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tightened, as though the water were being suctioned up by a vacuum. I glanced up in time to see the waters spiral pink and then shimmer with gold.
    Aphrodite stood before me as a pillar of water, her curves more luscious and sensuous than ever. The undulation of water had always held a strange fascination for me.
    “What?” I snapped the instant she’d finished forming.
    Planting hands on her hips, she gave me a kittenish pout. “Now, Death, is that any way to speak with a friend?”
    “Why are you meddling here?” I asked, in no mood to play nice.
    She rolled her eyes. “I should think it obvious. The two of you are snapping and sparking like a wildfire burning out of control.”
    I narrowed my eyes.
    A gentle current swayed through the tips of her hair, causing them to swirl like charmed snakes around her face.
    “And you just can’t help yourself. Well, Love, I can assure you that the very last thought on my mind is engaging with Calypso. I have bigger problems.”
    She scoffed. “You’re an idiot, Hades. Of course, I always thought you were. You had Persephone. You lost Persephone.” She flicked a wrist. “You are lonely by your own doing.”
    She had no idea what she was talking about. I’d never wanted or asked for the other Olympians’ friendship. They could go burn in Tartarus for all I cared.
    Huffing, she crossed her arms in much the same pose Calypso had taken earlier, but somehow, it failed to make much of an impression on me.
    “She is smitten with you.”
    “She is a virgin goddess. I hardly think—”
    She snorted. “A problem she seeks to rectify immediately, I’d imagine. Look, Death.” She curled her lip. “I recognize lust when I see it, and that woman plans to make you scream her name.”
    Chuckling because the thought actually made me not so angry at all, I leaned back on my hands in a relaxed pose. “I’d not kick her out of my bed.”
    Her eyes darted around the lush room. “Her bed. And you might find her to be a bit of a spitfire.”
    “I know this.”
    I vividly remembered the clawing at the back of my head with that kiss. Gods, that kiss. I almost groaned thinking about the salty, sweet taste of her tongue. The absolute power of her. She’d barely even given me a taste of it, she’d held so much of herself in check, but I’d be a liar if I said I hadn’t craved much more than a sampling.
    My groin tightened, but then I thought about the teases that Athena and Artemis were. How they made sport of making us sweat, making us males believe they’d be virgin goddesses no more, only to then turn around and mock and laugh at us for thinking we’d ever be good enough for either of them.
    I glowered. “She’s a cock tease and nothing more.”
    Her lips curled into a crooked smile, and her eyes twinkled like cut gems. “Whatever you say, Hades.”
    “Why are you here, Aphrodite? Answer me once and for all.” I grew tired of her silly games and only wished my rest.
    This day had been hell, and the next two weeks would only be worse. I knew they’d not find Persephone. All fingers would come pointing back at me, and a thousand years of torment was what awaited me.
    I was tired and in a foul mood.
    “Because I like her. And enthusiastic as she is, I do not think she quite knows what she’s doing. When the rest of us took bodies, Calypso stayed in her primordial form, remaining so for almost her entire life. She knows little of how to be human ,” she finger quoted. “She is ancient, but in many ways she is naught more than a young woman—a young woman suddenly aware of her sexuality and her desire for relations. Be patient with her.”
    I frowned. I was very aware of her dichotomous nature, both the power that nestled inside her tempting body and the woman that spouted such nonsense I couldn’t help but laugh in confusion.
    She was both old and young. Her words were ridiculous. But her touch burned me to my very core. I’d not been touched the way she’d touched me in