"I don't love you," she said simply. It was best to cut the cord without leading him on any more.

  "You...Bitch." He hung up on her, and Mallory let out a deep sigh.

  "Thank god that's over," she said to herself.

  After she climbed out of the tub, she slipped into a large pajama shirt with unicorns on it and got into bed.

  Everything would be better in the morning.

  Chapter Two

  Eros was three beers deep, sitting in one of the nicest bars in town when the door swung open and a drunk man on the phone walked in. He could hear strains of the conversation, but nothing really stood out until the drunk guy yelled into his phone.

  "But I love you." No one around them seemed to be paying attention to the man standing there in a black three-piece suit. He looked like he'd just come from a party, and since he was drunk Eros could safely assume that he was arguing with a lover on the phone.

  Eros pretended to keep to himself as the man called whoever was on the phone a bitch, and then hung up. The drunk man stumbled over to the bar and sat down next to Eros.

  "I hate her," the drunk man mumbled to himself, and Eros was instantly on higher alert than he'd been just a minute before.

  He bought the man a beer and once it was sitting in front of him at the bar, he couldn't help but ask, "Who do you hate?"

  Luck might be on his side tonight, but he wouldn't count his chickens before they hatched. There was still a long night ahead, especially if he couldn't get the drunk guy to open up to him.

  See, the human world sucked. Everything about it made Eros want to leave and never come back. But he had a job to do.

  God of Love, it sounded so cool, until all of his Cupids had fulfilled their contracts with him. Everyone assumed that he was the one to make people fall in love, but they couldn't be further from the truth.

  Love, true love, wasn't something that he could see. No. He had to find men and women who'd broken the hearts of others, and they were contracted to help him. Of course, they weren't the ones who entered into the contracts with him. No, the contract was made by the person who'd gotten their heart broken. In exchange for the ability to move on with grace and ease, they signed away the love of the person that hurt them.

  Eros didn't like it, but he didn't control the way his power worked. So, that meant that he had to find the depressed men who'd hand their hearts handed to them in shreds. He had to search for the women who were too sad to leave their houses or were wandering around lost in their feelings.

  Undoubtedly, those souls always seemed to find him, and then he would get another handful of contracts.

  Once they did their jobs, once they helped others find the love that they'd taken from someone else, they were free to find love themselves.

  As Eros watched the drunk man next to him, he hoped that this man would be the next to give him a contract. He looked up into the mirror above the bar and smiled at himself.

  He was handsome, without a doubt. Even in the human world, his eyes were a brighter blue than was normal. He had platinum blonde hair that always looked perfectly styled, even after he ran a hand through it, and he was just on the leaner side of muscular. Right now, his wings were carefully concealed by a spell, but should he need them, they'd appear.

  "Thanks," the man next to him murmured once he'd emptied the bottle. "And the bitch who did this..." He trailed off and motioned to himself. "My ex-girlfriend. I was in the middle of proposing to her ungrateful ass, and she just left. She. Left. Me." He sighed and put his head in his hands.

  "What's your name?" Eros motioned to the bartender for two more drinks, and he resisted the urge to rub his hands together gleefully. "I'm Ian," he lied. No one needed to hear his real name, especially when there was always one random person who knew their Greek mythology and put two and two together.

  "Kyle, Kyle Bradley." The drunk guy stuck his hand out, and Eros shook it.

  "Tell me what happened, Kyle."

  The bartender brought their drinks, and Eros tipped him an exorbitant amount.

  "We've been together for a year," Kyle said while he stared at his bottle. "I thought she was the one."

  Eros just made understanding noises in his throat, not saying anything else. He didn't want to disrupt the story, and hearing the story was the most important part of the contract. He had to make sure that Kyle really was heartbroken over it.

  "She's perfect. Really, she is. She never forced me to move faster than I wanted to. She didn't try to move in with me. She's small and full of curves. And the best part is that she's never tried to rush me into telling her that I loved her. I do, though. You know, girls like that just don't exist in our world anymore."

