Page 40 of Charmed By Apollo

“Now, wait, just a moment!” She sat up and pushed her shirt over her breasts. “Is that how it is now? You help me find a way to bring my grandmother back, and I give you sex? Do you think I’m some kind of sex vending machine, where you put in coins and sex comes out?”

“No, I don’t think you’re a sex vending machine,” he said softly. “But neither am I.”

She opened her mouth to protest, then quickly shut it. An uncomfortable feeling crept into her chest. “Apollo, I didn’t mean…I’m not…”

“We’ve always had sex on your terms,” he said. “When you want it, how you want it, and same with what happens afterward. I never get a say at all.”

His words hit straight to her gut. He was right. “I’m sor?—”

“Don’t be sorry,” he said. “Never be sorry for that. But I get it.” He let out a sardonic laugh. “Maybe it’s my karma…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Sorry to have bothered you in the first place.”

“Apollo, wait?—”

“I should go,” he said. “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you here all alone, and I’ll see this thing to the end with you. I’ll help you, protect you, but that’s all there’ll be between us.”

She stood there, frozen, as she watched him leave. Once the door closed, the pit in her stomach grew.

“What the hell does he want from me?” she said aloud. She focused on the fury building in her chest and ignoring the emptiness Apollo’s absence seemed to cause. His delicious scent was all over her, too, on her clothes, her hair, her skin, reminding her of what almost happened.

Stomping toward the bathroom, she stripped off all her clothes, stepped into the shower, and pulled on the tap to let the water hit her at full blast, as if that would erase the memory of his mouth and hands on her.

“Stupid man.” What was that about anyway? What the hell else did he want from her? A relationship? Were they supposed to be girlfriend and boyfriend now? Did he want long walks on the beach? Romantic dinners by candlelight?

He was a god, and she was a shifter. He would live forever, and she would grow old and die in a few decades. No, it just couldn’t work between them.

Geri shut off the tap and leaned her forehead against the wet tiles. She didn’t have to think about that—any of that, because there would be no mating between them, or with anyone for that matter. No, she was determined to live her life as a lone wolf, never needing anyone, never depending on anyone. The only thing she needed in this life was her grannie. She had to remind herself of that.

Chapter 6

Apollo

As soon as he reached the end of the hallway, Apollo paused, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. It calmed him down somewhat, but it did nothing to ease the pain that had buried itself deep in his chest.

Muttering to himself, he continued walking, turning at random hallways until he found what appeared to be an empty room—a library, it seemed. With a deep sigh, he sat down at one of the wingback chairs by the window, looking out into the dark evening sky.

Releasing his breath, he scrubbed his hand down his face. What the hell had he been thinking, trying to have sex with her again? He was mad—utterly insane.

But seeing Geri so jealous had given him hope, much like it did back in Siquijor. Perhaps she did want him, and not just for sex. This time, he had thought she wouldn’t just walk away from him like she did the last two times.

But it seemed he never learned his lesson, at least not with her.

Apollo knew he had a reputation, of course. He was responsible for that, spending much of his youth chasing girls and being chased by them. Back then, he was brash and immature and slept with anyone with a pair of tits who smiled at him. It had been fun for a few thousand years, and why wouldn’t it have been?

But then she came along.

Daphne.

How many thousands of years had it been since he’d even thought of that name? He couldn’t remember, but it was certainly one he would never forget. Daphne had been a nymph, one of Artemis’s, actually. He’d long ago promised his sister that he would never go after any of her people, and he’d kept that promise, at least until he saw Daphne bathing at a river one day.

He’d fallen instantly in love with her and chased after her, but she didn’t want anything to do with him; she hated him so much and told him each time he tried to get near her. Still, he continued to pursue her, but she got fed up and begged her father, a river god, to turn her into a laurel tree just to escape him. Artemis was so furious she stopped speaking to him for five hundred years.

Well, at least that’s the version most people knew.

The truth was, Eros had orchestrated the whole thing. He shot a love arrow at Apollo to make him fall in love with Daphne, but then used the opposite—a hate arrow—at Daphne. He was never in love with her for real, nor did Daphne truly despise him. In fact, neither of them had met each other since the day he had accidentally stumbled onto that river.

And why did Eros do this? Well, he wasn’t quite sure, but that bastard was one sick fuck. People always thought Eros was this sweet, baby-faced cherub, but in reality, he was a damned psychopath. He once heard Eros had nailed the hands of a man to a tree with one of his arrows for knocking over his drink at a tavern.

Apollo snorted. After that incident, he didn’t bother defending himself, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to believe him. He’d been acting like a philanderer for thousands of years, and this was one more incident that set his reputation in stone. For a while, it didn’t really bother him, but lately, he’d been thinking about it, and maybe, just as he’d said, Geri was his karma, and he was due for some cosmic payback of some sort.

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