So it was just me for him.

And as for him, not once, not even once did I think of Pol.

So it was just him for me.

But still.

We'd been in each other's presence-I counted-six times. And if you counted our uncomfortable meal last night, we'd only had one semi-kind-of-date and that date went far from well.

This shift wasn't right.

Or, if not exactly right, it was too fast.

The sleigh slid over the snow and I worried my lip as it did. Then I pressed my lips together when his arm moved along the back of my seat, curled around me and pulled me across the seat and into him. Without delay, once he got me close, he curved me closer.

Oh boy.

"Apollo?" I called.

"Yes, dove," he muttered.

G.o.d, really, him calling me "dove" was all kinds of lovely.

"Um...are we, have we..."

Just suck it up and talk to him about it, Ils...f.u.c.k, Madeleine!

I took in a deep breath and asked, "Has the state of play between us changed?"

His deep voice sounded puzzled when he asked back, "The state of play?"

I pulled up courage and tipped my head back to look at him to see him already looking down at me.

Yes, puzzled.

"You seem, I mean..." I drew in breath. "You're being very affectionate."

His head tipped to the side. "This troubles you?"

"We were, uh...kind of fighting yesterday and, of course, the day before, and, well, dinner wasn't all that-"

His eyes started dancing so I shut up and thus he could say, "We weren't fighting last night."

We absolutely weren't.

"No," I agreed breathily.

"And I much enjoyed last night."

I'd got that. Still, it felt nice him confirming it.

"Good." I was still talking breathily.

He pulled me closer and up a bit so we were nearly face-to-face. That was, nearly face-to-face with our faces about an inch away.

"Adela tea," he began, his voice deeper than normal and warmer than normal and that was a double whammy. "Comes from adela trees. Have the G.o.ds of my world been explained to you?"

I nodded. I knew all about their G.o.ds and the fact that they had a bunch of them. "Gaston told me about them."

He nodded back. "Then you know that Adele is the G.o.ddess of love. And she created those trees. The bark of those trees, if taken and infused with water, is what makes adela tea. These trees have many uses and are sacred. The tea is one of those uses. It is understood the G.o.ddess Adele created it to enhance the physical connection along with the emotional connection, if one is to be had, between lovers. It works as I explained before but it also breaks down inhibitions."

Oh, it certainly did that.

His arm gave me a squeeze before he kept explaining. "Even if we don't realize it, things in our head can build barriers to sharing in a variety of ways, including during bedplay. With those swept away, lovers can understand each other better. What pleasures them. Where to touch that feels best. Smells, noises, tastes that enhance gratification."

It certainly did that, too.

Apollo wasn't done.

"And, through future relations, once had, the understanding of all this will never be lost, even if the tea isn't consumed. Therefore, it continues to make relations all that more intense, deeper, a beautiful experience every time you engage in it."

Oh boy.

That sounded awesome.

He kept going.

"And if there is an emotional connection, or one that is building, all this serves to enhance that as well, most precisely, trust."

His face got closer to mine so he was now only half an inch away and my breath caught.

"Amongst the other things, I feel that is what it's done for us, my poppy. You must admit, regardless of the unusual circ.u.mstances that brought us together, we would not argue with such pa.s.sion if there was not some emotional connection on which to feed that pa.s.sion."

This made sense, of course, but there was the history that came before, for both of us, which could actually be the cause of said "pa.s.sion."

So, I started to protest, "But-"

He knew what my protest would be because his eyes grew slightly hard and he declared, "It is not about him for you and it is not about her for me. We both know this. They were not there last night."

"No, they weren't," I whispered and the hardness slid out of his eyes.

"They were between us, Maddie. Were. Last night, with the tea, with the way you gave yourself to me so freely, so magnificently, and how I treasure that, now they're gone."

Okay.

s.h.i.t.

How he treasured it?

I liked that.

Like, a lot.

Still.

"Okay, I get that," I said. "But if that's the case, if we're, um...enhancing relations, maybe we should take that slowly."

His head gave a slight jerk then his hand slid up to cup the back of my head. He shoved my face in his neck just as he burst out laughing.

I wasn't exactly sure what was funny.

Before I could ask, his fingers twisted carefully in my ponytail, he tugged back a bit and his mouth hit mine for a hard, closed-mouth kiss before he moved a breath away.

"Do you think, dove, that you could give me the abundance and beauty of last night then make me wait to have you again?"

Hmm.

"I'll answer that," he said, his eyes still lit with humor. "You can't."

"Uh...okay."

"And Madeleine, with the way you've been looking at me, it's quite clear you don't want to."

I had to admit, he might not be wrong about that.

I began to worry my lip.

His eyes dropped to it and then I watched them smile.

That smile faded to warmth when he stated, "I'll make you a promise. Tonight, we'll go slower and I'll be more gentle. How's that?"

Apollo being slow and gentle.

c.r.a.p.

My c.l.i.t was pulsing again.

"Uh...okay."

He smiled again, leaned in and touched his mouth to mine again and finally sat back, his hand sliding out of my hair to round my back and hold me close, yes...again.

Okay.

Did I just agree to start a s.e.xual relationship...no, to continue one alongside beginning a relationship-relationship with the Apollo of this world?

I think I did.

Okay.

Right.

s.h.i.t.

Chapter Eleven.

In There I watched the door close behind Apollo, and dazedly, I turned and looked down at my trunks.

Trunks.

Yes, three.

I'd come in with only one as well as the things we brought from Fleuridia. Only one had been brought up to the room yesterday. And I had not studied what was packed behind us under the silken green tarp of our sleigh.

But now, to my surprise, I had three.

We were in Vasterhague.

Vasterhague was much bigger than the village we'd stayed in the night before. In fact, it was as big as a small city.

When the boys were bringing me into Lunwyn, we'd stayed there and they'd told me a lot about it.

But as he drove the sleigh, moving our conversation to something that was much more comfortable, Apollo told me about it too. And as I needed more comfortable conversation and since he seemed keen to share with me, I didn't tell him I knew a lot of what he had to say.

And that was that Vasterhague was kind of a cosmopolitan trading post. Situated equidistant from two large port cities, it had large warehouses at its outer edges where merchandise from ships was delivered and then disseminated. Because of this, there was a great deal of activity, merchants going there to sell their wares, buyers going there to make deals, delivery sleighs going there to pick up shipments. And naturally, a variety of other things had grown up around it.

Outside of the warehouses, and the four long rows of ma.s.sive greenhouses built a bit away from the city, the rest looked like any other sleepy village I'd seen in Lunwyn. There were buildings that were taller, larger and grander, but the feel was rustic simplicity. Perhaps more elegant than the other villages, but still rustic.

Thus welcoming.

Draven had explained the greenhouses (as did Apollo) and their existence made sense. In this frozen landscape, they were essential. They held fruit trees and berry vines and vegetable patches that were forced to grow during the long time of the year (three quarters of it!) that Lunwyn was under snow.

Apollo had gone on to tell me what Draven did not. And that was that the greenhouses of Vasterhague were a smaller collection. Across Lunwyn, there were acres of them dotted across the land (and he, not surprisingly, ran two such "enterprises"). Many of the richer citizens with larger homes and enough money to have servants also had their own small (and large) greenhouses to supply their homes (as well as those dwelling around them).

"I have greenhouses at all my homes," he'd said.

This comment made me look at him and ask, "How many homes do you have?"

"Four, in Lunwyn," he told the landscape then looked down at me. "As well as apartments in Bellebryn, the house where you stayed in in Fleuridia, a townhome in Benies and then there's my castle in Hawkvale."

Uh.