Page 9 of The Perfect Matchmaking (Cupids & Goddesses #2)
WHERE FRIENDS TO LOVERS IS ALSO DISCARDED (ALBEIT SOME BECOMING VERY FRIENDLY)
A mber eyes, messy bun with stray flyaway, long-fingered narrow hands… An artist’s hands… Hands that clearly knew what they were doing…
“Clio said as much.” Erato popped up beside her like some kind of clairvoyant demon.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But if the heat in her cheeks was anything to go by, she was blushing furiously.
“Right, the wide-eyed, open-mouthed, practically salivating expression you were sporting while almost eating Athena alive with your eyes was apropos of nothing. Plus, I of all people know for a fact how much you are into hands.”
Ha, sometimes Aphrodite forgot how astute Erato could be.
After all, they had shared some very steamy and enchanting months all those centuries ago.
As first forays into sapphic relationships went, Aphrodite couldn’t have asked for a better partner.
Sensitive, funny, sexy. Erato knew what she was doing back then, and she wasn’t wrong now either.
Not that she needed to know all that. Her head was already big enough.
“She is a very handsome woman. I have no idea why you think I’m not allowed to admire her.” Affecting nonchalance, Aphrodite reached for a pastry.
“Pfff, like half the Convention is admiring her.” At Aphrodite’s glare, Erato quickly amended. “The half that isn’t drooling over you, that is.”
The doughy treat turned out to be flaky and sugary as she bit into it and she regretted it immediately. She was making a mess of it. As metaphors went, this one was a doozy. She was making messes everywhere she found herself these days.
Handing her a napkin, in perfect sync, as they always were, Erato just looked out at the massive room crowded with mingling cupids.
“My point is, admiration is all well and good, but maybe let your interest be known to other people too? Maddison is on a crusade to make as many tropes as possible come true for you this week. She’s moved on from second chance romance into friends to lovers .”
Aphrodite turned to her assistant, eyebrows raised.
“Seriously, and who is the unlucky friend?”
Sounds of bystanders being pushed out of the way and curses being spewed as glassware and plates were dropped interrupted them. In the blink of an eye, Maddison St. James was standing in front of them with a rather poleaxed Artemis.
“There. All sorted now!” Maddison looked just about ready to jump out of her corseted dress. Aphrodite did not need to look at Erato to know she was enjoying the view of breasts pushing said corset to the limits of its endurance. That material was doing a lot of heavy lifting tonight.
“And what precisely is sorted?” Like smoke, Sabine appeared to Maddison’s left, making the already tightly wound cupid nearly jump out of her skin. Things jiggled. Erato bit her lip and barely suppressed a moan as the corset gave another quarter of an inch.
“Everything! Everything is! Aphrodite and Artemis will fall for each other, since they’ve already developed feelings as friends, and I’ll use my arrows to bring about their perfect match!
Done deal! There’s no need for you here, Sabine.
Oh, Abby, darling, I’ve not seen you in ages. You look wonderful. You’re glowing!”
“Sabine just gave me the most amazing orgasm in the elevator.” Abby’s butter-wouldn’t-melt expression and the provocative words just about floored poor Maddison. Erato gave Sabine a resounding backslap, and Artemis merely rolled her eyes before taking a step closer.
“Is this where I’m supposed to do something? How about a dance, Dite? As much of an escape route as anything else, I suppose.”
As their hands touched, Aphrodite marveled at how different some sensations were.
The warmth, the tingling vibes sending shivers down her spine, were absent.
And so was the cocoon of clarity. As Artemis twirled her around the small dance floor, Aphrodite was left reeling from how much she wasn’t feeling instead of how much she perhaps should be.
Or would be, if she was being twirled by another goddess.
“This whole thing is getting tiresome, don’t you think?” At least she could always count on her friend to read through the charade.
“I honestly can’t believe Zeus got the whole damn family down here. And for what? To marry me off to Ares?”
She was trying to put on a brave face and a joking front, but the mere thought twisted her insides, making her breathing just a bit shallower. Fear clawed at her throat and she deliberately swallowed around it, chasing away the unwanted images.
“Meh, I don’t think he cares one way or another. Hera has been third-wheeling a lot of his yacht parties recently, pestering him on behalf of her precious boy. You know how Zeus is, he has to see his own advantage in all this.”
“Hera leaving him alone to bone mortal women isn’t advantage enough?”
