This time, Apollo stared at me.
Then his arms convulsed around me and he burst out laughing.
When he was down to chuckling, his arms came from around me so he could frame my face in his hands. He pulled my mouth down to his and gave me a brief, hard kiss with his still-chuckling lips before he wrapped his arms around me again and stated, “You amuse me, poppy.”
“I was being serious.”
He was still chuckling, but he blinked while doing it. “Pardon?”
“I was being serious,” I repeated. “See, it’s kind of…” I searched for a word and found it. “Uncouth for the hot guys of the manor to go around having their fun, leaving a trail of broken hearts in their wake. There has to be somewhere else they can go to get their…” I struggled again to find the right word. “Fun.”
“And waste time astride a horse when they could be riding something else close to home?” he asked with mild disbelief.
My eyes got big, his lips curved into a smile, and I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it.
“This is the way it is here, Maddie.”
“I—”
He put his fingers to my lips and whispered, “Quiet. Please?”
I was quiet but only because he said “please,” I really liked that he said it and I also liked his deep voice wrapping around that word.
He made sure I was quiet, removed his hand so he could wrap his arm around me again and went on.
“The people of this world are very free…” he paused, “sexually. The Vale, there are more strictures than Lunwyn. Fleuridia, less. But here, men and women enjoy each other openly and frequently. If Loretta has feelings for Hans that are not returned, that’s unfortunate. But it happens. Does this not happen in your world?”
Actually, it did.
I bit my lip.
He nodded, correctly reading my non-verbalized answer.
“I’m sorry things are awkward, dove,” he said gently. “But she is not under any misconceptions, I’m certain. She knows the ways of this culture. And it is highly probable she will find someone else to turn her attentions to. But this may happen again until she finds the man who…crushes on her as she does him.”
This was how it happened in my culture too.
Drat.
“Are we done with that topic?” he asked, knowing the answer from reading my face.
I gave him a different one, however. “Kind of.”
“What more is there?” he queried.
I thought about the Fleuridian prostitute and the fact that Apollo was most definitely a man and a man who liked to get him some.
“Have you, um…?” I trailed off.
“Never,” he stated.
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.”