Hades was full of shit. He’d used his power to lure me in. That had to be it. It was the only way I could rationalize the instant attraction I’d felt when I had come close to him. He was my enemy, for crying out loud. I wasn’t supposed to orgasm with the gods. I had to fight them. Heracles had trained me to fight, not to dream of fucking them.

I stopped myself from taking that thought further.

It had taken me a while to figure out how to get out of the police academy. The office had been locked, but the windows thankfully hadn’t been barred. It wasn’t a police station but a training academy. And there were no cameras I could see, and I doubted the training place would have them.

Usually, people said that the gods smile down on them when something goes right. This time, it was a god that had gotten me into that mess.

I couldn’t believe I’d let him go down on me or what I had felt when I’d been with him. Hades was meant to be the foe here. Or at least, the person who had released my adversary. X was the killer, not Hades. I knew that, but Hades had control over him, right?

Maybe, if Hades had been purely evil, I wouldn’t have been drawn to him, but I had this weakness. I saw the good in people even when it was buried under a lot of ugly. Hades, believe it or not, had good in him.

Still, I was stupid to fall for his antics. I paced back and forth, fire driving my pulse.

I should have been stronger. Should have been able to resist him, but I had trained my whole life to be a fighter. A hard fight against a god with immense supernatural strength was what I’d expected. I hadn’t expected the lust, the arousal, the intense need to be with him. And I’d willingly agreed because I’d craved it… Fuck, I still did. And what the hell was that with the electricity between us?

I definitely hadn’t expected my energy to rub up against his like a cat. What in the world had that been all about? I had to talk to Heracles. Zeus had given me my ability to fight evil, not to associate with it. I must have missed something.

The more I thought about it all, the faster I paced, curling my hands and digging my nails into my palms to feel anything else but the allure toward Hades.

No, I decided. I wasn’t going to talk to Heracles, unsure I could admit what I’d done with Hades. I’d confront the god himself. He was the one who had thought I was someone he could mess with, using all his sexy magic and his body to seduce me when I was sure he would have loved to eat me. Like a snake.

The fact that it had been amazing was only proof that it had all been a trick. Because I doubted I would have loved having oral sex with Hades if he hadn’t used his magic to turn me on so much. Though at the back of my mind I kept reminding myself he had asked me and I’d agreed. I’d given myself without resistance. Fuck, it might have been my choice after all, and I wondered if I hadn’t just enjoyed our time together because it had been great. It wasn’t every day a girl got to make out with a god. Hell!

But I pushed the thoughts away because I wasn’t willing to accept that.

I set out to track down the asshole himself. It should be easy to find him. Now that my magic had brushed up against his, finding him would be easier. And this time I’d be prepared to not fall for his seduction techniques.

Once in my car, I headed toward where the pulse thumping in my veins told me Hades was when something distracted me. A thundering of magic prickling my skin, different than what I had been focusing on.

The farther I drove, the stronger the new power rocked me to my core. I shook myself, swerving across the lane. Heart racing, I heaved the steering wheel back onto my lane. Thank the gods no one was coming in the opposite direction.

What had that been about? I shook my head because I had a goal, a bone to pick with the god of the Underworld. But this new enchantment was warm, drawing me forward the way a crackling fire drew a wanderer on a cold and dark night, and I couldn’t just ignore it. The power in me—or whatever it was that was seemingly in charge these days—wanted to know what it was that I was feeling. I had to know.

“Okay, but Hades after,” I convinced myself as I turned onto a side road behind a restaurant. The road led me away from the city and wound through the suburbs. The energy grew, warm on my skin, as if I were basking in the sun, even though the sky was overcast. I couldn’t remember a time when the sunshine had felt like this on my skin, or when the sky had been crystal blue without a cloud.

When the heat became almost unbearable, sweat coating me, and breathing becoming a chore, I parked my car and got out. The source was here somewhere. Had to be. The road crossed over a storm drain of some sort in a bridge-like fashion that was cemented so it made a space where I imagined a homeless person would make a bed. A black motorbike was parked under the bridge instead.

