JACK
I wake up to the smell of morning blooms on the mountain and a pounding on my chest. Fleur sits astride me, which normally I’d never complain about, except for the fact that the car keys in her pocket are jabbing into my thigh.
“Wake up, Jack! It’s almost eleven and we have a lot to do before we pick up Amber and Julio at the airport.” She bounces, knocking the wind from my lungs and sending a shot of pain through my groin. I roll sideways, burying my head under a huge feather pillow. She yanks it away and tosses it behind her.
“I’m tired,” I mutter.
“You’re a sloth. I should hang you from a vine.”
“I’m injured. I’m still healing.” I grab another pillow from her side of the bed to shield myself. It’s unnatural how alive she is at this hour.
“You’re lying,” she says, sliding a warm hand up my bare back over one of my scars. I mask my sleepy smile under the pillow. If I lie still, maybe she’ll keep searching for my other ones. With an exasperated sigh, she tears it away from me. “You think this is funny, do you?”
I feign sleep.
Fleur goes unusually quiet. I hear the tinkle of ice in the bedside pitcher a second before I realize why.
“Gaia, Chronos, and Ananke!” I shout as a trail of ice water drenches the small of my back. I squirm wildly, ice cubes sliding between me and the mattress as Fleur collapses on top of me in a fit of hysterics. I grab her by the wrists and wrestle her onto the sheets, rolling her onto her back on the dry side of the bed. I pin her under me, holding her arms over her head as she wheezes with laughter. Her cheeks are flushed, her hair spilling over the edge of the mattress. A languid breeze blows through the open walls of the villa, playing with the pale pink ends. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Her laughter quiets. The last few giggles slip out of her as I lean in slowly, pausing a breath away. She lifts her chin expectantly, but I keep just out of reach.
“I could totally kick your ass if I wanted to,” she says as I lace our fingers together. She’s right, but I don’t resent her for it. She’s the most powerful Spring in the western hemisphere. And I get to wake up with her every day here. In the end, the choice was mine—I got exactly what I wanted.
“You’re not trying very hard,” I murmur as my lips graze her collarbone.
She makes a noncommittal noise in her throat as I work my wayback up, nuzzling the vulnerable spot behind her ear. This close, I can still smell her magic on her hair, though Lyon says over time, my heightened senses will fade.
“That’s not fair.” She sighs, looping a leg around me.
“I’m your Handler. It’s my responsibility to know your weaknesses.” I brush kisses over her neck, her cheek, the corners of her lips. “It’s in the job description. I take my work very seriously.”
I give in to her, into a slow, deep kiss, our bodies melting into the mattress. I would die a million deaths for this.
A bird shrieks through the open doors of the patio. I reach up, blindly groping for a pillow, anything I can throw, but they’re all already on the floor.
“Go away,” I moan into Fleur’s shoulder.
The bird shrieks again. We both look up. The black crow’s bobbing on a branch of the tree overlooking our bedroom, its head tipped and its beady eye focused on us.
“Okay, okay. Relax, we’re coming.” Fleur rolls me aside, leaving me to languish in a tangle of cold, wet sheets and my own frustration. She runs her fingers through her tousled hair and adjusts her tank top. Then she grabs the remote from a side table and clicks on the TV.
The flat screen across the room flickers to life and Chill’s face fills the screen.
“Hey, handsome,” Fleur greets him. I drag the sheet over myself and cover my head.
“I see your manservant’s working hard.”
“I can hear you, you know,” I grumble through the sheet.
Fleur flops down on the edge of the bed. “How’s Poppy?”
“I’m here!” Poppy says. Her overly chipper tone at this hour makes me want to plug my ears. “Where’s Jack?”
Fleur yanks back the sheet, and I give Poppy an obligatory wave.
“When are you bringing Fleur to visit me in Alaska?” she nags me. Always with the nagging. “Chill’s stasis chamber is scheduled to be installed next week, and I’m going to be bored out of my mind for the summer.”
I almost forgot about that. Fleur doesn’t need to worry about a change of seasons here. And Julio and Amber have each other when the weather in their region shifts. But Chill doesn’t have a partner Season to balance him. When his season is up in Fairbanks, he’ll have to go into estivation for the summer. At least he gets to wake up at home, with Poppy looking out for him.
