Quinn was floored, but she kept listening and clinging to Khristos.
“I came into the city while I thought Quinn would still be in Greece because I knew you’d be here visiting your sister this week, Maude, and I know how much you love this café. I wanted to tell you something here—in this place where we’ve shared so many happy memories.”
Maude grinned and patted Helen’s hand. “We’ve had some great times here, haven’t we?”
“Some of the best in my life. You’re one of the best things in my life, and I want you to just listen to my words. You can walk away when I’m done, and I’ll understand, but will you please just hear me out?”
Quinn held her breath, sucking the cold night air into her lungs.
Maude held her breath, too. Quinn saw her slight chest rise as she nodded.
Her mother gulped, the hard sound of her swallow riddled with insecurity—something new and foreign to Quinn. “David was my first male sexual experience, Maude. Wouldn’t you know I’d get pregnant, trying to please everyone but me? He was a good guy. Funny and smart, and it just sort of happened. And even though it was an accident, I’ll never regret Quinn. But back then, well, you just didn’t do what I’m about to do, and all these years, I’ve been angry about marrying someone I didn’t want to marry. Would never have married in this day and age of awareness and rallies and Twitter.”
Maude continued to sit quietly, her hand still in her mother’s, the other on the stem of her wineglass.
Helen took a deep breath. “I married David because society said to marry him. Because my parents expected me to marry him. I thought by marrying him, I could hide who I was, stamp it out, but it only made me hate myself—hate everyone around me, and when he left, which was the right thing to do, he told me to be true to myself, no matter the cost. Instead, I lashed out until I didn’t know I was lashing out anymore. Until it became second nature to bash anyone I could touch. Mostly anyone male.”
A tear slid down Maude’s and Quinn’s cheeks simultaneously, but still, they both remained silent.
“My frustration at hiding who I am all these years boiled over this week as I tried to prepare myself for this conversation. I hurt Quinn and her friends and insulted them enough that she booted me right out of her house. And she was right to. I deserved it. I went too far over to the other side. But I want to come back. I so desperately want to come back. With you. To you, if you’ll let me. I love you, Maude. I’ve loved you from the moment we talked about seeing the Black-cheeked lovebird in Zambia. When we dreamed someday we’d take a trip somewhere exotic to observe rare birds.”
Quinn and Maude gasped in unison.
That moment, that silent, palpable moment, would stay with Quinn forever as she mentally prayed Maude felt the same way about Helen. Prayed her mother had finally found peace, contentment—joy.
Maude slid from her chair, tears streaming down her face, and knelt in front of her mother. Letting her head rest on Helen’s lap, she whispered, “I’ve waited for you for so long…”
Quinn’s heart stopped beating then and she only heard the sound of their hearts. Of their love—a love her mother had been too ashamed to admit. A love she’d fought and tortured herself over. A love Maude had waited twenty years to experience.
Everything made sense in that moment. Everything.
She turned and looked up at Khristos with wonder. “Them,” she whispered.
“Yes, Quinn. Them.”
Closing her eyes, tears still falling from her face, Quinn mentally summoned Cupid, her pulse racing at this gift she’d been given—this ability to put one of the people she loved most in the world into the arms of someone who’d finally make her happy.
“Now!” Quinn murmured, shaking and hushed.
The arrow appeared out of nowhere, glowing more magnificently than it had in any of her matches so far, melting through the big picture window of the café, and landing perfectly on her mother. The shower of color sprayed over them, shooting upward and disappearing, leaving a residual glow.
Quinn shuddered a happy sigh and leaned back into Khristos wordlessly, enraptured, at peace,
A light snow began to fall, swirling around them in soft, wet flakes, and the wind howled, rushing against her wet cheeks as she stood and watched her mother and her new lover laugh, cry, sip wine and discover each other.
Chapter 12
Khristos pushed the door open to her apartment to find everyone sitting quietly around the table. They all jumped up, obviously prepared to offer their comfort to her, but Khristos, as intuitive as always, held up a hand to thwart them.
