The Goddess Gets Her Guy

by Ashlyn Chase

  Aaron looked up from where he had been laying a big concrete block, brushed the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, and squinted into the sun. “Gaia! Great to see you.”

  “I hadn’t heard from you in a couple of days, and then I remembered I didn’t have one of those cell phone things. I did have one, but I started receiving recorded messages for stupid things like my credit report. I don’t even have a credit card, so I threw the phone away. I’ve always been more of a ‘Don’t call me, I’ll call you’ kind of girl.”

  Aaron laughed. He strode forward and met her halfway. He took a kerchief from his pocket and swiped it over his face, then gave her a quick peck on the lips. The sweat coming off his neck and back indicated he had been at work for quite a while. She hoped he wasn’t pushing himself too hard. Humans needed rest.

  “Can you take a short break with me?” she asked.

  Aaron looked over at the concrete slab with the cinder blocks setting up. “I really should continue while the mortar is still wet enough to work with. If it dries, I’ll have to throw it out and mix more.”

  “Why are you bothering with all this building? I can whip something up for you to live in.”

  Aaron returned to his short wall and placed another cinder block. “I know you can do that, but you shouldn’t.”

  Gaia took a step back. “Shouldn’t? You still don’t want my help? Why? Are you afraid I’ll do it wrong?”

  Aaron bolted upright. “No. That’s not what I meant. You’re more than capable, but there’s this supernatural being I know of who doesn’t like humans to notice things out of the ordinary—things that only a paranormal has the power to do—such as snap her fingers and create a building where there wasn’t one a few moments before.”

  Mother Nature rolled her eyes, and one side of her mouth quirked up. “Are you talking about me?”

  Aaron grinned. “Only if you’re the goddess who made the rule.” He slapped some more mortar on the top cinder block and spread it around the edges.

  As he was about to place the next block on top, suddenly an entire concrete structure appeared in front of him. “Whoa!” He stumbled backward. “What the hell?” His gaze flipped around to where she stood with her arms crossed.

  “Oh, this wasn’t what you were going for? I thought you’d like it.”

  “It’s not that I don’t like it. I like it fine, but I didn’t build it. You did. I need to do this for myself.”

  Gaia let out a pah sound and strolled over to a nearby tree stump, then plopped down onto it. “So you won’t even let me help?”

  Aaron wiped his hands on a towel and strolled over to her. “Gaia, there is helping, and there’s doing it for me. That was just a perfect example of doing it for me. I could never have built that so quickly with my own two hands.”

  She pointed next to her, and another tree stump appeared. He looked at it and looked at her. She crossed her arms and stared at him.

  Sinking down onto the second tree trunk, he sighed. “I appreciate your wanting to help, but—”

  “But it’s taking too damn long. Do you know how long it would take you to build this whole structure, one single block at a time, by yourself? I calculate it would take several weeks.”

  “Noah said he would help as soon as he’s through building his own home down the hill. He said it’s almost finished.” Aaron pointed to another concrete square structure about half a mile down the sloped road.

  “Okay, so that’s only a couple of weeks with a young, strong phoenix at your side. It’s still too long,” she said.

  “What’s the rush?”

  Gaia dropped her head into her hands. “I…I just want to spend some time with you.” Lowering her voice, she said, “I miss you.”

  Aaron smiled and bumped her with his shoulder. “You miss me?”

  She frowned at him, and then her frown slowly turned into a smile. “Yes, I miss you. From what I understand, people who like each other miss each other when they’re apart. Don’t make it weird. Don’t you miss me too?”

  Aaron smoothed her long, white hair over her ear. “Of course I miss you, honey, but we both have important things to do. I understand that. I can’t just sit around and watch other people working hard day in and day out to rebuild their homes and businesses, then expect you to come along and snap your fingers to create the same for me.”

  She sighed, then stood abruptly. “Fine. I’ll take it all down.” With a wave of her hand, the structure she had built disappeared, returning to the short concrete wall he had started.

  “Would you like to lend a hand?” Aaron asked. “I could use an extra pair of hands until you’re called away.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “You want me to what? Hand you blocks? One at a time?”

  “Yes. That would be very helpful. Then I could just mortar them in place…unless you get tired. They’re fairly heavy. Then I can take over and do it myself, albeit a little slower.”

  Gaia reared back and laughed. “You think this will make me tired? Try grabbing a hurricane by the tail and unraveling it before it roars all the way to the North Pole. A few hours of that and I might get tired. This? This is nothing. Let me at it.”

  Aaron smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that. You might need to change your clothes though. You don’t want to get mud all over your beautiful white gown.”

  She looked down at her gossamer robe, which she always belted with a vine, and her silk toga beneath. Now what should I wear? She had been teased mercilessly by Karma for her out-of-date fashion choices. She took a brief look around and said, “Are there any females working in construction on the island?”

  “I’m sure there are. I don’t know where though.”

  “I’ll be right back.” She snapped her fingers and disappeared into the ether.

  “Karma,” she called out.

