by Lynn Tyler
“Slowly,” Aaron answered for her. “There’s a lot of material we need to get through tonight.”
It was true. It would probably be well past midnight before they plowed through all of the stuff she had to review. But it wasn’t a hardship really. She loved the subject, and sitting cradled against Aaron was wonderful. A little distracting, maybe, but the man was a slave driver when it came to her studying, and he never let her attention wander for long.
It made her wonder what he would do now that Neil was sitting down and flicking on her television set.
A look of pure mischief crossed Aaron’s face, and he grabbed his seemingly bottomless bag. “Here, Neil. I brought something for you to use while we study.”
He tossed a set of huge earphones to Neil, who looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
Aaron shrugged and smiled charmingly. “They’re wireless and should pick up the signal from the television. It’s so the noise doesn’t distract us.”
Neil smirked but put the headphones on, and Talia instantly dissolved into a flurry of giggles. The headphones were ridiculous. They had antennas that wobbled with every tiny movement Neil made. They were lime green and had alien faces painted on them.
A single look at Aaron’s smug face told her he’d found the craziest pair he could. “Now we can study without the laugh tracks to distract us.
Neil wore the headphones without complaint for the rest of the night, and she and Aaron made their way steadily through her notes. The clock ticked by the number one before Aaron finally declared her ready for her exam. “Do you have any questions?”
She stretched and rolled her head on her neck, wincing when the bones in her neck cracked with each rotation. “Actually, I was wondering about your opinion on the origin of Aphrodite?”
Aaron shifted his eyes away from hers and grimaced, looking decidedly uncomfortable with the subject. “Um, actually, I’ve never really thought about it.”
It was weird, Aaron’s reaction to any mention of the goddess. Either he’d blush and stammer, or he defended her furiously. He’d absolutely refused to discuss his thoughts on Aphrodite’s marriage to Hephaestus or the myths of her unfaithfulness.
“Look, why don’t we call it a night? Your exam is on Monday afternoon, right? We can go through this stuff one more time on Sunday but I think you’ve got it down cold.”
That sounded good to her. Neil had fallen asleep a couple of hours ago, the headphones slipping a little so that one was pressed to his cheek instead of covering his ear. And damn, she was exhausted. She was glad she’d let Aaron talk her into taking the next few days off work. All she felt like doing right now was curling up between her two men and letting their warmth and their breathing lull her to sleep.
“Okay,” she mumbled, dragging herself to her feet. Thank god her bed was only a few feet away. “Let me just wake Neil up.”
Aaron was up on his feet in a flash, that evil grin of his firmly affixed to his handsome face. “Wait for just one second.” He grabbed his cell phone and pointed it at the sleeping man.
The phone made a soft clicking sound as he took a picture. “Won’t Neil love to see this in the morning?” he whispered, stashing the phone in his bag.
She just shook her head and smiled.
Life with two men was going to be interesting.
Chapter 12
Eros held Talia as she slept, nuzzling his nose into her fragrant hair as he studied Neil’s face. Thick, black lashes rested on chiseled cheekbones, which were flushed slightly pink with sleep.
Neil’s arm was draped around Talia’s waist and his hand was resting on Eros’s ribs.
Great Zeus, he was so in love with both of these mortals.
But instead of the warm fuzzies invading his stomach, Eros only felt the cold weight of dread and guilt. How much of their affection, both for himself and for each other, was real instead of emotions manipulated by both his and his mother’s interference?
He closed his eyes and shimmered out of the room, making sure that neither of them felt his absence, and materialized back on Mount Olympus. The street was lined with temples, each dedicated to a different god or goddess. There was even one in his honor, which he tended to avoid like the plague, mainly because he’d stopped doing his job, and he didn’t want to hear about it from anyone.
“Hey, Eros! Wait up!”
He considered pretending that he hadn’t heard his cousin Hermes calling him, but the man was as fast as hell, and there was no way he could avoid the man for long. “Hey, Herm. What’s up?”
“Look, man. Your mom is driving me nuts. Would you please go see her before I have to move? Crap, I know I’m a messenger, but come on.” Hermes kicked at a pebble and pouted.
Eros rolled his eyes. “I’m sort of avoiding her.”
“Oh, that reminds me.” Hermes rummaged around in his pockets, clearly looking for a message he’d stashed somewhere. “Yeah, here it is. Zeus says that you’ve been avoiding your duty for too long. He wants you to get back at it.”
Well, he’d had a good run at carefree independence for a while anyway. He was just lucky Zeus had let him slack off for as long as he had. “When did he say he wanted me back?”
Hermes blushed and stuffed the note back into his pocket. “Um, last week?”
Eros blinked. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
Hermes blush got even deeper. “Telling you. Sorry, dude. I gotta find something to keep me organized.”
Hmm. Or maybe his cousin needed a someone to keep him organized instead of a something. Maybe a couple of someones.
Perhaps Eros had just found his next assignment. He knew for a fact that Hermes swung both ways. Most of the gods and goddesses did, actually. They were immortal, after all. That was a long time to live without experimenting a time or two.
Eros may just have to look around and see who he could rustle up for his cousin.