Quinn didn’t hesitate when she sorted her way through the chairs and threw her arms around Nina’s neck. “Thank you,” was all she was capable of saying. “Thank you.”
Nina didn’t speak, but she grabbed Quinn’s hand and pressed it to her cheek and nodded.
In turn, Quinn gave everyone a hug, inhaling their scents of vanilla and musk, pinching Archibald’s cheek, sharing a smile with Ingrid, thanking them silently before she made her way to the bedroom and closed the door.
She needed to absorb the information behind the doors her mother had unlocked tonight. To reflect on all the angry words her mother had once imparted and let this new light, this newest revelation, shine on them.
Pulling off her clothes, she didn’t ever bother to put her pajamas on. Instead, she pulled Khristos’s borrowed sweater into her arms and tucked it beneath her chin, inhaling the scent of him as she climbed under her covers and closed her eyes.
She smiled into the darkness just before she fell fast asleep.
* * * *
Someone sat on the edge of her bed, and she stirred. Rolling over, she focused in on Khristos, his hair wet from a shower, his olive skin made deeper by the dark stubble littering his jaw. “A match needed?”
He shook his head and smiled down at her as she tried to sit up, placing his hand on her shoulder to encourage her to lie back down. “Nope. I was just checking on you to be sure you were all right, or if maybe you wanted something to eat? You missed dinner.”
She knew he was doing this out of his sense of duty to the apple and his mother. She knew his kindness had a string attached. She just wished he didn’t make her heart beat so fast or her knees feel so wobbly. Or worse, have that compelling way of making her feel as if she was important, as though he actually cared about her beyond her duties as Aphrodite.
But that was all in her head. She knew it. She’d do well to pay attention to it.
So she decided to avoid how she was feeling in favor of something she’d wondered about all the way home. “So, my dad…”
Khristos peered down at her, brushing her hair from her face. “What about him?”
“He knew. He always knew about my mom and he never said a word.”
“I think he knew it wasn’t his story to tell. Those words had to come from your mother. It was her secret to share, and no amount of reassurance from anyone would have helped until she was ready.”
“I’m glad she was finally ready.” The relief she felt over her mother’s confession was full bodied.
“You were amazing tonight, Quinn. Exactly as Aphrodite should be.”
His words of praise made her cheeks warm and her breathing hitch. “It was obvious my mom and Maude should be together. There wasn’t much to do but let that arrow fly.”
“Still, you’re getting better, stronger, more sure. That’s a good thing.”
“Will it make a difference in leniency for you if I’m making the grade?” she asked.
“Don’t think about me.”
“I can’t help it.” She really couldn’t help it. He was impossible to not think about.
“I just wanted to check on you, not put another issue on your plate. Go back to sleep.”
But she grabbed his arm as he began to rise. “Wait. How did you know what was really going on with my mother?”
He sat back down, the scent of his freshly washed hair wafting in h
er nose. “I did a little digging. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was off, ringing untrue for me. You were pretty wrecked and I hated seeing that. So I reached out on the forums—”
“And poof—like magic, right?” she whispered up at him. God, he was decent, and as men went, sensitive but gruff all at once, and so many adjectives she was rapidly losing count.
“Yeah,” he whispered back with a grin. “Poof.”
“Thank you, Khristos with a K. I feel like I’ll never be able to say that enough.”
On impulse, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him hard, forgetting she was completely naked under the covers. When her nipples, rigid from the cool air, brushed his chest, Khristos groaned, and so did she. Long and low, their breaths mingled, their moans winding together.
Their mouths found each other on a surprised breath, their tongues tentatively touching before Khristos drove his deep.
Her hands clenched his thickly muscled shoulders in a moment of pure bliss. White flashes of light appeared behind her eyelids at the taste of his tongue.
