Accidentally...Over?

  “Wait until you see this.” Máax led Ashli to the edge of a large, dark green pool of water, its sides steep and about ten feet high. “It all began right here. At this very cenote.”

  She leaned over to get a better look. The hazy water buzzed with a strange energy. She could sense it in her bones. “What started?”

  “This is the cenote where my brother, Votan—the first to find his happy ever after—met his mate. And now, we shall have ours.”

  “So what happens next?” she asked.

  “Now I get a new body, and we start our new, happy life together. Wait here.” He pecked her on the lips and jumped into the water.

  “Wait! Where are you going?” But he was already gone.

  Ashli stared at the water expecting Máax to resurface, but several minutes passed. Then five minutes. Ten minutes. Twenty minutes.

  “Ohmygod.” She paced along the edge of the enormous pool, biting her fingernail. Why hadn’t he come out? Why?

  She peered over the edge again. Maybe something had gone wrong? Maybe he’d gotten hurt? “Máax? Máax?”

  There was no sound apart from the squawking toucans above.

  Okay. She could go for help, but she wasn’t really sure where to go. She didn’t speak Spanish—or did she? She wasn’t sure. And they were in some crazy Mexican jungle. She pivoted on her heel and looked around. Dammit. What was she going to do?

  A few random pockets of air floated to the surface of the cenote, making a strange glup, glup sound. Oh no. What if he’s stuck down there?

  “Oh, gods.” She had to help him.

  Without giving it any thought, she pinched her nose and jumped. Her body immediately reacted with hard shivers. Brrr. Cold. Cold. Cold. She pushed the wet strands from her face, and sucking in a giant breath, she dived straight down into the murky water.

  Within a matter of a few feet, the sunlight faded. The air in her lungs immediately felt saturated and heavy. She needed another breath. She started to kick her way back to the surface, but hit her head on a ceiling of solid rock.

  Shit! No! The air in her lungs turned to poison. She reached and clawed at the jagged rock, but she was trapped. A scream escaped her mouth, and the water flooded inside her lungs. She fought to gasp and hack, but it was no use.

  She. Was. Drowning.

  Ashli’s mind broke away as if beckoned to some unknown place, a place of comfort and without pain.

  Am I dead? Is this what it feels like? Her body or soul—she didn’t know—rose from the water into the air. Like a runaway balloon, she floated up through the tree canopy into the crisp February air, higher and higher, disappearing inside a big puffy cloud. Where was she going? She didn’t feel afraid or panicked; she felt at peace.

  Then a small burst of warm air enveloped her body, and she found herself sitting in the sand, looking out across turquoise waves.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, Ashli, why do you keep coming here? We told you not to come back.”

  Ashli looked up at the woman with the deeply tanned skin and long, thick black curls much like her own standing next to a man with short dark brown hair. Both wore white linen suits that seemed to flow over their lean bodies.

  “Do I know you?” Ashli stood quickly.

  The woman and man exchanged glances. “We’re your parents. And you are in big trouble, young lady.”

  Máax had chosen this particular cenote because it was the most powerful of the portals when it came to creating a human form. Unfortunately, that also meant he’d be slammed into his new body. Not that he would know, but he guessed it felt similar to hitting a brick wall at one hundred miles per hour. Most deities avoided this cenote for that very reason, a small price to pay given his urgency to return to Ashli. He needed to find a way to mend her memory, to make things right for her.

  With his new human form complete, the cenote spit Máax out into the dark, cold water. He kicked his way to the surface and noticed a form floating facedown.

  Ashli?

  No!

  He reached the water’s surface and immediately flipped her onto her back. Her face was bluish as were her lips. “No. No. No.”

  With her in tow, he swam to the side of the pool and gripped a small ledge. He heaved and tugged with all his strength, but he was weak and would be for several hours until his new body fully absorbed his light. “Dammit, no. She can’t be dead! Ashli!”

