For the Love of a God [Gods of Olympus] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (14 page)

“I’ve been waiting for mine to come in from Amazon. Is it worth the wait?”

“Oh, definitely. I can’t wait to get back to it. If your copy comes in soon, maybe you can catch up and we can finish the rest at the same time.”

“Like a book club?” Neil asked with a smile.

She blushed but nodded enthusiastically.

“I think we can work something out,” he said. “Now, are you up for some TV, or do you want to run your presentation by me?”

“God, TV. Please.”

They spent the rest of the evening gorging themselves on Chinese food, talking about movies and books, and watching really bad reality television.

Everything was perfect. Almost. Finally Neil cradled her close. “Should we go fetch our errant lover?”

“You took the words right out of my mouth.”

She got up and retrieved the cell phone that Eros had given her and made her way back to Neil. “You want to do it?”

Neil shook his head and jerked his chin toward her. “You can do it. You’ve got a nicer voice than me.”

She smiled and dialed the cell phone as Eros had instructed. It rang. And rang. And rang. Her heart sank. “He’s not answering.”

Neil frowned. “He didn’t come into work again this morning. Apparently he handed in his resignation. I didn’t think much about it since I didn’t figure he could do his programming job and do his Cupid thing at the same time.”

“Well, what do we do now?” Talia’s stomach was a mass of knots. She was suddenly terrified that Eros had changed his mind.

Neil’s expression became determined. “Aphrodite,” he hollered. “Aphrodite, the goddess of love, I’m summoning you!”

“I don’t think you can summon a Greek goddess, Neil…” The rest of Talia’s sentence trailed off when the beautiful goddess appeared before them.

“Don’t you know how dangerous it is for a mortal to call a goddess, especially when said goddess is in the middle of a romantic picnic with her husband? I mean, really…oh. It’s you.” Aphrodite ceased her complaining when she saw them.

Talia smiled at the goddess apologetically. “We’re very sorry to interrupt your picnic, but we’re afraid we can’t get a hold of Eros. Would you happen to know where he is?”

Aphrodite narrowed her eyes at them. “What do you want with him? He said that he broke his power over you.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Talia saw Neil shrug. “He did. But our feelings for each other or for him failed to change, which logically means that they were genuine. We want him back.”

Aphrodite pursed her lips and glared at them. “After all this time? You’ve left him to wonder and stew and suffer, and now you want him back?” Her voice rose, and the lights in the apartment started to flicker. A slight breeze picked up in the room despite the fact that none of the windows were open. Talia’s papers, still spread out on the table, ruffled. The goddess appeared at once beautiful and terrifying. “I will not let you break my baby’s heart again.”

Crap. This was bad. Well, maybe bad wasn’t the right word. An angry goddess could only equal destruction, especially when every lightbulb in the place began exploding.

Talia stepped forward, ignoring Neil’s grip on her wrist as he tried to pull her back. “It’s only been a day since Eros released us. He told us that time moves differently on Mount Olympus than it does here.”

Immediately, the mini tornado that had formed in the middle of the room, scooping up the papers of her thesis and tossing them every which way, dissipated. “Oh. I sort of forgot about that.”

Talia frowned. “How long has it been on Mount Olympus?”

Aphrodite waved her hand, and the apartment put itself back to rights. “It’s been two weeks. My poor baby has been drowning his sorrows at Dionysus’s place every night.”

Neil blinked. “As in, getting drunk?”

If it had been any other time, Talia would have smiled at the confusion on Neil’s face. He was simply adorable. “Dionysus is the god of wine,” she whispered.

“Is it possible for a god to get drunk?” Neil whispered back.

How was she supposed to know? It wasn’t like she’d known she was dating by a Greek god before yesterday. But that seemed a little harsh to say, given that Neil had even less knowledge of gods than she did. “I expect they can, if Aphrodite is concerned about Eros.”

