Us. Again. (The Aphrodite Chronicles Book 3)

by LM Spangler

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 LM Spangler

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-749-8

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: CA Clauson

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  I would like to thank the wonderful group of people who’ve made my writing journey more enjoyable. Kathy Ferri, Sharil Miller, Zee Monodee, Iris Blobel, Lacee Hightower, Alexa Wayne, Dania Voss, and Laura M. Baird.

  And, as always, thanks to the Evernight crew. The publishing team and authors are a pleasure to work with.

  US. AGAIN.

  The Aphrodite Chronicles

  LM Spangler

  Copyright © 2018

  Prologue

  The Past

  Evanston, Illinois

  She had called him, told him she had to speak to him immediately. He didn’t have a good feeling about it.

  He stared out over Lake Michigan, watching the waters roll in and out repeatedly. Usually he sat on his balcony, drank a beer, and let the lake comfort him.

  Not tonight. He stood with his spine stiff and his shoulders back. Her tone of voice was low and foreboding and if he didn’t miss his guess, she’d been crying.

  Unfortunately, he had an idea what had happened, but he’d wait to hear it from her before allowing his heart to be torn asunder.

  His loft’s front door opened and closed. With each footstep, her shoes clicked on the hardwood floors. Without saying a word, she stood next to him.

  He glanced at her. Her blonde hair danced in the breeze, occasionally sending strands over her face. Shifting his gaze down, she wore a bright blue sundress that stopped mid-thigh. The clicking sound had been produced by sexy sandals.

  Usually, the outfit would send his libido into extreme overdrive, but the silence slammed on the breaks.

  She sniffled and he knew that his worse fear had come true. “It happened.”

  “Damn it,” he muttered.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said as she faced him. “You know I didn’t want this. I love you.”

  He took a deep breath, turned toward her, and took her hands into his. “I know,” he answered, staring into her silver-blue eyes. Tears welled and slid down her cheeks. He released her hands and used the pads of his thumbs to wipe them away before stepping back. “Who and when?”

  “My parents betrothed me to Gannon. According to Dragon Law, I am to be his tomorrow. Even though I don’t love him, I will be his. I cannot be released from it unless Gannon releases me. To the best of my knowledge, only two females have been released from their matings.”

  He paced back and forth on the balcony. The unfairness of it tore him apart. Anger, regret, love, respect, sorrow. All of it. She was a full blood dragon—or dragon shifter as they were sometimes called. Their species had rules of conduct they had to follow.

  He respected that, as he was a demi-god—thanks to his bastard father, Zeus, who’d screw anything, male or female. In this case, it was his human mother. Demi-god children got whatever powers their mothers possessed, which meant he got nothing except the ability to differentiate otherworldly beings from humans.

  So, at the stroke of midnight, he’d lose the woman he loved.

  And there wasn’t anything he could do about it.

  He had four hours with her. Four hours before they’d go their separate ways. The knife that sliced his heart slashed deeper, the cut inflicting more pain.

  “Come with me,” he said, holding out his hand. He led her through his loft, out of the building, and onto the beach that ran parallel to his home. As they reached the beach, each removed their shoes and walked across the light beige sand, still warm from being pelted by a day’s worth of sun.

  When they reached the shoreline, he unbuttoned his short-sleeved shirt—he had a t-shirt under it—and laid it on the sand for them to sit on.

  For a long time they sat in silence watching the lake. The streetlights cast a yellow glow onto the beach. Enough to see by, but not quite enough to read. She leaned her head on his shoulder, and that knife sliced deeper, the pain became sharper. He loved her. With all his heart. She was the other half of his soul.

  She suddenly laughed softly. “Do you remember how we met?”

  He laughed in return. “How could I forget? I swear I’m still getting paint out of my hair.”

  She snickered. “I really am sorry for knocking that can of paint on your head.”

  That day was still vivid in his mind. He’d been working on remodeling her parents’ home and he and his men had finished the construction portion and were working on the finishing touches. He had been showing her and her parents around. When they entered one of the bedrooms, she tripped over a pile of scrap wood, hit a ladder that happened to be holding a can of paint, sending the can downward. It landed on his head.

  It was love at first sight for him. Well, after he cleared the paint from his eyes.

  “You stole my heart that day,” he confessed. “I loved you ever since.”

  “By the gods, this is so unfair,” she sobbed.

  He was losing her, but she was entering into the dragon equivalent of a human marriage. However, a dragon “marriage” was unbreakable. There was no divorce, no adultery. She’d spend the rest of her life with a man she didn’t love, at least not yet.

  Anger rose swiftly, but he beat it back. He wanted her to remember her last moments with him as quiet and peaceful.

  They sat on the beach for hours, talking as if the inevitable wasn’t about to happen. She checked her phone. “It’s quarter to eleven. I-I…” she rose and stuttered.

  He rose and couldn’t find any words to say.

  She quickly kissed him on the cheek and ran off the beach.

  He couldn’t turn around and watch her go. That knife had embedded itself in his heart, so deep he knew it would be buried there forever.

  He stood facing the lake, the scent of the water mixing with the scent of her, surrounding his senses.