His hands drove into her hair, wrapping the long length around his wrist, pulling her head back until his lips left hers and his mouth found the sensitive flesh at the base of her neck.
Khristos nipped it, running his tongue over her flesh to ease the sting then nipping again, making her arch against him.
Quinn pulled the hem of his T-shirt up and over his head, her mouth watering at the idea of touching his naked flesh. She flattened her palms and ran them over his pecs, relishing the tightening of his nipples, luxuriating in the heat of his skin as he rained kisses over her shoulders.
They fell backward on the bed, Khristos shoving the covers aside with his feet and pulling her flush to him. His cock was rigid beneath his jeans, rigid and pressing against the apex of her thighs.
He ran his hands over every inch of her, roaming the slope of her hip, the curve of her ass, setting her on fire with each pass he took. Skimming her ribs, he settled his hands beneath her breast, and she held her breath, forgetting about her impromptu boob job and instead arching into his palm.
Khristos grazed her nipple with his knuckle, making her writhe against him, press into his hard length until she thought her spine would break from the wave of heat settling in her belly.
Quinn fumbled with the zipper on his jeans, tearing it down and driving his pants over his hips until he was able to shrug them off.
And then they were both naked.
Just her and the descendant of a Greek god.
Khristos rolled her to her back, rising up above her on the palms of his hands, taking her mouth in a voracious kiss, licking at her lips, tasting her until she whimpered and wove her hands into his thick hair.
Tearing his mouth from hers, he kissed his way along her jaw, over her collarbone until he was at her breasts, lingering over her needy flesh.
Quinn sucked in a breath, fought not to drag him downward to her nipple, make him devour it until she screamed her pleasure.
But Khristos took his time, circling the flesh, nudging it with his nose, swiping at it with his hot tongue and blowing a breath of air across her rigid skin.
When he finally pulled her nipple into his mouth, she saw stars, all colors of the rainbow as her neck arched and her eyes clenched tight. Khristos ran his tongue over the sensitive bud, pulling at it, licking it, cupping her other breast while liquid heat pooled between her thighs.
Quinn’s hands were as anxious to touch him as she was to be touched. Needy and desperate, she flattened her palm against his back, discovering the thick muscles and planes as she did.
As he left her breast and slid down along her rib cage, she gripped the sheets on either side of her, her hips jutting upward toward the heat of his mouth as he swooped down across her hipbone and spread her thighs.
Her heart stopped as Khristos hovered, his lips tormenting her with whispered kisses, his hands stroking her inner thighs, driving her mad with anticipation.
The first swipe of his tongue, just below her belly button, made her jump and hiss a sound of pleasure she had to fight to keep quiet. When he used two fingers to spread her wet flesh, Quinn thought she’d die.
Still, he waited, taking his time, using his thumb and rolling it over her clit, licking her belly, the crease where thigh met hip.
Her pulse pounded in her ears until he took his first stroke, his tongue sure and hot, dragging along her clit, drawing the hard bud into his mouth.
Quinn fought not to cry out, stuffing a knuckle in her mouth, reaching her other hand down to grip Khristos’s silky hair. Pleasure, so deep, so intense her stomach coiled into a tight knot, settled over her, raced along her nerve-endings until she felt the white-hot need for release begin to wend its way upward.
Khristos slowed, pulled back, made her whimper her displeasure until he satisfied her craving once more by driving a finger into her. She was slick and wet when he thrust the digit as he licked her, and that was her undoing.
She writhed beneath his talented mouth, rose up, crashing against his lips until sweet relief found her. The aching swirl of desperation driving her to orgasm. Her neck arched, her back bowed, her legs widened as Khristos slid a hand under her ass and held her flush to him, letting her ride out her climax.
Oh God. If she died right now, she’d be at peace with the passing. Nothing had ever felt like that before.
But Khristos wasn’t done. He slid up along her body, his heated flesh finally pressed to hers, molding her to him, pulling her tight until her nipples scraped against his wide chest.
