Chapter 16

THOR

I looked over at where Daisy was putting the final touches to the woodpecker for our tree. Her face was screwed up in concentration, and I could tell she was trying to make sure that every detail was perfect.

Watching her work was almost as good as watching her fall apart in my arms, something I very much hoped I could convince her to do again. Which might not take much doing considering that she'd stayed the entire night at my hotel. We were lucky that we'd been asked to wear the same clothes today as we did yesterday, so no one was going to question where she'd spent the night.

She looked up and met my gaze. "Everything okay?"

I nodded. "Sorry, I just got distracted."

She checked around to make sure there were no cameras on us. "Me too. I keep thinking about last night."

"I don't want to be too much of a distraction."

"You were one already," she responded. "I've thought about how easily you'd be able to lift me up a few times, now I just know what that feels like."

My mind instantly went back to last night. I hadn't planned any of that, and we'd been lucky that Aine had sent me a gift basket from Jinx that included condoms. No doubt she was probably trying to convince me to sign up as a client, though I didn't think that was going to be something I was interested in now.

"I'm done with the woodpecker," she said, breaking me out of my thoughts. "What do you think?" She held it up.

I let out a low whistle. Distracted or not, it was a masterpiece. I could see why she hadn't been worried about the lack of flowers on the sculpture. The feathers of the bird almost looked like they were real, and it was impressive how much of an expression she'd managed to capture. "That's amazing," I said.

"Thanks. I need to put him on the tree now."

I nodded. "Want a hand?"

"Is that just an excuse to touch me again?"

"Definitely," I joked.

"Maybe stand by in case I do," she responded, heading towards the tree and coming to a stop. She reached out to touch the nest I'd built into the tree. "This is beautiful."

"Thanks," I responded. "I'm pleased with how it turned out."

"You should be." She turned to smile at me, and I suspected that if we'd been alone, she might have kissed me rather than just that.

I didn't mind. We'd have time in the future for things like that, so long as I played my cards right and actually asked her on a date.

"I am going to need your help," she said. "I need you to hold him in place while I get the soldering iron."

"Yep, will do. Would screws not do it?" I took over from where she was standing, my fingers brushing against hers as I did.

She bit her lip. "They would, but I find they interfere with some of the more detailed work." There was a slight shake in her voice that I didn't think had anything to do with metalwork. "Careful of your hands."

I nodded but didn't say anything so she could concentrate on using the soldering iron. I might be a god, but that didn't mean I had heat-resistant hands. Though I supposed I could use a spell for that if I wanted to.

"Okay, that should be good," she said, stepping back.

Carefully, I let go of the woodpecker, relief travelling through me as it stayed in one place.

Daisy looked up at the timer. "Ten minutes left, I'm surprised they're not shouting about it yet."

"There's ten minutes left on the clock!" Rosie called, as if reminded by Daisy's comment, even if I knew they weren't actually paying attention to us right now.

"We should check around and make sure there's nothing out of place," she said.

I nodded and started to check over the bottom of the tree while she climbed up the ladder to take in the top. I had to admit that I was impressed with what we'd managed to come up with in just two days. I'd never have guessed it was possible, but we'd worked well together and that had paid off.

"Okay," Daisy said as she stepped off the ladder and came to stand beside me. "We did good, if we had more time, I think it would be great."

"Good enough that you'd collaborate with me again?"

She looked at me. "I don't know whether you're asking about the sculpture or the sex."

"I was specifically asking about the sculpture, but I'll take an answer to either question." And if I was honest, I hoped she would say yes to both of them.

"I'll collaborate with you in the future." She touched my arm as she said it, lingering for just long enough that I knew she was talking about both.

"Your time is up!" Duncan called, cutting through our moment. "Step away from your sculptures and come down to the front."

"Ready?" I asked her.

"To be judged? Never."

I smiled and followed her to the front of the room, where the others had already congregated.

"Things are going to be a bit different today," Rosie said. "Because your sculptures are so big, we aren't able to take them to the judging rooms, so the judges are coming here."

Interesting. I hadn't expected to see the judges at all, and it was probably best if they didn't realise I was me, or that would completely undermine my attempts to prove that I was good without anyone knowing who I was.

"You'll be sitting over here." She gestured to six chairs. "And the judges won't be interacting with you because it's still supposed to be a blind judging for the final next week." She ushered us over.

I went over to the seats and sat down, with Daisy sitting beside me. She bumped her leg against mine in a way that no one else would notice.

"You're going to have to tell me who is who," she whispered to me.

Ah, I hadn't even considered that she wouldn't know who was who.

Workers headed towards our sculpture and Daisy tensed as they moved it, no doubt worrying that everything was going to start falling apart when they did. The others weren't much better, and Brandon looked as if he was about to march over there and start lecturing them about the proper way to treat a piece of art.

