A Taste of Greek (Out of Olympus #3)

by Folsom, Tina

  Ah, how he loved to provoke her, because she looked sexier than any goddess when she was outraged like this.

  “Then prove it!” he challenged. “Prove to me that you wanted me and not my sandals.”

  She pressed her lips together, clearly battling with her inner self. “Ah, screw it!” she suddenly said. “I’m already knee-deep in it anyway.” Then she slanted her lips over his and kissed him. Her arms wrapped around him in the next instant, one pulling his body flush to hers, the other snaking up his back, then sliding into his hair, pressing him closer to her.

  Hermes’ heart jumped with joy. He slipped his hand onto her ass, grinding his groin against her, while his other hand slid to her nape and held her tightly to him. His tongue dove between her parted lips as he hijacked the kiss and claimed her mouth as if he were a conqueror. He groaned out his pleasure and allowed the desire he’d kept leashed for the last few hours to roll over her like an ocean wave, drowning her in his passion.

  Penny melted against him, her body more pliable than he remembered, while she responded to his kiss with the same fervor and excitement that she had shown during their night of passion. She kissed him without reservation, and when he pressed his hardening cock against her soft center, he felt her heartbeat accelerate. The scent of her arousal drifted into his nose. Everything in her behavior told him that she wasn’t putting on a show; she wasn’t faking her attraction to him. She was truly attracted to him, he knew that for certain now. She hadn’t slept with him to steal his sandals. She’d slept with him because she desired him. Just as he desired her. And while there were things that had to be sorted out between them, at least they had that in common.

  Oh, he was still angry at her for having stolen from him, but she showed remorse about her action, and he couldn’t discount that fact. Coupled with what he’d seen at the soup kitchen and how she cared for her grandmother, he knew that something had to have pushed her to steal from him. Because she just wasn’t the type.

  Reluctantly, Hermes released her from his embrace and noticed with satisfaction that a disappointed mewl rolled over her lips. He smirked, and Penny quickly looked away, avoiding his gaze.

  He pulled her face back to him, forcing her to look at him. “My beautiful Penny, trust me, I wish I didn’t have to stop right now, because there’s nothing more that I’d like to do right now than make love to you, but I’m afraid that’ll have to wait.”

  Color rose to her cheeks as she dropped her lids in embarrassment.

  “Now let’s find the owner.”

  “How?” she asked.

  “I’ve got an idea.”

  27

  “Hello, Hermes. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Hera answered her cell phone.

  Hermes cringed. Having to call Hera hadn’t been on his agenda, but she could do something for him that no other god except Zeus was capable of. Never mind that Hera sounded unusually chipper, which made him nervous.

  “Yeah, hi, uh, Mom!” he said for the benefit of Penny who stood next to him. “As you might have heard already, one of my sandals has gone missing, and I need some help tracking down the person who, uh, found it.”

  A chuckle sounded through the line. “And I am the one you called? Why on Olympus would you think I could help you?”

  This was a delicate situation, and getting Hera to help him wouldn’t be easy; after all, she despised him. But if he played his cards right, maybe she would do him this one favor.

  “Well, I figured since you and uh, Dad are so close these days, maybe you could just hop on over to his office and have a look in his surveillance system to get me the whereabouts of the guy I’m looking for?” The “surveillance system,” as he’d put it, was the looking glass that allowed Zeus to see everything that was going on in the mortal world. Of course, this didn’t mean he actually saw everything—he clearly didn’t have the time staring into the looking glass all day and night, his philandering keeping him far too busy.

  “So you can get your sandal back and we can all teleport again?” she asked politely.

  He smiled. “Yes, thank you, I’d appreciate it very much.” He hadn’t thought it would be that easy. But it appeared that Hera wanted her power of teleportation back as much as the next god and was willing to help even him in the process.

  An amused laugh came through the line. “Ah, my dear stepson, I have no intention of doing that.”

  Shock made him rock back on his heels.

