Page 32 of Jacinth

“I’m not nervous, you’re nervous.” Great comeback, Jace. Totally drew her off the scent.

“Are you aware that your foot is tapping a mile a minute, and that if you had a corporeal form, you’d be half bald with the way you’re twisting your hair? Seriously, Jace, I know all your tells and every one of them is going crazy right now. You like this guy. Why don’t you let him off the hook and... I dunno... hold his hand or something, because we are absolutely not talking about anything else you could be doing.”

“Don’t you dare take this away from me. I came all the way down here. I want to see him crawl,” Harley snarled in Birdie’s ear, having appeared from nowhere.

“She can’t hear you, y’know,” I drawled before refocusing on my sister. “Harley’s screaming at you for trying to ruin her fun, by the way. I really just want to know that he means it. He can’t say hurtful things and act like he’s the only important person in the room.”

Birdie shrugged. “I get that he upset you. I just think the mature thing to do would be to recognize that emotions were high the other day. No one knew how to react to being hit with a mate spell.”

“Nerd.”

No time for Birdie to respond. The snap of branches came from a little way off as something big moved through the trees, heading in our direction. Harley leaned forward expectantly, tossing... was that popcorn? I wanted popcorn—in her mouth. I made a ‘gimme’ sign with my hands, and with a roll of her eyes, she offered the box.

How we were eating popcorn? No clue, but it was really good, so I decided not to question it.

“What... Hey, where did you get popcorn?” Birdie asked.

Harley shushed her as Orion finally made it into the clearing.

He was wearing a pink bodysuit—which did amazing things for his assets; I wanted him to keep that handy for later—and a matching sparkly tutu. On his head was the largest sparkly purple dildo I had ever seen in my life. As he pulled his tutu free from grabby branches, the purple monstrosity bounced obscenely around his head, almost catching him in the eye.

“Is this really what you want?” he asked, with an extremely unimpressed look.

“Oh, yes,” I said with a grin.

Harley fell off her gravestone perch, spilling popcorn everywhere in a fit of giggles.

He sighed, and I found myself thoroughly distracted by the defined muscles in his biceps and shoulders. The bodysuit really was doing great things for showing off his body. I also kind of worried he was a grower and a shower. Dude was barely contained by the lycra, and I could tell my sister was extremely grateful for the tutu. No need for imagination.

“Fine,” he muttered, taking a knee before me.

“I, Orion, am a dick head, as is evident by the rubber phallus that graces my skull. I... y’know what?”

He got to his feet and let out a sharp whistle.

Well, he had made it further than I thought he would.

Harley began throwing popcorn at him, which of course had absolutely no effect, and I was just wondering if I would allow it to be enough when the biggest ball of golden fur barreled into the clearing.

The beautiful creature began sniffing around like mad. As soon as he realized he wasn’t alone, he came bounding over. His tail was wagging so hard he struggled to keep his balance as he approached and kind of nose-dived into a roll onto his back for a belly scratch.

“You brought me a puppy?” I asked, hopeful, even though I knew there was no way I could keep him.

Orion gently slipped his amulet over my head and suddenly I could dive my fingers through all that soft fur. Birdie threw her arms around me, and I let out a sigh at being able to relax out of the concentration needed to be seen as a ghost.

“Thank you.”

Orion looked uncomfortable for a minute. “I can’t let you keep it for long, but I could give you this.”

I nodded, but he must have felt the need to explain more. “It’s just, that amulet acts as a siphon, a release valve for my power. I need to let it out frequently, or bad—piss-off-the-Fates kind of bad—things happen.”

“I get it. Thank you for this moment.” As a peace offering, I planted a soft kiss on his cheek and went back to giving the best belly rub I could to the good boy in front of me. The dog, not Orion... though maybe I could give him one too. I could see the ridges of his abs through the tight fabric and it was doing all kinds of good things to my once again corporeal form.

“What’s his name?” I asked, more to get my mind out of the gutter for my sister’s sake than anything else.

“He doesn’t really have one. I’ve been calling him Dog.”

“Of course you have,” I said with a smile to take the sting from the words. “Well, can you name him now?”

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