Gods & Angels | Sinners of Saint Benedicts duet 1 (dark/bully romance)

Chapter Seventeen

The next morning, there was a knock on my door long before even Florence was ready to be awake.

"Ugh," she groaned as she burrowed into her pillows. "Shotgun not."

"Ugh," I agreed, hauling myself out of bed.

I opened the door, squinting blearily into the bright light of the hallway and took in the blurry sight of Apollo.

"What do you want?" I asked.

My morning voice was gruff and gravelly. On anyone else, it might have been sexy. The right anyone else. On me, it was definitely nothing to write home about.

"I wanted to apologise for last night," he said, no sign of morning voice. I didn't care if he didn't have one, or if it meant he either hadn't been to bed or had been awake long enough to lose it.

"I'm really not in the mood for accepting apologies, Apollo. It's too damned early."

Apollo's smile was self-conscious. "Right. No. Should have thought of that."

I looked him over and realised he was in the same clothes as the night before. The were rumpled and his hair looked like he'd not had time to style it properly after sleeping on it. I felt my eyes narrow.

"Are you just getting back?"

He shrugged like it was nothing. Before he could say anything, I kept talking.

"I could have just met you there tonight," I told him.

He smiled. "No. I know. I actually thought about that, but Valen wasn't answering his phone, so I'm-"

"Not even here for me," I interrupted. "Great, thanks, Apollo. Good to know where I stand in the great hierarchy of Apollo-fucking-Callahan's idiotic brain!" I snapped.

I went to slam the door in his face, but his arm flew up to stop it.

There was a muffled clap from the direction of Florence's bed. "Woo, you tell him, girl," she mumbled.

But I wasn't that interested in Florence's reaction, because I was paying attention to Apollo's.

His eyes were wide and awe-filled. His mouth was only parted slightly, but it was his version of a jaw-drop when there wasn't skin on display. He blinked twice in quick succession, then pulled himself together.

"No. Of course not," he said, losing all pretence of sweetly sexy man-child. "I'm not here just for Valk. I'm here for you, too. I needed to apologise. I wanted to apologise, Harlow."

I nodded. "Well, you have. So..."

He took my hand and held it to his chest. "I am sorry, Harlow. I shouldn't have left you last night. I was... I was all in my head, but that's no excuse for the way I treated you." He brought my hand up and kissed it softly. "I am sorry, Harlow."

Well.

As much as I wanted to be angry with him, as much as I wanted to slam the door on his pretty face and maybe smash it in a bit... I also...didn't.

In his eyes stood the boy I knew. The boy I loved. He held my hand to his chest. Not just his chest, his heart. Like he was reminding me I had a place there. Like he was telling me I belonged there. For the briefest of moments, I believed it. I knew it to be an irrefutable truth.

He was trying. He might not have been doing a great job, but he was trying. This was new territory for both of us, whatever territory it was. It was to be expected that we might not do it very well to begin with.

I nodded. "Okay, Apollo." I nodded again. "I forgive you."

He smiled. "Yeah?"

I gave him a small smile in return. "Yeah."