Tall, Dark and Divine Read Online Free PDF

wanted her to know that when he’d turned her down earlier, it wasn’t because of her. That flash of hurt in her eyes had stayed with him, and he wanted to make sure she knew it wasn’t her there was something wrong with, it was him. “I’m not ready to get involved with anyone else yet. But a couple of the girls from the office were going out tonight, and they asked me to come along. I guess they thought I needed a change of scenery.”
    She nodded. “What happened?”
    “Happened?”
    “With your wife. Why did she leave?”
    “She found someone else,” Eros said.
    “You’re kidding.”
    The comment must have fallen out of her mouth without thought—or maybe the Cosmopolitans were loosening her tongue—because she looked mortified. She clapped a hand over her mouth and stared at him over it, her eyes enormous. Eros chuckled.
    “She said I worked too much and didn’t pay enough attention to her.”
    Annie took her hand off her mouth. “Did you?”
    “Maybe.” Being the god of love wasn’t a nine-to-five job. And Psyche had never really understood that. “She didn’t have a career of her own.” And she hadn’t been much good at the matchmaking.
    The thought felt disloyal, but Psyche had been a bit self-absorbed, he realized. There hadn’t been a lot of concern for anyone but herself. Just look at how she’d opened Persephone’s box to take some of Aphrodite’s beauty for herself. That infernal sleep he’d woken her from as a result was really no more than she’d deserved. “I guess maybe she got lonely.”
    “I’m sorry,” Annie said, and Eros looked over at her. She seemed sincere.
    They sat in silence for a few moments. Eros finished his wine. “So what are you looking for?”
    “Here?” She flushed. “Why?”
    “So I can help you get it.”
    “How can you help me get it?”
    “It’s what I do,” Eros said.
    She thought about that for a second and seemed to find it acceptable. “I guess I wanted some company, too.”
    “What kind of company?” She didn’t answer, and he added, “Are you looking for love? Or just sex?”
    She looked startled.
    “I don’t do sex,” Eros said, and caught himself. “I mean, I do. Personally, I like sex a lot.” Damn Dion. Looked like the god of debauchery had been a bit heavy-handed with the ambrosia, too, not just the liquor. “But I’m a matchmaker, not a pimp.”
    “Oh.” Annie flushed. “I didn’t think… I mean… I’m sorry. Meeting Mr. Right would be nice, I guess. But to be honest, tonight I’d settle for Mr. Right Now.”
    Eros nodded. He’d met a lot of people like that. Back in the old days, it used to be mostly the men who thought that way, while the women invariably wanted love and marriage. These days, it was both genders looking to get laid. “See that guy over in the corner? The one with the brown hair and glasses?”
    “Harry Mitchell,” Annie said.
    “You know him?” That’d make his job easier.
    “He works down the street. He’s come into the bakery a few times. He owns a schnauzer.”
    Better and better. “He’s here looking for someone, too. Maybe you should go over and introduce yourself.”
    She shot him a look. “With all due respect, Eros—”
    “Call me Ross.” They’d all shortened their names to go with the times. Classical Greek names stood out these days. Here in Astoria, the largest Greek settlement outside Greece, there were a lot of people—mortals—with given names like his and Dion’s. But most of them had American names or nicknames, too. Ekaterina became Kathy and Athena became Tina. Adonis called himself Donnie and Thaumas was Tom or Tommy. Alastor was the only one who’d kept his name intact, and Eros suspected there were people who thought the minor god of vengeance was Scottish.
    “Ross,” Annie said obediently. “With all due respect, I don’t think he’s looking for me. He seems to have his eye on that gorgeous blonde over there.”
    “She isn’t interested in