It wasn’t long before I realized one thing, however, that had somehow escaped my notice for the past few seconds while we stared at each other.
Ares was completely and utterly - naked.
I whirled away and clapped a hand over my eyes to preserve his dignity. If asked, I could swear upon all the gods that my ogling hadn’t been intentional. In fact, I hadn’t even really seen anything at all that he didn’t normally bare. Shoulders, chest, abdomen - in his disguised mortal Aspect, he had only worn pants, anyway, so it shouldn’t matter. And so what if I had caught a brief and fleeting glimpse of something entirely different at the very bottom of my peripheral vision! It wasn’t as if I had been trying to look at it. I mean, him. Him.
I burned in the heat of my humiliation. But before I could ap