I walked down the embankment as a car flew across the bridge, and when I rounded the corner, Apollo leaned against the concrete wall that held up the road above him. He was smoking a cigarette, the thin stick clasped between two thick fingers, smoke curling from the cherry that glowed red in the dim lighting under the bridge. Apollo wore Levi jeans faded in all the right places, motorcycle boots, and a leather jacket. His long hair hung over his shoulders, and his chin had light stubble on it. It did nothing to hide his perfect jaw, the high Greek cheekbones, the piercing blue eyes. They were teal and almost glowing in the shadows of the bridge overhead.

“Hello,” he said with a smile. Apollo’s voice was deep and sultry, and I shivered, the sound tugging at something dark and delicious inside of me.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“Smoking,” he replied.

I rolled my eyes. “I can see that. I mean in Chicago.”

Apollo shrugged and dropped the cigarette on the floor, stubbing it out with his toe. He came toward me, all rolling muscles like a beast prowling. His static whirred around me, and it was like lying in a warm bath. I was submerged in the heat that came off him.

“What’s going on?” I asked, even though it had been rhetorical. My power was all over the place lately, drawn to the gods in a way I had never felt before. The air was almost suffocating.

“Why don’t you tell me?” Apollo asked, cocking his head to the side. He had stopped circling me like he was checking me out. He was closer now than he should have been. My body was responding to him, even though my mind screamed at me to get out of there. Burning up from the inside, I was losing control again.

I shook my head. My mind grew fuzzy. Was Apollo doing this? He was the god of poetry and music, god of the sun. That explained the fire I felt on my flesh. My energy wanted to roll like a cat in catnip in the heat that streamed from Apollo. My strength almost purred under my skin.

“You should get away from me,” I warned. My restraint was starting to slip. Or maybe it already had. I wasn’t sure. I only knew if we stayed together, something similar to what had happened with Hades would happen here. How the hell was I going to deal with gods if I lost control around them? Let alone deal with Death if my head fogged up with arousal.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for this.

Apollo inhaled deeply, as if smelling my scent, and his eyes changed, turning primal.

“This is my bridge,” he said. “I was here first.”

I swallowed hard. “Are you in the city with Hades? Are you working together?” I demanded, focusing on each breath to calm myself, to stop the insanity in my mind as I pictured myself with Apollo. A distraction was a must. As a Lowe, I dealt with godly creatures. Sure, Apollo was a god, but what the hell was going on with me?

Apollo chuckled, the sound sweeping over my skin like feathers. “I work alone, sweetheart.”

“That has to get lonely,” I replied, knowing too well that feeling after losing my father.

“I make do.” His predatory eyes never left me. “I can find more than enough companionship when I need it.”

I shook my head. “Sex with as many mortals as you like isn’t companionship.”

I had heard all about Apollo and his love for mortal women. He was on par with Ares, as far as I knew. The gods slept around with each other or with any mortal who was willing to spread her or his legs. It wasn’t that they were loose. It was normal for them.

Apparently, it was becoming normal for me too. I cringed on the inside.

Something crossed Apollo’s face too fast for me to read. It looked like a negative thought, but he slipped a mask in place that was all charm, and in a few strides, closed the distance between us.

“Let me show you how much it can look like companionship,” he said, and his voice was so deep, it came out as a growl.

Fear spiked around me, but heat grew in my core and took over. I backed away from him, but Apollo took another step forward. No denying, I wanted him, and I was sure he could tell, but I couldn’t do this. Not again. I had just slept with Hades not two days ago. Since then I’d been training, getting my head around what was going on between me and the gods. Although it wasn’t the sexual arousal that bothered me. I had always understood the way the gods did the whole pleasure thing better than humans. What bothered me was how easily my power slipped in with theirs when I had to fight those endangering humanity.

Suddenly, my back was against the bridge wall. Apollo was in front of me, his strong, muscular body blocking the way out. The fire that came from his was scorching and wonderful at the same time. Apollo stepped closer and closer still. I lifted my hands and pressed them against his chest to stop him in his tracks.

The corners of his mouth twitched up in a smile. He wrapped his hands around my wrists, and I was trapped.

“Tender is the blossom on the vine. Crushed into sweet ambrosia wine. A single drop will steal the sweetest breath from your chest.” He halted suddenly, his eyes narrowing, his lips tight, as if he’d said something he hadn’t meant to.

I raised a brow. “Did you just recite a poem to me?”

In a swift movement, Apollo grumbled something under his breath and spun me around so I faced the wall. He pushed against me and ground the hardness in his jeans against my ass. I groaned when he did, my arousal only growing.

