And that precise moment was when it hit her—so hard, she almost fell into Khristos and took out her easel of discontent. But it wasn’t like the night before, that incredible, warm certainty.
It was jolting and fast and almost painful in its intensity as it grabbed her intestines and tugged with such ferocity, she lost her breath.
“Quinn!” Khristos grabbed at her as she began to fall forward, her knees buckling.
She looked up at him in helpless question, everything else in the room blurring but his face. “Cupid?” she asked, almost unable to get the word out from her lips at the pain tearing her apart.
Nina was there, too, in a flash of movement and hoodie, bracing her from behind, her hands surprisingly gentle as she cupped Quinn’s elbows and supported her. “Kiddo?”
But everything else had faded away, everything but the pain and the certainty of this match. “Cupid!” she whispered on a groan as another stab of searing-hot pain ripped through her.
The man and the woman had moved just behind Khristos. She caught a brief glimpse over his shoulder of their faces, full of concern
They stood together, her shoulder touching the top of his chest as they each scrambled for their phones. But her hands shook, and his phone was out of charge, according to his yelp of dismay.
So he took the phone from her and held it steady as she peered over the top of it and ran her finger over the screen, their heads now touching. While her fingers flew over the phone, he looked down at her and inhaled, his once hard-as-chips-of-ice eyes gentle and almost surprised.
When the last gut-punch of agony grabbed her and tossed her insides like a salad, she clenched her teeth together and gave the order on an urgent whisper, “Now!”
Like an old friend, trusty and steadfast, the arrow arced over the couple’s heads and tagged each of them in the heart, melting into multicolored sparkles.
Love bloomed—perfect and everlasting, making them both look into each other’s eyes in wonder.
And even through the haze of shooting, fiery jabs of pain—it was beautiful and deep and real. So real, Quinn could almost taste the sweet tang of it on her tongue.
Well, then.
Namaste.
Namaste.
Chapter 10
Khristos carried her out of the art class with Nina hot on his heels, his heart pounding in his chest. He held her close to him, as though trying to absorb her pain. If he just kept her as close as possible, he’d somehow take the distortion of her beautiful face from agony to that impish smile she lavished on people with such generosity.
The one that made his chest tight and his fingers itch to run through her hair.
“Did you make sure they didn’t call 911?” he asked Nina.
“I got it all covered. I told them she’s off her meds, and that’s why she fainted. They’re so diggin’ each other, it’s a wonder they even managed to see the fucking phone.”
Quinn’s head bounced upward. “I heard what you said to them, Nina. You said I had irritable bowel syndrome.”
“Oh, shut your piehole, Goddess-Lite. I had to think fast.”
Quinn began to squirm against him, her once limp hands struggling to brace herself into a sitting position. “Put me down, Khristos! I’m okay now. Whatever it was passed.”
Whatever it was. What the fuck was it?
No match had ever gone down like that. There was no pain involved in it—no suffering. He knew firsthand how the emotions felt. His mother had taught him well to know all the signs, see and feel all the highs and even the lows.
But none of them damn well hurt. Not the way they’d appeared to hurt her. Last night, she’d been smacked into the hard pavement and she hadn’t made a peep.
She might declare she was a chicken, but not when it came to pain—which meant, whatever happened back at that studio had to have been pretty bad.
“Did you hear me, Khristos with a K? Put me down!”
“I’m not putting you down until we’re back at your place. So suck it,” he said.
She twisted his nipple through his jacket. “Khristos! Put me down!”
He stopped in the middle of the busy sidewalk, Nina reaching over him to tighten Quinn’s scarf and make sure her hat was covering her ears. “Okay, but if you face plant again and get any more scraped up than you already are, I’m not responsible for what your mother’s going to do to me. You don’t want her to chew my face off, do you?”
“Jesus, kiddo. What the hell? You scared the shit out of us.”
Quinn hit her feet and wobbled a little, reaching for the brick wall of a store. Then she straightened and batted her eyelashes at Nina. “I scared you? You of the big muscles and cold, black heart? Know what that means, don’t you?”
“It means if you do it again, I take you out and I don’t have to worry about it anymore?”