Anteros brow wrinkled. “Polya Rayning?”
“Yes Polya, you know Callie’s grandmother?” He was beginning to feel like he’d grown hydra heads. “How long you been friends with Callista if you don’t know that?”
Callista? Anteros scrambled to put the pieces together, then recalled Callie chatting about her grandmother on the way into town. “Uh, oh, you mean Grandee,” a forced chuckle squeaked out and sounded lame even to him. “Callie doesn’t refer to her grandmother by name often, so it took me a second.”
“No ‘spose she doesn’t at that. Where is she anyway? Thought you two left together this morning?”
“We did, but she ended up getting delayed in town so I caught a ride back on my own.”
Mrs. Turnbull’s face scrunched up. “Yes I saw that. You’re lucky that girl didn’t wrap you both around a tree on the way up here the way she drives, it’s what got her in trouble in the first place.”
“Trouble, what kind of trouble?”
“Oh she’s a good girl don’t get me wrong, a little wilder than most is all. It was her speeding around the countryside that finally landed her on probation,” Mrs. Turnbull’s earrings slapped the side of her cheeks as she swung her head from side to side. “Poor thing, not her fault her mom’s gone and her daddy pays her no attention.”
Even more uncomfortable hearing such personal details about someone he didn’t know, Anteros hurried to finish signing the register. “Well she seems like a good kid, even if I can’t understand half of what she says.” He stepped back with a half turn toward the stairs. “Anything else you need Mrs. Turnbull?”
She peeped at him over her glasses. “No, think that’s got it, you’re good now till Sunday.”
“Well, thank you. I’ll just head up to my room then. And if you see Ms. Jamison when she gets back, if you could let her know I’m here, I’d appreciate it.”
She nodded but didn’t say a word. Anteros felt the holes burning in the back of his head all the way up the stairs.
The rest of the afternoon came and went and the darker it got outside the darker Anteros mood became. He looked at the soft green throw draped over the back of the chair and saw her eyes. He spun his head away and the gold shimmer of the curtain became the light in her hair and he was convinced he could smell the shampoo she used. The silk covering on the chair he sat in made him wonder if her skin was as soft as it looked.
Not only was he missing Callie and starting to worry about her, the clock was counting down and the more time he let slip by the worse he’d get when she wasn’t near. He had to get a hold of himself. All he could think about was getting his hands on her.
Anteros tried everything from the mental exercises he used for archery to sit ups and a shower. None of it helped. By the time he sensed her return, he could’ve chewed through all four of the six-inch thick posts supporting his bed.
Relief she was back warred with a need to take her over his knee, sending Anteros charging down the stairs two at a time like a thundering elephant. “Where were you?”
“Teran? What are you doing back here?”
“You first. I want to know what took you so long!”
“I beg your pardon.” She still had one boot on and banged her head on the door knob trying to take it off while glaring at him. “Ouch!”
Her wince instantly diffused his tantrum and he realized what a Gorgon’s ass he was being. Stepping forward he reached for her. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bark at you, I concerned when you weren’t back before dark.” She was still rubbing her head and the mitten on her hand was making her hair stick up everywhere. “Here, let me see.”
She batted his hand away with her fluffy red mitten and snarled. “I’m fine and I can take care of myself, thank you. And if that’s concerned, heaven help anyone who worries you.”
She was mad as hell and looked damn cute hopping around on one foot. The pain and cramping had completely eased and suddenly he found himself imagining her with only those boots and mittens on and fought a grin he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate. “I’m sorry Callie. Okay I admit it. I was worried and wanted an explanation that’s really none of my business.”
“You’re right it is none of your business. I have no need to explain my actions to you or anyone.” Struggling against her coat she fumbled with one of those bags all mortal women for whatever reason insisted on carrying and dropped a large brown envelope in the process. “Darn it anyway.”
For the first time he noticed her eyes were red rimmed and her face was far too pale for having just come in from the cold. Crying? She’d been crying! Something, besides him, had upset her and by Zeus’s beard, he didn’t like it, not one bit.
Her bag strap got tangled around the sleeve she was trying to tug her arm through and she was having no luck getting either the coat or her second boot off. “Here, hang on a minute and let me help, it’ll give me a chance to redeem myself and prove I’m not always a complete moron.”
She pulled back and tried to wiggle away causing her purse strap to slip further off her shoulder and partway onto his arm. “I’m quite capable—”
He reached with the other hand to catch her coat as it came free of her opposite arm. “Oh come on. Let’s get you out of this. Then, you can tell me what’s got—”
Clear of her coat on one side she started to turn. “Why would I tell you anything?”
Callie continued to spin and the slack in her purse strap, still wrapped around the sleeve along with both their arms now, twisted behind her waist. It cinched tight around his arm and brought her face up against his chest.
Anteros body roared to life at the intimate contact created. Hers stilled and she quit squirming; her muscles slowly going limp. Afraid she’d fall, he wrapped his free arm around her. “Callie?” She finally looked up with tear filled eyes. “Callie, what wrong?”
She sucked in a shaky breath which pressed her breasts further into his chest. That simple action heated his blood and Anteros inwardly cursed the arrow. Her chin started to warble snapping his mind back from the gutter.
