“Holed up?” Penny echoed. “What’s going on?”
Penny looked from one to the other. Everybody seemed to want to avoid Z’s wife, who, by the looks of it, wasn’t Dio’s mother either. Hermes had called her Father’s current wife. What an odd way to put it.
When Dio ignored her question by making cooing sounds at the baby, and Hermes stared at his shoes, Ari took pity on her.
“Don’t concern yourself with it. It’s just the usual family squabbles. Dio and Hermes’ stepmother can cause a lot of trouble. As can their father. And when the two show up at the same event, it gets downright explosive. That’s why we generally never invite them to the same parties.”
“Well, looks like somebody screwed that up,” Dio commented with a sideways glance at Hermes.
Hermes huffed. “Wasn’t me! Triton was handling the invitations for the party.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter now,” Ari said smoothly. “We have all we need in the kitchen: food, wine. Oh, Dio, how about you find us a bottle of the good stuff?”
He winked at her. “Great idea.” Then he handed the baby to her. “Here, Thoas, take care of your mother for a moment, while I’ll get us something to drink.”
“Thomas? What a cute baby.”
Ari smiled and walked closer. “His name is Thoas, actually, not Thomas.”
Penny stroked her knuckle over the baby’s cheek. “Oh, he’s so cute.”
Dio’s laugh came from the wine fridge. “You won’t say that when you have to change his diapers! The word that comes to mind then would be gross.”
Hermes burst out in laughter. “Yeah, never thought I’d see you do that, but hey, even I can be wrong occasionally.”
“Occasionally?” Dio chuckled and pulled a bottle from the wine fridge. “Gotcha!”
As he proceeded to open it, Penny looked back at Ari and pointed to the baby. “May I?”
“Oh, please! He’s getting heavier and heavier every day. And he sleeps so little. I barely have time to breathe.”
Penny lifted the tiny baby into her arms. He couldn’t be more than two or three months old. His dark eyes looked at her with interest, and his mouth widened to a toothless smile. She smiled back at him, then lifted her head and found Hermes looking at her.
He grinned. “Guys, Penny is a professor, and not even you two can afford her hourly rate for babysitting, so don’t get used to it.”
Penny’s gaze drifted to Ari, who had joined her husband and was now tasting the wine he poured. She swirled it in her glass, then looked at it, before taking a sip.
“You look like a professional, doing that,” Penny commented.
“I should hope so,” Ari replied. “I own a wine shop.”
“And Dio has a large vineyard in Napa and makes great wine himself,” Hermes added.
“Really?” Penny asked with interest. She’d always considered the notion of owning a vineyard very romantic.
Dio poured himself a glass and nodded. “In fact, we’re going there tomorrow. It’s time for the harvest, and I’m needed to oversee things.”
“How about a glass of wine, Penny?” Hermes interrupted and motioned Dio to pour one. “And for me too.”
She watched as Hermes walked to his stepbrother to retrieve the glasses, her eyes dropping to his butt, where his muscles flexed with every step. Darn, she shouldn’t be doing this, shouldn’t ogle him like that as if he were a piece of meat. Her cheeks flamed, and suddenly the heat felt stifling.
When Hermes turned around, the wine glasses in his hands, she quickly lifted her head, but his smile told her that he’d noticed what she’d been looking at. His eyes locking with hers, he handed her one glass.
“Penny, Penny,” he whispered. “What am I going to do with you?”
She swallowed to moisten her parched throat. His dark eyes sank deep into hers. His lips opened, but before he could say anything else, he sniffed.
Then he turned around. “Looks like your son needs a diaper change.”
“Oh, dear!” Ari exclaimed and rushed to them, snatching the baby from Penny’s arms, as she looked at her apologetically. “I’m so sorry to subject you to that.”
Penny smiled back, relieved that this interruption had broken the spell between her and Hermes. “That’s okay.”
“Dio, will you help me please? I think I left the diaper bag upstairs in Triton and Sophia’s apartment.”
