Chasing Terpsichore (Muses Across Time) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Legal Page

  Title Page

  Book Description

  Dedication

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  New Excerpt

  About the Author

  Publisher Page

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  Chasing Terpsichore

  ISBN # 978-1-78184-498-4

  ©Copyright Maggie Mitchell 2013

  Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright September 2013

  Edited by Sue Meadows

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2013 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL, United Kingdom.

  Warning:

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Total-e-sizzling and a sexometer of 1.

  This story contains 86 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book containing 9 pages.

  Muses Across Time

  CHASING TERPSICHORE

  Maggie Mitchell

  Book one in the Muses Across Time series

  When a Greek goddess lands in modern times there’s bound to be trouble.

  Banished from her home in Olympus and trapped in modern day Australia, Terpsichore does her best to fit in, but when she is mistaken for a prostitute she needs the services of straight-laced solicitor James Barrington to help.

  James Barrington is a man on a fast track to a stellar legal career. Being involved with a pole-dancing tango teacher is not part of the plan.

  Together they fight a Titan rebel and undertake a journey through the Underworld but can they find each other on the way?

  Dedication

  For everyone who helped me keep faith in this one. I love you all. You know who you are!

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Veuve Clicquot: Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin

  Holden: GM Holden Ltd

  Oscar: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  Corolla: Toyota Motor Corporation

  Hercules: Renaissance Pictures

  Alice: Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

  Chapter One

  Sydney, Australia

  Present day

  A shrouded figure stood alone in a secluded corner of the club. He scanned the area, looking from one side of the smoke-filled room to the other.

  These mortals disgust me with their decadence, but perhaps they shall serve their purpose and assist me with my revenge.

  A lone dancer stood upon a high platform, encased in a cage to prevent human contact. He watched in fascination as she danced, oblivious to his or anyone else’s presence. She moved with grace and elegance, her body the epitome of feminine perfection. She rubbed her hips against the cold metal surface, then wrapped her muscular leg around the central pole supporting her while she arched her back. She thrust her firm breasts high while she sighed with the pleasure of letting her inhibitions go. It was almost a shame to destroy all that beauty, but he couldn’t allow himself to feel guilt for taking her life away from her. After what Zeus had put him through, he would not rest until he had his revenge. He would make her suffering great, and thus punish Zeus in the most effective way possible—through his children.

  His precious daughters will forever be trapped in the Underworld and I will have my revenge on the one who destroyed my life.

  * * * *

  Oh, it feels so good!

  It never failed to move her. The thrill she experienced every time she danced here at The Cave, Sydney’s premier dance club. She didn’t do it very often, but she loved it. It was the closest Corey got to the feeling of being home at Pieria, near Mount Olympus. Who would have thought that Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, would be pole dancing in a fancy discotheque in Sydney? Certainly not Corey herself, although she had wished for the power to travel to other dimensions—little had she known that one day she would be doing just that. Except she had no idea how Hera had sent her here, or, more to the point, how to get home.

  Oh the irony. Once she’d looked down on those who served her but now she was one of the ones who served. Wouldn’t her family be shocked to know she worked for money, and, worse than that, she was a tango teaching pole dancer!

  She giggled as she pictured the scene in her father’s court. Zeus had a pretty strong opinion on manual labour and working for payment—especially his progeny. Gods and goddesses should be served, not the other way around. He’d probably lock her up for a month if he found out—or worse. If I ever find my way back home to Olympus, that is.

  No point in worrying about that right now, she thought as she took another ankle spin around the pole. She jumped when someone’s hand reached up from below her platform and grabbed her ankle through the bars of the cage. She scanned the crowd and found the culprit. A randy, twenty-something guy with a stupid grin was attempting to slide his palm higher up her calf.

  Oh no you don’t!

  She lifted her foot in an attempt to shake him off, but he dug in his fingers and gripped harder. Great. Just great. Even though The Cave was more of a retro sixties club, occasionally some overenthusiastic patron hoped for a bit more of a show—just her luck to have one of those idiots zero in on her tonight. Her irritation increased when her second attempt to dislodge him failed and his sweaty skin sent shivers of revulsion through her. A pounding started inside her head and her eyes flashed fire and light, aiming directly at her captive’s offending body part

  Holy crap. Did she just send a fireball at that boy? Her powers must finally be coming back.

  Yay!

  But this probably wasn’t the time to rejoice because she prayed to the gods that she hadn’t hurt him. Annoying thing that he was, he was still an innocent mortal. Even as she’d thought it, she marvelled at how she’d changed. Back home she wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

  Amazing what living with mortals can do for you.