  “What?” Penny instantly seemed to notice the change in him, and her eyes widened in inquiry. He raised his hand to motion her to remain patient.

  “In truth, I’m enjoying the sudden lack of teleporting. We, as in your father and I, have been spending a lot more time together. Quality time, if you know what I mean.”

  Hermes felt like puking. Imagining Zeus and Hera in bed together wasn’t an image he liked to see.

  “You can’t be serious. If my father finds out that you refused to help me—”

  “What then?” she interrupted him. “You think he’s gonna punish me? Shall I tell you what that punishment will consist of, or would you like to guess?”

  “Eww!”

  “Now, now! If you wanted help, why didn’t you call Zeus? I’ll tell you why. Because it would mean that you have to admit to him that you’re a failure. And as we both know, you can’t stand the thought. So, you’re not gonna tell Zeus anything, otherwise I’ll have to tell him that you’re still trying to get into the pants of that mortal who stole your sandals in the first place! Well, not even five minutes ago you were kissing her in the most indecent way, when you should be punishing her.”

  “You watched?” Fury shot from his gut to his chest. “How dare you?”

  “Just keeping an eye on things while your father is too exhausted to take care of his duties.”

  “You conniving, devious—”

  “Save your breath! I’ve heard it all before. Now go and see whether you can find your stupid sandal yourself. I for one am not interested in helping in the search. I have better things to do. An opportunity like this doesn’t come along every day. Zeus is my captive right now.”

  A click in the line confirmed that Hera had hung up.

  “Perfect!” he hissed into the phone, then shoved it back into his pocket.

  He collided with Penny’s gaze. “What’s wrong?”

  “I’m afraid my wicked stepmother isn’t going to help us.”

  “How was she supposed to help us anyway?”

  “Doesn’t matter now, since she’s decided to play hard ball. We’ll have to find the guy ourselves.” Because no way in Hades would he crawl to Zeus now and ask for his help. All it would get him was more disrespect. The God of gods would make him out to be a loser. Zeus had little respect for him as it was; there was no need to add insult to injury.

  Hermes pointed to an open door. From where he stood, he could see that it was a tiny office with a desk covered with stacks of paper, an old computer, and a printer. On the floor along the walls, more stacks of paper and folders cluttered the place.

  “Let’s see whether he left any clues in his office.”

  Penny followed him into the office and looked around. How anybody could find anything in this pigsty was beyond her. “Where do we even start?”

  “Let me see if I can get into his computer.”

  She watched Hermes walk confidently around the desk and take a seat in front of the old desktop. He seemed to do everything with confidence. Including the kiss he’d demanded from her. A kiss that had made her weak in the knees and hot in other places. Would she really react to him that way if he were a bad person? Even though she’d told him she suspected him of having something to do with drugs, she didn’t quite believe it herself. But she longed for an explanation so desperately that she simply had to find one that satisfied her curiosity.

  Because the more she thought about the things he’d told her, the more she wondered whether there could be any truth to his claim that he was the god Hermes. Ha
dn’t she always secretly hoped that the Greek gods existed and weren’t just a myth? Wasn’t that why she’d studied Greek mythology in the first place, to find the truth about the gods, to find evidence that they were real? Then why was she so reluctant now to believe his claims? What was she afraid of?

  “Something wrong?” Hermes asked and looked over the monitor.

  “Why?”

  “You’re frowning.”

  “It’s nothing,” she deflected, rubbing her arms as if that action could dispel her unease.

  “Then look through the papers and see if you can find something.”

  He turned back to the computer while she leafed through the stacks of paper on the desk: receipts, order forms, and miscellaneous correspondence. Useless junk. This guy had no system.

  “Bingo!” she suddenly heard Hermes exclaim.

  She looked up and walked around to his side of the desk. “What?”

  He pointed to the screen. “That’s the last website he visited.”

  Penny’s eyes flew over the website that was open on the browser. “Crap! He’s on a plane already.”

