Vampires Need Not…Apply? (Accidentally Yours #4)(26)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

She’d had him turned into a monster. A vampire for f**k sake! This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be! She’d destroyed his life. Caray!

“There was another choice!” he yelled. “Death! And trust me, that would have been better.”

“You don’t understand—”

“Do you have any…any idea what you’ve done? Do you? You are a demon from hell! You’ve single-handedly destroyed my life, everything that I care about! Everything, goddammit!”

Wanting to shake her by the shoulders for what she’d done, he reached for her, but she jumped back.

“Don’t touch me! Don’t ever touch me!” she reprimanded.

She had said the same thing that time he’d run into her by the elevator in his building. She’d told him that he disgusted her.

He stepped back and held up his palms. Blinding, raging fury engulfed him. He needed to get away from her before he did something he regretted.

He turned and ran as fast as his new vampire feet could carry him.

Chapter Catorce

Penelope pounded and pounded and pounded until her fists were raw with blisters. Kinich simply stood there and took it. So many hours and days she’d wept and cried over losing him, over his not loving her enough to overcome his urge to drink her blood, but she hadn’t wept nearly enough. Now those bottled emotions came gushing out like an unstoppable tsunami.

After a few minutes, she lowered her head to Kinich’s chest and released one final sob before fisting his charred white T-shirt and wiping her eyes.

“Are you done now, my sweet?” he asked.

She felt a strong hand run down the back of her head and trail down her neck.

“Yeah, I think so.” She sniffled.

“Good.” Kinich scooped her up and deposited her recklessly on the bed.

“I’ll be right back.”

Before she protested, he was gone. “Hey! Where are you going?”

She heard the refrigerator open and then slam shut. He went for a snack? Right in the middle of her epic meltdown? Dammit. She wasn’t done yet. And he had this coming. No, it wasn’t his fault that Zac had put the temptation whammy on him, but Kinich had done plenty of other pigheaded crap to deserve a good tongue-lashing. For starters, he’d made a risky plan that involved rolling the dice with Roberto the Ancient One, which landed Kinich in Vampire Land. Then he’d refused to see her, to trust her, when she’d known in her heart they were meant to be. All the while, she’d been left alone with Zac to rule the gods. And pregnant! And trying to stop the end of the world!

I mean… seriously!

Penelope marched from the bedroom, through the living room—yikes, someone really needs to talk to Helena about these decorations. Gloomy much?—to the kitchen, where she found Kinich, shirtless (oops, guess I ruined it with all those fireballs), wearing only his drawstring pajama bottoms, chugging.

Penelope swallowed hard and took in the heavenly vision of the behemoth male standing before her. Nearly seven feet of pure, hard, immortal muscle, with smooth, slightly golden skin—nowhere near as tanned as before, but nevertheless completely yummy—endless ripples of abs, biceps flexing as he tilted his mouth up, drinking from a plastic pouch.

She would just pretend he sipped punch and allow him to continue because right before her eyes, Kinich’s body filled out, the bruises on his glorious broad back fading into nothing. His caramel-brown hair returned to its full, glorious length, filled with those streaks of gold she loved so much.

Kinich withdrew the bag from his mouth and glanced at her. “I told you to stay put.” He swiped another bag from the counter, tore off a corner, and threw his head back once again, chugging deeply.

“No, you said you’d be right back.”

Kinich made one last suck, threw the pouch in the trash, wiped his hand across his mouth, and then stared at Penelope like he wanted to sip her next.

She took a step back and held out her palms. “Whoa. I thought we established you can’t dine on me.”

He lowered his gaze to her br**sts and scratched his stubble-covered jaw. “Says who?”

Wow. Had he just filled out another two inches in his biceps? Even when Kinich was the God of the Sun, he had been big and strong and freakishly desirable. But now…? He was frigging colossal and a whole hell of a lot sexier.

Put that man on a package of underwear!

Instead of pouncing as she secretly hoped, he turned his back and plucked a bottle from the cupboard. Red wine? He didn’t bother to remove the cork. Instead, he snapped off the neck and guzzled straight from the jagged opening.

Okeydokey. I see we’re going to have to reintroduce proper manners to Kinich.

He finished off the bottle, slammed it down on the counter, turned toward Penelope, and licked his full lips.

Oh, hell. Did he just get more handsome? It was difficult to pinpoint exactly which part had improved, but his body looked as though it had been refined by da Vinci’s brush and Michelangelo’s chisel to create flawless definition in every bulging muscle.

She looked up at the ceiling. “Really? Really? You’ve got to be joking. That’s not fair.”

“Now,” he growled, “where were we?” He stepped forward, and the hungry expression on his intensely gorgeous face was augmented by the fact that his turquoise eyes shifted to a very deep, dark brown.

Oh, Christ, he was going to attack her. Penelope took a step back. “You can’t—”

Before she blinked, Kinich had her against the wall. His thrusting tongue was hot as it pushed inside her mouth, but thrusting h*ps were hotter.

“Gods, I missed you, woman,” he said with a breath that filled her lungs with the most potent, delicious smell ever. Dark spices, tropical citrus, male, lust… Ohmygods.

“Really? Really?” She looked up at the ceiling. “’Cause he didn’t smell yummy enough when he was just a god?”

“Who the hell are you talking to?”

She shrugged. “No one. Are you taking me to bed now?”

He smiled, and for the first time in weeks, Penelope saw the deity she’d fallen in love with. The one who secretly helped forgotten children, the one who’d sacrificed himself to save her, the one she had been born to love and comfort even in his darkest hours. She brought her hand to his cheek, savoring his masculine roughness, and soaked him in. She couldn’t believe they were actually standing together in the kitchen, their bodies pressed together. Happiness and triumph washed over her.