  The young man released her leg instantly, as he fell down to the floor below. “Ow! What the f—?” He waved his hand back and forth, blowing on his fingers before dunking them in his glass of beer.

  “She burned me, the bitch!”

  One of his mates laughed and slapped him on the back. “How could she burn you, dude? All you did was touch her leg. She didn’t even move.”

  He pulled his hand out of the glass and inspected it. Corey leaned over the cage to get a look. Nothing. No marks, no blisters, no redness and now, apparently, no pain.

 
“Shit, this is just too weird,” said the boy. “Let’s get the hell out of here. I’ve had enough of this place.”

  Relieved to find that she hadn’t accidentally caused the boy harm, Corey watched the group leave and sighed. She’d either have to give up the pole-dancing gig, or have her cage elevated higher. She loved being at The Cave but she’d only agreed to dance here if she could be out of reach of the patrons. As much as she enjoyed the dancing, she didn’t want to be so close to the audience. Having strangers try to touch her wasn’t something she was willing to put up with. She shuddered to think of what might have happened if that incident had happened at home. If that young man had even touched her with a whisker in her homeland, her father would have executed him for daring to lay a finger on one of his offspring.

  She hadn’t meant the young man any harm, but she hadn’t known her powers would decide to come back at that moment. Normally the mortal Corey wouldn’t have lost her temper, but she’d had a particularly crappy day so far. Her students had been extra trying and today would probably set a new world record for having her foot stamped on.

  However, when she thought about it, of all the things she missed about home, she didn’t miss the brutal consequences. In fact life here among the mortals in Australia was actually pretty darn good. She danced away her days teaching at Terpsichore’s Tango school, and a couple of nights a month she indulged herself with pole dancing at The Cave.

  Of course, her friends didn’t know about her real identity. She wasn’t stupid. They’d lock her away if she ever mentioned it. Not for one minute would they believe that she was Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance, goddess, and daughter of Zeus. Heck, from what she’d learned about society here in Sydney, she wouldn’t believe her either. To them she was just Corey, a

  dance teacher, and that’s the way she wanted it to stay. Apart from her penchant for having fun, she was through with being the centre of attention, so being a slightly quirky dance teacher who was accepted at face value was just fine with her.

  She stopped dancing, giggling to herself as she thought about it. It was probably true her friends thought of her as more than just a tad eccentric. More to the point, they probably thought she was a lot eccentric. She shrugged. It didn’t really matter anymore. Here she could get away with it. So what if her clothes always made a fashion statement and she liked to have fun as often as she could? Did it matter that she thought sleeping was overrated? She didn’t know how long she was going to be here so there was little time to get bogged down with seriousness when there was some fun to be had.

  But it wasn’t all about the fun. There was something else about her that her friends didn’t know. This was probably the most surprising change she’d made since she’d arrived in this time. She’d started teaching underprivileged kids from the community centre and for the first time in her life she knew the joy of doing something for others and not expecting anything back. Who knew? She actually felt pretty darn good about it and if that made her eccentric, then so be it.

  Her sister Calliope was always saying one never knew what was around the corner, and Corey was living proof of that. One minute she had been at home with her family and poof, she was trapped here in another time, another place and another dimension.

  Hera had a lot to answer for, but Corey had to admit that she’d learned a lot about herself since she’d been here. When and if she did return home, her family would find her changed, and she sure as heck was going to show them just how much she’d missed them.

  After unlocking her cage from the inside, Corey threw out the rope ladder and climbed down to the back of the platform. Her lungs closed in on her from the smoke haze as she reached the bottom rung. She’d had enough for tonight. Using her powers on that kid had surprised the heck out of her. She’d forgotten what it felt like and she wasn’t sure she even liked it now. At least he didn’t seem to be any worse for the experience. It was a solid reminder to her that she really needed to be less conspicuous. Being a goddess meant she had a perfect body shape that many men liked looking at and women seemed to envy. From now on she’d have to tone down her looks, especially if her powers were coming back. She didn’t need another accidental zap happening. Her powers did seem a bit rusty and she needed to take things slowly while she figured out how she could use them to get back home.

  She sneaked out of the back door and made her way down the dark alley towards her car. She rested her body against the wall in the lane way, and leant forward to take off her high heels so she could rub her aching feet. The sound of a police siren startled her as she slipped the shoes back on and peered out of the alleyway to see what was happening at the front of the club.

  Oh crap, it’s a raid. So much for staying inconspicuous.

