Accidentally…Evil? (Accidentally Yours #3.5)(13)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Fear had once blinded her, but now she knew: She mattered. She mattered. She mattered. Just like Chaam, everything she did mattered. And it filled her with power and purpose.

“You see me?” He nudged the pendant of her necklace to one side and placed a gentle kiss on the hollow of her neck. “Who am I?”

“You’re magic. My magic.” She stroked the back of his head. His long hair was soft and magnificent. She could spend an eternity petting it and everything else.

Chaam lifted his head. “Magic?” He beamed. “Well, that is quite the compliment. I’ve been called many things, but a magician…”

Still inside her, he gently pushed his h*ps forward. His erection had not shown the slightest signs of flagging.

A sharp wave of ecstasy bolted through her, and she gasped. “Oh yes. Magic.”

Slowly, he rocked his hips. “Let me show you my next trick. I think I know exactly what you want.”

Several hours later, Maggie’s deliciously sore body was a heap of weak, quivering muscles. Who knew hammocks were so versatile? Sideways, diagonally, on the top or on the bottom, the netting molded to their forms and allowed the night breeze to cool their heated, sweat-covered bodies.

I will never sleep in a bed again.

Chaam extracted himself carefully from the hammock, and the campfire, now a murmuring pile of glowing embers, afforded her a glimpse of his glorious backside. Smooth, round, firm. Even the rippling muscles in his back were something to behold. The first chance she got, she would put paint to canvas and capture every inch of him. Those gorgeous toes included. Someone needed to pay the appropriate homage to this specimen of male perfection.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

He leaned down and scooped her into his arms. “We are going for a swim. It will revive you.”

Revive her? Dear sweet God of Male Virility, he wanted more?

The lake was considerably warmer than the air outside. Like tepid bathwater, really. The two splashed and played and Chaam found himself not wanting to go very long without touching that creamy, soft skin, the feminine curve of her hips, or those perfectly round br**sts. And those lips? Two plump little pillows meant for seduction. But of all her sinful gifts, he loved her eyes most. The darkest of browns, almost black. They were wide and bright and the most glorious windows to her glorious soul—a soul of the purest color he’d ever seen.

Making love to her had been the most amazing experience of his existence. He didn’t know if he felt love or if the gods were capable of such feelings, but attempting to define such emotions with a word would not do. She’d embedded her light inside his soul.

Waist high in the water, he pulled Maggie into his arms. She shivered.

“Cold?” he asked.

“Can you warm me up?”

With the darkness of night, he could not see her face, but he knew she grinned.

“I can figure something out.” He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.

She laughed and squirmed. “Put me down!”

He smacked her fleshy backside. “Silence, woman.” He easily climbed from the water and deposited her on the dock.

“Woman? I’m a lady.”

“Not anymore.”

“What!” She giggled and slapped his bare chest. “Well, whose fault is that?”

“Mine. All mine,” he said. But was she? His, that is? Saints, he’d not thought the situation through. Christ. Maggie had never answered his question. What was she? If not immortal, she would eventually die and leave him.

Leave. Him.

He gripped her firmly by the shoulders. “Maggie. You will tell me what you are. No more games.”

She squirmed. “You’re hurting me. What’s gotten into you?”

He released her and hissed, “I’m sorry. I often forget my strength. But dammit, woman! Tell me.”

“I told you, I’m human.” The darkness masked her expression, but fear permeated her voice.

“Impossible!”

“Why? Why won’t you believe me?” she argued.

“Because gods cannot make love to humans.”

“But I am human! I am. Can’t you look into my eyes or something? I’m not lying.” She tugged him toward the fire. “Put another log on so you can look.”

“Gods dammit.” He stood firm and ran his hand over his dripping wet hair.

Maggie rubbed his arm. “What is it? Tell me.”

Fear. It welled inside him.

For f**k’s sake. He’d never felt this emotion before. But then again, he’d never had anything to lose.

“If you are telling the truth, Maggie, then you will die someday.”

“Oh,” was all she replied.

He couldn’t lose her. Not now.

“Maggie, you will come to my world. We will ask the gods to grant you immortality.

Immortality?

“I’m… I’m sorry. But did you just say ‘immortality’?”

“Yes,” he said.

She could not see his face, but she felt the stark pain in his voice. He was serious. “Is it really possible?”

“Yes.”

Live forever? With him? God save her—or is that gods?—she had no idea what to do or say. What would be the repercussion? Did he even love her? She hoped with all her heart that he did because after everything she’d seen and felt, she knew there had been a reason no other man had ever reached her heart; it belonged to Chaam, and it always would.

“Why? Tell me why,” she said.

“Maggie, I have waited my entire existence for you. The universe has given me this gift. You are mine, my reward for thousands of years of dedication and loyalty. I’m not about to let you go.”

That was not what she’d hoped to hear. In fact, he made her sound like a booby prize. Not the naughty kind, but the silly kind.

“Maggie, I will not take no for an answer.”

“What will happen to my soul?”

“Your soul? I-I do not know. I suppose it stays with you.”

“You’re a god, but you don’t know?”

“We don’t know everything, Maggie. We simply know more.”

She needed time to think. It was all too much to take in. And now she knew the truth: there were no decisions, no actions without consequence. Everything mattered.

“Can I have some time?” she asked.

Anger radiated from his body. “You may have until sunrise.”

“Why are you pushing me, Chaam?”

“If you speak the truth, then you are mortal. Mortals die by the thousands every second. I’m not about to risk anything happening to the one person I cannot live without.”