Aphrodite's Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

library yet.
    Ridiculous
. She needed to get over this. Whether he hated his job or not, he’d still pawed around in Emily’s things. She shouldn’t waste another thought on him.
    Right. Absolutely
. She should just get up and get back to work filing or reshelving.
    Sure thing
. That was what she should be doing. Not fantasizing about some mortal, no matter how gorgeous he was, or how intriguing he’d seemed at first.
    The man was mortal, after all, and what could come of that?
    Mortal and a jerk.
    Right.
    Then again, maybe she wasn’t being fair. After all, he’d only been doing his job, and he felt really bad about it, too. Maybe she’d been thrown so off balance by the fact that she was, well,
attracted
to him that she’d overreacted.
    Wheels turned in her head and she tried not to smile as the idea took root—if she’d overreacted, she should apologize.
    It wasn’t as if she’d be tracking him down for a date. After all. she didn’t date. Actually,
couldn’t
date was more like it. Considering her ...
unique
lifestyle, latching on to a guy—especially a fully human, flesh-and-blood kind of guy—just wasn’t in the cards.
    Besides, hadn’t Hale warned her a million times about getting involved with mortals? Weren’t her mom and dad the perfect example? She wasn’t stupid. She knew her limitations.
    No, she simply wanted to apologize. Perfectly innocent, nothing wrong with that.
    And the fact that he’d been gorgeous and amusing— exactly the kind of man she’d so often found herself fantasizing about—had absolutely nothing to do with anything. Nothing at all.
    Okay. Sure
. Now all she had to do was call him....
    She fumbled around on her desk looking for the business card, then remembered that he’d taken it back from her.
Well, no problem
. His name was Buster Taylor, and the card had said he worked for Atlas Insurance. She just needed to look him up.
    She tried the phone, but the operator couldn’t find a listing, and the yellow pages weren’t any help either. Zoë scowled at the computer. She wasn’t supposed to use the council search engine, but surely it would be okay this one time. It was a silly rule, anyway. And she did know Hale’s password....
    Before she could talk herself out of it, she flipped her computer on and pulled up her Internet browser. She’d just get on and off. Nobody would even know. She’d find out where Taylor was, and that would be the end of it.
Easy-squeezy. No big deal
.
    The browser opened and she headed for
www.superherocentral.com
and typed in Hale’s password, wondering just how much trouble she was bringing down on herself. Then she shook her head.
On and off, remember? No big deal, remember
?
    Besides, if she wanted to find Buster, she needed to venture into the off-limits pages.
    She picked up a pencil and gnawed on the eraser, thinking, as the banner headlines flashed:
Crack council team foils international kidnapping ring! Click here to view exciting video footage!
    Undercover operative hired at NASA; expected
46
to pave the way for mortals to implement manned Mars missions. Protectors debate—should the council force technology on mortals? Click here for point/counterpoint
.
    Legend of Aphrodite’s girdle surfaces! Rumors of Outcast uprising abound!
    Zoë grinned at the headline. She’d seen statues and heard plenty of stories about her great-great-great-etcetera grandmother Aphrodite, and there was one thing Zoë knew for certain—that had been one woman who did
not
need a girdle.
    Her eyes skimmed over the next headline, and she groaned.
Tax Office alert
—
all Protectors working in the United States are reminded to timely file form C-290 (Disclosure of Mortal Income Earned) with the Mortal/Protector Liaison Office by their deadline. To calculate individual deadlines, please see Schedule C, part 2 (b) 5 (a) (ii) of the Council Handbook
.

    Apparently death and taxes were pretty much the same in the mortal and the Protector worlds.
    She tapped