That didn’t sound bad. In fact, I missed the guys so it sounded awesome.

“Okeydokey,” I agreed and that got me a smile.

His arms both went around me, he pulled me closer and I snuggled into his heat.

After a long ride, me going temporarily insane and Apollo doing…whatever-it-was-he-did that night, the hard part was done. The good part was coming. That being sleep, of which, since it was still dark outside, it took a while for Achilles to calm me down (he used booze—it was a good choice) and talk me into lying down, I was guessing I didn’t have much of it. Therefore, I was looking forward to it.

My eyes were especially and I knew this because they were drooping.

“You rode hard at my heels, not eating, not sleeping, not speaking, at my side the whole way to get me back to my children,” he whispered.

I didn’t say anything.

He did.

He cuddled me even closer, kissed the top of my head and kept whispering when he said, “Thank you, my dove.”

My answer was to press my cheek into his chest.

He fell silent.

I was warm and cozy under the covers, wrapped up in him, having had a really great orgasm, so my eyelids started drooping again.

“You liked our play.”

This was Apollo and my eyes stopped drooping mostly because I didn’t know what he was talking about.

This time, I spoke.

“Sorry?”

His arms tightened. “Our play, Maddie, was rough. Very much so. And you liked it. Also very much so.”

He could say that again.

But how embarrassing was this?

“Well…uh…the adela tea—”

“Yes, I sense this opened even more doors for us than I earlier imagined.”

I tipped my head back to look at him again.

“Sorry?”

“You took my c**k yourself. And I could feel your excitement grow when you were spanked. Further, you kept yourself spread for me at my command,” he stopped. I was certain I blushed. His eyes narrowed slightly and he went on almost musingly. “In fact, you did everything I commanded.”

Oh boy.

“Apollo—”

“And your cl**ax was very long.”

Yes. I was blushing.

“Ap—”

His arms gave me a squeeze and he continued while his hand drifted up my back to cup my head and press my face in his throat. “We will explore this.”

Oh boy!

“Deeply,” he decreed.

Oh my.

He pulled me even closer and tangled his heavy legs with mine, murmuring, “I will enjoy taking you on your knees, seeing your arse red from my hand.”

God.

I was no longer blushing, but I was exhausted, mortified and still, he was totally turning me on.

“Now we sleep,” he announced.

Thank God.

I burrowed in closer and set about faking falling asleep fast so he couldn’t do or say anything more to freak me out.

This mission failed.

And it did when he whispered, his voice gruff, on another squeeze of his arms, this one fierce, “You are a lioness.”

I closed my eyes tight and said nothing.

He did.

“This pleases me.”

I pressed closer and sighed.

Oh boy.

Chapter Fourteen

Heart Too Soft for a Soldier

Apollo sat on the side of the bed, shifted the weight of Maddie’s auburn mane from her neck and curled his hand there.

He bent close and urged gently, “Wake, Madeleine.”

She didn’t, until he carefully pressed his fingers into her neck. Then her eyes slowly fluttered open and she turned her head on the pillow, focusing sleepily on him.

“Hey,” she murmured.

He felt his gut tighten.

How could a single syllable be so sweet?

“You do not need to rouse,” he whispered. “I just wished to inform you that I’m away to breakfast with my children.”

“Okay, honey,” she replied.

He’d heard this endearment used by the other women of her world with their men. It never occurred to him he would one day have it.

And if it did, he could not have known how much he would like it.

“I’ll likely be busy throughout the day but I’ll take dinner with you,” he told her.

“All right,” she agreed drowsily.

“Go back to sleep, dove,” he finished.

“Right, baby,” she murmured.

And this endearment, he had no idea why, he felt in his cock. Every time. Even when she gave it to him while he was searching a dead man’s pockets.

On this thought, his whole body stilled when she turned her head and touched her lips to the inside of his wrist, sweet, light, loving.

He had not recovered from her brief touch before she turned her face away and nuzzled into the pillows, mumbling, “Later.”

He didn’t move even as he sensed her slipping back to sleep. Instead, he sat there, staring at her, wondering what could move a man to strike her.

Cow her.

Make her live in fear.

Make her endure a life running.

Hurt her in any way.

Ever.

He could not allow himself to think of the other him raising his hand and killing the Christophe of that world while he grew inside his Madeleine.

He would think about that later, when he next saw Valentine. And then he would give her another Sjofn diamond, or a chest of them, to see to doing what needed to be done to the Apollo of the other world.

That was not for now.

For now, there was much to be done.

With reluctance, for he would much prefer to remove his clothes and return to her warm softness in the bed, he instead left her and the house. He went to the dower house’s small four-stall stable and saddled the horse he’d ridden there. He mounted the gelding and headed home.

The short ride to the main house of Karsvall should have been taken up with his thoughts of the many things he needed to do. And if not those, then of his children.

But they were not.

They were taken with Madeleine.

His Madeleine who rushed to avenge his children. His Madeleine whose shrieks of fury he heard as he ran to the gardener’s shed the night before. His Madeleine who he saw sink a blade in a man and heard threaten another, all in defense of his children.

His Madeleine who reared into his cock, whimpered and moaned as she did as he bid, cl**axing so strongly, her sex convulsed around his shaft, milking him and prolonging his cl**ax in a way he’d never experienced.

A way he liked very much.

Keeping the horse at a sedate walk, his thoughts turned troubled as they moved to Ilsa.

His wife had not been adventurous during play. He did not mind, her appetites were strong and healthy, regardless that they were conservative. She had aroused him greatly, and sated him almost nightly throughout their marriage.