Tall, Dark and Divine (22 page)

“We’ll be out shortly.”

“We’ll be there,” Dion said. “Maybe I can talk Ari into taking a romantic carriage ride with me while we wait.” He smiled at her.

She sniffed and turned on her heel. Dion grinned at Eros and followed. Over Dion’s shoulder, he could see Brita passing through the doors into the lobby with Harry hanging over her shoulders.

He smiled at the hostess. “Sorry about the upheaval.”

She blinked. “No problem, sir. Are you…um…filming a movie?”

They were used to that here. And it would serve as well as any other excuse. “In fact, we are. I’m sorry if no one told you.”

“That’s okay.” She smoothed a hand over her hair. “Um…the gentleman’s all right, isn’t he?”

“Of course. In fact, if you go outside in the lobby, I’m sure you’ll see he’s just fine. He’ll be sitting up and talking. He just pretended to faint. Actors, you know.”

“Right,” the hostess said. “It looked like he was having a heart attack.”

Felt a bit like one, too, from what he remembered from all those millennia ago. “He’s fine,” Eros said again. “I promise. Just let me finish this scene with Ms. Landon, and we’ll be out of your hair.”

He turned to Annie. The hostess’s “Of course, sir” faded into the background as he met her eyes.

She got to her feet when he approached the table, her face and voice worried. “Ross? What’s going on?”

“Sit. Please.”

Now that the time had come and he actually had to do this, he wasn’t sure he had the words. He nodded to Harry’s empty chair. “May I?”

“Of course.” Annie sat down again and folded her hands in her lap, under the table. He couldn’t tell whether she was wearing Harry’s ring or not.

There were two champagne flutes on the table, both half full, and he grabbed the nearest and lifted it to the light. It was empty of anything but champagne.

“What are you doing?” Annie asked.

“Looking for something.” He reached across the table and lifted her glass. It was empty of anything but champagne and bubbles, too.

“In my champagne?”

“It’s a long story.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. “I’m not budging from this chair until you tell me exactly what’s going on.”

She didn’t add, and make it good, but it was implied.

“Sure.” But now that the time had come, he couldn’t find the words. It ended up being Annie who broke the silence.

“Is he all right? Harry?”

“He’s fine. Brita’s taking him home.”

She nodded, seemingly taking his word for it. “What did you do to him?”

“Nothing,” Eros said.

“It didn’t look like nothing. Did he have a heart attack?”

“Sort of. A little bit. Maybe.”

She wrinkled her brows. “What do you mean, sort of?”

“I shot him,” Eros said.

Her eyes widened. “Shot him? Have you lost your mind? With what? There was no blood.”

“Bow and arrow,” Eros said.

“I didn’t see any arrow.”

“It isn’t the kind of arrow you can see.”

She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind. But he’d been prepared for that, so it didn’t bother him. Much.

“Right,” she said eventually, probably deciding to humor him. “Why?”

“That’s the long story.”

“I have time,” Annie said. When he didn’t speak, she added, her voice soft, “Just tell me, Ross. I want to know. Please.”

Right. He reached across the table, palm up. After a moment’s hesitation, she put her left hand in his.

No ring. Good.

“He was planning to propose,” Eros said. Her eyes widened. “He told me last night.”

Her voice was faint. “Propose?”

“I couldn’t let him, okay? I know you’ve always liked him, and now he’s crazy about you, too…but it isn’t real.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What do you mean, it isn’t real?”

“That’s where the invisible arrows come into it.”

“The invisible arrows. Right.” But she let him keep her hand. He ran his thumb over her palm and felt her shiver, before looking up into her eyes. Putting everything he had, everything he felt, into his gaze.

“This is going to sound a little bit crazy. But just bear with me. Please. I love you.”

Her eyes widened. “You…what?”

“I love you. I know it’s too soon, and I know I told you I wasn’t ready. We’ve only known each other a couple of days. But I love you. I couldn’t let you say yes to Harry.”

For a moment or two it seemed as if she’d lost her ability to speak. Then— “So you love me. And that’s real. But Harry wanting to marry me isn’t?”

“It’s the arrows,” Eros said.

“The arrows.” She shook her head. “You’re going to have to explain this. In terms I can understand.”

