“That was the dirtiest sex in history,” Lia said, lying across August’s seemingly human chest.
“Top ten at least.”
“You went in places you’re not supposed to go,” she said. “Will I need to see a gynecologist? Or a metallurgist?”
“Want to do it again?”
“Yes, please,” she said.
August wrapped them in his wings, and she held out a hand to stroke the walls of the feathery cocoon.
“I’m so afraid I’ll wake up tomorrow and this will all have been a dream,” she said.
“I just made insane love to you in the form of liquid gold. And you still doubt?”
“It’s not doubt,” she said, rising up to look down at him. “Only fear.”
He stroked her cheek and grinned.
“Nothing to be afraid of. I’m here now,” he said softly. “I’m not going away. And if I do, I will take you with me.”
“Yes, very sweet. But how did you talk your family into letting you back in?” she asked.
“Mother’s behind all of this,” he said. “I had a feeling she was when I saw the statue of her on your mantel. She arranged for the Rose Kylix to come into your possession. She knew it would get my attention.”
“She was playing matchmaker.”
“Of course she’d pair me up with one of her acolytes.”
“I didn’t even realize I was,” Lia said.
“Mother said all she ever wanted was for me to learn how to really love so I’d know how wrong it was to play with hearts. When I gave up my freedom to help you and you chose my happiness over getting yourself out of trouble... Well, Mother thinks I’ve finally learned my lesson. She’s very happy I found a girl who loves me.”
“I do love you,” she said, gazing down at him in adoration. “Although I am so furious at you for not telling me you’re bloody Eros.”
“I tried telling you a, oh, million ways,” he said. “I mean, come on now, Lia, I named myself August Bowman.”
“I was told August was short for Augustine, not a synonym for ‘exalted.’”
“You didn’t want to believe,” he said. “That was the problem.”
“I do believe now, though. I think.” She scratched her temple.
“I’ll make you believe,” he said, and dragged her down to his chest again and held her tight to his body.
“What happens now? Never been in love with a Greek god before,” she said, smiling. She really had gone mad. It was fine. August was here, being completely mad with her.
“I’m supposed to keep a low profile, but as long as I do we can come and go as we please,” he said. “And you’ll be treated like Ganymede, the beautiful youth the gods found so lovely that Zeus took him up to live in Olympus.”
“As long as I’m with you,” she said. She thought of something and hated to bring it up but...she had to know.
“What about David?” she asked.
“Oh, he’ll be a free man in time for his art show,” August said. “But Mother had a word with him while he was in the clink. She put the fear of goddess in him. She said you were her son’s lover, and if he tried to hurt you, she would have him chained to a rock and she’d instruct an eagle to peck out his liver for all eternity.”
“Harsh,” Lia said.
“She told him we’re a Greek mafia family, not entirely inaccurate. After the death threat, he went very quiet. But we let him go,” he said. “He won’t be bothering you anymore.”
“Thank you,” she whispered, then kissed the center of his chest.
August put a finger under her chin, raised her head to look at him.
“If you want me to,” he said, “I can make you forget what happened with him. And I can make your mother forget. I can make it all go away. I know how.”
Lia considered it. Then she discarded the idea. Tempting as it was to make the painful memories disappear, getting rid of them would mean discarding the good memories that came after. Yes, David hurt her and her mother, but now she and her mother loved each other even more. And she cherished the memory of her father leaping to her defense without hesitation and her mother slapping David across his smug face.
“No,” Lia said. “I’m fine. I’ll keep my memories as they are. If I forgot the hurt, I’d forget the healing.”
“Good choice,” he said, stroking her back.
“Will you miss being a prostitute in your own cult?” she asked.
“Fun while it lasted,” he said.
“I wouldn’t stop you if you wanted to keep doing it,” she said. “As long as you love me the most.”
“I think I’ve played enough for a few centuries at least.”
“I haven’t,” Lia said. “But I’m forbidden from being a madam anymore. Mum and Daddy are opposed to the idea for some reason.”
“They’re very conservative for a couple of married perverts,” he said, then snapped his fingers. “Oh, speaking of married perverts...we have to get married.”
Lia sat up, shoving his wings aside.
“We have to do what?”
“Don’t worry. Not right this minute. One of Mother’s conditions. She was very serious about me getting married and settling down. If I was going to get my crown and wings back, I had to agree to get married. But I got to pick the lady—or fawn or cloud. And the lady I picked was you. Do you mind?”
“When exactly?”
“Not today. But a short engagement would be preferred. Say...five years?”
Lia’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Five years isn’t considered a short engagement.”
“When you’re several thousand years old, five years is nothing.”
“But what happens when I get old and you’re still this?” She pinched his too-handsome cheeks.
“Mother would make you immortal, if you want. Or I’ll quit being a god again, and we’ll grow old together.”
“You’d do that for me?” she asked.
“I would,” he said. “Mother wants a grandchild, but we have plenty of time to figure all that out. Eons...”
Lia straddled his stomach and sat on his hips.
“I love you, August Bowman.”
He wrinkled his nose at her. “Do you?” he asked. “Tell me how.”
“With all my heart,” Lia said.
“And?” He batted his eyelashes.
“All my...soul?”
“And?” He batted his eyelashes harder.
“And all my...”
“Starts with a C,” he said.
“All my concupiscence?”
August threw her on her back and entered her with a stroke.
“I’m going to pound that prissiness out of you if it takes eternity,” he said.
“Good,” she said. “My cunt can’t wait.”
When August stopped laughing he made passionate love to her.
Though if anyone was standing outside the door listening, all they would have heard was bird noises.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, the universal mother and evening star, was too busy crowing to eavesdrop on Eros and Lia. The Godwicks had long been worshippers of hers, and she’d planned for decades to marry her son to one of them if they’d ever hurry up and have a bloody girl child. But of course her son wouldn’t marry anyone she told him to marry. Oh no, gods forbid! Yet, it was all too easy to trick him into thinking he’d picked out his own bride. And she supposed he had, but she put them together. Full marks for Aphrodite. She patted herself on the back. The old girl still had it.
Still...she did regret hurting her sweet, wicked son. In a show of affection for the young lovers, Aphrodite took a page from her sister Athena’s playbook. She pinned the night into place to give her son and his fiancée more time together in the intimate dark...a romantic gesture that went entirely unremarked by the lovers who were too busy making love to even notice what Aphrodite had done for them.
Ungrateful children.