  Her sister showed up with her hands on her hips. She was wearing a short, sparkly red dress and black high heels with red soles. She also wore an annoyed facial expression.

  “What do you want, Gaia? I was dancing at a diplomatic ball in Prague.”

  “Sheesh. I was just about to ask you for a little fashion advice.”

  Karma’s jaw dropped. “Really? Sure! Of course. What’s the occasion?”

  “I have a construction date.”

  Karma cocked her head. “A what now?”

  “I’m helping Aaron build his house, and he said I needed something else to wear. He didn’t want me to ruin my clothes.” She produced a breeze to ruffle her soft, white garments.

  “Hmm… Yes, you’re not dressed for heavy labor.” Then she laughed. “Come to think of it, the only heavy labor I’ve seen you in was when you gave birth to the Giants. The whole universe heard you scream, and I had to hold your hand.”

  “No. I was holding your hand so you wouldn’t go looking for the father who knocked me up with Giants.”

  Karma covered her smirk. “Whatever. That was a long time ago. So now you have a date with a lovely man, and you want something cute to wear that can stand up to mud. Is that right?”

  “Yes. Precisely.”

  “No problem.” Karma snapped her fingers, and Gaia looked down at her strange outfit.

  “Thanks?”

  “You’re welcome. Have fun!”

  Gaia returned to the construction site wearing blue-and-white pinstriped overalls with a pink T-shirt underneath. She had no idea if this was what female construction workers wore, but the outfit seemed less heinous than she’d expected.

  She yanked up the pant legs and noticed a pair of work boots and thick socks protecting her feet. They were clunky and ugly, so she snapped her fingers and turned the boots into high-top sneakers and the heavy wool socks into white cotton socks. “There. Not too shabby.” She piled her hair up on top of her head like she had seen some women do and turned it into a bun.
Then she stuck a stick through it to hold the bun in place.

  “Okay, I think I look fairly normal.” Then she slowly shook her head. “Gawd. What I do for this man. Making myself look normal? Who would’ve ever thought.”

  She reappeared and handed Aaron his first block. He glanced up. “Thank you, Gaia. Cute outfit.” He laid the mortar on all sides and set the block. She held onto the next block, waiting until he’d spread the mortar, then she set the block next to the one he had just laid. “Is this where you want the next one?”

  “Yes. That’s perfect.”

  She thought it might be easier to go all the way up first and then do the next row to the top. Oh wait. That would make columns. She rolled her eyes at herself. She liked columns, but they didn’t use those much these days.

  What the heck. She could try it and see what he thought. She dropped the next block on the one below it.

  “Um. I need to put some mortar down first. That will hold the block in place when it dries. And since I’m staggering the pattern, I need to go horizontally, not vertically.”

  She let out a quick breath of frustration, but he didn’t seem to notice. He just plopped down some more mud and spread it out. Then she put her block on top of that.

  “Now you’re getting it.”

  What a frustratingly slow process! But at least she got to spend time with Aaron. At this rate, a lot of time.

  “How did you learn to build a house? You’re a doctor.”

  “The same way everybody does nowadays. I watched YouTube videos.” He chuckled. “And then I went to a building supplies store and talked to the experts there. Before I started anything, I bought a set of plans and hired someone to take the debris away, because I didn’t have the equipment to do that.”

  “Oh. So you’re just learning how to do this? For the first time?”

  Aaron shrugged. “Yes. I’m sure I can do some of the grunt work. But I will have to hire other people when it gets to the more specialized areas like plumbing and electrical needs. As soon as I have four walls, I’ll need to add interior framing and a roof. I don’t think I can do that all by myself either, but by then, Noah will be helping me.”

  “I see.” She put another block on top of the mud he had just spread. “So you’re going to do this all day?”

  Aaron grinned at her. “Probably.”

  She let out a long-suffering sigh. “This is going to get boring.”

  “Not if I have your beautiful face to look at all day.”

  She laughed. “I see. You’ll be entertained by my face, and I’ll be entertained by your charm, is that it?”

  “I could think of worse ways to endure a little boredom. Later, after we’re finished for the day, I’ll take you out to dinner.”

  “Okay. Let’s do this, but maybe a little faster.” She began speeding up the process. He kept up with her, slapping the mud down, letting her place the next block on top, then he scraped the excess mud off. They repeated this process, laying down new block after block, and before she knew it, the whole outer shell was complete up to the window openings.

  At last, Aaron said, “I need a break. How about you?”

  Gaia stopped and realized even though she could have gone on, she would like to have something cold to drink and put her feet up for a little while.

  She snapped her fingers, and two Adirondack chairs appeared with a small table between them. A pitcher of lemonade appeared on the table, then she held out her hands, and two glasses with ice in them appeared. She handed one to Aaron and gracefully sashayed over to one of the chairs.

  “Is this okay? Is anyone going to notice a couple of chairs that weren’t here a moment ago?”

  “No, but it could be a little less conspicuous. Tell you what, let’s use these.” He tipped over three empty buckets and set the cold drinks on the one in the middle.

