Sweet Hell (3 page)

Not that it ever worked. The kind of fire created by Dionysus was one she couldn't extinguish with a mere hand wave.

Damn, damn. Double damn.

"Hey, hey,” Nelson greeted her, carrying a box of flour past her into the workroom. “Mama Marino. How's it hanging?” He put his box down on the counter and looked her up and down, an appreciative smile playing on his thick lips.

Josie bit back a remark. “I'm no one's mama, Nelson."

"Thank God for that, baby. I'd hate to see that sweet belly of yours get fat. When my sister had her kid last year, it all went downhill, trust me. And I do mean downhill.” He looked around the workroom. “Where's Mike and Angelo?"

She inspected the box and made some notes on her clipboard. “When are my brothers ever here this early? They like to save the bliss of your visits just for me."

"So,” he said, taking a small step toward her and removing his baseball cap. “We're alone. Awesome. You know, Josie, I broke up with my girlfriend this week."

She didn't look up, was too busy checking her invoice against his. “That's too bad, Nelson."

"Not really. She was a bitch. Not like you."

Her head popped up at his words, and she thought of Dionysus. “Not sure everyone would agree with you there, but thanks, I guess."

"Anyway, it was time to move on. Don't you think? We've been playing these games for so long.” He took another step in her direction.

This time, she stopped to watch him. His eyes took in every detail of her appearance, apparently doing their best to see under her clothing. He was staring blatantly at her chest, and for a second she thought his eyes might start to glow. They were trying so hard to detect her nipples under her shirt.

"What do you mean, games?"

He giggled. The man actually giggled like a girl. “You know, you and me. The chemistry. The heat. The obvious sexual attraction.” He closed the distance between them, backing her up against the counter. He pulled the clipboard from her fingers and put it down. Without any warning, his hands were sliding under her T-shirt. “Let's do something about it."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!” she cried, batting at his hands. “When have I ever told you I was interested?” She tried to pull herself out of the circle of his arms, but he was stronger than he looked. Lifting boxes of baking powder and donut sprinkles obviously developed one's muscles.

"You never had to say a word, sweet cheeks,” he whispered. “It's all in your eyes."

And before she had a chance to react, he was kissing her. Kissing her neck, kissing her ear. Oh God, was that his tongue? “Stop it, Nelson!"

"When I'm good and ready.” He looked up and growled.

From out of nowhere, a two-pound bag of sugar appeared, slamming into the side of Nelson's head. Josie watched, speechless, as the deliveryman fell back into the pile of sugar that had exploded from the package.

"What the...?” he cried from the floor, cradling his temple.

Dionysus stood over him, holding the package, staring down at him in quiet fury. Looking like a man who was trying to persuade himself not to commit murder. “The lady said ‘no.’”

And then Dionysus looked up at Josie with the strangest expression. As if he'd been terrified for her well-being, but hated the idea.

"Mr. Iros,” she breathed.

His shoulders slumped, and he tossed the sugar package onto the counter. “For crying out loud, Josie, just call me Dionysus, would you?” He stared at her for a moment, then leaned down and easily hauled Nelson onto his feet. “Now, apologize to the lady, and promise never to do that again."

"Fuck you."

Dionysus laughed out loud in genuine amusement as he tightened his grip on Nelson's collar. He got up close to Nelson's face and said, seething, “You will apologize to Miss Marino. Now. Don't make me repeat myself."

Nelson's face crumpled. He retreated so far into himself that he resembled those little apple people she used to see at craft shows. He'd obviously seen something in Dionysus's eyes that scared him. Badly. He turned to Josie, swallowing as best as he could under the stronger man's fist. “Sorry."

"And you won't ever touch her again, will you?"

"No,” he squeaked out, defeated.

Dionysus inhaled and let his prey go, smoothing down his collar. He grinned at him, then reached for the flour invoice. With one, clean rip, he shredded the document. “Oh, and by the way, this shipment just came free of charge. Now, you might want to leave before I forget my capacity for forgiveness."

Josie clapped her jaw shut and stared at her hero. She wasn't sure if she was more shocked that he'd come to her aid, or that he'd look so tortured while doing so. Either way, he'd done a very nice thing.

