A soft buzzing wormed through my desperation to have him inside of me. A phone ringing somewhere.

A phone ringing!

Mine had been in my pocket when I’d fallen in the water. It was surely dead, which meant Mordecai wouldn’t be able to get a hold of me!

Panic blared, cutting through my passion-dizzied mind.

I yanked my hands up, leaned back, and then shoved with my palms, hitting Kieran square in the chest.

“No,” I said, taking a big step back before remembering the state of my borrowed sweats.

My feet caught on the fabric, but my weight continued to move backward. I staggered and then tipped, stupidly expecting to be saved and instead landing right on my tailbone.

The last traces of desire fled, and I blinked in the chill of the air, getting my bearings. The sweats were around my ankles and the sweatshirt lay wide open, exposing my mess of a bra and my nipples, still budded, sticking out through it.

“That’s embarrassing.” I yanked the sweatshirt closed and quickly zipped it up. I struggled to my feet, this time stupidly thinking I’d get a hand. Still a nope.

Kieran stood stock-still, looking confused, surprised, and wary, his large hard-on raging against the confines of his briefs.

“That’s probably also embarrassing, given the change in our situation.” I brushed my wet hair out of my face before bending for my clothes. A pat and a few squeezes revealed empty pockets. No phone, dead or otherwise.

I glanced down at my sopping purse, but knew it had been in my pocket. I spun, looking back toward the pool, before hurrying that way.

“Alexis, wait…” Kieran’s voice was wispy, completely unlike him. He clearly wasn’t used to girls saying no when he’d gotten them that far.

“I shouldn’t have let him get me that far,” I quietly berated myself, stopping at the edge of the pool and looking down. The sweats slipped down to my thighs before I could grab them and haul them back up.

Water shimmered on the surface, distorting my view, but even still, a certain sleek black object that I’d worked very hard for could be seen at the very bottom.

My heart sank. It had been in there for a while now. I should’ve had Kieran fish it out before I’d shoved him away and shouted no in his face.

“Okay. Surely there has to be a net around here somewhere…”

“I’ve got it.” Kieran sauntered up like he owned the world, his hard-on still going strong. No embarrassment about that fact bled into his poise, gait, or expression. He didn’t even seem annoyed. It was business as usual for him, like the moment before hadn’t happened.

In a smooth motion, he dove into the freezing water, straight down to my phone. He grabbed it without hunting, turned, and kicked back to the surface, utterly at home in the water. Of course, he was a descendant of the god of the sea and the son of one of the sea’s creatures. He belonged in the water.

He grabbed the lip of the pool and pulled himself out. Without a word, he handed my phone over.

“Shit,” I breathed, taking it in hand, not even bothered when the sweats slipped down around my ankles again. “What if Mordecai was trying to get a hold of me?” I looked up at him. “Do you think my phone is dead forever?”

He studied me for a quiet moment before glancing at my phone. Without a word, he turned and strutted away.

A twinge of guilt pinched my gut. “I should probably apologize for how I handled that other thing,” I mumbled, watching his muscular backside as he moved away. “Then again…” I tore my gaze away and turned my phone over in my hands. “He’s the reason my phone is possibly dead, and that I might’ve missed a call from the medical office, and that my life has been turned upside down.” I lowered my eyebrows. “He deserved that harsh no. And maybe a kick to go along with it. Hopefully he takes the hint—”

“I have superhuman hearing, Alexis,” he called from the beginning of the obstacle course, interrupting my private conversation with myself. Rude. “You’re mine, and you just proved you feel it. I protect what’s mine.” I saw him bend for something, but couldn’t see what. Probably his phone. “We’ll talk soon about my job offer.”

I caught a glimpse of him stalking away before he turned a corner. The soft click of a door said he’d gone.

All I could do was stare in disbelief for a moment.

Between showing up to the appointment and this moment, I’d made my situation infinitely worse.

“Crap,” I said quietly, letting the silence soak into me. “Crap.”

After a few deep breaths, I worked my way back to my clothes, only to stop in confusion when all I saw was a wet stain. Confused, I glanced around the floor. Nothing beyond a few mats and a scrap of paper that had been discarded.

“He took my fucking clothes?” I put out my hands, opened my mouth, and dramatically turned in a circle. “What the…”

The guy was a lunatic. There was no other explanation. Power had gone to his head, cracked something vital, let sense and reality seep out, and left behind only a great face with a breathtaking body.

And now that great face and breathtaking body had my good jeans and non-stained shirt.

“What a royal dickface fucker. I hope I get the chance to kick him right in that huge dong of his.”

Muttering to myself, in between cursing the giant sweats that didn’t want to stay up, I made my way to the closest exit that everyone else had used. Double doors housed a sign warning people away from Demigod Kieran’s private fitness quarters.

“There’s more than one door, you bunch of nitwits,” I groused, shoving the doors open and leaving them that way.

Three steps out, a presence niggled at my awareness. Already annoyed, I stopped abruptly and spun around. A half-naked man crouched behind a fake plant, watching me with a straight face.

It was the blond guy with still-damp hair. And now that he was closer, I saw that he was the same guy who’d been standing guard over my car after the freak show.

“Hello, Magoo,” he said nonchalantly, his smile large and beautiful and about to get a foot in it.

“Fantastic.” I didn’t know what else to say about that nickname.

I clutched the large sweats a little tighter, holding my wet purse out a little farther from my body, as I turned away. “You didn’t even bother to put on a shirt before starting your detail, huh?”

I started walking. He was big, toned, and moved like he was lethal. If he intended to follow me around, there wasn’t a lot I could do about it besides get home as soon as possible.

I needed to come up with a plan.

“I worked hard on this body. Why not show it off?” he said, drifting behind me.

Obviously that wasn’t the reason why he wasn’t wearing a shirt, but I didn’t bother commenting.

At the stairs to the second floor, I glanced back as I walked around the banister and onto the stairs. With a start, I realized he was gone. Somewhere along the way, he’d drifted out of sight again without my knowing.

I didn’t know if that was good or bad.

The waiting room was empty but for the guy at the check-in desk with a phone to his ear. Something told me he’d dialed my number and was hoping I would pick up.

“Hey,” I said, hurrying up to him. “Sorry I’m late. I dropped my phone in the pool.”

“Ah.” He beamed at me and lowered the phone to its cradle. “We were starting to lose hope. I’ll just bring him up for you.”

A few moments later, the door in the corner of the room opened and a desperately drained Mordecai trudged out, leaning heavily on an orderly.

“Oh my God, what did they do to you?” I asked as I rushed forward, my heart in my throat.

“It’s fine…” Mordecai blinked at my outfit. “Where are your clothes?”

“Do you want help, ma’am?” the orderly asked.

“No. I got it.” I ducked into Mordecai’s outstretched arm and slung my arm around his middle without thinking.

I’d let go of my sweats.

“Crap.” I grabbed at them with my other hand, slapping the wet purse against my leg. “Shoot.”

“Ma’am—”