Her Creator: Myths Retold, #3

By Normandie Alleman

Unable to find the perfect woman, Ian the sculptor decides to create one.

But after he falls in love with his gorgeous marble statue that cannot love him back, he realizes he's worse off than before.

When the envy-prone goddess of love steps in and brings the lovely Galatea to life, things start to heat up.

The woman who was once his perfect fantasy has been transformed into a living, breathing human with a mind of her own.

Will he be able to navigate a relationship with a real woman or will he be forced to let her go in order to prove his love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Normandie Alleman
• Release date: Jan 14, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393795797

Normandie Alleman

A former psychologist, Normandie has always been fascinated by human behavior. She loves writing quirky characters that are all too human. Fiber arts, baking, and Pinterest are a few of her favorite pastimes. A shamelessly proud basketball mom, Normandie lives on a farm with a passel of kids, an adorable husband, and a pet pig who’s crazy for Red Bull. 

Book preview

1

I don’t care if I ever see you again.

Ian cringed at the high, tinny voice. It definitely did not match the attractive woman it belonged to.

Maybe he’d finally learned his lesson, Ian thought as he slammed the door behind him and stormed down the gold-lined street.

He heard a window overhead creak open, and he braced himself.

Women had thrown many things at him over the years. In fact, he bore a scar from a particularly sharp high heel that, after being hurled thirty yards at him, gave him a concussion.

I mean it! the lovely model screamed down, probably expecting him to turn around and rush back into her arms.

He didn’t even acknowledge her with a wave of his hand.

He just kept walking.

The sooner he got away from her the better.

This was the problem with the women he dated. They were beautiful, but once he got to know them, they were flawed. Every single one of them.

No matter how pretty they were on the outside, on the inside—they were messed up.

Thank the gods the walk was helping clear his head.

It always filled his creative well to walk through the streets of Aphrodite’s city.

As soon as his friend Atalanta had gotten married, she got all serious about preparing to be the queen of Xenapolis. Not long before that, their other friend Psyche went and married a god.

Now Ian was the only one left of his friends who was still single.

Annoyed and looking for a new perspective and more excitement, he moved to the city run by the queen of beauty and love herself. If he couldn’t find a woman here, there was no hope.

This was where most vids were made. Some considered it the third coming, a renaissance reminiscent of old Hollywood. But the talent was thin, at least that he was exposed to.

It wasn’t his fault he dated models.

Hell, he was a sculptor. He was surrounded by models all the time.

He couldn’t help it his standard of beauty was high.

But the women he met seemed to be either high strung, unpredictable, indecisive, terribly moody, or a combination of the above.

His male friends told him that was how women were, but he refused to believe it.

Surely, there was a woman out there who was stable and easy to be around.

One who wouldn’t throw things at him, or pout all through dinner over some imagined slight.

But the longer he lived, the more women he met, the more he decided his friends might be right.

What if there were no normal women in the world?

Perhaps his fantasy woman would have to remain just that—a fantasy.

But he couldn’t be satisfied with that.

He walked the two miles home considering it, and when he finally got there, he let himself inside and fell into bed thinking about it.

---

The next morning Ian awoke from a dreamless sleep with an idea too crazy to ignore.

If the perfect woman did not exist, he would simply have to create her.

He threw off the bedclothes and roared into his studio, his mind singularly focused on this new project.

A giant slab of marble stood in a corner of the room.

Over a year ago, when he first saw the block of stone, he knew he had to have it. He wasn’t sure what he would use it for, but the beauty of its smooth texture and the meandering of the delicate veins running through it spoke to him. He’d purchased it outright even though it had been a large expense, especially for a hunk of stone he didn’t have a specific plan for.

He was an artist, and something inside told him he needed it.

Over the last several months, Ian had grown so accustomed to seeing the stone with the white bed sheet covering it that he didn’t even notice it as he walked past.

But today he knew what the purpose of that slab should be.

With a flourish, he grabbed the edge of the sheet and pulled it away revealing a gleaming hunk of marble that was larger than he remembered.

Tossing the sheet aside, he gazed at the rectangular block lovingly.

When he was finished, the slab before him would be transformed into the perfect woman. Her image began to shine through, and without tearing his eyes away, he ran to grab his tools.

Since he wasn’t watching where he was going, he tripped over a shoe, but he caught himself before he fell.

Next he donned a mask and armed himself with an array of power tools. Cutting into marble wasn’t an easy endeavor, and the dust it created was a bitch, but his dream woman was inside that slab, and he intended to uncover her. Dust be damned.

For hours he worked, carving away the larger parts, to give her the most basic of forms.

He lost track of time, and it wasn’t until the growls in his belly sounded almost as loud as his drill that he decided to take a break.

He needed to stop and refuel.

After making himself a sandwich, he took a shower to clean the dust from his body. Then he went right back to work.

He worked late into the night, taking care not to carve away too much.

There was a woman inside calling to him. He could practically hear her, and his hands and tools moved feverishly until he finally collapsed on the floor next to her from exhaustion.

The next thing he knew he was awakened by bright sunlight streaming in through the