Carlos wrote, “Mom, I saw you on television holding that baby girl. You looked healthier and happier than I’ve seen you in months. Only my mother could glow standing in front of a freeway pileup. Love you, C.”
I called him. He picked up on the second ring. “Aren’t you serving dessert now?” It was seven in the evening, and the restaurant’s dinner rush started at four.
“I’m on the balcony watching the sky change colors.”
“Your sous chef shouting at the cooks again?”
“I swear, Mom. Her voice could replace our meat grinder.” He tried to laugh it off, but it seemed to bother him. He was the kind, gentle boss, which forced the rest of his staff into the disciplinary role.
“You have to take charge, hijito. She will back off if you take over. Just think of how little stress you’ll have in the kitchen with less shouting.”
He sighed. We’d had this talk before. “I know, Mama. You looked great out there today.” He made kissing noises and hung up.
My youngest. I cried so hard when he went to culinary school that he chose a campus close to home. Jorge would tease me that my umbilical cord refused to give up on the last one. Carlos was born premature, and I’d wanted to ask the doctors if they could open me up, put him back in, and wait until he could survive on his own. It would’ve been easier than seeing a child, smaller than a doll, hooked up to the machines in the neonatal intensive care unit.
He pulled through. The end of the first week, he’d gained a pound. I was convinced Jorge snuck him restaurant food when I wasn’t looking. The nurses enjoyed the meals we brought in each day to thank them for keeping our boy alive over those endless nights. A month later, he was home. Maribel was a teenager then and took to carrying him around the house.
I never found a better babysitter. She took her mothering role seriously. Now, she had three children of her own. According to her biological mother’s family, they had to bribe her into putting down her own children.
Chapter Three
Settled in front of the television, vainly watching myself on every news channel, I fell asleep. The doorbell woke me to find the morning sun streaming through the east-facing wall of windows overlooking the pool. The story had been featured on every channel. Even competitors showed me holding the child while her mother was removed from the car.
Standing on my porch was Viviana, her lover, Adonis, and a covered statue.
“Your Candy Man is ready. Are you?” Viviana winked at me. She’d done work for us before. We had six statues in the house that she’d sculpted. Her reputation was stellar.
“I hope so.” Stepping back, I waved them into the foyer. The open living, dining, kitchen space was huge, with cathedral ceilings. Our entire lives were lived in this space.
“Good answer,” her Adonis answered.
Damn, he was hot. Wearing jeans that left little to the imagination, he strolled past me. I realized I was turned on.
Viviana stood next to her work. Adonis pulled the cover off with a flourish to reveal a stunning man.
“Marble?” He was white with dark streaks running through him.
She shook her head. “White chocolate with cherry swirls.”
It was the flavor of my childhood. A secret I had with my mother. “How?”
“Eros delivers the block, Julia. I’m guessing it’s one you like?” She had to see the pure joy on my face.
“Yes. It was a secret.”
“We’ll keep it with you.” Adonis smiled, slipping his arm around her waist.
She handed me a small velvet bag. “Picture your true happiness, ask for what you want, and then sprinkle this on him.”
Turning to face the statue, I barely heard Viviana and Adonis close the front door. Pulling up a kitchen stool, I inspected him. He had short-cropped hair and chiseled cheekbones. Around the back, his ass was perfect. I smacked it a couple of times, laughing to myself.
Then I made my way around front. He was about six foot tall so my vantage point was perfect. Right in my eye line was the perfect chest flanking a trail of short hair traveling down to an amazing penis.
I laughed. “That’s not real.” Of course, it wasn’t.
“What I want is....” I paused. Taking a deep breath, I continued. “A man to hold me at the end of the day, sheltering me from the brutality I see in the world. A gentleman who will never forget I’m special, even when I fart.” Laughing, the words rolled off my tongue. “Supportive of everything I do without worshipping me. You must be good with children. I have six of them, and eight grandchildren. They have to trust you with me.”
I pictured me happy and content as I sprinkled the dust over his body. I made sure to rub some between his legs. No way was I going to take a chance his dick didn’t activate or something.
Standing back to make sure I didn’t miss a spot, I heard a moan. My nether regions answered. Well, this would be interesting. He began to glow; light shone from his body in white sparkles with tinges of red. My chocolate statue came to life in front of me. It was beautiful. I checked to make sure his penis came to life. It did, jumping as I watched.
“Oh!” Snapping my eyes up to his face, I saw a huge smile filled with perfect teeth. Green eyes. Oh my, standing was going to be difficult in a moment.
“Is that the part of me you wish to play with first?” His voice rumbled, low and strong. There was a slight accent.
“One of them, yes.” The words came out before I could stop them. Placing my hands over my mouth, I attempted to keep that from happening again.
“Good.” He stretched his arms above his head.
Oh my, perfection smelled like chocolate-covered cherries.
I mumbled into my hands. He reached over, gently pulling them away.
“I think I’m drooling.”
He leaned down, close enough for me to smell his hair. Cherry blossoms. “Yes, I believe you are. Would you like me to lick it?”
My knees buckled. A little. “Lick what?”