  Kyle held back the retort he wanted to make. It didn't sound like this girl was in love with Kyle, but there was no doubt that the poor man was in love with her. It was painfully obvious in the way that his heart was lighting up his whole body. Part of that was the gift Eros had for rooting out real love, but part of it was that Kyle was so pathetically wrapped up in his feelings for the unnamed woman. Well, Eros could definitely work with that.

  "What's her name? The woman who broke your heart?" Eros took a drink from his beer, doing his best to show nonchalance. They were right where he needed Kyle to be.

  The deal was almost ready to be made.

  "Mallory." Kyle sighed, sounding more like a teenage girl than a full-grown man. "Mallory James."

  Eros memorized it, and then smiled to the drunken man.

  "If you could get over her, get on with your life starting tomorrow, would you?"

  "No," Kyle shook his head, not bothering to hide his obvious slur. "I just want a chance for her."

  "What if there's no chance with her? If you know she's not going to be with you, and you can take all the pain away, right now. You'd never feel this way about her again, heartbroken and depressed."

  Kyle's eyes took on the same glossy look they all got. Every single time he sealed a deal, the same look of bliss came over their faces. Eros could pinpoint the moment his magic did its job, and wormed its way into their minds, convincing them to make a deal with him.

  "Yeah," Kyle said. "I would love that."

  "All you have to do is shake my hand, and I'll take care of the rest. Trade your heartbreak for hers." Kyle looked at Eros with wide hopeful eyes.

  "You could do that? Make her feel what she's put me through?"

  Eros didn't bother correcting him, it wouldn’t do any good. They always assumed that the people who'd hurt them would be hurt in their stead.

  That's not how the deal worked. But that would be something he'd take the time to explain to Mallory. It had nothing to do with Kyle.

  So, while he still needed Kyle to agree, Eros nodded solemnly and finished drinking his beer.

  As he shook Kyle's hand, Eros came to the conclusion that the human world wasn't all that bad. Especially since he'd been able to get a new Cupid. Now, he just had to give her the bad news of her new situation.

  Eros smiled to himself and walked out of the bar, ready to get to work.

  Chapter Three

  Sharp knocking on her front door woke Mallory up out of a dead sleep. Rolling over, she saw that it was only 2 a.m. and she groaned. She rolled out of bed, landing on the ground with a soft thump.

  “Who the hell is here?” She muttered, “It better not be Kyle.” On the way through her apartment, she grabbed her baseball bat…just in case.

  If he’d decided to show up drunk, she’d have to put him in his place. If he didn’t know that calling her a bitch ended their relationship, well that meant he was stupid. The knocking kept going. Three knocks, then nothing for a few seconds. Then, three knocks again.

  Mallory had no idea why she was tiptoeing to her front door with a baseball bat held against her chest, but that’s pretty much what her life had come to. Looking through the peephole, it was the last person she thought she’d see. Actually, she didn’t know who it was, but the man standing in her door was wearing a very distinctive uniform. Surprise, the city that she lived in, had one messenger service. Strange, in the modern day and age, but Mallory had used them multiple times in the past.

  The black and gold uniform tortoise on his shirt, as well as the badge that declared him an employee of Tortoise Messenger Services, told Mallory that it was safe to open the door.

  He stood there with a smile on his face, and Mallory set down the bat when she saw his eyes dart to it uncertainly.

  “Hi,” she said sounding grumpy even to herself. “Why are you knocking on my door so early.”

  “Mallory James?” He held out a flat envelope to her and a clipboard that she had to sign her name to. “This was marked urgent with a signed requirement. Apparently, the sender wanted you to have it first thing this morning.”

  Mallory fought the urge to roll her eyes at him. “It’s only two in the morning.”

