He scowled. “How can you ask?”
“Because the queen never does. No one should be trapped, Josh.”
He looked down at his boots. “I can’t let you go, Adelyn. But I would if you asked.”
She lifted her arms to him, making Wolly bark. “You, you are what I want.”
***
Vaile and Odette were waiting at Josh’s cabin, minus their humanizing glamour. His black leathery wings overlapped hers, like a white butterfly, protectively. Adelyn held her breath as the hunter and sylfana looked her over with measuring gazes. They knew there was more to the tale, and she fully intended to tell them and to get their story in return. The fae realm was changing, and they were only among the first.
Obviously sensing the undercurrent, Josh stepped in front of her, Wolly at heel. “She’s my muse.”
Odette smiled. “Then we’re glad you found her.”
Vaile slammed down a brand-new frying pan on the porch railing. “This complicates matters.”
Adelyn shook her head as she stepped up next to Josh. “It’s very simple, really. He saw past my veils, and I will never go back. I love him.”
Josh stroked his hand possessively down her back and pulled her to his side. He smiled at her, the reflected love in his eyes as clear and bright as the mountain spring sky behind him.
Later that night, as she took him into her arms and into her yearning core, tears prickled from the corners of her eyes and rolled across the flannel sheets.
“Stop that,” he murmured. “I have enough already for a set of crown jewels.”
“Starting with a huge belt buckle.”
“The biggest and shiniest. And still it won’t rival what I feel for you.”
She sighed. “My mountain man. You make me believe any dream can come true.”
“And here I thought you were the muse.” He kissed away the tears before they could escape. He wrapped his hands in her hair, smiling at the silky caress of a hundred kisses on his rough knuckles, and drew her close. “Now, let me really inspire you.”
