A Scent of Greek: Out of Olympus (22 page)

Ari brushed her hands over her dress and looked at herself. When she raised her eyes to connect with his gaze, a small frown creased her forehead. “You forgot my underwear.”

Dio’s lips curled up into a smile. “Baby, I didn’t forget.”

“But I’m not wearing—” She stopped herself, realization skidding over her lovely features. Her lips formed into a perfect circle. “Oh.”

He nodded. No, he hadn’t
forgotten
.

A blush stole over her cheeks, and she looked almost virginal. “But I can’t go out there without underwear.”

He shook his head. “Your breasts don’t need a bra. As for you not wearing any panties, how about we treat that as your wedding gift to me?”

“You’re impossible.”

Dio shrugged. “You’ll get used to it.”

As he stretched his hand out to take hers, she threw herself into his arms. “I love you.”

His entire body flooded with warmth as the words reached his heart and entered through the wide open gate. Without a word, he kissed her before leading her out into the garden.

When they stepped out into the sunshine, the chatter of the guests subsided, and all eyes watched them walk hand in hand toward the podium.

“There’s something else I forgot to mention,” he whispered to her.

Ari gave him a sideways glance and responded sotto voce, “What else could there possibly be?”

He grinned. “We made a baby the night you told me the truth.”

Her head snapped to the side as she stared at him in disbelief. Her lips quivered, and her eyes filled with tears. Dio felt like a fist had slammed into his gut. “You don’t want my child?”

She stopped walking, her hand reaching for his face. Instinctively he drew closer. Despite the tears that now ran down her cheeks, her eyes and her lips smiled at him. “Oh, Dio!” she whispered and pressed her lips to his.

“You want my child?” he asked.

She nodded, taking a millstone off his heart.

“Then why are you crying, baby?”

She raised her eyes to gaze into his. “Because I’ve never been happier.”

He chuckled. “I think you’ll be crying a lot then, because I’m planning on making you very happy.”

Epilogue

Eleven months later

Reclined in bed, his freshly bathed son on his naked chest, Dionysus stroked over the baby’s bare skin. He’d never felt anything so soft in his life, nor anything that precious.

His life with Ariadne was perfect. Most of the time, they lived in Charleston where they’d purchased a large home in the city not too far from the wine shop that they now ran together. But whenever they wanted to get away and spend a few quiet hours alone, Dio teleported the three of them to his vineyard in Napa.

His eyes drifted toward the French doors that opened up to the rolling hills around his estate, hills that were covered with vines that hung heavy with grapes, now ready to harvest.

His son started fussing, bringing Dio’s attention back to the little bundle on his chest. He stroked his finger against his son’s fists and felt him grab it in the next instant. A moment later, with more strength than a mortal baby had, he pulled Dio’s finger to his mouth and gnawed on it. “I know,” Dio cooed, “you’re hungry.” Then he looked toward the bathroom door. “You mother will take care of you soon.”

When he pulled his finger out of his son’s mouth, the boy started to wail. A second later, the bathroom door opened, and Ari stepped out, dressed in a short, light robe, her hair wet from her shower.

“Our son is hungry.” Dio smiled at her as he feasted his eyes on her form. With a snap of his fingers, he willed the belt of her robe to untie. “Much better,” he commented as her robe fell open in the front.

Ari laughed and slid beside him onto the bed. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Just making sure my son can get to his breakfast.” He dropped his eyes to her breasts. They were fuller and heavier than when he’d first met her. And he knew that sometimes they ached under the additional weight, so whenever he lavished attention on them, he was cautious not to squeeze too hard.

Dio lifted his son from his chest and placed him in Ari’s arms. Then he cradled one of her breasts in his palm and led the nipple to his son’s lips. Greedily, the baby sucked the tit into his mouth, his crying and fussing stopping instantly. He loved watching her breastfeed, particularly because she never minded when he softly caressed her at the same time.

