Well, dammit! Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! “You had to go and say that, didn’t you? Right when I was getting ready to hate you forever.”
He chuckled. “Ahhh. There she is. My sweet Penelope. Ready to create levity in the face of any situation—even something as difficult as this.”
“That’s how I roll.”
Yes, I was making light, but only because I felt terrified and didn’t want him to know. Then I realized something: I needed to put my faith in this love—regardless of how complicated, bizarre, or irrational it seemed—and I had to put my faith in him.
With time, maybe we’d find the answers to the real reason I walked this earth. Perhaps that reason would resolve his inner conflict. In any case, there was no other choice for us but to move forward. To follow our destinies. Doughnut holes included.
“Say it, Penelope. Say it before we lose our nerve.”
I balled my fists. You can do this. Don’t be afraid. Have faith. Have faith. Have…“Are you sure?”
“You must,” he replied.
“I know,” I whispered and then wiped the tears from my eyes. “I love you.” I knew he wouldn’t say it back, but that didn’t seem to matter.
I kissed his cold lips, rested my head on his chest, and then recited the phrase Fate had written down for me right after the meeting. “Catcha lum tumben caah.”
As the room seemed to suddenly turn into a vacuum, devoid of all light and sound, the air exited from my lungs. My head swirled and my body shook violently.
Then I shut my eyes.
It was over.
***
Had it worked?
Terrified, I held my breath and covered my face with both hands. What if I opened my eyes and found Kinich’s cold body lying there dead?
Well, then he could already be back at the cenote getting a new body.
But it could take days to find out if that had happened.
I felt like my entire world balanced on the fine tip of an enormous stickpin, where standing still was just as painful as falling off.
I peeked through a tiny crack between my fingers. Slowly, my eyes focused on the form in front of me. “Yes! Yes!” I jumped up and started screaming. His chest was heaving and his color was back. It had worked!
I leaned over him and kissed his full lips. They were warm! “Kinich! Can you hear me? Oh my God. It worked. Kinich!”
Nothing happened. I froze.
“Kinich?” I shook him by the shoulders.
Nothing.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no! Something was wrong, terribly wrong. His appearance was normal: incredibly gorgeous, and strong, and irresistibly gorgeous, and really, really gorg—Stop ogling him, you idiot!—but he wasn’t waking.
I needed to get help. Yes, help! The other gods might know what happened.
I sprang from the bed and rushed for the door.
“Penelope?”
I froze.
“Where are you going?” the deep voice said clear as day.
I swiveled on my heel, and to my heart’s utter delight found a set of the most breathtakingly gorgeous aquamarine eyes staring back at me. “Kinich! It worked! You’re back inside your body!!”
I ran so fast that I tripped and flew right on top of him.
“Hmm. I think you’re very happy to see me again,” he said, his voice low and gravelly.
His warm body underneath mine felt amazing. Better than amazing. Like being whole again. I pressed my lips to his, channeling every ounce of my emotions into the kiss.
He briskly rolled me over and planted himself firmly between my thighs. “Gods, you feel delicious, Penelope,” he whispered, staring into my eyes.
“That’s because I am,” I said jokingly.
“I couldn’t agree more.”
The door burst open. Emma and Guy stared at us.
“Oh crap! Sorry!” Emma turned away.
Guy, on the other hand, lifted a brow and smiled. “Nice to see you’re…up, brother.”
Kinich growled. “Out!”
Emma tugged Guy out the door and slammed it shut. Her screaming voice trailed off in the distance.
Kinich lifted himself off my body and stood at the foot of the bed, wildly stripping away his T-shirt. His expression was nothing short of fierce and determined.
“Are you doing what I hope?” I asked, unable to keep my body from heating up in all the right places.
He flashed a smile that made me melt on the spot.
I sighed. Those lips…
“No more fantasies,” he said in a deep, stark voice, “no more dreaming. It is time for you and me to be together and know for certain that it happened.”
“What do you have in mind?” I whispered.
Without breaking eye contact, he slipped off his white linen pajama bottoms and stood before me nude.
My eyes drank him in. In my dreams, he was perfect. But in real life, he was magnificent—every inch, starting with his freshly cut, sun-streaked hair to his well-formed biceps bulging with powerful muscles. His chiseled chest and washboard stomach were hard and tanned, as were his muscular thighs. And his man-goodies…wow. What could I say? His erection was impressively large, jutting out like a heat-seeking missile over his heavy sack.
“I’m pretty sure we didn’t sleep together that night,” I said, my voice barely above a murmur, “because if we had, I wouldn’t have been able to walk the next day.”
The corner of his delicious lips curled. “We’re going to test that theory.” He leaned down and yanked me up from the bed. He pulled me to his body, his erection prodding me in the stomach.
“I want you to know,” he whispered in my ear, “that after I’ve shown you every one of my fantasies, you and I are going to have a very long talk about a few things—starting with what it does to me when you flirt with my brothers.”
My head spun in dizzying spirals of conflicting emotions and thoughts. He absolutely refused to believe we had a future, yet it was clear he didn’t want to share me. It was also clear he was unable to resist the mind-bending attraction we felt.
