Princely Passions 2(162)

“A vase?” I finally say, my voice cracking. All I want to do is laugh hysterically.

What the ever loving fuck am I supposed to do with a purple and green vase straight from hell? Put it on the entryway table so everyone who comes in here can admire it?!

“Apollo,” I say, my voice cracking again, but this time, I feel like my body is too. “I am exhausted and I don’t want to deal with this right now and just please stop and go away and I need you to just go away.”

“Go away?” he repeats, as if he’s never heard the words before in his life.

“Yes, go away!” I snap. “And take your fuck ugly vase with you!” I can’t believe the words, even as they’re coming out of my mouth but I’m just so damned stressed, I feel like a rubber band that’s been stretched out and held there for weeks on, and now...

Now I’m snapping. Breaking in two. I grab blindly for my martini glass and only just manage to get it to my mouth rather than spill it everywhere. I take a huge gulp, the alcohol burning down my throat, and I look up and he’s still fucking standing there.

“Just go!” I shout and then I’m sobbing and my martini glass is gone out of my hand and I feel Apollo’s arms slide underneath me and he carries me to the bedroom, laying me down on the bed and pulling the covers up over me like I’m a small child, and then he comes up and cuddles behind me, laying his arm over the curve of my waist, pulling me tight up against him.

“Shhhh…shhhh…” he whispers, stroking my hair away from my face as the endless fountain of tears that has become my eyes continues to pour out salty water. “It’s going to be okay.”

I don’t know how long I cry; it could’ve been days or weeks or just three minutes. I don’t know because I’m lost in this haze of stress and pain and sheer overwhelmedness that life has dumped on my head. But finally, I manage to get the tears to subside, or maybe there’s just no more left inside of me. But I can hear his crooning voice better now and I start to relax for probably the first time in weeks.

I have stopped bawling long enough to hear his next whispered statement. “I’m so sorry I haven’t been here more often,” he says into the nape of my neck, his breath warm and soft against my skin. “I know I’ve been working a lot, and I haven’t been here for you like I should’ve been.”

Which just makes me feel guilty. I shouldn’t need to rely on Apollo to feel whole. I should be able to stand on my own two feet.

Even if those feet love being rubbed by him after a long day at work.

“Things have just been rough at work lately,” I whisper into the darkness of the room. I don’t want to face him as I admit to my shortcomings. I want him to think I’m perfect. Is that too much to ask? “I think I just took on too much and then…” Here it is. Time to admit that I really am needy, despite the fact that I lie to myself every day and tell myself I’m not. “I’ve missed you, Apollo. I shouldn’t let it get to me, but it has. The nights when you haven’t been here…I don’t want to sleep here by myself. I can’t believe how in the last seven months, I’ve changed so much. I didn’t used to care who was there in the morning with me in my bed. I couldn’t even remember the name of the guy I woke up with the morning I met you.”

“You woke up with a random guy that morning?” he asks, laughter in his voice.

“Yes.” I hate admitting this too. “To this day, I have no idea what his name is.”

Apollo just laughs and pulls me tighter. “I didn’t know I’d fallen in love with a girl who gets around like that,” he says in a teasing voice. “Do you remember my name?”

“Only to yell it when you’re in trouble,” I say primly. Revenge will be mine.

“Or scream it when I’m fucking you, long and hard,” he whispers in my ear.

Okay, that was true too. I grin despite myself.

He flips me around in his arms as easily as he’d flip a baby. Despite my best intentions and what I want to do, I find myself looking him in the eye. So damn embarrassing. Who has a mental breakdown over an ugly vase?

“I’ve been thinking,” Apollo whispers, his eyes dark and full of boundless love in the moonlight and streetlights streaming into the room. “I don’t know if you know this, but I’m the Wolf of New York.”

“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” I say teasingly. Revenge will be mine, dammit.

He mock glares at me for a moment and then says seriously, “I don’t need to work as much as I am. I’m doing it because it’s all I’ve ever done. It’s who I am. But I’m starting to realize that I’m a lot more than just the name on the signature line of a check. I’m your fiancé, and in five months, I’m going to be your husband.