  She was gone. Gone forever. Even if he’d see her again, she’d belong to someone else.

  That truth weighed heavy on his soul and he collapsed onto his knees and screamed to the heavens, screamed at the unfairness, knowing the gods and goddesses would pay him no mind.

  His life had just run from him.

  What was left for him?

  Chapter One

  The Present

  Cicada Lake, Pennsylvania

  “Come back here, Jake,” Nikolas “Niko” Bradley called to his nephew.

  “You got to catch me first,” Jake challenged as he tucked the football under his arm and weaved past his uncle.

  "Shit," Niko murmured, turning and sprinting toward his nephew, all the while sputtering as his shoulder-length black hair blew into his mouth. Not to mention, blocked his view.

  Jake laughed and stayed a few steps ahead of Niko. “You’re getting old.”

  “For God’s sake, Jake. I’m only twenty-five. Geesh.” He may have been twenty-five, but his nephew made it to the opposite end of the yard in front of Daisy Mae’s Creamery ahead of him. Shaking his head, he leaned over and rested his hands on his knees as he caught his breath.

  Niko stared a
t his nephew, who was doing his version of a touchdown dance, for a moment. The boy was the spitting image of his father and Niko’s half-brother, Marcus. Both had dark black hair, angular faces, and deep blue eyes, as did Niko. Jake’s face was devoid of any facial hair besides eyebrows and lashes. He was only twelve. The facial hair would come soon enough.

  As for Marcus, he’d passed away nearly six months ago. Niko had been granted immediate custody of Jake as Jake’s mother was just basically the egg donor.

  Marcus had left the custody of Jake and ownership of the store to Niko, which was the reason Niko had ended up in the small lake town of Cicada Lake, Pennsylvania.

  He'd been a successful homebuilder in Illinois before moving to the Keystone state. After selling the business outright to his partner, he packed up his life and moved. Nothing tied him there. There'd been no women. Not since Talia. It'd been six months since he’d been with her. Six months since she’d been forced by Dragon Law to be mated with somebody who’d been picked for her. Not someone she loved or even liked. A male that her damn meddling parents thought she should be mated with. There’d been no fairness involved. Not for Talia.

  And not for him.

  He loved her. Hell, he still loved her. She’d been everything he’d wanted in a woman—tall, lushly curved, long, flowing hair. Add to that her quick wit, intelligence, and her ability to care so much for others, and that equaled a total package.

  Now she belonged to someone else.

  He’d lost two people he’d loved in six months’ time.

  “You okay, Uncle Niko?” Jake asked.

  Niko shook his head, ending his self-induced pity party. “Yeah, I’m good, chief.”

  “Thinking about Dad?” Jake lowered himself onto the grass.

  Niko followed suit. “Yes. And about someone I used to know.”

  Jake began to spin the ball between his hands. “Was it the girl you were dating?”

  A brow rose. “How’d you know I was dating?”

  A small smile crossed Jake’s face. “Dad said you were dating some hot chick.”

  “That sounds like your father.”

  Neither said anything else. Niko stared at the sun reflecting little flecks of diamond-like lights off the water. Summer was about to usher its way in. The days were growing longer and hotter. More people were coming to the lake to fish, swim, walk the trails, or simply relax.

  Business for him had picked up nicely. He had his share of regulars as well as new customers. It’d turned out he liked running the store. Marcus and he had loved going to the local Mom and Pop ice cream shop as kids. Marcus had gone to college in Pennsylvania and had made frozen custard for a chem project and soon the school had its own creamery. For a business management project, Marcus had decided to pursue expanding the franchise.

  One of those expansions now sat on the shore of Cicada Lake and belonged to Niko and, once Jake turned eighteen, half the business would transfer to him.

  Summer brought an influx of revenue for the town. Callie and Mike McDermott’s bed and breakfast would have no vacancies from now until September. Ben Jenners’s boat rentals would be renting non-stop. Bledsoe’s Family Diner would be full of diners. The list would go on and on.

  A truck pulled into Niko’s parking lot. It happened to be Mike McDermott. The middle-aged gentleman killed the ignition and slid out of his vehicle.

  Niko and Jake rose. Niko met Mike halfway and Jake walked into the shop.

  “Good afternoon, Mike. How are you?” Niko asked as he extended his hand.

  Mike accepted Niko’s shake. “Fit as a fiddle, my boy.”

  “Need a triple scoop Neapolitan?” Niko asked, leading Mike into the store.

  Jake was already behind the counter, adding a scoop of chocolate to a waffle cone and reaching in for the strawberry ice cream.

  “That’ll be three dollars and eighteen cents,” Niko advised

  Mike laughed. “Am I that predictable?” He reached into his pocket and produced the exact amount.

  Mike handed Jake the money owed. Jake deftly rung up the sale and completed the transaction.

  As he was leaving, Mike asked Niko, “You came from Illinois, didn’t you?”

  Niko narrowed his eyes. “Yes. Why?”

  “The missus said she has a guest coming in from Illinois this evening.”

  “Did she say who?”