  Hermes turned to her and smiled. “I don’t think so. His browser history shows that he visited this travel site less than three hours ago. If we can figure out which plane he’ll be on, we can maybe stop him in time.”

  “But how?”

  “Maybe he printed the boarding pass.” He turned to the printer.

  “Who does that these days? He probably sent himself a mobile boarding pass.” She stared at the empty printer and pointed at the red light that flashed. “It’s jammed. He couldn’t have printed it.”

  Hermes opened the lid and pulled out the paper tray. Then he pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper that looked like the folds of an accordion and flattened it on the desk. “You’re probably right; he sent himself a mobile boarding pass.” Then he looked up at her, grinning from one ear to the other. “Because when he tried to print his paper boarding pass, the printer jammed.” He held up the piece of paper.

  Her heart stopped as her eyes flew over the piece of paper. Then it sank into her knees when she saw the boarding time that was printed on the sheet. “His flight is leaving in thirty minutes. We’ll never get to the airport in time.”

  She dropped her head as disappointment slammed into her.

  The sound of Hermes picking up the phone on the desk and dialing made her look up again. “What are you doing?”

  He held up his finger and listened to the other end of the line. “Listen carefully. There’s a bomb at the airport. You will receive a fax to the airport’s main security office with my demands shortly. Follow the instructions or the bomb will go off. Do you understand that?”

  Penny stared at him wide-eyed, her hand clamping over her mouth.

  Hermes dropped the receiver back on the cradle and smiled up at her, winking. “That should give us enough time.”

  Penny shook her head. “That’s crazy! This is insane! And how will we even know what he looks like?”

  He pointed to a corkboard on the wall. A photo of three guys out fishing was pinned up. “He’s gotta be one of these three bozos.” Hermes rose and snatched the picture. “Let’s go before airport security realizes that there is no bomb.”

  28

  Charleston Airport was the smallest airport Hermes had ever seen, not that he made it a habit of visiting airports. With his ability to teleport as well as fly, he generally didn’t have to rely on mortal transportation.

  The place was buzzing like a beehive that had been overturned by a hungry bear in search of honey when he and Penny approached with the car. A barricade was already blocking the street, preventing anybody from driving into the parking lot of the airport.

  “Pull up into this side street. We’ll get out here,” Hermes instructed.

  Penny parked the car at the side of the road and switched off the engine. They both jumped out of the car and turned to look at the one-story airport building. Masses of people were streaming out of the building, many of them running, others walking away, looking annoyed, their travel plans having been thwarted.

  “They’re evacuating the building,” Penny commented.

  Hermes nodded and took her hand, directing her to the street that led toward the terminal. “I was counting on that.”

  “They’re not going to let us in.”

  “We won’t have to go in. We’ll just have to get close enough so we can find the guy. He’ll have to come out just like anybody else.” Hermes gave her an encouraging smile and urged her to walk faster. “If they stop us, we’ll just need to pretend that we’re looking for your grandfather whom we just dropped off for a flight.”

  “I don’t have a grandfather anymore.”

  “Well, they don’t know that.”

  They rushed past distraught passengers and frantic airport personnel. Hermes pulled out the picture he’d taken from the corkboard in the pawn broker’s office and handed it to Penny. He’d already memorized the three faces during the drive to the airport.

  “Here. One of them is our guy.”

  Thanks to his superior godly senses, he was able to process the many faces that passed him efficiently and with accuracy. So far, nobody matching their photo had passed them. And everybody leaving the airport had to take the same road out, either on foot or by car, and the airport security personnel weren’t allowing any cars or taxis to leave the parking lot.

  Instead, members of the bomb squad were sweeping the area. Their truck was parked right in front of the building, and a canine unit had just arrived and entered the airport building as Hermes reached the area where cars would normally file along the curb in order to drop off passengers. The road had been cordoned off and a security guard waved people in the other direction, shouting orders in the process.

  Penny pulled on his hand. “We can’t go any farther.”

