by Abigail Owen
“That’s family for you,” he muttered.
“Yeah.” She huffed a laugh, surprised she could.
He sat beside her, crowding into her personal space as he draped his arm along the top of the couch behind her. “Which god?”
“Poseidon.” But he’d been tricked into it by a werewolf. She took another swig of water, feeling infinitely better, though whether the water or Castor was the cause, she couldn’t say for sure.
“At least it wasn’t Zeus.”
“I would’ve refused to work for you had it been Zeus.”
“I’m surprised Poseidon would punish you by demolishing your spring.”
She lifted one shoulder. “A god scorned…and all that. He had Hephaestus do the dirty work.”
He squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry.”
The contact warmed her from the inside out. She could get addicted to his touch. Time to run.
She hopped up. “I need a bath.” She’d made it to the door when his voice stopped her.
“What did she mean when she said, They’re holding back because of you?”
She glanced over her shoulder. “I was pretty powerful, once upon a time. Maybe they were scared to test me.”
He studied her for a long moment. “I’m not buying it.”
She raised a single eyebrow. “That I was powerful?”
“That your power had anything to do with them holding back. I think they genuinely liked you once upon a time and that keeps them from unleashing on you now.”
Hurt pooled in her gut, too painful to talk about. She cleared her throat. “I doubt it.”
“Why not? I like you.”
Definitely time to run before she did something stupid like take him seriously. “Yeah…well. The feeling’s mutual.”
Damn. Where had that come from? Run, stupid.
She fled into the bathroom, locking it behind her. A nice long soak would bring her back to her senses and empower her for her chat with Calli later. Something was definitely off with her sister’s rejection of help, more than the nymphs’ rejection of her. She just couldn’t put her finger on what.
CHAPTER 7
“How’d it go?” Castor’s voice had her swinging her gaze sharply right as she walked in the main door of the hotel.
She frowned when she found him lounging in one of the big leather chairs close to a big stone fireplace in the lobby, a happy fire crackling away, giving off a comforting campfire odor. While the early May days were warm, the nights were still crisply chilly, which was why she’d added a long brown sweater over her pink dress and changed out her heels for a pair of tall suede boots. “Were you waiting for me?”
He held up a leather-bound book, The Shining. “Nope.”
She moved closer, took the book from him, and flipped through the pages. “Creep-tastic.”
“It seemed appropriate, giving the surroundings.”
“You know this place is haunted, right?”
“You believe in ghosts?”
She shrugged and handed the book back. “I know a couple.”
“I guess you do then. How’d it go with Calliadne?”
She wrinkled her nose. “About what I expected.” Honestly, their meeting had been weird. Calli had been afraid—more than seeing Leia should have warranted. Calli’d practically jumped out of her skin at every noise or person who walked by. For someone who used to like humans, her behavior seemed odd. But she wouldn’t admit anything was wrong, and she refused to help Leia with her cause, muttering something about it being too late.
“Marrok and Tala will be disappointed.” Castor interrupted her thoughts.
“I have a plan.” Of sorts. She thumbed over her shoulder toward the stairs. “I’m going to our room now. Are you going to stay down here?”
“I’ll come up with you. I want to hear this plan.” He unfolded his long length from the overstuffed chair.
That’s when her worst nightmare appeared across the room, laughing with a group of five or six other men—Kaios. The werewolf was still drop dead handsome, still remarkably young for one so old. She’d bet money he was also still the same total and utter ass.
“Shit,” she hissed through clenched teeth. Panic flipped her heartrate to max. She frantically scanned the room for an escape. Seeing none close enough, she stepped closer to Castor, letting his size hide her.
“What the—” Cas glanced over his shoulder at whatever had captured her attention.
She yanked on his arm. “Don’t look,” she pleaded.
“What’s going on?”
She peeped around her human shield. Crap. Kaios was walking this way. He’d see her any second. She glanced up at Cas, who stared at her like she’d lost her mind. Because she had.
“Kiss me,” she demanded.
His eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me.” Only a few more seconds.
“You want me to—”
“Screw it,” she muttered.
Going up on tiptoe, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him down to her. Taken by surprise, he didn’t resist as she planted her lips over his.
He was unresponsive at first, which didn’t matter because she was more occupied with where her nemesis was in the room. But then Cas took over the kiss. She went from distracted to completely focused…on Castor.
Electricity burst through her body, her nerves alive to his every touch, starting from what his lips were doing, then spreading outward. Those lips—warm against her own—they mastered, they coaxed, they tempted. She gave a small moan as he ran his tongue along hers. She opened for him like a flower to the sun, and heat pooled in her core. His hands smoothed under her sweater, over her back to her hips, where he used a light grip to tug her in closer to his body.
For a demigod he was amazingly gentle. A warm glow of rightness joined the heat of passion. In his arms was where she was meant to be. Nothing had ever felt this right.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
The warning bells went off in her head. This was her boss. And a demigod. And a man still in love with his dead wife. Nothing was right about this.
With a gasp she jerked back, stepping out of his arms before he could stop her. Her hand flew to her lips, which throbbed from his touch. Oh great gods, she’d just kissed her boss like the nymph she’d once been.
