I heard steel hiss and then I was shaken gently and, again at my ear, "What did you see?"
I twisted in his arm and looked up at his wary face.
"Does that tea make you hallucinate?" I asked.
His brows shot together. "Pardon?"
I put my hands to his chest and pressed in, lifting up on my toes in the snow.
"That tea, Apollo, that tea. Does it make you hallucinate?"
"For males and females, it significantly increases s.e.x drive and even more significantly enhances arousal. For men, it increases blood flow and stamina," he finally answered.
That was interesting, very interesting actually, but it didn"t answer my question.
Then he answered my question, "I"ve never heard it known to cause hallucinations."
c.r.a.p!
Suddenly his face was in my face. "Maddie, my dove, what did you see?"
"A bunny."
His head jerked back. "What?"
"I saw a bunny," I told him.
He stared down at me like he wanted to take my temperature, or more likely admit me for a full battery of psychological tests (if they did that sort of thing in this world).
Then, cautiously, he asked, "You fear rabbits?"
"No," I answered. "I fear rabbits"-I got up on my toes again- "that talk in my head."
All of a sudden, he relaxed, his eyes lit with amus.e.m.e.nt and his face got soft.
He also kept hold of me even as he twisted and tossed his sword on the seat of the sleigh.
Then he came back to me, lifted his hand to the side of my neck and dipped his face close again.
"All right, poppy, I believe all three of the other women from your world had this same reaction and, unfortunately, I didn"t think to mention it to you. Though, I must admit to some surprise that it did not happen along your journey."
"This same reaction to what?" I asked and didn"t wait for him to answer. I asked another question. "What didn"t happen along my journey?"
"This same reaction to the fact that, in our world, animals can talk to you."
"What?" I breathed, my eyes getting wide and in return, his eyes warmed but held their humor.
"They talk to you."
I said nothing. Just stared at him.
"Not all of them," he kept the information flowing, "But many. And both genders don"t understand the same creatures. For instance, I as a man can understand the likes of horses, wolves and snakes. You as a woman will be able to understand the likes of rabbits, cats and mice."
Okay, in thinking about it, the talking animals thing wasn"t a big surprise, though it still freaked me out. I"d quit feeling surprised at a lot of what went on around me since getting to that world. Sure, when a bunny sounded in my head, I felt immediate shock. But knowing it was something of this world that was, well...that.
Still, at learning this nuance of it, my brows snapped together and I asked, "Why do the guys get all the cool animals? I mean, rabbits are cute and I"ve no doubt cats are interesting but who really cares what a mouse has to say? No offense to mice, of course," I hastened to say, just in case any were around and could hear me. "Now, I don"t like snakes all that much but I bet I"d be interested in what one has to say."
For a moment, he just studied me.
Then he threw back his head, his hand at my neck sliding down to join his other arm around me, both convulsed, and he burst out laughing.
I"d never seen him laugh.
It was fascinating.
And shockingly, it was nothing like Pol.
Sure, it kind of sounded like Pol"s laughter. But Pol never laughed with that rich genuineness that seemed to pour over your skin in a warm and happy way like Apollo did.
He sobered, kind of, his big body still shaking because he was chuckling and he kept me held close as he looked down at me.
"If we come across a snake, I"ll act as interpreter," he offered.
I hoped we didn"t run across a snake since I didn"t lie, I really didn"t like them much, but I still said, "Cool."
He smiled down at me.
I stared up at him.
G.o.d, he was beautiful.
And I didn"t know how it was, but even looking exactly like him, he was beautiful in a way that was nothing like Pol.
"Now, are you over your fright? Can we eat?" he asked.
I was over my fright. I was still freaking out that animals could talk to me in this world, but I wasn"t tempted to go dashing through the snow anymore.
"We can eat," I murmured and he let me go but only to guide me into the sleigh.
I went after the basket. When I turned with our sandwiches, he"d put his sword back in its scabbard and was sitting on the seat under the furs, the edge thrown back for me.
I handed him his, sat and he threw the fur over me.
I unwrapped the muslin cloth from around my sandwich and bit in.
Cold beef nowhere near as flavorful as what Apollo"s staff provided. And there was nothing to it, no condiments, just mostly grisly beef and kind of stale bread.
Ugh.
"We"ll be in Vasterhague just after sundown. Unlike last night, we"ll have choice and I"ll take you for a fine meal."
My eyes slid to him to see his on me and my guess from his comment was he knew I didn"t like the sandwich much.
"This is fine," I a.s.sured him, lifting my sandwich stupidly to indicate I was talking about it, something he had to know.
"This is rubbish," he returned, grinning at me and biting into his.
I gave him a hesitant grin back and returned my attention to my food, which was to say away from him.
And I kept my attention away from him. But after I"d eaten half the sandwich, it occurred to me that yesterday, I"d ignored him all day. And today, I was trying not to be a b.i.t.c.h, stupid, selfish, childish or silly, but still, right then, I was ignoring him again. Of course, I had different reasons, but it still wasn"t cool.
