Dimitri squeezed her hand. “Any t-time.”
They looked at each other. Whether Kendrick’s mating frenzy was so strong it really did touch them, or they were simply alone in the night, lonely, relieved, safe for now—it didn’t matter.
Jaycee lifted herself to Dimitri, cupped his face, and kissed his mouth.
Dimitri’s heart hammered, and joy blossomed inside him. He slid his hand behind Jaycee’s head, her hair trickling through his fingers, and pressed her up to him.
His return kiss parted her lips, wild fires building as his tongue swept over hers. Jaycee wrapped her strong self around him and pulled him down to the bed. Dimitri didn’t even bother to fight his surrender.
* * *
“Lots of shagging going on tonight,” Ben remarked.
Zander, flat on his back in the dirt and dried grass, arms outstretched as he gazed up into the stars, crossed his booted feet. “Yep.”
Ben sat cross-legged next to him. Zander still wasn’t sure what the guy was. Vampire? Fae? Creature from the Black Lagoon? But with so many Shifters getting busy in the house and barn—all rejoicing that their god on earth, Kendrick, was back in their lives—Zander had felt the need to walk away, seeking the isolation of the back fields.
Zander didn’t belong here—he was not part of Kendrick’s group—and neither was Ben. Therefore, the two outsiders left the others to their fun. Zander had also realized something tonight, an ugly truth that had smacked him in the face when he’d seen the scarred face of the half-human Shifter who’d confronted Kendrick.
“So,” Zander said, studying the constellations that were slightly off from where they were way up in the northern latitudes. “Why aren’t you with a lady? You have someone special waiting for you at home?”
Ben snorted a laugh. “Not me. I’m a thousand years old, the last of my kind. Any woman I took up with would live out her lifespan while I never changed. She’d get a little pissed off at me for that.”
“A thousand?” Zander said in surprise. “Even Shifters will live out their lifespan before that. And we thought we had age hang-ups.”
Ben shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it.”
No, he hadn’t. Zander had a little bit of empathic ability in him, which was part of how he healed—as far as he knew. In all the years he’d been a healer, he hadn’t figured out exactly how his Goddess magic worked. That empathy told him Ben was lonely and hated being alone, but didn’t think there was anything he could do about it.
“What the hell are you, anyway?” Zander asked him. So much for being polite and giving him his privacy.
“Goblin,” Ben answered readily. “That’s as good enough term as any. I and my kind were kicked out of Faerie by the mofo bastards.”
Interesting. “Out here is better,” Zander said. “No Fae. More channels. Internet. No women who try to kill you after you have sex with them. Well, usually the women out here don’t.”
“Depends on your point of view,” Ben said. “What about you? Special someone back in Alaska?”
“Nope.” Zander folded his hands behind his head. “I’m a free spirit, not tied down, always on the move.”
“You mean you struck out?” Ben asked, grin gleaming in the starlight.
“I mean I’ve never tried,” Zander said, not offended. “I’m crazy, hadn’t you heard? The Goddess reached out and gave me healing powers when I was ten years old and too young to fight her. Not that anyone can really fight the Goddess. But it made me half insane, and other people don’t want to be near me for long, unless they’re in serious pain or dying. Then they’ll put up with me.”