Over the years, Rachel Elizabeth Dare had gotten used to seeing odd things. She had seen terrible monsters and a full blown war in the middle of Manhattan. She had dangled from a helicopter and had spouted out random prophecies.

But she would never, ever get used to Lord Apollo when he decided to visit her in the apartment that she had bought and her father refused to visit (that may have been part of the allure, actually, because the apartment was pretty dingy even by her standards). Something about the stained walls or the ever present smell, no matter how much Febreze she used, just didn't seem fit for a god, let alone one as good looking as Apollo.

As it was, she currently wasn't very happy with the sun god. She had just finished having a pleasant conversation with a nice and very handsome man who had been an art major. He had asked for her number and if she wanted to go out later on and she had replied with, I don't really think that's a good idea.

Damn it all to hell! The whole eternal maiden thing had been alright to deal with when she was younger but she was twenty four now, dammit, and the men were getting better looking and she was getting lonelier. She spent her summers at Camp Half-Blood and some of the younger kids snickered at the twenty four year old virgin living in the Big House. She was the Oracle, for Zeus's sake, what part of 'eternal maiden' did they not understand?

"Hello my dear, my darling, my sugar pie honey bunch-"

"What do you want?" It probably wasn't a good idea to piss off a god but she wasn't in the mood and besides, she was pretty sure Apollo was too fond of her to vaporize her. Plus, then he'd be out of an Oracle.

"What's wrong, my little ray of sunshine?"

Rachel scowled and started making coffee. Apollo crinkled his nose. "That stuff will ruin your teeth, sweets."

She whirled towards him, eyes blazing. "Why does it matter? It isn't as if I need to look good for anybody!"

Rachel didn't regret her decision to become the Oracle. She knew it was what she had been born to do. It gave her life meaning. But there were moments- like this one- where that happy feeling in her heart wasn't enough to satisfy the very unhappy feeling a bit further south than her heart.

Apollo pursed his lips. "Is my Oracle unhappy? Perhaps I should make you a poem-"

"No poems!" She yelled. He turned the full force of his gaze on her and she added, "Lord Apollo, please."

He walked over and turned the coffee machine off. She suppressed a scowl.

"You knew the rules, Rachel."

The last thing she needed was a lecture. "Yes, I know. I'm just griping. I'll get over it."

The god ran his fingers through her ratty hair. "I don't want my Oracle being lonely."

She turned to look at him and took an unconscious step back. Apollo was in full on seduction mode and anyone would be crazy to resist those burning eyes.

She pinched herself and it cleared her head. She laughed. "I get it now. All that virgin stuff is bullshit- you just want beautiful young maidens for yourself, don't you?"

He shook his head with a smile that lit up her entire apartment. "Give me some credit. The spirit really does take better to a virgin."

"And after that?"

He shrugged. "After that, doesn't really matter so much."

She shook her head in disbelief. "How have you gotten away with this for three thousand years?"

"It was much easier before. Virgin's were naive and innocent and they believed I only had good intentions. Then there was that long spell with the mummy and let me tell you, did that put a dent in my sex life."

"You're unbelievable."

"I'm also your only chance to touch another man."

"Now that I know this, what's to stop me from going and having crazy, raucous, bed splitting sex with the next human man I meet?"

He stepped closer to her and breathed in her face, clouding all of her senses and effectively filling her mind with images of her and him having crazy, raucous, bed splitting sex. "Why don't you try that and see what happens to that man, sweetheart."

She believed him. She knew without a doubt that any man she touched in a sexual manner would be vaporized. She probably should have been mad, but she wasn't.

"And what if I don't want to be your little toy, Lord Apollo?"

"Then you can spend the next fifty years of your life alone. It's your choice, really."

His eyes were burning holes through her skull and his fingers were burning on her skin. The independent part of her told her to step away- she was the Oracle for the gods sakes, and besides, lots of people went through life without sex. She could join a convent.

Oh, gods.

Life spent trapped in a nun's habit flashed before her eyes and before the opportunity left her she crashed her lips onto his. Apollo's hands immediately started removing select articles of clothing- he really moved fast, didn't he?

"So what," she said, as he pushed her backwards towards her couch. "I'm just going to be your personal call girl for the rest of my life?"

"Not the rest of your life. Once the wrinkles start to come, I move on."

She laughed, which quickly turned into a mix between a moan and curse as his hand burned a trail into her pants. "I appreciate your honesty."

Everything about him was warm and Rachel knew that, even if he did wave the rule aside, there would be no way she could ever be with anyone other than him, now. His body warmed her and his fingers burned her from the inside out and gods, she never, ever wanted him to stop.

She knew it was supposed to hurt but it didn't, not in the way she expected. She'd heard horror stories of first times and she expected pain and blood and tears but the only thing she noticed was that the pleasure she felt was so intense it was almost painful.

Afterward, she turned to the god beside her and said, "Really? That's all I've been missing?"

Apollo cocked an eyebrow. She would soon come to understand that that was his, 'I'm about to make you wish you hadn't said that' expression. Then the sun god's lips crashed onto hers once again and she thought that maybe she would be alright with being his call girl until she was wrinkled and gray.