Chapter 438

“Good, you should blush more often,” Cora says on a laugh, bumping her shoulder against her son’s. “You’ve lived far too much of your life without shame.”

“My profligate youth!” Jesse sighs, mock nostalgic.

Ella gracefully stands, taking Midnight’s finished bowl of ice cream and putting a sack of sweets in its place. Jesse laughs as the girl eagerly digs in, talking to Rafe with a mouth full of caramel as Ella quietly comes to stand with her sister and her nephew.

“So,” Ella says, beaming at Jesse. “What are your plans for our little girl here?”

“Ours, is she?” Jesse says, his voice pretending to be full of doubt. “And here I was, thinking she was mine.”

“Oh, she’s ours,” Ella says, wrinkling her nose at her nephew. “You know I can’t resist an orphan. So? Plans? Should we just let her loose in the pantry and let her eat her fill so that she can fatten up a bit?” She looks over her shoulder, letting her eyes move slowly over Midnight’s spindly legs, her too-thin wrists and shoulders.

“I’m all for feeding her up,” Jesse says with a nod. “But…Ella, could I beg you to please let me have free reign over the roof garden, just for a little bit? I promise not forever but…I need some safe outdoor space and that’s the only place that makes sense to me. And it has plumbing which…I’m gonna need.”

Ella looks at Jesse like she never imagined that sort of request but then laughs and nods eagerly. “Sure, Jesse,” she says. “Whatever it is you need. Now, let me get some more of this,” she says, tapping on the side of the ice cream bowl.

“Not too much, Ells,” Cora calls after the Queen. “You’re going to make her puke, with all that dairy!”

Ella just waves a hand over her shoulder, dismissing the concern, making Jesse laugh.

“So,” Cora says, her voice low and a little more serious now.

Jesse turns to her, his smile fading.

“Well?” Cora says, crossing her arms over her chest. “When are you going to ask me about Daphne?”

Jesse sighs, dropping his face and staring at his feet. “How about right now?”

“As good a time as any,” Cora says softly, sensing her son’s agony and putting her hand on his shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

I lay sprawled naked across my mate’s chest, sweaty and panting. His body rises and falls with slow, deep breaths that are very different from the gasps and pants that rang through him just a few minutes ago. I smile, remembering it – how this time – unlike last night – we really took our time with each other. Tender, and sweet, and slow…

“How many different ways are there to have sex?” I murmur, wondering it for the first time.

Jackson laughs, soft and low, his fingers playing idly with the ends of my hair. “I have no idea, Ari.”

“I guess we’ll find out,” I say with a happy sigh.

“Why do you ask me?”

“Because you’ve done this before,” I say, turning my head to prop my chin on his chest and grinning up at him.

He huffs another laugh and shakes his head. “Not like, a lot. I’m no Jesse –“

“Is Jesse a sexpert!?” I ask, my eyes flying wide at the idea.

“A…a sexpert?” Jackson asks, going still and staring at me.

I grin back, letting him figure out the roots of the word. When it clicks together a second later he bursts out laughing.

“I don’t know, Ari,” Jackson murmurs, covering his eyes with one hand and shaking his head like he doesn’t want that mental image in his head while I continue to laugh. “The way he talks about it, he certainly has had much more sex than me –“

“Has he really?” I ask quietly, eyes still wide. “Wait, when do you talk about this sort of thing?”

“I don’t know, Warrior Track stuff, I guess. Locker rooms.”

“And not around me!?”

Jackson drags his hand away from his eyes and smiles down at me. “Yes, Ariel. Explicitly away from you. I have a feeling that your brother and your cousin are quite eager to keep their discussions of sex away from you, and especially as they know they’d involve both of us, I don’t think they’d want to hear your stories either.”

“That’s so unfair,” I grumble, laying my cheek down on his chest, fuming a bit. “How the hell am I supposed to learn stuff?”

My mate’s big arm sweeps down my body, settling below my ass and scooting me up along his body in a flash. I laugh when I suddenly find myself face-to-face with him.

“You can talk to me about it,” he says, smiling up at me, tucking my messy hair back behind my ear. “I might like that. A lot.”

“Yeah, but you’re more of a learn-by-doing type,” I say, grinning down at him. “I think I need more girlfriends.”

Jackson hums consideringly, nodding as he runs his hands slowly up my sides, his palms sliding over my ribs. “Only problem with that is that I have no intention of ever being separate from you ever again. Not even in another room. Not even on the other side of the room. So, your girlfriends will be my girlfriends.”

“That’s so creepy,” I whisper, beaming at him, kind of loving it. “You’re so obsessed with me.”

Jacks snarls his confirmation and grabs me to his chest, turning me over and making laugh delightedly as he presses kisses all over my neck and my cheeks, my mouth and my chest, lingering again and again on the mark he gave me last night.

“How’s that looking?” I whisper, trying to peer down at it. I mean, with my wolf healing and Jackson passing me power, I know that it’s well on its way towards being all healed up. But still, it’s not there yet.

“It looks perfect,” Jackson murmurs, pulling back a little to get a better look and then leaning close to give it a long lick with his tongue, wolfish and sweet. “Much better than the others, if I’m honest.”

I laugh again. “You’re biased.”

“I am,” he says, nudging it proudly with his nose. “But even if I weren’t, I’d be right.”

I smile and run my fingers through his hair, believing him, and Jackson presses a lingering kiss to the soft skin beneath my jaw. Then he delivers a smart smack to the side of my ass that makes me yelp in surprise and then burst out laughing.

“Come on, Princess,” he says, sitting up with a sigh. “Let’s get you home.”

“Nooo,” I moan, sitting up too and wrapping my arms around him again, trying to tug him back down. “Let’s stay – this tent is nice! We’re so cozy and alone with no one to bother us –“

“Your family is going to be worried,” he says, grinning, running a hand over my hair.

“Oh, let them worry,” I sigh, beaming up at my pretty mate. “Who cares.”

“You care,” he says, laughing and cupping my cheek in his palm. “Besides, we’re gross. We need showers – lets get home and all cleaned up.”

“And by showers…you mean just one shower, yes?” I say, raising an eyebrow at him.

He laughs and gives my ass another smack before grabbing his clothes and smoothly stepping out of the tent, fully naked in the early-morning Atalaxian sun. “Whatever you want, tiny,” he says, stretching with his back to me. “Whatever you want.”

I grin, watching him for a moment as he gets dressed, and then I sigh, and turn, and grab for the backpack my mom sent for the two of us, rifling through it. It only takes a moment to find the bottle of medicine at the bottom. I laugh when I pull it out, shaking my head at my mom who of course thought of this.

“Mommy,” I sigh, pulling the top off and taking a swig of the potion that will keep me from getting pregnant. “So practical.”

“You ready?” Jackson calls to me from outside.

“I’m still naked!” I call back, re-capping the potion and slipping it back into the bag.

I grab my dress and peer outside to see him fully dressed, the ATV already prepped and ready to go.

“Well come on, Ariel,” he says, shaking his head at me like I’m bafflingly slow. “I can’t take down the tent with you in it.”

“Listen, I just saved the world,” I say, pointing a finger at him even as I pull the stupid Atalaxian dress over my head. “I can take my time getting up in the morning.”

“I always thought Rafe was exaggerating when he called you a lazy riser,” Jackson murmurs, turning away again and shaking his head. “But now…he has a point…”

I snarl playfully at my mate even as I climb out of the tent and stand, zipping my dress up, a little sad to leave the peaceful quiet time alone with my mate but…

Well, yeah. Excited to get home too. After all, my family is waiting for me.

And I really, really love my family.