Eurydice was pouring trails of steaming water over Persephone while semitransparent maidservants lathered her skin and hair. The goddess laughed and teasingly splashed water at the spirits, who were humming a slow, seductive tune between breathless, girlish giggles. The evening light was muted, but Persephone's body was silhouetted against the wall of glowing windows. Hades could see the flush that swept her ivory skin. His eyes ravished her body. His fingers tingled as he remembered how the delicate curve of her neck had felt under his too-brief caress. Hades' gaze lowered to her breasts. The soft globes were full and heavy. Their blush-colored nipples were taut, begging for the touch of his lips and tongue. His loins tightened and throbbed achingly with the heat of his lust. He ground his teeth together to keep from giving voice to the moan of frustrated desire that was building within him. But he did not turn away, he did not stop gazing at her. He could not.
Persephone's waist curved in, and then swelled to flare into well-rounded hips. Her legs were long and shapely. Hades' eyes were drawn to the inviting V of dark hair that formed at their junction. The curling triangle glistened with water, which dripped down her inner thighs.
As if sensing him, Persephone's chin went up and her gaze shifted from the laughing servants to rove over the distant gardens. Hades was sure he would be discovered, but his dark cloak blended like night with the shadow of the hedge and the goddess's eyes passed unseeing over him.
Eurydice poured a final stream of water over Persephone and then the little spirit called for a maidservant to bring her towels. They helped the smiling goddess step from the basin and began drying her body.
Now was the time for him to turn away. Persephone's laughter floated to him and his eyes refused to leave her as they sought glimpses of her nakedness. His conscience told him he should go, but the voice of newly awakened desire and longing and loneliness drowned it out.
The servants finished drying Persephone's body. Her hair drifted around her in long, damp tendrils, which Eurydice gathered and piled loosely atop her head. Then the spirit poured a thick liquid from a tall glass bottle into her hand and began gently massaging the oil into her skin. Two other maidservants joined her. Hades watched Persephone's eyes close. A sensuous smile curved her lips as the slick hands of the maidens anointed her body. Hades' breathing quickened. The glistening oil caught the flickering lights that shined through the windows of her bedchamber, and soon the goddess's body glowed with a wet, luminous invitation.
The throbbing ache in his loins was unbearable and Hades' hand sought his engorged flesh. His breathing turned ragged as he stroked himself, quick and hard, never taking his eyes from Persephone's body. His focus narrowed until she was all that existed in his world. He imagined that it was his hands that were slick with oil caressing her breasts, cupping her luscious buttocks, traveling up her ivory thighs to find her moist core. There he wanted to bury himself, to pump his need into her and to be surrounded by her velvet heat. His orgasm ripped from his body, exploding with such hot intensity that it drove him to his knees. There he remained, knelt within shadow, alone, struggling to regain his breath. And, still, his longing eyes locked on the goddess.
“Persephone . . .” Her name was a harsh whisper on his lips.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
LINA felt like a well-fed kitten. Her body was in that wonderful place between relax and replete. Every bit of stress had been massaged from her muscles. Her skin was so incredibly smooth that as she lounged across the chaise and nibbled pomegranate seeds she absently stroked her fingers across her body, which seemed to hum with pleasure.
“Youth, beauty, and the power of a goddessâPersephone has it all,” she said, and then looked guiltily around. No, she was totally alone. Just as she'd asked. After her shower and fabulous oil massage, Eurydice had dressed her in the shimmering narcissus nightdress and Lina had curled up on the chaise. When the little spirit asked if there was anything else she required, Lina had drowsily told her that the only thing she wanted was to lie on the chaise, drink ambrosia and eat pomegranates. Then she was going to go to sleep.
Eurydice had clapped her hands together like the bossy headmistress of an all girls school and hastily shooed the maidservants from the balcony, announcing that Persephone required privacy. And then, to Lina's surprise, Eurydice had actually followed the servants from the chamber, saying that she had an appointment with Iapis to go over her preliminary sketches of the palace, but she promised to bring by what she completed for the goddess's approval in the morning.
