~ * ~
The room was functional with a long, narrow table in the middle surrounded by twenty, well-padded chairs. Patty found herself so overwhelmed she was glad she didn’t have to do anything except take notes and pass Dion whatever papers or files he needed. They were in a meeting with the curator of antiquities, a priest who answered directly to the Pope. How freaking cool was this job? Not to mention the fact she was now sleeping with the boss, and she almost laughed out loud when she thought of what Ms. Reed would say. The meeting ran through lunch, which was served by the staff right there in the meeting room. When they were done, the priest excused himself, leaving Dion and Patty alone.
"I need that bank file," Dion told her, digging through his briefcase. He had been nothing but professional since they’d arrived, and Patty was glad for it.
Last night and this morning had been the experience of a lifetime, but few words had been spoken, and Patty didn’t know what it meant. They were lovers, but did it carry over into real life? Were they a couple? Or was she reading way more into the whole affair than he’d meant for her to? Keeping busy with the work in front of them helped keep her mind off of the more personal side of their relationship. If itwasa relationship, she reminded herself.
"Patty?"
Startled, she jerked her head up. "I’m sorry. What did you say?"
"I’m missing a file here and I know I brought it with me. I must’ve left it at the hotel, so I need you to get it for me. And be very discreet; I don’t want us to look incompetent here. This is an important account."
"Of course. I’ll be back as soon as possible." She got up to leave the room as the priest came back in.
"I’m sorry," she said, "I’m afraid I have to excuse myself for a few minutes, if you don’t mind."
"Not at all." The priest smiled warmly, and took his chair at the end of the table next to Dion. The two men began talking again, and Patty slipped from the room, quietly shutting the door. She hurried outside to the waiting car and told the driver to take her back to the hotel.
Upstairs in Dion’s suite, Patty searched for the missing file. She bent over the desk and then she… was so confused. The room had completely changed. Her head was spinning, or maybe the room was spinning, she couldn’t be sure. What was wrong with her? The hotel room, while richly appointed, definitely had carpeting, and not white marble floors. Marble floors, marble pillars, everything white, dreamlike. Wherewasshe?
"Welcome," a woman said, seeming to appear out of thin air. "I am so happy to meet you."
"I’m, um, I’m . . . who are you?" Patty wrinkled her forehead. For some reason, the woman seemed familiar, but she couldn’t say why. She was beautiful, ethereal, otherworldly. Her face was perfect, her skin flawless, and her mouth full and red. Her neck was elegant, and she held herself regally. Her nails were long, perfectly manicured and as red as her lips. Her blonde hair was piled on her head with loose tresses falling about her shoulders, and flowers had been woven through it. Dressed in a flowing white gown that was delicate, sheer, made of no material Patty could name, the woman looked like a goddess.
"I am Aurora, dear. I am Dionysus’s mother. Welcome to my home." She spoke formally, and made a gesture with her arm, indicating the palace. That’s where she was, Patty suddenly thought. This was a palace somewhere…
"I’m sorry," Patty said weakly. "I’m not feeling well right now. Might I sit down, please?"
There was a generously padded lounge chair right beside her, and she sank onto it.
"Would you like refreshments, dear? A cold drink, perhaps?"
Patty nodded, her hands shaking, as a tall glass of golden-yellow liquid appeared on the table next to her.
"There now," Aurora said as she reclined on a lounge chair next to Patty. "That’s much better. We can have a little girl talk and get to know one another."
"Uh-huh," Patty muttered and gulped the cool, sweet drink. Closing her eyes, she whispered to herself, "I will open my eyes and be back in the hotel, I will open my eyes and be back in the hotel." When she opened her eyes, Aurora was smiling gently at her.
"Oh my," Patty groaned. "Where am I?"
"Specifically, my home. Generally, Mount Olympus."
"Right, Mount Olympus." Patty nodded slowly. "Of course. I’ve had a bad fall and I’m in a coma. Dion looks like a god, he just screwed me four ways from Sunday, so of course, I’m hallucinating all of this. Why else would I be sitting her with a goddess on Mount Olympus?" Then she looked alarmed. "Am I dead? Did the fall kill me?"
