Fantasyland 04 Broken Dove (24 page)

I looked up at him just in time for his gloved hand to cup my jaw and his head to descend. He brushed his lips against my parted-in-surprise ones and murmured, “I’ll be back.”

He lifted up to kiss my forehead and moved out from under the fur to leave the sleigh.

Okay.

What?

Right, well, he’d been way cool this morning, holding me and comforting me while I cried and freaked out. He’d also been solicitous as we left the inn, offering his arm, pulling me close when I took it and wrapping his hand over mine at his elbow, walking that way the whole way through the inn and out of it as he walked me to the sleigh. I made not a peep when I saw both the horses hitched to it and I still didn’t when he climbed into the sleigh with me.

We took off, and our wild-ass sex-a-thon, no sleep and my crying jag all crashed into me and I was out within fifteen minutes of our being on our way.

Now was now and he wasn’t being way cool.

He was being way sweet.

And affectionate.

Way
affectionate.

He’d gone to the back of the sleigh and I watched him move to the front, feedbags for the horses in his hands and decided I better hop to it because he’d be back soon and expecting his sandwich.

So I bent to the corner of the sleigh where there was a basket from which Apollo had produced our lunch yesterday. As I did that, I saw something out of the corner of my eye.

I looked over the side of the sleigh and saw a cute bunny with gray fur and a white tail hopping to the sleigh.

He was so adorable, I stopped and smiled.

He stopped, lifted up on his hind feet and made a bunch of noises.

He made a bunch of noises but in my head, I heard, “Lady, you have any lettuce?”

I went still and stared at the bunny.

He looked to the right then back at me and made more noises.

But in my head, I heard. “Lady, I asked, do you have any lettuce?”

“Is that bunny talking to me?” I breathed to no one.

Except, of course, the bunny.

He made more noises, a lot of them, but in my head I heard, “Of course I’m talking to you. Who else would I be talking to? Now, do you have any lettuce?”

“Oh my God,” I whispered then shot to my feet, turned and ran out of the sleigh, into the snow, passing Apollo who was coming back.

“Maddie, what’s amiss?” he called.

But I kept running, with difficulty seeing as the snow was halfway up my calves. Still, I kept doing it mainly because a
freaking
bunny was talking
in my head.

“Madeleine!” Apollo shouted.

I kept on running.

Then I stopped because an arm flashed around my middle and I was yanked back into a hard body.

“Maddie, what did you see?” Apollo demanded to know, his mouth at my ear and he was dragging me back to the sleigh.

I didn’t want to go to the sleigh. The cute little bunny who could speak in my mind was at that sleigh.

So I pushed at his arm, struggling against his hold as he kept dragging me.

He stopped and I went with him as he bent into the sleigh for something.

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 sex 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.”

Crap!

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 amusement 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.

God, 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 assured 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 bitch, 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 stitched 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 breasts 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 clit 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 God.

I wanted that.

Oh
God,
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 arse 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.