Bad Blood: Latter-Day Olympians Read Online Free PDF

drawing my eyes to that fantastically sculpted chest, which nicely matched the washboard abs below. He crossed one ankle over the other knee; the denim looked soft to the touch, as if—I became aware of two things: one, I hadn’t blinked in a while, and two, Apollo knew exactly what he was doing.
    I cleared my throat and pointedly brought my gaze back up to meet his. I didn’t think my look was any too warm, but he didn’t seem likely to catch cold.
    “Very well,” he said finally, “I’m here about Circe Holland.”
    He paused for my reaction, but, receiving none, since I’d already figured as much, went on. “I understand you’ve started an investigation into her death.”
    Suspicion niggled at me. “ Really ? And where are you getting your information, the Delphic Oracle?”
    He registered surprise that I’d made the connection. “Psychic to the Stars,” he admitted. “And before you ask, not that Network. They gave us all a bad name. Anyway, if you don’t already have a client, I’d like to hire you to track down the killer.”
    I shouldn’t have been so flummoxed. Certainly, it didn’t speak volumes for my competence as an investigator. I’d expected to be questioned, maybe, because the police had let my name slip and Apollo wanted to hear about Circe’s final moments. I hadn’t expected to be hired if I so chose. Hard as it was to refuse a “god”, that was by no means a given. On the one hand, a successful case for Apollo might give me an entrée into L.A. high society and real money, which for an office on a shoestring budget was nothing to sneeze at. On another, it meant getting entangled with beings orders of magnitude beyond my experience. On the third hand… Hell, I hadn’t even taken the case and was already counting on extra limbs just to keep track. And was he just going along with me or was there really an Oracle?
    “Your Oracle can’t tell you who did it?”
    He shook his leonine head. “It doesn’t work that way. The Oracle gets flashes of the future—not the full picture. Just fragments, usually of pivotal events. Apparently, Circe’s murder didn’t rate.”
    “But I did?”
    Wow, that smile should be registered as a deadly weapon. “Apparently so.”
    Huh. Okay then. “What’s your connection to Circe?”
    “We were entering into a partnership. If her murder has anything to do with the business, I need to know.”
    “Very sentimental.”
    His laugh was a surprise, deep and even more intimate than his smile. It washed over me with a tingling heat, sending a hormone cocktail shooting through my veins. It took everything I had not to gasp.
    My lids had started to lower when he stopped and speared my gaze with his own.
    “It has been a very long time since anyone has taken me to task. I think we’ll get along very well, you and I.”
    My body responded to that despite the warning klaxons blaring away in my brain. The urge to satisfy my curiosity warred with my need to get him the hell out of my office before any other needs became more urgent.
    “Take it down a few notches or this conversation is over,” I said, digging nails into my palm to try to redirect my focus.
    Apollo eyed me, gaze too intense. Anger started thankfully to override my erotic impulses.
    “Sorry,” he said finally. “You took me aback and I let down my guard.” He closed his eyes momentarily and something I couldn’t put into words shifted, as if his presence dampened.
    I sucked in a deep breath and took my time letting it out, trying to expel the tension along with it.
    “That’s what you’re like without effort?” I asked, glad to hear that I sounded almost normal.
    He shrugged. “It’s a curse.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “No, really. I understand that it can be…overwhelming. I’ve lost—” He stopped there.
    Either he was as good an actor as advertised or he really did know. Based on the old tales, I wouldn’t have been the first to run from rather than into the fire.
    “About