Now he mocked her, and that wouldn't do. Sage wasn't conceited by any means, but it was hard not to feel like he found her grotesque and annoying. A crazy notion considering he was the one with cloven hooves and a bad attitude, not her.
Of course, she hadn't gotten to see his legs past the hooves since his jeans covered him all up. Did the hair go all the way up to his waist? Did he have a tail? A human—
"You're staring at my crotch."
She didn't blush easily, but her cheeks heated as her gaze shot up to his face. A muscle twitched at the edge of his extremely kissable lips. Like he wanted to smile or laugh but refused to allow it. "Habit. Sorry."
He blinked rapidly. "Uh…really?"
"Men look at my ass and my tits. I look at their ass and their crotch. Turnabout is fair play."
His lips parted, but he couldn't seem to come up with a response.
Sage grinned. Knocking his attitude down a peg or two would do him good. She gestured at his shirt, seeking to change the subject and hopefully his mood. "Like Led Zeppelin, do you?"
He shrugged. "They're all right."
That was all he had to say about it apparently. After a long moment, Sage tried to get him talking again. "Your dad's favorite band or something?"
"My father died long before the band existed." No hint of a joke was evident in his tone.
This time she was the one at the loss for words. "You don't look a day over twenty-one." In fact, one could easily assume he'd escaped a fraternity house.
"Add another three thousand to that number, give or take."
Holy shit. "Why tell me that?" Was it even true?
He grunted in annoyance and slouched down against the cushions, hooking his elbow on the back of the couch, and faced her. "You're a nymph. Might as well give you a history lesson on your roots." He chuckled. "Roots."
Sage chose to ignore his amusement at his pun since she didn't understand what his age had to do with her history. Unless…"We aren't related, are we?"
At this, he laughed. It irritated her that even his laugh sounded sexy. "Most likely not."
"But…you don't know?"
"Little girl, even if we share an ancestor somewhere, it would be three thousand or so years removed." His smile quickly faded. "Not that it matters anyway, since we can't hook up."
"Yet."
"Ever." He scowled. "You need to come to terms with it because I already have."
She rubbed her temples and sighed. He was so frustrating. Truly, she had never met anyone whose stubborn streak was as strong as hers. "If all you need is a nymph and an eclipse to break your curse, why won't you let me help you? Is it because it involves sex?"
Adonis stormed up from the couch and started pacing. "I already told you. I'm physically blocked from being intimate with a nymph because I have an extra curse on top of the first one." He laughed again, but no humor warmed the sound, and he ran his hands through his hair, appearing slightly deranged. "On the one hand, I don't feel the effects of the first one, which is absolutely amazing, but on the other…I can't be free of the first one because of the second. I'm damned either way."
Sage leaned forward and placed her elbows on her knees. "Let's assume I understood half of what that meant. Why are you cursed at all?"
If she thought the sound of his laugh before had been cold, it was nothing compared to the stare he leveled on her now. "You do not want to hear that tragic tale, little girl."
He was impossible. "You're the one who wanted to teach me about my roots. And stop calling me little girl, old man."
The corner of his lips twitched. "Fine, since you want to know, maybe you'll understand why you shouldn't want to help me." He crossed his arms. "When the Satyroi were cursed, Apollo ensured that nymphs, our only way of breaking said curse, were hidden from us. If they chose to show themselves and have sex with us under a Satyr Moon, the curse would be broken. If a satyr and a nymph slept together before that, the satyr could never break his curse."
"Geez. What did you do to piss off Apollo?" As she said it, her eyes widened. Wait, the gods are real too? She'd assumed before, but now he'd as sure as confirmed it. It was possible Gaia had heard her in the woods and sent Adonis to her. Had kept drawing her to this place so they would eventually cross paths.
Adonis growled. Well, it sounded like a growl at least. "Pan pissed off Dionysus, who in turn pissed off Apollo, and then all the men present when it happened got punished for not stepping in. Like any of us mere mortals could have done anything against two Olympians."
"Whoa." She scooted closer to the edge of the couch. "So, what did Pan do?"
"Fucked the wrong woman."
Yep, sounded like a Greek god, all right. Almost all the stories had to do with someone sticking their prick where it shouldn't have gone. "And what did Dionysus do?"
Adonis leaned against the wall. The back of his head and the tips of his horns thwacked against the drywall. "Do you ever stop asking questions?"
"Nope."
What good would denying her the answer do if she would only keep asking different questions anyway? "Dionysus killed a nymph Apollo wanted to fuck. After nearly raping the woman Pan had just fucked and turned into a nymph—and before you ask, I don't know how he did it."
"And all of you…stood around and watched?" How horrible.
"A god of Olympus had been promised a virgin, and Pan had already fucked her earlier that day. The truth came out." He rubbed the bridge of his nose. "What would you have had us do?"
"Speak up? Riot in the streets."
Adonis didn't look