“I guess I’d better go and see the Big Man himself and explain why I’m late.”
Hermes gulped. “Can you just leave out the part where I forgot to give you the message? It’s the third one this month, and he threatened to send me down to assist Hades for a month if it happens again.”
“No worries, Herm. I’ll think of something.” Although, the thought of seeing Hermes run around doing all the little things Hades didn’t want to do was sort of amusing. Hades would probably have the other god go into a sex toy shop and purchase out the whole stock of vibrating cock rings just for shits and giggles.
Zeus’s temple was the largest on the street, the whole mountain really, and it was gilded with silver and gold. Hera hated the damn monstrosity and was constantly harping on her husband to move into a smaller temple, preferably one with satellite signal so she could watch the human soap operas.
Might as well get this over with. He marched up to the huge temple and strode straight in.
Okay, maybe he didn’t march so much as tiptoe, and maybe he stuck his head in the door a little instead of striding in. But Zeus, as nice as he had been for giving Eros all this time to try and find the ones he wanted to be with, was not one to piss off.
“Hello?” he called.
His own voice echoed back at him as Hera came rushing down the hall. “Hello, Eros,” she said as she swept past him. “He’s in the back, in that new Zen garden of his. I’m just off to the nail salon. I don’t want to miss any of my soaps.”
Nail salon? Zen garden? Apparently he’d been gone from Mount Olympus for far too long if he was just hearing about this now.
He walked through the temple and exited out the back, where there was, indeed, a Zen garden. The king of the Greek gods was sitting in the lotus position, arms held in front of him, fingers pinched together. “Ooohhhmmm…ooohhhmmm…don’t bother telling me why you’re late…I already know Hermes forgot to give you the message…ooohhhmmm.”
This was the single most bizarre thing Eros had ever seen. No wonder Hera had been in a hurry to get out of here. “Um, did you
take a trip to Japan or something?” he ventured.
Zeus let out a disgusted sigh and dropped his hands. “Damn it, boy, you’ve totally fenged up my shui.”
Eros didn’t bother to tell the god that feng shui was Chinese and not Japanese. Zeus had a reputation for being a moody son of a bitch, and Eros had no desire to have one of Zeus’s lightning bolts stuck in his ass. How would he explain that to his lovers?
Zeus apparently hadn’t seen Eros’s hesitation because he just kept talking. “Now, I told Hermes that he’d have to spend a month with Hades if he screwed up again. I don’t really want to send him there though. He’s far too mischievous to last in Tartarus without my brother killing him. But you know, I kind of liked your idea of finding him a couple of lovers to keep him in line. So, keep an eye out for them while you’re working on your backlog of humans.”
Damn it, he hated it when Zeus read his mind. Still, it was a good idea. “Right. I’ll do that.”
Which meant he’d have to give up his job at the website design place. And that he’d have to stop by his temple and look at the queue of humans he was supposed to help.
He said good-bye to Zeus and made his way to his temple. Sure enough, his worktable was full of slips of paper from those who had prayed for help finding true love. He grunted as he sorted through them. This was bogus. Who wanted to be pushed into feeling artificial emotions for another?
Eros stomach plummeted when he realized that was exactly the kind of relationship he had with his own lovers. His love for them was real, genuine, the forever kind of love. But their feelings were entirely influenced by him and his mother.
Little slips of paper fluttered everywhere when Eros folded his arms on the table and dropped his head. How could he live a lie?
The answer was simple.
He couldn’t. He would have to tell them everything, break his magic, and go on his miserable way.
Neil would still be at work, and Talia would be right in the middle of her exam, and Eros couldn’t decide if he should feel a sense of relief for not having to tell them right away or if he should feel a sense of building dread the longer he had to wait.
He settled on dread and flashed back into his home on Earth.
There was no way he could continue to live in this house, no matter how many wonderful memories it held for him. Besides, he had to remain on Mount Olympus now that he’d been recalled to oversee his responsibilities.
He waved his hand, and the entire contents of the house disappeared. The rooms were empty and lonely now, just like his heart now that he knew what he had to do. He should probably contact a real estate agent and arrange to put the house on the market, but he just couldn’t do it. Maybe he could convince his stepfather to take care of it for him until he was ready to let it go.
A beeping from the kitchen caught his attention. His cell phone was about to vibrate off the counter. He saved it from a crash landing with the ceramic tile and looked at the screen. Four texts, three messages, all from Neil. They were all centered on the same thing.
At work. Where are you?
The phone beeped again, and this time he caught the incoming text. Exam done. Want 2 celebrate with u & Neil. Ur place or his?
Despair crashed through him. The sooner he got this over with, the better. He could drown his sorrows in Dion’s best wine and try to go on living without Neil and Talia in his life.
His fingers fumbled on the keys a little as he typed out his text, making sure to direct it to both Talia and Neil. We need to talk. Neil’s place at 7:00 p.m.
He slipped the phone into his pocket and took one last look at the house, soaking in every memory this place had and locking it away in his heart.
By this time tomorrow, he would be back on Mount Olympus, arranging for more mortals to find their true loves.
Chapter 13
Neil felt a little sick to his stomach when he read Aaron’s text.
