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“Florence wanted to come.”
I felt him chuckle against my cheek. “I’m finding less and less to dislike about her lately.”
“Here I thought you’d be jealous I didn’t change my mind for you.”
“Oh, I am,” he said, and I heard the humour in his voice. “But you’re here, and now I’m going to make you glad you came.”
“How do you plan on doing that?” I asked.
He kissed me. Hard. His hand going to the back of my neck. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and, just as I thought it was heated enough for a public place, he picked me up and sat me on the back of the couch beside us. He stepped in close between my legs and kissed me like I was life itself.
I forgot about everything and anything except Apollo Callahan and his lips on mine, his hands on my body, sliding up under my top, his pelvis rocking against mine...
A commotion to our right pulled Apollo’s attention.
Valen was being physically restrained. It took Marco, Fender and Gage to hold him back from whichever unfortunate he’d turned his eye to at that moment.
“Fucking hell,” Apollo muttered. “That’s the third fucker tonight…” He looked at me, an apology in his eyes. The apology was not about his language. “I’d better go and sort him.”
I nodded, thinking that was probably in everyone’s best interests. “Okay. No worries.”
Valen whirled on Marco and took a swing at him.
“Fucking get off me!” Valen roared.
I slid carefully off the back of the couch, my eyes glued to Valen.
Apollo skidded to a stop in front of Valen, his hands up like he was dealing with a skittish or scared animal. “Valk, come on, man.”
Valen turned an eye on him and I saw his lip was now split. He spat to the side and wiped his hand over his mouth. “Don’t fucking tell me to ‘come on’. You just go back to your princess. Don’t want the wee lass getting frightened by the big, bad wolf.”
A shiver ran over me.
“Scared isn’t the word I’d use,” I said, loud enough for them all to hear.
Apollo turned a proud smile on me. If only those words meant what he thought they did. What they all thought they did. All but Valen. Valen would know what they meant.
Not that I paid Apollo that much attention.
Because Valen looked at me, too.
I crooked my eyebrow at him, a challenge. Did he dare say anything in front of his God? Did he dare try to insult me further?
Although, Florence was probably the only person beside me and Valen who knew the insult wasn’t actually to my character, but by pretending it was all about me.
Valen didn’t need me as an excuse to ‘behave’. He didn’t need me as an excuse to misbehave. But he was apparently not above using me as one anyway.
We stared at each other and a battle of wills played out. To anyone else, it was Apollo’s goddess facing off against the wolf, taming him to her coming rule. We knew better. Oh, I was taming him to my rule all right, but not as Apollo’s. I was doing it as my own self.
Finally he snarled, grabbed Mina and strode from the room.
There was a great raucous applause for my perceived win. I smiled and gave a little bow but, when my eyes met Florence’s, she saw my real feelings.
I hadn’t really won.
Valen was quite happy to let them all think I had, but we both knew I hadn’t tamed God’s most sinful angel. He had the last laugh. He got to bury himself in some Magdalen when we both knew Apollo would probably do the same later.
I doubted Valen knew my true feelings about Apollo’s ‘infidelities’, but I was sure he was smart enough to guess that I’d feel something about them both fucking Magdalens instead of me. Even if it was the tiniest of somethings, it still stung. It stung all the more knowing Valen was making it sting on purpose.