He nudged closer to her, putting one arm around her shoulders and stoking her arms that held their son with the other. When she turned her face to him and smiled, he responded by taking her lips and kissing her. And just like that, he felt himself get hard under the sheet that covered his lower half.

Ari pulled away from him abruptly. “Ouch!” He followed her look at the baby and noticed how his son had grabbed her free nipple with his fist. “Look at that. He’s just like his father!”

Dio beamed. With pride, he smiled back at Ari. “That’s my son!” He bent down to his son and caressed the dusting of dark hair on his head. “Now eat up quickly, my son, because your father has an older claim than you, and right now—” He lifted his eyes and winked at Ari. “—he’s ravenous.”

Ari laughed, the sound echoing in the mansion and rolling down the hills of his estate. The moment she’d laid their baby back into the crib, Dio silenced her laughter with his lips on hers and his cock buried deep inside her welcoming body.

THE END

About Dionysus and Ariande

According to Bulfinch’s Greek Mythology, Dionysus married the mortal woman Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, after her lover Theseus deserted her. Dionysus and Ariadne had four sons: Thoas, Staphylus, Oenopion, and Peparethus.

Dionysus gave her a crown, which after Ariadne’s death was transformed into the celestial constellation of the crown of Ariadne.

EXCERPT of Gabriel’s Mate by Tina Folsom

The
click-clack
of her heels echoed against the buildings. Maya could barely see the pavement through the fog, which hung like a thick mist in the night air, amplifying every sound.

A rustle coming from somewhere behind her made her accelerate her already hasty steps. A chill so severe it felt as if an icy hand had touched her skin went through her. She hated the dark, and it was on nights like these that she cursed her on-call duty. Darkness had always scared her, and lately it did even more so.

She opened her purse as she approached the three-story apartment building she’d been living in for the last two years. With shaking fingers, she fished for her house keys. The moment she felt the cold metal in her damp palm, she felt better. In a few seconds, she would be back in bed and get a few hours of sleep before her next shift started. But more importantly, shortly she would be back in the safety of her own four walls.

As she turned to the stairs leading up to the heavy entrance door, she noticed the darkness in the foyer. She glanced up. The light bulb over the door must have burned out. A couple of hours ago it had been burning brightly. She put it on her mental list of things to tell her landlord.

Maya felt for the railing and gripped it, counting the steps as she walked up.

She never reached the door.

“Maya.”

Her breath caught as she spun on her heels. Engulfed in the dark and the fog, she couldn’t make out his face. She didn’t need to—she knew his voice. She knew who he was. It almost paralyzed her. Her heart hammered in her throat as fear inside her gut spiraled.

“No!” she screamed and scrambled back toward the door, hoping against all odds she could escape.

He’d come back like he’d vowed.

His hand dug into her shoulder and pulled her back to face him. But instead of his face, all she could focus on was the white of his pointed teeth.

“You will be mine.”

The threat was the last thing she heard before she felt his sharp fangs break through her skin and sink into her neck. As the blood drained from her, so did the memories of the last few weeks.

***

“And you’ve tried surgery already?” Dr. Drake inquired without looking up from his notepad.

Gabriel released a frustrated huff and brushed an imaginary dust particle off his jeans. “Didn’t work.”

“I see.” He cleared his throat. “Mr. Giles, have you had this …”—the doctor winced and made a nondescript hand movement—“uh … all your life? Even when you were human?”

Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut for a second. After puberty, there wasn’t a day in his living memory that he’d not had this problem. Everything had been normal when he’d been a little boy, but the moment his hormones had started raging, his life had changed. Even as a human, he’d been an outcast.

He felt the scar on his face throb, remembering the moment he’d received it and jerked himself away from the memory. The physical pain had long since eased, but the emotional pain was as vivid as ever. “I had it long before I became a vampire. Back then, nobody thought of surgery. Hell, an infection would have probably killed me.” If he’d known how his life would turn out, he would have taken a knife to himself, but hindsight was always twenty-twenty.  “Anyway, as you probably know better than I do, my body regenerates while I sleep and heals what it perceives to be a wound. So, no, surgery hasn’t worked.”