  Doing his best to balance her body against his in the water, he propped her head in the crook of his arm and began blowing into her mouth. “Wake up! Ashli! Wake up!” Why was this happening? He’d given her the light of the gods, made her immortal. As long as her form wasn’t destroyed, she would live forever just as a vampire might. Something wasn’t right.

  Then he remembered; his powers had been returned to him! Yes, not only had he been the God of Truth—or love, as he’d discovered—but he had many, many other gifts. To name a few: the ability to know when a person lied, to control people’s actions with his voice, and to heal the sick, and the ability to enter another’s body. He rarely did so—it was really disturbing to walk inside the mind of another—but perhaps he could will Ashli’s heart to pump and lungs to move again. He closed his eyes tightly and felt his essence sift inside her. He felt nothing. No sign of Ashli. An empty shell.

  He willed her immortal body to work again and soon felt her body warming and breathing on its own, but still no Ashli. Where had her soul gone?

  Máax exited her form and stared down at her beautiful face. “Please come back, Ashli. Please?”

  There was no response. Horror and despair filled every molecule of his being.

  Why, after everything, is this happening? Hadn’t he paid his dues to the Universe? Why was he being punished? “Ashli! I command you to return.”

  Once again, there was no response.

  Then I will go back in time and undo this. Yes, he’d get a hold of another tablet and find a way to stop this. Even if he had to again defy his brethren and do so without their permission.

  “I will never let you go, Ashli. Never.”

  Máax positioned Ashli’s petite frame over his shoulder and began the arduously slow climb from the water.

  Ashli could not believe the insane story she’d heard from these two people claiming to be her parents. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe them, she simply didn’t remember.

  They went on to explain that whether she or anyone believed it, the Universe was always there, listening to everyone’s innermost thoughts and intentions, helping them shape their lives. Some people focused on hate, fear, or whatever they lacked, and found their lives filled with anger and conflict. Others, who focused on love and gratitude, found their world filled with joy even if they faced life’s tragedies. In Ashli’s case, she focused on her sense of loss.

  Had Ashli’s unwillingness to let her parents go really drawn Death to her? It seemed ridiculous that missing them, wanting to see them again, could do that. But according to her parents, Ashli had died. Numerous times, in fact. “So I thought Death was stalking me, but really, I was causing it?”

  That was weird.

  “It seems fitting,” her mother explained, “that you’re now the Goddess of Love. Your love for us was so powerful that you were unable to let go and move on.”

  “I see,” Ashli said, nodding her head. “Maybe losing my memory wasn’t such a bad thing, then. Was it?”

  Her mother brushed her arm. “Perhaps not. But if you ever want it back, all you have to do is ask Máax. He can heal you. He just hasn’t figured it out yet.”

  “Really?” That was ironic. She’d been the key to undoing whatever trouble Máax had been in back in that circus slash courtroom. And now that he had his powers back, he was the key to undoing her problem? The Universe worked in mysterious ways.

  “Yes,” her mother replied. “Really.”

  Ashli gave it some thought. Whoever she used to be didn’t sound very happy, and maybe this was her second chance. How many people got to have on
e of those?

  Hmmm, perhaps this would remain her little secret for the time being.

  “As for us,” said her mother, “we’ll always be here, watching over you. And playing poker. Did you know the dead’ve got a game going 24/7? Yesterday, I played Texas Hold ’Em with a gladiator who died in 100 BC. Fascinating.”

  Okay.

  “Now,” said her father, his eyes filled with a calming love. “It’s time for you, our dear little Ashli, to return before your deity has a meltdown. He must be wondering where you are, and he’s waited a long, long time for you.”

  Part of her wanted to stay and chat a little longer, but she knew they were right; it was time to go. She already felt the pull. To where? She assumed back to the real world, the world of the living. To Máax. That was the other part of their story she found unbelievable; Máax had been sent to save her, to teach her how to live again.

  And you almost lost him. Dork!

  She hugged her parents tightly. “Good-bye and thank you.”

  “Until we meet again,” said her mother. “But not too soon.”

  Ashli blinked and felt herself pulled through a dark tunnel. The noise in her ears at first sounded like a low hum, but then grew into an earsplitting roar. But it wasn’t an animal; it sounded like a man. A man cursing the heavens and life itself, vowing to do very awful things to everyone.

