Apollo cursed.“To hell with them all.”
The sun was starting to set, and the light flooded through the window, splashing across the table.And in the soft pink-and-yellow light, he tipped her chin up.
“Say it, Sybil.To hell with them all.I’ll give all of it to you, everything they say you shouldn’t have.Just say it.”
Her lips formed the words easily.“To hell with them all.”
He grinned.“Louder.”
“To hell with them all!”Outside, birds careened off branches, and inside, she felt lighter.And, for the first time in a long while, even though she was miles away from her family and home, she felt less alone.She shouldn’t trust Apollo.Not forever.His loyalty would never last that long.But while it did….
For the man who’d made her a forge, she could forge a little trust.
16
THE TEST
Apollo shifted in his chair.The morning sun coming through the open window was much too hot for the time of day and amount of fog in the atmosphere.But then half the heat came from the woman sitting next to him, eating a point of butter-smeared toast as if it were a delicacy.A crumb sat just at the corner of her mouth, and once Mrs.Collins disappeared, he would…
Ah, gone
Excellent.
He snaked an arm around Sybil’s waist.Another around her head, and he stole the crumb from her mouth with his tongue.
She squeaked, surprised.
But then the toast dropped from her fingers, and those buttery digits were on him.Almost.He caught her hands, sucked her fingers one by one into his mouth, laving his tongue around each one, watching her eyes go wide and as foggy as the morning.
“Delicious,” he said when done.Greedy for more.
“Dangerous.”But still she let him pull her into his lap.
“You love it.”
The tremor of excitement that rippled through her felt like a storm wind—strong enough to blow him over, to tear down everything he knew and leave him with nothing but an appreciation for deadly forces of nature.
And a desire to be torn down again.
He kissed her neck.Seven kisses, all in a row, one for each day they’d been playing this game.Pure gratitude.That’s why she let him do this.And because she was feeling rebellious, saw him as a means of acting out all her suppressed, wanton desires.It would dissipate like the fog beneath the noon sun before long.Until then…
Until then, he’d enjoy the finest pair of breasts he’d ever encountered and how eagerly she let him worship them.
She clung to him eagerly, too, demanding his lips on her mouth and kissing him like she’d been doing it for years.A quick learner.
“Is Stone the only other man you’ve kissed?”he asked after licking a bit of butter from her thumb.
“No.There was Luke.He apprenticed with my father.”
“Luke,” Apollo growled.
“Stop that and kiss me.We have precious time before my goaler returns.”
“Mrs.Collins is certainly unnerving.”
“She’s Temple’s spy.”
“Likely.”
