T he door to the lounge closed and Vulcan began to pace back and forth across the small space. Emotions he'd never experienced before had unexpectedly been awakened within him. When the dried flower arrangement on the little vanity table began to smolder he drew several deep, calming breaths in and out...in and out. It wouldn't do to set the place afire. But oh how he'd like to burn - to show outwardly the wildfire that was raging inside him. He had shocked himself. His intention that night had simply been to be near her, to perhaps speak with her. Never in his wildest dreams and imaginings had he thought to ravish her! Yet something had happened within him just before the arrogant fool tried to force Pea to stay with him on the dance floor. Suddenly all of the need and desire and passion that had been simmering within him for eons had bubbled over into a full heated boil. He had wanted her before, but tonight he had found the will to act on his desire.

And it had worked! He had actually touched her and tasted her and brought her pleasure. His cock was still engorged with the memory of the sounds of her satisfaction. Would he ever get enough of her? He wanted more and more. He wanted to bring her back with him to Olympus and show her...

He stopped pacing. Show her what? How he was shunned and outcast amongst the glory that was Olympus? Then what would she feel for him? Pity? Contempt?

No. He would not take her to Olympus. He would woo her here, in the modern world of mortals, as a man would. Resolutely he retied his mask and walked to the door. She said to meet her outside the restaurant, and she would introduce him -

"Gods! What was I thinking!" He growled. There could only be one person to whom she wanted to introduce him. Venus! Had his mind stopped working entirely? He could only imagine the goddess's shock and surprise at having Pea present him to her. Not that the Goddess of Love would be angry at his infidelity - on the contrary. From the very beginning there had been no pretense of anything more than respect and a rather tenuous friendship between them. Their marriage had been an arrangement, intended to be mutually beneficial. They weren't in love. In actuality their passionless marriage had been the butt of many Olympian jokes. If she discovered he was Pea's lover, would Venus laugh at him? Just the thought made him shudder. No, the Goddess of Love was not cruel. She wouldn't laugh, but she would be shocked. There was little doubt that she would betray his true identity to Pea. Then he would no longer be her passionate mortal lover. He would be the pitiable God of Fire, who had been rejected by Love herself.

"No!" he cried. Their relationship was too new. Perhaps later, after they had had time to build a foundation between them, then he could tell her his secret. Now the only thing he could do was to return to Olympus and make plans to come back to her another day. He would also pray that she would forgive him for leaving her tonight. With a deep sigh of despair, the God of Fire closed his eyes and willed himself back to the portal, leaving only a shimmer in the air and the heat of his passing as evidence that he had ever been there.

Griffin hadn't returned to her.

Venus couldn't believe it. It was ludicrous, really. Who stood up Love? Again she considered following him and confronting him and blasting the goddess-be-damned, insolent, arrogant fool into nothingness.

But she couldn't. It was humiliating enough that she was sitting out there, drinking alone (and eating both orders of chocolate dessert). If she went into the restaurant after him it would be an outward acknowledgment of what he had done, and the inner shame of it was enough. When the bright red trucks pulled up to the curb, Venus ignored them and the costumed, masked men pouring out of the restaurant. If he came up to her she would pretend not to know him. Then she'd blast him with -

"Venus! There you are! I'm so glad I found you." Pea hurried up to Venus's table.

"Hello, darling." Venus smiled absently at Pea, trying to refocus her mind from thoughts of revenge. "I hope you've been having a lovely time."

"Well..."

Pea's odd tone finally got the goddess's full attention. Venus frowned and really looked at the little mortal. Yes, all the signs were there: flushed face, rosy, bruised looking lips..."Pea." She gasped. "Have you just orgasmed?"

"Wow, you're really good at figuring out love stuff, aren't you?" Pea flushed an even brighter pink and looked like she was on the verge of tears. "Yes," she whispered, and then mouthed the words oral sex.

"I'm such an idiot." Pea hid her masked face in her hands.

"Darling," Venus began reasonably, completely confused at why Pea should appear so upset by such good news. "There's nothing for you to hide your face and be ashamed of - it's lovely that you had a delicious sexual encounter." What in the ancient world was wrong with the girl? Then realization hit Venus. There was nothing wrong with having a delicious sexual encounter unless the man behaved in a boorish or unsuitable manner, as Venus could, unfortunately, attest to knowing entirely too much about. Venus pulled Pea's hands from her face and forced the mortal to meet her eyes. "Pea, with whom did you have sex?"

