Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
PENNY
My shivers start to calm as we lay quietly, but my stomach doesn’t settle.
I feel myself drifting in and out of consciousness again.
Apollo keeps holding his hand out, full of water for me to drink.
It’s cold and feels good on my parched throat.
I ask for more but he keeps saying, “Slowly.” Several times, I find myself vomiting over the edge of the bed as he holds my hair back and wipes my face when I’m done.
When I’m hot, I find him pressing cool cloths against my skin to cool me down.
When I’m cold, he holds me tight, warming me up with his body heat.
I’ve had the flu before, but it’s nothing compared to this.
I want to take a look at how my hand is feeling, but I just don’t have the energy to do anything.
I barely have the energy to turn to puke up bile over the side of the bed, Apollo doing most of the work to move me.
I’m not sure how much time has passed when I slowly blink my eyes open, feeling exhausted but normal.
No rolling nausea, no hot or cold sweats.
I wiggle my toes, then my fingers. The pain in my left hand makes me wince.
I lift it up above my face, pleased I can do so easily now.
I gently unwrap the cloth around it and feel a little queasy at the sight of my palm. Apollo must have stitched me up.
I flip it over to see he stitched up both sides rather well. But the hole was obviously not small, and the stitches were quite large. I try to gently move my fingers, but any movement causes a pulling sensation on the wound, making my stomach roll.
Not wanting to be sick again, I try to wrap it back up so I can’t see it, but with one hand, I’m finding it difficult. “Let me do that,” Apollo says, coming to sit on the edge of the bed.
I stare up at his face for the first time with clarity since I’ve met him.
He somehow looks just like Indy and yet completely different.
His body isn’t the only thing that’s a bit wider than his twin, his face somehow looks a little more muscular, too.
He’s clean shaven, but his hair hangs down to his shoulders and he has beautiful hazel eyes.
I see a smattering of small scars on his face and one prominent one through his right eyebrow.
Feeling a little awkward, I look down at his hands as he binds my injured one up.
I notice he’s missing half a finger on his right hand and wonder what happened to him.
I don’t know him well enough to ask yet, but I have a feeling that he’s been through a lot since he left his brother.
Indy told me nothing that would explain all these scars.
I’m not really sure what to say to this man, I’ve heard stories of him but I don’t really know him.
So I say the only thing I truly can in this situation.
“Thank you, Apollo. For everything. For finding me in the desert and bringing me here, for helping me recover, for keeping me safe. I truly appreciate it.”
He says nothing as he slowly wraps my hand. Is it me or is he taking longer than necessary? Finally, after a few moments of silence, he speaks. “How do you know my brother?”
“He’s my husband,” I say carefully, watching his face. I know in this world brothers are expected to marry together, would he be resentful that his brother had found someone without him? Jealous? Or happy for him? But he gives no emotion away on his face, just a simple nod like he expected that.
“Good.” Good? That’s all he has to say? Apollo was clearly not a big talker, and if I want any information, I’m really going to have to pull it from him.
Before I can ask him anything else, he stands abruptly and moves over to another part of the cave where I can see some material in a pile.
He picks up something and brings it back to me.
“I washed your dress for you, but if you prefer, I have extra pants and a tunic you can wear, although they’ll be rather big on you. ”
Reaching out, I take the dress and hold it against my chest. “Thank you, Apollo.” He just grunts as he turns and leaves the cave.
I sit up and for the first time realize that I’m completely naked under the blanket.
Apollo must have taken my dress off of me, and my face grows hot at that thought.
Was I embarrassed? I’m sure I didn’t look good after all that time in the desert, I was a mess.
But somehow I wasn’t totally upset about him seeing me naked.
I rub my chest at the feeling there, what was this?
I felt this before… around my other mates, and Silver.
I couldn’t be sure what it was, although I had a suspicion.
Would I be upset if Silver and Apollo ended up being my mates too?
I had never even thought I’d be with more than one man, let alone five, but somehow the thought wasn’t terrifying.
No, it was thrilling, exciting, and it somehow felt right.