  He laughed, and the sound floated through the air. “Well, since it’s after midnight, that counts as morning in my boss’s eyes.” He turned around and started to head down the hallway. “Have a good night, Miss James.” The messenger waved a hand above his head, and Mallory wanted to throw something at him.

  As he walked away, she swore that she heard him say, “This is going to be so much fun to watch.” But then he was gone, and she shook her head. She must have imagined it.

  If Kyle had sent her anything, she’d take a cab over to his apartment and pound on his door until he woke up, then she’s just run away.

  Grinning at her immature plan, Mallory closed and locked her door, taking the envelope with her back to bed. Just like every other package she’d gotten from Tortoise, there wasn’t a return address on the outside envelope, which meant she had to open it to find out who it was from.

  Her palms started to sweat, for absolutely no reason, she told herself. Everything would be fine, all she had to do was open it. With her fingers shaking, she tore open the package and lets the contents spill onto her bedspread. A plain white letter-sized envelope was it. On the outside was her name, written in block letters. Relief poured through her when she didn’t recognize Kyle’s handwriting.

  She unfolded the paper, surprised that it felt thick in her hands. Her eyes were caught by the image at the top. A simple arrow was the logo, centered on the page. She didn’t want to do anything, didn’t want to even look at it. Mallory had no explanation to why she was feeling strange tonight. She couldn’t even say it was Kyle’s fault. He hadn’t done anything threatening to her. He’d just called her a bitch and that was it. She couldn’t even blame him for it, not really. She’d been the one to get into a yearlong relationship with him, knowing that she would never love him. Shaking herself to get out of the funk she’d fallen into, Mallory read the letter, which only consisted of three lines.

  Miss Mallory James,

  I’ll see you soon.

  E.

  Mallory was left confused, and unable to even process whatever it could mean. Setting it aside, she scrambled out of bed to make sure she’d locked the door. Once she saw that it was, she grabbed the bat and went back to bed. She could call Tortoise Messenger in the morning at a reasonable hour and find out what she could about the sender. Her entire evening had been strange, to say the least. As she lay in bed and tried to fall asleep, she couldn’t help but worry that something was going on tat she just didn’t have a handle on.

  The next morning was bright and shining in her face, and Mallory groaned. She forgot to shut her blinds in all the weirdness of the night before, and now she was suffering for it. Throwing the blankets over her head, she tried to fall back asleep but failed miserably. Finally coming to terms with the fact that she was going to have to get up and face the day, she sat up in bed and stretched. Trying to put off the actual act of getting out of bed, she made sure to roll her neck and yawned as wide as she could. It would almost be comical, if Mallory wasn’t completely exhausted along with the headache that she could feel starting to build up.

  Mallory ate breakfast, leftover sushi, and smiled at herself in the mirror above her table. Her mother would slap the shit out of her for eating leftovers for breakfast, especially left-over raw fish, but Mallory couldn’t help herself. It was the best part of being an adult, getting to eat whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted it.

  Speaking of her parents, Mallory picked up her phone and found her mom’s name in the address book. Then she hit the video chat option and waited while their phones connected.

  “Hi, mama.” She smiled as her mom’s face filled up the screen, looking like she’d been up for hours already.

  “Dumplin’ what are you eating?” Her mother scrutinized her immediately and Mallory just laughed and ignored the question. “Never mind,” her mother said once her laughter died down. “You’re your father’s daughter, alright. He’s in the kitchen eating leftovers from the party last night too.” She rolled her eyes, and Mallory wanted to kiss her mom for making her feel better without even trying.

  “I’m sorry about last night,” she said. “I honestly didn’t mean to cause a scene.”

  “Pshaw,” her mother scoffed and waved a hand over the phone’s camera. “That boy was the one who caused the scene. Any idiot could see that you two weren’t meant to be together. It just took him getting down on his knee in front of you for him to figure it out.” Her mom winked at her. “Plus, that ring wasn’t nearly big enough.”

  “Shut your mouth, woman.” Her father’s voice came from right behind her mom and her mother jumped a foot into the air, taking the phone with her.