“You have a preference?”
“Many.” Brazen, thy name was Julia.
“Where would you like to start?” his voice rumbled.
I glanced down quickly. His penis stood erect, pointing right at me. “Um.”
“I’m real, Julia. I won’t melt in your mouth, not literally. Would you like me to choose?”
Yes, my brain screamed. What came out was more mature. “You need clothes.”
“Already?” He was disappointed, even sticking out a pouty lip.
“Oh no. I’m going to talk to you first. Whoever you are.” I was back in control. That meant being an adult about it.
“You name me.”
“What?”
“You can name me.”
“Aren’t you a god?” I remember that from Viviana’s note.
He grinned. “You wish to know my god name?”
“Is that a problem? I don’t want to rename you if you already have a name.” My voice cracked.
He leaned over, taking my face in his hands. “I’m Anteros. Brother to Eros. You can name me whatever you choose. I’m here, by my own choice, as your lover for your lifetime.”
“My lifetime?” It hit me. “You’re immortal.”
He traced my chin with his fingers, leaving a trail of cherry-scented tingles. “Yes, beautiful Julia, I’m immortal.”
“You’ll watch me grow old and die.” Suddenly, this sounded like a bad idea.
He nodded, kissing my nose. “As you humans do all the time.”
“I didn’t think this through. You will watch me die. How can I do that to someone after what I went through? If you truly learn to love me, your heart will shatter, like mine did, and then what? I have years to get moving or lose the rest of my life to mourning. You can mourn for centuries.” When did I develop that ego? Remember me for centuries? I was babbling.
“Yes. Our passion and love will be remembered forever. Tales of the human women who Eros chose to be loved by gods will be told for millennia. You’re spe
cial. Even though I will not mourn you for centuries, I will remember you for all time.”
That was a twist I didn’t expect. “Forever?”
“In human terms, yes.” He kissed my nose again.
I lifted my face, kissing his lips. He tasted like chocolate cherries. The moan erupted from three years of repressed need.
He picked me up in his arms. I wasn’t ready for this yet. “Wait.”
“That’s new.” He snickered.
I laughed. “Women don’t tell you to wait?”
“No.” He looked confused.
I thought it was funny. “Put me down, Anteros.”
He fought to keep a rejected look from his face. It didn’t work. “Was I wrong about you?”
“I don’t know. I want to know you before I sleep with you.” It sounded ridiculous to me. Yet, a voice in my head wouldn’t let this go. “What are you like, your favorite color, how’s your family?” Seemingly innocuous questions to slow down the race to the bedroom.
“Ah.” His face lit up. “You want to know the man you’re bedding?”
That was a crude way to put it. “Yes.”
“I’m old. Human recorded history doesn’t go back to my birth. My entire existence is returning love. I’m angered when love is offered and not accepted. It’s such a precious gift.” His eyes glazed over.
He wasn’t blowing smoke. Every word he said could be ripped from a cheesy love song, but he truly believed it.
I felt breathless. “That’s wonderful.”
“All life is so complicated now.” He gestured to the back yard.
I followed his tight ass to the pool. The thought of him inside of me made my knees wobble. I’d called a halt to the act, but my hormones were screaming for relief with every glance at his body.
“May I?” He gestured to the hot tub.
“Of course.” I sat on the edge. “What did they tell you about me?”
“Nothing. I watched you.”
“Watched me?” I ran over the events of the past two days in mind. “When?”
“I saw you hold that little girl in your arms for hours while they rescued her mother.”
“I can’t believe she survived.” Even the paramedics were sure she’d been dead when they arrived.
He smiled. “She didn’t.”
I looked at his face. For a statue just come to life, there were multitudes of emotions flitting across his face.
It hit me. “You saved her.”
“Yes.” He was proud, deservedly so.
“For me?”
“No. Don’t take this wrong, but I saved her for her daughter. I wouldn’t have known about it if you weren’t there, so you did play a part.” He looked pained.
“Are you okay?”
“I lost someone millennia ago in a battle. Our child grew up without a mother. She had many aunts and uncles, and enough love to fill Olympus. There’s no replacement for a mother.”
I got a god with a backstory. Eros knew me. The mothering side of me kicked in. “I’ll be back in a moment.” I stepped inside the sliding glass doors to my bedroom. Stripping off my clothes, I changed into a bikini. I bought it last year but never wore it. The turquoise blue was my favorite color.
He was swimming in the pool when I came back out, muscles rippling as he executed a perfect flip turn. He hadn’t heard me. My phone rang. I picked up it inside, heading back to the pool.
I knew the number. “Hello, Amy.”
“Don’t hate me.” She blurted.
I couldn’t. “What did you do?”
“I saw the delivery truck.” A stage whisper was quieter.
I looked at the back gate; she wasn’t there. “Are you spying on me?”
“No, dammit, and it’s killing me.”
I laughed. She had to be outside, pacing.
Anteros stopped. “You have a lovely laugh.”
“Is that him?” She shouted so loud, I pulled the phone away from my ear.
“Yes, that’s him.”
He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Amy, my best friend. Not seeing you is driving her nuts.”