Easier said than done. Mortals these days weren’t prepared to hear that there were Greek gods wandering the earth.

He’d better start with the basics. “You know me, right? You know I’m real. I’ve kissed you. We’ve made love.”

She nodded, if a bit warily. Although her cheeks flushed.

“No question at all that I’m here, and I’m real?”

She shook her head.

“And you’ve met Dionysus and Britomartis and Ariadne. And Carya and Iris. They’re real, too, right?”

“Sure,” Annie said. “Seem to be.”

“Did you ever hear the story of Theseus and the minotaur? The labyrinth? The ball of yarn?”

“Of course.”

“Then you know who Ariadne is. Brita is the Cretan goddess of hunting. Dion, of course, is the Greek god of wine. Silenus is his foster father. See, Hera is the jealous type, so after Zeus knocked Semele up, Hera had kind of a fit and tried to kill Dion, so Zeus gave him to the rain nymphs of Nysa to raise. He ended up with Len, since Zeus couldn’t take care of him himself.”

She was staring at him with eyes so big that, for a second, he was afraid they’d come out of her head.

He shook his head. “It’s not important right now. The important thing is that I love you. Do you believe that?”

She nodded.

“I thought you wanted Harry. So yesterday, when he came to pick up Brita for the date I’d promised him, I jabbed him in the ass with a golden arrow. That was the yelp you heard. Ariadne made sure you were first through the door and Harry took one look at you and fell like a ton of bricks. That’s what I meant when I said it wasn’t real.”

He waited for her response. She nodded, her eyes still enormous. He had no idea how much of this she was processing, but at least she was still conscious and listening.

“I didn’t realize how I was going to feel. I’d been telling myself I wasn’t ready to move on, and that it wouldn’t work between us. I fell in love with a mortal once before, and she left me.”

“Mortal?” Annie squeaked.

“Psyche. The most beautiful woman in the world.” And a royal pain in the ass.

“You married Psyche?”

He nodded.

“So you’re…Eros?”

Yes, indeed.

“I feel faint,” Annie said.

No doubt. “Have some champagne. It’ll help. Did you order food yet?” He looked around at the bustling dining room.

Annie nodded, gulping champagne with one hand while holding onto his with the other, a bit like a lifeline. “I’m sure they’ll bring it soon.”

Hopefully Harry had ordered something he’d like. He turned to Annie. “Don’t worry about all of this right now, okay? We’ll figure it out. The important thing is that I love you. And I want to be with you. You and me and George. If you’ll have us. Me.”

She didn’t answer, and he watched her, sitting across the table from him, looking at him as if he’d suddenly grown an extra head. His heart sank. Maybe he should have pretended to be normal for a while longer, instead of shooting himself in the foot before she’d even said yes.

But she deserved the truth before she made any decisions. Forever was a long time and she might not be up for it. She was a mortal. The idea of being married to him for the rest of eternity might strike her as overkill.

He crossed his fingers in his lap and waited.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Part of her wanted to get up from the table and run screaming from the restaurant. Just get the hell out of there and damn the consequences. But of course she didn’t; you couldn’t behave that way in The Plaza Hotel.

And anyway, the other part just wanted to sit there and watch Eros. Watch the train wreck. Even if she’d probably end up battered and bruised at the end of it.

He was crazy. He had to be. Some kind of delusional schizophrenia, maybe. She’d heard there were people walking around thinking they were Napoleon or Jesus Christ. Eros thought he was…well, Eros. That he and his friends were the Greek gods of Olympus.

And they were all going along with it. They’d all been here. Harry was probably in on the joke, too. He’d pretended to like her, and then he’d pretended to be struck by some invisible projectile. He’d pretended to faint.

She wished she could believe Brita had only pretended to pick him up, but she knew what she’d seen. Everyone in the Palm Court had seen it. A slender young woman had picked up a full-grown man who outweighed her by at least fifty pounds and had walked out with him slung over her shoulder like he weighed nothing.

“How did Brita do that?”

Eros blinked, and she realized he’d been waiting for her to say something else. She couldn’t answer him, though. She had too many questions.

“She’s Britomartis,” he said. “Cretan goddess of hunting. She’s stronger than she looks.”

