Accidentally Aphrodite (20 page)

Khristos held her arm, pulling her close. “Please wait, Quinn. Don’t do or say anything before you listen.”

But this time, she shook her head and brushed him off. “You’re always telling me to listen, but there’s nothing to listen to. My mother said dreadful, awful things to people who’ve been very kind to me, and I just won’t have it anymore. You were there. How can ask me to wait? Now, let me go!”

“No, Quinn. You’ll stay right here,” he ordered.

Just as she was about to protest again, he snapped his fingers and her mother’s voice was in her ear, clear as a bell.

“Listen, Quinn.
Listen
.”

“Maude…there’s something we need to talk about. Something
I
need to talk about.”

Quinn rolled her eyes.
Good luck, Maude.
Her mother didn’t talk to you. She talked
at
you as though you were the defense and she was the prosecution.

But Maude tilted her head in a question and nodded. “You can always talk to me, Helen. You know that.” She reached her hand across the table and grabbed her mother’s hand, giving her fingers a squeeze.

“I’m not a very nice person, Maude. I’ve been horrible to everyone around me for so many years. I’ve been critical and mean-spirited and ugly. Not just to other people, but to Quinn. The one person I love most in this world.”

Quinn stood rooted to the spot. Her mother was admitting her faults? Out loud? In public? To Maude?

She peered up at Khristos in skepticism. “Is the world coming to an end? Should we gather up Carl and have him teach us about zombies so we’re prepared?”

The rumble of laughter in Khristos’s chest was deep, pinging off the buildings surrounding them. “No. But you do need to hush your pretty mouth.”

Maude cocked her head, her brow furrowed in confusion. “You’re being pretty hard on yourself, aren’t you, Helen? You’ve never been cruel to me, and we’ve been friends for a hundred years.”

Her mother’s smile was full of irony. “That’s because you wouldn’t allow it, now would you? But I’ve run roughshod over Quinn and her life and it took a very pale, very smart woman to help me figure that out tonight.”

Nina?
Shut the front door.

“She reminded me today that, my unwarranted hatred toward the opposite sex aside, my daughter grew into an amazing young women who’s kind and warm and believes in miracles—despite me. Maybe even to spite me.”

Quinn gripped Khristos’s hands, now securely around her waist. Who was this person? This soft soul, talking to someone else as though she actually cared about their opinion?

“Quinn’s a great kid, Helen. I’ve always said so. A dreamer, no doubt, but dreams are what keep us alive, keep us reaching for something more.”

Helen scoffed. “And I crushed all of her dreams. The woman she is today really has nothing to do with me. She did it all on her own—to survive me. While I was hating David for divorcing me, she was raising herself and living out the lives of the characters in her mountains of books.”

“You really loved David. His betrayal didn’t make any sense, honey.”

Helen shook her head. “No. I never loved David, Maude. I wanted to. I tried to, and when I just couldn’t, I took it out on him. Took it out on Quinn.”

Maude’s face was astonished, the wrinkles of concern on her forehead deepening. “But—”

“I know, I know. Appearances can be deceiving. When I got pregnant with Quinn, the only thing to do back then was get married or have my parents disown me. David was my first sexual experience and we were foolish. But he tried so hard to make it work. It just didn’t. It could never have worked.”

Quinn was floored, but she kept listening and clinging to Khristos.

“I came into the city while I thought Quinn would still be in Greece because I knew you’d be here visiting your sister this week, Maude, and I know how much you love this café. I wanted to tell you something here—in this place where we’ve shared so many happy memories.”

Maude grinned and patted Helen’s hand. “We’ve had some great times here, haven’t we?”

“Some of the best in my life.
You’re
one of the best things in my life, and I want you to just listen to my words. You can walk away when I’m done, and I’ll understand, but will you please just hear me out?”

Quinn held her breath, sucking the cold night air into her lungs.

Maude held her breath, too. Quinn saw her slight chest rise as she nodded.