He chuckled. “Amy, I’ll take very good care of her every need. Then, we can say hello.”
I heard her start ranting about who was better suited to care for me. “She’s not going to like that.” Patience was not something Amy took time for.
“I’ll be back in two days, hear me? Two days!” She meant it.
Amy hung up before I could say anything. Not like my opinion would change a thing at this point.
He swam to the edge. “She protects you.”
I nodded. “Yes. It used to be the other way round.”
“It’s hard to protect others when your heart is bleeding.” He stared right at me.
I gasped. “How did you?”
He held his hand up. “I don’t know the story. It’s yours to tell. The silence of the home and your hesitation indicates a wound newly healed.”
Should I open my wound up to this stranger? Someone I have so much in common with may understand why I’m wrestling with a bear in my mind. “I lost Jorge three years ago. I fell in love so hard the day we met, I thought I had heart problems. Amy took me to the doctor, laughing the entire time.” I looked for his reaction.
“Sudden love is one of the best blessings of life. I’ve had it twice.” A soft smile on his face as he spoke.
I was melting for him. Even better, he didn’t appear to be trying, at all. “Only twice in your lifetime?”
“It’s rare. Even in an immortal life.” His body rippled in the water.
That hit me in the chest. “I was truly blessed.”
“Yes. That’s why I’m the god here. You need someone who understands you’ve had that, what it means to you, and what losing it does to a soul.” His green eyes held compassion and understanding.
He got it. In one hour, he stated what I needed better than I could given a month to write a paragraph.
“You understand.” I sat down in a lounge chair, a little stunned.
He didn’t move toward me. “Yes. So you tell me when you’re ready. I’ll wait for you.”
My hormones wanted to jump on him right then. My brain said to wait a while. If he was going to be around for the rest of my life, we didn’t need to be in the bedroom right then.
“Thank you.”
“Tell me about yourself.” He pulled himself out of the water.
I watched it trail down his body to his groin. “I’m having real difficulty taking my eyes off your crotch.” I couldn’t believe I’d said it.
He laughed a full-throated belly laugh. “Do you have a towel?”
I flushed with embarrassment. “Yes, just a second.” Walking quickly to the small pool house, I unlocked the door. Inside were shelves with the pool toys from our kids, a rack of towels, and the chemicals. Jorge’s towel still hung there. I froze.
Behind me I heard footsteps. “His?”
My throat closed up. “Yes.”
He didn’t move. “Still raw?”
“I didn’t think so.” I thought I was okay.
Anteros reached around me to close to doors. “I can buy clothes.”
“You have money?” I could see us trying to buy things with Greek coins. As much as I’d love it for the entertainment value, I didn’t want to take him out in public yet.
“Eros set up an account for me. Complete with a full identity, using my real name. That’s a first.”
“That’s genius. You’ll remember to answer when your name is called.” They thought of everything.
He held his hand out. “He doesn’t need help in the ego department.”
I took it, pulling my towel from its hook. “Here.”
He hesitated.
“It’s mine.”
“Okay.” He took it, wrapping it around his hips. There was still a bulge in the front. “You’re still staring.”
“You’re perfect and lucky I’m not drooling all over you.”
> “That comes later. A perfect body doesn’t make a perfect person.”
Who programmed this man? It was like romance writers got together and filled him with dialogue.
“Do you read?” I loved books.
“Yes. Do you have the classics?”
“I have ancient texts.” Taking his hand, I walked to the bookshelves lining a wall of the living room.
“This is beautiful.” He put his arm around my waist while running his other hand over the spines of books. “Aristotle, Plato, you have Greek philosophers?” His face lit up like my kids did on Christmas morning.
“Yes. Did you know them?” What an odd question.
“I listened to them. We don’t interfere as much as legend says. I attended their lectures.” Gently, he tugged a book from the shelf. “May we read?”
I couldn’t resist. Leaning in, I kissed his chest. “You don’t have to ask permission.”
“I promise to treat your treasures well.” He meant it.
I gained respect for him as we read passages to each other. He was animated as he told me what it was like to see these men speak in person.
Chapter Four
He explained what he thought the story was behind some of the quotes in the books. “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies” by Aristotle. “At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet,” and his favorite, “Man: a being in search of meaning,” by Plato.
We discussed immortality and mortality. He explained living for centuries helped him worry less about the small things in every day life. Those changes shifted his direction but not the final destination. I could appreciate that. By the end of the talk, I felt guilty for wasting so much time mourning someone who was gone. Jorge loved to entertain, cook, love, fight, and celebrate life.
Without meaning to, I’d stopped doing all of the things he’d loved, in his name, a complete reversal from his own desires. I still wasn’t sure he’d like his wife with a well-endowed Greek god. His wife sure liked the idea more and more.
Without a question, he kissed me on the cheek when I said I needed to get to bed. He didn’t hesitate in asking for a blanket to sleep on the couch. I was very aware he still wore a towel and would sleep nude. That image kept me pacing for an hour before falling asleep.
Red Hot and BOOM! A Sizzling Hot Collection of Stories from the Red Hot Authors Page 37