We were so…complicated.
“Sounds”—my words stuck in my throat—“like a n-n-ice plan.”
He released me and grabbed the hem of my T-shirt. Before I knew it, my bra was on the floor right beside it.
He stared at my breasts while he slowly slid his warm, strong hands up the sides of my body, letting them float over my hips, waist, and rib cage until they reached my hardened nipples. The hungry gaze of his eyes reminded me of a wild animal stalking its prey.
He licked his lips, and for a moment, I thought he would taste my nipples. And God, how I’d fantasized about that. Fantasized about his hot, wet mouth massaging my two hard pebbles. Instead, he simply touched and stroked and watched with fascination.
“I like how you respond to me.” He sank slowly to his knees and gripped my hips.
When he pulled me to his mouth and planted gentle kisses on my lower stomach, a sharp breath left my lungs. His large hands slid to the waistband of my jeans and pulled down, leaving me completely bare.
A small, primal sound escaped his mouth before he trailed his lips over my belly button, then down my hip bone, over to the crease of my bikini line.
The anticipation of where he might go, what he might do, made me quiver. But he refrained from diving straight for the sensitive, heated flesh between my legs. The throbbing tension was almost unbearable.
His hands cupped my ass, and he planted a small, lingering kiss just above my pulsing, sensitive bud.
I trembled.
Wishing and wanting him to do more, to go deeper, I ran my hands through his thick hair and pulled him into me. Oh God, the anticipation was killing me. He’d done everything to create the heat, but nothing to extinguish it. Now I was panting and ready. Every intimate spot of my body tingled.
He slowly rose from his knees, and the smoldering look in his eyes promised me one thing: Before the night was through, there’d be nothing left.
He planned to devour me. He planned to take me again and again and make me orgasm until I was limp and weak.
I loved, loved, loved that plan.
He rose to his full height, and I became all too aware of both our bodies. Naked. Pressed together.
This felt so right. So delicious. This was heaven.
He abruptly turned away and padded toward the bathroom, taking his hard man-goodies with him. “Hey! Where are you going?”
He disappeared into the bathroom. “Shower. We have some unfinished business to attend to.”
Remembering how we’d had hot, kinky mind sex in the shower, a whoosh of air pushed from my lips. “B-b-be right there.”
I needed to cool down or I wouldn’t last one more second.
I shook my head.
This man would be my undoing. It seemed I could cope with everything—loss, finding out I was possibly the descendant of a psychopathic god, fighting creepy spawn-of-Satan Mayan priests with superhuman powers—but this man was my Achilles’ heel. I could deny him nothing. I would give my life just to hear him laugh, sacrifice everything just to know he was safe, happy, and content. Even after he said we couldn’t be together.
He was my personal conundrum. Meant to test my will and faith.
I was so going to win.
“You coming, woman?” he called out from the bathroom.
A smile so powerful that it tugged at my very soul swept across my face. “You betcha.”
“Don’t forget to put on the necklace!” he reminded me.
Right. The black jade necklace. Without it a god couldn’t be intimate with a human.
Did they ever wear out or go stale? I wondered.
“I’ll be needing you to make a twelve-pack of those!” I called out.
CHAPTER 33
Kinich’s masculine silhouette was prominent against the shower stall glass when I entered the bathroom.
“The necklace, did you put it on?” he asked.
Oh yeah. Surprisingly, the black amulet felt weightless.
“Done.”
“Good, then get your sweet ass in here,” he commanded.
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I will come and get you. But I will not be held responsible for my actions.”
Hmmm. I liked the sound of that.
“Really, now. What actions might those be?” Naked, I leaned against the sink and gripped the edge of the granite counter, feeling hotter than a bag of fresh kettle corn.
His head popped out from the frosted glass door, his hair dripping down his sleek, hard shoulders and perfectly sculpted chest. “Was that a challenge?”
I felt the urge to nibble my thumb, so I did. “Maybe?”
He burst from the shower stall, wet, hot, hard…
I gulped as he stared me down with his fierce aquamarine eyes.
Without warning, he turned my body and bent me over the cool sink.
I inhaled sharply as one strong hand pushed down on the small of my back and the other pushed my legs apart.
“Before I am done with you, Penelope, you most certainly won’t be able to walk.”
In less than a breath, his hard flesh was positioned at my entrance, pushing with just enough force that I felt the delicious sting of my body stretching around him.
My mind instantly devolved into a steamy, syrupy pool of lust with only one thought, “Take me.”
Instead, he backed out. He took the tip of his hard shaft and ran it over my slick, hot folds, igniting every last swollen nerve ending. One more second and I would explode.
“Please,” I panted, unable to wish for anything but his hard cock to cease teasing me and fill me instead.
“Mmm,” he groaned in a husky, carnal voice. “Not yet. I’ve waited far too long for this moment. I want to savor every sensation.”
Oh, no. I didn’t like that plan at all. No slow boat to O-ville for me. Like him, I’d waited way too long for this moment, and one second more would be torture. A woman can only spend so many nights obsessing, fantasizing, and wondering what it would be like to be taken by a man that sexy, that large.
