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A feeling of panic eclipsed the fear as Sasha followed Apollo inside the villa. Was she really ready for this? No. But she knew she couldn’t continue not knowing either.
It was quiet. The staff had gone home or were in bed. He led the way into one of the less formal drawing rooms, flicking on low lights.
He went over to a drinks cabinet, tugging at the bow-tie around his neck. He looked back at her, ‘Would you like a drink?’
‘Will I need one?’ Sasha joked, but it felt hollow.
He arched a brow and she said, ‘A small brandy, please.’ She wasn’t even sure if she’d ever had brandy before but felt like it might be necessary.
Apollo poured a drink for himself and brought her over a small tumbler. She took a sniff and wrinkled her nose at the strong smell. She took a tentative sip and the liquid slid down her throat and into her stomach, leaving a trail of fire and a lingering afterglow of heat. It wasn’t unpleasant.
Apollo shrugged off his jacket and Sasha wished he hadn’t because now she could see the play of muscles under the thin material of his shirt. He faced her. ‘What do you want to know?
Everything.
She swallowed. Where to start? ‘Did we sleep together?’
‘Yes. We spent one night together.’
An instant flush of heat landed in Sasha’s belly that had nothing to do with the alcohol. Her instinct had been right. She’d slept with this man.
That was why her body remembered.
But she didn’t.
She swallowed. ‘The night we had dinner in... The Shard?’
He nodded. ‘Yes, then you came back to my apartment.’
Ridiculously she almost felt like apologising for not being able to remember. Instinctively she felt that it had been memorable, and that a man like Apollo wasn’t easily forgotten.
Her hand gripped the glass. ‘Was I...? Was it my first time?’
His jaw clenched. ‘I believed it was, yes. But since then...let’s just say that I can’t be sure you didn’t make it seem that way.’
Sasha felt something like shame creep up inside her. ‘Why would I lie about being a virgin?’
He looked at her and she couldn’t escape that green gaze or the clear admonishment. ‘To make yourself appear more innocent than you were. Because you thought it would appeal to me, a jaded cynic? Who knows?’
‘I didn’t tell you beforehand?’
He shook his head. ‘You said you were afraid that if I’d known how inexperienced you were, I wouldn’t want you.’
Sasha sat down on a seat behind her, her legs feeling distinctly wobbly.
‘What happened then?’
Apollo drank the contents of his glass and put it down carefully. He faced her and folded his arms across his chest. He looked like a warrior, preparing for battle. All sinew and muscle. Not an inch of softness.
‘After that night we went our separate ways.’
Sasha absorbed that. Had it been a mutual decision? She shied away from asking that question now. It was enough to absorb that he’d been her first lover.
Or had he?
She felt an instinctive need to reject his claim that she might not have been innocent. But how could she defend herself when she didn’t know for sure?
She took another sip of the fiery drink, her hand not quite steady. ‘If we went our separate ways...then how...did we end up here, married?’