Iapis and Eurydice again. Lina tugged at a lock of long hair and twirled it around her finger. If she wasn't mistaken, the daimon's interest in Eurydice was more than friendly. Maybe she should speak to Hades about it.
Hades . . . thinking of the god brought the restlessness that was simmering just below her skin to the surface. She poured herself another glass of ambrosia. What was up with him? Why had he suddenly disappeared? He'd told her very clearly that he was interested in her, then he'd kissed her. Kissed her, hell! He'd pinned her against the wall and ravished her thoroughly. Remembering his passion made her shiver. Hades was the personification of dark and dangerousâa living, breathing Batman. She licked her lips and swore she could still taste him, or maybe that was just the ambrosia? Both were certainly delicious.
Lina closed her eyes, letting her fingers trail from her throat down, brushing over her already aroused nipples. She breathed a moan.
Merda!
Persephone's body was young and responsive and . . .
Lina's eyes snapped open. “And very, very horny,” she said in a frustrated voice. “Or maybe it's more me than her. Or a combination of what happens when a forty-three-year-old woman who hasn't had sex in”âshe stopped and counted back in her mindâ“who hasn't had sex in almost three years is put into the body of a nubile young goddess and then is tempted by a handsome, Batman look-alike. Up! Time to get up and walk it off.”
She stood, too fast, and felt all bubbly and slack-kneed. The ambrosia had definitely gone to her head . . . as well as to other sensitive spots. Her lips twisted in chagrin and a pretty pink flush heated her cheeks. Jeesh, she had it bad. Well, she'd tried the cold shower, and it definitely hadn't worked the way she'd planned. She sighed and trailed her finger across the smooth marble railing of the balcony, thinking of Eurydice's idea of a shower. It had been a heavenly experience. But it had done nothing to dispel her fantasies about Hades. Actually, it had accomplished the opposite. Her body had been bathed and massaged, pampered and preened. She felt like a royal concubine who had been prepared for her sultan.
So where the hell was her sultan? Pun definitely intended.
Lina shook her head and rolled her eyes. “You've had entirely too much ambrosia.” With finality she set her half-empty glass on the flat top of the railing and started purposefully, if a little wobbly, for the circular staircase that wrapped down to the palace grounds. She'd take a nice brisk walk in the garden. That would clear her head and make her sleepy enough that she would remember that bed was a place in which one slept more often than one had hot, sweaty sex with a dark, handsome god.
In an ambrosial mist, Lina followed her private path to the first tier of the palace gardens. When she reached the entrance she stood very still, soaking in the magical view of the torch lit grounds. The Underworld was such an incredibly lovely place. The sky had continued to darken, but it was not black, as was the night sky in the world above. Instead, it was slate gray, illuminated by several brilliantly lit stars, each haloed with iridescent color that reminded Lina of the pearlized belly of a seashell. The unusual sky caused everything to be bathed in soft darkness, as if this part of the Underworld was a sweet dream.
“Those stars are the most beautiful things I have ever seen,” Lina said to the silent sky.
“They are the Hyades.”
Hades seemed to materialize from the shadows of the garden.
Lina's hand flew to her throat. She could feel her heart pounding there. “You scared me!”
“I did not mean to startle you, but I was just thinking of you and when I heard your voice I wanted very much to join you.”
Lina bit her bottom lip and tried to clear her wine-fogged mind. He was wearing that damn cape again. And, even more dangerously, he had traded in the voluminous length of material he usually wrapped around his body for a much more revealing outfit. He had again chosen to wear black, but that night it was in the form of a short, black leather chiton that appeared to have been molded to his chest. It ended in panels just over his hips. Beneath, he wore a fine, pleated tunic, the color of thunderclouds, which left almost all of his muscular legs exposed. Lina wrenched her eyes up to meet his. He was watching her with a dark intensity she felt tingle through her blood.
“You've been on my mind, too. I'm glad you're here,” she said, and reminded herself to breathe as he moved with feral intensity closer to her.