She'd have to put extra whipped cream in his coffee next time.

Nelson vacated the bakery and tore away in his truck. Only then did Dionysus turn to her, asking quietly, “Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No sweat.” He grinned at her, back in control, then began to walk away. “Oh, and Josie..."

"Uh-huh?"

"Next time you see your brothers, tell them they either need to change your shift, or they need to drag their asses out of bed to help you. It's not safe for you to be here alone like this. If they don't change things, I'll be forced to take my valued patronage elsewhere. And I know I'm your favorite customer. I'm sure you'd hate to see me go."

With that, he grinned again and disappeared back into the bakery, the fragrance of taste bud-tantalizing wine wafting away with him.

And for ten whole minutes, Josie couldn't move, so grateful her heart was thumping.

And so turned on, she needed a new pair of panties.

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Chapter 2

Several days later, Dionysus sat in the Marino Brothers Bakery, glaring into his coffee. The one Josie had garnished with a thick dollop of real whipped cream. And a cruller on the side, no charge. She'd been doing that for him all week. Adding little treats for him on the house because she was clearly incapable of articulating her thanks without food.

She was from an Italian family.

The day after Nelson made his clumsy play for her, she'd added chocolate shavings to his coffee, turning it from a thing of beauty into a thing of perfection. The next day, she'd saved him a homemade scone with velvety clotted cream on top. The day after, one of her killer cannoli, the ones she baked herself for the business. By tomorrow, Dionysus worried she'd be emptying the contents of the bakery fridge onto his lap.

Still, it was nice. More than nice. Fucking incredible was the description that kept racing through his head. He just didn't know what to do about it. The only gratitude he was used to receiving was from women in his bed.

He
was
a love god, after all.

Not officially the god of love. That role was taken. Still, every god had some good lovin’ in him,

Josie wouldn't know that gods existed, at least, Greek ones anyway. She thought he was
a
Dionysus. The poor dear had no idea he was
the
Dionysus.

His resume sprang to mind. Dionysus from the old myths. Greek god of wine and theater. Lover of orgies. Son of Zeus. Centuries old. Friend to maenads everywhere.

That
Dionysus.

And what she also didn't know was, since meeting her, he'd felt distinctly ungodly. Something was wrong with him. Something that she'd caused. And it had him more on edge than when his father Zeus's wife Hera was gunning for him in the old days, despising him for being Zeus's bastard son.

That was why he'd called Eryx and Maia and asked them to join him for a coffee at Josie's bakery. Until recently, Eryx had been a Greek god, too. The aforementioned god of love, specifically, son to Aphrodite and Ares. But he gave all that up for the sake of his mortal love, Maia. In order to save her from a vengeful goddess, Eryx had relinquished his immortality, had given up everything that had ever made him special. Had become human to save her from becoming a lost soul. And Dionysus knew all about it because he'd been there that day. He'd seen the torment Eryx's body had endured, the agony Maia had been in while watching him.

He'd seen them both lose everything and suffer for it.

But Eryx had come back as a mortal man and had pledged himself to the woman who would become his wife. His soul mate.

And he'd never been more annoying.

Dionysus watched them wander into the bakery looking for him. Touching, giggling with each other, Eryx's hand on the small of Maia's, back pulling her in for a lingering kiss before they seated themselves. Looking like a pair of goddamned, horny teenagers at prom.

"Hi, Dionysus,” Maia said, dropping a kiss onto his head before scooting in next to her smiling husband.

Eryx could barely look away from her long enough to greet his own cousin. “Hey, coz. What's up?” And then he kissed Maia again. With tongue.

Freaking newlyweds couldn't keep their hands off each other.

Feeling a headache coming on, Dionysus passed a couple of coffees across the table to them. “It's about time you got here."

"What's wrong?"

"Me,” he replied, barely able to control his voice. “I mean, you. You did something to me. And I'm not happy about it."

"What are you talking about?” Eryx asked, although he was only half listening. He was too busy drawing circles on Maia's palm with his finger to truly be paying attention.