We need to talk.
Men had been afraid of those four simple words since the beginning of time.
His phone rang immediately, and he answered it without bothering to check the screen to see who was calling. There was only one person who would be calling immediately after a text like that went out, and that was Talia.
“Do you know what’s going on?” Talia asked without even saying hello.
“Nope, no idea. But I guess we’re going to my place at seven. Is Aaron picking you up?”
Wind whistled over the line, telling Neil that Talia was walking across campus. “No. I’ll drive to your place. Would it be okay if I came over now?”
Neil checked his watch. It was only four in the afternoon. He needed to finish up some stuff that would probably take him about another hour and a half. “I need to tie up some loose ends here at the office. Aaron didn’t come in today, and I’ve had to pick up some of the extra slack here. Why don’t you head on over to my house. There’s a spare key hidden under the doormat.”
“Okay. Neil?” Her voice was trembling just a little, and he wished that he was with her so that he could hold her.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I’m scared.”
Yeah, he could understand that. He was pretty damn scared himself, but he didn’t want to make her even more anxious. “I know, sweetie, but maybe he has some good news. It doesn’t have to be bad, you know.”
She snorted, sounding a little more like her normal self. “Yeah right. Like anyone starts off with we need to talk when they have good news.”
“Okay, Tal. Let’s both keep calm. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He hung up after saying good-bye and stared at the pile of work on his desk. There wasn’t anything that couldn’t absolutely wait until tomorrow.
Screw it. He wouldn’t be able to concentrate on anything away. He’d probably just mess everything up anyway.
Grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair, he slung it over his shoulder and grabbed his cell. I’m on my way now, he texted.
The car ride seemed impossibly long, but he pulled up all too soon. Aaron’s car was parked in the street, but there was no sign of him. Talia was waiting in her car. She exited when she saw him pull up, slamming her door and making her way to him.
Neil smiled at her weakly and dropped a kiss on her temple. “Hi, sweetie. Why didn’t you go in the house?”
She wrapped her arms around him and buried her nose in his chest. “I think Aaron’s in there, and it seemed easier to face him together.”
He had to admit, presenting a united front in the face of whatever Aaron had to say sounded like a good idea to him. “Good thinking,” he said.
Talia elbowed him in the side, and he indulged her with a small grunt. “What happened to all your insistences that Aaron might have good news?”
He didn’t even try to hide his grin. “Yeah, I was just talking out of my ass. No one ever starts good news off with the words ‘we have to talk.’”
His grin faded when he faced his house. Aaron was probably in there, although why he would ask them to meet him at seven when he was clearly ready now was beyond him. He steeled himself for the worst and wrapped his arm around Talia’s waist. “Let’s go inside and see what Aaron has to say. And then we’ll talk some sense into him.”
The grim line of her mouth betrayed her nervousness, but Talia nodded and marched up the walk with him.
The door was unlocked, though he’d never told Aaron where he’d hidden the spare key. Not that hiding a key under the doormat was terribly original.
Aaron’s appearance when he and Talia made it through to the kitchen scared him even more. The man was slumped in a chair, staring morosely into his glass of wine. “You’re right on time, as always,” he muttered.
Neil winced at the depression in Aaron’s voice. The guy was looking worse and worse with every second that passed. He was pale and disheveled. The bottle of wine sitting in the middle of the table was three quarters empty, and his eyes were bloodshot.
“Aaron? God, what�
��s the matter, babe? Whatever it is, we can fix it. And babe? We’re actually a couple of hours early.”
Aaron started muttering to himself, something about time moving faster than he’d remembered, and drained his glass before turning to them. “I need to talk to the both of you about who I really am.”
Talia approached him, her caution evident in every step. “As long as you’re not some kind of murderer, I can pretty much guarantee I love who you are.”
Aaron gave a gasp, surprised wonder etched across his face. He reached up and touched her cheek with his fingertips. “I never thought I would hear those words directed at me. Thank you, Talia.”
So Aaron needed to know he was loved? That, he could do. Neil realized with a start that he was completely, totally in love with both Talia and Aaron. He made his way over to his two lovers and knelt in front of them. “I love you, too, Aaron. So much.”
Aaron’s fingers combed through his hair and chills of arousal raced through him. They promptly changed to chills of alarm with Aaron’s next words. “Do you love Talia, too?”
“Of course I love Talia. I’ve loved her from almost the first time I laid eyes on her.”
“Aaron,” Talia whispered. “Are you worried that Neil and I don’t love each other? Because, I know we haven’t said it out loud before, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t in love.”
Aaron’s face twisted into a small, ironic smile. “Oh, I know you love each other. How could you not love each other? I’m the freaking god of love, and I influenced your feelings for each other. If the two of you hadn’t fallen in love with each other, I would have failed.”
Oh, crap. Aaron thought he was some kind of god? This was not a good sign. And yet, no matter how crazy Aaron was, Neil was determined to stand by him.
Talia was stroking Aaron’s chest with one hand. “Aaron. You’re not a god, honey. Come on. Let’s get you into bed and sleep off all this wine. You’ve obviously had too much already.”
