His body responded. His body always responded to her. But the conversation was too important to pause. “I am more than gaga.”

“That’s nice.”

He pursed his lips. “I’d like to hear you say I’m more than a booty call to you.”

She opened her mouth to do just that—he was sure of it—only to frown. “We’ve got a major problem. We have differing life spans. In a few years, I could have gray hair!”

“And you will look lovely. But you aren’t fully human, and we aren’t sure how you’ll age. Or even if you will. You’ve begun to exhibit a few Phoenix traits.”

“Yes, but—”

“But nothing. You burn when you are aroused, and you healed unnaturally fast from the boulder game. I suspect both abilities activated with the death of your family. Sometimes a traumatic event will do that for a halfling.”

“I didn’t burn in the Phoenix camp.”

“You weren’t aroused while you were there. And I suspect you would have died in that camp if you hadn’t healed supernaturally fast from the punishments.”

“Good point.”

“Perhaps, over the years, other latent traits will emerge.”

She thought for a moment, nodded. “You’re right.”

“I usually am.”

“Ha-ha,” she said drily. “We’ll see if you’re such a funny man the day I have to start wearing diapers.”

He barked out a laugh, surprising them both.

She kicked off the covers and sat up, then crossed her legs. “We have to get you to do that more often.”

Laugh? “I agree. I hereby task you with the job. Every day from now on.”

She quirked a brow. “Does the job pay well?”

“Very.” He traced a fingertip between her breasts. This was his first taste of domestic life, and he loved it. A male...a woman...united. A family. “An orgasm for every laugh.”

Another smile made an appearance—only to fall. “What if you meet someone else and fall in love? What if you want to get married Sent-One-style, to someone of your own race, and start a family?” She gasped. “Thane, we’ve never used protection.”

Needing to feel her against him, he forced her to stretch out alongside him. “First, when I said no woman could compare to you, I meant it. That goes for every woman I will meet in the future. Only a foolish male would wed someone else when he already has the best. Second, Phoenix are only fertile two times a year, and,” he added before she could remind him of her humanity, “I can sense when that occurs.” He paused. “Do you want children?” Had she planned to make one with her husband?

“One day. Not for several years, though. What about you?”

“To be honest, I’ve never thought about it.” Until now. He flattened his hand on her belly, imagined her growing big with his child. His shaft stirred. “Yes,” he rasped. “One day.” With her. Only with her.

They lapsed into silence. He toyed with the ends of her hair, and though she seemed to grow tenser by the second, she yawned.

“What’s wrong?”

“I should really go back to my room,” she said.

“You don’t have a bed.”

“I know, smarty. I meant, go back to the girls.”

He stiffened. “You said you’d move in with me.”

“But I didn’t say when.” Her entire body began to tremble. “I really should go. Like, now. Please.”

She tried to tug from him, but he held firm. Something warm and wet splashed on his chest. He patted the area and brought his fingers into the light streaming in from the bathroom. Tears?

“What is this?” he asked gently.

A floodgate opened, and she sobbed against him, her entire body heaving. “I’m looking forward to a future without Bay.”

He held her for what seemed an eternity, smoothing his hands through her hair, along her spine. When finally she calmed, he pinched her chin, forcing her to face him. Tears had caught in her lashes. Her eyes were swollen, her skin splotched with red. Fragile right now. Proceed with care.

An inexplicable need to make it better flooded him. “How are you planning a future without him? He has never left your heart. He goes on the journey with you.” And Thane was still a bit jealous, he realized, but with Elin safe in his arms, the emotion was muted. He could share her, for the male had helped make her what she was.

She sniffled. “That’s so beautiful.”

“And true.”

She traced a finger over his lips. “You are a good man, Thane— What is your last name?”

“I don’t have one. Up here, we have designations. Xerxes the Cruel and Unusual. Bjorn the Last True Dread.”

“Those are kind of creepy, but, okay. I can roll. Before she cut ties with her clan, my mother was Renlay the Deathtax Collector, and my bedtime stories were of her exploits.”

“Did she tell you why she left the Phoenix?”

“Yes. My dad. Eric Wahlström. He lived in Harrogate at the time, and she was crazy in lust at her first sighting of him. Which must have been strange, because you have never seen a more mismatched pair. She was wild; he was proper. She was loud; he was quiet. But even still, he fell for her, and she had her wicked way with him. Afterward, she thought she’d be able to forget him.”

He could hear the affection in her tone, knew she’d adored the man. “But she didn’t.”

“No. She didn’t. She kept going back to him, and one day she realized she had to make a choice. Him or her clan. Mixed relationships aren’t encouraged but aren’t forbidden, as long as they’re with someone of an equally strong or stronger race. Humans, as I’m sure you know, are a big, fat no-no. It’s okay to take one as a lover, but never a mate. She chose him, and I was born a year later. I spent the first ten years of my life in Harrogate.”

“That explains the accent.”

“I do not have an accent. Once we moved to Arizona, and all the little kids made fun of the bloody Brit,” she said, using the same mocking tone the kids must have used with her, “I feared my mother would slay them all. So, I learned how to blend in.”

He might have slayed them all, too. “It’s slight, but it’s there.” His voice dipped as he added, “It only comes out when you’re aroused.”