Kiss of the Goddess (Grecian Goddess Trilogy Book 1)

by Tessa Cole

  “We’ll be well, goddess. Few of us are affected by such things.”

  “No,” she said firmly as she turned to me, awkwardly, given the bundle she carried. “You can’t come with me.”

  “Rion has already crossed over,” Aethan said, inspecting the rock wall, hands roving the flat surface. He hadn’t slipped through like Rion had, not yet anyway.

  “I’ll make sure he comes back.” Annie Chambers stopped before the rock face and began to don her many layers once again. It looked like she would be quite hot, while she was here at least. Also, sand had gotten into much of what she wore. That couldn’t be comfortable. Indeed, she was grimacing as she dressed. Yet she kept going.

  Keph finally caught up to us.

  “Where’s Rion?” he asked.

  “In the heavens,” Aethan said, still fixated on that stone.

  Annie Chambers, now fully bulked up in her many clothes turned to me. “Look, you can’t come because… where I come from, it isn’t normal to walk around naked.”

  Oh. “Would it offend the gods?” I asked. I didn’t see how the natural form of any creature could be so upsetting. Also, most of the depictions of the gods had them being naked or close to it. But perhaps their ways had changed in the many hundred years since they’d been active among us.

  “Yes!”

  “Then we need to find some coverings,” Keph said. Then to Annie, “You have many, might we borrow some?”

  “No! My clothes won’t—” She cut herself off. “You can’t come with me!”

  I was about to ask why not, when she anticipated such a question.

  “That’s my world, not yours. This is your world, not mine. Neither of us belongs in the other’s world. I’m sorry I came here and got you all… worked up.”

  Which was one way of putting it. The run here had tempered any arousal I’d felt, but looking at the goddess now, even with all her clothes on, she still captivated me. Those golden eyes and speckled cheeks. Her commanding surety and something more that I couldn’t explain. Something deeper which called to an equally deep place in me.

  “We’re not sorry you came,” Keph said slowly. “Those sick people needed your help. You must have been sent to help them. And now we need to protect you from the coming darkness.”

  “Darkness? What darkness? You keep mentioning it.”

  “After you healed the last of the sick yesterday, one of them, a seer, said he’d had a vision as you’d healed him. He said there was a darkness that would come for you. It didn’t much like what you did healing all those people.”

  “Well fuck.” She spat out the word. I wasn’t familiar with the saying. “No good deed goes unpunished.” I hadn’t heard that before, either. It sounded rather appropriate, if a little morose.

  “So, you see…” I tried to capture her eyes to let her see my sincerity, but it was hard to get a good look at her face with the thick scarf covering her mouth and jaw and a heavy hat pulled down to her eyebrows. I moderated my tone, trying to sound reasonable. “We need to go with you to protect you. It’s our fault you went to those people. Now we need to make sure you’re safe.”

  Keph nodded. “I’d thought she’d be safe in the heavens, but if this darkness is some other god, then we should go with her.”

  “I…” She looked up at the sky. “God!” It was odd to hear the word as a singular. Was that how the gods cursed? To perhaps only themselves? It was an odd thought. “You can’t…” But her words had less conviction that before. “I’ll…” She sighed heavily. “Fuck me, I’m not going to dissuade you, am I?”

  “No.” My voice was soft but firm.

  “I’m going to regret this,” she said, deflated. “Fine. You can come, but you’re going to need to cover yourselves, at least a little.” I think I was the only one close enough to hear her next whispered words. “I hope no one I know sees me on the way home.”

  We took a few moments then to figure out the best way for us to cover ourselves. Annie Chambers demanded that Aethan switch to his non-horse legs, and using her skirt, which was unfortunately torn up, as well as her scarf, we all managed to cover our loins — if only just.

  “Let’s go,” she said shaking her head, clearly doing this against her better judgement.

  But I knew this was the right course. There wouldn’t be any place she’d be safe. From the old legends, even the mountain of the gods wasn’t immune to dark forces.

