Bleed For Me (Loved By Gods #1)(7)
Author: Cynthia Eden

Her mouth dropped open. Was the guy crazy? “Big teeth and glowing eyes are so not sexy.”

His lips curved into a slow smile. Those come-get-me dimples flashed. “They are on you.”

A little bubble of happiness filled her at his words. “Um, thanks, I-I think.”

One golden brow lifted. “You’re welcome.” He cocked his head to the side, studying her as she nosed around the room, ducking her head under chairs and into his closet. “How long have you been a vampire, Terese?”

“I don’t know—what day is it?” Where the hell was her dress?

“How old are you?” he asked curiously.

She put her hands on her hips. “Thirty-one. How old are you?”

Apollo snorted. “Older. A lot older.”

He couldn’t be that much older. The guy didn’t have so much as a line on his face. His skin was so golden, so bright and healthy. No, he couldn’t me much older, unless—

Terese crept toward the bed, eyeing him cautiously as alarm filled her. He’d never answered her question. She’d asked if he was human, but he hadn’t told her, hadn’t said—

“My, my, what big eyes you have.” He leaned back against the headboard, crossing his arms over his chest. “What new worry are you obsessing over now?”

“Apollo…how did we get here?” She waved her hand to indicate the bedroom.

“I brought us here.”

“How.” Not really a question. Terese was tired of feeling like she was missing something very important in the conversation.

“We jumped.”

“Jumped?” She did a quick bounce. “Like that?”

A deep chuckle rumbled in his throat. “No, we space jumped.”

“Space jumped, right.” Okay, she wasn’t exactly sure what space jumping was, but the idea of it scared the shit out of her.

Before waking in Apollo’s bed, the last thing she remembered was being in the parking lot Hades, feeling the scorching burn of the sun’s rays on her skin, then—

“I space jump when I need to get from one place to another in just a few seconds.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Is that like teleporting?” It sounded exactly like teleporting.

Flash—he was at the bar.

Flash—he was back at his house.

The elders could do that. The dangerous, dark elders.

“Yeah, like teleporting.”

Oh, God. She inched back a step. Had she just leapt from the frying pan into some seriously burning fire? Was Apollo an—

“Now what are you thinking?” His lips twisted. “I swear, you look like you’re about to bolt.”

Well, she was. Clothes or no clothes. If he was an elder—

Apollo rose from the bed, stretching slowly, arching his back and raising his arms over his head. His fingertips pressed against the ceiling. His c**k bobbed upward, shooting up from the thatch of blond hair at the top if his thighs.

Oh, my. She swallowed. The man sure was a delicious site to see first thing in the evening.

She could still taste him in her mouth. Taste the warm, strangely sweet flavor of his blood.

Her teeth clenched. “You didn’t answer my question.” Though she’d played the game and answered his. “You aren’t human, are you?” She’d bet her grandmother’s silver tea tray on that one.

He stalked toward her, his c**k stretching, hardening even more. “No, I’m not.”

“Are you a vampire?” He hadn’t burned when they were in the sunlight together. So, that should mean that he wasn’t like her. But, maybe, if he was an elder—

Apollo shook his head. “Sorry, love, but I’m no vampire.” A pause. “I’m a god.”

Her mouth dropped open. “What?”

He was right in front of her now. His hand lifted, and he brushed back her hair, letting his fingers slide against the sensitive flesh of her neck. A shiver shook her body and goosebumps rose on her skin.

His head lowered toward hers. His lips hovered from her mouth. “You heard me.” His breath blew over her. “I’m a god. An immortal, all-powerful god.”

No, no freaking way. “Th-that’s not possible.” His fingers were stroking her throat and his touch felt so warm and good. And strangely right. But… “You can’t be a—”

He laughed again, that same warm, deep chuckle. “Love, you’re a vampire. If you can exist, then I can, too.”

She blinked. Well, yeah, that made sense. But, still—a god? “What kind of god?”

He sighed, a long-suffering sound. “I told you…immortal, all-powerful—”

“I heard that part,” she muttered as his fingers stroked her flesh. “But you’re not like, you know, the God.”

A faint chuckle. “No, I’m not him.”

“So, what, you’re the god of—of—” Heck, what were there gods of? “Um…rain? Or fire? Or war—”

“I’m the god of the sun.”

“Oh.” The sun. Pain knifed through her. He was the god of the sun. The sun she would never see again, not if she wanted to keep living. Her gaze roved over him. It figured he’d be the sun god with that thick blond mane of his and all that perfect, golden skin.

Well, hell. She’d gone out, desperate to find prey, hoping with all her being that she wouldn’t accidentally drink too much and kill the human she selected, and she’d wound up with…a god.

The sun god.

Fate could be such a cruel bitch sometimes. Swiping at her eyes, at the stupid tears she could feel welling, Terese pulled away from him and stumbled back a few steps. “Where’s my dress? I…um…really need to be going.”

“So that’s it?” His hands fell to his sides. “You screw me, you drink from me, then you walk away?”

She felt that hit straight in her heart. A heart she was surprised she still had. Her chin lifted. “That was my general plan, yes.” As tempting as Apollo was, she couldn’t stay with him. It would be too dangerous, for both of them.

A muscle flexed along his iron-hard jaw. “Is that what you do? You go out every night and find some guy to f**k and suck?”

Fuck and suck. She flinched. “N-no. Y-you were the first.” Not the first guy she’d ever made love to, because back when she’d been human, she’d had lovers. But since her change, she hadn’t wanted to be with a man. Hadn’t wanted a lover to see the monster she’d become.