Every word a scandal, a titillation.She wanted more.“If?”
He groaned.“You must know how ill-advised this is.”
“I do.But… do you want to?Would you be willing?A liaison…?”
“Hades damn my eyes.”He sighed.“Yes.”
There was a sunrise inside her, and she nuzzled his neck.
Until a sound outside the door made her freeze.
Apollo cursed, sliding to his feet and pulling her skirts down to her ankles at the same time.
She stood with a sigh, rearranging her clothes and trying to tame her hair.
She patted the table where she’d been spread before him like a feast.“Such a sturdy piece of furniture.Where did you procure it?”
“Had it made.Carpenter in the village.”He undid her as she did herself up, pulling curls out of her coiffure, dipping her sleeve off her shoulder, wrinkling her skirts.“I traded him five bottles of love potion.Fella’s been having troubles getting his little hammer up as much as the missus wants it up.Lady Guinevere’s brews work wonders for a man’s cock.And his stamina.I have no need of it, though.Don’t worry.”
She wasn’t worrying.She was hugging him tight.He’d had a table made for her.“In two days?”
“It was mostly done.He was making it for the pub, but I commandeered it.”
“I’ll never receive a better gift.”
“It’s a few slabs of wood glued together.”
She hugged him even tighter.“Come to my bedchamber.”
“Absolutely not.”
“Don’t think about Temple.”
“I’m not thinking about your brother,” he grumbled.
“He never has to know.”
“You shouldn’t seem so willing to laze in the arms of a man like me.”
A man like me.
A man who built her a forge.
She knew him to be a villain.
She knew him to be harmless.
Humans were complex, weren’t they?Brimming with contradictions, passions, sorrows.She could not forget his mistakes.But perhaps she could open up her view of him to include more than that.Not that it mattered.This little liaison had no future outside of these walls.Once the threat of Stone was punctured, she could return to London, and whatever she had here with Apollo would end.
But until then…
“A kiss or two will do no harm.Just here and there.Maybe a bit more.”
He grunted.“I suppose I can consider it doing my duty, keeping you occupied and out of trouble.”
She broke away from him, wanting to touch every little bit of the forge, to assure herself it was real.Hers.All of it hers.And the man at the center of the room, lounging against the table?Anytime she glanced at him, she found him wearing a satisfied little not-quite smile.
“I’m not supposed to have this,” she said, drawing her fingers across one long shelf.“No woman should…”
