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of Men he heard a phrase, one that he now understood and agreed with; it was better to burn out than to fade away. To sit here rotting away, still hale, still hearty, still strong, still virile, vigorous and useful, yet with no purpose whatsoever, it was maddening.
    Tonight, Fate dropped this curious and interesting woman into his lap. Tomorrow he would find out more about her. If nothing else, she would ease his boredom for a while.
    “I take it she’s to be your new woman?”
    Ares had not even heard the door open and there was Kat at the foot of his bed looking at him with fire in her eyes, speaking with venom on her tongue. “I thought I locked that door. I see you’ve a key, woman.” He held out his hand, “Give it to me.”
    “I don’t have a key,” Kat lied. “You left it open.”
    “Did I?” Ares chided. “I think not. Give it to me. Do not make me get out of this bed and take it from you. I assure you it will not be a pleasant experience,” he warned in a dark voice, waited with open impatience before she slipped her hand into her pocket and then gave him the key. “Where did you get this?”
    “You dropped it,” Kat answered quickly.
    “What is it with you tonight, hmm? Why do you insist on lying to me?”
    Kat had the key for many years, and she handed it over so easily because it was not her only one. She actually had two hidden under the animal hides that blanketed her bed. They were safe there; Ares never came to the chamber for anything more than to call one, two, or all of them up to his room so that they could pleasure him in whatever manner he saw fit at the time. “Just answer me, I deserve that much,” Kat challenged as she looked down upon the scene with a churning stomach. “I’ve served you well for many years….”
    “And you have been rewarded for your service,” he interrupted as his hand closed around the brass key. “Handsomely, dear Katrina. Have I not given you station here? Perhaps one much higher than you deserve. My women treat you like a Queen, as though you were my Consort. Which, by the way, you are not . What do I ask of you? A little warm companionship and a hot meal. Is that so much in return for all that you have here?”
    It was Kat’s turn to snort. She hated it when Ares called her ‘dear Katrina’, if he remembered your name and put the word ‘dear’ in front of it, it was like being chastised by your father. It was Ares’ way of telling you he was pissed and you should not push things any further or it could get mighty rough. It was best to heed the gentle yet stern warning, but the sight of a woman she had not approved of, one laying in what she considered to be her bed and her rightful place was too much of an insult to go without protest. “This place?” she said with a curled lip and roll of her eyes. “This hovel of yours?” For its time perhaps it was opulent, but that time passed millennia ago. She lived here without as much as the convenience of electricity!
    Ares sat up in the bed quickly as his smoldering onyx eyes narrowed on her. “Get out of my room!” He pointed toward the door leading out of the bedroom and to the staircase to the lower level of the cave. “Hovel, is this? You can start swimming at any time, my dear, go on and see how far you get before you drown. I’ll not stop you. As for her,” the angry hand gesturing toward the door seemed to soften as he pointed downward to the woman sleeping next to him, “she is not my woman, she is my guest, at least for now or until she proves herself untrustworthy, then she can start swimming with you. I wouldn’t want you to be lonely out there on the deep blue sea.”
    “Why didn’t you just kill her?” Kat demanded to know. “Throw her to the Cerberus and be done with it?”
    “Whatever I do or don’t do isn’t for you to question,” Ares lobbed back in a dark whisper and held the sleeping woman a little closer to his warm frame. She let out a little coo and nuzzled her