"No, dear. You are not dead. You are not even in a coma. No harm has come to you. I know this seems strange to you, but you really are in my home and this really is Mount Olympus. I am Dion’s mother. And you are the answer to my prayers. I have waited so long for the boy to settle down, fall in love and give me grandchildren. I truly thought the two of you would never meet. And waiting for you to come of age nearly killed me. I swear, it has been the longest twenty-five years of my life!"
Patty began to chuckle. Then she began to laugh. And she couldn’t stop. She had a royal case of the giggles and there was no sign of them abating anytime soon. Holding her stomach, she tried to gain control of herself, but to no avail. Her stomach muscles ached, she couldn’t take a decent breath, and her face grew hot and sweaty.
The giggling fit continued and Aurora simply watched without expression. Patty buried her face in the lounge chair cushion. She felt ridiculous, knew she looked foolish, but she was unable to stop laughing. Fifteen minutes later, she was still laughing and just couldn’t stop. Then, as suddenly as she had appeared in the palace, a man appeared in front of her and shocked her sober.
He looked very much like Dion, actually. Well over six feet tall, broad shoulders, thick arms, powerful chest, hard belly and tight ass. He had eyes black as night, and his blonde hair hung over his shoulders in long, loose waves. But even though he was beautiful and so…sogod-like, she found it curious she felt no attraction to him. Feltnothinglike she did the moment she laid eyes on Dion. When she’d first met Dion, she’d fallen all over herself and couldn’t form a coherent thought, much less a sentence. But this man evoked no desire in her, didn’t pull at her heart, and didn’t make her want to drop her panties, or have his babies.
"Mother," he said in a low growl. "Must I continue cleaning up after you forever? What were you thinking?"
Aurora shrugged one delicate shoulder and smiled beatifically. "I wanted to meet her."
"You should have waited until Dion was ready for you to meet her. The possible repercussions from your reckless behavior are mind-boggling. Even Father is having a fit, and you know what happens when he starts. There’s already been two earthquakes and I was barely able to prevent a tidal wave!"
"Oh, please. Zeus is always showing off. Give the man the ability to make electricity and he spends all day throwing lightning bolts. Besides, he was just as happy as I was. It wasn’t me throwing lightning around and building thunderheads last night while they were fu—" She stopped and looked at Patty. "While they were being intimate," she amended.
"What? Wait! That was real? That was you? All of you were watching?Oh-my-God!" Heat suffused her cheeks and she buried her face in her hands, sure she would die of embarrassment.
"Of course we weren’t watching," Ira said.
"No, dear," Aurora rolled her eyes. "We weren’t watching."
"Really?" Patty raised her head.
"Really," Ira assured her. "By the way, I’m Ira. Dion’s brother."
"Nice to meet you," she said and politely extended her hand. "Please, can you tell me where I am? This woman seems to think we’re on Mount Olympus! Which, of course, doesn’t even exist." She leaned toward Ira and whispered, "Is she crazy? Does she require medication?"
Ira threw back his head and laughed out loud. "I’ve always thought so." He chuckled,
Aurora gave him a searing look, and Ira cleared his throat, instantly sobering. "But yes, you are in a palace on Mount Olympus, and my mo
ther should never have brought you here until Dion was ready to tell you the entire story."
"Oh, all right, I’m sorry," Aurora said. "What more do you want from me?"
"Can you send me back?" Patty asked hopefully.
"Of course, don’t be silly. You haven’t been kidnapped!" Aurora rolled her eyes again. "But before I do, would you take a walk with me? I’d like to show you something first."
Patty hesitated, shooting a frightened look toward Ira. He nodded slightly and smiled. "Yes," Patty said, trusting Ira’s judgment. "I’ll go with you, but then you have to send me back. Okay?"
Aurora smiled broadly, obviously pleased. "As soon as we’ve had a little time together, I’ll send you back," she agreed.