  Ducking back into the alley she prayed to the gods that the police hadn’t seen her. All she wanted to do was go home. When the ruckus calmed down, she decided to take her chances and stepped outside. When she was almost to the end of the block and in sight of her car, she breathed a sigh of relief.

  She felt a hand on her shoulder, scaring the bejeezus out of her.

  She turned her head to find a cop stopping her from moving, accompanied by that kid from the bar.

  “That’s her, officer. She’s the one,” said the kid, smirking at her as he took a step forward.

  She opened her mouth as the surprise set in. “What the heck are you talking about?”

  The cop looked from the young man to Corey, taking his time, his eyes moving up and down her smutty attire.

  Oh great. The one time I don’t take the time to change into my street clothes and this happens. “Look, officer, I can explain—”

  The kid grabbed onto the cop’s arm. “Who are you going to believe, the word of a hooker or the son of a prominent judge?”

  This kid was beginning to annoy her big time.

  The cop lifted his eyebrows and sighed. “I’m sorry, miss, but soliciting a minor is an offence. I’ll have to take you in and charge you.”

  “What? I didn’t solicit anyone. I was only dancing. I didn’t even speak to him—hang on, did you say minor? Then what was he doing in The Cave in the first place?”

  The kid smirked again. She was really beginning to dislike this spoilt brat.

  “I wasn’t in any club,” he said, poking his tongue out at her while the cop wasn’t looking. “You propositioned me here in the alley, bitch!”

  The policeman stepped between the two of them as Corey tried to move closer to her accuser. As she restrained herself from an overwhelming urge to zap him again, the boy must have picked up on her train of thought and retreated. “Careful, officer,” he said as he stepped backwards. “She burns.”

  “That’s enough, kid,” said the cop as he placed a small notebook in his shirt pocket. “I have your details, now move on. Show’s over. I’ll take it from here.” The cop took her arm, gesturing for her to place her hands behind her back before he attached plastic restraints to her wrists. He then ushered her towards a police car that conveniently waited on the corner, pushing her into the back seat with his hand firmly on her head.

  Oh my goddess, they really do that. Just like in the movies.

  Shuffling forward in the seat as well as she could with her hands tied, she leaned towards the front seat where the cop was now sitting. “Officer, you can’t arrest me. I didn’t do anything except dance.”

  The cop started the car and angled his head to check his mirrors. “You’ll get your chance to talk when we get to the station,” he said as he put the car into gear and drove away from the kerb. “In the meantime, keep your trap shut. I’ve got a real humdinger of a headache and I get really nasty when I don’t get my peace and quiet.”

  “Am I really under arrest then?”

  At the corner of the lane as the car slowed to a stop, the cop turned his head and nodded towards her cuffed hands. “Well, duh.”

  She twisted her wrists back and forth under the cuffs. “But you didn’t read me my rights.”
/>   “You watch too much television, woman. This isn’t the US of A. It’s Sydney, Australia, and we don’t have any of those fancy Miranda rights here, but if it makes you any happier, you’re under arrest, and anything you say may be used against you, so shut the hell up.”

  Oh lucky me. A surly comedian. This just gets better and better.

  * * * *

  James Barrington straightened his red silk tie and smoothed the collar of his white shirt while his secretary, Susan, asked him for her first legal advice favour in the entire three years she’d worked for him. “You want me to represent who?”

  Susan held out his suit jacket for him, sleeves open, so he could slip his arms right into it. “My dance teacher, Corey. There’s been a bit of a misunderstanding.”

  “Your dance teacher? You mean the tango teacher?” She nodded as he pulled the edges of the suit down to straighten the line. “What sort of misunderstanding?” Retrieving his comb from his pocket, he lifted his hand to tidy up his never-a-strand-out-of-place blond hair.

  “She’s been arrested for prostitution,” said Susan as she closed the closet door.

  The comb dropped to the floor.

  He turned back to face her. “For a minute there I thought you said prostitution?”

  “I did,” she said as she bent down, picked up the comb and handed it back to him. “However, she isn’t a prostitute. It’s all a horrible mistake,” she said. “You have to help her sort out this mess.”

  He sighed. “Susan, you know I only do corporate law now. It’s been years since I worked a criminal case. I can give you a number of recommendations for criminal law specialists.”

  “No, I don’t want anyone else. I don’t trust anyone else, James. Corey has no one and you’re the best solicitor I know. Come on, it won’t take long to get it sorted.” She looked at him with her little girl, butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, pleading face that he could never resist. “Please?”

  James lifted a pile of files off the desk and placed them inside his brown leather satchel, before he moved to the door and turned around to face her.