“Calm? You calm!” she returned. “I stabbed a man!”

“Madeleine—”

Abruptly, her forehead dropped to his and she whispered, “I stabbed a man. And honestly? If you gave me those hedge clippers? In that moment, I don’t know what I would have done. I was totally out of control. And you didn’t even blink before you cut his throat.”

He was belatedly seeing his mistake. One he would from then on rectify.

“I should have sheltered you from that. Alas, I was not thinking clearly at the time,” he told her and she lifted her head.

“I think it’s safe to say neither of us was.”

“That happens when you love your children,” he told her and she pulled in an audible breath.

He wrapped his arms around her and gathered her closer.

“Listen to me,” he said gently. “A great deal has happened in the last two days and unfortunately, some of it you weren’t shielded from due to necessity. And, I will remind you of the fact that in the beginning, when we were set upon in Vasterhague, I told you to run and you did not run so I couldn’t shield you from seeing me do what had to be done.”

Her eyes grew sharp and he nearly smiled.

He didn’t. He carried on.

“And the men spoke freely tonight around you. You’ll be shielded from that in the future as well.”

“I prefer to know what’s going on.”

“And I prefer you don’t if it frightens you.”

She drew in a very deep breath and sat back, pulling at his arms. He didn’t gather her closer again because, for some strange reason, she drew a cross over her heart and lifted up two fingers.

Then she declared, “I’ll put my big girl panties on and suck it up from now on, cross my heart, scouts honor, swear.” She dropped her hand. “But, I’d really rather not stab anyone in the future, especially not if they’re tied to a chair.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” he murmured.

Her head tipped to the side and her eyes narrowed right before she asked. “Do you think this is funny?”

“The situation? No. Your reaction to it? Absolutely.”

She glared at him.

He’d allowed her distance and now he was done allowing it.

So he again gathered her closer.

And his tone was very gentle when he explained, “Maddie, for many, many months we have lived under the threat of knowing very powerful conspirators with evil motives may unleash mayhem across the land. Today, you breathe, my children breathe, I breathe. So I feel relief and now we can take this as an opportunity to read their first strike, glean what we can from it and prepare. All this is foreign to you, thus frightening. But in the end, it’s good.”

“I’m uncertain I can see the good, Apollo,” she admitted.

“Then I’ll share that they didn’t use magic. This could mean Minerva is weakened more than we knew, the witches she’s aligned with not as powerful as we’ve assumed, or they fear the combined magic of Lavinia and Valentine, not to mention Frey, who commands both dragons and elves.”

“None of that seems definite,” she noted.

“It’s not, but I’ve never known a battle where a warning shot was fired with a dart.”

She blinked and asked, “What?”

“If you have a cannon or a flaming arrow, you would use that.”

“Oh,” she whispered and he felt his lips curl up.

He wrapped the tail of her hair around his hand and brought her face closer.

“It has begun. We don’t live under the threat of it, it’s happening. This may not seem an advantage, my dove, but it is. It is much better to be doing something than awaiting the unknown. Now, I fortify the men at my home to keep my children and you safe for I know you are not, rather than guessing it or how I might protect you from it. Now, Queen Aurora can gather her troops. Now, Lavinia and Valentine may be able to focus their attention, for we may have knowledge of where the conspirators hide. But to end, poppy, now we can do something.”

“I’m seeing the benefits of this for an action man,” she noted.

He grinned.

“But for a chick from another world, this shit is still whacked,” she concluded.

“Then let’s agree that I shield my chick from another world from all of this so she enjoys her days making snowmen, playing tuble with her friends, her evenings with the company in her bed, all of this as she raises the courage to meet my children and tries to figure out what she intends to do with her life in her new world, shall we?”

“I really don’t like things kept from me, Apollo,” she whispered.

“I have received that message clearly, Madeleine,” he whispered back. “So part of our bargain will be that you trust me to share with you what you need to know and the rest of it, I will keep to myself so you can be free to find your footing in your new life? Are we agreed?”

She held his eyes and she did this for some time.

He fought against holding his breath.

Finally, she nodded.

Thank the gods.

“Excellent,” he muttered, rising and lifting her with him. “Let’s go to bed.”

As he moved from the room, he heard her mumble, “Oh boy.”

And again, he smiled.

* * * * *

“Baby,” she breathed.

Apollo slowly slid out but he didn’t slide back in.

He gave her just the tip of his c**k and whispered against the skin of her neck, “Again.”

To which, instantly, she whispered back, “Baby.”

He slowly slid inside, then glided out, and repeat, and again, his hands moving on her skin, his lips skating across her neck, down her jaw and up. His eyes open, holding hers captive, he took her mouth, sliding his tongue in and coaxing hers to dance with his.

Gratifyingly, with but a moment’s coaxing, she gave him what he wanted.

When he broke the kiss but not the connection of his lips, she whispered, “You need to go faster, sweetheart.”

Instantly, he gave her what she wanted.

He felt her tighten her legs that were curved around his thighs and she slid her cheek along his, lifting her head to bury her face in his neck.

So bloody sweet.

“Maddie,” he groaned into hers.

“Harder, baby,” she begged, and his hand at her side drifted down to her waist, in over the small of her back and down to cup her arse.

He lifted her and gave her harder.

And deeper.

He heard her breath hitch and she ran the edge of her teeth along his shoulder.