So I lifted my eyes to the landscape and asked him, "Is there anything else crazy like animals talking to you that I should know about this world?"
"Do you know of our dragons and elves?"
I slid my gaze to him, chewing and nodding.
"And I know you know of our magic," he went on.
I kept chewing and nodding.
His beautiful eyes held mine and they were back to tender. "Truth be told, poppy, from what I"ve learned from Finnie, our world is much simpler than your world. Your world seems very complicated. And from her descriptions, and I do not intend to offend you with these words, but my world seems less rushed than your world, the land less molested, the air less drab and heavy, and thus all of it more attractive."
I looked to the landscape. Outside of bunny tracks, the snow was untouched. The pine trees stark green against its white and the so-very-blue of the sky, the tufts of snow on the trees" branches thick and fluffy. The air was serene. There was no noise. No airplanes overhead, no railroad tracks, no cars or roads or billboard signs. It actually looked like a Christmas card or the vision of a holiday animated movie come to life, not anything real.
Yet it was.
And it was extraordinary.
"I think you"re right," I agreed quietly and took another bite of sandwich.
At this point, I saw his used piece of muslin fly through the air and land in the opened basket.
I turned my eyes to him and saw him reaching for the wineskin of water hanging from another hook on the front of the sleigh. Stupidly, I watched him sit back, tip his head and drink from it. And even more stupidly, since I could see his throat above his turtleneck working as he drank, and I"d had my lips (and tongue) on that throat and I"d liked it, I became fascinated.
His turtleneck today was a forest green, no less spectacular than the one the day before, except for the fact that the color did amazing things to his eyes.
His breeches, I"d noticed that morning, were another dark brown but this pair had a wide, darker brown swatch of leather st.i.tched to the entirety of the inseam, even the crotch.
Which, at the thought, brought to mind a part of him I paid a good deal of attention to last night, and that part wasn"t his throat. And he"d used that part brilliantly on me multiple times.
All these thoughts made my b.r.e.a.s.t.s swell, my breathing turned shallow and my mind blanked of everything but him.
Which meant, when he dipped his chin and his gaze moved to me, he caught the look on my face. A look I knew communicated thoughts I wasn"t hiding when his eyes instantly grew dark and his hand flashed out to hook around the back of my neck and pull me to him.
His darkened eyes and his hand on me pulling me close made my c.l.i.t throb and I was so focused on that heady feeling, as he leaned into me, his lips brushing mine then his cheek sliding against mine so his mouth was at my ear, I didn"t move a muscle.
Then in my ear, he growled, "You must cease looking at me this way, poppy. If you don"t, I"ll cover the floor of this sleigh with this fur and take you in the cold."
Oh G.o.d.
I wanted that.
Oh G.o.d, what was happening?
"And out of necessity, it would be hurried," he continued. "I"m much looking forward to reacquainting myself with your taste and that beautiful a.r.s.e of yours tonight, and taking my time doing it. So the sooner we get to Vasterhague, the more time we"ll have."
Okay.
What was happening?
He lifted away from me and the heat had not left his eyes so I continued to stare stupidly into them.
"Yes?" he prompted.
"Uh...yes," I forced out. "Okay."
"Okay," he whispered, leaned in, touched his mouth first to one eye, then the other, and that was so sweet, my belly melted. He pulled back and went on. "Finish your sandwich, poppy. I"ll see to the horses and we"ll be away."
At that, I forced myself to nod.
He smiled at me.
I bit my lip.
Then I watched his shoulders as he exited the sleigh.
He had great shoulders. Broad. Powerful. And I knew, under all those clothes, exquisitely muscled.
Oh G.o.d.
I turned my attention to my sandwich and found after a couple of bites, my dry mouth couldn"t take more. I wrapped it up in the muslin, tossed it in and closed the basket. By this time, Apollo was done with the horses and moving back to the sleigh so I situated myself further across the seat so I wouldn"t be sitting too close to him.
Distance was good. I could get my head sorted if he wasn"t close. Cuddling was bad. I mean, in many circ.u.mstances, it was good, way good. But, at this juncture, it was also bad. Way bad.
He got in the sleigh, grabbed the reins and sat, pulling the furs over his lap. He clicked his teeth, snapped the reins and off we went.
Okay, getting my head together...apparently Apollo thought last night we"d broken the seal. So instead of it happening and him being way cool about it and putting it behind us, he thought our relationship had changed.
And I could not say I wasn"t down with that.
In fact, after last night and the way he"d been today, I was so down with that.
But I knew I shouldn"t be.
Things with us were weird and complicated. He told me he"d made love to me last night, not his dead wife, and I believed him. I believed him because the way he said it, the way he was behaving with me made me believe him. But more, I remembered every minute of last night and he"d not once slipped and called me Ilsa or "my beauty."
He"d only used the names he had for me.