Lame, with harsh features, brooding eyes, a wiry beard crackling with flame, and ropy muscles, the god mortals call Hephaestus is nobody's idea of perfection. Indeed, far from it. A lingering odor of burnt solder clings to him, adding to his manly stench of sweat and musk. His bed is narrow and lonely, his sheets filled with soot and regret.<br><br>Blacksmith to Olympus, he hides from his kin on an island in the Mediterranean, commissioned to forge a hero's sword from unbreakable metal. But a brief tryst with a minor water god distracts him. Aean is everything Hephaestus is not -- young, beautiful, sexy. He stirs in Hephaestus a savage lust the smith has never felt before.<br><br>Now Hephaestus wants Aean for his own, and he won't rest until the water god is his.

To Love a God

The forge is a mess. Hephaestus sets things


right again, returning tools to their proper places, stoking the


fires, straightening the projects he should have been working on. A


breastplate for Artemis, a pair of winged shoes for Hermes, that


sword his kin had commissioned. It has to be reforged—the tip broke


during the eruption, rendering the blade useless. Which means


melting the metal down and recasting it again. It’s just too


fragile in this state to let it sit around unworked for long. This


type of steel needs to be finished before it cools if it’s to


retain its magical properties. It can slay demons and monsters


alike and, once forged correctly, is unbreakable by any force known


to man or god. No one else but a smith of Hephaestus’s considerable


skill can control such steel. No one else would dare try.


But until completed, the steel is as brittle


as shale. Hephaestus catches the end of the blade in one hand and


Chapter 7