  “Daddy,” Mallory giggled. “That wasn’t nice.”

  “Well, your mama deserved it.” His sentence meant jack though, cause he wrapped his wife in a sweet hug and kissed her neck. “You know the size of the ring doesn’t matter. Hell, when I proposed to you, I did it with my class ring from school.”

  Mallory’s mama blushed and smiled up at her husband. “Yeah,” she said wistfully. “It was the sweetest proposal ever.”

  “You didn’t say yes cause that pup doesn’t know anything about you. Even after a year, he didn’t know not to make a fool out of himself in front of your entire family. Boy needs to learn how to read the room.” Her father snorted. “Or the yard. Wherever he is.”

  “Well, I felt bad for him,” Her mom said. “He left right after you.”

  “Yeah,” Mallory said, debating on how much to tell her parents. “He called last night and tried to come by, but I wasn’t home. Had to get some feel-good food.”

  “She was still eating it for breakfast,” her mom retorted.

  Her dad just smiled and winked at her through the phone’s camera. “That’s my girl.”

  “Goodness, Harry.” Her mom playfully slapped him on the chest, to which he just took her hand and kissed it.

  “Okay,” Mallory interjected. “I’m just gonna go. Why don’t you guys get back to whatever and I’ll talk to you later.”

  Her mom and dad just smiled, and she disconnected the call before things could get gross.

  Good thing she did, too, because someone started to knock on her door just as she was setting her phone down.

  “Again?” She looked around, waiting for someone to answer her, before she remembered that she lived alone, and that she’d been talking to herself. Sighing, Mallory went and opened the door without checking to see who it was.

  Chapter Four

  Eros should have done more research before he assigned the contract to her.

  “Shit,” he said before he could stop himself.

  “Who are you?” Psyche. The love of his life, the only woman he’d ever cared for, was staring at him, and she had absolutely no idea who he was.

  “Psyche?” He held a hand out to her, but she shrunk back from his touch.

  “Sorry, you’ve got the wrong person.” Then she shut the door in his face.

  How could this happen? He wanted to scream, because the contract couldn’t be rescinded. His magic, the same powers that he’d used for so long, would do him nothing but harm here. He pulled out his phone, calling the only person who might be able to help him.

  “Mom,” he said once she picked up. “I need your help.”

  “Anything,” she answered back, and he hung up knowing exactly where he’d find her.

  He took a minute to breathe deeply, remembering the scent that she left in the air as she shut the door in his face.

  “I’ll be back,” he whispered to himself more than anything. She couldn’t hear him, but he would be back for her. Either now, or once her contract as a Cupid was complete.

  The drive to his parents’ house on the outskirts of Surprise went a lot quicker than normal, probably because Eros wove through every car he could and did twenty over the speed limit on his Ducati. When he pulled up to the massive wrought iron gate that his father had built with his own god powers, Eros climbed off the bike and stored his helmet on the handlebars.

  “Fuck,” he muttered as he walked up the step to their house. He knew this wouldn’t be an easy conversation. Especially since his mother had her own history with Psyche.

  “Mom,” he called through the house as he shut the front door behind him.

  “We’re in the kitchen,” his father’s booming voice came from the other side of their mansion.

  Eros took his time walking back there, needing to gather his thoughts. This had never happened to him before. He’d accidentally placed a contract on a goddess. An unawakened goddess, but a goddess nonetheless. Running a hand through his hair as he made it to the kitchen door, he braced himself for the craziness that would undoubtedly come from telling them what he’d done.

  “Eros,” his father said.

  Hephaestus was standing there, looking every inch of the bad ass that he was. His long black and gray beard looked like it belonged on a biker, and his father’s giant muscular frame did the beard proud. But under the gruff exterior was a man who was devoted to his family and would do anything to help. His mom must have told him that Eros had asked for help. He was actually thankful they didn’t keep any secrets from one another.