My cheeks heat. I arch against his mouth, and he flicks and circles my clit before plunging his tongue inside me. His luck follows, filling me with a rush of effervescence that presses against my inner walls even as he worships every inch of pleasure-inducing skin between my thighs. I can’t form words.
It takes an embarrassingly short amount of time for my head to tip back in a silent scream of overwhelming pleasure. I’m still blinded by the light of the first orgasm when he rises, hooking one of my legs over his shoulder, and enters me fast and hard, sending me over the edge again.
“Oh. Gods. Sev. En.” He’s thrusting so hard it feels like my teeth might clack together. The only thing I want is for him to thrust harder, to hold me tighter. I want him so close I can smell him on my skin days from now when we have to be apart.
He grips my hips, his face buried in my neck as he pounds into me until he finds his release, tremors of ecstasy rippling through him in my arms. We’re as close as two people can get, all my limbs wrapped tight around him, and I hold him to me.
He runs his nose from my jaw to my ear. “I love you, Sophia.”
“I love you too.”
Drawing back, he returns my panties and helps me fix my dress, which thanks to his luck hasn’t ripped or sustained a single wrinkle, then zips his pants and takes a seat next to me on the tables. Leaning against the wall, he pulls me against his side. I make myself comfortable.
“So tonight’s the night,” he says.
“Yeah. It took some doing, but my grandmother is playing bridge in Sunnyville, my parents have a date planned, and Arden isn’t babysitting for Penelope. We’ll have the house and her all to ourselves for at least two hours.”
It’s taken a few days for me to arrange everything, but it’s important to both of us that Arden be the first to know that Seven is her father and that she is the only pixie/leprechaun hybrid in existence. What a heavy hammer to be dropped on her. She’s lived her entire life believing she’s half-human. She believes it because I believed it, thanks to Godmother’s trickery. But it’s time she knows the truth. She deserves to know.
“When should I come?”
“Six should be safe.”
He nods.
I tip my head back until it clunks against the wall behind me. “I hope she doesn’t hate me.”
“If she hates anyone, it will be me. You couldn’t tell Arden what you didn’t know, and I’m going to make sure she understands that.”
“You’re putting a lot of trust in a teenager to have a logical response to this situation.”
He frowns. “Admittedly, I don’t have much experience with teenagers. When Evangeline was her age, I was just two years older and still a teenager myself.”
I groan. “Let me fill you in on raising teenagers. Arden is an exceptionally responsible, levelheaded, and remarkable young woman with the potential to turn into a hormonal, irrational beast when pushed beyond her limits. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”
He strokes the back of my head. “Whatever happens, however she reacts, it will be okay.” His voice is soft. “We’re in this together. I’ll do whatever it takes to protect both of you. I promise.”
Is that my heart or a warm pat of butter sliding down my ribs? “I know you will.”
A shadow passes through his expression, and he glances away from me. “You know it’s a lie though. If I was willing to do anything, I’d stay away from both of you. You’d be safer and happier.”
I grab his chin and turn his face toward me. “Safe is overrated, and I couldn’t be any happier than this.”
He sighs and kisses me before glancing at his watch. “I’m fifteen minutes late for a meeting.”
“You’d better get going then.” I scamper off the stack of tables.
“Before I do, there’s something I want you to have.”
“Hmm?” I straighten my dress.
He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a necklace with a coin dangling from the end. I recognize it as one from his collection of charms, the magical objects he keeps in a hermetically sealed room in his office. He once brought a coin just like this with us to Shadowvale and used it to distract Yissevel the bone fairy so that I could escape the unseelie’s clutches. It’s gold with the imprint of a goddess on one side and a dragonfly on the other, and he’s mounted it on a matching chain.
“I want you to wear this.”
“Why?” I ask hesitantly.
“Because it protects its wearer from harm and because it will make the man who loves you happy you’re wearing his gift,” he says around a half smile.