~ * ~
"I don’t know why she hasn’t returned," Dion told the priest, looking at his watch. "I sent her for a file I misplaced, but she should’ve been back by now." He sighed and gathered his things together. "I hope you’ll forgive me, Father, but I am really concerned about my assistant. I need to check on her and find out what’s keeping her."
"Of course. Don’t worry yourself about a thing; I’m sure she’s fine. And don’t worry about our business here. As far as I’m concerned, you’re the man we’ve been looking for."
"Thank you," Dion said and shook the priest’s hand. "I’ll contact you later.” As he hurried out of the building, his car pulled up and the driver stepped out. "Do you know where she is?" Dion asked in fluent Italian.
"I’m sorry, sir. I waited for her but she never returned. I had the hotel staff check the room, but she wasn’t there. They searched the hotel and found no sign of her."
"Take me to the hotel," Dion said and climbed in the car. Damn, he wished he had the ability to instantly move through space on this plane. But that only applied when he wished to go home; on this plane, he was forced to rely on normal transportation.
Once at the hotel, he jumped out of the vehicle and hurried to the elevator. Impatiently, he rode it to his floor and hurried down the hall to his suite. The room was empty, except for Patty’s purse and the case she’d had with her. Nothing was disturbed, and there was no sign of a struggle.
"She couldn’t just disappear," he said aloud. "Could she? Mother!"
Dion clenched his fists. His mother had gone too far this time and he was going to make sure she would stay out of his affairs once and for all. That was his last thought before he moved from the earthly plane to Mount Olympus.
~ * ~
"Mother!" Dion bellowed and looked around his mother’s quarters. He lifted his head and sniffed the air, his fury growing when he caught Patty’s lingering scent. "I’m going to kill her," he said and started out of the room.
"Not so fast, little brother." Ira stopped him. "You need to calm down."
Dion whirled around and grabbed Ira by the collar. "She’s gone too far this time, Ira! I’m going to… I’m going to…” In his fury, he was at a loss for words. Suddenly, thunder rolled and boomed, shaking the building’s very foundation.
"Hello, Father," Dion said. Both he and Ira bowed as Zeus appeared on a bolt of lightning.
"You’re going to what, my boy?" Zeus’s voice boomed across the room.
"Really, Father, she’s gone too far this time!" Dion said through barely contained rage.
"I have to take Dion’s side. Again," Ira said with a frown. "Her meddling has gotten out of hand. You have to do something about her."
"Ihaveto do something? Do you forget to whom you speak?"
"I’m sorry, Your Highness." Ira apologized and bowed before his father again. "I only meant she is out of control and there is no one, save yourself, who is able to control her."
Zeus grinned, obviously pacified by Ira’s backhanded compliment.
"I have not paid much attention to your mother as of late," he admitted. "She is still furious with me over my latest human playmate, but I will speak with her." He turned to Dion. "Come here, boy. Tell me all about this human your mother is so taken with. What makes her different from all the other ones you have played with?"
Dion stood face-to-face with the only man he truly feared. The only man he had ever tried to emulate. The man he loved even more now, as an adult, than he had when he was a child. And a man, he knew, that lovedhim.Taking a seat next to his father, Dion simply said, "I’m in love with her."
"Well, then. Love’s a grand thing, son. Are you sure it’s love with this one and not just lust?"
Dion snorted. "After all the women I’ve known, Father, I think I can tell the difference between lust and love by now."
"Well, you’ve got me there." Zeus smiled mischievously. "I, on the other hand, have loved every one of the women I’ve known."
"Thatwould be lust, Father," Ira said, shaking his head. "It’s the reason Mother is
constantly irate with you."
"Your mother just doesn’t understand men." Zeus waved his hand and lightning struck in the middle of the room, the ozone hanging heavily in the air.
Both of his sons looked at the black spot on the floor then turned amused looks on their father. Zeus laughed out loud.
~ * ~
Aurora and Patty walked side-by-side through gardens that perpetually bloomed with roses, tulips, daffodils, and a broad range of other flowers, shrubs and trees that Patty couldn’t name. Thunder rolled somewhere in the distance and Patty looked up, expecting to see rain clouds, but there were none.