What he needed was a little push.
I turned around and dropped to my knees, flashing a wicked little smile as I peered up at him and gripped his thick shaft. So many times I’d thought of tasting him, of sucking him, only him.
“What are you doing, woman?” he said, eyes half-closed.
Oh, he knew exactly what I was doing.
Not breaking my fiendish smile, I ran his velvety tip over my lips. He instantly groaned, which only encouraged me to take the next step. I slid his large head between my lips and swirled my tongue over the smooth, tight skin.
Kinich made a gruff, primal sound. “Your mouth is so hot. I never imagined…it could feel…” He groaned again. “So good.”
I languidly sucked him in, taking him as deeply as I could while lazily stroking the base of his shaft with my two hands. I’d never, ever dreamed I would savor such a salacious act, but every stroke with my tongue and lips, wantonly worshipping him with my mouth, was a sensual and erotic experience.
I slowly pumped my mouth over him. One. Two. Three times.
Then I stopped.
He looked down at me, chest heaving. “Gods woman, why did you stop? That was amazing.”
I smiled and stood up. “No more savoring. Shower. Now.”
I marched into the still running shower filled with hot steam. Kinich followed behind me like an eager puppy vying for a delicious treat.
Before I could say another world, he gripped my shoulders, spun me around again and pinned me to the warm tile, lifting me in one smooth motion.
I wrapped my legs and arms around his frame and kissed him so hard our teeth scraped. I snaked one arm between our bodies and positioned him just right.
“Don’t hold back,” I whispered.
He leaned his hard body into me as he thrust forward.
Unable to stop myself from reacting, my body exploded from the exquisite release of tension. The euphoria hit me like a hard wave that easily overcame the sharp pain of his solid girth sliding inside me.
He screamed my name as he came violently. But all too soon, his groan evolved into a cry of agony.
“Aaaah!” Kinich pulled out and dropped to his knees, groaning.
I reached out, but he shirked away. “Don’t touch me!”
“What? Oh my God. What did I do?”
“Fire. I’m on fire,” he grunted.
Oh no…
CHAPTER 34
“Well, that was interesting,” I said, still dripping wet, with a towel wrapped around my body.
Kinich emerged from his walk-in closet with a duffel bag in one hand and pile of clothes in the other, wearing a pair of soft, faded jeans. Although he appeared to have recovered from his penis sizzling, he was visibly not okay.
“What happened?” I asked.
He slipped on his trademark white linen shirt and quickly fastened the bottom two buttons. “I should have seen this coming,” he grumbled.
“What?”
He ignored me and slipped his clothes in the bag, mumbling about his dumb effing luck.
“Dammit, Kinich! What is going on?”
He froze and looked at me. “By some miracle—or sick twist of fate, considering it couldn’t have happened without the Maaskab’s dark powers—my soul has returned, but I am no longer as I was.”
“English for non-deities, please!”
He huffed. “My powers have remained inside you, and judging from the small burn I have on my penis—which has yet to heal—I am but a soul with a mortal shell.”
“What? You’re human?” I exclaimed. And would his penis eventually be okay? That was important.
“More or less.”
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“I believe the only way to know for certain is to die—an experiment I’m not willing to conduct at this juncture.”
“But how? How can that be possible? Fate said breaking
the bond would put everything back.”
His brows furrowed. “No. She said it would send me back—to my mortal shell or to the cenote. She was correct, as was my brother Guy, who appropriately pointed out that the Maaskab’s dark powers are unpredictable—as demonstrated by my current situation.”
Oh great. Frigging fantastic, joy of all joys, lucky day, and whoop-de-do! I was still the Sun Goddess.
“This can’t be happening.”
He shoved more clothes in the bag and began collecting items from the nightstand. “It is done,” he said coldly.
“I don’t think so! I’m not getting stuck being the Sun God.”
“I can relate to your sentiment,” he replied.
I watched him cross the room, heading for the door.
I ran after him and grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?”
He stopped with his back to me. “I—I…there is something I must do.”
But of course. He’s waited his entire existence for this.
“I get it. You’re human now. You have what you want, so you’re leaving. To hell with all this! With me! That’s your answer.”
He turned and looked down at me, his eyes filled with a subtle rage. “Wrong. I planned to leave all along. As soon as I had my body back. Now I do.”
“But not until you slept with me first?”
“Of course,” he said bluntly.
I slapped him. “You pig! You never cared about me, did you?”
He didn’t flinch. “No. It is quite the opposite. I do not expect you to understand, Penelope.”
“Wow! What a way to show it. Leaving me to deal with your fucked up life! I’m twenty-five! I can’t be the leader of the gods. I don’t have a clue about your world.”
“You underestimate yourself, Penelope. You were clearly born for this role. It is your destiny.”
Well, thank you, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do I get a blue or green light saber?
“If you leave, Kinich. After everything that’s happened, everything I’ve been through—for you—if you leave…don’t expect to get me back.”
He stared with intense, emotionally charged eyes, but did not speak.
There was a jolting knock on the bedroom door. “Guys! We need you in the living room…Cimil is back.”
Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? Page 23