“Of course, baby.” As he followed Ari out of the kitchen, he tossed a last look over his shoulder, mouthing ‘gross’ before he disappeared.
Penny chuckled. She liked Dio and his wife. They seemed so easygoing and relaxed. “It’s great that you get on so well with your half-brother. Many half-siblings don’t.”
When her gaze collided with Hermes’ again, it was still as heated as before. “Yes.” Then he moved closer.
Panicked, she searched for something to say. “Do you want to rejoin the party?”
“No.”
Oh, God, she couldn’t do this, couldn’t just make out with him here in the kitchen. What if somebody came in and saw them? And besides, this wasn’t the plan. She’d promised herself to keep him at arm’s length. She couldn’t allow him to turn her brain to mush and her knees to jelly.
Her eyes darted around to find an excuse or an escape route, anything to escape the heat of Hermes’ body.
“How about I show you the garden? It’s lovely out there—and quiet,” he whispered seductively, his voice a soft rumble that reverberated in her belly and made her ache for his touch.
He took her hand, and she followed him outside.
The garden was beautiful, just as he’d claimed. In the middle stood an enormous fountain, complete with a statue of a dolphin with water streaming from its snout. She walked toward it, an idea forming in her head. Maybe there was a way she could achieve her goal after all.
She took a peek at Hermes’ feet. He was wearing the same sandals again. Perhaps if she could convince him to take them off, she’d be able to get a closer look at them. For some unknown reason, she felt awkward at the thought of asking him directly about them.
Stripping off her own high heels, she climbed up on the ledge of the fountain, then dipped her toe inside. The water felt wonderfully invigorating and refreshingly cool. She stepped into the fountain, letting the water cool her down.
“This is fabulous. Join me, Hermes,” she said, flicking her fingers through the water and spraying him.
“No.” He laughed. “You look like you’re having way too much fun on your own.”
“I would have even more fun if you joined me,” she coaxed him.
But he simply shook his head, his eyes turning darker. “I can think of other fun things.”
She walked closer to him. “What kind of fun things?” she asked, tilting her head in a way she hoped was coquettish.
He grabbed her and pulled her out of the fountain and onto the ledge.
“What did you do that for? I was having fun!”
“If you slip and fall on all this marble, Triton will have my head.” He paused. “Besides—” His mouth came closer and his gaze locked with hers. “The fun things I was talking about . . . ” He let his eyes complete his sentence.
“Oh,” she said, realizing what he was planning. Her chest pressed against his, her arms clinging to his shoulders as she stood with him on the ledge.
“Let me show you what I mean,” he murmured, and stepped down onto the grass, pulling her with him. His arms drew her in tight. Then his mouth slanted over hers. A tiny moan escaped her as her lips parted.
His shoes were suddenly forgotten, and all she felt was his hard body pressed against her, his lips urging her to surrender. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, she tasted him: a mixture of wine and man. So masculine. So utterly intoxicating. A slight moan sounded in her throat as he deepened the kiss. She grasped his shoulders, seeking support as her knees weakened.
She wanted to pull away, but couldn’t. His kiss was too drugging, too demanding to resist. Her head began to spin, and her eyes had long dropped shut. Shocked, she recognized that she was rubbing herself against him, her hips gyrating to feel the ever-growing hardness in his pants press against her soft core.
When he groaned and slipped his hands to her backside to intensify her actions, she ripped her mouth from his. She had to stop this while she still could and return to her original plan.
“It’s late, I should probably get—”
Hermes’ head bobbed slowly. “Yes, it’s late. I’d better show you the rest.”
“What?” Her head was spinning. She tried to gather her senses, which she’d lost when she’d given in to his passionate kiss.
“The rest of the house, you know.” He released her, taking her hand. “The guest rooms upstairs. Let me show you the work Sophia had to do to restore this old place.” His fingers fanned across her back, up to the nape of her neck for a slow caress as he led her through the French doors.
She let it happen, because she had no more strength to resist the erotic pull he had on her. She could only hope that she wasn’t making the biggest mistake of her life.