He pinned her with his blazing blue eyes. “Wow.” His voice was low and raspy and skittered along her nerves in a delicious way.
She pulled her shoulders back. Time to act casual. “Thanks for helping me with that. I’m sorry if it got out of hand. I couldn’t think of any other way to avoid that son of a hell hound.”
Passion shifted to confusion as his brows lowered. “Helping you with what?”
He’d only been playing along… hadn’t he? “I was hiding from someone. I thought you realized.”
She checked over her shoulder, belatedly. There was no sign of her tormentor, thank the gods.
A quick glance back at Castor revealed an angry scowl on his face. “Let’s go upstairs,” he said. Or ordered.
He took her by the elbow, but a flash of pink on the floor caught her eye. When had he untied her belt? She grabbed it up and cast Castor a glower, daring him to crack a joke. Granted, he wasn’t in a joking mood. Head held high, she led the way.
As soon as they were in the rooms, she headed to the bathroom. A long soak in water was what she needed right now.
“Hey.”
She paused in the doorway and glanced over her shoulder, eyebrows raised in question. Bluffing her way through this was her best bet.
He crossed his arms, and she did her best to ignore how the muscles strained the fine material of his shirt or the strength of his forearms exposed by his rolled back sleeves.
“You’re going to explain what happened down there.”
Damn. She’d hoped he’d let it go. Time to play dumb. “Um. I saw a person I’d rather avoid. You helped me avoid him.”
She turned away.
&n
bsp; “Hold on, you.”
She gave a little sigh before she turned back around, then gave a yelp because he’d managed to cross the room to stand directly behind her without a sound.
She blinked up at him. “What?”
“You’re telling me that kiss was all an act?”
“Of course.” She grimaced. “I shouldn’t have kissed you at all, but he showed up and I just kind of…panicked.”
He put his hands on the door frame on either side of her, leaning close, his spicy scent swirling around her, pulling her more under his thrall. She hardened her heart and held her ground, angling her head to look him in the eyes.
“So if I were to kiss you right now, you’d feel nothing?”
Ah. That was his problem. She’d pricked his pride. Shoving aside her unreasonable disappointment, she tried to forget the feel of his lips against hers. “Of course I’d feel something. I’m a nymph and you’re a demigod.” And a hell of a kisser. “But it wouldn’t mean anything. You’re my boss, not my lover.”
He gave her a long hard look, and a sound of splintering wood told her he’d gripped the door frame a tad too hard, though she didn’t check to confirm. Her stomach tightened when his gaze dropped to her lips, which tingled in response to the heat shimmering in his blue eyes.
But then he stepped back. “You’re right.”
Disappointment mingled with relief as she released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “It won’t happen again.”
“Who were you trying to avoid?”
She tipped her chin. “I’d rather not talk about it.”
“Too bad.”
She knew the stubborn light in his eyes, his jaw clenched with determination. He’d get it out of her by hook or by crook. “The werewolf responsible for losing me my spring.”
Rather than act triumphant that she’d given in, he narrowed his eyes. “You told me Poseidon was responsible.”
“Yes, but it started with Kaios. He wanted me. I rejected him. To get even, he made a bet with Poseidon that the god would also fail with me. If he lost, Kaios was supposed to bring the god something. I never did find out what. If Kaios won, Poseidon would punish me much more than Kaios ever could.”
She gazed out the window at the lights of the shopping center below the hotel and the cars driving to and from the downtown area. “I should’ve guessed he’d be here. A mating pair like this one doesn’t ever happen according to Marrok and Tala. Having elders like Kaios here to bless the mating with their presence is desired by the weres. Except…I wasn’t aware he was still alive.” They tended to die faster than other immortals given their proclivity toward fighting each other and the world, and she’d avoided everything werewolf since the day her spring had been destroyed. Besides, Kaios was too much of a self-centered megalomaniac to bless a wedding involving two alphas. Not enough focus on him at an event like that.
Castor was silent for so long, she glanced back. Her eyes widened at the expression on his face, a mixture of guilt and tender protectiveness. But that couldn’t be right.
Before she could say anything, he took her face in his hands. “Don’t go.”
She blinked. “What?”
“Don’t go to the mating ceremony. Go home. I’ll deal with things here.”
“That’s silly. What would Marrok and Tala say?”
“When I explain things to them, they’ll understand.”
“No. They need Kaios’s presence as a blessing. As old as he is, that’s a big deal. Don’t tell them. I’m fine.”
“Then I’ll tell them you’re sick or something. I’m not going to put you through facing your own personal demon. Not for me.”
This was why she loved him. Castor Dioskouri was an intrinsically good man, despite being a demigod.
She covered his hands with her own, leaning into the heat of him—a comforting warmth now, like a cozy fire. “I want to help them. I have an idea.”
With a groan he released her face only to pull her into this body and wrap his arms around her. He settled his chin on the top of her head. Leia closed her eyes, reveling in the sensation of being surrounded by him. “You have a good heart, Lyleia Naiad. Why help people you’ve only just met?”