“I assume this has caused problems with your sex life?”

Gabriel pressed himself deeper back into the chair opposite Dr. Drake’s, having ignored the coffin-couch with an internal shiver upon entering the practice. His friend Amaury had warned him about the doctor’s choice of furniture. Nevertheless, the coffin that had been fashioned into a chaise lounge by removing a side panel gave him the creeps. No self-respecting vampire would want to be caught dead in it. Pun intended.

“What sex life?” he mumbled under his breath. But of course, the doctor’s superior vampire hearing assured the words weren’t lost to him.

Drake’s shocked stare confirmed it. “You mean…?”

Gabriel knew exactly what the man was asking. “Other than with an occasional desperate prostitute who I have to pay outrageous sums of money to service me, I have no sex life.”

He dropped his gaze to the floor, not wanting to see the pity in the doctor’s eyes. He was here to get help, not to be pitied. Still, he needed to impress on the man how important this was for him. “I haven’t met a woman yet who hasn’t recoiled from my naked body. They call me a monster, a freak at best—and those are the kind ones.” He paused, shuddering as the memories of all the names he’d been called came rushing back. “Doc, I’ve never had a woman in my arms who wanted to be with me.” Yes, he’d fucked women—whores—but he’d never made love to a woman. Never felt a woman’s love or tenderness, or the intimacy of waking in her arms.

“How do you expect me to help you? As you said yourself, surgery hasn’t helped, and I’m only a psychiatrist. I work with people’s minds, not their bodies.” Drake’s voice was infused with rejection, every single syllable of it. “Why don’t you use mind control on human women? They won’t know any better.”

He should have expected as much. Gabriel leveled a glare at him. “I’m not a complete jerk, Doctor. I won’t use women like that.” He paused before he went on, bringing his anger at the dishonorable suggestion under control. “You helped my friends.”

“Both Mr. Woodford’s and Mr. LeSang’s problems were different, not …” —he searched for the right word—“physical like yours.”

Gabriel’s chest tightened. Yes, physical. And a vampire couldn’t alter his physical form. It was set in stone. It was the exact reason why his face was marred by a scar reaching from his chin to the top of his right ear. He’d received the wound when he was human. Had he been injured as a vampire, there would have never been a scar, and his face would be untouched.

Two strikes against him—already the hideous scar scared plenty of women away, and once he dropped his pants— He shuddered and looked back at the doctor who patiently sat in his chair.

“They both claimed you used unorthodox methods,” Gabriel baited him.

Dr. Drake gave a noncommittal shrug. “What one might call unorthodox, another might deem natural.”

That was a nonanswer if there ever was one. Subtle hints wouldn’t get Gabriel the information he sought. He cleared his throat and nudged forward on his chair.

“Amaury mentioned you had certain connections.” He emphasized the word “connections” in such a way the doctor couldn’t mistake what Gabriel was referring to.

The almost unperceivable straightening of the doctor’s body would have escaped most others, but not Gabriel. Drake had understood only too well what he was after.

The doctor’s lips tightened. “Maybe I can refer you to another physician among my connections who might be able to help you more than I can. Nobody here in San Francisco, of course, since I’m still the only medically trained vampire here,” he confided.

Gabriel wasn’t surprised at the revelation: since vampires weren’t susceptible to human illnesses, very few became doctors. Given that San Francisco had a vampire population of under a thousand, it was lucky to have even one medical professional within its city limits.

“I see we both agree that we’re not a good match,” the doctor went on.

Gabriel knew he had to act now before the doctor dismissed him completely. When Drake moved to the Rolodex on his desk, Gabriel rose from his chair.

 “I don’t think that’ll be necessary—”

“Well, then, it was a pleasure meeting you.” The doctor stretched his hand out, his relaxed face now showing relief.

With a light shake of his head, Gabriel dismissed the gesture. “I doubt the Rolodex contains the name of the person I’m looking for anyway. Am I right?” He kept all malice out of his voice, having no intention of alienating the man. Instead, he let a half-smile curve his lips.

