“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.