“I can’t read the book. I have to turn around at least one teen.” Unable to wipe her face with her arms pinned, she sniffed and blinked rapidly to stop the tears from spilling over. “How can you have a storage room with a hole in it? There are mice in the moose, pickup sticks blocking the road and squatting raccoons. But worst of all,” her voice cracked, “Grandee has a mustache!”
Anteros looked at her in horror, Zeus’s beard, it was worse than he thought. He was more than screwed. He hadn’t just imprinted on a mortal, he’d imprinted on a nut!
Callie wanted to stuff her head under one of Mrs. Turnbull’s quilted pillows and pretend the last half hour hadn’t happened. It was bad enough having Mr. Guiley, look at her with pity as he read the conditions of the will, but then she’d made an idiot of herself in front of Teran and the way he was treating her like she’d break any moment wasn’t helping.
Once they were untangled from her stupid coat and purse, he’d led her to the front parlor, then carefully wrapped her in a crocheted blanket and sat her down before disappearing. Now he was back and looked like he couldn’t walk softly enough.
“Here this should help. Mrs. Turnbull made you some tea and said it’s good for calming the nerves.”
Oh great, someone else she’d have to excuse her actions to. Their fingers brushed and her hand trembled as she took the cup from his. “Thanks.”
Teran stood over her and adjusted the blanket back up onto her shoulders. “Want to talk about it?” The timbre of his deep voice did more to chase the chills away then the blanket.
Maybe it was because she’d seen him at less than his best last night - wow had they really only met last night? But for some reason, not telling Teran seemed silly.
He sat down on the coffee table in front of her and the intensity of his focus was both exciting and unnerving. The sharp planes of his face and warmth in his dark eyes had become so comforting and familiar in such a
short time, but still having all that gorgeous male attention dialed in like that could make a girl dizzy.
Before she could change her mind Callie took a sip to clear her throat and forced herself not to look away from his penetrating gaze. “Well, honestly I’m not sure where to start, and by the time I’m done you may wish you hadn’t asked, but here goes.” A quick swipe with a tissue caught the last remaining tear and she sat straighter. “I moved here from Seattle, which is where I grew up, to finally claim some property my grandmother left me when she passed away.
“You see, she and my mother hadn’t gotten along for a very long time so we didn’t know she’d died until after the funeral. In fact the only way we found out was through a letter from Mr. Guiley, her lawyer here in Bandit Creek, telling me I was her sole heir. But according to her final instructions, in order to claim the inheritance I had to physically come here so he could read the will to me personally. At that time, I’d started a new job and couldn’t come.”
Teran slid forward until his knees nearly touched hers and it seemed to her the inch of space left heated by several degrees. “Is that a normal thing for a person to stipulate in a will?”
“Yes, and no, depending on the deceased wishes. At least that’s what the lawyer told me this afternoon and until now; I had no desire to own property in a small mountain town anyway, so I never seemed to make time to take care of it.”
Teran leaned forward close enough she noticed a midnight blue tint ringing his eyes she hadn’t seen before and she got so caught up she lost her train of thought. Clasping his hands together he rested his forearms on his legs. “So now you have, and?”
Wow, his arms were big, not bulging like a body builder but whew, big just the same. Callie gave herself a mental shake and told her racing heart to settle down. “Uh, well, now it has become important to me, not that it wasn’t before, that didn’t come out right. I loved Grandee and would’ve done it eventually but now it’s important for other reasons. Unfortunately there are some conditions written into the will I hadn’t expected.”
Sitting straighter he spread his hands and Callie bit her lip. He had great hands too; strong capable ones with nice long fingers. Ones she was trying hard not to imagine stroking her bare skin. She wasn’t having much success. “Okay, so you’re here and you did what she wanted so all’s good now, right?”
This whole situation was quickly sliding beyond Callie’s control. Taking a sip of tea and hoping to redirect her wayward thoughts she tore her hungry eyes from him and had to try twice before her voice worked properly. “Well not so much I’m afraid. Some of the conditions, I don’t have any idea where to start to meet what’s required, and when we drove out to the property this afternoon, the place is practically beyond repair.”
Teran lifted his chin and scratched, exposing the thick column of his throat, and it was all Callie could do to not lean in for a nibble. “So that’s where you went, to inspect the property?”
“Uh huh.”
Without taking his eyes from hers, Teran took her cup and set it aside. Before she could pull away he had her hands folded in his. “Okay, so there’s where you start. In fact, what do you say we go by the place tomorrow and have another look? Who knows, it might not be as bad as you think?”
It would be too easy to give in to the promise of help in those dark eyes. But he was already worming his way in too deep. If she was going to stick to her guns she better start now. Her stomach churned and her hands turned to ice in protest but she forced the words from her mouth anyway. “Thanks for the offer Teran but really, I couldn’t ask you to do that.
“And if it was only a matter of repairing things, I could take it on, but I also have to reopen it as a retreat for young girls at risk. That’s what Grandee used to do here. It was called Camp Penthesilea which again, in itself I might be able to do. It’s the last one that’s the stickler.”
