Page 32 of Wizard of Most Wicked Ways

“It’s not your fault.”

“It’s not that kind of sorry.” She hovered three feet from him now, water lapping around her chin. She swayed with the movement of it,like a lily pad. “There will always be a place for you with the Druids. For all of you.”

He pushed a water skeeter away. “I don’t think that’s a solution.”

“Maybe not now,” Fallon countered, “but it’s an option. You would do a lot of good with the Druids.”

He watched her dark silhouette a moment, the moonlight swaying on the water around her. “Is that why you came here, Fallon?” She’d brought it up enough over the years to make him wonder. “To recruit me?”

She hesitated a couple of seconds. “It’s not why I stayed.”

He nodded half-heartedly, then pinched the bridge of his nose. A headache was forming in the center of his forehead. He needed to take his own advice and rest, but resting felt ... counterintuitive, however much logic demanded it was not.

“What can I do?” she asked.

He lowered his hand. Studied her shadowed face. Wished he had a light to better see her by—the curve of her nose, the lines of her cheeks, the brown flecks in her eyes. The moonlight glinted off the whites, but cast her irises black. “Just be here.”

She smiled and lifted her arms. “Voilà.”

He laughed. She always could make him laugh.

She floated closer, and closer still. Owein merely watched her, basked in her, which was invitation enough. Her lips against his were a warm contrast to the cold water, as were the shivers they sent through his jaw and down his neck. He touched her face, tracing her cheek with his thumb, running his fingers down her water-heavy hair. She tilted her head and nipped at his lower lip, turning those shivers into sparks.

It was at about that moment that Owein realized she was naked.

But of course she was naked—she’d traveled here as a hawk. Her dresses were packed with Owein’s things, and she didn’t have undergarments to swim in. She would hate swimming in them, besides. Fallon was a free spirit. Part of nature, like a doe or a bee. And does and bees didn’t wear undergarments.

But his was all that separated them. That, and a few inches of pond water.

He grasped her shoulders and broke the kiss, though his heart physically wrenched when he did. A few more inches of pond water poured between them, which was a good thing, because Owein didn’t know how Fallon would react if she discovered all he was hiding beneath the pond’s surface. “Maybe we shouldn’t,” he whispered.

“This again?”

“This is an entirely different reason for why we shouldn’t.”

She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in a very birdlike manner. “Do I make you nervous, Owein?”

“No.”

She floated forward and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. Owein cemented himself to that rock, ensuring he wouldn’t do something he regretted. Still, when she pulled back, he leaned forward and kissed her again, tentatively exploring her the way she had done with him. She tasted the way the forest smelled, clean and alive and green.

She laughed against his mouth.

“Am I so bad at it?” he asked against hers.

“Hardly.” She licked the seam of his lips and pulled away. “You’re only contrary.”

“I’m being prudent. You are very naked.”

She barked a laugh. “So?”

“So?” he repeated.

She shrugged, forming new ripples in the water. “All of the Druids swim naked. We don’t care.” She paused. “Did you wear clothes when you were a dog?”

“No, but—”

“Then why should we?” She splashed him.

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