join her. He sat next to her, his thigh touching hers.
She closed her eyes and a long sigh compressed her chest and he focused on her pretty breasts.
“What an event!” she said. “So many people!”
“Ah, nice.”
She laughed and her eyelids opened and she smiled. “I thought you’d be in your element.”
“Not really,” Jace said. “Hard to connect with so many strangers at one time, especially when they aren’t strangers to each other.”
“Yes.”
Silence fell between them, like it hadn’t since they’d come to Druida, like it hadn’t since they’d had that walk to the lake. And suddenly he missed the camp and the forest and the lake so much it was like a physical blow.
Glyssa studied his face with more of the compassion of a friend than the tenderness of a lover.
“They’re saying you could become D’Licorice in the future, if you wanted,” he said.
She shrugged.
“Do you want that?”
“I haven’t given it much thought,” she said. And though he was sure she told the truth, he figured she’d already come to a decision.
He took her hands, and stared into her lovely brown eyes flecked with green, and couldn’t find words.
More quiet between them and it hummed with questions Jace couldn’t nail down.
“What do you want, Jace?” she asked.
And his thoughts sorted out and he could let them out of his mouth. “I want to return to the camp.” He sucked in air. “Druida is interesting.” His lips twitched up. “Especially as seen with Laev T’Hawthorn, and experiencing it as almost a noble.”
He shook his head. “But I don’t want to live here. I don’t even want to live on this coast.”
“You love the camp.”
“I love that area,” he corrected.
Her brows arched and her fingers went limp in his. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “Is that all you want?”
He squeezed her hands, his own voice came out rougher than he liked. “You’re pushing me to say what I want?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re pushing me to stay here?”
“I asked you first.” Her hands twisted in his.
“I want you to come back to the camp with me.”
She stopped trying to pull away and her smile bloomed. “All right.” She took a choppy breath. “But things have changed between us here, and I want that change to be seen by the camp.”
Her body might be vibrating, trembling, but he froze. “In what way?”
“We will be a couple.
Simple relief. He squeezed her hands again. “Agreed. We’re a couple.”
“You can stay with me, or we can use your tent now and then, but we
“Yes. The regular shuttle leaves day after tomorrow, on Midweek. I’m finished with my gifts for your Family and left them in the mainspace.” He smiled. “Though I don’t anticipate Enata seeing hers for a while.”
“We can go on Midweek,” she said.
His turn to close his eyes. “Thank you.” Then, “Your Family will miss you.”
“And I’ll miss them, and my friends even more. But my fieldwork isn’t done, nor is our story.”
More staring at each other. “My Family has accepted you,” she said.
He wasn’t sure and grunted. After a minute, he said, “They don’t seem to be bad.” They’d been nice to him since the hearing.
Her lips quirked. “No, they aren’t. Sometimes they aren’t easy to live with, but they aren’t bad people. We follow our own paths and standards, as do you.”
Standing, he drew her up. “Right. Now let’s go break the news we’re leaving Midweek. Easier in public with a big crowd.”
“I suppose so.”
A week passed in the camp and Glyssa’s relationship with Jace took on a certain pattern and rhythm. Jace slept and made love with her in her bedroom, the Fams slept in the sitting room or roamed outside. But her HeartMate kept his own tent. Both of them showered and ate with everyone else. They’d moved the furniture around to feel more comfortable and so they could work together on the journals and the story. They celebrated Mabon, the autumnal equinox, in the camp with the crew as a couple.
And with their news about Myrtus Stopper, how he’d profited from all the work that everyone did, Jace was welcomed back into the campfire ranks and the smudge on his reputation disappeared.
Neither she and Jace nor the Elecampanes shared the information that Myrtus had claimed not to have stolen the original box or set the explosions.
When Jace wasn’t working with Glyssa, he was with those digging, with Flair and shovels and the two earthmovers, down toward where everyone believed the main entrance to be.
The Elecampanes had announced that no one who’d been in
Everyone who’d wanted to leave the project was gone—and some folk had even reconsidered and bought shares.
Little by little Glyssa’s relationship with Jace expanded and deepened, with small revelations and vulnerabilities on both their sides. Progress, but not as quick as she wanted.
One night that held more than a hint of autumn chill, as they headed toward her tent, Glyssa felt a tickle on her mind from Camellia in Druida City, and gently pushed it away.
Because Jace’s breath was tickling Glyssa, too, as he nuzzled her neck. “Gotta have you, now.” His words were guttural and he took her hand and put it over his groin.
Her own core melted as she felt the strong length and thickness of him, the heat of him that had her breathing in pants.
She stroked him, her mind clouding until she only wanted him inside her, thrusting, riding her. Or . . . “And I want you, too. Me on top,” she whispered. “So I can tease us both.”
Only she could hear his rumbling groan, and it sent more liquid fire coursing through her.
They pushed through the spellshield, the door to the tent.
“Clothes off!” Jace ordered and she was naked and holding him, stroking him, and his body trembled with need before her.
Her breasts went heavy, her nipples ultra sensitized. Her anticipation of him, of their loving, making her damp.
Jace picked her up, and she had to let go or hurt him. He held her high with arms corded with muscle, the moonslight filtering in to accent the power of him, sinew, muscle, masculinity.
“Can’t wait.” He turned, sat in a wingback chair, slipped her onto his sex, her legs wide over the arms of the chair.
Totally delicious.
They simply sat for a moment, her enjoying the pressure of him inside her. As she angled her body for more control, their whimpers of need soughed out together. She grabbed his shoulders, lifted, hovered when he was barely inside her. Tiny movements, tiny thrusts, in and out. His hands on her hips encouraging, not forcing.
“Glyssa, Glyssa! Lady and Lord, every time is better! What you do to me!”
