Dogs and Goddesses Read online

  “Nice,” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the rain when she reached him. “That’s a hybrid that’s propping you up. If you knock it over, its owner is going to be annoyed.”

  “It’s ours,” Sam said, reaching to open the door for her.

  “Ours.” Shar blinked at him. “Where did you get the money to buy an SUV?”

  “They gave it to me,” Sam said, his hand on the door handle.

  “They did.”

  “Christopher took his car into the shop to get an oil change and we looked at the showroom.” He looked at her through the rain, puzzled by her reaction, oblivious to the storm.

  Well, he was a god. With an SUV.

  That made no sense.

  “Okay, tell me this again. You and Christopher went to get his oil changed.” That was even less believable than somebody giving Sam a car. “How do you know Christopher?”

  “I met him on campus.”

  “On campus.” Shar frowned. “You went to the math building?”

  “I’ve been everywhere. It’s good to meet people. I was talking to his cousin, Gen, and he came up and asked for an introduction.”

  “I bet he did,” Shar said. “He’s very protective of her.”

  “When he found out I was living with you, he asked me to help him move her to Abby’s.”

  “Quite a coincidence,” Shar said.

  Sam shrugged. “It’s a very small town.”

  “And you know everybody in it.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Right.” The rain beat down on them while she processed it all, Sam fitting into her hometown, not just because of natural god-charm, but because he worked at it. Well, he was born to be a leader, so that made sense. She looked up at him, the warmth and the rhythm of the storm making her skin hum, and he seemed so … real.

  “What?” he said.

  You look like you belong here. Maybe they could go home and make love in the rain.

  In his SUV.

  “Okay, so Christopher needed an oil change … ,” she said, prompting him.

  “And I went with him. Do you want to get out of the rain?”

  “I like the rain.” A lot. Boy, you look good wet. “And then they gave you a car. See, that’s the part I’m having trouble with.”

  “The man at the showroom said that if he could take a picture of me with the car and I drove it around town, he would give it to me.”

  “A whole car.” Shar went around to the front to check the plates. They were temporary tags, not showroom plates, from the only Toyota dealer in town.

  Sam came to stand beside her in the rain. “People give things to the gods.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Christopher said it was all right. He showed me how to drive.”

  “Christopher did.”

  “I told the man it had to be blue. Because you like blue.”

  “I do. Thank you. Why were you with Christopher again?”

  “We were working on our game.”

  “Your game.” Shar had a sudden bizarre vision of Sam and Christopher playing tennis. Very badly.

  “Christopher is designing a video game. It’s a war game. Based on the Assyrians.”

  “You’re kidding me.” Christopher Mackenzie was a video game nerd? Then the other shoe dropped. “The Assyrians. It’s based on Mesopotamian battles?”

  “Yes,” Sam said. “That’s my part. I tell him what it was like. We’ve been working on it for a while. We’re calling it Slayer of Demons.”

  “For a while,” Shar said, her breath going. “That’s where you’ve been going in the evenings?”

  “Yes.” Sam looked at her, confused. “Christopher says it’ll take months, but it—”

  “Every night you’ve left, you’ve gone to Christopher’s house?” Shar said, eyes on the prize.

  “Yes.” Sam cast his eyes up. “This storm is getting worse.”

  “For two weeks, you’ve been going to Christopher’s?” Shar said.

  “Yes. What are you upset about?”

  “I thought you were with other women,” Shar said.

  Sam looked down at her.

  “Well, you were sure with a lot of them before that,” Shar said, defensive now.

  “Before you,” Sam said, patiently.

  “Oh.” Shar blinked up at him through the rain. “My god. The Glittery HooHa.”

  “What?” Sam said.

  “You were faithful.”

  “Well, you’d sacrifice me in my sleep if I touched another woman.” He looked as stunned as she felt. “You thought I was with others all this time? And you still came to me?”

  “I love you,” she said, her heart in her throat. “I didn’t like it, I hated it, but I love you.…”

  They stared at each other, dumbfounded while the rain beat down around them, and then Sam said, “I love you, too.”

  Shar grabbed his shirt and pulled him down to her and kissed him, crying against his mouth, so obliterated by happiness and relief and the rain and the heat and him, steady and strong and he loved her—

  “I need you.” She pushed him back against the hood of the car.

  “Here?” he said as she stripped off her underpants and threw them over his shoulder onto the grass.

  She stepped up on the bumper and pinned him to the hood, crazy with lust and relief and love.

  “Now,” she said, and he said, “People are watching,“ and she really didn’t care, she was a fucking goddess, but she arched back and spread her arms out and pulled the storm to them—finish HERE—and the rain gushed down everywhere like a silvery curtain as she shoved down his jeans, and then his hands were sliding up her sopping wet skirt to pull her on top of him, and he kissed her the way he always did, but more this time.

  “On the hood of our new car,” he said, and laughed as the rain obliterated everything around them, everything but them.

  “Think of it as an altar,” she said against his mouth, and kissed him, sliding her tongue into him as he pushed into her, and they found their rhythm, moving together as the rain pulsed around them, and Shar threw back her head and laughed, too, exuberant in ecstasy, safe in his arms, on top of their new SUV. Sam laced his fingers in her hair and brought her mouth to his and Shar gathered every iota of emotion she’d stored up and let it go, coming against him, convulsing and crying out and taking him with her, exploding together, along with three streetlights, a car window, and a small sapling near the math building.

  The rain slowed to a drizzle, and Sam stood up and dropped her to her feet, using her as a shield to zip his jeans. Then he looked up and said, “The sun’s out. Why is it still raining?”

  Shar stretched her arms over her head as her wet dress clung to her, her body loose and satisfied. “My life just became perfect.”

  “You’re easy,” Sam said. “Sex on the hood of an SUV and your—”

  “And a lover who’s faithful,” Shar said, and kissed him again, loving him so much she was dizzy with him.

  “I didn’t think I had a choice,” Sam said, coming up for air but still holding her close.

  “Do you want a choice?” Shar said, clutching him.

  “I made a choice.” He kissed her again, and somebody in a car going past honked at them.

  “Come on,” she said. “Take me for a ride in your new wheels, and then we’ll go home and I’ll take you for a ride.”

  He walked her to the passenger door with his arm around her and opened it for her, and Shar slid into the front seat and heard a bark. She turned and saw Wolfie, lying down on the backseat, sitting on top of Milton, who was taking it pretty philosophically, and ignoring Bikka, who, unbelievably, was sitting on the seat beside them.

  “What are you doing?” she said, and then realized they’d been in the car the whole time.

  “That could have scarred me for life,” Wolfie said. “And Milton. For god’s sake.”

  “For god’s sake,” Milton whined from under him.

  “Wher