  Mike shook his head and scratched the bald circle on the back of it. “Sorry. She had a guest come in from New Mexico last night. Never had one from there.”

  “Enjoy your cone.”

  Niko and Jake followed Mike back into the sunlight.

  “Do you miss Illinois?” Jake asked as he grabbed the football and tossed it to Niko.

  He answered quickly. “No. Not at all.” If he still had Talia, he would have begged her to come with him to Pennsylvania. As much as he loved her, he loved Marcus and Jake more. They were who he had left of his family in the states. His mother and father lived in Africa, trying to save the world.

  “You miss the girl?”

  The kid was nailing all the heads dead on this morning. “Yeah, I do.” He dropped onto the ground.

  Jake glanced sideways at his uncle as he lowered himself onto the grass. "You still love her, don't you? I may only be twelve, but I do know a lot about women."

  Niko snorted before he realized that the kid could know a lot about women in this day and age. “Yes, I do still care for her and you better not know more about the opposite sex than I do.”

  It was Jake’s turn to snort. All of a sudden he stood up and brushed off the back of his jean shorts.

  Niko darted to his feet looking frantically around. “What? What?” He turned this way and that looking for a snake or fire ants or … something.

  “Girls,” Jake harshly whispered.

  Niko shook his head and laughed. “Oh, for Pete’s sake.” He fought the urge to reach out and ruffle Jake’s hair, but he was twelve and running primarily on hormones, so he understood what the kid was going through.

  A group of five giggling girls walked around the corner of a group of pine trees and toward the ice cream shop.

  Niko walked into the building and behind the counter while his nephew charmed the young women. He glanced around his little slice of heaven. Marcus had had excellent taste when he’d decorated the store. The walls had a white background with primary colored stripes. He’d adorned the walls with children’s drawings of ice cream cones. The tables were red acrylic with white legs. All in all, it created a feeling of fun and happiness. Isn’t that what ice cream was all about?

  The bell above the door jingled as the group ambled in. “Good afternoon, ladies. What can I get for you?”

  After doling out their choices and giving Jake the rest of the afternoon off, Niko sat at his desk in the back room that was situated so it had given him the perfect view of the door. No one could get in or out without him knowing.

  He found work difficult.

  His mind drifted to the evening he and Talia had said goodbye to one another. The night he’d lost half of his soul. He hadn’t had the urge to charm any women since then. He hadn’t wanted to.

  The urge to have sex hadn’t been a blip on his radar since she ran out of his life.

  He wondered if it ever would.

  Chapter Two

  “Good morning, Talia. How’d you sleep?” Callie McDermott asked.

  Talia slid into her seat around the large center island in Callie’s kitchen. “I slept like a log, Mrs. McDermott.” And she had. She hadn’t slept that well since the night before her parents dropped the mating bomb… No, she wouldn’t let herself go there. Not now. “Must have been your bed.”

  “First of all, dear, call me Callie. We aren’t big on formality here in Cicada Lake. And second, fresh air will do wonders for you.”

  “It did something,” Talia said as she wound her hair into a messy bun and secured it with an elastic tie. Another guest walked into the kitchen and walked straight
to the coffee maker.

  “Oh, Mrs. Herstead, let me get that for you. You’re my guest.” Callie removed the mug from the elderly woman’s hand.

  Talia gasped when Mrs. Herstead slapped Callie’s hand and retrieved the mug.

  “Nonsense, young lady. I’m more than capable of getting a cup of coffee.” And she did just that and joined Talia at the island. “Good morning, child.”

  Talia was instantly charmed by the woman's mannerisms and her spunk. She extended her hand. "Talia Karros. A pleasure to meet you." She was surprised by the strength of the older woman's grip.

  “Amalia Herstead. Call me Amy. Goes for you, too, young lady.” She pointed to Callie with the spoon she used to stir the creamer into her coffee.

  There were maybe twenty years between them. And both women looked amazingly young for their ages. The only sign of age on either was their gray hair and small lines on their faces. They were also both human, so that was saying a lot. Humans didn’t always age gracefully. Not like most of the otherworldly species. Except for trolls. There was a reason why they hid.

  “What do you ladies have planned for the day?” Callie asked as she laid a platter of pancakes in front of Talia and Amy. “Dig in ladies.”

  “I brought a stack of books with me,” Amy said. She stacked three pancakes neatly atop one another and cut a pat of butter from the stick Callie had laid in front of them. Then came a small amount of maple syrup, very neatly done. Amy stared at Talia’s plate.

  Heat rushed up Talia’s neck. Her stack was five flapjacks high with three pats of butter and a waterfall of syrup. She glanced sheepishly at Amy and then back at her tower of food.

  "No need to blush, child. I'm glad to finally see a woman eating healthy. You're in your childbearing years, aren't you?"

  Talia knew Amy hadn’t intended to slice her wounds wide open, but the barbs hit their mark dead on. There had been only one person she’d wanted to have a child with. And it wasn’t Gannon. It would have been Niko. By the gods, she loved him. Still did. God, she never stopped. He could be anywhere in the world. She only knew where he wasn’t. And that was not with her.