“Sweetheart, I’d give you the world if you were mine. And you can’t tell me this isn’t what you wanted right now,” he whispered in my ear, kissing the area under my lobe, his tongue licking me. “I can taste your need for me.”

I swallowed hard, needing this like I needed air to live. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

Apollo chuckled, and it was a deep, hearty sound like he was genuinely amused. “You’re so hot.”

“This, coming from the guy who was throwing off heat like a furnace. Your fiery energy drew me here.”

“I’m going to take you now,” Apollo said, his breath on the back of my neck.

I should have been afraid. I should have said no. I should have fought him and gotten away. But his words melted me, and I yearned for this. God help me, I wanted him to take me.

“Yes.” That single word streamed out as it had for Hades and now being in Apollo’s presence, he’d transformed me into a sex-starved woman.

He pinned me to the wall with one hand and reached around to the front of my jeans with his other. With quick work, he got my pants down to my knees. The sound of his fly followed, and then he settled the thick length of his dick against my ass, nestling it between my ass cheeks. His flesh was so hot, I moaned from the contact alone.

“I shouldn’t want you this much,” Apollo murmured. “Somehow you’re in my head, fogging all my thoughts.”

I frowned through the waves of desire that undulated my hips. What did he mean? I didn’t have a lot of time to think about it. Apollo held me to the wall with his hand on my back. With the other hand, he yanked my hips back so I leaned forward a little, my stance widened. He plunged his hand between my legs.

“So wet,” he growled. He ran his fingers along my slit, and I cried out, an orgasm already on the verge of happening. Sex was this man’s forte. I could tell. And as much as my mind screamed to back away, I couldn’t. Like with Hades, I willingly gave myself to Apollo.

When he let me go, I whimpered in protest. I longed for Apollo to push me toward release.

He thrust his dick into me from behind without ceremony, and I cried out as he entered. He was hard and smooth, and he filled me up. I gasped, trembling as Apollo planted his hands on either side of my head against the wall. I stayed in the position he had put in me in. What a good girl I was.

Or a bad girl, because this was the second god in such a short time I was letting have his way with me. And fuck, but I loved every second of their ravaging.

I desired this. I didn’t know what drove me to lose all inhibitions, but I yearned for his touch, longed for him inside me the same way I had with Hades.

Apollo bucked his hips, sliding in and out of me. I dropped my head, bracing myself against the wall. I noticed Apollo’s legs, how far he had bent his legs to get into me considering his size. But he fucked me as if we were both lying down and it was easy for him to reach me.

Apollo’s pounding picked up the pace, and a scream tore from my mouth laced with his name as an orgasm roared through me. Convulsing with pleasure, I labored for breath, riding the pulsing sensation ripping through me. My knees weakened, but Apollo’s dick, his hips ramming against my ass, somehow held me up.

The orgasm drew out, one rush of ecstasy after the next. I moaned out, my body floating on the clouds.

“Come for me again, sweetheart,” Apollo whispered, his lips close to my ear, and another round of pleasure rolled through me. Electricity hummed over my arms, down my back, skipping onto Apollo.

When I finally stopped orgasming, I was exhausted, and my body felt tender, as if he had ridden me raw. Well, I guessed he had, and I had the feeling Apollo could keep going. He could make this happen for a long, long time.

But he pulled out of me.

“I’m getting tired of you gods not finishing off,” I said before catching myself against the wall.

Apollo laughed, and I heard him zip up. “You sound like you’re talking from experience.”

“Sadly, yes,” I said, trying to pull up my pants with a little finesse, even though I felt like I was burning up with a fever from the inside out. When I fastened my pants and turned around, Apollo had strolled to his bike, and he lit up another cigarette.

“I thought gods didn’t smoke,” I said.

Apollo took a long drag on his cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. “Guess you thought wrong.”

There was something about Apollo that didn’t compute. He sat on his bike, an expression like he didn’t care about the world around him, a me-myself-and-I attitude, but there was something beneath the façade that looked different. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Something about him, the way his magic had dimmed to a cool glow, made me want to go over there and cuddle up to him. But I had done more than enough that I didn’t understand. If I wanted to leave with any dignity intact, I had to do it now.

“I’ll see you around,” Apollo said.

“God, please, no,” I said.

Apollo laughed, another sound that was so calming, it threatened to draw me in. But I fought it and left.