Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(30)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Nick scratched his chin. His deep, rich-brown stubble, I then noticed, was slightly darker than his golden-streaked hair and thick caramel-colored eyelashes. God, he was gorgeous. It hurt just to look at him. Not that it would stop me.

“No easy way to say this, I suppose,” his voice lowered one octave. “First, I want it made abundantly clear that I do not know why the Maaskab are after you. But I do intend to find out.”

“What’s a Miskeeb?”

“Maaskab.”

“Fine. Whatever.”

“Originally, they were a group of Mayan priests who worshipped the dark arts. They pillaged, murdered, and raped, all in the name of their holy quest to gain power. Eventually, their bloodlust triggered the collapse of the Mayan civilization. Today, they are a thousand times stronger and have their sights set much higher.”

Oh shit! And they want me? Me! WTF! Why me? There are, like, what? Seven billion people on the planet. So why me?

I popped out of the water, unable to contain the need to run like a fat little rabbit about to be gobbled down by a hungry wolf. “Please tell me this is joke!”

Nick’s body froze. His eyes wandered leisurely south from my face. “I…I…for gods’ sake woman, you’re so damned sexy.”

I blinked and looked down at the sudsy clumps slinking down my bare skin, racing back to the pool of water below.

“Oh!” I crossed my arms over the strategic parts. “Toss me a towel.” It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen my na**d glory, but that didn’t mean he had a season pass.

Nick remained motionless staring at my br**sts.

I dropped back into the water. “Towel?”

“Sure.” He pointed to a neatly rolled stack near the sink in a wicker basket.

“Funny. Can you toss one over?”

He glanced at the towels and then back to me. A wicked little smile do-si-doed across his face. “Sorry. Fresh out of tosses.”

I huffed in protest. “Fine. Then I’m staying put.”

“Did I ever tell you that I have amazing stamina? I only require one or two hours of sleep each night—oh. Wait. Didn’t have to tell you. Because you’ve lived it. That’s right.”

What? Smug son of a…“Neither of us is certain we ‘lived’ anything that night. And if we did, who’s to say you impressed me with your awesome stamina?”

“Because there is no other possibility.”

I made a little hiss. “You are so arrogant—”

“Arrogant?” He winked. “Yes, I suppose it’s a gift.”

“Nick. Please, either talk and get this over with or leave so I can get a towel. This isn’t funny.”

The smile melted from his full lips—the full lips I dreamed about sucking and licking. The full lips that, perhaps, had done things to my body, in places and in ways no one had ever attempted.

He stood up straight, and I noticed he was wearing a pair of white linen pants and a button-down shirt—the upper half strategically left open so that the hard ripples of his stomach peeked through the opening.

God, he was delicious. Even his smell did it for me.

He sat down on the edge of the tub and began swirling his finger in the water. “The temperature is cold. Let me heat it up for you.” Within moments, the water jumped ten degrees.

“How did you do that?”

His eyes focused on his swirling finger. “Another gift. There are fourteen of us, each with a set of unique abilities.”

My eyes fixated on his exquisite, flawlessly masculine face. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to see it before, but looking closely, I noticed an odd radiance in his light brown skin. Even the golden highlights in his caramel brown hair seemed to sparkle with flecks of red and gold. And those eyes; when I peered into them, they shimmered with a thousand shades of turquoise, aquamarine, sky blue, and sherbet green.

What was he? Whatever the answer, he couldn’t be human. No.

“G—g—go on,” I mumbled.

“This world is full of mysteries, Penelope. Life-forms of the most amazing sorts. Miracles of nature, of the universe; I am simply another one of those miracles.”

Miracle?

A miracle was walking on water or spontaneous healing. Or the fact Jersey Shore hadn’t been canceled yet. Or that a Fudgsicle was only five points.

But if the word “miracle” was indicative of his species, then…

“Oh my God, you’re an angel, aren’t you?”

Kinich’s head snapped up. “Gods no! I’m a…a god. The God of the Sun. Angels are disturbingly fanatical with their do-gooding.” He made a sour, icky face.

Did he just say…“God? Har har. Very funny.”

He leaned over the edge of the tub, entrancing me with his hypnotic gaze. “Touch your nose.”

My hand shot from the water and my index finger made contact with the tip of my nose. “How did you do that?”

“I am a deity. I have gifts,” he stated blandly.

“That was some mind trick. Come on, Nick, stop messing around.”

“You’d believe I am an angel, but not a god?” He frowned.

“I don’t know what to believe. I’m sitting na**d in a tub being told that there’s another species sharing our planet.”

“There are others, too,” he added. “That man who appeared in Helena and Niccolo’s living room, for example, is a vampire, as is Helena.”

“Vampire?” I asked.

“Correct,” he replied.

“Seriously? Like, as in, people who drink blood, walk around in capes, and turn into bats?”

“Bats, no. Capes are optional—Helena, for example, loves floral prints and Hello Kitty.”

Sweet pickled demons on a Triscuit. I knew something was off about that family, especially that fangy little…“The baby, too?”

“Yes,” he replied, “Matty is half vampire.”

Did I want to ask what the other half was? I decided no. With my luck, it would be something over the top like hobbit.

Vampire hobbits? Now, that’s just crazy talk, girlfriend!

“However,” he continued, “these vampires are not evil. They are our allies.”

I’d need to digest all this later; it was a teensy bit too much. “Peachy. Anything else?”

“The Maaskab have joined up with a faction of evil vampires called Obscuros. They are planning a war against us. All of us. If they win, it will lead to the apocalypse.”

Holy crappity-crap. “End of the world?”