Tempted

they really count, being as they like dick themselves. Still, it was a ridiculous exaggeration.”
    “You’re not really making me feel better.” I plopped down on the twin bed that wasn’t all ruffled and obviously just laid on.
    “Sorry. I’m not very good at the ‘making someone feel better’ part.”
    “So you heard all of that?”
    “Yep.”
    “Even the part about Kalona?”
    “Yes, and again I call him an asshat.”
    “Aphrodite, what the hell is an asshat?”
    She gave me an exaggerated eye roll. “Erik is an asshat, you dork. Anyway, as I was trying to say before you interrupted, it was seriously not cool that he brought up Kalona. Plus, he had enough evidence for his stupid jealous insecurity already with Heath and Stark. It was totally not necessary to mention the winged guy.”
    “I do
not
love him.”
    “Of course you don’t. You’ve outgrown Erik. Now, I suggest you get some sleep. Goddess knows I hate to mention it, but you look like crap.”
    “Thanks, Aphrodite. It really helps me right now to hear that I look as terrible as I feel,” I said sarcastically, completely avoiding the fact that when I said I didn’t love him I’d meant Kalona and not Erik.
    “Hey, anytime. I’m just here to help.”
    I was searching for a sarcastic comeback when I noticed what she had on and a little bubble of unexpected laughter escaped from me. Aphrodite, Queen of Fashion, was wearing a floor-length, cover-her-from-ankles-to-neck, white cotton nightgown. Like she’d gone Amish. “Uh, what is that lovely little thing you’re wearing?”
    “Don’t start with me. This is the penguins’ idea of nightwear. Well, I can almost understand it. I mean, they take those stupid chastity vows, and if this is what they wear to bed, the vow would be practically unnecessary. Seriously. The thing almost makes me look unattractive.”
    “Almost?” I giggled.
    “Yes, smart-ass,
almost
. And before you’re too gleeful, cast your eyes over there. That thing folded up on the end of your bed isn’t an extra sheet. It’s your very own designer nun sleepwear.”
    “Oh, well, at least it looks comfortable.”
    “Comfort is for sissies and unattractive people.”
    As Aphrodite snootily retucked herself into bed, I made my way over to the little sink in the corner of the room and washed my face and used one of the new, still-in-its-wrapper guest toothbrushes to brush my teeth. As nonchalantly as I could I said, “Hey, uh, can I ask you something?”
    “Ask away,” she said, plumping her pillows.
    “It’s a serious question.”
    “So?”
    “So, I need a serious answer.”
    “Yeah, fine, whatever. Ask,” she said flippantly.
    “You said before that you knew Erik got too possessive.”
    “That’s not really a question,” she said.
    I raised my brows at her in the mirror. She sighed.
    “Okay, yes, Erik was a stage-five clinger.”
    “Huh?”
    She sighed. “Clinger. Stage five. Totally not fucking cool.”
    “Aphrodite, what language are you speaking?”
    “Teenage American. Way upper-class. You could speak it too with a little imagination and a few real cuss words.”
    “Goddess help me,” I muttered to my reflection before I continued. “Okay, so. Erik was too possessive with you, too.”
    “That’s what I just said.”
    “And it made you mad?”
    “Yeah, definitely. Basically, it broke us up.”
    I squished Crest on my toothbrush. “So it made you mad. You and Erik broke up, but you were, still, uh, all, well . . .” I chewed my lip for a second and then tried again. “I saw you with him and you were all, um—”
    “Oh, for crap’s sake! You can just say it without melting. You saw me go down on him.”
    “Uh, yeah,” I said awkwardly.
    “That’s not a question either.”
    “Fine! Here’s the question: You were broken up with him because he was a possessive jerk, but you were still trying to be with him, so much so that you were even doing
that.
I don’t get why,” I blurted, and stuck my toothbrush in my mouth.
    Watching her reflection in the mirror, I saw her cheeks turn bright pink. Aphrodite flipped back her hair. She cleared her throat. Then she met my gaze in the mirror. “It wasn’t about wanting Erik. It was about wanting control.”
    “Huh?” I said through the bubbles of Crest.
    “Things had started to change with me at school even before you showed up.”
    I spit and rinsed. “What things?”
    “I knew something was up with Neferet. It bothered me, and that