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Apollo flashed me a roguish little grin. “Hopefully something dirty,” he said as he fished out of the back pocket of his trousers a small, pink book. “Look what I found behind your desk earlier.”

I squealed, realizing it wasthebook. The obscene little guidebook to my pleasure Apollo had requested from the bookcase that very first day.

“Please, don’t read this!” I implored, springing off the desk with my hands in the air, trying to catch it.

Apollo raised it above his head, his other hand slinking around my waist to press me up against his body. “But I’mcurious,” he drawled, flicking it open.

Slowly, he lowered it to a reading distance and his brows shot up with comical incredulity as he skimmed over the first page. “That’s it?” he said, unimpressed. “Well, that’s easily achievable.”

One moment he was tossing the book on the floor, and the other he was boosting me up on the desk.

“Apollo! We can’t do this in here.”

He smiled that heart-rending smile of his as he stepped between my parted knees and reached for the hem of my dress. “Does giving my girl an orgasm offend the Shop’s tender sensibilities?”

“You’re impossible,” I growled, my cheeks burning.

He slipped a hand under my skirt. “And you’re wet. Not to mention cruel. You won’t marry me. You won’t stay with me. Don’t take away my privilege of making you come, too.”

My bones turned liquid as he nudged my undergarment aside and teased me with the very tips of his fingers. I dug into the edge of the desk and managed to breathe out, “The only reason I won’t stay with you this fall is because the Palace is too far away from the Academy. I need to be in the city if I am to attend classes with Thea every day. And I will marry you…eventually.”

The truth was, I didn’t want to move too fast. I wanted to savor this time of getting to know myself and him. I was still giddy about going on dates with him. I was still shaking every time he touched me or whispered something filthy in my ear. Everything was so new, so tender. And I was happy with not planning too far into the future and simply enjoying the journey that would get me there.

“Just admit that you like watching me grovel, Little Butterfly,” Apollo rasped into the shell of my ear.

Despite everything, he still called me Little Butterfly. He called me many things.Darling, when he wanted to challenge me.My star, when he wanted to hearten me.My girl, when he wanted to make me smile. AndLittle Butterfly, when he wanted to remind me that his heart was still mine, whether I wore it around my neck or not.

He pushed a finger inside me, and I caved into his shoulder with a shuddering sigh.

Suddenly, the cauldron made a choking, almost coughing sound that brought me back to reality. In a fevered haze, I pushed him back, sprung off the desk, and straightened my skirts. Apollo laughed and licked the finger he just had inside me.

My poor knees went weak at the sight. “You’re a heathen.”

He smiled as he leaned down to smack a loud kiss on my cheek. “Yes, but I’myourheathen.”

The cauldron quietened its roar to a murmur, and for a moment, the whole Shop seemed to stand still, brilliant and warm, streaked with ribbons of sunlight. I took a deep breath, taking its sweet, magic-flecked air into my lungs.

“You know,” I finally exhaled, burrowing into Apollo’s hard arms—my favorite place in the whole wide world, “I always thought the Shop was a part of me. But now…”

“Now?”

“Now I think that for a little while, I just got to be a part ofit.”

“I was thinking earlier how life is a bit like a Curiosity Shop, too,” he said, playing with a strand of my hair.

I frowned up at him. “How so?”

“Well, it’s full of wonder and color and strangeness. Some things about it are funny and comforting, others are mysterious and dangerous, and there is always a hidden door—a leap of faith you have to take in order to discover.”

The cauldron bubbled across the Shop.

I smiled, knowing what it meant.