The change in position let me finally get a good look at what the others had done. I'd meant to go and check them out when we'd finished with our sculpture last night, but I was distracted by the way it had felt to kiss Daisy.

"I like Brandon and Kenji's willow," Daisy whispered to me.

I nodded. "I think there's a pond beneath it too."

"I wouldn't mind talking to Kenji about how he gets that water effect. Do you think he'd tell us?"

I looked over at the other man, and from the sour expression on his face, I had to assume that the collaboration hadn't gone as well as it had for us. "I don't think so."

"That's a shame." She sat back in her seat and waited for the judges to arrive.

Rosie went over to them and started talking to the nearest camera, but she was too far away for me to hear what they were saying.

"The woman on the left with brown hair and the pink shirt is Aine," I said to Daisy. "She's the CEO of Jinx, and a Celtic goddess of love, beauty, and a few other things."

"Right. So, not someone to get on the bad side of," she murmured.

I chuckled. "Aine is actually very sweet, you'd like her."

"Okay, who is the other woman?"

"Persephone."

" The Persephone?"

I nodded. "Is that more impressive than the CEO of a successful company that's barely a year old?"

"Well, she's Persephone. Queen of the Underworld, wife of Hades..."

"Don't say that around her if you want to win the competition, they broke up a while back."

"Oh good to know. So who is the guy?" Her curious expression was adorable, and there was a part of me that couldn't wait to be doing this again at a future party.

"That's Xochipilli."

"You've lost me there," she admitted. "If I'm going to spend more time with you, I'm really going to have to study up on my mythology, aren't I?"

I chuckled. "Luckily, I know a lot of the gods, so I can tell you. We call him Xoch, he's the Aztec god of a few things, but art is one of them."

"Ah, so a god who actually knows what he's talking about. Unless he doesn't know anything about art."

"He knows plenty," I assured her.

The judges milled about looking at the sculptures and making some notes, making me surprisingly nervous about the situation. I hadn't really thought about whether it was a good idea for me to take part in the competition until now. But it was going to be difficult to maintain the blind part of the judging if they recognised me.

Aine walked over to Rosie and said a few words before the judges retreated from the room.

Rosie stepped forward. "I know that's got to have been nerve-wracking for you all, but the judges have passed on their comments and their decision."

Daisy sat up straight beside me, the tension clear in the way she was sitting.

"Brandon and Kenji, they loved your pond, and the way that you made the willow leaves look as if they were falling into it, but they thought your fish could have been more prominent in the sculpture to fit the brief better," Duncan said.

The two men exchanged a curt nod.

"Carlos and Ralph, they thought your savannah tree was unique and not what they were expecting, and they thought that the lion cub curled up in the roots was adorable, but they thought the leaves and trunk were lacking detail," he continued.

Daisy sucked in a deep breath beside me, clearly nervous about what they had to say about our tree.

"Daisy and Thor, the judges thought your woodpecker family was charming, and the use of techniques in the leaves and apples was impressive. However, they thought you could have had one less element and the whole thing would have felt a little cleaner."

"Okay, that's not too bad," Daisy murmured, though I suspected it was more to herself than to me.

"So this week, I have the job of giving out Judge's Choice ," Rosie said. "And I'm pleased to be able to award it to Daisy and Thor, congratulations to you both, you're also through to the final."

Daisy let out a small gasp and looked as if she wanted to reach for my hand but decided against it.

"Now I have the unpleasant task," Duncan said. "I have to announce which two of you are leaving us."

Selfishly, I hoped it was Brandon and Kenji. The two of them were very talented, and that posed more of a risk of winning the whole competition.

"Carlos and Ralph, I'm afraid you're going to be leaving us today."

Carlos cursed and got up from his seat. One of the cameramen zoomed in on him, and I wished I could say something to him about taking it easy but there was nothing I could do.

The bell sounded to announce the end of filming and I let out a sigh of relief.

"We got Judge's Choice !" Daisy's excitement came through her voice.

"We did," I agreed. "And it was well deserved. We worked hard for that."

She bit her lip, drawing my attention to it and making me think about the next time I could kiss her. "We should celebrate."

"What did you have in mind?"

"There's a good Vietnamese restaurant down the road, if you like that."

"It almost sounds like you're asking me on a date," I responded.

She flushed. "Well, yes. But I have to go first, I can't go to dinner in yesterday's clothes. And if I don't show my face, Danny is going to track me down, and I don't want that."

"Fair enough," I responded. "And Vietnamese sounds good."

"I'll message you the address and meet you there?"

I nodded.

She hesitated for a moment, as if she wanted to kiss me, but thought better of it when we were around all of the other people. I wasn't sure how any of them would react to knowing that we were dating one another, but I couldn't imagine it would be good.

And it was best to keep my private life just that.