Page 80 of Apollo

As reiterations went, this second time was more a chant than a charm. As if she could control any note of the sound as the bucket bumped hard, swung twice, and then stopped.

She bolted a bewildered gaze up at Apollo. He hitched a shoulder like the worm who’d casually flipped the fates on his attacking bird.

“Huh. Guess no matter where you are, these carnival rides are hinky.” He dipped in, doubling the lengthy languor of her own kiss, until her senses spun yet again. But the ruthless god didn’t stop there. His mouth was just as wet and sensual as he slid kisses along her jaw, around her ear, down the column of her neck. “There’s probably just enough time for you to say yes, Sweetheart.”

“Uh . . . huh?” she somehow managed to reply. “What? Say yes? Why?”

He softly bit the beginning of her collarbone. “Be my girlfriend, Irowen. Be mine and nobody else’s.”

Again summoning all her self-will, she angled away and shook her head. “Wait. Wait. Seriously, Apollo . . . I can’t. We can’t.”

With the compartment at a total freeze, her balance was thrown off in new ways. For a second, up was down and the opposite held true, so her effort to straighten up and away from him brought the opposite yield. She grimaced, expecting to take a painful thunk on the carriage floor, except that she didn’t. Apollo caught her with barely a grunt of effort, arms upstretched around her waist—and his face pressed at the space between her legs.

“Oh . . . my,” she blurted.

“I didn’t plan this part,” he protested in the same moment. “But even through all the surprise falls, I’ll be here to catch you, Irowen. I swear.”

She didn’t suppress her huge eye roll. “Like this?”

A fresh chuckle from him, vibrating along every cord of her muscles and awareness of her being. “If you like.” He followed with a devastating grin while scooting and resting his chin in the dip of her belly button. “Or even if you don’t.”

“What about what you want?”

She should’ve used the emphasis to push up and away, giving them the necessary distance for this exchange, but damn it, he felt so perfect where he was. For the first time in her life, she liked being this bare and exposed with a man, even with all the lights on, so to speak. Even with the light being his . . .

It was one of the most incredible epiphanies in her existence.

And likely the worst.

“Come on, Apollo.” At least she secured a better view of his beauty by hiking up to her elbows. “Don’t look at me like I’m cracked. If you want me to seriously consider that question, then assess it for yourself. What do you want here, as well?” With their gazes glued, she gave him her full, serious intent. “Because even if I’m the partner you want now, I’m going to change. And maybe, even just in a few years, I won’t be that same girlfriend anymore . . .”

And I don’t know if I could stand that, Glow Worm.

Not being the one basking in the sunlight of your stare and the strength of your arms . . .

Not being the woman you smile at, exactly like now.

After a long, silence—a stillness too stretched for her nerves but not long enough for her heart—Apollo pushed out a weighted sigh. She examined its every nuance, struggling to suss his intent, but the sound was as fleeting as the wind itself, gone from her understanding.

“All right, then,” he finally murmured, once more channeling the mystery of a bare breeze. “Don’t be my girlfriend.”

Her spirit dropped anchor in her stomach. An equally awful lump lodged in her throat. “Oh,” she grated out. “Um. All right. That’s cool. So then—”

“Be my wife.”

Okay, that ground the damn muscles to a halt. At least the ones she planned on ordering into action for scrambling away from him.

“Ex . . . cuse me?”

“Oh, you’re not excused.” The male, suddenly smugger than ever before, had the nerve to return her gawk with a stunningly serious one of his own. “Because you know exactly what I said, Monster. But just in case there’s confusion . . . ”

With the trails of that low, arrogant pronouncement, he dropped his gaze until she saw the tips of his golden lashes—as he lapped his tongue into her most intimate entrance.

“I’m going to take care of you, Irowen. Let me. Please.”

“Oh, Apollo,” she gasped.

“Just like this, Irowen.”