Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(38)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

Nick suddenly pulled away. “Penelope, I must—”

“No”—I planted frantic kisses over his mouth and continued massaging his deliciously large erection—“don’t you dare stop.”

He kissed me for a moment longer, thrusting himself against me. “I must go”—he gave me another long, wet kiss—“get the necklace”—he kissed me again—“or we cannot…”

Oh, the necklace.

Then a stupid question popped into my mind. “Are you sure about this?” It was a stupid question because my fingers were wrapped tightly around the evidence of his resolve. But nevertheless, a tiny voice in the back of my mind reminded me how he’d just boldly declared that “we” would never happen.

To be clear, I’d just realized how badly I wanted “we” to happen.

He froze and stared deeply into my eyes. “I can think of nothing but bedding you,” he whispered.

Works for me. “Hurry. Get the necklace.”

Nick was about to lift himself from the pool when I grabbed his arm. “Wait. Five more seconds.”

He sank back into the water and hurriedly complied with another hard kiss. His stubble rasped the fragile skin around my lips.

Once again, I wrapped my arms around his neck. It was getting unbearably hot, but I couldn’t stop. Not even if my life depended on it, which I’m pretty sure it did because he abruptly pushed me away.

“I’m about to lose control of my energy, and I do not want to cook you.” He flashed a glance toward the sliding glass door across the patio leading to his room. “It’s right there next to my bed.”

Oh. So that’s what Sun God keeps in his nightstand.

“Okay. Okay, just hurry. Before…” I panted.

“Before?”

“Before I spontaneously orgasm from wanting you so badly.”

The look in his eyes went from raw lust, to savage hunger to…

Huh?

His face turned bright red, flames licked from his eye sockets.

I winced as his heat singed the drops of water from my wet skin.

Holy crap! What’s happening?

He clenched his eyes shut and groaned in agony.

I wanted to reach for him, to help him, but his skin glowed like a smoldering campfire.

Then…I glanced up.

Standing above him at the edge of the pool was a Maaskab. Its eyes were blood-red pools with dark, empty holes in the center. His long black ropes of hair were caked with a brownish red paste—Holy shit! Are those teeth hanging from the ends of those nappy dreads? His body was smeared with black soot, and his loincloth was made of some sort of animal hide—Holy shit! Is that human skin? I didn’t know of many animals that had heart-shaped tattoos with the word Bob in the middle.

Then the smell hit me. Eau de festering wound mixed with portapotty.

I pointed and screamed at the top of my lungs.

The Maaskab raised his arms and tossed a black jar in the water. And at that exact moment, time moved in slow motion.

Nick’s eyes, glowing and red, locked on my face while his hand reached behind and latched onto the Maaskab’s ankle. “In halach puczical, in uchucil, ca kaxah yokolcab ichi pixan,” Nick whispered.

It felt like I’d been struck by a bolt of lightning. Then, I saw him. Kinich. Not the image perceived with my eyes, but his essence, his light. It branded itself on my very soul.

Before I knew it, the Maaskab’s body turned to ash and landed in a pile on the ground. Kinich slumped over in the water.

“Oh my God! Kinich? Kinich!” I pulled his face from the water and slapped his pale cheeks. He didn’t respond. “Help!” I screamed.

I hooked him under the arms and maneuvered his large body over to the pool’s steps. I heaved and pulled and blubbered hysterically, but none of that—especially the blubbering—made a difference; he was so damned heavy, all I could do was inch him halfway out of the water.

“Did ya actually have tae go and break the man, lass?”

A rather tall, burly man with long, red hair, and wearing a kilt, stared down with amusement.

I didn’t know who he was, but he wasn’t a Maaskab, and that was good enough for me.

“Oh my God. Help! I think he’s dead!”

He gave a hearty chuckle. “Oh now, lass, they cannae die. Those immortal buggers are like roaches—cannot get rid ’o them. And believe me, I’ve tried.”

“No! I’m serious. One of those Maaskab just showed up and threw something in the water.”

The man squinted at the bobbing black jar. “Ah. So he has.” He scratched his chin. “Well now, not to worry; we’ll get him out ’o there and he’ll be like new.”

The man latched onto Kinich’s wrist and plucked him from the water like a wet noodle.

When I pulled myself out, I noticed my skin was covered with tiny blisters.

“Looks like ya got a little sun-god-burn, there. Did ya, lass?” He chuckled again.

I’d worry about the burn later, but why was this crazy Scotsman so damned happy?

I kneeled beside Kinich, who now appeared even paler. “He’s not waking up.”

“Hmm. ’Tis a bit odd.” He kneeled over and slapped Kinich’s face. “Wake up you ol’ bastard.”

“Hey, do you mind? Name-calling isn’t going to help.” I winced. My skin was scalding hot.

“I’ll take him tae his room and call the doctor. Looks like you’ll be needin’ his help, too, lass. That’s some sunburn ya got there.”

CHAPTER 21

Almost thirty hours after the incident with the Maaskab, I was having an epic breakdown. Kinich still lay in his bed, limp, pale, and lifeless.

The Uchben doctor, a youngish looking man with brown hair and glasses, had made at least a dozen visits, each time taking blood samples, listening to Kinich’s heart and lungs, offering zero-useful information other than Kinich was still alive.

Regardless, I couldn’t help but hold my breath and dig my nails into my palms as the doctor examined Kinich for the thirteenth time.

“And if he dies?” I asked.

The doctor made a nondescript gesture with his hands. “His light would be sent to a cenote, and he’d get a new body.”

Kinich had mentioned the cenotes—ancient Mayan pools the gods used as portals between worlds—but I wasn’t aware they could simply check in and get a new set of human wheels every time they crashed the car, so to speak.

The doctor gathered up his vials of blood and instruments. “Ms. Trudeau, a word of advice, if I may?”