Hello, darlings! Let’s get over Hump Day with a teaser from Book Three of my Olympic Cove series, Deep Water. So, what did happen with Poseidon and Medusa that resulted in Medusa being turned into a Gorgon? Here’s my take on the event.

Enjoy, and make sure to hit the list after the teaser to see other great Mid Week Teases!

“What did happen, then?” Hades asked.

Poseidon took in a deep breath of the salt air, letting the memories roll over him with their jagged edges. “I didn’t even know of her existence until that night. Amphitrite had said nothing to me about finding her.” His smile was bitter. “With good reason, as it turned out. I had been drinking with Zeus and Hermes in Zeus’s palace, and had gotten very … merry, I suppose you could call it. At some point I decided to return to my palace and see if Amphitrite had returned. I felt quite relaxed, and had hopes of lying with her.”

The guilt in his gut churned, sinking its knives deeper. “And then, on the steps of Zeus’s hall, I ran into Aphrodite. Quite literally.”

****

Well into his cups, Poseidon stopped, aware that he had just caromed into something small and engagingly bouncy. He blinked down at a head of massed ringlets the color of honey, smelling of rose and jasmine, and smiled sloppily.

“Well met, Goddess of Love,” he said, rather proud of himself for not slurring as he stepped back. “What a pleasure to bump into you. Heh.”

The stunning goddess frowned at him. “Poseidon,” she said, eyes narrowing in the light of the torches of Zeus’s courtyard. “You reek of the vintner’s.”

He waved a hand in the general direction of the hall. “My brother has been most generous with his wine tonight. But what could bring a lovely creature such as yourself out at this time of night? Surely you should be tucked up snugly in bed?” He grinned, weaving just a bit. “Or is Ares off overseeing some tedious mortal combat?”

The goddess’s eyes flashed at that. It was no secret that Hera, upon seeing Aphrodite after her emergence from the waves off Cythera, had sought to forestall her husband’s lust for the beautiful new goddess. As the Goddess of Marriage, she suggested that Aphrodite’s loveliness would be the spur to a new War of the Gods and recommended that she be married to their son Hephaestus, the lame god of the forge, thus short-circuiting any divine battle over Aphrodite’s favors.

Zeus, having seen the warning glint in his consort’s eye, reluctantly gave his approval and Aphrodite was married that afternoon to Hephaestus. Aphrodite had recoiled at the sight of her new husband and refused his bed. Soon afterwards she chose Ares, the God of War, as her lover, and the two had been on-and-off romantic partners for centuries.

That being said, their relationship was tactfully never mentioned, and certainly never in such bawdy terms. “You have had far too much to drink, Sea Lord,” she said, tossing her head. “I have no idea where Lord Ares is, nor would I have any reason to know this.”

“Hush, lass.” He patted her kindly on the shoulder, making her stagger a bit. “Who you warm your bed with is your own business. I mean nothing by it.” There was a pleasant stirring under his chiton at the thought of bed, and he hoped that Amphitrite had returned from her travels and was lying in their own at the moment. “In fact, I’m of a mood to do some warming myself if my consort is home, so if you don’t mind—”

The goddess’s offended expression hardened for a moment, then eased into a sweet smile. “Amphitrite?” she said. “I know for a fact that she is not at your hall, Sea Lord. She’s with your agapetos.”

Some of the alcoholic haze left Poseidon’s brain, but only some of it. “My—what?”

“Your agapetos? Didn’t she tell you?” Aphrodite said, blue eyes wide and innocent. “You have a second mate, and she’s quite the young beauty. Her name is Medusa, if memory serves me right, and she is a handmaiden at Athena’s temple.”

Poseidon blinked at that. Both he and Amphitrite had agreed that there was another mate out there somewhere waiting for them. Hadn’t he spent decades winnowing through the loveliest nymphs, demigoddesses, and maidens he could find searching for her? And there she was, practically under his nose.

A wisp of common sense poked through his inebriation. Yes, there she was, in Athena’s temple. And that grey-eyed battleaxe isn’t likely to hand her over, agapetos or not.

He straightened, barely weaving. “Thank you for your information, Lady Aphrodite,” he announced. “It is much appreciated.”

An odd, self-satisfied look sleeked over the goddess’s face. “May you receive what you so richly deserve, Lord Poseidon,” she said sweetly, turning and heading off to her own palace.

It didn’t occur to him until it was far too late that Aphrodite’s parting words weren’t a blessing.

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