He breaks the kiss and grins down at me. “You’re going to wake up Milo.”

“Then he can come and join us.”

“Oh, you’re feisty today.” He presses his forehead against mine. “Just because you’re a witch, you think you’re in charge.”

Witchis not a word we have used between ourselves before.

I kind of like it. Not as loaded asMoon Caster. It feels more like a joke between lovers.

“I don’t think I’m in charge,” I tell him. “But I need you.”

“What do you need?”

He likes me to say it. “I need your cock. I need you to fuck me.”

He kisses me again, gently. “Don’t I always give you what you need?”

“Yes,” I breathe.

He grins. “I’m going to give it to you so good.”

He doesn’t move his hand. He lines up and thrusts slowly into me, and I can feel the way his fingers move along the side of his cock, and his thumb is still stroking me. I close my eyes and groan. It is almost—almost—more than I can stand.

His fingers move in counterpoint to his cock now. Back and forth, in and out, two separate strokes, so that he is always, always, thrusting into me. My leg wraps around his. The heat builds up within me, and then, suddenly and uncontrollably, I break apart.

He shudders and releases inside me.

We lie still for a moment, our bodies still joined, breathing softly in unison.

Then he slides free. I shudder as he moves his hand. I’m impossibly sensitive after everything. The slightest touch is so intense that it’s almost painful.

“Stay there,” he murmurs. “I saw some towels in the closet.”

Towels. How long has it been since I’ve had a real towel?

He gathers my clothes and tosses them to me with a grin, but I don’t want to get dressed. The night air is warm, and I’m alone with my lover. I don’t want anything between us tonight.

8

Shecurlsintome,her soft hair spilling across my arm, her head pillowed on my shoulder, and I trail my fingers slowly from the inside of her wrist to the inside of her elbow and back.

It’s the kind of night that could lead to sex again—we’re both still naked, and it’s not like we have anything else going on—but I have the feeling it isn’t going to. That last round was really satisfying, and for right now, it feels so good just to hold her that I don’t have any particular need to take things anywhere else.

“Nate?” she says.

“Hmm?”

“Did you hear me and Wilder talking out in the hall before?”

I close my eyes. “I don’t want to think about Moon Casters right now, babe.”

“You have to,” she says. “We’re in the middle of their territory.”

“Can’t we just forget about them for a few hours? Can’t it just be you and me?”

She’s quiet for a moment. “Iamone of them,” she says. “That’s why we’re here, Nate. That’s why we’re doing this. I need to know about them. I can’t ever forget about them because it’s a part of who I am.”

“Yeah,” I say. “I know. I just…”