Pea sniffed. "His name tag said God of Fire."

Venus felt a sickening jolt. "By Cupid's bright pink ass, that does it!" The curse exploded from the goddess. "Griffin performed cunnilingus on you?"

"Griffin? No, I said his name tag said God of Fire, not Griffin. I only wish it had been Griffin. At least I know him."

"Darling, I'm confused. You're telling me that you allowed a man, whose name tag read God of Fire, but whom you don't know, not even his name, to perform oral sex upon you?"

Pea bit her lip, nodded, and started to cry, all the while throwing furtive looks over her back at the crowd still streaming out of Lola's. With a sob, she said, "I told him to meet me out here, and now I don't know what I was thinking. I imagined this big connection between the two of us."

Pea paused, pulled off her mask and wiped at her face. "But I don't even know his name, so how

'connected' could we have been? And he was definitely a fireman. What if Griffin finds out I let a stranger do that to me in the ladies' room? He'll never, ever even look at me," Pea said with a wail.

Venus blanched. It was more likely that Pea would never ever speak to her again if she found out that while she'd been having sex with a stranger, her friend and mentor had been fornicating under a tree with the man with whom Pea was obsessed. By the genitalia of all the gods, how had she made such a total mess out of this night?

"Let's get out of here," Venus said, grabbing Pea's arm and beginning to steer her toward the parking lot.

Neither of them saw Griffin rush out of the restaurant and stand, hands on hips, scanning the crowd until he, too, was finally pulled reluctantly aboard one of the fire engines just moments before it drove away.

"Darling, drink your hot chocolate," Venus told Pea. "And wipe your face. You're done crying now."

"That's right, sluts probably don't ever cry over their...their..." Pea struggled with the vocabulary. "...their numerous nasty illicit encounters."

Venus tried unsuccessfully to hide her smile. "Pea, having one sexual encounter with a stranger does not make you promiscuous. And besides that, it's worse than archaic to believe that women can't take their pleasure as they will. It's restrictive and smacks of double standards. Doesn't the modern world allow women more freedom than that?"

"I suppose," Pea muttered into her mug. Then she glanced up at Venus. "I just feel like a fool."

"Why?"

Pea sighed. "I imagined this huge connection between him and me, and I got really, really intimate with him. But the truth is I don't know him at all. I mean, I was there to try to connect with Griffin, the man I've been thinking about for over a year, but I end up with another man's face between my legs."

"Tell me why you felt you had such a connection with the man," Venus said hastily, purposefully sliding the conversation away from Pea's Griffin infatuation.

"It's going to sound silly and romantic," Pea said.

"Which means I'll be able to understand perfectly. Tell me," Venus coaxed.

"Well, I just felt this incredible connection with him. It was like I could look into those amazing dark eyes of his and see his soul. And, somehow, it seemed like he and I were the same. It sounds stupid now, but then it felt like we had things in common - important things like not usually fitting in."

Venus raised a brow at that. "Really? How did you two meet?"

"He just appeared all of a sudden. It really was sweet. He thought he needed to rescue me from this jerk who didn't want to take no for an answer." Pea smiled for the first time since she'd left the restaurant. "He asked if he could buy me a drink, and I said okay. Then we talked and talked. He was sensitive and romantic and sexy. One thing led to another, and we were suddenly alone, and all I could think about was how amazing he felt and how much I wanted him." Pea finished in a rush, blushing furiously.

"Darling, you did nothing wrong. Well, except not learning his name," Venus said.

"But what about Griffin and - "

"Griffin wasn't the one who pursued you, this man was," Venus said slowly, studying Pea. Was now the right time to tell her that her supposed beloved Griffin had fornicated with and then discarded the Goddess of Love herself?

"I know, and I know it's probably wrong, but I can't help but still feel this thing for Griffin."

Pea's eyes started to shimmer with tears again, and Venus realized that now was definitely not the right time to tell her.

"Is this thing you feel actually for Griffin or for the idea of what Griffin represents to you?"

Venus asked gently.

"I don't know," Pea said.

"You are interested in the man you met tonight, aren't you?" Venus redirected the conversation again.

Pea nodded. "But I don't even know who he is."

The goddess smiled. "Of course you do. You said he's a fireman."

"Yeah, but there are like a zillion firemen in Tulsa."