  She rolled her eyes. “Fine.” Snapping her fingers, she made the patio furniture and lemonade disappear. She plopped her butt down on one of the buckets and replaced the one in the middle with a cooler.

  Aaron joined her on the other free bucket and took a peek inside the cooler. “Ah! A nice cold beer. Perfect.” He removed two, popped off the caps, and handed one to her. Raising his bottle, he said, “To hard work.”

  Oh, this must be one of those toasts they do. She clinked his bottle with hers and was about to ask why he would dedicate his drink to hard work, but his smile as he admired his half-finished shell of a house said it all.

  Then he took a long pull from his beer. His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed the liquid. The sight fascinated her, and she momentarily forgot everything else.

  Then he smacked his lips and said, “Ah.” A moment later, he placed the bottle against his sweaty forehead.

  She never would’ve thought hard work was sexy. But this man made it look that way. She took a sip of her own beer and appreciated the earthy taste of the cold drink. She placed the glass bottle against her forehead and was instantly cooled by it. “This is a nice refreshing break.”

  “Yes, it is. And look how much we accomplished.” He pointed to the four walls they had already completed, minus a few spots for windows and two larger holes that, when completed, would leave room for doors.

  She saw the pride in his tired eyes. They shone with more gratification than fatigue.

  “I guess we did pretty well for having to lay one block at a time over and over and over again. All. Day. Long.” She let her tongue loll out the side of her mouth and hoped he knew she was teasing.

  He set down his drink, rose, and pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket. He mopped the sweat off his face, then wiped off the back of his neck and tucked the handkerchief back into his pocket. “I need to shower…and so do you.” He winked.

  Aaron reached for her hand. She rose, watching him curiously. He pulled her toward him and clasped the back of her head, bringing her in for a gentle but long, meaningful kiss.

  She could have stayed like that all day if he didn’t insist on building that damn house block by block. But he did, and she respected him for it. For some reason, she’d thought he might let her deviate from her own rule. But that wasn’t the kind of guy he was. And that was one of the things she liked most about him.

  One block at a time, with his own two hands, he would build his house. He would probably just call it necessity, but she called it integrity.

  Chapter 15

  Aaron could have sworn he heard trickling water and felt droplets of cool spray on his arms. Opening his eyes, he took a step back and stared in shock. A whole new location had appeared around them. One that included a rocky ledge, a grotto, and a waterfall.

  “What the…” Aaron began.

  “You said you needed a shower.”

  He shook his head in amazement. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this.”

  “To what? My listening to your needs?”

  “I—I guess. Where are we?”

  “Still in Puerto Rico.”

  A sly smile quirked up his lips on one side. He leaned over the grotto and asked, “How deep do you think that water is?”

  “About fourteen feet deep.”

  “Okay. So nothing bad will happen if I just—” Aaron gave her a shove, and she landed in the natural pool with a splash.

  When she surfaced, glaring at him and sputtering, he couldn’t help laughing. He knew he was in for it but couldn’t imagine her really hurting him.

  “Very funny.” She rose from the water and disappeared.

  “Oh no.” He was afraid he’d upset her and she’d desert him there—which would be inconvenient, since he didn’t know where he was. He might still be in Puerto Rico, like she said, or she could have transported him to Hawaii for all he knew.

  At last, she reappeared next to him, perfectly dry and dressed in her silk toga. Her long waves of white hair,
also dry, ruffled in the breeze.

  “Oh, that’s not fair. I thought we could shower together,” he said when he’d collected himself.

  She shoved him off the rock ledge and into the cold water.

  When he came up sputtering, she chuckled. “What were you saying about something being unfair?”

  He laughed and swam to the rocks in front of her.

  Something about Gaia stirred his senses on a level he couldn’t even begin to explain. So far, he’d tried to keep it casual. She was too into her work, and quite frankly, so was he…as usual. He needed to learn to relax and get his priorities straight. He had always wanted to explore the chemistry between them, but the timing had never seemed right. Until now.

  Right now, there wasn’t anywhere else he wanted to be. There wasn’t any more important undertaking he wanted to do.

  Some would probably claim kismet. They’d say something about the stars and moon being in perfect alignment. That was when true souls connected—or something like that. Aaron didn’t believe in all the cosmic mumbo jumbo, but he did have to admit there was something perfect about this evening. About this unexpected opportunity that had magically presented itself.

  He pulled himself out of the water and watched her eyes grow as she saw the rivulets of water cascade down his body. His T-shirt stuck to his hard chest. He was in his late fifties, but he didn’t feel old. He had kept himself in shape, and apparently she’d noticed. She licked her lips.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Aaron fought the natural desire to chuckle at her speechlessness. Perhaps he’d stunned her into silence.

  He wondered how Mother Nature herself would respond to sexual pleasure. He imagined she was a powder keg of passion, waiting to be ignited. And tonight, he had the overwhelming desire to light the fuse.

  “Tell me,” he said in a low tone as he reached her. He leaned forward and rested his palm on the rock wall behind her. His body practically curled around hers, his erection pressing against her hip. His head dipped so he merely had to whisper in her ear. “How do you like to be touched, sweetheart?”