Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(88)

It was my turn to blink. “Never?”

“Never…recently,” he amended.

There it was.

“Mm-hmm,” I mumbled.

He drew me nearer, gentled his voice and explained.

“There are Heads of Houses who do these things. I am not one of them. I was married, my wife my one and only. After that—but I learned it before I was married, my dove—I found it uncomfortable to be around maids who knew me in this manner.”

“In other words, they all fell for you,” I deduced.

He nodded. “It’s difficult to sit at dinner when the woman serving it is giving you longing eyes and you have had your fill and don’t intend to drink more from that cup.”

I looked away, murmuring, “I bet.”

When I didn’t turn back, Apollo’s hand at my jaw brought me back. “Is there something else on your mind?”

I peered into his eyes, trying to decide whether or not to bring it up.

Then I brought it up.

“There was this woman who visited the house the night after you left me in Fleuridia.”

His brows shot together and not in a confused way but in an annoyed one.

“Celise came to the house while you were there?”

“Well…yeah.”

“She was not invited,” he stated.

“She seemed to…” I hesitated, “well, it appeared she…”

“I have had her,” he shared straight up. “Repeatedly. She visits me when I’m in Fleuridia.”

Oh boy.

He kept going. “She has great beauty and she’s very expensive because of it, that as well as her talent with her mouth.”

Okay. There was my answer. Too late.

I shouldn’t have brought it up.

“Uh, maybe we should stop talking about this,” I suggested.

“You do not have whores in your world?” he asked.

“Well, yeah, but it isn’t exactly bragged about, going to one.”

“Why not?”

I stared at him.

“It’s an honorable profession,” he declared.

I kept staring at him.

“And only the best practice it. There are those who offer their services for a tumble, of course, but they cost little coin. However, they make much more than,” he paused for emphasis, “a barmaid.”

Eek!

He kept talking. “But there are those who cater to those of us who can afford the more skilled of their set, and they are quite talented. Some are even famous. Celise is one of them.”

“That’s crazy,” I whispered.

“How so?” he asked.

“How not?” I asked back.

“This is not an answer to my question, poppy. Are whores not celebrated in your world?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No.”

“Strange,” he muttered then focused on me. “There are men, and women, who holiday in Fleuridia just to visit Fleuridian whores. They are the best in the Northlands.”

“That’s…well, I guess I find that kind of shocking,” I told him.

“As I find it equally shocking providing such a service and being celebrated for your talent in doing it would be looked down upon in your world, as your reaction clearly states they are.”

He looked like he was disappointed in me.

“We’re not as free sexually as you are here, I’m getting,” I explained.

His eyes grew dark and I would know why when he inquired, “Do you feel guilt for what you do with me?”

“No,” I told him quickly.

“If our coupling would be looked down upon in your world, why not?”

“Because I enjoy it and I like you and I like spending time with you and being close to you. So much, if we were in my world, I wouldn’t care what people think.”

His eyes shot straight to tender and he said softly, “This is a good answer, my poppy.”

I felt the tenderness in his eyes sliding through my insides, however, I did feel it necessary to point out, “Just to say, the men who pay for it in my world, and the women who get paid, are what’s looked down on, Apollo. There’s more sexual freedom for those who are free to be…uh, sexually free.”

“Very odd,” he murmured and again focused more closely on me to say, “If Celise made you uncomfortable, my poppy, I apologize. She was not scheduled to meet me that night. However, she has favorite clients and I am one, so I’m not surprised.”

And I wasn’t surprised he was a favorite of the famous Celise whoever-she-was.

But I did wonder if he’d ever spanked her, drank adela tea with her or “explored” other things with her and I knew, for some reason, if he had, that would upset me.

A lot.

“Now, are we done with this topic?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered, not about to get into how much he explored the beautiful Celise.

His hands moved over my nightgown and he urged, “Then let’s move on to the other ones so I can get this charming but entirely in the way nightgown off you.”

I was suddenly not all that fired up about the other ones since they were harder but also because I wanted him to get my nightgown off of me.

Nevertheless, I persevered by stating, “What happened to bring us back to Karsvall, you’ve not mentioned it again.”