Her mother gulped, the hard sound of her swallow riddled with insecurity—something new and foreign to Quinn. “David was my first
male
sexual experience, Maude. Wouldn’t you know I’d get pregnant, trying to please everyone but me? He was a good guy. Funny and smart, and it just sort of happened. And even though it was an accident, I’ll never regret Quinn. But back then, well, you just didn’t do what I’m about to do, and all these years, I’ve been angry about marrying someone I didn’t want to marry. Would never have married in this day and age of awareness and rallies and Twitter.”

Maude continued to sit quietly, her hand still in her mother’s, the other on the stem of her wineglass.

Helen took a deep breath. “I married David because society said to marry him. Because my parents expected me to marry him. I thought by marrying him, I could hide who I was, stamp it out, but it only made me hate myself—hate everyone around me, and when he left, which was the right thing to do, he told me to be true to myself, no matter the cost. Instead, I lashed out until I didn’t know I was lashing out anymore. Until it became second nature to bash anyone I could touch. Mostly anyone male.”

A tear slid down Maude’s and Quinn’s cheeks simultaneously, but still, they both remained silent.

“My frustration at hiding who I am all these years boiled over this week as I tried to prepare myself for this conversation. I hurt Quinn and her friends and insulted them enough that she booted me right out of her house. And she was right to. I deserved it. I went too far over to the other side. But I want to come back. I so desperately want to come back. With you.
To
you, if you’ll let me. I love you, Maude. I’ve loved you from the moment we talked about seeing the Black-cheeked lovebird in Zambia. When we dreamed someday we’d take a trip somewhere exotic to observe rare birds.”

Quinn and Maude gasped in unison.

That moment, that silent, palpable moment, would stay with Quinn forever as she mentally prayed Maude felt the same way about Helen. Prayed her mother had finally found peace, contentment—joy.

Maude slid from her chair, tears streaming down her face, and knelt in front of her mother. Letting her head rest on Helen’s lap, she whispered, “I’ve waited for you for so long…”

Quinn’s heart stopped beating then and she only heard the sound of
their
hearts. Of their love—a love her mother had been too ashamed to admit. A love she’d fought and tortured herself over. A love Maude had waited twenty years to experience.

Everything made sense in that moment.
Everything.

She turned and looked up at Khristos with wonder. “Them,” she whispered.

“Yes, Quinn. Them.”

Closing her eyes, tears still falling from her face, Quinn mentally summoned Cupid, her pulse racing at this gift she’d been given—this ability to put one of the people she loved most in the world into the arms of someone who’d finally make her happy.

“Now!”
Quinn murmured, shaking and hushed.

The arrow appeared out of nowhere, glowing more magnificently than it had in any of her matches so far, melting through the big picture window of the café, and landing perfectly on her mother. The shower of color sprayed over them, shooting upward and disappearing, leaving a residual glow.

Quinn shuddered a happy sigh and leaned back into Khristos wordlessly, enraptured, at peace,

A light snow began to fall, swirling around them in soft, wet flakes, and the wind howled, rushing against her wet cheeks as she stood and watched her mother and her new lover laugh, cry, sip wine and discover each other.

Chapter 12

K
hristos pushed the door open to her apartment to find everyone sitting quietly around the table. They all jumped up, obviously prepared to offer their comfort to her, but Khristos, as intuitive as always, held up a hand to thwart them.

Quinn didn’t hesitate when she sorted her way through the chairs and threw her arms around Nina’s neck. “Thank you,” was all she was capable of saying. “
Thank you
.”

Nina didn’t speak, but she grabbed Quinn’s hand and pressed it to her cheek and nodded.

In turn, Quinn gave everyone a hug, inhaling their scents of vanilla and musk, pinching Archibald’s cheek, sharing a smile with Ingrid, thanking them silently before she made her way to the bedroom and closed the door.

She needed to absorb the information behind the doors her mother had unlocked tonight. To reflect on all the angry words her mother had once imparted and let this new light, this newest revelation, shine on them.

Pulling off her clothes, she didn’t ever bother to put her pajamas on. Instead, she pulled Khristos’s borrowed sweater into her arms and tucked it beneath her chin, inhaling the scent of him as she climbed under her covers and closed her eyes.