  Aethan tried to move through the stone, but couldn’t. It was a solid wall.

  Annie approached, touching the stone where she had before, and Aethan tried again and nearly fell through.

  “It’s your touch,” I murmured to her.

  She grimaced at me. “Swell. Now go.”

  I stepped through… and stopped dead.

  A massive, high, dark wall loomed before me, and despite my resistance to the weather, a sharp chill bit my exposed skin. Loud noises assailed me from my right and I looked to see many people passing by the mouth of the tunnel I was in. Beyond them flashed fast moving… somethings, roaring by with the odd honking sounds, like those of a dying whale.

  Aethan was as stunned as I, and Rion huddled next to a large bin of some sort, which smelled foul.

  “What is this place?” I asked him.

  “She-ka-go,” he said, teeth chattering.

  Then I was bumped from behind as Keph came through and finally Annie Chambers.

  “Oh, thank God that worked,” she said with relief, but then she huffed an exasperated sigh. “What the hell am I going to do with you lot?”

  I was beginning to sense that this wasn’t the mountain of the gods, but something far stranger, and suddenly I wasn’t so sure we should have come.

  But it was too late now and I needed to get out of the cold as soon as possible.

  “Lead the way to your estate, goddess,” I said. Perhaps her servants would be able to clothe me and my friends.

  “Just… put away your wings and everything odd,” she said with a shake of her head. “And act normal.”

  But I was pretty sure my normal and her normal were two very different things.

  Chapter 9

  Annie

  I shut and locked the door to my apartment behind me, breathing hard, my heart pounding, and expecting a knock at any moment from a neighbor or friend who’d seen me with these four men. Men who looked like they’d walked off the set of some barbarian or caveman movie. Looking at the four of them milling around my small apartment, I instantly regretted letting them come with me. It had been a bad idea at the time, but they’d been so damned persistent and considerate and sexy.

  Okay, so some small part of me had been having this fantasy since I’d been old enough to buy my first vibrator. And if I was honest, not all of my racing heart was due to the fear of having been spotted with them. A part of me loved the idea of these guys wanting to be near me, protect me, and pleasuring me until I was a quivering mess.

  As much as I had no clue how these guys were real, or how that other world was real, they were. It was hard to accept, alternate worlds and all that, and it was just too much to contemplate right now. I felt like my mind would explode if I did. It would be easier to accept that I was hallucinating, yet the longer these four stayed with me, the less I considered that an option.

  Perhaps harder to accept was that they wanted to help me, be with me, and even considered me a sex goddess.

  Standing there, still waiting for something terrible to happen, I watched as Aethan stripped off the bit of my torn skirt he’d worn as a loin cloth. Almost instantly his legs were back in horse-form.

  “Much better,” he said and I couldn’t entirely disagree. In here, safe, locked in my apartment, I didn’t necessarily mind having four sexy guys who wanted to get naked and have sex — assuming that was still on the table. And by the way Aethan was looking at me — and the fullness of his erection — it was.

  “God, this is a glorious mess,” I breathed. I couldn’t quite figure out if it was more g
lorious or more a mess.

  For a long moment, I couldn’t move from the door, couldn’t get my mind to work. I just didn’t know what I was going to do with these men — other than what a certain burning desire deep in my body wanted me to do. My life had been a bit of a mess before all of this and…

  “Fuck!” My phone was still back in that alley. I’d completely forgotten about it when we’d come back from wherever we’d been.

  I was torn between wanting to run back out to get it, which meant leaving the guys in my apartment alone — or heaven forbid they’d want to come with me, which they probably would — and staying here, ripping off my clothes, and getting lost in this fantasy just a little longer before returning to real life.

  As with so many other times in my life, practicality won.

