He… he… he was everywhere golden and taut, muscled and sinewy.
“Close the damn door,” he said, lowering his face, opening his eyes.He saw her immediately.“You’re not the maid.”
She closed the door behind her, then hid her face against the wood, putting her back to him.“You told a maid to enter knowing you’re in the bath?Naked?”
“Don’t screech.I’m having a spectacularly bad day.”
“But why are you boiling?”
“I don’t know!”
“What happened?Between the gate and now?”
“I came back here but I was… riled.I felt all this… energy coursing through me.I couldn’t cool down.So I stole a metal tankard from the pub across the street and started working it with the fire.But… but the fire burned out or… I used it all, and the damned tankard is there.”
She didn’t dare peek to see what he meant.The image of him seemed burned on the back of her eyelids.Would his skin feel as warm as it looked?As smooth?Would the muscle beneath it be as hard?
“And,” he said, “I think I’ve grown several inches in the last hour.And I feel like I could walk round the world a hundred times and never tire.”
“You’ll crash soon.”
“The water in the tub isboiling, Sybil.”
She laughed, slammed her hand over her mouth to smother it.
“It’s not funny.”
She snorted.
“It’s not!”
She collapsed against the door laughing.“It’s Apollo stew,” she wheezed between laughs.
“Har har,” he drawled.
She dropped to the floor and leaned against the door, holding her belly.“Should I add some carrots?”
Water sloshed.Water sluiced.
She opened her eyes, just a crack, curious and wiping away a tear.
Only to see Apollo rising from the water like Poseidon.Every inch of him—every inch—naked and hard and stepping out of the tub.
She scrambled to her feet.As he strode toward her, muscles bunching, she lunged around him, aiming for safety, wherever that was.Intent glowed in his eyes, and she did not want to discover what, exactly, he intended to do.
There!Past the bed, on the table near the window.She dove for it, grasped it, and whirled around just as he switched direction to give chase.She held Governor Grimm between them.
“Come no closer or the plant suffers.”
Apollo froze.He narrowed his eyes.“You wouldn’t.”
“I would!”She inched around him, one eye on the door, the other on him.Not because—sweet Hestia—he was a sight worth looking at, but because she didn’t trust him.“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I want to see if you make the water boil, too.”
“You willnotthrow me in there.”
“Steel yourself, princess, because you’re going for a bath, and I don’t want you burned.”His eyes gleamed greedy gold, and he lunged for her.