Because they were Castor’s friends, only she couldn’t tell him that. “Because you think they are good people, and their goal of bringing peace to their people is a worthy one.”
He grunted. “What’s your plan?”
She scrunched up her face. “If I told you, you wouldn’t let me do it.”
He moved his hands to her shoulders to lean back and look her in the eyes, frowning. “Which means it’s dangerous.”
“Not necessarily dangerous. More like…”
“Stupid?”
Usually a term like that would earn him a verbal smack down, but he was worried about her, so she’d let it pass. “I’ve been called worse. I’ll be fine.”
Her dry tone usually made him laugh, but not this time. “I can’t talk you out of this, can I?”
“No. It’s been so long since I’ve had a chance to use my powers at all, let alone for the forces of good. I’m not asking you, Cas. I’m telling you. I want to do this.”
“Do you need to be at the mating ceremony for it to work?”
“Maybe not, but it’s better if I am. I need to be close by.”
“Which means you’ll have to come face to face with Kaios.” His lips flattened in a grim line her fingers itched to smooth over.
She resisted. “I’m not worried about him.”
Cas raised a single eyebrow. “That kiss downstairs tells me you’re terrified of him.”
She shifted on her feet. “I just didn’t expect to see him. Now that I know, I’ll be fine.”
He scowled. “There’s that word again. Fine isn’t good enough.”
Castor released her, stalked to the wet bar and got out strong whiskey. If she didn’t know him better, she would say he was furious. No. That idea was ridiculous.
“Are you afraid of him?” He poured a couple of fingers in two glasses, picked them up and crossed the room to her.
She took the glass he offered, took a sip and made a face as the sharp taste of alcohol hit her tongue. “Not really. There’s nothing Kaios can take away from me now. And with my own personal superhero around as a bodyguard, he can’t hurt me.” She tipped back the rest, coughing at the sensation of the fumes burning the hairs out of her nose.
“I’m hardly a superhero.” He muttered the words before he tossed back his own whiskey.
She wondered if he was thinking of his wife’s demise and how he’d been unable to save her. Regardless, he was Leia’s hero. Not that she’d ever tell him. Instead she waved a hand. “I can handle a werewolf. Besides, demigod trumps were every time.”
He choked out a laugh. “Don’t let them hear you say that.”
She dredged up a smile and handed him her glass. “I think I’ll take a nice long bath if you don’t mind.”
As she turned away, he called her name. She looked over her shoulder, eyebrows raised in question. “I won’t let him hurt you tomorrow.”
The unmistakable sincerity in his voice was almost her undoing. “Thanks,” she said around the lump in her throat. She made her escape to the bathroom with more haste than grace. Whiskey was her kryptonite and, after the kiss Castor laid on her downstairs combined with the obvious affection in his gaze just now, she was fighting the urge to wrap her body around his. If she could get through the next few days without making a total idiot of herself—or dying—they’d be home free and could return to normal.
CHAPTER 8
Castor stood at the front of the chapel beside Marrok, who appeared as cool as ever while he waited for his bride.
Like the exterior, built in natural stone, the interior of the building was simple, constructed of thick pine logs. Pews carved from matching pine wood stood in rows with a single aisle down the center, a deep red velvet carpet leading up to the altar and pulpit. Floor to ceil
ing windows at the front revealed an incredible view of the lake, which glittered under the brilliant light of the full moon.
Marrok suddenly gave a low whistle.
“What?”
“Did you see Lyleia before coming here?”
“Yes.”
“Was she dressed for the wedding yet?”
“No.” She’d preferred to come to the ceremony without him, a decision which had bothered him more than it should. She’d muttered something about needing to sit near the back. Whatever that meant. Best guess, she was avoiding the werewolf who’d ruined her identity as a nymph. The only thing keeping him from ripping out the bastard’s neck when they’d been introduced ten minutes earlier was not wanting to ruin his friend’s important day. That, and Leia had warned him not to before he’d left the hotel.
“Let’s just say you’re going to need a very large stick.” Dark laughter lurked in Marrok’s voice.
“Why?”
“To beat off the wolves.”
His friend was obviously enjoying the hilarity of the situation but had to be mistaken. Leia was gorgeous, but she didn’t flaunt her beauty, tending to dress on the conservative side. Besides, he doubted she wanted to call attention to herself with Kaios here.
He scanned the crowds filing in at the back of the chapel. “I don’t see her.”
“Navy dress. Her hair is up.”
Navy sounded right. Conservative. The way his nymph liked to dress.
He caught a flash of blue and the top of her blond hair piled high on her head. Then the tuxedoed man blocking most of her from view stepped aside. What was Marrok talking about? While she looked incredible to him—his body started to heat up at the sight of her like it always did—he harbored feelings for her. Given the way the other ladies were dressed, he doubted Leia had anything to worry about with the wolves.
The dress was long, draping to the floor, the top gathered over her right shoulder. No cleavage showed. A thin slit at her hip showed a sliver of flat belly. Sexy as all hell. But still covered up compared to the skin on display from the lady wolves. Leia appeared classy in a room full of overdone.