  “Hey, guys, I’ve… ah… got to run out and do some… stuff—” Get my phone, pick up clothes for them, call people who’d probably been trying to get ahold of me, get a dress for my brother’s wedding — which was tomorrow! The only positive in all of this was that I’d caught a date on a newspaper at a newsstand and now knew that time seemed to work the same in my world as theirs. I’d only lost a day and a half — the whole day being a Friday, which wasn’t great as far as keeping my job was concerned — but better than having lost weeks or even months. “If I leave you here, are you going to behave?”

  “We will come with you and—”

  “Nope,” I said before they could argue with me. “You’re not coming, not this time. I’m putting my foot down. As you saw, there are a lot of people in my world, and you all stand out like—” Sex gods. “A sore thumb. I won’t be too long,” I said before they could argue with me. “There’s food in the fridge. Help yourself. Feel free to have a shower and freshen up.” I waved toward the bathroom. “Just don’t leave.”

  “Goddess, we—”

  I unlocked my door and left before they could argue with me, hurrying down the hall and out of sight before they could follow me.

  God, I hoped they stayed put.

  Running back to the alley — thank God it wasn’t far from my home — I did a quick search for my phone. I wasn’t even concerned about people jumping out of the darkness at me this time. I had too many other things to worry about and too many things that I didn’t even want to think about.

  Thinking was bad. There was just too much to think about and none of it made sense.

  I found the phone, crushed with a large Keph-sized foot print over it, and could only pray the SIM card and the memory card inside were still good.

  I quickly ran to a consignment store for several bags full of old clothes that would hopefully fit the guys then to a corner store for a new phone. I’d hoped to take a bus downtown to get a dress for my brother’s wedding but didn’t think they guys would wait that long for me. So instead, I stopped in at the tiny boutique store around the corner from my building and paid way too much for a gorgeous red dress — which I’d been eyeing for weeks, and already tried on a half-dozen times. Then I rushed back to my apartment.

  As I did, I swapped the SIM card from my old phone to the new and made a few quick calls. First to Diane at work. Luckily, I hadn’t been fired for missing the one day of work — and thank goodness it had only been one day. She’d covered for me, telling everyone I’d called her to say I was sick. I told her that was exactly it, and I’d been so ill I hadn’t even been able to get to my phone.

  Second to my brother to confirm that everything was on schedule for the wedding. I’d missed the rehearsal, but I used the same excuse: sick as a dog and not able to even get to my phone, but I was feeling much better now. Luckily, I wasn’t in the wedding party, so my absence wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t know my brother’s fiancé well and her maids of honor were all close friends of hers.

  Then I made a couple more calls to friends, in case they’d been worried even though a day out of touch wasn’t uncommon for me, and the world was set right once again… or as right as things could get with four hot, strange men waiting for me in my apartment.

  I didn’t quite know what I expected to find when I returned, but Del, Keph, and Rion, their hair in various stages of drying most likely from having a shower, sitting around my tiny kitchenette table, quietly picking away at some leftover Chinese food wasn’t quite it… though it wasn’t a perfect scene.

  The chair Keph had tried to sit on had broken beneath him and he sat — as it seemed he often did — on the floor. Still, he was tall enough to rest his elbows on the table which looked like it might break under his weight at any moment.

  They all looked up at me when I rushed back in, their expressions filled with relief.

  “Thank God,” I said, relieved myself, that they hadn’t done anything stupid. I could handle having one less chair. At least they were all still there. “Good.”

  “Your world is a strange and wonderful place,” Del said standing, revealing that he was, of course, naked. “The bathing room is pristine and the automatic water is incredible.”

  It sure was. I was glad they liked it.

  I dumped the bags of clothes on the floor by my feet. “I hope you’ll all find stuff that fits in here so the next time we go out you won’t be so—” Hot, sexy, attention-drawing. “Cold.”

  I was still in my coat and boots and hat, and I hadn’t started to take any of it off because I was just a little worried that once I started taking things off, I wouldn’t stop until I was as naked as they were — and that included Rion who’d lost his wrap sometime after he’d arrived at my apartment.

  The trouble was, I’d taken care of all the pressing matters and was utterly exhausted and really just wanted these four to cuddle and pamper me all night.

