chapter 5
“Have there always been this many stars? And have they always been this bright?” Maggie gazed in wonderment at the cloudless
night sky over Chaam’s shoulder while he showered her neck, ear, and shoulder with kisses. She’d never felt so complete, so
content, so happy.
“Thank you for this, Maggie. My precious Maggie,” he whispered repeatedly.
He’s thanking me? Never in her wildest dreams could she have imagined this day, this man, the insanity of the situation. So damned
right. Every second of it. She should be thanking him.
She sighed. “I feel like I’m seeing the world for the very first time.”
“And what do you see?” he asked.
Euphoria, love, peace in my heart… “You.” The instant he’d entered her, he was all she saw.
One moment she had been an omnipresent light hovering over the world watching thousands of people. Nowhere. Everywhere. All
at once. She felt their desperation, their desolate hearts, their prayers for help. Who knew so much silent suffering filled the world? It
saddened her deeply because she’d been one of them. But for some, Maggie included, there was a light. There was hope. Chaam.
And he was right. His gift wasn’t paving a man’s way to sex, but for the union of two souls who were meant to be together but
somehow got lost along the way. There had been so many he had helped, millions upon millions, yet Chaam never once spurned
them because they’d found something he longed for. Instead, his hope—that his day, too, might come—only grew.
Maggie’s heart filled with unspeakable pride, knowing such devotion and faith drove the person she’d given herself to.
Then she witnessed him charging through the jungle. Through his ears, she heard his heavy breaths. Through his eyes, she saw the
brilliant emerald greens of the trees and the perfection of the pristine blue sky. Through his heart, she felt his emptiness, his need for
true companionship. So much sorrow; she could relate. But the moment Chaam had moved inside her, she knew it was more than a
carnal lust being satisfied; they were two souls finding a missing piece. They’d finally have a chance to break free from their heavy
pasts because together, they were strong. Together, they could make their own fate. Together, they were in control.
Yes, she saw everything so clearly now. So, so clearly.
Life was nothing but a constant flow, the universe breathing in and out. I am part of it. Every mundane action, every thought, every
smile or frown shown even to a stranger created a chain of events, like ripples in a pond.
Fear had once blinded her, but now she knew: She mattered. She mattered. She mattered. Just like Chaam, everything she did
mattered. And it filled her with power and purpose.
“You see me?” He nudged the pendant of her necklace to one side and placed a gentle kiss on the hollow of her neck. “Who am I?”
“You’re magic. My magic.” She stroked the back of his head. His long hair was soft and magnificent. She could spend an eternity
petting it and everything else.
Chaam lifted his head. “Magic?” He beamed. “Well, that is quite the compliment. I’ve been called many things, but a magician…”
Still inside her, he gently pushed his hips forward. His erection had not shown the slightest signs of flagging.
A sharp wave of ecstasy bolted through her, and she gasped. “Oh yes. Magic.”
Slowly, he rocked his hips. “Let me show you my next trick. I think I know exactly what you want.”
Several hours later, Maggie’s deliciously sore body was a heap of weak, quivering muscles. Who knew hammocks were so
versatile? Sideways, diagonally, on the top or on the bottom, the netting molded to their forms and allowed the night breeze to cool
their heated, sweat-covered bodies.
I will never sleep in a bed again.
Chaam extracted himself carefully from the hammock, and the campfire, now a murmuring pile of glowing embers, afforded her a
glimpse of his glorious backside. Smooth, round, firm. Even the rippling muscles in his back were something to behold. The first
chance she got, she would put paint to canvas and capture every inch of him. Those gorgeous toes included. Someone needed to
pay the appropriate homage to this specimen of male perfection.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He leaned down and scooped her into his arms. “We are going for a swim. It will revive you.”
Revive her? Dear sweet God of Male Virility, he wanted more?
The lake was considerably warmer than the air outside. Like tepid bathwater, really. The two splashed and played and Chaam
found himself not wanting to go very long without touching that creamy, soft skin, the feminine curve of her hips, or those perfectly
round breasts. And those lips? Two plump little pillows meant for seduction. But of all her sinful gifts, he loved her eyes most. The
darkest of browns, almost black. They were wide and bright and the most glorious windows to her glorious soul—a soul of the
purest color he’d ever seen.
Making love to her had been the most amazing experience of his existence. He didn’t know if he felt love or if the gods were
capable of such feelings, but attempting to define such emotions with a word would not do. She’d embedded her light inside his
soul.
Waist high in the water, he pulled Maggie into his arms. She shivered.
“Cold?” he asked.
“Can you warm me up?”
With the darkness of night, he could not see her face, but he knew she grinned.
“I can figure something out.” He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder.
She laughed and squirmed. “Put me down!”
He smacked her fleshy backside. “Silence, woman.” He easily climbed from the water and deposited her on the dock.
“Woman? I’m a lady.”