“I’m still here, you know,” Aphrodite drawled, twirling a lock off blonde hair around her index finger. “And, yes, gods can get drunk off Dion’s wine.”

Apparently satisfied with the explanation, Neil looked at Aphrodite, a pleading expression plastered across his face. “Will you take us to him?”

The goddess simply beamed at them. “Of course, darlings. You know, I told Artemis that the two of you would come around. She has absolutely no sense of romance, that girl. Well, what can you expect from a three–thousand-year-old virgin?”

The look of confusion was back on Neil’s face, but before Talia could say a word, they were standing in a tropical-themed bar.

Aphrodite sucked on her tongue at the sight. “Dion’s going through a phase, darlings. We all keep telling him he should turn his place back into a proper temple, but he insists on this rather strange decor. He recently discovered a whole host of new drinks. Pina coladas, rum punch, and something called a sex on the beach, and he redesigned the entire space to match the drinks. Silly, if you ask me. Although, I do quite like the mojitos. Maybe I’ll get a couple to go and take them back with me to our picnic.”

She wandered off to the bar, calling out as she went. “Yoo-hoo, Dion? Can you whip me up some of those lovely mojitos?”

A tall man appeared, his brown curly hair falling down charmingly over his forehead. “Of course, Aphy.”

Two tall glasses instantly appeared in front of her, and she scooped them up, cooing with pleasure. “I have to get back to Hephy. Be a dear, Dion, and help these two out.”

The god, Dionysus apparently, smiled at them and beckoned them closer. His expression changed to one of dismay as they got closer. “Mortals? I don’t know what Aphrodite was thinking, bringing mortals here. Zeus will have a fit. Of course, now that he has that Zen garden, he’d rather do yoga than throw some lightning bolts, but still.”

What was with all these gods and their rambling? Maybe being so old meant the filter between their brains and mouths had deteriorated.

Talia looked at Neil, who was staring around the bar with his mouth hanging open. “We’re here to see Eros,” Talia said to the god.

Understanding dawned on Dion’s face. He pointed toward a heavily shadowed corner. “He’s over there, working on depleting the last of my wine supply. Fair warning, he’s a miserable drunk. Go and drag him back to the land of the living, will ya? I already have to make more wine. For some reason, Athena refuses to drink any of my cocktails. I think she’s a snob, but you can’t say anything to her without hearing a lecture.”

Talia edged her way back from the bar, relieved to see Neil doing the same thing. The table Dionysus had pointed out was in the far back left, and when the god of wine didn’t stop them, they rushed over.

Eros didn’t even look up when they approached. His hair was sticking up every which way, and his back was hunched. He looked like a lost little boy. “Take a hike, Hermes,” he muttered into his glass.

Talia ran her hand across the god’s shoulder while Neil sifted his fingers through Eros’s blond hair. “Eros? It’s us.”

“Tal? Neil? What are you doing here?” Eros asked, looking up at them blearily.

Oh, her poor, sweet Eros. Talia plopped into his lap and cradled him close to her breasts. “We’ve come to take you back home with us.”

Eros blinked his eyes and attempted to focus his gaze. What in Tartarus were his two lovers doing here? He looked around, making sure that he was still at Dion’s place. He was just drunk enough that he could have inadvertently flashed himself into the midst of a mortal bar.

But nope. He could still see the plastic palm trees and stuffed parrots Dionysus had scattered randomly about his temple.

Besides, Talia was saying something about taking him home and Neil was doing something very distracting with his fingers. “Home?”

Talia stretched her arms around his shoulders and tugged until his cheek was resting against her chest. It was a particularly nice place to be, especially when Neil leaned down and began mouthing his ear. “You may have removed your influence, Eros, but our feelings haven’t changed.”

Oh, holy Zeus, they loved him.

“Are you sure?”

Why the fuck was he giving them a choice?

Maybe it was because he was too damn drunk to figure out something deep and meaningful and romantic to say.