"You! After you two lovebirds got together, something went wrong with me!” He lowered his voice. “I've been having trouble ... performing."

That got their attention. Both Eryx and Maia turned to him in shock. And he understood why. He was frigging Dionysus! The man who invented the three-way! He'd had sex every possible way known to man. He'd made improvements to the
Kama Sutra
. And he was suffering from a major case of wet noodle.

"Seriously?” Eryx asked, hushed. “You can't get it up?"

"Oh, Dionysus,” Maia commiserated, reaching a hand across the table toward him. “I'm so sorry.” Even she, a mortal, knew how important sex was to him. After all, he'd propositioned her a couple of times before Eryx sealed the deal. And won himself a few wallops from his cousin for his troubles.

Dionysus took a deep breath. “Okay, here's what happened. You know me. You know how easy it is for me to..."

"Corrupt minors?” Eryx interjected, giggling until Maia smacked him.

"Could you be serious for just a minute?” Dionysus paused for the right words. “When you two got together, when I watched you sacrifice everything for each other, something happened to me. Not right away, but soon after. I could feel a change happening inside me. Then one day, I saw this really hot girl and took her home. When it came time to ... you know ... I couldn't."

"So, this happened right after Eryx and I were reunited?” Maia asked.

"Pretty much. I was already here in Toronto, and thought I'd stay a while before heading back to Olympus. I discovered this bakery, started coming for coffee. And right after that, it happened for the first time. And then again and then again.” He cursed under his breath. “I can't tell you how maddening this is."

"Maybe it's the coffee,” Eryx suggested. “Too much caffeine."

"I'm a god, dumbass,” he muttered. “I doubt caffeine is the issue."

"They do say too much is bad for you,” Maia mused.

"That's not it,” Dionysus said, ready to smack his head on the table. “There've only been a couple of things that have helped me grow, well, aroused."

They stared at him, waiting.

"Don't laugh, but if I think about getting married, I get hard. You know, kids and mortgages and picket fences and all that shit."

Eryx exploded into laughter. “I'm sorry, dude,” he finally stammered, wiping the tears from his eyes. “It's just, sex is your life! If there were a patron saint of orgies, it'd be you."

"I know. It's ridiculous.” He shuddered, chilled to the bone. “There's only one other thing that makes me stiff."

"What?” asked his cousin. “Shopping for a starter home?"

"No,” pouted Dionysus. He nodded toward Josie, who was running off her feet trying to single-handedly serve a lengthy lineup at the pastry counter while Mike and Angelo flirted with a couple of women at the coffee counter. “Her."

Maia's head almost snapped, she turned to look at the other woman so quickly. “Oh, she's adorable!"

Dionysus stared at Josie. She did look adorable today. He couldn't deny it to himself any longer. Okay, so she dressed down. So what? She may have been in sweats, but they clung so perfectly to her round ass, it could have been a crime against humanity. She was wearing a V-neck tee, this one not quite as stained as previous ones. When she bent over to retrieve pastries on the lower racks, it provided a nice view of significant cleavage. Sadly, she was wearing a bra, but it was a nice pink lacy number. Her hair was up, as always, but that was to be expected. She actually had very pretty hair. It was the color of a dark sand beach, cut just above her shoulders, with a lot of golden strands that shone under the bakery lights. It looked beautiful with her olive skin and hazel eyes. Like summer. As if she were glowing from within.

Dammit, he was writing love poems in his head now. To the mouthy coffee girl, of all people.

Zeus, strike me down now.

"No, it's not possible,” he declared. “I can't want her."

"Why not?"

"Because...” He floundered for the words. “I hate her. And she hates me."

"Why would she hate you?” Maia asked. “Every woman loves you. Really, from what I've seen, every woman loves you."

He glared at Josie, as if scowling at her would help him understand his feelings, when clearly it did not. “Well, not this one. Although she may like me a little bit more now."

"Did you slip her something?” Eryx asked, still having way too much fun with the whole topic.

"I wish it were that simple. No. I kind of saved her the other day, from a creep in the back room."

He wouldn't have thought it physically possible for their eyes to grow any wider, but they did. Completely gobsmacked.