Like at the DMV when you've passed your driver's test and had a really bad picture taken and you're waiting for them to bring you your license?" Jack said. "Exactly, only without the filth and peasants," Aphrodite said.

Eww," Jack said, and then giggled. "Yeah, and a Paris Hilton doll that had an optional brain."Aphrodite raised her brow at him. "Don't go all crazy. There are some things even Paris Hilton can't buy.

What if all I'd ever known was how it had been for the past three years - me being an unwanted outsider in my own family? I might have turned out like Aphrodite, and I might still be letting my parents control me because I was hoping desperately that I would be good enough, make them proud, so that some day they would really love me.

A heart's a hard thing to live without. I should know. I've tried it," he said.

And then something truly bizarre happened. I could feel his touch through our eyes. I couldn't look away from him.

I spent centuries I your arms. This time our joining will be controlled by me, and you will revel in the pleasure I can bring you. Throw off the shackles of your distant goddess and come to me. Be my love, truly, in body as well as soul and I will give you the world!

And, as Stevie Rae would have said, Kalona was as wrong as manboobs.