"Well, darling, then we had better get to work." Venus sat up straighter, the seeds of a plan beginning to grow. Perhaps all Pea needed was to see this mystery man again, especially if she could compare his obvious interest in her with Griffin's obvious disinterest. Unless the rogue pretended interest in Pea so that he could use her and cast her aside, too. Then Venus knew what she'd do with him, and it wouldn't be pretty.

"Get to work? How?"

"I've been considering that." Venus tapped her fingernail against the mug. "In battle it is often best to engage one's enemy on one's own territory."

"Huh?"

"You need to see your fireman again."

"Griffin?" Pea perked up.

Venus frowned. "I meant your other fireman, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to see them both again." She lightened her tone. "It's always good for a woman to have choices."

"That does sound good." Pea nodded. "But how?"

"Your job."

"My job?"

"Exactly. Your job. You are in charge of educational and recreational instruction for the community. Am I correct?"

"Yeah."

"The firemen who were at the masquerade were all from the Midtown Fire Station. Correct?"

"Yeah."

"Then consider this - what if all of the men from the Midtown Fire Station were commanded to take instruction from your university."

"It's really just a community college," Pea said.

Venus waved her hand dismissively. "That is inconsequential. What is of consequence is that the firemen must come to your place of instruction - your place of power. And there you can learn more about both men and choose between them. Here's what I have in mind...."

Joe Daniels, training deputy chief for the Tulsa Fire Department, thought he'd died and gone straight to heaven when the blond beauty walked into his office the next morning. He shot to his feet, fiddling with his tie and sucking in his stomach.

"Deputy Chief Daniels, my name is Venus Pontia."

When he held out his hand for her to shake, she simply bowed her head slightly. He cleared his throat and wiped his sweaty, unshaken palm on his slacks.

"P-please, have a seat."

"Thank you, Chief Daniels."

She sat in the leather chair situated in front of his desk and crossed her incredibly long legs. He tried not to stare or stutter.

"Please call me Joe."

Her smile illuminated the room. "And you may call me Venus."

He thought no one had ever been better named.

"What can I do for you, Venus?"

"I know you're a very busy and important man, Joe, so I'll get right to the point. I'm working with Ms. Chamberlain at Tulsa Community College in the Continuing Education Department. It has come to our attention that some of your men, specifically the men at your Midtown Station, have been under quite a bit of stress lately."

Joe frowned, wondering what she knew that he didn't. He hadn't been aware the Midtown guys were having any problems at all. Hell, that group had just had a successful benefit last night. But before he could say anything her smile and the uncrossing and then recrossing of those incredible legs distracted him.

"Because of this stress, Ms. Chamberlain has created a series of classes for the Midtown firemen that will focus on teaching them relaxation techniques."

Joe opened and closed his mouth. What was she talking about?

"Oh, no need to thank us, darling. The outcome of the classes will be thanks enough." She handed him a paper. "Here are all the details. Be sure the first class reports to the Metro campus tomorrow morning at nine sharp."

"But, ma'am," he sputtered. "I can't possibly - "

Abruptly he lost his train of thought. It happened the same instant the extremely hot Venus waved her fingers at him, a little like she was saying a funny hello. Weird...really weird.

"I'm sorry, Joe, what were you saying?"

"Saying?" He couldn't seem to stop smiling at her. Good lord he felt fabulous!

"Yes, about the classes for the Midtown firemen."

He blinked and then his thoughts arranged themselves and he knew exactly what he'd been about to say.

"Damn good idea! Damn good. I'll have the men there first thing in the morning. I've heard reports that the Midtown Station was under stress, and this is the perfect answer to the problem."

"Well, Joe, it really was your idea. After all, you called Ms. Chamberlain's office and asked her to create the class. I'm just following up on your instincts, which are truly commendable." The beautiful Venus beamed and then wiggled her fingers at him again. God, he couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so good! And it had been his idea, now that he really thought about it.

"Excellent, Venus! Excellent!"

"Thank you, Joe. Please call us again any time our college can come to the aid of the fire department." She stood, smiled at him, and then sauntered from his office.

"Now that is one fine looking woman," he muttered, and then whistled low to himself. But he didn't have time to sit there gathering wool. He had work to do. Every one of those Midtown boys not on duty in the morning had to be at that college destressing class, and he was just the man to make it happen. He lifted his phone and started dialing.