“Not anymore.”
“What!” She giggled and slapped his bare chest. “Well, whose fault is that?”
“Mine. All mine,” he said. But was she? His, that is? Saints, he’d not thought the situation through. Christ. Maggie had never
answered his question. What was she? If not immortal, she would eventually die and leave him.
Leave. Him.
He gripped her firmly by the shoulders. “Maggie. You will tell me what you are. No more games.”
She squirmed. “You’re hurting me. What’s gotten into you?”
He released her and hissed, “I’m sorry. I often forget my strength. But dammit, woman! Tell me.”
“I told you, I’m human.” The darkness masked her expression, but fear permeated her voice.
“Impossible!”
“Why? Why won’t you believe me?” she argued.
“Because gods cannot make love to humans.”
“But I am human! I am. Can’t you look into my eyes or something? I’m not lying.” She tugged him toward the fire. “Put another log on
so you can look.”
“Gods dammit.” He stood firm and ran his hand over his dripping wet hair.
Maggie rubbed his arm. “What is it? Tell me.”
Fear. It welled inside him.
For f*ck’s sake. He’d never felt this emotion before. But then again, he’d never had anything to lose.
“If you are telling the truth, Maggie, then you will die someday.”
“Oh,” was all she replied.
He couldn’t lose her. Not now.
“Maggie, you will come to my world. We will ask the gods to grant you immortality.
Immortality?
“I’m… I’m sorry. But did you just say ‘immortality’?”
“Yes,” he said.
She could not see his face, but she felt the stark pain in his voice. He was serious. “Is it really possible?”
“Yes.”
Live forever? With him? God save her—or is that gods?—she had no idea what to do or say. What would be the repercussion? Did
he even love her? She hoped with all her heart that he did because after everything she’d seen and felt, she knew there had been a
reason no other man had ever reached her heart; it belonged to Chaam, and it always would.
“Why? Tell me why,” she said.
“Maggie, I have waited my entire existence for you. The universe has given me this gift. You are mine, my reward for thousands of
years of dedication and loyalty. I’m not about to let you go.”
That was not what she’d hoped to hear. In fact, he made her sound like a booby prize. Not the naughty kind, but the silly kind.
“Maggie, I will not take no for an answer.”
“What will happen to my soul?”
“Your soul? I-I do not know. I suppose it stays with you.”
“You’re a god, but you don’t know?”
“We don’t know everything, Maggie. We simply know more.”
She needed time to think. It was all too much to take in. And now she knew the truth: there were no decisions, no actions without
consequence. Everything mattered.
“Can I have some time?” she asked.
Anger radiated from his body. “You may have until sunrise.”
“Why are you pushing me, Chaam?”
“If you speak the truth, then you are mortal. Mortals die by the thousands every second. I’m not about to risk anything happening to
the one person I cannot live without.”
A tiny fissure opened in her heart as she thought of him suffering for an eternity. Maybe he didn’t love her. She didn’t know. But he
needed her, and she loved him.
Yes. The situation was pure insanity. One big loco-sombrero.
She’d met a man in the jungle today who wasn’t really a man. She became his prisoner, then his lover. Now she loved him.
Insanity.
And it didn’t matter if he loved her back; she would give her loco-sombrero to ensure he never suffered again.
“What if the other gods say no?” she asked.
Her backhanded acceptance sparked a glorious smile on her god’s face. “They will not. Asking permission is customary—an
offering to their egos. Once those are satisfied, they will not stand in our way.”
“Are they like you?”
He laughed. “Yes and no. We are all unique, although my brothers, Votan and Zac, are physically similar to me when in their human
forms, so I will warn you now not to get any ideas.”
As if she could ever look at another man—errr—deity.
“I want you. Just you,” she said.
Chaam kissed her, and his joy washed over her like a burst of warm sunshine.
“And you shall have me,” he said.
“Will I?” She slid her hands around his waist and leaned in. She couldn’t get enough of him or his wickedly sweet smell. And now
that she’d accepted who he was, what he was, his grandness felt magnified somehow. Maybe because she understood all that he’d
done, all that he’d sacrificed for humanity.
But did he know the world was an infinitely better place because he was part of it? The first chance she had, she would tell him.
But for the time being…
Chaam laid her down on the dock and hovered over her. His silhouette against the night sky was awe-inspiring. With his mouth he
sought for her neck and swept her hair to one side. As he did, the necklace she wore became tangled in her wet mane and pulled
uncomfortably on a few strands at her nape. She gave the chain a little tug and it broke free, but not before ripping a clump of hair
out with it.
She screamed as scorching, searing pain ripped through her. She fell to the side, writhing in agony. Had her body been torn into
two?
“Maggie!” She heard Chaam screaming in some dark corner of her mind. “Maggie. Speak to me!”
She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. She was going to die this very moment, and now he would suffer for eternity.
Blackness.