Shafted (6 page)

Since there was no way he could, there was no
harm in showing him, so Callie reached for the envelope she’d
dropped earlier, and pulled out what looked like a journal. “As
much as I wish you could, Teran, unless you’re fluent in what the
lawyer guessed is ancient Greek and can decipher this before the
end of the week, I don’t think you can.”

The sight of the thing clawed at Anteros’s
insides with icy fingers and he immediately smelled a rat. He’d
seen plenty of mystical books in his time and if he didn’t miss his
mark, he was staring at an ancient one right now. One with markings
he thought he’d seen somewhere before. “Do you mind if I have a
closer look?”

Her brows furrowed and with a second’s
hesitation she handed it to him. “I suppose, but I’m not kidding,
unless you’re an expert in arcane languages or something, you won’t
be able to read it.”

The leather was worn and the markings faded
but still legible. Opening the cover carefully he read the first
flourished entry and his breath caught. It was exactly what he
thought having seen several of it’s like in the past. The last one
had been filled with instructions for Hercules and the tasks that
made him famous – after damn near getting him killed. This one was
a guide to find the Amazonian Book of Queens. “Holy Hades, how did
you end up here?”

“You can read that? How?” Callie sprang up
from her seat and flew to his side.

It’s no big deal I grew up on this stuff. No
really, I was there when they invented it.

Great how he did explain this one? “Umm, my
mother’s Greek?”

“Oh my God, that’s wonderful! Teran do you
know what this means? Once you translate it I’ll know what I’m
supposed to do...I mean if you agree to translate it, that is.”

Her beautiful green eyes couldn’t possibly
get any bigger could they? Her cheeks were flushed with excitement
and her breath was coming in small bursts. If he made love to her,
would she look like that? If she did, maybe being stuck with her
wouldn’t be so bad after all. What! Stupid arrow, it was getting
worse. But she really was much prettier than he’d first
thought.

“So what do you say? Will you do it? Would
there be enough time to get through it in few days?”

Looking at her, how could he say no? These
things always came with a proviso somewhere, usually a nasty one.
At least he’d have an idea what to look for and could hopefully
protect her. Besides it was the excuse he needed to stick close
until he knew what they were up against. It would take everything
he had to not give in and claim her in every way, but with her
heart’s freedom and his immortality at risk, he was not going to
let that happen.

While thinking about the possible
implications of the journal, an unwelcome thought crossed his mind
– he could fight taking her as his all he wanted but it wouldn’t
make a difference in the end. No one mortal or immortal had ever
beaten a golden arrow – ever.

Chapter 8

It had taken a while to get the fireplace
flue open and a fire going and in spite of its generous size the
main room in the largest of the cabins warmed up quickly. It also
shed enough light to see the ravages of time were mostly
superficial and the sturdy log structure was in decent shape.

“See, what I was talking about. The road’s so
blocked by fallen trees it looks like a pick up sticks game for
giants exploded all over it. The storage room roof in the main
cabin has a huge hole in it. Mortimer, the moose head over the
fireplace, is infested with mice. A family of raccoons is living in
cabin three, and look over here.” Callie wiggled between the dust
covered furniture remnants, climbed up on the top of weathered old
picnic table, and pointed at a faded portrait hanging over the
kitchen door. “Someone drew a Cotton sized handlebar mustache on
Grandee!”

Anteros couldn’t keep his eyes off her
shapely rear end and no longer knew for sure if the arrow was to
blame, or if the blood rushing to his loins was all him. A mental
kick helped his primary head wrestle control away from his much
more focused lower one and stepping behind the sofa he did some
rearranging to take the pressure off. “Well, look at it this way,
it could be worse. Mortimer could have the mustache and Grandee the
mice.”

“Eww, that’s just nasty.”

Her eyes sparkled, lighting up his world, and
her face was flushed from the fire they’d started. She was so full
of life and energy. He couldn’t help it, arrow or no arrow, he was
happy around her. His face split into a stupid grin and his chest
seemed too small to hold the warm feeling bubbling up in him.

