Tanner said it was time for dinner. I had the sense I was forgetting something. Something more important than clothes. Patting the thick fabric so it would soak up the last bit of water from my body, I opened the bathroom door and paused.
Rose said I had to put the dirt back, that I was to blend it with the soil in the most sacred spot of my property. I couldn’t very well sprinkle it over the floorboards of the house that provided a safe haven for me and my sons. While my head deliberated where the soil should go, I followed my feet down the hall toward the busy part of the house and out the door, passing Tanner, Harper, and Thatch without them stopping their debate.
The basket with the pots and trowel was parked at the bottom of the porch steps. My clean, pink toes took me there, waited while I picked up the basket, and walked me around the house to the crabapple tree. I crouched. Loosened the soil. Tugged at clumps of dried grass and needled them into giving up their hold. They did, eventually, leaving patches where I could mix in my blood-nourished contribution to the health of the old tree.
Satisfied I’d done a decent job, I whacked the back of the trowel against the trunk. The metal rang out a high, clanging note.
“Mom? What are you doing?” Harper said, Leilani by his side, elbows on the railing of the porch. Lei-li waved to me when I glanced up.
“I had to put the dirt back.” Wasn’t that obvious?
Harper quirked his head to the side. “Oh. Well, you know there’s a party in your honor tonight, right?”
Huh. I snugged the belt tighter, leaving a few muddy smudges on the white cloth. “Guess I better change.”
Chapter 21
Hallway, bathroom, bedroom. The bureau had been my aunt’s, and the mirror had known generations of faces. These everyday objects were familiar—and foreign, like someone had cleaned my house in my absence and replaced everything slightly askew from where it usually resided. I faced the chest of drawers, pressed my belly against the edge, and searched for myself in the mirror.
Calliope Jones. Earth witch. Daughter, mother…I couldn’t hold my own gaze.
My gauntlets had been polished and were draped over the corner of the cluttered bureau. I patted the leather, smoothed my fingers over the roughed up spots. The skin on my arms was unblemished, but the gauntlets told a story. I could hope to recall it later, when I was out of this off-kilter, in-between state.
The red dress Rowan gave me was clean and folded and placed on the spindle chair sitting beside the bureau. I wasn’t sure I should wear the same dress for the evening’s festivities. The red had served its purpose.
“Calli?” Tanner’s low voice came to my ears from the end of a long tunnel. His body arrived at my door, followed by an animal-like presence that positioned itself protectively against the solid panels of wood.
“Come in.” I could enlist his help picking out something to wear for the party. I wasn’t making sense of anything on my own, and I was far more drawn to calling on the beast in my hallway to curl up with me on my bed than making small talk with guests.
Tanner opened the door and paused at the threshold. He wore snug white jeans and a silk shirt the color of antique turquoise. His feet were bared. I slid my gaze between each and every one of his toes, followed the upward arch at the bottoms of his feet to the inward curve of his ankles. The pant fabric cupped his calves and gathered a little around his knees before stretching taut over the sculpted muscles of his thighs and the tumescent bulge of his cock.
My druid was aroused. I lifted the damp hair off the nape of my neck, noted its luxurious weight, and turned, every cell of my skin aware of Tanner’s gaze clocking my movements.
He undid the belt to my bathrobe and separated the front halves of the garment. I hissed when the rough terrycloth grazed my nipples.
“You really should be getting dressed,” he whispered, cupping my breasts and testing their fullness.
I nestled my head underneath his chin and closed my eyes. This was where I wanted to be. This was the man I wanted to be with. And nothing, not a surprise appearance from my ex—or his—was going to take this moment away.
“Calliope.” Sensitive bundles of nerve endings throughout my body throbbed at his voice. I wanted Tanner to finish removing my bathrobe, take me to bed, and spend the rest of the night drawing his magic on my skin.
Voices reverberated from the far end of the hallway. Inhabitants from the world outside expressed the opinion I’d been gone from sight too long and tapped on my door.
“Calliope, are you ready?” asked Leilani.
Tanner tightened his arms around my chest, opened his mouth wide against the side of my neck, and bit gently.
“Almost,” I answered.
The druid pressing his length into my buttocks laughed silently. I joined him.
“So much for my sexy goddess routine,” I said, ridding myself of my bathrobe and walking naked toward my closet. “I don’t suppose you brought me something to wear?”
Getting dressed took longer with Tanner’s help than it would have had he left me to fumble in the closet by myself. The gladiator-style sandals he gifted me survived the Blood Ceremony none the worse for wear. Those could go on my feet. And pushed to the far end of the clothes rod was a hippie-chic dress with colorful flowers embroidered across the bodice and straps.
Tanner insisted on lacing my sandals and managed to run a series of kisses and nips up my inner thighs as he crossed and re-crossed the leather around my ankles. He landed more kisses and licks on my belly and up
