“Because I like it. There are a people who live far south of here, across the sea. Greeks. They use bows in war, as do their gods. One of their gods, Apollo, gave me my first bow.” He didn’t see gods from other religions often, but when he did, he preferred them over his fellow Celtic deities.
“Other gods who use the bow in war? And people, too?”
“Yes.”
She smiled, and he realized that the sight made his chest warm almost unbearably.
“I think I would like these people,” she said.
He smiled too, then frowned at the unfamiliar sensation of his lips turning upward.
She stopped in the shade of a large oak and asked, “Could I hold your bow?”
His hand tightened briefly on the weapon, but he loosened it and handed it over. A strange bolt of lust shot through him as he watched her hands trace over the fine woodworking.
He stepped toward her, but shock pulled him up short. He wanted to touch a mortal? Not possible. They were a step above animals. But the feelings surging through him now… They were cataclysmic.
“It’s beautiful.” She gazed up at him. Her eyes could hold him captive if he weren’t careful.
It’s yours. He barely stopped the words from leaving his mouth. Did she use some type of spell to ensnare him?
If she did, he couldn’t bring himself to care.
His hand twitched to reach out and touch her as a thousand unrecognizable feelings and desires surged through him. They made his skin tingle and his cock harden.
Understanding of his desires dawned in her eyes. Her lips parted and she took a step forward.
Unable to help himself, he reached out and palmed her cheek. The contact with her soft skin sent a spike of pleasure through him that was so strong he nearly doubled over. Was this why the Greek gods dallied with mortals so much?
He leaned down and kissed her, an animal noise rising from his throat as her soft lips parted beneath his own. His cock punched against his trousers as she pressed against him, hot and soft and unlike anything he’d ever felt before.
There was nothing like this in Otherworld. He tore away. It was something he couldn’t have in Otherworld, and he couldn’t have it here either. Contact with mortals was forbidden. The law had been in place since before he was born. He’d never really questioned the details of why because he’d never really cared. But the law was in place, nonetheless.
This was impossible.
A whirlpool of rage sucked him under. There was no way to save his own hide without killing her. Now he desired her too? And admired her for her strength and skill and determination? It was unbearable.
“What’s wrong?” Confusion clouded her eyes.
“You,” he growled. He had to scare her off, because fate knew he wouldn’t be the one to turn away. “Go. Now.”
“But—”
He yanked his bow back from her. “I was sent to earth to kill you. I’m terribly close to doing—”
“Andrasta!” A deep male voice called from the forest. Camulos spun toward the voice and nocked an arrow in his bow.
“No!” Desperation laced Andrasta’s voice as she tried to pull his arm down. Her strength was that of a fly’s.
“Go,” he rasped.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of her desperate gaze. She fled in the direction of the voice.
CHAPTER FIVE
Amazon River Basin, Present Day
The sun was a miserable bitch, shining in her eyes like this. Ana rubbed them and blinked groggily up at Cam, who stood at the wheel. “What time is it?”