“Wait a minute, that’s not a smile I see is
it Mr. Anders?”

He turned his head to the side and did his
best to smooth out his face. The damn grin just got bigger, and an
embarrassing sound akin to a snort escaped before he could stop
it.

“It is! And on top of that, you’re laughing
at me aren’t you?” She started to giggle. “Oooo, wait till I get my
hands on something I can throw-“

CRACK!

Anteros head snapped around at the sickening
sound. Time ground to a near halt as he saw her eyes widen in shock
and she started to tip sideways with her arms flung wide and
fingers grasping at nothing but air. One of the table legs had
snapped and Callie was careening head first, straight for the
oversized stone fireplace.

One horrendous thought drove all else from
his mind: Mortals die!

One moment he was across the room, the next
he was on the floor with her tangled in his arms. “Zeus’s beard
woman! Are you all right?” His hands flew through her hair over her
scalp and along the length of her, frantic to make sure she wasn’t
harmed. “Callie?”

“Zeus’s beard?” She grabbed at his hands,
trapping them as she squirmed to right herself in his lap to bring
them face to face creating all manner of havoc in his pants.
“Zeus’s beard?”

Three things struck Anteros at once. Enormous
relief she was okay, the fact he needed to distract her fast, and
she trembled when his eyes dropped to where her shirt had twisted
revealing the creamy top of one breast. In the space of a heartbeat
the fight was over. The head on his shoulders lost to the one in
his jeans and without thinking, he swooped in and kissed her.

Callie thought her head spun when she fell.
It was nothing to the ‘Tilt-O-Whirl’ ride of Teran’s kiss. Holy
crap could the man kiss or what! He cupped the back of her head
with one hand, and smoothly lowered them both back down to the
floor with the other, pinning her beneath him. Giving in to the
moment for the first time in her life, curses and consequences
be-damned, Callie’s tongue and hands eagerly joined Teran’s in an
electrifying primal dance.

His kiss heated up, delving deeper, and
becoming more demanding as his hands slowly worked their way down
her arms in feathery touches designed to drive her mad. Grasping
her wrists, gently he lifted her arms out in an arc away from her
body, interrupting her own explorations, until he had them trapped
in his fingers above her head.

His thumbs lightly traced circles on the
sensitive insides of her wrists and his hair fell in an ebony
curtain around them, gently caressing her face, while surrounding
her in his heavenly scent. He traced her lips with his tongue and
nipped lightly as his head shifted to a new angle above her. He was
careful to keep his full weight off her but like a magnet to steel
she couldn’t help arching up into him. The contact was too
delicious to deny, her curves and his planes fit so perfectly.

He freed one hand trapping both her wrists
with the other and with agonizing patience kneaded and caressed his
way down her body until he reached the damp apex between her legs.
Callie held her breath, praying he wouldn’t stop, desperately
wanting him to touch her.

Her yoga pants made access easy and she got
her wish. Teran slipped his hand inside and with one long finger
between the soft material and the wet silk of her panties, gently
rubbed back and forth with varying pressure and speed.

Just when she thought she’d explode, Teran
began to slow things down, easing her back away from the brink.
Something had changed and Callie’s stomach clenched. He meshed
their fingers together and broke away, pulling an involuntary
whimper from her throat at the loss.

He pressed his forehead to hers so she
couldn’t see his face clearly but could feel his heart pounding and
hear his ragged breathing. She wasn’t overly experienced but she
wasn’t stupid either, and braced herself for what was coming.

“We can’t. This was a terrible mistake on my
part. I can’t believe I got so carried away. I’m so sorry Callie. I
should never have let it happen.”

His words sucker punched her already roiling
stomach and now it was Callie who had to catch her breath.
Shouldn’t have let it happen? What they’d done was a
terrible
mistake. Ouch! The ego shredding message
dowsed her libido in ice water and snapped her back to her
senses.

This wasn’t only his fault, it took two after
all. So what in the world was wrong with her? She’d spent what, a
few hours with this guy, and all her promises and grand plans for
her fulfilling future go ‘poof’ into thin air the first time he
locks lips with her!

