thighs and up into her belly. Suddenly, it didn’t matter that he’d let his eyes roam over her body on the day they met. At the moment, she’d have loved to replace his gaze with his hands.
Mel and Thalia showed up before she could start the next installment. They forced her into the shower and dragged her to a late lunch at their favorite pub, The Rowan Tree. The twins were truly good at distracting her. Mel played straight man to Thalia’s clown princess act. They’d made a game of rapid-fire options for getting to know Thomas better. Nia had enjoyed their company, and their quirky suggestions for how to score a date with the man who made a living disproving the existence of myth and magic.
She’d managed to stream eleven of the twenty episodes available before she called it a day. It didn’t surprise her to have her dreams filled with images of Thomas.
The magpie she’d already come to despise had been waiting in the bushes for her when she arrived at the Observatory before eight this morning. The bitch cawed insanely, each burst sounding like crazed laughter. Like the bird belonged in an asylum.
She paused by the art deco entryway and glared at the bird. “You’ll be seeing your sister, Tyranny, very soon.” The bird cackled back at her, as if to say bullshit.
Nia checked with Barry, who had been the overnight tech. Atlas had been a genius at masking the moon’s new position. Barry never mentioned a change in orbit. Nia fidgeted as she scanned reports from their world-wide network of labs and observatories. No one else had noticed the shift either. But the illusion of normalcy couldn’t last long. And soon, mortals would be affected by change. There’d be no way to hide the reason once the lunacy began.
An email had been waiting for her from the International Space Agency. It didn’t surprise her to receive their request for a presentation detailing Friday’s eruption. While she worked to create a PowerPoint slide show with images from the Helios’ solar dynamic technology, the door to her office remained open. She’d been working on the display for ninety minutes when a knock on the doorjamb distracted her.
Nia’s mouth went dry at the sight of Thomas standing confidently in her doorway. If she thought he looked good on camera, real life was a gazillion times better.
“Good morning.” His deep bass voice stroked her senses the same way his gaze stroked her face. Slow. Sexy.
After spending the day watching his TV program, to have him appear in the flesh twisted desire in her belly. Her cheeks heated. “Morning.”
His piercing green-eyed stare made her think he knew she’d spent her overnight hours thinking about him. A smile spread across his mouth. He strode three steps into her office.
He extended his hand and when she took it a burst of sensual fire spread from his palm to hers. She had to force herself to release her grip. “Won’t you have a seat? How may I help you?”
“I wanted to stop by to thank you again for being so kind to Hailey. You really made an impression.” The corners of his mouth tilted up in a quicksilver smile. The kind of grin a woman could happily drown in.
“She’s a nice girl. Quite mature for an eight-year-old.” Dying to know the girl’s story, Nia nudged Thomas to share. She opted for a completely silent command over muttering. She already knew he could hear those thoughts.
He cocked his head to the side. “She is that. I’ve been raising her since my brother and his wife died a couple of years ago. It’s been difficult for her. Kindness like yours makes an impact on a child. And the uncle trying to raise her. Some days, I find myself completely out of my depth.”
Relieved, she drew a breath. So far, so good. This time, Nia opted for a verbal request instead of the mental version to encourage him to finish the story. “May I ask what happened? To her parents?” Any history he could share might help her confirm her suspicion that he was the man to help her.
Rubbing a fist over his breastbone, as if the memory pained him, he spoke. “They’d gone Christmas shopping. Just a casual trip, a date really. They’d left Hailey with a sitter, thank God, and had planned to make an afternoon of it. They were in the mall food court when the terrorist’s bomb exploded.” Thomas blinked away the sorrow in his eyes. “A radical faction that routinely spouts hatred claimed responsibility. Pursuit of unity and brotherhood idiosyncrasies they espouse only served to destroy. It made me lose faith in humans’ ability to love one another. Beyond familial love, that is.”
Bingo! Thomas was the man Pierus had mentioned. Rather than feeling jubilant, Nia felt slightly panicked. How was she supposed to convince this man goodness existed? It wasn’t like the challenge came with a road map. And what about the second part of the prediction—that an innocent life hung in the balance. Dear goddess, was that Hailey?