Her hands instantly slipped between his thighs, reaching for his rigid cock, grasping it in her hand, pumping it.
It was thick, long, blistering-hot and rock-hard. The dark of her room kept her from seeing all of him the way she wanted to, but her hands…her hands explored every delectable inch of him.
He groaned into her mouth as she stroked him, thwarted her from slipping away in order to wrap her mouth around the rigid flesh. “No,” he whispered, husky and deep. “I need to be inside you now.”
She shuddered beneath him, his words slicing through her ears like a knife through soft butter.
Without qualm, she lifted her hips, and wrapped her legs around his hips, inviting him to make love to her.
She knew this would only make the moment he left to go back to his life harder, but she didn’t care right now.
Now, there was only their naked flesh touching, their sweat gluing their bodies together. Their hearts pounding in time with each other. Their mouths, hot and needy, open and willing.
Khristos positioned himself between her legs, slipping his arm under her waist, hauling her against him as she clung to his neck.
His first thrust was fluid, deep, making her clamp her mouth shut to keep from crying out. Khristos seared her, stretched her, groaned hot against her ear, rolling his hips to drive more deeply into her.
That rush of lava, that unmerciful, unrelenting pleasure, began to build again as their bodies crashed together. She clung to him, letting her hands slide over every inch of available flesh, savoring his skin under palms, loving the feel of her nipples scraping against the small patch of hair on his chest.
And when his thrusts increased, when the rhythm of their bodies synced so perfectly tears stung her eyes, she cried out, unable to hold back. Khristos’s heavy weight, pushing her into the bed, his thick cock deeply embedded inside her, the amazing control he possessed as he waited for her to find relief first…
He pulled her tighter, taking her lips, driving his tongue into her mouth over and over, rocking into her with each slick stroke.
Quinn’s toes curled as her legs tightened around his lean waist, holding on to his shoulders and letting the wave of hot orgasm sweep her away.
It pulsed from somewhere deep inside her, dragging her upward, raging between her legs with sharp pangs of longing. Digging her nails into Khristos’s shoulders, she fought a scream of climax just as his body t
ensed beneath her, as his strong muscles flexed and tightened.
He kissed her deeper, groaning low and hot as he took one last thrust and came.
Their chests pressed against each other’s as they gasped for air and she buried her face in his neck, inhaling the scent of them, fighting tears.
She shouldn’t have let this happen. She was still in too much of a commotion about her life and her new job as Aphrodite to handle one more thing on her plate. To handle it in the proper state of mind.
But she couldn’t regret making love to this amazing man, this man who had wise words and even wiser insights about who she was. He was decent and patient and nothing about this would ever make her regret her choice.
For tonight.
Tomorrow was a different story.
Tomorrow, he’d realize this was impulsive on both their parts. Realistically speaking, she knew sometimes in the heat of the moment things happened, and she wasn’t going to allow herself to get carried away like she had in so many relationships before.
Of course, Khristos would feel the same way, and they’d carry on. Surely their time together was coming to an end anyway. And if someone was really trying to hurt her, the OOPS women would help. She knew they would.
But for tonight, she was going to lie next to this man made out of granite and enjoy the warmth of his delicious body against hers as he took her mouth in another kiss.
Just for tonight.
Chapter 13
“Khristos! Wake up!” she whispered urgently, forcing herself to look away from his sleeping form, as gorgeous as if he’d never experienced bed head.
He frowned, attempting to pull her to him, but she put her hand on his chest. “You have to get up and get dressed!”
He scrubbed his hands over his eyes. “What’s going on?”
She pointed to her stomach. “I feel it. Like really feel it.”
He sat up, the covers falling away from him and giving her the first glimpse of his chest in the full light of day. And of course it was perfect and tan and thick with cords of muscle.
Accidentally Aphrodite (Accidentally Paranormal Novel Book 10) Page 16