Tanner filled me as I fell. The waves of sensation had me screaming inside, screaming into his mouth, and he swallowed every strangled thing I had to say.
I covered Tanner’s mouth with my hand, closed my eyes, then spun against the front of his body until he got the message and spooned me. He covered us as best he could, seeing as how I was powerless to move, and I fell asleep, aware of the warmth and weight of his arm holding me against his chest.
We made love again, this time, chest to chest, lying on our sides. Languid in my half-asleep state, I drew my inner thigh against his leg, wrapped my arms around his neck, and clung to my druid as I woke enough to orgasm.
Waking to slanted sunlight and the sounds of bare feet hitting floorboards and coffee brewing, and knowing I didn’t have to go anywhere except down the hall to the bathroom, was wonderful.
The bedroom door opened, and Tanner slipped in, grinning. He had on the navy T-shirt and a pair of boxer briefs. Hauling myself up to sitting, I noticed a high-tech backpack on my desk chair. “Does everyone know you’re here?” I asked.
He shook his head, stripped off his T-shirt, and stretched up, then bent over and grabbed his ankles.
“You okay?”
“Mm-hm. Just stretching. Yoga.”
“Druids do yoga?”
He curled up to standing, pressed his palms together in front of his heart and grinned more widely. “We sure do. Want see my handstand?”
“Could you put on a kilt first? Because then I would be living my dream,” I said, going for a flirty tone.
Tanner smacked his forehead. “Damn. I knew there was something I forgot to pack.”
“We’ll figure something out.” I waved him over and lifted the sheet. “Come keep the bed warm while I go pee.”
“Wait a sec.” He plumped a pillow, tucked it against the headboard, and sat cross-legged, pulling the sheet over his lap. “Do you want me to be visible to everyone? I can put up a deflective ward every time I leave this room.”
I placed my palm against his sternum. “It’s strange to see you without your pouch. And much as I want you all to myself, keeping you hidden will just invite questions about where I am and why I’m spending hours in my bedroom with the door locked.” I stifled a yawn. “A mother is never allowed full-on privacy. The boys are home. Sallie’s girlfriend showed up yesterday. And they’re all leaving tomorrow morning for their first weekend with the mentors.
“Which means we can be social today, and tomorrow we get the house to ourselves, because Wes and Christoph are accompanying the Fearsome Foursome. Oops, Fivesome. Leilani’s going, too.”
Tanner craned his neck and glanced out my window. “I can get dressed, drop from your window, and make a lot of noise at the front door to announce my arrival,” he said.
“Oh, that’ll really fake everyone out.” I couldn’t help the laugh. Or the eyeroll.
“Okay, I’ll casually stroll into the kitchen and you can act surprised.”
“Deal,” I said, starting to crawl over Tanner. He palmed my shoulder, stroked his hand down my spine and over my butt.
“Tomorrow’s the equinox. Do you have plans to meet with your witches, or could I entice you to celebrate with me, druid-style?”
“If druid-style includes copious amounts of nakedness, then yes, I think I would.”
Chapter 5
And with that, Sallie, Harlow, Wes, Christoph, and my sons were gone. The momentary change in air pressure at their departure set misshapen crabapples to jangling at the ends of their stems. Tanner touched the underside of my forearm with his fingertips and traced a line to my wrist.
I stared at the tree’s scruffy bark, patched with greenish-grey lichen. “I hadn’t made any plans for tonight,” I said, “even though it’s the equinox.” I let Tanner take hold of my hand and snug it against his chest. “Could we do a ritual together?”
“I would love to celebrate the equinox with you, Calliope.”
“I’m not sure where to start or how to prepare. I’d like to work outside today. Maybe catch up on some gardening. I haven’t done any in weeks.” The ground around the crabapple trees was supposed to be smoothed flat and well-tended. Portal travelers would drop their stones as they arrived, and pick one before they departed. The multiple portals marked by my new friends had been abandoned—or so Alabastair thought—and the stones had either never been replaced, or were perhaps buried under decades of neglect.
Tanner kissed my knuckles and let go of my hand. Turning, he looked over his right shoulder, to the back side of my house. His gaze moved clockwise over my property: the slice of the driveway visible from here; the uneven border where untended lawn met the woods and undergrowth; the big shed under construction at the far end, all the way around to my garden area to his left.
“Has the layout always been like this?” he asked.
“At one time, I don’t know when, I think there were more outbuildings for animals and at least two herb gardens. I found an old drawing of the property in one of my mother’s books.” I tugged on his sleeve. “Would you like to see the map?”
“Yeah,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest and smiling at me. “I get the feeling there’s more to this property than we know.”
I started toward the spot at the back of the house where we had always stashed rakes and such, forgetting that my building crew had moved it all when they poured the cement slab. “I’ll see if the tools are in the shed.”
Sure enough, the shed had been swept. The roughed out walls and low ceiling had been cleared of their collections of ancient spider webs. There was even a new lightbulb in the fixture.
And no giant bat. I gathered a selection of rakes, a hand trowel, a spade, and a shovel.
“Need any help?” Tanner let a laugh escape as he