  The sensation of her body returned. It was warm and cold all at once, and she had a piercing headache.

  “Hey, could you keep it down?” The blinding light kept her from opening her eyes.

  The man stopped screaming. “Ashli?” he whispered. “You—you are back?”

  “Yeah. And it hurts like hell,” she groaned.

  “Thank the heavens!” The man squeezed her so tightly he practically cracked her in half.

  “Okay there, big boy.” Ashli opened her eyes. She lay on a bed of leaves with her upper torso cradled against Máax’s broad, bare chest. “You’ll never believe where I was. My parents were there, telling me I kept dying because I wanted to see them. They said you were sent to help me learn to live again.”

  His smile stretched from ear to ear, and his eyes filled with unspeakable joy. “Did it work?”

  “Oh my gods!” She was looking at him! With her own two eyes! “Máax? Is it really you?”

  He placed his warm hand on her cheek. “Yes, my dear Ashli. It is I.”

  The man, with the long wet strands of brownish hair, staring into her face was a vision of heavenly, sinful masculinity. His golden-brown skin and full lips, his turquoise eyes with thick brown lashes, and his strong jaw were so sensual, so male. But that wasn’t what took her breath away. It was the way he looked at her and how it made her feel. Like being complete and loved. Like being at peace and set on fire.

  “You are so way hotter than that chair.”

  He smiled. “Wait until you see the rest.”

  Máax’s lips were on her, and the heat of his kiss didn’t just warm her mouth; it shot straight through her center and ignited a crazed, raw hunger.

  Máax lay her down beneath him on the bed of leaves and worked up her dress. She gasped as she felt his hand slide between her legs and push her panties aside. When she felt his hard shaft parting her soft flesh, her grip on his shoulders involuntarily tightened, nails digging in.

  “Oh, gods, yes,” she panted in his ear.

  He slowed for a fraction of a moment only to stare into her eyes as he thrust with one brutally sensual stroke, stealing the air from her lungs. She didn’t need to see his erection to know he was large. She felt every inch as he slid deep inside. The sensation was so delicious and sweet yet rough just like his kisses. And the way he grabbed her, held her in place, made her feel so, so, so… his.

  He thrust again with a sharp, claiming motion. Then again. And again. Every movement was frantic and hard, uncontrolled yet deliberate. His tongue eagerly lapped away at hers.

  Just a few more seconds, and she wouldn’t be able to stop the inevitable. “Ohmygod, Máax. Don’t stop. It feels so good.”

  He stared into her eyes and thrust again. “I want to watch you”—he thrust again—“come for me.”

  His words were enough to push her over the edge. Her entire body felt like a solid, immovable ball of pulsating, tingling nerves and then… she screamed his name as he pushed himself sharply forward, never breaking his feral gaze. With each pump of his hips she exploded, over and over again, in one relentless current of orgasms until Máax let out a throaty groan.

  Finally, he slowed and smiled, planting one lingering, lazy kiss on her lips.

  “That was amazing,” she said.

  He nodded his head yes. “That was only a taste of what you’ll be enjoying for eternity.”

  Lucky, lucky me.

  He kissed her again, unhurried and tender. “You’re shivering. Let’s get you home. I arranged for a helicopter to pick us up near the lake a kilometer or so from here.”

  She was shivering not from the cold, but from the heat of his touch. “No more vampire rides?”

  He frowned. “No. No, I do not want any more vampires hanging around my future wife unless she’s helping them get over their commitment issues.”

  “Did you say ‘future wife’? Are we getting married? Did you propose, and I accepted?” She honestly didn’t know.

  He helped her to her feet. “Yes. Not yet but I will. And yes, you will.”

  “Oh, really?” she teased. “But I am the Goddess of Love. Not sure I really want to tie myself down.” She grinned. “Not until I’m absolutely sure you can please me. After all, eternity is a long, long time to be married to someone.”