  And the more my mind played that scenario out, the more my body wanted it.

  “Ah, screw it. After the day I’ve had, I deserve this.” And by day I meant everything since I’d fallen into their world.

  I started taking my things off, and as I’d feared… anticipated? … I didn’t stop, and by the time I was naked, I wanted more than just cuddling.

  “Okay guys,” I said, my voice breathy and hopefully sexy. “You want me, you got me.”

  That had Keph and Rion standing as well and shooting questioning glances between them.

  Then Rion cleared his throat. “Which of us would you like to pleasure you first, goddess?”

  Wow. Those were words I never thought I’d ever hear, and they made me feel both desirable and powerful, melting what little crumbling resistance I had left to this idea. Rion himself had always been stalwart and kind, carrying me from healing to healing in the sick-camp.

  “You,” I said, my heart thundering with fear and anticipation.

  “As you wish, goddess,” he replied, his skin flushing and his cock rising. His hardening erection was a thing of wonder. Taller than Del, but not as broad, seemed to describe Rion and his cock — and a quick glance at Del confirmed that suspicion.

  Rion came to me, and with each step, my heart felt like some wild beast trying to break out of my ribcage. I was so very hot, probably flushed and completely red.

  He bent and swiftly scooped me up into his strong arms just like he had the day before. Wordlessly, he carried me to my bedroom — the group must have scouted out my place when I was gone, since he knew the way — and sat me on the edge of the bed.

  His sky-blue gaze, filled with a sizzling heat, slowly trailed down my naked body, making my breath hitch.

  I couldn’t believe I had a gorgeous man in my bedroom and looking at me like I was beautiful, desirable — and with a hard-on that proved his look wasn’t just an act.

  “How would you like to be pleasured, my goddess?” he asked, his silken tenor sending a shiver of anticipation rushing through me.

  “I ah…” I didn’t know what to say. If I’d still thought I was in a dream, I might have been brave and proclaimed exactly what I wanted… if I’d actually known what I wanted. But knowing this wasn’t a dream anymore stole my co
urage. That, and all I could think about was feeling good. That was what I wanted and I didn’t care how that happened. “I ah… however you’d normally please a goddess?”

  “As you wish,” he breathed, sending a stronger shiver of anticipation rushing through me to pool hot and needy between my thighs.

  Chapter 10

  Annie

  Rion’s pupils dilated with his desire, turning his pale eyes into deep, bottomless blue pools, and he trailed his fingers along my jaw and the side of my neck.

  It was a whisper of a touch, tender, reverent. It made my pulse stutter in desire and, if I was being honest with myself, a little bit of unease. He thought he was making love to a goddess and I wasn’t one. But as much as I knew I had to tell him, the words stalled on my lips. I’d never had a man look at me like I was special and beautiful, and I wasn’t ready for the fantasy to end.

  When this was over — whatever this was — I was going to stay in my world and he was going to go back to his. I knew he had no expectations for a relationship so he never had to know the truth. And really, in his world, with my superpower, I could be a goddess.

  I shoved my worry aside and focused on him. His fingers teased across my collarbone as he sank to his knees, now no longer towering over me, but looking up at me. I opened my legs so he could draw closer, and he took the invitation, sliding his other hand up the inside of my thigh as he leaned in, drawing close.

  “I’ve never met anyone like you,” he murmured.

  My gaze dipped to his lips, and I couldn’t help wondering what he’d taste like, how his lips would feel against mine.

  I slid my fingers into his blond hair and urged him close, but instead of raising his lips to meet mine, he dipped down and brushed the tip of his tongue over my nipple.

  My breath stalled. I wasn’t sure why. I’d had guys lick and suck my nipples before, but there was something about his touch, how his hand on my collarbone slid down to my other breast and his other hand on my thigh inched higher, his fingers now only an inch away from my wet and aching core. Maybe it was how he still gazed up at me, his eyes filled with worship, never leaving mine.