Broken Dove (Fantasyland #4)(98)

I felt all gushy because Apollo was pleased and I liked it when he was pleased.

Damn, I was fading fast. Fading into this world. Fading into him.

And I didn’t mind. Not even a little bit.

It was the fact I didn’t mind that freaked me.

That was, I didn’t mind until he announced, “As my home is agreeable to you, I’ll charge Loretta and Meeta with packing your things and we’ll move you here tomorrow morning.”

I forgot all about fading and blinked.

“What?”

“Tomorrow, we shall move you here. It’s not far to get to you, my dove, but it’ll be far better to take dinner with you here and go to bed with you, also here, which means I’ll wake here as well.”

Um…

Move in with him.

Tomorrow?

Was he nuts?

“Uh, Apollo, by tomorrow I will twice have done something crazy in front of your kids and once, hopefully, acted like a sane person though a dinner with them. That’s hardly time to move me in.”

“You will have met them. You will be getting to know them. Thus there will no longer be reasons for you to avoid them. You like my home. I see no purpose in us continuing our current arrangement.”

“It’s too soon,” I told him, by a miracle succeeding in not letting my voice rise in panic.

“Too soon?” he asked, clearly perplexed.

“Yes. Too soon for them. Too soon for you and me.”

“Maddie, how is it too soon?”

Yep. He was perplexed. And I was perplexed at how he could be.

I leaned back in his arms. “I’ve only”—I lifted my hands and did air quotation marks—“known you for a week. A week is way too soon to live together.”

“And how are we not living together now?” he asked. “We dine together. We go to bed together. We wake together.”

Alas, this was a good point.

Luckily, I also had a good point.

“What about the kids?”

“What about them?” he asked and I blinked again.

“Apollo, you can’t seriously be suggesting I move in with two kids who I’ve said half a dozen words to.”

“No, I’m suggesting you move in tomorrow morning when hopefully through dinner you’ve said much more.”

I could tell he was getting impatient because his tone was sliding along the edge of sarcastic.

So I lowered my voice to one I thought would calm him when I explained, “It’s way too soon for the children. Honey,” I hesitated then reminded him of something I knew I didn’t have to remind him of, “I look like their mother.”

“Élan doesn’t remember her mother,” he replied instantly. “And Christophe is an Ulfr male. This means that he may not show it, but he feels deeply. His friend shared with him what you did to avenge him and he admires this. I have shared with him the loss you suffered and he sympathizes as he has suffered his own. Therefore, he’s keen to get to know you.”

Apollo kept talking even though halfway through what he said I knew my mouth had dropped open and my eyes got big.

When he was done speaking, I asked, “He knows I stabbed a man?”

“Maddie, as you yourself have discovered, our world is quite different than yours and he’s a boy who wishes to grow up and be a soldier like his father. These things don’t upset him like they do you. He does indeed know you stabbed a man. He also admires it.”

That I could let slide. Boys in my world would probably think the same thing.

Apollo wasn’t done.

“But in knowing about the children you lost, dove, he respects it.”

That I couldn’t let slide.

“How could you tell him that?” I whispered.

Apollo’s brows shot together. “And why would I not?”

“Because it’s mine.”

His brow cleared and he tried to gather me closer but when I tightened my body and leaned away, he gave up and just brought his face closer.

“Do you not think,” he began, his tone gentle, “that one day not one but both of them would put together the way it is with our worlds and wonder? Wonder why there isn’t a them in your world or if you left their twins behind? You do not know him yet, poppy, but Christophe is very bright, as is Élan. They would eventually think on these things.”

“Okay, I’ll give you that,” I replied. “But did this have to happen now?”

“I wish for my children to know the woman I intend to marry and I wish the same for the woman who is to be my wife. So yes, it had to happen now. There’s no reason to delay.”

“Did you think about maybe discussing with me what about me you could or could not share with your kids or, say, anyone at this juncture or any other juncture for that matter?” I inquired.

“What I wish to know,” he replied, but did it carefully, “is why this is a secret? Maddie, you did nothing wrong.”

He wasn’t right about that.

I didn’t share the ways he wasn’t right.

I said instead, “That’s not the point.”

“Could you please explain the point?” he asked gently.

He was being gentle and he’d said please.

But he wanted me to move in with him and his kids.