Instead of being angry, she should probably
be thanking him for stopping before she had reason to hate herself
in the morning.
Fool,
so much for all her hard won resolve.
Thank heavens her mother wasn’t around, Callie could already hear
her cheering and starting wedding plans, and poor Grandee must be
turning over in her grave about now.

Teran was right. This had been a huge
mistake. One she would not be repeating anytime soon.

Anteros wanted to kick himself. This must be
what mortals meant when they said they’d stuck a foot in their
mouth.

Right now he was sure both his were tap
dancing on his tonsils, but the moment their lips touched he’d been
lost. He’d never responded to someone like he had Callie, nor had
anyone ever responded to him like her. She’d turned to liquid fire
in his arms.

Right before she fell he’d been admiring how
sexy and full of life she was but it was nothing next to kissing
her. If he hadn’t come to his senses when he did, he might have
lost complete control. He panicked, saying things without thinking,
only to realize too late how hurtful it must’ve sounded to her.

She’d gone stone still and he could feel the
confusion radiating from her but he couldn’t yet look her in the
eyes, he needed a second to try to figure out how to fix it.
“Callie?”

He never got that second. Callie came to life
with a vengeance shoving hard at his chest to get him off and he
had a flash back to their first encounter. Not wanting a repeat
performance he rolled off to the side away from her and she was up
on her feet away from him in a flash.

“Hey, whatever, it’s okay I get it, heat of
the moment and all that.” She swiped her hands down to smooth out
her twisted shirt and tugged on sleeves that had already fallen
back into place. “After all, I’m sure I’m not your type anyway and
Lord knows this is the last thing I need. So yah, really no big
deal; what say we pretend it didn’t happen, okay?”

Hades Balls he felt like a heel. She wouldn’t
even look at him. Wait a minute, what did she mean ‘not his type’?
Was she serious?

“Callie, it’s not what you think wait,
listen—”

“Okay, so now we’re all clear on that subject
and will never bring it out in the light of day again. Where were
we? Ah! Right, the hole in the roof, what do you think, can it be
repaired...”

She headed across the floor at a near run and
was through the door to the storage room before he could get
another word in. The brittle edge and strain in her voice was loud
and clear even after her words faded and the door swung shut on its
own behind her.

Chapter 9

A tingle raised the hair on Anteros’s arms
before he heard the click of Callie’s heels descending the stairs
behind him. He hoped he didn’t look as awful as he felt. Between
dreaming of making love to her and waking up with a burning
erection and guilt deflating his body’s efforts for having hurt
her, it had been a long sleepless night.

“Good morning Callie, I assumed you’d be
wanting your room over the weekend as well, so I took the liberty
of holding it for you. Things get rather busy around here this time
of year.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Turnbull, yes I would like
to keep my room until the beginning of the week.”

“Lovely. Oh! That reminds me, not sure if I
mentioned it to you earlier, but there’s a big Valentine’s dance
planned for Saturday night at the Community Center, you can get
reacquainted with everyone and bring your, um, friend here
along.”

Anteros was certain Mrs. Turnbull’s sly
reference to his being a ‘friend’ didn’t bode well for him and one
look at the resignation on Callie’s face confirmed his
suspicions.

“Valentine’s dance, uh, well thank you for
letting me know but I’m sure Mr. Anders won’t be staying in town
that long—”

“Nonsense, he just paid for two more nights
which means he’s good till Sunday, didn’t you Mr. Anders.”

Callie’s jaw clenched and her nostrils flared
slightly, not that he blamed her. There had been no more mention of
their encounter and the way she’d barely glanced his way as she
approached the desk it was obvious she wasn’t interested in
discussing things today either.

“I see.”

She might not be, but he was, however not
till he had her alone. Plastering an innocent look on his face
Anteros plopped his arm across Callie’s stiff shoulders and nudged
her past the front desk. “It’s all worked out then. The repairs are
underway; you can finish your calls about the local delinquent
population, while I take a run at deciphering your grandmother’s
dust cover of a journal for you. Sound good?”