Page 45 of The Little Shop of Grand Curiosities

“When I step forward, you step back,” he said with a demonstration. My body complied, remembered perhaps, and although initially stiff and awkward in his embrace, I fell easily into his rhythm once I got the hang of it.

We swayed and span and swayed again, and somehow, each step brought us a little closer until my chest was flush with his and his thighs were brushing mine with every slight movement. The music drowned. The room faded. There was nothing but us, swinging in the golden semidarkness.

I cleared my throat. “You’re really good at this. Dancing, I mean.”

“You’re good too,” he said, something of his coldness thawing dollop by dollop.

“You must be very drunk if you just said something good about me,” I snorted.

Apollo tilted his head down, slid past my mouth, and whispered in the shell of my ear with playful secrecy, “Walder conjures his wine from the Fae Realms.”

My mouth fell open. “We’re going to be delirious.”

“Don’t worry, darling,” Apollo teased, and his hand on the curve of my back tightened possessively. “I won’t take advantage of you.”

I mocked him with an irreverent look. “MaybeIwill take advantage ofyou.”

He raised a brow. “I’d like to see that.”

“I was just—”

“Joking, I know, Little Butterfly. I’m not new to the concept of sarcasm.”

I scowled. “Gods, you’re insufferable.”

His eyes fell on my mouth. “You’re more than insufferable. You’re my worst nightmare.”

“Good for me,” I tried to retort, but my voice left me a bit breathless.

He didn’t notice. He was still transfixed on my lips. “Good for you, indeed.”

I swallowed, fumbling for courage. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He swayed us again, still staring down at me the way he did. The slit of my dress billowed away, and his knee eased between my legs. I had to bite my lip not to make some obscene little sound.

“How am I looking at you?”

“Like my heart is on the menu.”

He smirked, dark with amusement. “Your heart is safe from me, darling.”

I stared back at him, right into the void of his eyes, and felt as though I were falling, the floor beneath my feet losing gravity. “And the rest of me?”

He licked his lips. “What about the rest of you?”

“Is it safe?”

I was clearly delirious, mad, off my head. I wasflirtingwith him. Actually, not only did I flirt with him, but I enjoyed it too.

Apollo’s eyes dropped to the generous neckline of my dress. His hand on my waist glided upward, and his thumb skimmed the underside of my breast. A shockwave of heat rushed through me. A ragged exhale escaped me. I felt so hot that I thought I was going to explode and set the whole cottage on fire.

“Do you want it to be safe, darling?”

No.

Yes.

Maybe?

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