Nia touched her mind to his once again, telling him he wanted to continue the story.
“You’re just being nice. You can’t possibly want to hear any more of my sad story.” The devastating smile was a pale ghost of itself. But it had reappeared.
Had he heard her nudge, or were his words just part of a normal conversation? She had to know before she could continue.
Picturing an arrow, she let her nudge fly silently. Tell me you honestly still believe in the goodness of man.
“I can’t tell you that.”
He’d heard! Nia flattened her hands on the desk.
Thomas shook his head sadly and continued as if she’d spoken aloud. “I disprove myths and legends for a living. And the biggest myth of all is that people are innately good. That trait no longer exists in this world. If it ever did.”
“I think you’re wrong, Thomas.” Leaning forward, she slid her hands along the desk toward him. “I believe my task is to prove just how wrong you are.”
“Hmm. You’re certainly welcome to try. Maybe over dinner tonight?” When he laid his hand on top of hers, that frisson of energy sparked between them again. He wove his fingers under hers and lifted their joined hands. He stared deeply into her eyes, waiting for her answer.
She swallowed hard before replying. With his company, saving the world was going to be a pure pleasure. “That’s as good a time as any to start.”
“See there, I already believe a little.” Holding her gaze, he squeezed her fingers, then leaned forward to kiss the tips.
The gentle press of his lips to her knuckles made her stomach jump like water in a hot frying pan. Or maybe it was the connectedness between their gazes. She was drawn to him like iron shavings to a magnet.
“I’ll pick you up at half past seven, if that’s okay.”
He released her hand and she was immediately hit with unexplainable loneliness. It took every shred of will power to not reach out for him again. She jerked a pen from the mug full of them on her desk and pulled a pad of sticky notes from her drawer. While she wrote down her address, Thomas rose from his seat. He slipped his hand into his pocket and waited with his weight propped on one hip. His casual stance accentuated his lean waist and long legs.
Yes, ma’am. Pure pleasure.
The doorbell chimed promptly at seven-thirty. Nia hurried down the stairs to the mullioned glass in the front door of her turn-of-the-century bungalow. The sun, lowering in the west, splashed a puddle of light across the decorative rug that
protected the tiles of her entry hall.
Nia summoned calm with a deep breath as she grasped the knob. Letting him through the front door felt like so much more than just the simple act of allowing someone entry to her home. The minute she opened it, she’d be letting him into her life, and beginning the challenge Pierus had set for them.
Except that Thomas didn’t have a clue what he was getting into. It didn’t seem fair, but how in the world would she explain to a man whose job included debunking myths, that she was as old as time? In the world’s eyes, she was as much a myth as the Kraken.
Shaking her head, she pulled the door open. “Hi.” Her words were drowned out by the staccato chattering of a magpie sitting on a limb in a maple tree in her front yard. The bird flapped its wings vigorously and several black and white feathers floated to the ground.
Before greeting her, Thomas turned toward the noise, and then jumped backward as the bird flew straight toward him. Supernatural sound pierced the air as the bird screeched and veered away at the last second. Nia covered her ears and aimed a thought toward the bitching creature to mute her cry. When the bird’s cry fell silent and it went into a bit of a tumble before righting herself, Nia knew her jab had scored a direct hit.
“What the hell?” Thomas exclaimed. “Dive-bombing birds? That thing sounded like a banshee.”
Nia laughed at the idea of him believing in banshees. Those beings had been made up by smugglers to keep people indoors at night so they could go on with their nefarious ways. Nia had blown away the cloud cover on enough of the bootleggers to make sure they got caught.
“That was weird,” she said as she gestured him inside. “I’m almost ready. Just need to grab my purse and set my alarm.”
It was an elaborate system Mars had insisted they install after first learning of the challenge from Pierus. If something happened in any of the Muses’ homes, the alert sounded at the Olympus home office and a legion of battle ready demi-gods would rush to the rescue. Thalia had accidentally set it off right after hers had been installed. They’d all had a good laugh about that. And Thalia had scored a grown-up sleepover with Xander, the captain of the legion guard.
Mayhem: Goddesses Of Delphi Page 6