“Right.” She looked down at her silverware to avoid the expression in his eyes.

“We’re all a little…” Eros hesitated. “More.”

“More?”

He shrugged. “Stronger. Faster. More resilient. Immortal.”

Immortal. Right. She poked at the omelet. It looked delicious—smelled good, too—but the idea of putting anything in her mouth right now was unpleasant. Ross, meanwhile, was cutting into Harry’s French toast with every sign of enjoyment.

It helped to think of him as Ross. Eros was…too fraught with complications.

“So…how many of you are there? Running around New York?” Might as well discover the extent of his delusions right now.

“A handful,” Ross said. “There’s me and the girls. You’ve met Dion and you know who Silenus is. In addition to us, there’s Adonis and Alastor and Thaumas. Morpheus drops by once in a while. So do a few of the others. And Zeus and Hera live in a row house on Ditmars Boulevard.”

“Of course.” A bubble of slightly hysterical laughter rose in her chest, and she reached for her champagne. Zeus and Hera. Lived in a row house on Ditmars Boulevard.

“I’m not sure what to say to make this easier for you,” Eros said.

Annie shook her head. “You can’t make it easier. You think there are Greek gods and goddesses walking around New York. Running matchmaking agencies and bars and…and…”

“P.I. firms,” Eros said.

“P.I. firms?”

“Alastor’s a private investigator. Domestic cases, mostly. Cheating spouses. He’s the minor god of vengeance.”

Right. “And I suppose Adonis is a male model?”

“You’d think. But no, we have to keep a lower profile. It’s hard to be in the public eye when you never age. People start to wonder why.”

“Of course.” Maybe if she played along with him, he wouldn’t suddenly turn on her like a rabid dog. Not that he seemed crazy, actually. He seemed perfectly sane. Just like he always had. “I suppose George Hamilton is one of you, too?”

“I think George is probably a vampire,” Eros said. And laughed when he saw the expression on her face. “Relax. It was a joke.”

“Oh.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t worry so much about this. It isn’t important. Not right now. We can figure out the details later.”

The details. Such as the fact that he thought he was the immortal Greek god of love.

“The important thing is that I love you,” Eros said, his eyes terribly sincere. “I want to marry you. I couldn’t let you say yes to Harry. Eternity is too long to live with a broken heart.”

“Smooth talker,” Annie said.

He grinned, and his eyes lightened. “You do like me, don’t you? A little bit?”

“I like you a lot.” Even if he was as mad as a hatter.

“How about we make a deal? You ask me to do something. Something I wouldn’t be able to do if I were just a mortal. If I can do it, you’ll give me a chance.”

“A chance to do what?”

“To convince you that you need to marry me and not Harry,” he said. And added, pensively, “Not that Harry’s proposal is on the table anymore. He should be back to doting on Brita by now. If everything went according to plan, anyway.”

“Brita agreed to that?” And what was she doing, talking as if he’d actually been able to do what he said he’d done?

He smiled. “I think she missed him. He was driving her crazy, always mooning over her from afar, but when he stopped, I think she missed it. It was her idea to turn it back on herself.”

“That was nice of her.” Even if it hadn’t happened that way. Couldn’t possibly have happened that way. “Remind me to thank her.”

“She should be back at work tomorrow,” Eros said. “You can stop by and see her then.”

Sure. Or she could stay far, far away and thus try to save herself. Already she could feel his insanity creeping into her own brain.

The thing was, she wanted to believe him. If he was telling the truth—crazy though it seemed—he was sane. If he wasn’t…then she couldn’t marry him. And she really, really wanted to marry him.

She believed he loved her. There was no mistaking the sincerity in his eyes. Nor the desperation and desolation she’d seen last night, when she’d told him she wanted to make a go of it with Harry. He loved her. And she loved him, too. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. Making love in the hallway and on the living room sofa and in bed. Rescuing stray dogs. Baking cookies that tasted of lemon and sugar and sunlight. But she could only have that if she believed that he was what he said he was. An immortal Greek god.

“Is that why you taste like starlight and wind?”

He blinked at her, startled, and Annie blushed. “The first time you kissed me. I thought you tasted like starlight and wind and…and other things.”

He shrugged. “Probably. I’m a bit elemental. My parents were night and darkness.”