"It’s beautiful here," Patty commented.
"It’s one of my favorite places," Aurora told her. "I spend a lot of time out here."
"I can’t imagine you digging in the dirt."
Aurora’s lilting laughter rang out across the vast gardens. "I don’t dig in the dirt, my dear. This just sort of happens," she said and waved her hand. An area that was green with grass suddenly sprouted a bed of flowers.
Patty gasped. "I wish I could do that!"
Aurora linked her arm through Patty’s. "Tell me about my son. What do you think of him?"
"I think he’s gorgeous and brilliant and wonderful and I can’t get enough of him," she said dreamily. "He’s a god!"
"Yes, he’s a god. A quite powerful one, at that. He simply refuses to be godlike, except when it suits him."
"I don’t believe any of this," Patty declared. "How can any of this be real? Yet, here I am and I don’t understand it."
"Yet, you do accept it, don’t you?"
"Yes, I guess I do."
"That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. Zeus keeps going after human females and never seems to find one who can accept him for what he is. He keeps them a few days then they tend to go quite mad." Aurora smiled smugly. "Perhaps one day he’ll realize all he needs has been right in front of his nose the whole time."
"Zeus? He exists too. Oh my goodness!"
"Yes, he exists, too. Sometimes I wish he—"
"Woman!" a disembodied voice thundered.
"Speak of the devil," Aurora whispered. "Yes, Highness, how may I serve you?"
Zeus appeared, riding a lightning bolt, and Patty shrieked and tried to hide behind Aurora.
"You don’t have to be so dramatic. You scared the girl," Aurora chided.
Zeus eyed Patty with what she imagined was supposed to be a hard, frightening look but for some reason, that’s not what Patty saw. She smiled at him, somehow knowing he was mostly bluster and show.
"Your Highness," Patty said and bowed.
"You may rise," he said loudly.
Aurora rolled her eyes; the man did love his theatrics. Zeus released the lightning bolt, which disappeared into thin air, and fell in stride beside the two women. He took Patty’s arm in a gentlemanly gesture and offered her a warm smile before addressing Aurora.
"I’ve been speaking with my sons. It seems they are upset with you, woman."
"Hmmm," Aurora said. "That makes this day different from all others in what way?"
Zeus laughed and thunder boomed in the distance. "Woman, you will never learn to contr
ol that tongue with me, will you?"
Aurora looked up at him and smiled, and Patty could see the love she had for him on her face.
"And you, my girl. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Patty swallowed hard. Was she really walking through a garden on Mount Olympus talking to the Greek God Zeus? Holy-freaking-crap! "Well… " she said.
"Don’t beat around the bush. What is going on between you and my son?"
"I don’t really know, sir. We’ve hardly had time to find out. We haven’t even had a chance to get to know one another very well yet."
"Are you in love with him?" Zeus asked bluntly.
Patty choked.
"You are," Zeus said. "What are you going to do about it? You love him and he loves you. This isn’t rocket science."
"He loves me?He loves me," she whispered.
Aurora laughed and Zeus chuckled, causing lightning to flash across the sky and thunder to boom in the distance.
"I’m sure that’s something Dion would want to tell her himself, dear," Aurora said softly.
Zeus cleared his throat. "I’m sure he will, too, so act surprised." "I don’t think she’ll need to act." Aurora looked up at the father of her children and he winked.
"Would you like to accompany me this afternoon, Aurora?" he asked.
"Accompany you where?" she asked coyly.
Dropping Patty’s arm, Zeus quickly grabbed Aurora around the waist and pulled her to him. His lips came down on hers and they both disappeared.
Patty stood looking around, spun in a circle and threw her hands up. "What about me?"
In the next instant, she found herself on the bed in the hotel. Dion was with her. Naked. On top of her. And grinning ear-to-ear.
"What happened?" she asked.
"What do you think of my family?"
"That… that was real?"
"They liked you a lot, especially my father."
"That was real?"
"Ira thinks you’re beautiful. Too beautiful and good of heart for me, is how he put it."
"That was really real?"
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