Sun God Seeks…Surrogate? (Accidentally Yours #3)(55)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

My body ignited. Kinich called out and screamed my name.

I braced myself against the wall.

A few moments past and my body fell back to earth. Aside from the night I may or may not have spent with Kinich, this had been the most erotic experience of my life.

I turned my face into the warm water. Oh God. That felt so…

“That. Was. Amazing,” Kinich said.

I nodded, knowing he couldn’t see me but I was unable to speak.

“Baby. You okay?”

Baby? I sighed. He called me ‘baby.’ Like a real man with a real woman. There was hope for this deity yet.

I shut off the shower. “Sure. I’m really relaxed.” I felt like taking a long nap.

I toweled off, threw on some sweats, and trudged over to the bed. I looked down at the sad shell of a body.

“Will things ever go back to the way they were?” I asked.

“I do not know, Penelope. But I am not suffering. My entire existence I’ve wished to be human, to be mortal. So to experience your body, to feel the world through you has been extraordinary…it is unlike anything I’ve experienced in my seventy thousand years of existence.”

Had my plan actually worked? Could he see who he truly was?

“Just know, there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you, Kinich. I can’t explain it. I hardly know you, but I think I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you. And I know it doesn’t have anything to do with your pheromones or…species. It’s you. Your soul.”

I waited for him to say something this time, but there was only silence. That was not the answer I’d expected to receive yet again. But that was the one I got.

“Kinich. Say something—anything.”

“I—I…Sleep, Penelope. You will need your strength. For tomorrow.”

Ouch, ouch, ouch.

CHAPTER 30

Kinich and I spoke but a few words while I got ready the next morning. Really, though, what was there to say? I loved him. He lusted me and was enjoying the ride inside my mortal body.

Could be worse, I suppose.

At least I knew he cared. But he seemed to have made up his mind and refused to consider any other possibilities. We weren’t meant to be together, according to him. Period.

The irony was that we felt so right. How could he not see that?

And he wants to make you immortal. What did that mean? Talk about confusing.

He said it himself, he feels the need to protect you. It’s…“hardwired.”

Stop, Pen! Stop acting like a victim. Remember, you can’t control the lemons, but you choose what to do with them. You choose how to deal. So…deal.

Okay. What would be my move, then?

He doesn’t love you. You need to…move on.

Easier said than done.

I went in the bathroom to fix my hair. My dark green eyes looked much lighter now. Was it because my whites were so red? Or was Kinich’s energy doing something to me? I pulled back my now chin-length hair with a red bandanna I’d rolled into a headband. With my hair out of the way, I noticed that even my face looked different: tired, but my cheeks rosier.

Must be a sun god thing.

I threw on my last clean outfit, a pink T-shirt and jeans. I hoped the gods didn’t expect me to come in some deity getup like She-Ra or K’ak.

When I left Kinich’s room, I found Gabrán and Brutus waiting for me. Gabrán wore a blue-and-green kilt with a white dress shirt and had his red hair pulled back into a neat braid. His expression was stone-cold serious.

“Why do I get the feeling that these summits are scarier than everyone is letting on?”

“Everything will be fine, Penelope,” Kinich assured me.

I refrained from saying anything snarky or bitter—my wounded ego didn’t welcome any comfort from him.

Gabrán turned down the hall with Brutus trailing behind us. I knew we were going to the large meeting room on the west side of Kinich’s estate. He’d told me this was where they met.

“The last time these marauders got in tae the same room, they burnt down Sun God’s house. ’Twas not the worst of it tho, lass. Four dinna walk out. K’ak has nae forgiven Acan for twisting off his head.”

I cringed. “That’s awful. What started the fight?”

“Pretzels.”

Kinich groaned. “Must we relive this?”

“Pretzels?” I asked.

“Ay. K’ak asked for the pretzels. Acan, God of Wine—

“You mean, Belch?” I asked.

“Ay. Belch was drunk, as usual, and had eaten them all.”

Okeydokey.

“Colel got up to go find more before a fight broke out, but she accidentally closed the door behind her.”

Umm. Why did I have the feeling this story was going to a very weird, disturbing place?

Oh! Because it was.

“Ay. Colel is the Mistress of Bees. And where she goes, her bees go. The tiny buggers get verra upset when they are separated so they began to attack A.C.”

“A.C.?” I asked, unsure who that was.

“Ah-Ciliz, the God of Eclipses.” Gabrán shook his head. “An lemme tell ya, lass. The bloke does nae have a sense o’ humor. He’s a verra dark SOB.”

No, reallllly? God of Eclipses, dark? Who would’ve thunk it?

“The rest is history,” Gabrán continued. “K’ak and Acan started tearing at each other’s heads. Kinich jumped in to stop them but got tangled up with A.C. and the bees. O’ course, Kinich then accidentally released a spark and caught the furniture on fire. The entire estate went up in flames in twenty minutes.” Gabrán chuckled. “Kinich was madder than a na**d leprechaun.”

Oh gods. No. Please don’t tell me…“Leprechauns? They aren’t real, too, are they?”

“Ay,” Gabrán replied.

Sure. Why not? Gods and vampires and various combos in between. Just add tiny men dressed in green with pots of gold. Christ, while we’re at it, how about the chupacabra? Why the hell not? “Annnd, do I want to know why na**d leprechauns are angry?”

Gabrán flashed a smile over his shoulder as we followed him along a long hallway that I’d never been down. He then held up his pinky.

“Oh.” Made sense.

“In any case, be on your guard today, lass. The gods are an unruly bunch.”

He stopped in front of two heavy double doors made of blond, unfinished wood. The Mayan calendar was carved on one side and the Mayan sun on the other.

He reached for the handle, and then paused. “Any last minute questions, lass?”