  Hermes didn’t let himself be distracted from scanning the faces of the people who passed him on the sidewalk. “He has to come out.” He was talking more to himself than to her.

  “You can’t stay here!” the security guard ordered, pointing at Hermes. “Move, everybody move!”

  Hermes moved to the side, remaining on the sidewalk, and pulled Penny to his side, making space for the evacuation to continue.

  “There!” Penny suddenly said, pointing to the entrance of the building.

  “Who?”

  “The guy with the blue T-shirt and the shorts.”

  Hermes let his eyes roam and spotted the man in question within seconds. “That’s him.”

  “What are you gonna do?” Penny asked, worry lacing her voice. She tossed a look toward the security guards and airport personnel dealing with the evacuation. “You can’t just grab him.”

  “We’ll see,” he hedged, and waited patiently for the pawn broker to approach. “Almost there. Almost.” But luck wasn’t with him. Another airport security person suddenly directed some of the passengers in a different direction, trying to speed up the evacuation, since where Hermes stood, a bottleneck had started to form.

  “Crap!” he hissed and pushed through the throng of people, dragging Penny behind him.

  “Hey! Jerk!” somebody cursed.

  “We all wanna get out of here, but that’s just rude!” another commented.

  Hermes ignored the upset passengers and continued charging forward, finally getting through the mass of people and emerging at the other end.

  “Where did he go?” Penny asked. “I can’t see him anymore.”

  But Hermes hadn’t lost track of him. He had him in his vision, and like a hawk, wouldn’t lose sight of him now. “I’ve got him.” He squeezed Penny’s hand in reassurance and increased his tempo to a jog.

  When he was almost upon the guy, Hermes slowed down, not wanting to alarm him prematurely. Calmly, he walked behind the scraggly-looking guy, who rolled his hand luggage behind him. Hermes scanned the area ahead of them and spotted two airport shuttles parked along the street. They appeared
to be empty. A few more yards, and his suspect reached the shuttles.

  “Curtis Oakley?” he called out. It was the name he’d read on the crumbled-up boarding pass.

  The guy turned his head, shooting him a questioning look, his voice clipped. “Yeah?”

  Hermes snatched him by his shirt and swiftly shoved him behind the shuttle, away from any witnesses. Then he pressed him against the side of the coach and held him there while his captive struggled.

  “What the fuck! Let go of me!”

  “Penny, open his suitcase!” Hermes ordered without taking his eyes off Curtis.

  At his command, the guy’s eyes went wide in shock. Oh yeah, he had something to hide. Hermes heard the suitcase snap open.

  “You got a warrant?” Curtis asked, his jaw clenched tightly, his eyes shifting to the side as if he was looking for help.

  “Got it!” Penny exclaimed triumphantly.

  Hermes glanced at her and saw her holding his winged sandal. A bolder the size of Mount Everest was lifted off his shoulders. He motioned to the sandal, then glared at the pawnbroker.

  “Dealing in stolen goods, taking stolen property across state lines, dealing in protected antique artifacts without a license,” he rattled off, making charges up as he went along. “How much prison time is that, Penny?”

  She played along. “I’m counting twenty-five years so far.”

  “I bought the sandal! I didn’t steal it!” he protested.

  “Lying to a federal agent,” Hermes continued, enjoying himself now.

  “I’m not lying, you asshole!” the guy shouted.

  Hermes turned his head toward Penny, winking. “Remind me what the penalty for insulting a federal agent is.”

  Penny could barely keep a straight face. “I believe it’s a kick in the balls.”

  “You heard the lady,” Hermes said. “So, if I were you, I’d leave here very quietly without causing a fuss, or I’m coming after you. And it won’t be pretty.” He loosened his grip on the guy.

  “You’re no federal agent!” Curtis grumbled.

  “No, and that’s your luck. Because if I were, you’d be going straight to jail. Dealing in stolen artifacts is a serious crime. Now leave, before I change my mind and deliver that kick in the balls after all.”