A flash in Drake’s blue eyes confirmed he knew exactly who Gabriel was talking about. It was time to bring in the big guns. “I’m a very rich man. I can pay whatever you wish,” Gabriel offered. In his nearly one hundred and fifty years as a vampire, he’d amassed a fortune.

The doc’s cocked eyebrow indicated interest. There was a hesitation in Drake’s movement, but seconds later he pointed to the chairs. They both sat back down.

“What makes you think I’m interested in your offer?”

“If you weren’t, we wouldn’t be sitting.”

The doctor nodded. “Your friend Amaury speaks very highly of you. I trust he’s well now.”

If Drake wanted to chit-chat, Gabriel would indulge him, but not for long. “Yes, the curse is broken. I understand that one of your acquaintances was instrumental in figuring out how the curse could be reversed.”

“Maybe. But understanding how to fix something and fixing it are two different things. And as I see it, Amaury and Nina reversed his curse all by themselves. No outside help was needed.”

“Unlike in my case?”

The doctor shrugged, a gesture Gabriel was getting increasingly tired of. “I don’t know. There might be a perfectly plausible explanation for your ailment.”

Gabriel shook his head. “Let’s cut to the chase, Drake. It’s not an ailment. What plausible explanation am I going to give a woman who sees me naked?”

“Mr. Giles—”

“At least call me Gabriel. I think we’re past the Mr. Giles stage.”

“Gabriel, I understand your predicament.”

Gabriel felt heat rise inside his chest as anger churned up, something that was becoming more common as he dealt with his predicament. “Do you? Do you really understand what it feels like to see the disgust and fear in the eyes of a woman you want to make love to?” Gabriel swallowed hard. He’d never made love to a woman, never truly made love. Sex with prostitutes wasn’t love. Sure, he could use mind control like the doctor had suggested and lure some unsuspecting woman into his bed and do with her whatever he wanted, but he’d vowed never to sink that low. And he’d never broken that vow.

“You mentioned payment,” he heard Drake say.

Finally, there was light at the end of the tunnel. “Name your price and I’ll wire the money into your account within hours.”

Drake shook his head. “I’m not interested in money. I understand you have a gift.”

Gabriel straightened in his chair. How much did the doctor know about him? He knew Amaury would have never revealed any of his secrets. “I’m not sure I understand—”

“Gabriel, don’t take me for a fool. Just as you must have made your inquires about me, I have looked into your background. I understand you’re able to unlock memories. Would you care to explain your gift to me?”

Not particularly
. But it appeared he had no choice. “I see into people’s minds and can delve into their memories. I see what they’ve seen.”

“Does this mean you can look into my memories and find the person you’re looking for?” Drake asked.

“I only see events and pictures. So unless I find a memory that shows her at her house or other such criteria, I wouldn’t be able to find her. I don’t read minds, only memories.”

“I see.” The doctor paused. “I’m willing to give you the whereabouts of the person you’re looking for in exchange for the one-time use of your gift.”

“You want me to delve into your memories and find something you’ve forgotten?” Sure, he could do that.

Drake chuckled. “Of course not. I have perfect recall. I want you to unlock another person’s memories for me.”

Hope deflated. His skill was only to be used in emergencies or when someone’s life was at stake. He wouldn’t rape someone’s memories for his own gain, no matter how important this was for him. “I can’t do that.”

“Of course you can. You just told me—”

“What I meant to say is I won’t do it. Memories are private. I won’t access a person’s memories without their permission.” And he was sure the person whose memories the doctor wanted revealed to him wasn’t going to give their consent.

“A man with high ethics. What a pity.”

Gabriel glanced around the room. “With the money I’m willing to pay you, you could redecorate quite lavishly.” And get rid of the coffin couch.

“I like the way my practice looks. Don’t you?” Drake gave the offensive couch a pointed look.

Gabriel knew then that the negotiations were at an end. The doctor wouldn’t budge, and neither would he.

END OF EXCERPT