But I had a feeling that neither Silver nor Apollo were interested in having me as a mate. And I wouldn’t push them.
I quickly pull the dress over my head, and without any undergarments, any sort of cool breeze is going to have my nipples on display.
But I don’t have many options here. Besides, it was hot, and I didn’t want any more material on me right now.
I have a feeling his pants won’t be able to stay up, as he is so much wider than I am.
I exit the cave and take a moment to look around.
Somehow, this beautiful oasis exists in the middle of the desert.
Large green palm trees are everywhere, and I can hear birds singing and the sound of a waterfall.
That brings back a faint memory of when he first brought me here.
Did I kiss him? Or was that a dream? Deciding not to dwell on it, I start to wander around, looking at everything.
I head towards the sound of the water and find a large pond with a small waterfall pouring into it.
Some small birds fly around singing and lots of lush green fills the area. This place is breathtaking.
I guess if Apollo had to spend time somewhere, I couldn’t think of a much better place.
But that led me to wonder why he was out here in the middle of nowhere by himself.
I mean, from the stories Indy had told me, I could make a pretty good guess that Apollo felt responsible for Caroline’s behavior and felt he was holding his brother back.
When Indy told me the story, I felt so bad for Apollo, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever get to meet him.
Not only that story but his actions here had confirmed that he really was a hero, but he had no idea.
I think he let her words and the words of his parents affect how he felt about himself.
When really he should have listened to his brother over all of them.
I know Indy loves him, maybe if I can convince him of that, he’ll want to be in Indy’s life again, which would make Indy happy, I’m sure of it. He’s been searching for his brother all this time.
I see Apollo sitting at the edge of the pond, it looks like he’s making some sort of rope. “What are you doing?” I ask as I saunter over to him.
“Making rope.”
When he doesn’t say anymore, I prod him further. “What for?”
“I’m not sure yet, I always need more rope.”
“You don’t like to talk much, do you?”
“I don’t have much to say.”
“Somehow I doubt that,” I say skeptically.
He stops what he’s doing to glance up at me with a frown. “Why would you say that? You don’t know me.”
“I—”
Before I can answer, he cuts me off and points back towards his cave.
“There’s some food and water in there for you, help yourself.
You’ve been here a couple days and haven’t eaten anything, so take small bites and don’t eat everything at once.
” I watch with my mouth dropped open in surprise as he turns his body away from me, giving me his back.
Well, that was sort of rude, but he is still helping to take care of me like he promised, so I can’t really be upset with him.
“All right, I can take a hint,” I grumble, heading back to the cave.
The rest of the day goes the same. I try to talk to him and he brushes me off.
Have I done something to offend him? I have a feeling he doesn’t like me being here in his personal space, and he’s too good of a guy to send me on my way.
I kind of want to hate him for how short he’s been with me and how he keeps ignoring me, but somehow he’s managing to do it while still taking care of me and I kind of admire that.
I explore the area and find I can walk from one side to the other in ten minutes.
I find a few nice spots for relaxing, several of them around the pond so I can watch the waterfall, and one at the edge of the oasis where I can stare out into the sands.
Part of the problem is I don’t know what direction my mates are coming from, so I don’t really want to sit at one side for too long, and I find myself circling the edge of the oasis hoping for a glimpse of them.
As the sun starts to set and the temperature drops, I head back towards the cave to see Apollo has started a small fire just outside the cave where he’s cooking some sort of meat.
“What are you cooking?” I ask as I carefully sit myself a good distance away, not wanting to upset him with my presence.
“Sandcrawler.” I’m not sure what that is, and I know he doesn’t like talking to me, so I don’t ask. I just watch as he rotates the meat around every few minutes and when he’s done, he places a few pieces on a wide leaf and passes it to me silently.
“Thank you,” I say, taking the meal. The meat is a bit better than I expected it to be, based on how it looked. It was a bit on the gray side but was actually pretty tasty. “This tastes really good,” I say, hoping to get him talking, but he says nothing as he eats his own meal.