She smiled into the darkness just before she fell fast asleep.

* * * *

Someone sat on the edge of her bed, and she stirred. Rolling over, she focused in on Khristos, his hair wet from a shower, his olive skin made deeper by the dark stubble littering his jaw. “A match needed?”

He shook his head and smiled down at her as she tried to sit up, placing his hand on her shoulder to encourage her to lie back down. “Nope. I was just checking on you to be sure you were all right, or if maybe you wanted something to eat? You missed dinner.”

She knew he was doing this out of his sense of duty to the apple and his mother. She knew his kindness had a string attached. She just wished he didn’t make her heart beat so fast or her knees feel so wobbly. Or worse, have that compelling way of making her feel as if she was important, as though he actually cared about her beyond her duties as Aphrodite.

But that was all in her head. She knew it. She’d do well to pay attention to it.

So she decided to avoid how she was feeling in favor of something she’d wondered about all the way home. “So, my dad…”

Khristos peered down at her, brushing her hair from her face. “What about him?”

“He knew. He always knew about my mom and he never said a word.”

“I think he knew it wasn’t his story to tell. Those words had to come from your mother. It was her secret to share, and no amount of reassurance from anyone would have helped until she was ready.”

“I’m glad she was finally ready.” The relief she felt over her mother’s confession was full bodied.

“You were amazing tonight, Quinn. Exactly as Aphrodite should be.”

His words of praise made her cheeks warm and her breathing hitch. “It was obvious my mom and Maude should be together. There wasn’t much to do but let that arrow fly.”

“Still, you’re getting better, stronger, more sure. That’s a good thing.”

“Will it make a difference in leniency for you if I’m making the grade?” she asked.

“Don’t think about me.”

“I can’t help it.” She really couldn’t help it. He was impossible to not think about.

“I just wanted to check on you, not put another issue on your plate. Go back to sleep.”

But she grabbed his arm as he began to rise. “Wait. How did you know what was really going on with my mother?”

He sat back down, the scent of his freshly washed hair wafting in her nose. “I did a little digging. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was off, ringing untrue for me. You were pretty wrecked and I hated seeing that. So I reached out on the forums—”

“And poof—like magic, right?” she whispered up at him. God, he was decent, and as men went, sensitive but gruff all at once, and so many adjectives she was rapidly losing count.

“Yeah,” he whispered back with a grin. “Poof.”

“Thank you, Khristos with a K. I feel like I’ll never be able to say that enough.”

On impulse, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him hard, forgetting she was completely naked under the covers. When her nipples, rigid from the cool air, brushed his chest, Khristos groaned, and so did she. Long and low, their breaths mingled, their moans winding together.

Their mouths found each other on a surprised breath, their tongues tentatively touching before Khristos drove his deep.

Her hands clenched his thickly muscled shoulders in a moment of pure bliss. White flashes of light appeared behind her eyelids at the taste of his tongue.

His hands drove into her hair, wrapping the long length around his wrist, pulling her head back until his lips left hers and his mouth found the sensitive flesh at the base of her neck.

Khristos nipped it, running his tongue over her flesh to ease the sting then nipping again, making her arch against him.

Quinn pulled the hem of his T-shirt up and over his head, her mouth watering at the idea of touching his naked flesh. She flattened her palms and ran them over his pecs, relishing the tightening of his nipples, luxuriating in the heat of his skin as he rained kisses over her shoulders.

They fell backward on the bed, Khristos shoving the covers aside with his feet and pulling her flush to him. His cock was rigid beneath his jeans, rigid and pressing against the apex of her thighs.

He ran his hands over every inch of her, roaming the slope of her hip, the curve of her ass, setting her on fire with each pass he took. Skimming her ribs, he settled his hands beneath her breast, and she held her breath, forgetting about her impromptu boob job and instead arching into his palm.

Khristos grazed her nipple with his knuckle, making her writhe against him, press into his hard length until she thought her spine would break from the wave of heat settling in her belly.

Quinn fumbled with the zipper on his jeans, tearing it down and driving his pants over his hips until he was able to shrug them off.