  His beautifully plump lips curved into a devious smile. “Mmmm, I love a challenge.”

  She looked into his impossibly beautiful eyes. He was almost two feet taller, and his body was a mass of hard, ripped muscles and male perfection. His face was an exotic combination of rough masculinity and fine features, as if he’d been sculpted by the heavens. He was huge and gorgeous. And…

  “I love you, Ashli. If I were to cease to exist in this very moment, I’d die a happy man.”

  His admission was so exhilarating. It made her feel like the most precious person on the planet.

  His caramel-brown brows furrowed. “You all right?”

  “Oh yeah. Better than all right.”

  “Good. Because I no longer plan on letting you walk out of this jungle.”

  “Really now?” She smiled.

  He spun her around and released a hot breath in her ear. “You, Ashli, are mine. And I’ve waited an eternity for you.” He gently leaned her forward, and she braced herself on the tree. He slid her damp dress up past her thighs and slid her panties down.

  She held back a gasp as he rubbed his thick, rock-hard cock against her sensitive bud, sliding his entire length over her. She was instantly and insanely hot for him again. Every intimate muscle pulsed with ravenous need for his penetration. No, she didn’t remember her past, but she felt like she’d waited her entire life for this: to be wanted in such an uninhibited way. “Take me again,” she begged.

  Máax didn’t say a word but drove deep. She winced with pleasure as he began hammering away. She knew the moment he came, it would be the most incredible release ever.

  “Harder, Máax. Harder.” She held on tight while he pumped with a furious, savage pace. Then he groaned toward the sky and bucked wildly against her, and the moment he flooded her with his liquid heat, she felt a strange sensation. It wasn’t simply a mind-blowing physical reaction that infused every muscle in her body with rapturous bursts, it was like the final piece that had been missing finally slid into place. A connection not just of their bodies and souls, but something more, something beyond them both.

  The air whooshed from her lungs as he clung to her back, quaking with his release. “Gods, what you do to me, woman,” he said.

  Ashli wanted to tell him how she felt, but her words faltered. It was so, so magnificent. As if life i
tself had just begun, a spark from a simple dream.

  Ohmygod. She gasped as her brain moved the last piece into place.

  Máax pulled out and turned her body toward him. He kissed her again, pushing her back to the tree, cupping and massaging her breast. Once again she felt him hard, needy, and positioning her for another round. “Wait.” She pushed back to look into his serene turquoise eyes.

  “Yes, my love, what is it?”

  “I think you just got me… pregnant.”

  Máax tensed and then pulled away. He stared into her eyes. “Of course I did. I am a god who loves you. And you are the Goddess of Love who loves me. Did you really think we could make love and not bear fruit?”

  Hmmm… Good point.

  “But just to be certain, I think I will make love to you a few dozen times more.” He looked up at the sky. “From my calculations, we have another hour before we need to make it to the pickup spot.”

  Ashli blinked in rapid succession. “A dozen times? In an,” she swallowed, “hour?”

  “Like I said, I am a god. I was deprived of your body for seventy thousand years.” He shrugged. “And what can I say? I’m still male.” He smiled sweetly, melting her heart.

  “In that case”—she flung her arms around his neck—“I’m here to help.”

  Epilogue One

  Standing at the head of the table, Penelope rubbed her tiny baby bump and looked down at Kinich who sat calmly in the chair beside her. Like the other ten deities sitting alongside them, he hadn’t broken a sweat.

  “How can you all be so calm?” she asked.

  She was overwhelmed with joy for Máax—justice had been served—but she was nervous as hell about the remaining part of this trial. What came next had been culminating for a lot longer than she’d been alive. And the outcome would change everyone’s lives. Everyone’s. Like many of the women in this story, she’d been drawn into the crazy, beautiful, miraculous world of the gods by whatever forces existed out there in the Universe. And while she still didn’t understand many, many things, she did know they were all connected. Kinich, once the God of the Sun and still the most powerful light in her universe, was now a different kind of immortal. A vampire. She, through some very odd chain of events, had inherited his powers and his title: Ruler of the House of Gods.