His body was like a furnace; she could feel the heat that radiated from him. Hades took her hand and raised it slowly to his mouth. His lips seemed to burn a brand into her skin. He didn't release her hand. Instead, he traced a circular path across it with his thumb. The cooling wind brought his scent to her. He smelled of the night and of leather mingled with man. It was an erotic, dangerous scent that made her stomach tighten and shiver. It made her think of sweat-slicked, naked skin. Without conscious thought, she breathed more deeply and leaned toward him. His eyes flashed and the teasing breeze caught his cape so that it rose behind him like wings. She was submerged within the intensity of his gaze. She could feel his passion ignite. This Hades was not the smart, sexy god she had been getting to know. Once again he was the being who had possessed her in the forge. He loomed before her, an infinitely powerful immortalâseductive, alluring, overwhelming, and a little frightening. She still wanted him. His presence was magnetic, but her mortal soul was struggling to maintain some semblance of control. Lina forced her mind to work, grasping at something, anything she could say to him.
“You said the stars are Hyades. I don't understand,” she finally managed.
Hades lifted his eyes from hers to gaze at the night sky.
“You don't understand because you know them only as the bright nymphs they are in the world above. What most immortals do not know is that a group of forest Hyades tired of their earthly duties. They begged Zeus to allow them to become mortal so that they could die and be relieved of the burden of immortality.”
His voice was as deep and as hypnotic as his eyes. Entranced, Lina stared at him as he wove the tale. He was a dark flame that drew her soul inexorably to him. Batman. Definitely Batman. And, ambrosia or no ambrosia, what sane woman would
not
be into Batman fantasies?
“Zeus granted the Hyades their wish and that same night they entered my realm. I was so moved by the iridescence of their souls that I proclaimed that their great beauty could light all of Elysia. The nymphs were intrigued by the idea and they came as one to petition me. As Zeus before me, I, too, granted their wish, and they have illuminated the night sky of the Underworld ever since.”
Lina forced her eyes from the magnetic god to look up at the stars that were really the spirit of nymphs.
“What are you doing here, Persephone?”
The raw emotion in the god's voice stopped Lina's breath, and her gaze flew back to his. What had happened to him tonight? And how could he be so powerful and yet look so vulnerable at the same time? She shook her head and gave him the only answer she could.
“I drank too much ambrosia and I thought a walk in the garden would help sober me up.”
Hades stared at her a moment longer, then he blinked, raked one hand through his hair and expelled one long breath. Slowly, the tense lines of his face began to relax. “Too much ambrosia? I understand that feeling all too well. It makes your head cloudy and your knees weak.”
Relieved that he seemed more normal, Lina smiled. “Glad to hear I'm not the only one it's happened to.”
“A walk does help.” He returned her smile, and bowed gallantly to her. “I would be honored if you allowed me to escort you.”
He was her dashing Hades again, and she grinned, curtsied and realized that she was wearing nothing but a thin silk nightgown. She cleared her throat.
“I, uh, seem to be underdressed for an evening stroll.”
Hades' eyes glinted darkly as they roamed from her flushed face down to her silk-draped body. In one graceful movement he unclasped his cape, and with a swirling motion that reminded her of a matador, wrapped it around her shoulders.
“Better?”
Encased in his warmth and scent, she could only nod.
“Then I may escort you?”
“Absolutely,” she said.
He smiled and pulled her arm through his. Hades led her slowly into the night-shrouded grounds. They didn't speak; they just accustomed themselves to the feel of one another. Hades chose a wide path that bisected the gardens. Lina gazed around her in awe. The unusual gentleness of the Underworld's night cast a magical glow over the sleeping flowers and hedges, so that even though many of the blossoms had closed, the flowers still dotted the landscape with splashes of snowy color.
“I can't decide whether I think they're more beautiful during the day while they're in full bloom, or like this, looking like sleepy children,” Lina said, reaching out to trail one finger gently over the closed blossom of a milk-colored day lily. At her touch, the folded flower burst into full bloom. Lina bit back a startled cry. She had to remember that she was Goddess of Spring. Obviously, she shouldn't be surprised when she made a flower bloom.