“See you’ve already said you could handle two of the three you mentioned. So what’s this stickler, go ahead hit me with it, how bad can it be? Never know, maybe I can help.”
Since there was no way he could, there was no harm in showing him, so Callie reached for the envelope she’d dropped earlier, and pulled out what looked like a journal. “As much as I wish you could, Teran, unless you’re fluent in what the lawyer guessed is ancient Greek and can decipher this before the end of the week, I don’t think you can.”
The sight of the thing clawed at Anteros’s insides with icy fingers and he immediately smelled a rat. He’d seen plenty of mystical books in his time and if he didn’t miss his mark, he was staring at an ancient one right now. One with markings he thought he’d seen somewhere before. “Do you mind if I have a closer look?”
Her brows furrowed and with a second’s hesitation she handed it to him. “I suppose, but I’m not kidding, unless you’re an expert in arcane languages or something, you won’t be able to read it.”
The leather was worn and the markings faded but still legible. Opening the cover carefully he read the first flourished entry and his breath caught. It was exactly what he thought having seen several of it’s like in the past. The last one had been filled with instructions for Hercules and the tasks that made him famous – after damn near getting him killed. This one was a guide to find the Amazonian Book of Queens. “Holy Hades, how did you end up here?”
“You can read that? How?” Callie sprang up from her seat and flew to his side.
It’s no big deal I grew up on this stuff. No really, I was there when they invented it.
Great how he did explain this one? “Umm, my mother’s Greek?”
“Oh my God, that’s wonderful! Teran do you know what this means? Once you translate it I’ll know what I’m supposed to do...I mean if you agree to translate it, that is.”
Her beautiful green eyes couldn’t possibly get any bigger could they? Her cheeks were flushed with excitement and her breath was coming in small bursts. If he made love to her, would she look like that? If she did, maybe being stuck with her wouldn’t be so bad after all. What! Stupid arrow, it was getting worse. But she really was much prettier than he’d first thought.
“So what do you say? Will you do it? Would there be enough time to get through it in few days?”
Looking at her, how could he say no? These things always came with a proviso somewhere, usually a nasty one. At least he’d have an idea what to look for and could hopefully protect her. Besides it was the excuse he needed to stick close until he knew what they were up against. It would take everything he had to not give in and claim her in every way, but with her heart’s freedom and his immortality at risk, he was not going to let that happen.
While thinking about the possible implications of the journal, an unwelcome thought crossed his mind – he could fight taking her as his all he wanted but it wouldn’t make a difference in the end. No one mortal or immortal had ever beaten a golden arrow – ever.
Chapter 8
It had taken a while to get the fireplace flue open and a fire going and in spite of its generous size the main room in the largest of the cabins warmed up quickly. It also shed enough light to see the ravages of time were mostly superficial and the sturdy log structure was in decent shape.
“See, what I was talking about. The road’s so blocked by fallen trees it looks like a pick up sticks game for giants exploded all over it. The storage room roof in the main cabin has a huge hole in it. Mortimer, the moose head over the fireplace, is infested with mice. A family of raccoons is living in cabin three, and look over here.” Callie wiggled between the dust covered furniture remnants, climbed up on the top of weathered old picnic table, and pointed at a faded portrait hanging over the kitchen door. “Someone drew a Cotton sized handlebar mustache on Grandee!”
Anteros couldn’t keep his eyes off her shapely rear end and no longer knew for sure if the arrow was to blame, or if the blood rushing to his loins was all him. A mental kick helped his primary head wrestle control away from his much more focused lower
one and stepping behind the sofa he did some rearranging to take the pressure off. “Well, look at it this way, it could be worse. Mortimer could have the mustache and Grandee the mice.”
“Eww, that’s just nasty.”
Her eyes sparkled, lighting up his world, and her face was flushed from the fire they’d started. She was so full of life and energy. He couldn’t help it, arrow or no arrow, he was happy around her. His face split into a stupid grin and his chest seemed too small to hold the warm feeling bubbling up in him.
“Wait a minute, that’s not a smile I see is it Mr. Anders?”
He turned his head to the side and did his best to smooth out his face. The damn grin just got bigger, and an embarrassing sound akin to a snort escaped before he could stop it.
“It is! And on top of that, you’re laughing at me aren’t you?” She started to giggle. “Oooo, wait till I get my hands on something I can throw-“
CRACK!
Anteros head snapped around at the sickening sound. Time ground to a near halt as he saw her eyes widen in shock and she started to tip sideways with her arms flung wide and fingers grasping at nothing but air. One of the table legs had snapped and Callie was careening head first, straight for the oversized stone fireplace.
One horrendous thought drove all else from his mind: Mortals die!
One moment he was across the room, the next he was on the floor with her tangled in his arms. “Zeus’s beard woman! Are you all right?” His hands flew through her hair over her scalp and along the length of her, frantic to make sure she wasn’t harmed. “Callie?”
“Zeus’s beard?” She grabbed at his hands, trapping them as she squirmed to right herself in his lap to bring them face to face creating all manner of havoc in his pants. “Zeus’s beard?”
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