They laughed in unison, half the room turning to stare at them. And then Artemis reached out her hand and with her thumb wiped Aphrodite’s lower lip.
“You have a little bit of pastry here. And it also has a very nice side benefit.” Artemis wiggled her eyebrows.
“Excuse me?” What in the world was everyone up to?
Within her peripheral vision, Aphrodite observed a tall figure back away from the dance floor and disappear into the crowd. The fog around her intensified.
“At least the whole cupid bullshit is making you see what you really should be seeing, Dite.”
Her friend’s bright, gentle eyes held no sign of her trademark sarcastic demeanor.
“And what is that?”
“That this foolish Goddess of Wisdom might actually be your perfect match. Opposites attract and all that jazz.” And now the sardonic smirk was back.
“I can’t figure out if you’re insulting me or pulling my leg.”
“Really great leg, Dite. I mean, if I hadn’t taken that whole vow of chastity and we weren’t such good friends, I’m sure we would be pretty awesome. As it is, no, I was not insulting your intelligence by saying you and Athena are opposites that attract.”
“What were you saying?”
“That she’s obviously a big dumbass and you are, well…
you. And also that despite you being total opposites, the fact that she has gone through something very similar to what you’re going through now, means she understands you better than most. So stop fishing for compliments.
It’s not becoming of the Goddess of Love.
You know you’re the fairest of them all.
The sexiest, the hottest…” Artemis suddenly trailed off.
“Are you sure about that vow of chastity?” Aphrodite winked salaciously, and Artemis blushed.
“Yeah, no, yeah.”
“You’re too easy, Artemis.”
They had stopped dancing at this point, standing comfortably in the loose embrace of each other’s arms. Artemis gave her a little nudge before whispering, “Quit it! Go run after your dumbass potential mate, instead of standing here with me and causing half the room to swoon from our obvious compatibility. Go, before some foolish cupid actually shoots their arrow at us.”
The crowds parted like the sea for her, and she ran from the ballroom, desperate to determine where Athena could have gone.
Dumbass indeed. There was nothing between them.
She had no right to get upset at Aphrodite dancing with anyone.
Where the hell could she have disappeared to?
Absolute fool. Soulful intelligent eyes notwithstanding.
Aphrodite quickly turned left, then left again, trying to find her way in the labyrinth that was the MGM Grand and suddenly found herself stumbling.
For once her four-inch heels had let her down and her ankle twisted, heel snapping and the floor getting perilously close.
Stupid, stupid, stupid to chase after that fool and ruin her own face in the process.
But strong hands, familiar hands, broke her fall, and just like a complete cliché, she found herself in the arms of the dumbass she was chasing.
“Are you okay? Is it the shoes? I saw you stumbling.” Amber, warmth, gentleness, clarity. Everything around Athena was so bright, so clear. Aphrodite’s earlier anger edged out the comfort and satisfaction at being held safely and securely.
“You oaf! It’s all your fault!”
The beautiful eyes widened comically, completely uncomprehending, going from concerned to apprehensive in a split second.
Ah, familiar with angry women? Good! I bet Clio showed you her fiery temper.
At the thought of Clio showing Athena anything, Aphrodite got mad all over again.
“Yes, it’s your fault. You had no business running anywhere in a huff! You have no business being in a huff! I was dancing with my friend.”
“Ah…” Athena seemed to be choosing her words carefully. “I went to the bathroom? I mean, sure, romance and all that, but you know, gods still go to the bathroom, even if it’s never mentioned in myths and legends.”
“Wait, what? What are you talking about?” The red haze of anger was slowly receding.
Athena stared at her, blinked once, twice and then shook her head.
“What are you talking about?”
Aphrodite felt like maybe she—with some nudging from Artemis—had made a bit of a strategic mistake.
This being off-center, unbalanced, and totally unlike herself these past several months was driving her to do silly things.
Like believing Athena was somehow jealous of her and Artemis, and that seeing her in her friend’s arms had led Athena to a dramatic exit.
“I… Ah…” How was she to come up with a plausible story to not thoroughly embarrass herself?
“Were you running after me for some reason?” Her voice tentative, Athena ducked her head enough to look into Aphrodite’s eyes.
“Me? No. Why would I? No. This is all just…” She waved her hand about herself as if that would explain her sudden brush with madness. It had to be madness. Running after some tweed-wearing, corduroy-elbow-patch-sporting, horn-rim-bespectacled recluse? Surely not!