Accidentally Aphrodite - Dakota Cassidy Page 0,57
Arch?”
“How someone as lovely as you came from…well, from someone so cross.”
Quinn beamed a smile at him and snatched a piece of the delicious bread Arch had placed in a basket. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me, Arch.”
She popped the tasty morsel in her mouth and headed back out into the fire to find her mother sitting docilely at the table as Nina gave her the warning glare.
In all this, she’d forgotten about Carl. There were many things her mother might not question, being as wrapped up in herself and her anger as she was, but Carl—Carl Helen would take to task, and nothing, not even her mother’s sharp tongue, would let Quinn allow that.
Khristos waggled a finger at her from across the room, summoning her.
Every time she looked at him, her heart skipped a beat, and that had to stop. She was still so fresh from her breakup with Igor, why was she reacting this way toward him? It had to be rebound related.
Yet, she found herself crossing the small space between them and taking his hand when he pulled her into the bathroom.
Closing the door behind him, he said, “Talk to me.”
She backed up against the sink and leaned on it, attempting to create distance between them. There was hardly any space between them as it was, any closer and she’d pass out. “Wait, first, where’s Carl? I’m so panicked my mother’s going to find out about him and terrorize his sweet soul, he’ll wish that crazy witch doctor had finished him off.”
Khristos’s lips twisted into a smile of complete understanding. “According to Darnell, he took him back to Nina’s for the night—or at least until your mother goes home.”
She took another deep sigh of relief. “Thank goodness.”
“Now, that talk?”
“About?”
“About what happened today in art class.”
“Um, I found the core of my discontent. Damn monkey bars.”
He brushed her still tender cheek with his knuckles. “That’s not what I mean, Quinn. What happened when you made that match? You were in agony—in real pain. I want to know what it felt like. What was going on?”
“Like someone was sticking a hot poker into my guts? Wait. Isn’t a tough match supposed to feel like that? I was kind of going with the theory of no pain, no gain. I mean, those two were hell on wheels. If I didn’t have this power, never in a million years would I have matched them.”
Looking down at her, Khristos shook his head. “No, Quinn. It’s never supposed to feel like that.”
Oh, good. Her stomach plummeted as she gripped the edge of the sink. “So that means bad guys?”
“I don’t quite understand how, but I’m swaying toward yes.”
Now her breathing hitched. “So what do we do?”
“We find my mother and figure this out.”
“You know, something’s been bothering me for a while now. Why would your mother put her powers in an apple, of all things? Isn’t that just a little crazy? I mean, for the love of God, she has the power to create life. It’s not like you should leave something like that just lying around. Because I’m here to tell you, I’m keeping mine on the inside, not storing them in, say, a bunch of bananas.”
Khristos laughed. It reverberated off the walls of her bathroom and landed square in her chest. “I guess in her defense, who’d think she’d stick the entirety of her powers in an apple? Because it is damn crazy.”
“Right. Hide in plain sight. So now we need to find out who wants them and why they don’t want me to have them. If that’s what this is at all. I mean, maybe it was just some intestinal thing.”
“Nope. Something’s going on.”
“Of course. Wishful thinking.”
“Now, one more question.”
Somehow, they’d managed to inch closer. Her body was just drawn to his like a magnet to a fridge, and there was nowhere else to go. “Shoot.”
“Where’s your father? Do you see him?”
Her smile was hindered by the fact that she didn’t see him as often since he’d moved to California. “I do. He’s remarried now to a really nice lady named Stella, and very happy. But he avoids my mother at all costs, and I avoid telling her I see him.”
“It must be tough to hide how you feel about him. Tougher still not to share your moments with him out loud.”
“Tough is an understatement. I can’t even speak his name without her biting my head off. I still don’t know why they divorced, but I remember