My Date From Hell (The Blooming Goddess Trilogy, #2)

It All Comes Flooding Back (Part 2)

Hannah hesitated.

"What's wrong, love? Not enough data collected yet?"

"You knew about that?" She blushed furiously and landed another kick.

"Ow!" I rubbed my shin. "I didn't tell him."

Pierce smiled serenely. "I'm just a keen observer of human nature. And yours was of particular interest to me."

Hannah blushed harder.

"Is everyone else loving this as much as I am?" Festos asked.

I shot my hand up and waved it around. "Over here."

Kai and Theo looked amused.

Pierce focused on Hannah. "Well? Am I about to mutiny?"

Hannah mumbled something.

Pierce cupped his hand to his ear. "A little louder, love. My powers don't include super sonic hearing."

I knew this was going to be so hard for Hannah. And so important. Because as much as she cared about Theo and me, she'd never let a straight guy get close to her before. Nevermind a god.

Flustered, she raised her eyes to meet his. "Yes. I would like that very much."

Pierce's smile was such pure love that even the hardened cynics among us—i.e. Kai and Theo—kind of melted in its wake. "Right then, let's do this."

I screwed my eyes shut, mindful of the "fourteen" level pain he'd promised me. "Be gentle."

"What's with the screwy face?" Pierce asked.

I cracked one eye open. "It's my pain management. You know, for the fourteen."

Pierce laughed. "It's not going to hurt now."

"Why not?"

"When we first discussed doing this, you and Kyrillos weren't in love. There was still all this pain and baggage. Now we're good."

"Good how?" I asked, completely mystified.

"What exactly is Sophie supposed to do?" Theo asked.

"She and Kai have to kiss now that they're in love. I won't have to override her objections. The 'fourteen' part."

I felt Kai tense.

"Are you freaking kidding me?" I couldn't believe it.

"No," Pierce said, sounding surprised at my outburst.

It was bad enough the stupid ritual hinged on Kai and I being in love. But this too?

I couldn't help myself. My light vines flew out toward Pierce.

Hannah threw herself in front of him, making me abort. "Don't you dare. I've never had a half-decent date and you're not going to kill the one guy who could give it to me."

Pierce gave her a fond smile and pulled her into the crook of his arm. "My champion."

I took several deep and even breaths. The bodice of my dress felt like a torture chamber and I wanted to rip it off so I could get enough air into my lungs.

But that would have been crazy.

"Explain," I said with a forced smile, to show how calm I was.

"Too many teeth, kitten," Hannah murmured.

I stopped smiling.

Pierce gestured with his hands as he spoke, keeping Hannah close against him. "Your first kiss started the process."

"How fairy tale," Festos said.

"Yeah, I'm not digging being downgraded to Disney prince status," Kai said.

"Your ego is astounding," Hannah said.

"Like much of me," Kai agreed, deliberately misunderstanding her.

"Really? Because it's not really working for me," I said.

"Like you'd prefer me modest," he scoffed.

Fair enough.

Pierce sat forward, speaking insistently. "That kiss should have happened with the two of you in love. Proper liplock, proper awakening."

"Except, we're not in love." My shoulders were bunched up around my ears with tension. "All this pressure is just making everything harder. I like Kai but I can't rev my emotions up because we're on a timeline." Gawd this was so frustrating.

"Use the arrows on them and let's get the location already," said Theo.

Pierce shook his head. "First off, they are in love, so I'm not sure what the big deal is. And second of all, even if they weren't, it doesn't work that way. I can't just magic them into being in love."

"But that's what you were going to do with Bethany," I said.

Pierce tilted his head, not speaking.

He's thinking, Hannah mouthed at me.

A few moments later, he looked at me. "It's like this, yeah? Aphrodite gets her power from love. But she can't force people to fall in love. All she can do is find two people with potential and then have me provide the spark that she hopes they turn into a flame. I have to provide a lot of sparks before we get a love that takes. Savvy?"

"How would that have been such a misery for Bethany?"

Pierce glared at me. Yikes. I reconsidered angering this god. "Did you or did you not experience an exceedingly intense attraction to Kyrillos?"

Kai turned to me with a blatantly curious look.

"Yes," I muttered. "And you did too, so shut up."

He grinned.

"And that was when you were on such high alert that my arrow couldn't even spark you properly. Due to your goddess side, and Kyrillos being a god, you were both able to mitigate the effects somewhat."

He crossed one foot onto the opposite knee. "Pure humans are helpless in my wake. Right, so now try to imagine the feeling if it had consumed you. Amp up what you'd felt by a factor of a billion. And make it one-sided."

I winced. That would have been unbearable. Had I known, I'm not even sure I would have wished that on Bethany. Well, maybe.