Talia slid off his lap and glared down at him, fisted hands propped on her hips. “Of course we’re sure. We’ve known from practically the second you walked out and left us with those cell phones. Which you didn’t bother to answer, by the way.”

He blinked again. It seemed to be the only thing he could do without feeling like he was going to fall over. “I’d kinda given up hope of hearing from you. Two weeks is a long time, even if time is moving slower on Earth.”

Neil’s fingers tightened in his hair for just a second. Emotions from his lover flooded over Eros, and he struggled to breathe. Neil was thinking that if he’d known how long Eros would have had to wait for them to make their decision, he never would have let him go. “It was only a day for us, babe. I wasn’t really thinking about how long you would have had to wait.”

Eros leaned into the caress, thrilled that they were here, and not quite believing it at the same time. “I wouldn’t have expected you to take any less time. Besides, I was prepared to wait for the rest of my life for the two of you.”

“Come home with us,” Neil said seductively.

Eros looked ruefully at the bottle of wine on the table. He was so drunk, he doubted he could perform. But at least he could cuddle.

He got to his feet and promptly sat back down. Okay, he fell, and if the chair hadn’t been there, he would have ended up with his ass firmly planted on the floor.

A pair of feet appeared in front of him. They were clad in a pair of ancient sandals, the kind he used to wear two thousand years ago, and attached to a very irritated Dionysus. “That was my last bottle, Eros! Gods, now I have to go make more before Athena comes in again. And, seriously dude, if you puke on my floor, I’m not cleaning it up. Honestly, Eros, this has happened every night for the past two weeks.”

Neil took his hand and hauled him to his feet while Talia spoke soothingly to Dionysus. “Don’t worry, sir. We’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Dion shuddered at the polite address. “Please, do not ever call me sir again. Dion is fine.”

A strong arm wrapped around Eros’s middle, steadying him when he would have tumbled over again. “I don’t think I can flash us to your place,” Eros said, leaning most of his weight against Neil’s body and savoring the amount of heat the man put forth. “Can we just go crash at my temple?”

Talia linked her fingers with his and smiled gently. Neil chuckled, sending pleasant little shivers down Eros’s spine. “I think our Cupid has been behaving badly,” Neil commented.

“Eros. Cupid is a fat little Italian cherub who comes out only on Valentine’s Day.” There was nothing worse than someone calling him Cupid.

Warm lips pressed against his temple, and suddenly the backs of his knees were brushing against a mattress. “How did we get back to my temple?”

Talia shook her head and nudged him down until he was sprawled flat on his back. He knew they were saying something, but all he could feel was their hands skimming off his clothing. Eros vaguely registered a gasp when someone pulled off his jeans, and he belatedly remembered that he’d neglected to put on underwear this morning.

He rolled onto his side, and warmth surrounded him as a hard body settled behind him and a soft one pressed up against his front.

Eros floated on a cloud of bliss as he fell asleep, finally where he’d always wanted to be. Between the two people he loved.

* * * *

The tantalizing scent of lilacs tickled Eros’s nose as he dragged himself out of sleep. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept so well.

Of course, the round bottom currently pressed against his groin and the hard bulge of a cock grinding against his ass were well worth waking up. Luckily he was a god, so he didn’t get hangovers, or else he’d be sporting a pretty mammoth migraine right about now.

Talia shifted in his arms, turning around, and her warm, wet mouth latched onto one of his nipples. Talia’s talented tongue teased it to a stiff point, and he jerked when she clamped it lightly between her teeth.

Was Neil awake, too?

Strong thumbs dug into the tight muscles of his neck, and he groaned again. Yup, Neil was awake.

“Morning,” Neil said in his Eros’s ear. “How are you feeling this morning?”

Neil expected him to concentrate on forming words when he and Talia had set out to drive him insane with lust? “Fine,” he managed.

“Good. Now, you’re going to turn onto your back and let us love you.”

Oh, Neil was in top mode. Eros never would have thought that he would be willing to bottom or sub for anyone, but Neil made it feel natural.