“I thought you already had someone in mind.”
“Turns out he’s not likely to be available.” With a few quick keystrokes, he closed his windows, revealing a desktop covered in jumbled icons. “Zephyr’s going to need more than one person to replace me. I haven’t been giving the matter enough thought.”
She rested her chin on his shoulder. “Well, you’ve been kind of distracted lately.”
“Mm.” Catching her wrist, he spun his chair around, pulling her into his lap. “I’m feeling somewhat distracted right now.”
She wound her arms around his neck, returning the kiss. It still felt unreal to be able to touch him like this, whenever she wanted. She couldn’t help feeling a tiny flicker of irrational guilt.
As if sensing that inner conflict, Conleth pulled back. “Having second thoughts?”
“Not about you.” To prove it, she kissed him again, more boldly. Then she sighed, resting her forehead against his. “But I can’t help worrying about Archie. And my mom.”
Conleth nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that, too.”
Of course he had. “Did you getanysleep last night?”
The somewhat evasive flick of his eyes suggested the answer was no. “I tried to make a plan. Something I could show you, so that you wouldn’t have to worry about your family. But I kept getting stuck. It’s not that I couldn’t come up with ideas. If anything, I had toomanyideas. Setting up an ADHD assessment for Archie, finding a specialist shifter doctor, a more understanding school, help for your mother…there are a lot of things I could do. But no matter how I tried to put them together into a complete strategy, it didn’t seem quite right. I keep feeling there’s something I’m missing.”
“It’s all right. I wasn’t expecting you to come up with a miraculous solution overnight.”
“I’m your mate. That’s what I’m supposed to do.” He ran a hand through his hair, frustration tightening his jaw. “What good am I if I can’t solve all your problems?”
“We’ll figure it out. One step at a time.” She kissed the side of his mouth. “Together, all right?”
He let out his breath. “I should have just asked you in the first place. Whatever you need, I’m here for you. What do you want me to do?”
She had to think about that one for a moment. She knew Conleth would work tirelessly to help her family, but they hadn’t even begun to think about how their lives would fit together. Her mom was expecting her to come home at the end of the summer as though nothing had changed. But everything was going to change.
“I’m going to have to talk about all this with my mom,” she said. Crap, where was she even going to start? “And I think that’s something I have to do in person.”
From the way Conleth nodded, she could tell he’d already followed the same of thought. “And you won’t be able to do that until the end of the summer.”
“I know you want to help my family. And that we’ve got a ton of practical stuff to figure out.” She remembered the moment she’d first seen the camp; that sense of stepping into a private haven, away from the problems of daily life. “But could we maybe…worry about all that later? Just enjoy the rest of the summer with the campers, before we have to go back to real life?”
Conleth looked a little pained. “In case you hadn’t noticed, I am extremely bad at doing nothing.”
She ran her palms down his chest, relishing the way his muscles tightened. “Oh, I can think of a few things you can do.”
“In that case…” He drew her closer, mouth leaving hers to trail down her neck. “You need to decide what you want.”
She rocked against him, pleasure already building. “What are my options?”
“Well.” His hands slid under her t-shirt. “I could strip you naked and bend you over this desk, and we could see how many times I can make you come before you make me lose all control. Or…”
It was getting hard to form words. “Or?”
He let out a sigh, his breath warm against her skin. “Or we could be on time for work.”
“All right.” Paige ran her hands over her windswept hair, smoothing down the flyaway wisps that had escaped her ponytail. “How do I look?”
Like you came hard across a desk and then clung to a pegasus going at absolute top speed.
Since no campers were in eyeshot, he bent to steal a kiss. “You look perfect.”
She gave him an unconvinced look. “Perfect as in, ‘perfectly professional camp counselor,’ or perfect as in ‘I think your breasts are perfect?’”
“Theyareperfect.”
